Episode Summaries

Pain begins his invasion on Konohagakure, killing the border shinobi without difficulty. He assigns the Asura Path, Animal Path and the Preta Path to the assault team while the Naraka Path, Deva Path and Human Path, along with Konan, are ordered to search for Naruto Uzumaki. Using his Rinnegan, Pain senses the barrier shielding the village, Pain tricks the Konoha Barrier Team into expecting only one intruder when he has the Animal Path enter the barrier through the air, only for the Animal Path to summon the other five once inside the village.

Back at Mount Myōboku, Shima heads to Konoha in order to procure ingredients for dinner while Fukasaku divulges the downsides of Sage Mode to Naruto. He explains that the user must stand still and focus in order to enter Sage Mode, and Naruto dismisses the senjutsu training as a waste of time. However, Fukasaku reveals that during Jiraiya's fight with Pain, Jiraiya summoned him and Shima so that they could sit still on his shoulder and gather the natural energy needed while Jiraiya fought, and that Naruto could do the same thing if he needs to use Sage Mode in battle.

Meanwhile, Inoichi performs a mind-reading technique on Yūdachi, an Ame-nin captured by Jiraiya. After some arduousness, Inoichi succeeds in getting through the mind blocks; however, his daughter Ino rushes in to alert the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force that Konoha is under attack. Back at the hospital, Shizune and her team are performing an autopsy on the previous Animal Path corpse, and she discovers that the rods pierced in the Animal Path's body are chakra receivers that are currently gathering chakra. After the explosion that occurred, Sakura encounters a Giant Centipede summoned by the new Animal Path and defeats it with a single blow, saving a woman and her grandchild. Iruka tells Sakura to head to the Konoha Hospital as the other chūnin attempt to protect their village.

In her office, Tsunade is told by the Konoha Barrier Team that they only detected one intruder, although there are many more currently assaulting the village. One of the Anbu members notifies her that the intruders are wearing black robes with red clouds; realising that the Akatsuki have finally come for them, and remembering Fukasaku's remarks about Naruto being the Child of the Prophecy, Tsunade orders them to retrieve Naruto.