"Target: Nine-Tails" (狙われた九尾, Nerawareta Kyūbi) is episode 247 of the Naruto: Shippūden anime.
Synopsis[]
As Kushina tells Naruto that she loves him, he becomes calm and filled with happiness and thus is able to negate the Nine-Tails' negative emotions. Spurned by his mother to defeat the tailed beast, he uses his Multiple Shadow Clone Technique and has each pair of shadow clones form a Rasengan. On the outside, Yamato is shocked as Naruto's transformation completely subsides while Killer B remarks that Naruto is succeeding; Yamato also notices that Naruto has entered into Sage Mode.
Using the natural energy gathered as his real body is sitting still, the Naruto shadow clones expand their Rasengan into the Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan. The senjutsu-enhanced shadow clones then simultaneously attack with their Sage Art: Many Ultra-Big Ball Spiralling Serial Spheres, knocking the fox backwards. As the fox prepares to fight back, Naruto comes rushing in and hits it head-on with his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. As the fox is completely suppressed by the Rasenshuriken's tremendous power, the shadow clones begin drawing out its chakra. Naruto then dispels the clones and absorbs the chakra himself, immediately entering into Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
Naruto notices that his Four Symbols Seal has evolved into a Torii Seal, and locks the improved seal, restraining the fox with ease. As the fox curses Kushina for her involvement (as she had used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to aid Naruto), Naruto returns to where his mother is. Knowing she does not have much time left with him, she notifies him that she was the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails before he was. Naruto is outraged and demands to know how she ended up as a jinchūriki, and she agrees to tell him everything, including the truth about the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's Attack.
She reveals that the Uzumaki clan hailed from a village known as Uzushiogakure and were renown for their proficiency in fūinjutsu, as well as their heightened chakra levels and their lifespan longevity. Their prowess made them a target and so the village was destroyed, with the survivors scattering across the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Both Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure had been allies from the very beginning, with Konoha adopting the latter's crest on their flak jackets. After the First Hokage defeated Madara Uchiha, the First gained possession over the Nine-Tails, and his wife, Mito Uzumaki, sealed the beast into her. When Mito was nearing the end of her life, Kushina was brought to Konoha to be the Nine-Tails' next jinchūriki, due to the fact that she possessed chakra strong enough to subdue a tailed beast. Mito had told her that if she filled herself with love, then the burden and loneliness she would suffer would be greatly lessened. Kushina admits to Naruto that despite being a jinchūriki, she was truly happy with Minato, who filled her with love, and recalls how she first found out she was pregnant and how she shared the news with Minato. Biwako Sarutobi, the wife of the Third Hokage, had then notified the two parents-to-be that the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style would weaken during childbirth and thus Kushina would have to give birth outside of the village, under the protection of a barrier. On the way to the secret location, she came across Mikoto Uchiha, who had just recently given birth to a baby boy that she had named after the Third's father, Sasuke Sarutobi.
On October 10, Kushina began giving birth, as Minato struggled to keep the seal in place as he was too concerned with Kushina's well-being. Kushina remarks to Naruto that somehow, the masked man whom Minato had told Naruto earlier about, had managed to find out the secret location of the birth as well as the fact that childbirth was a female jinchūriki's weakness. While Biwako and Taji served as midwives and helped Kushina successfully give birth, the masked man killed all the Anbu guards stationed outside.
Trivia[]
- When the Adamantine Sealing Chains trips the Nine-Tails, ten tails are shown.
Credits[]
| Role | Seiyū | English Voice Actor | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Japanese | Rōmaji | ||
| Naruto Uzumaki | Junko Takeuchi | 竹内 順子 | Takeuchi Junko | Maile Flanagan |
| Kushina Uzumaki | Emi Shinohara | 篠原 恵美 | Shinohara Emi | Laura Bailey |
| Minato Namikaze | Toshiyuki Morikawa | 森川 智之 | Morikawa Toshiyuki | Tony Oliver |
| Nine-Tailed Fox | Tessho Genda | 玄田 哲章 | Genda Tesshō | Paul St. Peter |
| Yamato | Rikiya Koyama | 小山 力也 | Koyama Rikiya | Matthew Mercer |
| Killer B | Hisao Egawa | 江川 央生 | Egawa Hisao | Catero Colbert |
| Third Hokage: Hiruzen Sarutobi | Hidekatsu Shibata | 柴田 秀勝 | Shibata Hidekatsu | Steve Kramer |
| Mito Uzumaki | Ena Shimokawa | 下川 江那 | Shimokawa Ena | Mary Elizabeth McGlynn |
| Biwako Sarutobi | Ikuko Watanabe | 渡辺 育子 | Watanabe Ikuko | Mona Marshall |
| Taji | Kayo Ishida | 石田 嘉代 | Ishida Kayo | Dorothy Elias-Fahn |
| Mikoto Uchiha | Emi Sagara | さがら えみ | Sagara Emi | Kari Wahlgren |
