S12 • Nine-Tailed Fox Taming and Karmic Encounters

With Killer Bee as his new master, Naruto begins his training to control the power of a Tailed Beast. In order to do so, one must fight the Tailed Beast head on and absorb its chakra, converting it into one’s own power.

Inside his mind, Naruto continues his battle against Nine Tails to take control of its immense power.

Sixteen years ago, Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and his wife Kushina are expecting their first child, much to the delight of the young couple.

Minato is forced to use his Flying Raijin jutsu and leave his wife Kushina behind to save their newborn son, Naruto, from a masked assailant.

The Nine Tails, having been released from Madara's control, continues to wreck havoc in the city. The Third Hokage summons the Monkey King Enma and drives the Nine Tails away from the city. Minato then returns to the city and with the help of the toad Gamabunta is able to restrain the Nine Tails long enough for him to teleport it along with his family to the outskirts of the village. Kushina binds the Nine Tails and as Minato prepares to do the Reaper Death Seal to seal away half of the Nine Tails Chakra and seal the rest inside Naruto using the Eight Trigrams Seal. He also seals a bit of Kushina's chakra to help Naruto tame the Nine Tails. All of this is witnessed by the Third Hokage and a few other ninja.

Guy arrives at the Waterfall of Truth to help Naruto with his training. Instead he encounters Kisame, who has infiltrated the island to locate Naruto and Killer Bee.

The after-effects of Guy's Daytime Tiger are felt throughout the island. Kisame is defeated, and Guy explains his technique. Yamato restrains him so Aoba can gather intel. When he's about to learn Tobi's identity, Kisame forces himself awake by biting off his own tongue. Kisame breaks free of his restraints and creates a water dome around himself. He recalls Itachi's words about learning what kind of person one is when they die. Knowing he's too weak to resist, and to prevent his enemies from gathering intel, Kisame summons sharks and allows himself to be eaten. The others are impressed by Kisame's resolution. When they open the scroll Kisame intended to deliver, it turns out to be a trap, leaving them stuck inside water prisons, while a summoned shark takes the scroll with the intel away.

Tobi heads to Hidden Rain Village to retrieve Nagato's Rinnegan. Konan, now a former member of Akatsuki, recollects her past until Tobi arrives. Tobi asks Konan where is Nagato's Rinnegan and Konan replies that it is not located in the village. Their battle started and Tobi tells Konan that he encouraged Yahiko to form Akatsuki and he gave the Rinnegan to Nagato. Konan transforms into thousands of pieces of paper to self-destruct against Tobi, yet it fails and both survives. Konan unleashes a powerful paper technique that looks like a sea of paper beneath their feet.

Konan encloses Tobi in an chasm with a large amount of explosive tags that detonates in a wide area. Tobi manages to survive with his Izanagi techique, sacrificing one eye, and pierces Konan behind. Tobi explains his technique to Konan. Konan refuses to give up and continues to fight Tobi. Tobi manages to subdue her and places Konan inside a genjutsu to force her to reveal the location of the Rinnegan. Tobi travels to the location and retrieves Nagato's corpse and then takes his leave. A bloodied piece of paper is blown of Konan's body by the wind and travels to her childhood hideout. As it travels, more of the Ame Orphans past with Jiraiya is revealed, as well as some of their time as the original Akatsuki. Meanwhile, Tobi, with a new outfit, is told by Zetsu that they have received intel on the Nine-Tails wherabouts from Kisame. He declares that it's time to capture the Nine-Tails.

Zetsu reports on new intel from Kisame and Madara learns about Naruto hideout. Tsunade, Gaara, Lord Raikage, and others must figure out how to get Naruto out of the secret island of Land of Lighting and all without telling him about the war. New mission is introduced.

Kabuto and a reanimated Deidara attempt to grab hold of the jinchuriki, but are stopped by the Tsuchikage, who has come to protect Naruto.

Fourth Great Ninja War is about to begin, ninjas are going through their formations, medical supplies are being checked and restocked. The title of this Naruto Episode is "Assemble Allied Shinobi Forces". The headbands are done. Let's go! Tsuchinage saves Nine Tails and Eight Tails, but Yamato gets captured.

Part One of the Four Week Long Special Project for the Broadcast's Tenth Anniversary - A look back into the early years when Naruto and Sasuke first met.

Part Two of the Four Week Long Special Project for the Broadcast's Tenth Anniversary - During the Chunin Exam, Sasuke witnesses Naruto’s growth as a shinobi.

Part Three of the Four Week Long Special Project for the Broadcast's Tenth Anniversary - Sasuke’s defeat to Gaara, and later Itachi, forces him to realize that he is not strong enough to get revenge against his older brother.

Part Four of the Four Week Long Special Project for the Broadcast's Tenth Anniversary - Naruto is determined to save Sasuke, who has deserted the Hidden Leaf.

The Allied Shinobi Forces are on standby, ready to confront Madara’s army of reanimated shinobi and 100,000 White Zetsu. But distrust still exists among the Allied Shinobi Forces, who were once sworn enemies until recently.

Kankuro’s commando unit enters enemy territory to set up a stronghold for the Allied Shinobi Forces. They are immediately ambushed by the Akatsuki’s own commando unit comprised of the reanimated Deidara and Sasori.

The Allied Shinobi Forces’ commando unit engages with the Akatsuki in the first wave of battle.

Under the guidance of Killer Bee, Naruto enters the final stage of training to master the Tailed Beast Bomb, a Jinchuriki’s most powerful technique.

The commando unit is in hot water as they engage the reanimated Kekkei Genkai shinobi, which include Zabuza Momochi and Haku. Luckily, Kakashi and his unit arrive in time to assist them.

Kakashi and his unit devise a strategy to take on the Kekkei Genkai shinobi, but it’s foiled by Kabuto, who uses the Reanimation Jutsu to summon the most powerful members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

The Akatsuki dispatch an army of powerful reanimated shinobi and White Zetsu across the war zone, causing chaos within the Allied Shinobi Forces’ chain of command.

As Darui and his First Company engage an army of White Zetsu, the remaining forces must deal with reanimated shinobi.

Atsui, Samui, and Darui face off against Kinkaku and Ginkaku, the legendary brothers from the Hidden Cloud, feared even by the Raikage.

Darui manages to seal away Ginkaku. Fueled by the rage of losing his brother, Kinkaku transforms into a monster that resembles a jinchuriki’s Tailed Beast State.

Ino sees Sakura falling from the sky. Although she manages to save her, the shock of the fall has left Sakura with amnesia.

Kankuro’s Commando Unit is cornered by Hanzo’s poison attack. Fortunately, Mifune and his Fifth Company arrive in time to provide assistance.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio is ordered by Shikaku to take down the reanimated Asuma. Remembering Asuma’s final words, Shikamaru and Ino are determined to stop their former teacher.

Choji is unable to attack Asuma and loses his will to fight. Ino and Shikamaru try to snap Choji out of his paralysis.

While training in Chakra Mode, Naruto senses the presence of the Nine Tails’ chakra seeping from Kinkaku outside. Curious to find out what’s happening, Naruto tries to leave the training room when Iruka suddenly steps in to stop him.