Naruto Shippuden's 10 Best Episodes

April 16, 2024, 2 p.m.

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Naruto Shippuden's 10 Best Episodes

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WARNING: SPOILERS FOR NARUTO SHIPPUDEN

Summary Epic battles, like Sasuke vs. Itachi, shed light on secrets, evolving characters profoundly.

Heart-wrenching moments, like Jiraiya's death or Kushina's sacrifice, add depth to Naruto's journey.

Naruto & Sasuke's ultimate battle showcases years of development, in an emotional showdown with explosive action.

The Naruto Shippuden series is known as one of anime's best time skips, partially due to many of its large-scale epic battles across many amazing episodes; ten, in particular, are better than the rest. Although the franchise has continued with the Boruto sequel series, fans online still share and talk about several moments from Naruto Shippuden on a regular basis due to their epic content and heartbreaking direction.

After Sasuke left the Village Hidden in the Leaves and Naruto also left to do some training of his own, two years passed, and everything changed in Naruto Shippuden. Both characters got much stronger, but so did the threats they would face. Several dramatic arcs saw the immensely powerful Akatsuki group of rogue ninjas killing all in their path and even an epic Fourth Shinobi War that brought legendary dead warriors back to life.

There are many memorable parts of the story throughout the Naruto Shippuden series, including its battles that helped inspire some of today's popular anime, like Black Clover and My Hero Academia. However, the best Naruto Shippuden episodes contain more than incredible fights. While there are many great episodes of Naruto Shippuden that are triumphs to watch thanks to built-up context, some of the best work as emotional short films with their exquisite pacing, art direction, and outstanding voice acting.

Related 10 Best Fights in Naruto Shippuden That Inspired A Generation Many battles in Naruto Shippuden are filled with poetic drama, while others are just flat-out epic and cool, but only ten can be ranked as the best.

10 Itachi's Secret Causes Sasuke To Soar

Episode 141 - "Truth"

All Naruto fans can agree that one of the franchise's best plot twists was the truth behind Itachi's slaughter of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke's long hate of his brother was a narrative seed planted in the story's first chapters, and it finally bloomed into one of the series' most rewarding clashes and revelations. After Sasuke was the only one left standing from his climactic battle with his older brother, he was healed and rewarded with a epiphany that would alter the course of his life forever.

Related Naruto's Controversial Final Villain Was Actually Good For The Franchise Kaguya Otsutsuki's appearance was one of the best things to happen in Naruto's grand finale, despite the backlash following her big reveal.

Akatsuki member Tobi (Uchiha Obito in disguise) took the exhausted and unconscious Sasuke into hiding after his fight with Itachi. After providing medical attention, Obito revealed Itachi's secret to his younger brother, who'd dedicated his life to revenge against the sibling. While Obito had his own agendas and secrets he kept from the young Uchiha, he did shed light on the planned Uchiha coup d'etat against the village, led by Sasuke's father. It was Itachi's love for Sasuke that led to his murdering the entire clan to spare his brother from Konoha's potential genocide of the whole Uchiha clan.

The revelation in the episode is directed beautifully and crescendos with the iconic scene of Sasuke crying and establishing his new team, Taka. However, the episode ends with the glorious shot of Sasuke on the cliff with his newly awakened and determined Mangekyō Sharingan eyes. His freshly established group's sole purpose would again be revenge, this time against the Village Hidden in the Leaves. This action would further set up the conflict between Sasuke and Naruto's characters.

9 Jiraiya's Final Chapter Taught The World Pain

Episode 133 - "The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant"

The death of the closest thing Naruto's story gave him to a father figure hit a lot of fans the hardest. Jiraiya was a character who was first introduced as a tired troupe of a perverted older man, but as the story progressed, so did his connection to Naruto and the series audiences. While the character was hyped up and shown to be one of Konoha's most talented shinobi, his mission to gather information on the deadly Akatsuki's leader would lead to a shocking revelation and a dramatic twist.

"The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant" covered the conclusion of the Sannin's encounter with the Six Paths of Pain. While Jiraiya put up one hell of a battle against the formidable foe, he suffered a dramatic wound after letting his guard down. Still, the beloved shinobi deduced Pain's secret that would later prove vital in overcoming the seemingly unstoppable force. Flashes of Jiraiya's life revealed his connection to Nagato and his friends who'd later formed the Akatsuki group, as well as the strong bond he shared with Naruto's parents.

Related How Jiraiya Dies In Naruto: Shippūden (& Which Episode It Happens) Jiraiya’s death was one of the saddest in the Naruto franchise. Here’s how he died and which episode of Naruto: Shippūden it happened in.

Jiraiya's part in the story would evolve into the character growth and lessons Naruto would need to accomplish the many amazing things he did throughout his life. The new flashbacks into his life featured touching scenes of Jiraiya with Minato and his wife Kushina, where Minato revealed that they would be naming their son after the lead character in Jiraiya's first book and making the Sannin his official godfather.

Although he greatly inspired Naruto, his final moments saw Jiraiya rise from a fatal wound because of his last student's will to never give up. With his final inkling of strength, Jiraiya was able to draw a message on his Toad friend, Fukasaku, that'd deliver the message that would help with Pain's defeat before sinking into a watery grave. As he fell, Jiraiya could do nothing but smile, knowing that the final chapter of his life would lead to a happy ending.

8 The Night Of The Nine-Tails and A Mother's Love

Episode 249 - "Thank You"

Although the Naruto storyline began with the destructive rampage of the Nine-Tails being quelled by the Fourth Hokage, episode #249 finally reveals what really happened the night that Naruto was born and his parents died protecting him. The entire truth is revealed through a conversation Naruto is able to have with his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, through her chakra, which helped keep the Nine-Tail's energy restrained inside her son. It's the first time the two have been able to chat, and it's an encounter that makes it difficult not to form tears while watching.

After giving birth to Naruto, the Nine-Tails spirit that Kushina had been hosting inside of her was unleashed due to Obito's cruel plan. However, in a last-ditch effort, Kushina and her husband, the Fourth Hokage Minato, defeat the beast and save the village by sealing its spirit into their newborn son. The angry fox attempted to obliterate the baby Naruto, but his strike was blocked, impaling the two parents. Before they died, they delivered their heartbreaking, final words to their son.

The flashback ends with Kushina apologizing for making Naruto the Nine-Tails Vessel and being unable to be there for him. However, the conversation flips on its head after Naruto admits he's never felt remorse towards either of his parents. He goes on to say that now that he knows the whole truth, Naruto is happy to know that he is alive because of his parents' love for him, a love he's never had. This makes his mother so happy that she thanks him for allowing her to be his mom before her powers disappear.

7 Akatsuki's Leader and Shippuden's Animation Pushed To The Limit

Episode 167 - Planetary Devastation

Naruto's most dramatic Nine-Tails rampage after Pain destroyed Konoha and impaled Hinata has a few moments often made fun of because of some animation techniques that took some fans out of the experience. However, besides those few moments, episode #167 of Naruto Shippuden is a sakuga anime fan's dream. It's nearly twenty minutes of incredibly dynamic and intense combat between Pain and Naruto's horrid amalgamation of sinister Nine-Tails chakra that progressively gets more chaotic as the battle progresses.

Massive explosions, flying boulders, and uncontrollable rage populate the episode, all while the sense of dread increases thanks to side characters like Sakura and Yamato. While cutaways from anticipated anime battles can often be annoying, episode #167 uses the short breaks in the action to raise the stakes of the struggle even further. Scenes like seeing Yamato tracking how many of Naruto's tails have been unleashed until the ninth begins to immerge, was a nightmare come true, an immergence that the influential Akatsuki leader was strong enough to hold back.

Related Naruto's Most Despicable Villain Should Have Never Been Redeemed Although Naruto is known to form bonds with many of his foes, one enemy's tactics were so brutal that he didn't deserve to be forgiven.

Pain's Planetary Devastation technique captured Naruto. The Nine-Tails Fox Spirit was incredibly close to becoming fully resurrected, an event that would have ended Naruto's life. However, Pain's desperate attack created a small black hole that captured Naruto in his six-tailed form in an ever-increasingly large sphere of rubble. The rampaging Nine-Tails beast begins to break from its confinement until the episode ends with Naruto's father appearing before him to prevent the final seal from breaking, helping him when he needed him most.

6 The Shyest Kunoichi Stands Up To A God

Episode 166 - Confessions

After the death of Jiraiya, the Akatsuki leader spared no time in setting out to capture Naruto by assaulting and devastating The Village Hidden in the Leaves. While Sage Mode Naruto's entrance and destruction of many of Pain's bodies was cathartic, the conflicts later half saw some of the series' best displays of heartbreak and rage. Naruto's considerable abilities were quelled, and he was pinned to the ground with Pain's chakra-disrupting rods. All seemed lost until an unlikely ally appeared by herself to take on the world's most intimidating rogue ninja.

Although she knew she was going into a losing battle, Hinata showed up to help Naruto against Akatsuki's leader, the man she just saw obliterate her village. Episode #166 is a prime example of Naruto's influence on those around him; it also gives Hinata the respect her character deserves. She does everything in her power to free Naruto, including summoning her Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists against Pain and even landing an effective blow to his face.

Chapter #437 of the manga features the brave Hyuga warrior using her Lion fists in an attempt to fight off Pain, but nowhere near the extent that Naruto Shippuden episode #166 portrays. With incredibly fluid and detailed animation and blood running down her face, Naruto's future wife almost frees him by breaking the rods holding him down even after being struck hard by Pain multiple times.

An anime-only flashback is intercut into the scene of a very young Naruto standing up to bullies harassing Hinata. Naruto gets beat up but keeps the bullies distracted until proper help arrives and chases them away. Shippuden's talented production team made Hinata's stand much more dramatic as she crawled her injured self toward Naruto as Pain asked why she'd throw her life away. "Because I love you..." she says, looking at Naruto before she is launched into the air and slammed into the ground in front of Pain. He then impales her, and Naruto snaps like never before.

5 Naruto's Ultimate Threat Makes An Entrance

Episode 322 - Madara Uchiha

Many minds were blown when the real Madara showed up as a Reanimated warrior during the Fourth Shinobi War. Obito had been using the name to help start the war and control the Akatsuki organization. But that mystery was flipped on its head when the reanimated corpse of the legendary shinobi appeared on the battlefield against Naruto and the United Shinobi Alliance.

Orochimaru's former protege was in control of the enemy's Reanimation Jutsu, which brought many of the Naruto history's most powerful ninjas back to life with immortal bodies with infinite chakra. A genuinely terrifying force to contend with even before Madara appeared. However, Madara quickly proved that he was the only one Kabuto needed to use to control the battlefield.

Related Naruto's Rinnegan Explained: How Madara Unlocked Them And Their Powers Few ninjas in the Naruto universe gained control of the Sharingan, but even fewer obtained the Rinnegan, which is as powerful as it is complex.

One of the most famous scenes in the Naruto series is Uchiha Madara's introduction, one of the shōnen genre's best and most intimidating villain entrances. An army of hundreds of trained shinobi stood opposite the one figure, and they stood shaking. As he begins to run towards them, incredibly detailed animation captures the fear and despair of the United Shinobi Alliance. From many of their expressions, the reputation of Madara was known far and wide, and episode #322 proved the legend to be accurate, maybe worse.

Naruto Shippuden episode #322 showcases one man against an army. Madara is so capable that he makes short work of the considerable force. Dozens are dispatched with fast and brutal hand-to-hand combat and devastating ninjutsu techniques. After Naruto nearly landed an effective hit on history's strongest shinobi, he took things up a notch by summoning meteors on top of the army. Voice acting performances and a wide selection of incredibly well-animated sequences make the episode one of Naruto Shippuden's best and one of the best action episodes of anime to have been produced.

4 The End Of Uchiha Obito And The Birth Of A God

Episode 375 - "Kakashi Vs. Obito"

The ultimate reveal of Akatsuki's Tobi as Kakashi's former teammate, Uchiha Obitio, is among the series' most dramatic and compelling twists. Still, the battle between the two in the Kamui dimension is one of the best-directed anime battles ever. While the entire episode's pacing is fantastic, its middle section of Obito versus Kakashi is so well executed that it heightens the already great episodes to be one of Naruto Shippuden's best.

The episode begins with satisfying and effective teamwork between Naruto and Sasuke against the Ten-Tails beast, a team-dynamic fans had waited a long time to see again. However, their moment of progress would be short-lived. Obito and Kakashi's battle begins with the two ready to take things seriously in a conflict that is expertly cut along with a sparing match between the two shinobi when they were younger. Naruto Shippuden's familiar but effective musical score begins to ramp up as the two unleash brutal attacks and counters toward one another, mirroring the battle from their youth.

Top-tier choreography, character animations, and direction push the fight beyond the manga's original adaptation until Kakashi finally gets the upper hand on his former comrade. Obito manages to escape the void dimension, grievously wounded, but he is not finished in an episode that would also see the tragic character come face to face with his sensei, the Fourth Hokage Minato, once again.

Minato's realization that Obito was behind many of the series' perils is heartbreaking as he lands an attack that would have finished off a lesser man. Still, Obito's eventful episode ends with him successfully absorbing the Ten-Tails beast before death can claim him, ascending to a level of god-hood the series had not yet shown.

3 The Beginning Of The End Of Loneliness

Episode 476 - The Final Battle

The beginning of Naruto and Sasuke's final battle began one of the anime medium's most anticipated clashes. While it took years to get there finally, it more than made up for the wait. In a brief but poignant exchange of words from two characters who'd experienced much growth since first being introduced, the two brothers in war reiterate how they have been affected by their losses. Events throughout the story change their perspectives on the world and the future they want to help build. Still, the two's disagreement would only be resolved by exchanging fists before they could move forward.

Genre-defining action is executed on all fronts as the two young ninjas begin with some of the best choreographed hand-to-hand combat until the heat of the battle continues to increase. Naruto and Sasuke progressively increase their efforts, showcasing a battle intercut with flashes of their youth and the beginnings of the bond that the two lonely children formed.

The two begin in their base forms and introduce bigger and better attacks until the fight evolves into something more similar to an epic kaiju battle that eventually sees them unleashing abilities fans of the series had not yet seen. The episode ends before the fight does; still, it provides a fantastic and satisfying beginning to arguably the best anime fight of all time.

2 Shikamaru's Grief Is A Drag, and A Triumph

Team Ten - Episode 82

Despite all the massive battles and intense rivalries, there are only a few major deaths in Naruto Shippuden, but when they do happen, they are incredibly emotional and enact a heavy toll on the cast. However, one episode that is considered mostly filler is not only one of the Naruto franchise's best episodes, but it also works as a brilliant short film about grief all on its own. Episode #82 sees Shikamaru grieving for his sensei's death, and its direction and animation make viewers feel it.

In Naruto chapter #330, Masashi Kishimoto covered the sorrowful moments of Asuma's closest student, Nara Shikamaru, telling his teacher's pregnant wife, Kurenai, of his death, as well as Konoha's funeral service for the beloved Jonin ninja. However, the production team behind Naruto Shippuden episode #82 provided a lot more scenes and heavily emotional material that was not in the manga. While filler material is often looked down upon, the episode proved that non-canon material can be entertaining and even surpass the source material in the right hands.

As Shikamaru struggles with losing his teacher and closest friend, he fails to attend Asuma's funeral. Instead, he wanders the crowded streets of the Hidden Leaf Village. There, he encounters kids playing and a kind shopkeeper unaware of the beloved shinobi's passing, who falls apart after learning the truth. While there is no fighting in the episode, the palpable emotions explode after Shikamaru's father pushes him to play a game of Shogi.

Tension builds until, often relaxed and composed, Shikamaru loses his cool, flipping the game board over. "Let it out" are the only words the emotionally distraught son needs to hear, providing the franchise's best example of character animation as the usually calm and collected character breaks down. His father closes the door, leaving his son to unleash his bottled-up emotions, "I'll pick up your pieces," he says as he walks away to give his son time to himself, then the scene ends.

An incredibly deep and thorough breakdown of Naruto Shippuden episode #82 by X user PurpleGeth goes into fascinating details about the touching episode. It was directed by one of the series' best talents, Toshiyuki Tsuru, whose work is featured on a few of the best Naruto Shippuden episodes. Their skills combined with animator Hiroto Tanaka to create several heartbreaking scenes that reach a level of quality that one might expect from an anime film, making episode #82 an incredibly moving stand-out from most of the series.

1 The Ultimate Battle Between Hatred and Understanding

Episode 477 "Naruto and Sasuke"

After years of effective buildup and engrossing character development, Shippuden finally sees Naruto and Sasuke settling their differences in a large-scale battle in which several of its attacks were likely visible from space. The episode picks up nearly halfway through the two shinobi's ultimate fight as each takes on their most powerful transformations. However, the tone of the intense clash shifts after each launches their most powerful attacks, and the force of the clashing techniques shakes the Earth.

After both beloved characters land in the rubble of their battle, they are hurt, exhausted, and ready for more. Each trick Naruto and Sasuke learned throughout the series is used, providing an excellent feeling of payoff for fans who'd been following the series for the 15 years its manga was in publication. Besides seeing both of their impressive abilities pushed to the limit, the episode also includes the climax of the emotional struggle between the series' two main characters with a poignant slugfest and emotional breakdown from Sasuke before the final clash of their iconic Rasengan and Chidori.

Another stand-out episode directed by Toshiyuki Tsuru provides an emotional confrontation wrought with peak voice acting from both characters actors. After hundreds of episodes, fans finally see Naruto's determination break Sasuke to the point where he screams, "Over and over, over and over again! Just let me cut you down!" in a final desperate bid to rid himself of the bond he thought was holding him back from moving on. "I can't do that because I'm your one and only friend," replies Naruto in an exchange that encapsulates many of the series' themes.

While episode #477 does not include the final part of Naruto and Sasuke's conversation that ultimately sees the remaining Uchiha admit defeat, it's an episode that has everything a great Naruto Shippuden episode should have and then some. Beautiful direction, epic action, outstanding animation, and emotionally heavy moments built up for years crescendo in the episode. It also proves how important it is to nail the ending of an epic story, something the Naruto series accomplished where countless others have failed.

Source: PurpleGeth/X

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