"Danger! Sage Mode Limit Reached" (危機! 消えた仙人モード, Pinchi! Kieta Sennin Mōdo) is episode 164 of the Naruto: Shippūden anime.
Synopsis[]
Naruto hurls his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken at the five Paths of Pain, who attempt to get out of its range. However, Naruto expands the Rasenshuriken at the last moment, and the attack destroys Pain's Human Path. Shortly after, Pain notices that Naruto's senjutsu is beginning to wane. Knowing that Naruto cannot fight the remaining four due to all four sharing the same Rinnegan vision, Shima creates a dust cloud to obscure Pain's vision; Fukasaku uses his senjutsu to hurl Gamabunta in Naruto's direction, and the giant toad swallows both Naruto and Pain's Animal Path. With the other Paths unable to see through the dust cloud and the Animal Path unable to see inside Gamabunta's mouth, Naruto uses his remaining senjutsu to form his Spiralling Serial Spheres and rams it at the Animal Path, destroying it. Gamabunta then regurgitates the destroyed Path as well as Naruto, whose Sage Mode is deactivated as he has run out of natural energy.
The Deva Path begins to attack Naruto, believing it to be an easy fight now that Naruto is not in Sage Mode. Naruto tosses his scroll to Fukasaku, who summons a Naruto shadow clone that was gathering natural energy back at Mount Myōboku. Naruto then dispels the clone and absorbs the clone's gathered senjutsu, reverting back to his Sage Mode and resuming his fight against Pain. Fukasaku explains to Shima that since they could not fuse with him due to the Nine-Tails rejecting them, Naruto had come up with that creative, ingenious solution to circumvent Sage Mode's five minute duration. Naruto forms another Rasenshuriken and hurls it towards the Deva Path, since Katsuyu reveals to Naruto that he is unable to use any techniques at the moment. However, the technique is absorbed by Preta Path. Naruto wonders how the Preta Path is able to move, since he knocked it out with his Frog Kata, and realises that Pain's Outer Path is able to reanimate the bodies using its King of Hell technique. Knowing that his victory rests on destroying the Outer Path, Naruto forms a strategy.
Naruto creates two shadow clones and has them form a Rasengan in each of his hands, and then has the clones drop a pellet of red smoke. One of his shadow clones then transforms into the Rasenshuriken as the other clone throws it in the Deva Path's direction, knowing that the Preta Path would catch it and attempt to absorb it. The fake Rasenshuriken promptly reverts back to its shadow clone form just before the Preta Path can catch it, and since that Path's weakness is physical attacks, the Path is easily subdued. Naruto then throws the real Rasenshuriken through the red smoke towards the Deva Path, who does not have anyone guarding his front anymore. However, Pain has regained his abilities and proceeds to use his Shinra Tensei to repel and dissipate the attack. In spite of that, the real Naruto, who had jumped into the air through the guise of the smoke, lands on the Outer Path, using his Spiralling Serial Spheres to destroy it, surprising Gamabunta, Fukasaku and Shima. The Naruto that attacked the Preta Path prepares to kill it, only for Pain, whose five second interval has passed, to use Shinra Tensei again to repel both Naruto and his shadow clone, as well as Gamabunta, Gamahiro and Gamaken. With the three giant toads defeated, Naruto is left to fight the two remaining Paths alone.
Credits[]
| Role | Seiyū | English Voice Actor | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Japanese | Rōmaji | ||
| Naruto Uzumaki | Junko Takeuchi | 竹内 順子 | Takeuchi Junko | Maile Flanagan |
| Sakura Haruno | Chie Nakamura | 中村 千絵 | Nakamura Chie | Kate Higgins |
| Shikamaru Nara | Shotaro Morikubo | 森久保 祥太郎 | Morikubo Shōtarō | Tom Gibis |
| Shikaku Nara | Hiroshi Yanaka | 家中 宏 | Yanaka Hiroshi | Jonathan Fahn |
| Fukasaku | Ikuo Nishikawa | 西川 幾雄 | Nishikawa Ikuo | Kirk Thornton |
| Shima | Hikari Yono | よの ひかり | Yono Hikari | Mary Elizabeth McGlynn |
| Gamaken | Atsushi Ono | 斧 アツシ | Ono Atsushi | Kyle Hebert |
| Gamahiro | Takeharu Onishi | 大西 健晴 | Ōnishi Takeharu | Dave Wittenberg |
| Katsuyu | Mamiko Noto | 能登 麻美子 | Noto Mamiko | Mary Elizabeth McGlynn |
| Pain | Kenyu Horiuchi | 堀内 賢雄 | Horiuchi Ken'yū | Troy Baker |
| Pain: Animal Path | Shiho Hisajima | 久嶋 志帆 | Hisajima Shiho | Stephanie Sheh |
| Konoha shinobi | Hidenori Takahashi | 高橋 英則 | Takahashi Hidenori | Kirk Thornton |
| Gamabunta | Takeshi Watabe | 渡部 猛 | Watabe Takeshi | Michael Sorich |
