Recaps

Nagato, Konan, Orochimaru, and Kabuto escaped Obito’s assault on the Land of Rice hideout, though Konan’s traps failed to kill him. As they prepared to begin Nagato’s Second Body plan, Hanzo awoke in Amegakure with a sense of dread and decided to answer Danzo’s encrypted letter.

• Kabuto returned with what Nagato needed, and Nagato mourned White Zetsu Number 1 as Obito arrived at the hideout.
• Nagato chose to retreat rather than fight Obito, and Konan planted a concealed Explosive Flame Formation before they escaped.
• Obito broke into the hideout, triggered Konan’s trap, and survived the explosion with Tobi’s help as the underground base collapsed.
• A White Zetsu reported that Kabuto had escaped using an ability resembling Izanagi, and Obito left the ruins.
• Orochimaru told Nagato that the elements for the Second Body plan were in place, while Nagato recognized they needed a safe base for Konan and his research.
• Hanzo woke from a nightmare, killed a guard who entered without permission, and decided to respond to Danzo’s encrypted letter.

Nagato gave Kabuto a mechanical prosthetic arm and planned to seize Amegakure from Hanzo while Orochimaru gathered equipment and test subjects from his scattered bases. Konan traveled separately with Pain Rin and took her hand, asking whether Nagato could feel the warmth of her palm through it.

• Nagato used the Asura Path to create a mechanical prosthetic arm for Kabuto, who marveled at its nerve connections.
• Nagato told Orochimaru and Kabuto to gather valuable equipment and test subjects before their bases were discovered, then announced he would take Amegakure back from Hanzo.
• Orochimaru warned Nagato that Hanzo was a formidable fighter who might learn Nagato's secrets from Danzo, but Nagato believed his upgraded Six Paths of Pain could meet the threat.
• Nagato told Konan he had moved the campaign forward for her, and she asked to travel alone with Pain Rin.
• Konan and Pain Rin took a separate route from Nagato and the other Paths, and Konan held Pain Rin's hand and asked if Nagato could feel its warmth.

Pain Rin and Konan encountered Kakuzu in the forest as he killed a Hidden Sand ninja and recognized Konan from a black-market bounty. Kakuzu attacked them, and Pain Rin prepared to fight him.

• Pain Rin and Konan heard an explosion on the road to the Rain Country and ran toward the fighting.
• Kakuzu killed Yujie, a Hidden Sand ninja and fellow disciple of Baki, after surviving Yujie's Wind Release attack with Earth Release: Earth Spear Technique.
• Kakuzu used Earth Grudge Fear to stitch his wounds closed, then discovered Pain Rin and Konan hiding nearby and attacked them with Tentacle Fist.
• Kakuzu recognized Konan from a twenty-five-million-ryo bounty and declared that he would claim both women for the money.
• Pain Rin rejected Kakuzu's threat and used the Summoning Technique.

Nagato’s Six Paths defeated Kakuzu and turned him into a temporary Pain, planning to revive him later as Amegakure’s financial steward. Meanwhile, Hanzo resolved to destroy Akatsuki, and Nagato and Konan reached Amegakure three days later.

• Deva Path Pain pulled Kakuzu in with Banshō Ten'in, Pain A struck him with lightning and Black Rods, and Human Path Pain extracted his soul.
• Nagato made Kakuzu the Naraka Path’s temporary replacement, named him Kakupai, and ordered Konan to collect his blood so Orochimaru could revive him later.
• Nagato replaced the Human Path with a nameless Hidden Stone shinobi and had the fallen shinobi’s remains burned.
• Hanzo read Danzo’s warning about Nagato, recalled how Danzo had turned him against Akatsuki, and still resolved to eliminate Nagato and Konan.
• Nagato and Konan arrived in Amegakure three days later, and Nagato opened his umbrella beneath the rainy sky.

Nagato and Konan launched a direct assault on Amegakure, where Hanzo used his rain technique to detect them and sent his loyalists and guard captain Xia You to attack. After Pain Rin evaded Xia You’s strike with a substitution, she prepared to use a secret technique against him.

• Nagato sensed that Hanzo had reversed the Rain Tiger at Will Technique and concluded that Danzo had given him intelligence about the Six Paths of Pain.
• Nagato ordered a direct assault, and Hanzo sent hundreds of loyalists into the rain to confront Akatsuki.
• Pain Rin bombed the advancing loyalists from the Yata Crow, wiping out the vanguard before Xia You pursued her on a summoned Turtledove.
• Xia You used Hanzo’s Rain Dragon’s Chant to obscure vision and stabbed Pain Rin, but her body turned out to be a substituted log.
• Pain Rin revealed her Beast Secret Technique: Summoning Thousand Years of Death and prepared to use it on Xia You.

Pain Rin and Deva Path Pain fought Hanzo and his forces, wiping out the suicide soldiers before Hanzo struck down Pain Rin. The chapter left Hanzo injured by Shinra Tensei as Deva Path Pain challenged him to reveal the strength behind his title as the Demigod.

• Xia You survived Pain Rin’s technique long enough to detonate explosive tags on himself, destroying the Yata Crow and sacrificing his life.
• Pain Rin summoned Deva Path Pain, who used Shinra Tensei to repel Hanzo’s suicide soldiers and wipe them out.
• Hanzo unleashed Water Release: Rain Dragon’s Chant, but Deva Path Pain repelled the rain dragon while Pain Rin summoned more Paths and beasts.
• Hanzo judged Pain Rin the greater threat and cut off her head with an Iai Slash, causing her summoned beasts to vanish.
• Hanzo attacked Deva Path Pain, but Shinra Tensei hurled him into a stone pillar.
• Deva Path Pain used Banshō Ten'in and called on Hanzo to show the power worthy of the title Demigod.

Hanzo used his combat experience and Chakra Disruption Technique to disable Deva Path Pain and identify the abilities of the other Paths, then attacked them with poison and long-range strikes. As he moved to finish Pain Rin, she completed a summoning and a lightning-fast attacker severed Hanzo’s arm.

• Hanzo bound Deva Path Pain with his chain and disrupted Nagato’s chakra control, temporarily disabling Deva Path Pain’s attraction and repulsion.
• Pain Rin revived Deva Path Pain, and Hanzo deduced the abilities of the Paths before killing Pain’s Human Path and escaping Kakupai’s ambush.
• Hanzo used explosive tags to apparently destroy Pain’s Preta Path, then summoned Salamander Ibuse and poisoned Pain Rin and the other summoned creatures.
• Hanzo pierced Kakupai’s heart with a rain spear, then rushed Pain Rin as she recovered from the poison and completed a summoning.
• A flash of lightning struck as Pain Rin’s trump card appeared, severing Hanzo’s arm and sending his broken scythe flying.

Hanzo fought Nagato’s Six Paths of Pain but was defeated after losing his arm, leg, and salamander summon. Before dying, he accepted Nagato’s leadership of Amegakure, and Nagato and Konan set out to begin a new era.

• The Third Raikage appeared and severed Hanzo’s arm, while Kakupai revealed he had survived and the black-threaded monster emerged from his body.
• Hanzo escaped Pain A’s explosions underground, but A’s Earthshaking Cannon destroyed his lower leg, and Deva Path Pain blasted Salamander Ibuse away.
• The Preta Path caught Hanzo as he tried to reclaim his chakra; Hanzo killed it and wounded the Human Path before Yujie’s Wind Blade critically injured him.
• Hanzo tried to lure Nagato to him with a concealed poison sac, but Deva Path Yahiko exposed the plan, and Hanzo accepted his defeat and asked Nagato to lead Amegakure.
• Kakupai took Hanzo’s heart and revived the Preta Path and Human Path; Nagato honored Hanzo’s final stand as he and Konan walked forward through the rain.

After consolidating control of Amegakure, Nagato and Konan shared a tender moment in the tower before deciding it was time to bring Darui, Samui, and C back. The three Cloud ninja reached the Land of Lightning, where an explosion abruptly interrupted their celebration.

• Nagato eliminated Hanzo’s former associates and had Konan announce that Pain was a god who would bring peace to Amegakure.
• Exhausted from a month of training and work, Konan asked Nagato to sit beside her and rested her head on his shoulder.
• Konan and Nagato watched the rain from the tower and agreed it was time to reel in Darui, Samui, and C.
• Darui, Samui, and C reached the Land of Lightning and celebrated their return before a sudden explosion struck.

Darui, Samui, and C fought Pain Rin after she transported them to Amegakure, then escaped together. Nagato revived Pain Rin and prepared to begin his plan with Orochimaru and Kabuto.

• Pain Rin trapped Darui, Samui, and C in Amegakure, where Darui and Samui attacked her while C searched for other enemies.
• Darui used Storm Release: Laser Circus to knock Pain Rin down, and Samui struck her through the heart.
• Darui, Samui, and C left together after C confirmed that no other enemies were nearby.
• Nagato told Konan that the three had potential and that he wanted to train them as the future Amegakure Three Ninja.
• Kakupai revived Pain Rin, and Nagato summoned Orochimaru and Kabuto before leaving the tower with Konan.

Nagato welcomed Orochimaru and Kabuto to Amegakure and showed them the vast underground laboratory he had built for their research. Kabuto began setting up the recovered equipment and ended by summoning it throughout the facility.

• Nagato greeted Orochimaru and Kabuto after they returned from recovering experimental equipment, then led them and Konan underground.
• Nagato showed Orochimaru and Kabuto the enormous hidden laboratory, which Konan explained Nagato had built with extensive security, air circulation, and power systems.
• Konan told Orochimaru that Nagato intended the laboratory to support his independent research as well as work for Nagato.
• Kabuto summoned scrolls containing recovered equipment and spent two hours carefully arranging them around the facility.
• Kabuto performed a mass scroll summoning to complete the laboratory’s foundation-laying ceremony.

Orochimaru explained the careful process needed to grow Nagato’s second body and urged him to rest so his blood would support the embryo. Nagato agreed to leave Konan to her training, while Konan secretly used a broken Black Rod to draw on his chakra; three months passed.

• Orochimaru told Nagato that his second body would be grown in a cultivation chamber and that his blood and good health would support the embryo until an artificial placenta was ready.
• Konan offered to supply the experiment and told Nagato she had chosen to continue practicing the Night Netherworld Spider Lily technique alone.
• Nagato agreed to let Konan train without him for the next three months, asking her to wake him if she felt unwell.
• After Nagato fell asleep, Konan stabbed her arm with a broken Black Rod and used his chakra to keep herself going through her training.
• Three months passed.

Nagato and Orochimaru discovered that the Rinnegan’s Outer Path could synchronize Nagato’s consciousness with a living body in a vegetative state, which gave them a way to create Nagato’s second body. As the embryo continued to grow, Nagato named him Kaede.

• Konan watched Nagato’s second-body embryo grow in its incubation chamber as Orochimaru completed Nagato’s blood draw.
• Orochimaru found that Nagato could use the Six Paths Technique to synchronize his consciousness with a brain-damaged man, who later died naturally after escaping Nagato’s control.
• Orochimaru suspected the phenomenon came from the Rinnegan’s Outer Path Power, and a second test subject who was not in a vegetative state could not become Pain.
• Nagato and Orochimaru decided to make the second body a living person born in a vegetative state and synchronize its consciousness with Nagato at birth.
• Konan asked Nagato to name the embryo, and Nagato chose the name Kaede.

Orochimaru and Kabuto connected Kaede to an artificial placenta, allowing Nagato and Konan to wait for his birth. Orochimaru then offered Nagato a catalyst and revealed that Nagato carried dormant Senju Power, leaving Nagato stunned by his Senju ancestry and its potential.

• Orochimaru explained Kaede’s name and sent Kabuto to connect the embryo to an artificial placenta in a sterile chamber.
• Konan asked whether the placenta would end Nagato’s need to provide Kaede with blood, and Orochimaru assured her it would supply the nutrients the embryo needed.
• Nagato urged Orochimaru and Kabuto to rest aboveground, then Orochimaru offered him purified Hashirama Artificial Body Cells as a gift.
• Orochimaru clarified that the cells were a catalyst to awaken Nagato’s dormant Senju Power, not a transplant.
• Orochimaru revealed that his analysis showed Nagato possessed both Uzumaki Power and Senju Power, and described several ways Nagato could use the awakened power.

Nagato accepted Orochimaru's injection after Konan warned him of the risks, and he gave her a scroll containing a contingency in case Orochimaru betrayed him. The injection caused no immediate changes, and the chapter ended with Kabuto reporting that Kaede's placental connection surgery had succeeded.

• Konan privately urged Nagato not to accept Orochimaru's experiment because the injection could put his life at risk.
• Nagato decided to proceed and entrusted Konan with a scroll containing a contingency plan against Orochimaru.
• Orochimaru injected Nagato near the Black Rods, but Nagato felt no immediate change.
• Orochimaru explained that the power he had induced would need an opportunity to erupt.
• Kabuto emerged from the sterile room and reported that Kaede's placental connection surgery had succeeded.
• Nagato put an arm around Orochimaru and Kabuto and offered to reward them that night.

Nagato brought Orochimaru and Kabuto to an Amegakure bathhouse, where Konan introduced them as honored guests and met the innkeeper expecting a child named Ajisai. In the men’s bath, Nagato tried to get closer to Kabuto by offering to scrub his back, but Orochimaru’s suggestion led him to summon Pain A instead.

• Nagato took Orochimaru and Kabuto to an inn with a large bathhouse in southern Amegakure.
• Konan arrived with Pain Rin and identified the three men as guests invited by Pain, prompting the innkeeper to welcome them.
• The innkeeper told Konan that she and her late husband had planned to name their child Forget-Me-Not if it was a boy or Ajisai if it was a girl, and Pain Rin predicted the child would be Ajisai.
• Konan paid the innkeeper one hundred thousand ryō to reserve the bathhouse, and the innkeeper closed the inn to other guests.
• Nagato offered to scrub Kabuto’s back, but Orochimaru redirected him to scrub Orochimaru’s back instead.
• Nagato summoned Pain A to scrub Kabuto’s back, leaving Kabuto distressed in the men’s bath.

Pain Rin explained her plan to master the Blood Demon Mara forbidden technique and revealed that Nagato needed Yin Release chakra, which he could obtain through Kakuzu’s Earth Grudge Fear. As Konan collapsed in the bath, Pain Rin leaped to help her.

• Pain Rin told Konan that she wanted to refine the Six Paths of Pain and improve Nagato’s original body.
• Pain Rin explained that Blood Demon Mara could recreate Kekkei Genkai by combining all seven chakra nature transformations, but Nagato lacked Yin Release.
• Pain Rin concluded that Nagato needed a Yin Release chakra pathway and identified Kakuzu’s Earth Grudge Fear as the way to obtain one.
• Konan said Amegakure had enough money for its ninja but was short on funds for Orochimaru’s experimental base.
• Konan’s vision suddenly doubled, and she collapsed as her bathing bucket crashed to the floor.
• Pain Rin tore off her blindfold and leaped from the bath toward Konan.

Nagato healed Konan after she collapsed, then ordered Orochimaru to use Impure World Reincarnation to revive someone. As Root infiltrators were hunted in Amegakure, Orochimaru completed the jutsu, and the revived figure appeared among Root’s forces outside the village.

• Pain Rin found Konan collapsed in the bath, healed her injuries, and Nagato carried her back to her room.
• Root captains sent two members to infiltrate Amegakure and investigate Hanzo’s silence.
• Deva Path Yahiko asked Orochimaru to revive someone with Impure World Reincarnation and supplied a vial of blood.
• Human Path Yujie captured one Root infiltrator for information, while Kakupai delivered the other as the ritual’s living sacrifice.
• Orochimaru performed Impure World Reincarnation, and Pain A appeared among the assembled Root forces outside Amegakure.

Pain Yahiko revived Kakuzu with the Impure World Reincarnation and recruited him to manage Amegakure’s finances by threatening to uncover his hidden fortune. Kakuzu agreed to hand over forty percent of the profits, and Pain Yahiko then asked him for the Earth Grudge Fear Jutsu scroll.

• Kakuzu recognized Pain Yahiko as the man who killed him and realized Orochimaru had revived him with the Impure World Reincarnation.
• Pain Yahiko revealed that he had taken over Amegakure and killed Hanzo, whose body had been discarded despite Kakuzu’s concern over its bounty.
• Kakuzu recognized Kakupai as his own preserved corpse and deduced that Pain Yahiko and the others were controlled bodies.
• Pain Yahiko asked Kakuzu to become Amegakure’s chief financial steward, but Kakuzu refused to work for someone else.
• Human Path Yujie arrived with a Root member’s corpse, and Orochimaru restrained Kakuzu while Yujie threatened to read his mind and find his hidden fortune.
• Kakuzu bargained for forty percent of the yearly profits and agreed, after which Pain Yahiko requested the Earth Grudge Fear Jutsu scroll.

Pain A annihilated Danzo’s Root squads outside Amegakure, then received intelligence from White Zetsu Number 18 about Obito, Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Jiraiya. Nagato began worrying that Jiraiya might uncover the truth about Pain’s Rinnegan, and turned his attention to Konan.

• Ren Yin and Xin Chou ordered Root’s remaining members to retreat while they tried to hold off Pain A.
• Pain A broke free of Ren Yin’s earth-and-water prison, killed him, and then killed Xin Chou after using the Asura Heavenly Punishment Cannon to kill the fleeing Root members.
• White Zetsu Number 18 revealed that Obito knew Nagato had taken control of Amegakure and suspected he had sheltered Orochimaru and Kabuto.
• Number 18 reported that Jiraiya had returned to Konoha earlier than expected, prompting Nagato to wonder whether Jiraiya could connect Pain’s Rinnegan to him.
• Nagato set aside his concerns and began asking Konan a question.

Nagato discovered that Konan had been using Black Rods to keep herself awake and tried to find a safer solution. After arranging for Orochimaru to develop medication, he gave Konan a Black Rod navel ring, and the two shared a shy, romantic exchange.

• Nagato confronted Konan after Pain Rin discovered puncture marks on her arm, and Konan agreed to stop stabbing herself with Black Rods.
• Nagato asked Orochimaru to develop medication to suppress Konan's sleepiness, and Orochimaru estimated it would take a month.
• Nagato gave Konan a Black Rod navel ring as a safer temporary alternative, and Konan said she liked it.
• Konan mentioned wanting a lip piercing, and Nagato told her he thought her face was already flawless.
• Konan decided not to get a lip piercing.

Konan and Pain A told Kakuzu that Amegakure was nearly out of money, but the recovered Konoha Root corpses offered a way to raise funds. Kakuzu identified the bodies as valuable bounties and agreed to help finance the village, while Nagato planned to replace Pain's Human Path.

• Konan visited Kakuzu as he complained about Amegakure's spending, and she corrected him that only 1.4 million ryo remained after another 200,000 ryo went to dinner and bathing.
• Pain A arrived and told Kakuzu that Nagato had dealt with Konoha Root members outside the village, prompting Kakuzu to rush to the morgue.
• Kakuzu explained that Danzo's Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal authenticated Root members for bounties of five million ryo each.
• Kakuzu verified 71 Root corpses worth 355 million ryo, but Konan reserved 200 million for Amegakure's next six months of living expenses.
• Pain A agreed to Kakuzu's request not to see Yujie again, and Nagato privately planned to replace Pain's Human Path.

Nagato tested whether Impure World Reincarnation could be used to create Pain and learned that the method only worked under special conditions involving former Jinchuriki and the Demonic Statue. He then planned to retrieve Mu’s preserved corpse from beneath Iwagakure, while postponing his own pursuit of Senjutsu.

• Nagato discovered that Impure World Reincarnation could not generally create Six Paths of Pain, and explained that Obito’s version depended on former Jinchuriki and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
• Pain A told Orochimaru that he wanted Mu as the Human Path because Mu’s abilities would complement it, but reincarnated bodies could not be made into Pain.
• Orochimaru revealed that Mu’s corpse was preserved in a pyramid burial a hundred meters underground beneath Iwagakure, and that Senjutsu could help retrieve it without alerting anyone.
• Nagato decided to postpone learning Senjutsu because he still needed to strengthen his own power and feared leaving Amegakure while Obito’s suspicions and Jiraiya’s return posed risks.
• Pain A announced that he would go to Iwagakure himself and free Mu from the pyramid.

Pain Rin and Pain A traveled into the Land of Earth, using relay towers to extend Nagato’s control over the Paths. In Konoha, Minato and Kushina chose the name Naruto with Jiraiya’s blessing, then Minato told Jiraiya he believed Nagato’s Rinnegan had appeared during the recent attack.

• Pain Rin and Pain A rode the Yata Crow northwest from Amegakure while Konan and Nagato discussed the mission and Nagato’s relay technology.
• Pain A activated a Chakra Signal Relay Tower on a mountain, and the pair installed more towers on their journey into the Land of Earth.
• Minato praised Jiraiya’s novel and asked to name his unborn child after its protagonist; Jiraiya agreed to the name Naruto.
• Minato and Jiraiya discussed the attack on Konoha, and Minato said he doubted Orochimaru was responsible.
• Minato told Jiraiya that he recognized the Rinnegan in the attacker as matching Nagato’s eyes, startling Jiraiya.

Jiraiya learned that an attacker with the Rinnegan had struck Konoha and considered whether his former disciple Nagato was involved, though he believed someone else might have taken Nagato’s eyes. After receiving Minato’s intelligence and Flying Thunder God kunai, Jiraiya set out for Amegakure to investigate what happened to Nagato and the others.

• Jiraiya reacted with disbelief when Minato said Nagato might be connected to the attack on Konoha, then considered that Nagato’s Rinnegan might have been stolen and used by someone else.
• Minato gave Jiraiya a scroll detailing the attacker’s abilities, and Jiraiya prepared to leave despite Minato’s invitation to stay.
• Jiraiya joked with Minato about peeping and gave him a copy of his new Icha Icha Paradise book before encouraging him to develop his own Sage Mode.
• Jiraiya read Minato’s intelligence outside Konoha and found a Flying Thunder God kunai and a message promising Minato would come to his aid if needed.
• Jiraiya took the kunai and headed toward the western border of the Fire Country to investigate the events in Amegakure.