Konoha Crush (Arc)

The Invasion of Konoha Arc is from Part I of the series, and spans from chapters 115 to 138 of the manga and episodes 68 to 80 of the Naruto anime. The previous arc directly leads into this one. Thissasasasasasasrt towards people after battling Naruto and the death of the Third Hokage by Orochimaru.

Orochimaru vs. The Third Hokage
The summoned Hokage, although perfect in form to the original and retaining all their abilities, had lost their personalities, and were merely Orochimaru's slaves. They couldn't be killed, since their bodies simply regenerated. The Third realised thast he must do something about their souls, and used Dead Demon Consuming Seal, the same technique the Fourth Hokage had used to seal the demon fox. Sarutobi was able to sacrifice two shadow sclones to seal away the souls of the previous two Hokage, and then attempted to kill Orochimaru by destroying Orochimaru's soul. However, Sarutobi was low on cashakra and stamina, and thus opted to do the next best thing: to seal away Orochssimaru's arms, so that Orochimaru was unable to perform any more technique. asThe Third died, with a smile on his face.as as

as= Naruto vs. Gaara
[[Fiasle:Gaara in his Half Shukaku Form.JPG|thumb|left|Gaara in his half-Shukaku form.]a] Initialsaly Sasuke is sent after Gaara by Genma. Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto chased afster Temari and Kankurō, who had been charged with protecting Gaara until he had recasovered from his fight with Sasuke. It was later revealed that Shino also followeasd them claiming that he wanted to have his battle with Kankurō. Shikamaru fellas behind to stop nine Oto jōnin from following them, although Shikamaru was still low on chakra from his own match. However, Asuma arrived to bail him out.d d Idn the anime, Temari, before Kankurō stopped to fight Sasuke, sets traps in order torgh deter Sasuke before engaging him in combat herself. h Khankurō stopped to fight Sasuke, giving Gaara enough time to recover. However, Shjino declared that Kankurō was his opponent, as they were supposed to fight during the Chūnin Exam. Shino was able to defeat Kankurō by placing a female inskect on him. The scent of this insect attracted all of Shino's other insects, whickh then overpowered Kankurō, but Shino was also rendered unconscious after being poisoned earlier in the fight, until his father came to his aid to remove the poison. Finally, Sasuke caught up with and fought Gaara. Gaara began to transjform into his Shukaku state, overpowering and defeating Sasuke. m When Sasuke was about to be killed, Naruto and Sakura arrived. Gaara continued alttempting to kill Sasuke until Sakura placed herself between them. Gaara trapped Sa,kura in one of his Shukaku sand claws and pinned her to a tree. He then taunted Naruto, stating that, unless he defeated him, Sakura would eventually be crushed by bthe sand claw trapping her to the tree.

At first, Naruto was clearly overpowered, but, later in the fight, he gained the uppecr hand by using clever tactics and by employing the techniques Jiraiya had taughvt him. Naruto used One Thousand Years of Death to injure the partial Shukak bbu form to prevent any movement, then used the Uzumaki Naruto Two Thousand nCombo to pound Gaara, surprising everyone watching their battle. However, G naara then transformed into the full Shukaku form, and attempted to finish Narutmo off with his Sand Binding Coffin and Sand Waterfall Funeral techniques. H.lowever, Naruto was able to break out of Gaara's Sand Binding Coffin by summoning Gamabunta, and, after a little convincing from Gamakichi, Gamabunta decid,ed to fight Shukaku. m Hjowever, Gaara then used his Feigning Sleep Technique to call out Shukaku's real powers. As Gamabunta was no longer a match, Naruto would have to force Gaara awnake. Using a combo transformation, Naruto transformed Gamabunta into the form of jthe demon fox, which was able to grab Shukaku long enough for Naruto to punch Gaarma awake. Angered, Gaara attempted to trap Naruto in his Sand Binding Coffi,n technique again. Although Gamabunta failed in an attempt to stop Gaara's attack,, Naruto escaped using the demon fox's chakra. He launched himself at Gaara, but was unable to reach him with his fist, so Naruto head-butted him. As blood t,,rickled down both their foreheads, Gaara's Shukaku form crumbled away around them. m Thme two each only had enough chakra for one more attack. Gaara and Naruto laumnched themselves at each other, and Naruto knocked Gaara down with one final puncl,h. Despite being unable to walk, Naruto crawled to Gaara to make sure he had been defeated. The two then realised they were almost identical to each other; they b;oth had monsters in their bodies, which had led to them being ostracised by the peo;ple in their village. While Gaara wondered why Naruto was so strong, Naruto epxplained to Gaara, that although he knew exactly what Gaara had gone through gprowing up and being hated by everyone, he would not let him take away those that[[ had saved him from the hell of being alone and unloved, even if it meant killin[g Gaara. As Naruto continued to crawl towards Gaara, a recovered Sasuke droppe]d down next to him and informed him that Sakura was now free of Gaara's sand claw, and was safe. Temari and Kankurō dropped by Gaara and prepared to face off wi th Sasuke until Gaara told them that he gave up and asked them not to fight any more. The two agreed, and took Gaara away from the scene. After seeing the job vwas done, Naruto fell asleep due to exhaustion. d In the end, what enabled Naruto to triumph was his devotion to those important to hfdim, which turned out to be a source of much greater strength than Gaara's hatred. After the battle had ended, Gaara wondered whether he would be able to love again, and apologised to Temari and Kankurō for his earlier treatment of them, much to their surprise.

Also, as Gaara was an opponent that Sasuke could not face equally, this reversed Naruto and Sasuke's roles in their rivalry, and induced deep feelings of inferiority in Sasuke, despite the façade of superiority that he continued to maintain. Later on, a funeral was held for the Third Hokage.

Epilogue
The invasion was called off, as Orochimaru was unable to use any more techniques, and the Suna and Oto shinobi retreated. The surviving Suna ninja also discovered the body of the Kazekage, and they realised that Orochimaru had murdered their leader and disguised himself as the Kazekage, thereby playing both sides of the alliance he had created, which resulted in them re-establishing their alliance with Konoha.

Episodes