Hero of the Hidden Leaf

Caught between the living and the dead, Kakashi shares a quiet reunion with Sakumo, the father who once broke shinobi law to rescue his teammates and paid for that choice with his reputation and his life. Kakashi admits the resentment that lingered after Sakumo took his own life, yet he offers forgiveness and even pride in what his father did. That peace arrives just as Nagato's final technique drags the slain back into the world of the living, and Kakashi's spirit is pulled home to his body. Sakumo, freed at last, tells his son he can now rest and see his wife again.

In the ruins outside Amegakure, Nagato pours the last of his strength into restoring everyone he killed during his assault, his hair whitening as the effort empties him. Recalling how Jiraiya once took in three orphans, he entrusts his own hope to Naruto before dying. Konan wraps the bodies of Nagato and the friend whose corpse had served as the Deva Path, declares that she is leaving the Akatsuki for her home village, and presses a bouquet into Naruto's hands as a sign of the faith placed in him. Naruto sets the flowers and Jiraiya's book at a small memorial before his strength gives out, and Kakashi catches him and carries him back.

Katsuyu, who had stayed beside Naruto through the entire fight, relays the whole story to Kakashi and the villagers, so all of Konoha grasps what he accomplished. Naruto is stunned to find the streets crowded with grateful faces instead of the cold stares of his childhood. Sakura greets him with a smack to the head and then an embrace, Shikamaru and Choji can barely believe he brought down the Six Paths, and Ino confesses she may finally see him differently. Kiba boasts about their old Academy days while Shino admits Naruto has left them all behind.

Speaking to Konohamaru and Iruka, Ebisu confesses he once dismissed Naruto as nothing more than a vessel for the Nine-Tails, and recalls that the other jonin had opposed the Third Hokage's decision to make him a genin. Iruka traces the slow shift in the village's opinion, from the defeat of Gaara to the alliance forged with Sunagakure, all the way back to the Fourth Hokage's dying wish that his son one day be honored. Weeping, Iruka tells the past Hokage that Konoha now has its new hero as the crowd hoists Naruto onto their shoulders.

This episode belongs to the Pain's Assault arc of Naruto: Shippuden and draws on chapters 426, 449, and 450 of the manga. It premiered in Japan on August 26, 2010, and reached English-language audiences on March 30, 2013. The opening theme is A World That Was Transparent and the ending theme is Transient Fireworks.