Confession (episode)

Returning from a mission, Team Guy stops as Neji catches sight of the wounded Gamabunta and knows the toad as Jiraiya's summon. In the village, Hinata uses her Byakugan to find Naruto held down by Pain and thinks back to their earliest meeting, when her guardian Kō warned her away from him amid the villagers' whispers about the Nine-Tails, and how Naruto stood up for her against bullies. Choosing to shield him for once, she springs into the battlefield. Naruto insists the fight is his and urges her to flee, but she confesses her feelings and yanks one of the black receivers from his body.

Pain's Deva Path repels her with Shinra Tensei, yet she rises and activates the Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists, charging him even as his Rinnegan tracks and dodges her. When Nagato coughs up blood and his focus slips for an instant, Hinata lands a hit; reaching for a second receiver, she is flung far through the air. She crashes across the crater and begins to bleed, and as Naruto calls out for her, she crawls back toward him, recalling how he once cheered her on during her match with Neji and said he admired people like her.

Asked why she would fight and try to save him knowing it could kill her, Hinata answers that never giving up is her nindo, a reply that stuns Naruto. Pain hurls her skyward, drags her back with Banshō Ten'in, and drives his blade through her, seemingly ending her life, coldly likening it to how Konoha shinobi killed his parents. The sight of her blood tips Naruto into a fury that unleashes the fox and drives him into his Version 2 form. The anime greatly expands the manga scene, letting Hinata trade blows with Pain long enough to show that the Six Paths turn defenseless whenever their controller is distracted, and her flashback closely mirrors the opening of The Last: Naruto the Movie.