Plot of Naruto: Shippūden

The plot of the second part of the manga and anime series Naruto, titled Naruto: in the anime and simply Part II in the manga, was set two and a half years after the present timeline in Part I. The new setting for the series began with volume 28 (chapter 245) of the manga. The anime adaptation of the manga started airing on February 15 2007, premiering with the first two episodes debuting in a one-hour special. Viz is working on a North American DVD series of Naruto Shippūden, which is planned for release on September 29, 2009. The US publication of the manga began in January 2008, in the US issue of Shonen Jump.

The new story revolved mainly around Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno's new adventures, and their search for Sasuke Uchiha after he defected from Konoha in order to gain Orochimaru's power. The plot laters involves new major characters, such as Sai and Yamato. The plot also showed a more active Akatsuki in their quest to obtain all the tailed beasts.

Five Kage Summit arc

 * Chapter 450 to current.

New Orders
Kakashi found Naruto and returned him to Konoha, where all the villagers and ninja had gathered to congratulate Naruto on his victory. Team Samui had finally reached Konoha. Tsunade was left in a comatose state and a new Hokage was to be elected. In the meeting to decide who the next Hokage should be, Shikaku nominated Kakashi, much to Danzo's annoyance. Danzo argued that all the previous Hokages had, in some way, destroyed the village. The Fire Daimyo then elected Danzo as the acting Sixth Hokage.

Meanwhile, Team Kakashi met with the employers of their first major assignment, Tazuna and Inari, who had agreed to help rebuild Konoha. Elsewhere, Sai was assigned by Danzo to keep an eye on Naruto. While Team Kakashi and Tazuna discussed Sasuke, and Naruto promised his friends that he would someday bring Sasuke home. Moments later they were made aware of the new order to eliminate Sasuke as a missing-nin. Upon returning, Sai remarked that he was unable to reveal Danzo's reasoning because of the cursed seal given to all Root members.

Overhearing information about Sasuke, the two members of Team Samui, Omoi and Karui, attacked Team Kakashi in order to gain information about Sasuke and Akatsuki. Knowing Akatsuki's goals, Naruto offered his support in finding Killer Bee and rescuing him before the extraction. They took Naruto to a secluded area, unknownst to them being followed by Sai, and interrogated Naruto. Naruto, however, due to the lessons he had learned from Pain, offered himself to be beaten to relieve Karui of the pain she felt. After Naruto received a thorough beating, Sai stepped in to protect Naruto. Omoi himself stated that no matter what Karui did to him, he would not betray Sasuke. Samui found them and informed them that they would be going to the Raikage to give him their report.

Taken for medical care, Naruto told Kakashi, Yamato, and Sai his intentions to leave the village and find the Raikage, and to ask for a pardon for Sasuke. Yamato reminded him, however, that, without the First Hokage's Necklace, the already weak seal shouldn't be strained, and, as he had been assigned to help rebuild the village, he couldn't be there to seal the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox if something should happen. Naruto recounted the conversation with Minato Namikaze, his father. Minato told Naruto about the Akatsuki member in the mask, who was the de facto leader of Akatsuki, who was responsible for the Demon Fox's attack on Konoha, and who was so strong that not even Minato could defeat. When pressed for anything else the Fourth had told him, Naruto told everyone how his father believed in him, which was enough to convince Kakashi that he and Yamato should accompany Naruto to the Land of Iron.

Taka, having abandoned Akatsuki after the completion of their mission to capture the Eight-Tailed Giant Ox, was stopped by Madara Uchiha, who was angered at Taka's failure of catching the Eight-Tails and its betrayal of Akatsuki. When Sasuke attempted to fight his way through, Madara calmly informed him that Konoha had already been destroyed by Pain. He gave Taka a new assignment: to kill the new Hokage, Danzo, who was on his way to the Kage Summit. Zetsu's white half led Taka to the Summit.

Madara told the black half of Zetsu that Pain's defeat was a hindrance to his plans, and that the resurrecting technique was supposed to be used on him. Sasuke would be of no use to him if Sasuke couldn't be controlled properly. Madara decided to step out of the shadows and commence with the.

The Kage Summit
Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, Onoki the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, and the Fifth Mizukage of Kirigakure departed from their villages with two guards each, as requested by the Raikage, to the location of the Summit, the Land of Iron.

Danzo ordered Root members Dajimu and Terai to find Kabuto before Anko did. Danzo believed that Kabuto might be able to restore his right arm and eye. On his way to the meeting, Danzo was attacked by two assailants, prompting him to remove the bandages over his eye, revealing a bloodshot Sharingan. Danzo quickly dispatched the seventeen Hanya assassins from the Land of Wood.

In Konoha, Yamato planted tracking devices on Team Samui. Kakashi put two Root members under genjutsu and told Sai to report to Danzo that Naruto had not left Konoha. Naruto, Kakashi and Yamato headed for the Land of Iron to meet the Raikage. Despite Naruto's desperate pleas, the Raikage refused to call off the hunt for Sasuke Uchiha and scolded Naruto for being weak and defending a criminal.

Mifune, the leader of the Land of Iron, started the meeting while each Kage's bodyguards looked on. The five Kages began to argue due to the differences in their ideologies. Danzo mentioned Killer Bee, sending the Raikage into a fury. The Raikage quickly had to be protected by his bodyguards, as all of the other Kages' bodyguards were ready to intervene. This brief scuffle revealed Kankuro's new puppet, which mysteriously resembled Sasori. Temari now summoned her fan with a scroll instead of always carrying it around with her.

The Raikage claimed that Akatsuki was made up of missing-nins from every village but his, and the other villages had used Akatsuki for their own purposes: the Fourth Kazekage attempted to use Akatsuki to destroy Konoha, the Tsuchikage hired Akatsuki to prevent inexperienced Iwagakure ninjas from being sent into battle themselves. The Fifth Mizukage admitted that the Fourth Mizukage and the Three-Tailed Giant Turtle's jinchūriki, Yagura, might have been manipulated by Akatsuki.

When Danzo stated that Akatsuki's leader was almost certainly Madara Uchiha, Mifune suggested that a five-country alliance be formed to eliminate the threat of Akatsuki. Since the only country which still possessed a tailed beast was the Land of Fire, Mifune appointed the Hokage, Danzo, to be the leader of the alliance. Ao, however, found something unusual in the midst of the summit and revealed a Byakugan under his eye patch. He immediately discovered Danzo's two different chakra colors, one belonging to him, and the other belonging to Shisui Uchiha, who had the ability to control other people's minds. The furious Raikage accused Danzo of influencing Mifune's decision. Suddenly, Zetsu's white-half appeared in the middle of the meeting room and informed the Kages that Sasuke was near.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, the Konoha 11 discussed the turns of events and came to the conclusion that they had to hunt down Sasuke before his actions sparked off an all-out war between the countries. Shikamaru asked Team 7 for consent. Sakura decided to find Naruto in the Land of Iron and talked to him herself. She left Konoha with Kiba, Lee and Sai.

While resting at an inn, Naruto is greeted by Tobi, who revealed himself as Madara Uchiha. Naruto attacked Madara with a Rasengan but missed. Even though he was quickly bound by Yamato's Wood Release and threatened with Kakashi's Lightning Blade, Madara remained calm and proceeded to tell Naruto about how Itachi had sacrificed his life to protect Sasuke and Konoha, how Sasuke resolved to seek revenge on Konoha for the tragic life Itachi was forced to endure. He stated that Naruto had inherited the Senju clan's Will of Fire while Sasuke had embraced the Uchiha clan's hatred, and the battle between the two would be inevitable.

The Kages vs. Sasuke
The enraged Raikage choked Zetsu to unconsciousness before storming out of the meeting room. Outside, Sasuke had already began battling the samurais and quickly disposed of them.

Sasuke and Taka faced the Raikage and his bodyguards. The Raikage's immense physical strength allowed him to snap Suigetsu's sword and ward off a fully-tranformed Jugo. Against the Raikage's superior lightning-based jutsu, which is capable of nullifying even the Chidori, Sasuke was forced to activate the Mangekyo Sharingan, using an incomplete Susanoo wrapped in Amaterasu to defend himself. The Raikage punched through Sasuke's defense at the cost of his right arm, which caught the black flame. Before the Raikage could injure himself further, the Kazekage, Gaara, intervened, wishing to talk to Sasuke. Gaara persuaded Sasuke to abandon his path in darkness and revenge, but failed. Gaara, Kankuro, Temari and Darui attacked Sasuke at the same time, but none of their attempts was able to harm the Susanoo, Sasuke's ultimate defense.

Sasuke broke the pillars of the meeting room with the Susanoo, hoping to collapse the roof. Karin noted Sasuke's chakra was darker and colder than ever before. When Sasuke entered the meeting room, Danzo fleed, with Ao in pursuit. Sasuke was about to give chase but the Mizukage stopped him, sealing the exit with her acidic globs. The Mizukage could control three elements and had two Kekkai Genkai. Her acidic mist began to eat through his Susanoo, and had it not been for Zetsu's technique, which drained the chakra of everyone in the room and tranferred it to Sasuke, Sasuke would have been killed.

Keeping Susanoo activated the whole time had considerably weakened Sasuke, and though he escaped from the Mizukage, he fell victim to the Tsuchikage's Dust Release. The Tsuchikage, who had broken out of Zetsu's grasp, pulverized the Susanoo. An unconscious Sasuke was saved by the timely intervention of Madara Uchiha.

Madara Uchiha's Announcement
Raikage was enraged at the sight of Madara Uchiha and attacked the masked man, but he failed to even lay a finger on Madara. Madara teleported an unconscious Sasuke and Karin to an unknown location, ordering Karin to heal Sasuke. Madara had wanted to push Sasuke to improve his Mangekyo Sharingan by sending him to the summit, and to weaken the Kages, but admitted he had overestimated Sasuke's strength.

According to Madara, the Sage of the Six Paths was worshipped as a god throughout the old ninja world because he managed to subdue the strongest tailed beast that ever lived, the Ten-Tailed Beast, by sealing it in himself, becoming the very first jinchūriki. The Sage knew once he died, the seal would be broken and the Ten-Tails would once again lay waste to the world, so on his deathbed, he summoned the last of his strength to split the Ten-Tails into nine parts (which would become the nine tailed beasts) and used a massive Chibaku Tensei to send the Ten-Tails' physical remainings into space, creating the moon.

Madara finally revealed the "Moon's Eye Plan": as he was severely injured from the fight against Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, at the Valley of the End, he had to hide in the shadows, letting Akatsuki capture the nine tailed beasts. With the beasts in his possession, he would be able to revive the Ten-Tails and become its jinchūriki, attaining god-like power. Finally, he could project an eternal Tsukiyomi onto the moon, placing everyone on Earth under the illusion of a world without strife and hatred.

Madara needed the Kages to hand over the two remaining beasts: the Eight-Tailed Giant Ox in Killer Bee and the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox in Naruto. The Kages immediately opposed him, stating that he only wanted the world for himself, and that an illusion of peace is not true peace but the removal of free will. The Raikage is infuriated that Killer Bee used the opportunity of being "captured" to escape from his village.

As the Kages refused to cooperate with him, Madara declared the Fourth Shinobi War.