Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie

The ninth overall Naruto film and sixth linked to Shippuden, released in 2012, sends its two leads into an alternate reality where their lives are turned inside out. Conceived and character-designed by series creator Masashi Kishimoto, it trades the usual standalone adventure for a deeply personal look at longing, family, and identity.

After a glimpse of the Nine-Tails' assault years earlier, the film jumps to the present, where Akatsuki members thought long dead battle Konoha's ninja. They prove to be Zetsu copies, and once the fighting ends Naruto watches his peers reunite with proud families while he broods over his own loneliness. When Iruka declines to recommend him for promotion, Naruto storms off with Sakura, who is likewise fed up with her parents. Tobi ambushes the two and casts a Limited Tsukuyomi, dropping them into an altered reality.

In this Genjutsu World, Sakura's father Kizashi reigns as the Fourth Hokage, Naruto goes by the name Menma, and, most staggering to him, Minato and Kushina are alive. Sakura revels in her newfound freedom while Naruto aches to go home, until his mother's embrace finally lets him accept the parents he never knew. Their peace shatters when a masked man demands the Red Moon Scroll and abducts Sakura. An Akatsuki that Tsunade secretly hired comes to Naruto's aid, and Itachi frees Sakura as the villain is exposed as Menma, this world's version of Naruto.

Menma calls up the Black Nine-Tails, revealing Tobi's real aim: to pit the two boys against each other so their foxes clash and Kurama weakens enough to extract. Menma's Sharingan wipes Naruto's memories, but Sakura pulls him clear before Kurama can be taken, and the sight of the ruined scroll jars loose his recollection of training under Jiraiya. Breaking the genjutsu, Naruto defeats Tobi the same way his father once did and returns with Sakura to the real world, where their families and ordinary lives await.

Debuting in Japanese theaters on July 28, 2012, the film earned about 3.8 million US dollars on its opening and soon passed the one billion yen mark. Over its run it climbed to roughly 1.46 billion yen, briefly making it the highest-grossing entry in the series before The Last overtook it in late 2014. It placed 29th among all Japanese box office titles for the year, live-action films included.

Kishimoto personally crafted the original story and designed the characters for the project. Even so, the timeframe does not line up neatly with the manga's established chronology, appearing to branch off after Naruto's stay on the Island Turtle. A wide spread of tie-in material supported the release, among them a lead-in manga one-shot, the anime episode Road to Sakura, several drama CDs, and a light novel by Yuka Miyata.