Naruto/Awesome

What, you think this series is so popular with no reasons?

Please list the examples in chronological order and under the appropriate arcs.

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Land of Waves Arc

• Naruto's and Sasuke's decoy windmill star attack on Zabuza outweighs all the kickass stuff they do later, mostly because they were (for the series) effectively Badass Normals at the time.
• Kakashi's battle against Zabuza after Naruto and Sasuke freed him from Zabuza's water prison. It ended with Zabuza being terrified of his opponent.
• Naruto saving Inari and his mother from Zabuza's henchmen, Zouri and Waraji before he goes off to help Kakashi and the others fight Zabuza and Haku.
• Sasuke gets two in his fight against Haku. First, by unlocking his Sharingan and second, by protecting Naruto from what he thought was a death blow.
• Zabuza charging into a 100+ group of mercenaries with nothing but two limp arms and a Kunai in his mouth, killling a least twenty and then killing Gato by .
• Haku's performance against Naruto and Sasuke. The guy's Ice Mirrors could have easily killed Sasuke, who was depicted to be one of the strongest characters in the series. Afterwards, he wasn't beaten by Naruto; he asked for Naruto to kill him. After even that, he changes his mind and transports himself right in front of Zabuza in about .05 seconds to stop Kakashi's Chidori.

Chūnin Exam Arc

• Very minor and underplayed, but... first part of the Chunin Exam. Neither Sasuke or Naruto can answer anything... but Sakura can answer all of them without much difficulty. Awesome.
• Anko Mitarashi gets one when she takes on Orochimaru, and is able to hold her own again him. Then she attempts to take him with her. It fails, but it does show off she's really badass and gutsy. Later on, she gets bonus points for calling out Kakashi on how Sasuke shouldn't battle.
• Naruto gets one by punching Sasuke when the latter suggested to give up their scroll and then by stopping Orochimaru's snake from killing Sasuke.
• Sasuke gets one when he fights Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. The moment is capped off by the debut of his Dragon Flame Jutsu.
• Despite being The Load for the most part, Sakura Haruno had a big CMoA in the Forest of Death. That would be the one where she got the Important Haircut that let her get free from the Sound Genin, realizing that it was her turn to protect Naruto, Sasuke and Lee instead of just standing on the sidelines. Her physical strength showed fully only years after that, but THAT moment was the starting point; without it, there'd be no Action Girl Sakura, ever.
• Sasuke effortlessly, instantaneously dodging Zaku's attack, appearing beside him to ask who he hit before sending him flying with a single punch (Bonus points for not looking at him while doing so), then actually turning towards him to launch an assault of his own. Whether the fact that he was not exactly himself at the time makes all this more or less awesome depends on the viewer.
• Naruto gets one by beating the Rain Genin team pretty much by himself.
• Another moment Sasuke gets is in the preliminaries against Yoroi. He has a cursed seal which if it activates will send him straight to the dark side. The seal is activated by using chakra, so he has to fight with only taijutsu. Yoroi still activates it but in the end he stops it using only willpower and finishes the fight with his Lion Combo.
• Shino, during the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams, he's fighting Zaku, who has quickly recovered from his broken arms, and is ready to blast Shino into next week with his awesome jutsu. Well, it turns out Shino knew he would try that, so he plugged up his arm holes with bugs. So his arms were blown up. Hoist by His Own Petard, indeed.
• Shikamaru's battle against Kin in the preliminaries. She seemingly catches him in a paralyzing Genjutsu, at which point she proclaims she'll keep throwing needles at him until he gives up. He replies by demanding that she keeps her promise and to kill him quickly. Just as she's about to comply he manages to catch her in his Shadow Possession by using her own wires. He then makes everyone in the arena think he's gone crazy by forcing his opponent to mimic him throw a shuriken, he dodges, and his opponent bashes her head into the wall in process.
• While Naruto won his fight against Kiba because of a fart, he had some nice moments in the course of it like tricking Kiba with transformation twice, thereby using his own jutsus against him especially the second time when turned into a third Kiba then turned into Akamaru after getting hit to make Kiba think he hit Akamaru worked quite well. This shows that he's actually taking Kakashi's lessons to heart and outwitting his opponents with his ability to defy their expectations of what he will do next (similar to his fight against Pain).
• Underdog Hinata's first Crowning Moment of Awesome, and the one that endeared her to the fans in the first place is her battle against Neji: "I'm not going to let myself look bad. Not now...not in front of the person I admire most who's finally seeing the real me." She shook off Neji's talk at the end of the same fight. The way she talked, it was clear she had no spite whatsoever toward him despite his attempts to cause her agony over a grudge beyond her control.
• Rock Lee's fight against Gaara and the first time we get to see the full extent of his power. If he had faced anyone — ANYONE ELSE — other than Gaara in that section of the exams, he would have been in the finals easily, and even Gaara needed TWO Deus Ex Machina to beat him. After the match is ended by default, Lee stands up again, refusing to admit defeat even though he's unconscious.
• Naruto's fight against Neji showed the first signs of the end of Naruto's Bratty Half-Pint phase and his evolution into a credible ass-kicking ninja. Highlights include:
  • On the brink of passing out, Naruto borrowed chakra from the Nine-Tails... in front of thousands of spectators! The last time the world has heard of a release of that chakra was when the Nine-Tails itself attacked the Leaf 12 years before. The fact that Naruto reasoned with the Nine-Tails, even temporarily, should have earned him a Chuunin rank. That would break the Almighty Janitor role, though.
  • "Trapped, by your speciality, Shadow Clone...." Then Naruto reveals his way to mastery of that jutsu: he had failed three genin exams in a row since the test always mentioned the regular Clone Jutsu, which he actually hadn't mastered at all at that time.
  • Neji was also badass during the match, showing off how he reverse engineered his clan's ultimate attack, an attack that has yet to be mastered by the clan's golden child. 64 Palms!
• During his battle with Temari, Shikamaru spends 3/4 of the chapter/episode by sitting in the shadow and watching the clouds go by while his mentor confidently exclaims what a genius he is. Then as Temari uses her wind attack to attack him causing a dustcloud to emerge between the two of them he uses the opportunity to devise and launch a makeswift airballoon using his jacket, a kunai and his headband. After she narrowly avoid the shadow that's extended by it, he catches her. Turns out he was maneuvering her to that exact spot from the very beginning. He then walks up to her to inform her and the referee that he's giving up.

Invasion of Konoha Arc

• Naruto's fight against Gaara. Tons of moments in that one:
  • His masterful use of the shadow clone jutsu to turn a hopeless situation around and fell Gaara in his monster form and save the lives of both Sakura and a speechless Sasuke. Then, the battle gets even crazier when he uses a hokage level frog summoning technique to save himself from certain death, and take Gaara down once and for all, saving the village.
  • It's especially awesome because he's completely spent by the end of it and finally takes Gaara out by headbutting him and punching him in the head... and then, when they're both on the ground, out of strength and out of chakra - even though he sympathizes with Gaara and understands the hell he's been through - Naruto's still worried about Sakura being crushed to death so he starts dragging himself over to Gaara with his chin. The awesomeness doubles when you consider the fact that Naruto has only been fighting actual battles for a couple of months, Gaara has been killing elite ninja since he was six.
• The Third Hokage gets one in his battle with Orochimaru at the end of the chuunin exam arc. Their battle is ridiculously action packed. To put this in perspective, the Third is an old man by now, he fights Orochimaru and the re-animated corpses of two predecessors as Hokage, at the same time and wins. And we're told that compared to him in his prime this was a miserable battle. There's also his Heroic Sacrifice, which despite failing to kill Orochimaru, prevents him from using any more jutsu, forces him to flee, renders the First and Second Hokages' corpses unusable, and later on, forces Orochimaru to go to a new body prematurely, thus saving Sasuke from being used as his body.

Search for Tsunade Arc

• Itachi's return to the Leaf is used to establish how dangerous he is. The most memorable occassions are:
  • Throwing Kurenai's Genjutsu back at her and effortlessy managing to put Kakashi out of the picture by using Tsukuyomi.
  • Effortlessly stopping Sasuke's chidori with one hand and then beating him repeatedly without anyretaliation from the latter.
• Guy's Big Damn Heroes moment when he saves Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma from Itachi and Kisame. He roundhouses Kisame, reveals a counter-tactic to Itachi Sharingan Genjutsu and reveals that he's already sent a call for reinforcements.
• Jiraiya gets one after Itachi has finished beating the living daylights out of Sasuke and then decides to come after Naruto. Jiraiya decides to get involved in the fight and uses the Toad Mouth technique which causes Itachi and Kisame to escape. Itachi even had to use Amaterasu to escape.
• Kabuto fighting Shizune, then Tsunade, then Naruto, and wins every time (while the fight with Naruto appeared dual KO, Naruto needed immediate medical aid and Kabuto is back on his feet in a bit) while having enough chakra left to go help Orochimaru afterwards.
• Naruto vs. Kabuto is a moment of awesome for Naruto as well, especially his "I refuse to die!" statement when Kabuto tries to stab him. Not to mention he willingly got stabbed by Kabuto in his hand JUST to hold him in place to deliver his first ever Rasengan with EPIC proportions. All done with his theme song playing in the background. Awesomeness!
• Tsunade using the five-story tall knife of the Frog Boss to impale Manda, a massive snake, through the mouth when it was about to eat Jiraiya and the Frog Boss. Then, after Orochimaru's spent the better part of the last several episodes playing mind games with her, emotionally abusing her, and beating the ever-loving crap out of her to try and get at Naruto, Tsunade grabs him by his oh-so-convenient retractable extra-long tongue, and uses its elastic nature to deliver a head-on punch of epic proportions. Made all the more awesome by the fact that Tsunade wasn't anywhere near her full strength at the time. Then again, if she had been, there would've been very little left of Orochimaru.

Sasuke Retrieval Arc

• Naruto and Sasuke's fight on the hospital roof. Most of the time, Naruto had been depicted as inferior to Sasuke. However, starting with the Chunin Exam, he began to slowly edge his way toward Sasuke, and by then, he and Sasuke were actually fighting on equal grounds. Hell, Kakashi outright says that Naruto could have killed Sasuke had they landed their attacks. (Given what it did to Kabuto and that water tower, that may not have been an exaggeration on his part.)
• Shikamaru in the mission to bring Sasuke back. His team gets stuck in a earth barrier that's absorbing their energy. He starts offering their surrender just so Jirobo, the man in control of it, gives up his location. After analyzing the situation he figures out where his best friend needs to strike to get them outta there. This was also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Chouji as he was one of the only two people to not lose faith in Shikamaru, who up until this point was viewed as fairly useless. Also a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming as it showed they're much closer teammates then any of the other are with their teams.
• Choji's moment is without a doubt his fight against Jirobo. He's backed against the wall, and uses his final food pill - which will most likely kill him. The last food pill gave him butterfly wings. That's right--he had girly butterfly wings attached to his back, and he still looked the most Badass he (or most of the other characters) had looked in the entire series, before or since. He then kills Jirobo in one punch.
• Neji defeating Kidomaru while having two fist-sized holes through his upper body (shoulder and stomach respectively). His quote at the end of the fight is only the cherry on top: "No one can determine another's destiny." It really shows how he's grown and changed for the better since the Chunin Exams.
• Kiba, like Choji and Neji, gets his moment during the arc. While fighting Ukon, who has fused with his body, he more or less accepts what he views as an inevitable death, and has the guts to stab himself in the stomach just to harm Ukon.
• Shikamaru vs. Tayuya is loaded with awesome moments for both of them. Shikamaru analyzing Tayuya's attack patterns by memorising her fingermoves on the flute she used was very impressive, as was him tricking her into coming closer to utilize his technique more properly, but Tayuya probably gets the most awesome; that being that she actually manages to outmanuever The Chessmaster by unveiling a One-Winged Angel form that Shikamaru has next to nothing to counter with. This (and his subsequent saving by Temari) marked Shikamaru rethinking his opinion of girls for the rest of the series.
• Lee's fight against Kimimaro. Unfortunately, his Worf Effect is active as ever, but if there's one thing Lee knows, it's how to make losing look damn impressive. Especially cool when you take into account the fact that; A) He just recovered from very major surgery about 5 minutes before the fight, and B) he does better than the main character did.
• The Sand Siblings (Gaara, Kankuro and Temari) get theirs by rescuing Lee, Kiba, and Shikamaru respectively. To elaborate:
  • Temari kills Tayuya with literally two swings of her fan. Most impressive is her summoning jutsu finisher: Shikamaru closes his eyes against the blast, and when he looks up,acres of forest have been devastated.
  • Kankuro also effortlessly kills Sakon and Ukon, by trapping and impaling them with his "art of the iron maiden".
  • Gaara's whole fight against Kimimaro, though perhaps the most impressive is his gigantic Sand Tsunami.
• Kimimaro gets one too, considering that he kept up with Gaara and Lee, two people who are probably two of the strongest Genin in the show and it wasn't even them who did him in, but his disease that killed him seconds before he killed them.
• Naruto vs Sasuke at the Valley of the End. It made you cry and want to hug both characters while still being crazy violent!

Sasuke: I'll admit it. You're definitely strong. It's because you know the pain that solitude brings just as I do. It's that very pain that makes you and I stronger, Naruto...which means if I can just break that bond, I'll be able to achieve even greater strength! It's time you and I have this out as equals, but you're still not gonna be able to lay even a single scratch on my forehead. I know that hasn't changed, at least. Naruto: Fine. Guess there's no point in talking anymore, Sasuke! Sasuke: Enough, no more words. From here on out, we stick to fighting. Come!

Part 1 Filler Arcs

• Let's, for one, hail the filler arc: Mizuki Strikes Back! More Iruka backstory! Iruka going Badass and showing that he's become teacher for something! Now that's correct filler plot with correct choice of character!
• Hinata gets one in the Search for the Bikōchū Arc when she demonstrates her new technique, Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, simultaneously shutting down all three enemy ninja's insect jutsus, then upping her speed even more to take out the lead ninja's summoned Queen Bee.
• Hinata taking out Jiga (the magnetism ninja from the Land of Vegetables Arc) with, basically, one hit. She's not the strongest character, but she had the smarts to use his own power to finish him. The method she used burial in iron sand was Nightmare Fuel, but effective.
• Gaara's fight against Seimei in the Ultimate Weapon Arc, who is wearing what he calls ultimate armour, with good reason as it can attack from range, defend him and absorb chakra. Seimei has previously imprisoned Gaara in a chakra draining prison, which has drained Gaara of so much chakra that he's had to call upon Shukaku's, partially transforming him and breaking out of the container. Then in the actual episode, when it looks like Gaara is actually going to use Shukaku again, his partially transformed body parts revert to normal as Gaara remembers Naruto's words to him during their fight. This is awesome enough, as Gaara would've had to contest with a rather large amount of Shukaku's will in the process, but Gaara then proceeds to reveal that he's pulled off a Batman Gambit, fooling Seimei into believing he had no chakra of his own left. Gaara then proceeds to use the Sand Tsunami technique by crushing the nearby rocks and cliff formation, pulling off the offensive version of the Shukaku defense he used against Kimimaro while his chakra is still being drained by the armour, and then finally crushing Seimei as the armour is no longer able to keep Seimei above the sand.

Gaara: I am Gaara of the Desert. Wherever there's rock, wherever there's earth, I can make more sand.

Kakashi Gaiden

• Minato at the Third Ninja World War was so feared by the enemies, that Ninja from the Rock Village were given the order to flee in the case they just saw him! Why? Because he was able to perform a space-time ninjutsu, which allowed him to slaughter entire platoons by himself with little help.
• The last fight was full of those! First we have Kakashi saving Obito from a high-level ninja. Said ninja is then scarred because he mistakes Kakashi (a thirteen-year old at the time) for his father. Then we have Obito activating his Sharingan and saving Kakashi after the latter got his left eye sliced to protect Obito. After that, Obito and Kakashi, who had hated each other up until now, showing excellent teamwork and defeating another high-level ninja. Then Obito sacrificing his life in order to save Kakashi from getting crushed. After the incredibly sad scene of Obito and Kakashi's final talk, Kakashi get's the Sharigan inplanted into him. At last we have Kakashi avenging Obito's death. The effects of Kakashi's shattered blade falling to the ground gives more awesomeness to the scene. The falling blade shows how fast the Chidori was and gave an awesome ending.

Kazekage Rescue Arc

• Deidara's battle against Gaara:
  • Gaara got owned by a crazy-awesome plan to use the sand Gaara had used to rip off Deidara's arm against him and blow up Gaara's sand-cocoon from the inside whilst grinning his head off.
  • Gaara also gets a little Crowning Moment of Awesome when, instead of pulverising Deidara with his sand, he sacrifices himself to save the village from Deidara's C3 with a pretty kickass defence technique. Giant Sand Ceiling.
• The entire "The Medical Ninja's Student" episode was composed of Sakura being awesome by saving Kankuro's life from a deadly poison.
• Guy gets one when he's fighting the clone of Kisame. He opens the Sixth Gate, busts out a never-before-seen attack, and flattens the clone. Awesome.
• Naruto gets one after he finds Deidara and Sasori sitting on top of Gaara's apparently dead body.

'Naruto: You bastards! I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!

• Chiyo and Sakura's fight against Sasori was one crowning moment after another, proving that Sakura was no longer The Load and had finally become a credible Action Girl, finishing the process she started with her Important Haircut.
  • Chiyo and Sasori's puppet fight where Chiyo used a modified version of his early Father and Mother puppets against Sasori's Third Kazekage puppet.
  • Sakura punching The Third Kazekage's iron sand back at Sasori.
  • Sakura faking the poisoning and destroying the Third Kazekage puppet.
  • Chiyo's puppets and Sakura beating their way through 100 of Sasori's puppets..
  • When, after having been slashed open and poisoned again, Sakura goes berserk and reels in Sasori by his hose-thing and punches him apart. (Recalling Tsunade's Part I fight with Orochimaru.)
• Kakashi using his Mangekyo Sharingan to send Deidara's remaining arm into another dimension.
• Armless Deidara vs Team Gai and Team Kakashi proved that it was a fair fight when Deidara, sans arms, scared them all shitless by pretending to blow himself up and then hid underground in a sweet little moment of deception.
• Kakashi gets another one by sending Deidara's gigantic explosion into another dimension with his Mangekyo Sharingan while already having used it before, saving Team 7, Team Guy and Chiyo from certain death.

Sasuke and Sai Arc

• Four-Tailed Naruto's monstrously large energy attack against Orochimaru.
• Orochimaru gets one by keeping up with a Four-Tailed Naruto while being sick and dying.

Hidan and Kakuzu Arc

• Kakashi gets one for taking out Kakuzu who'd just claimed to be immune to physical attacks before he even knew he was there. Sure it doesn't stick but unless you've achieved immortality you'd better watch your back.
• Hidan and Kakuzu get one with four words: "Let's do the usual.", awesome teamwork ensues.
• Kakuzu gets his by being able to handle four different enemies single handedly, one of them being Kakashi.
• Shikamaru defeats the nigh-immortal Hidan by turning his own power against his partner elsewhere, then blowing him to pieces, which fall into a deep pit. Hidan's head remains intact and alive, which gives Shikamaru an opportunity to describe to Hidan just how screwed he is before burying him alive, and lighting a cigarette just like Asuma did. Moreover, when Hidan shouts some dribble about how Jashin will judge him, Shikamaru states "The only judgement passed here will be mine." Awesome.
• Naruto has one serious Crowning Moment of Awesome in the fight against Kakuzu, when he uses his new Rasenshuriken technique for the first time in real combat. The sound, power and spheric state of that technique is enough to make even Kakuzu, a semi-immortal man who fought First Hokage and survived, acknowledge that a single hit from it would result in his death. And it did.
• Naruto got one in a flashback when Kakashi and Naruto are testing his Wind Release: Rasengan by smashing it into a normal Rasengan created by Kakashi. Naruto nullifies and destroys Kakashi's Rasengan in addition to scarring his hand gravely to the point where he actually doubles in pain. The scene climaxes as Kakashi glances back towards Naruto with awe and not only sees his resemblance to the Fourth Hokage, but acknowledges that Naruto has surpassed Fourth by developing a technique that not even the Fourth himself could bring that far.

Itachi Pursuit Arc

• Sasuke has one off panel moment we only see the result off: as a training session he defeats 1000 random warriors without receiving a single scratch and, despite using his sword, managing not to kill any of them as he refuses to do so.
• Sasuke gets another one shortly after that when he gives Orochimaru a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and throws his Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu right back at him. No matter how you look at it, there's something inherently awesome (albeit creepy) about someone trying to steal your body and you instead trapping him, gaining all of his abilities in the process.
• Deidara got several in his fight against Sasuke. That giant clay Deidara, along with his scary-as-hell particle attack and the sheer awesomeness of his Magnum Opus (plus his revelation that he was able to counter the Sharingan, actually) was just made of pure crazy-awesome win. His Taking You with Me attempt and his Last Words:

Deidara: Tremble! Be afraid! Recoil in despair! Cower in awe, and cry your heart out! Because my art... IS AN EXPLOSION!!

• Sasuke gets a big one for beating Deidara as thoroughly as he did. From analyzing and countering all of his attacks, to remaining so damn calm that Deidara completely lost his mind from rage over Sasuke indifference, and finally by having a backup plan made in advance to render Deidara's final blast meaningless.
• Teams 7 and 8 are searching for Sasuke, and they can't find him. Cue Kiba revealing that, over the timeskip, he's developed his sense of smell to where it's superior to a dog's.
• Jiraiya's Crowning Moment of Awesome is unquestionably his last fight against Pain. And made all the more awesome when he wills himself back to life. The game Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 has an extra awesome moment in Jiraiya vs. Pain. In the game continuity, Jiraiya doesn't lose his arm or get his throat crushed, but he's still clearly dying. In this timeline, he didn't kill the Animal Path and send it back to the village. The moment comes after he picks himself up one last time, and uses his last bit of chakra to form an enormous Rasengan and utterly obliterate the Animal Path, even using the phrase Naruto used in canon when taking down Deva Pain: "Give up... on making me give up!" Appropriately, in the game's final fight, when Deva Path is getting pwned by Naruto's Rasengan, he sees an image of Jiraiya superimposed over Naruto.
• Sasuke vs Itachi is extremely awesome. Both sides use the full extent of their arsenals. The highlights would be Sasuke's Kirin and Itachi's usage of Susanoo. Itachi gets a good one by defeating Orochimaru who just emerged from Sasuke's weakened body, while blind and injured, with one attack.
• Tobi revealed to be Madara Uchiha and the Leader of Akatsuki. Not only was it a plot twist that no one could've possibly seen coming, but the lightning storm setting served to introduce the series Big Bad with an unworldly flair. It's made even better in the anime with an almost apocalyptic theme song.

Invasion of Pain Arc

• Team Hawk have been getting theirs in the fight against Killerbee:
  • First, Karin reveals that she can heal others by letting them absorb her Chakra. It causes her pain, but she lets Sasuke use the technique to heal him.
  • Next, Jugo saves Sasuke from certain death (Killerbee, their opponent, had just blown open his chest and neck) by using a special skin graft.
  • Next, Suigetsu throws a gigantic tidal wave right at Killerbee's Eight-Tails form.
  • At last, Sasuke uses Amaterasu, which is sparked by his desire to protect his team, and saves his team and himself from certain death and causes Killerbee to escape.]]
• Killerbee gets one for completely dominating Sasuke in their fight (and almost killing him trice), nearly killing Team Hawk and fooling them with a tentacle when it appears he has been beaten and captured by them to go on vacation.
• Episode 160 from the anime gives a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the ANBU Black Ops, stopping one of Pain's summons with an epic elemental jutsu combo: they chop off its legs with wind, zap it with lightning, bury it in mud, seal it in a box, then burn it alive. It doesn't work, but it's still a nice moment.
• Pain's fight against Kakashi:
  • Pain is quickly backed up against a wall as Kakashi charges him with a Raikiri. Pain casually dodges it at point blank range by tilting his head to the side. When Kakashi tries again a page later, Pain follows it up by effortlessly sending him flying and destroying the wall he's pinned against with a spherical force blast. Without moving an inch.
  • Of course, Kakashi, Choji, and Choza (Choji's dad) then collectively get two: first Kakashi pulls a lightning clone trick on Pain's fifth body and then the father and son both come out of nowhere to use their giant fist to utterly crush the thing, and then Kakashi turns the first Pain's repulsion ability against him by attacking him as a distraction, having Choji and Choza roll in from each side, and countering Pain's deflection of them both by grabbing the ends of a chain Kakashi laid out around Pain, leaving him unable able to move or use his power against Kakashi. Go teamwork! It doesn't work... but it still manage to kill at least one Pain.
• Sakura gets one by taking out a giant centipede with one punch when several older shinobi have failed to subdue it while working together. She then calmly heals a little girl's scraped knee.
• Pain's greatest Crowning Moment of Awesome is still [[spoiler:kicking the entire village of Konoha's ass singlehandedly; not just with raw power, but using his powers to high tactical effect.
  • Using one body's power to launch the summoning body to enter the Leaf from the air and thus avoid patrols, with the summoning body summoning all the other Pains upon landing, who then scatter to wreak havoc, but still pop up without warning to give each other fire support.
  • He then turns the Village into a crater with one move, wham episode that was... Orochimaru couldn't do even with the combined power of two Hidden Villages. This one dances on the line of Moral Event Horizon and Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Konohamaru smacking Pain dead-on with a Rasengan. That was a double Crowning Moment of Awesome for both Konohamaru and Naruto: the fact that [[spoiler: Naruto is now teaching younger students is just... Wow. He taught an A-level technique like that to a Genin. That takes more than power. And Naruto isn't actually present...which almost somehow makes it even more badass. Also, if you notice Naruto taught him before the Time Skip, which means Konohamaru was able to learn the technique more or less on his own.
• Tsunade exerting all of her chakra to save her entire village and then still willing to go against Pain is pretty awesome.
• Naruto has returned home. And he's wearing a copy of the Fourth's flame-patterned jacket, wearing the Frog Summoning Contract across his back, in Sage Mode standing on top of Gamabunta, flanked by two other equally impressive relatives, and having himself the biggest Big Damn Heroes moment in the entire history of the manga!
• Pain launches one body to kill an exhausted Tsunade, Naruto jumps the 100 metres or so to reach her from atop Gambunta and smashes the body with a Rasengan. It took Kakashi a lot of hingikery, Chakra and help to do the same.
• Naruto vs Pain is loaded with such moments:
  • In Issue 431 Pain summons three Giant beasts at Naruto, he grabs the Rhino one by the horn mid charge and throws it hundreds of metres into the air. He blasts the other summons into the sky with clones and oversized Rasengans. Leaving the Frogs to finish the summons (which they do midair) he charges at Pain's bodies. The Jutsu absorbing one charges at him, they lunge each other, both miss, then Hungry Ghost Pain's face distorts and the body is sent flying and gets crippled. Naruto in Sage Mode can hit people without physical contact by controlling surrounding natural energy. At that point, the Holy Shit Quotient meter broke down, went home, and called it a day.
  • In issue 432, Naruto freaking throws his immensely destructive, double-edged Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, cutting one of Pain's bodies in half while bypassing the dangerous drawbacks of the technique completely.
  • After Naruto's Sage Mode fails, Fukasaku summons a Nature Chakra-charged Naruto clone to the battlefield, which restores the real Naruto's reserves of nature chakra, allowing him to re-use his Sage Mode and use ranged Rasenshuriken twice. Even still, when his second Sage Mode is due at an end, he still got a third clone on the frog mountain ready for summon.
  • Regaining Sage Mode he throws the first Rasenshuriken and God Realm Pain, but its absorbed by a revived Hungry Ghost realm. Naruto then creates a dust cloud with smokes bombs and Rasengans. Another Rasenshuriken swings out of the dust Hungry Ghost realms moves to absorb but the its a transformed Naruto who then tackles said body in order to allow the real Rasenshuriken which was right behind it to hit God Realm. It doesn't work as that bodies powers return and dissapate it. It then turns out to be all a feint so Naruto can take down the body that can revive the others, Hell Realm. Pain can only exclaim a "What" after having been had.
  • After that, Naruto seems to get captured and all of his power drained, so what does he do? He fills himself up with Sage Chakra, which gets instantly sucked into the Pain body holding him, which turns into a stone frog from the Chakra overload. Kamina would be proud.
  • Pain, despite having blown off so much chakra and given away a few years of his life (coughing blood too), then takes on Naruto with an army of Toads and wins. He then verbally smacks down Naruto for wanting justice/revenge due to his killing of Jiraiya while having Naruto impaled one the ground a sword lodged in both the latter's hands.
• In the anime, Hinata's assault against Pain: she knows that Pain is out of her league, but she's only pretending to fight him — her true goal is to attack the chakra spears that are impaling Naruto so that he can get back to fighting Pain. While the rest of the village are waiting for Naruto to save them, she's the only one who sees that - this once at least - Naruto is the one who needs to be saved. She doesn't quite manage to save him from the chakra spears.
• After Hinata took on Pain, the Big Bad, and sacrificed herself, giving Naruto an excuse to have Unstoppable Rage, Naruto's Berserk Button has been pushed down, held down, beaten down with a sledgehammer and left to short out the breakers as over the course of about four panels he goes from being pinned down by a series of Pain's black chakra spikes to freeing himself with a transformation to his Four-tailed Fox form and straight from there, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, to a never-before-seen Six-tailed Fox transformation, complete with demonic chakra forming the beginnings of a fox-shaped skeleton around his body. Ladies and gentlemen, the Holy Shit Quotient meter regrets to inform you that it's Readings Are Off the Scale.
• That attack that Pain used to turn Konoha into a crater? Six-tailed Naruto just grabbed it and pushed it back at him. Admittedly a smaller version, but seriously, nothing else has stood up to that.
• The anime version of Four- and then Six-Tailed Naruto vs Pain...CrazyAwesome all around. Machine gun Menacing Balls, Pain beating Four Tail Naruto forcing him to go Six Tail...and Chibaku Tensei animated.
• Naruto for busting out the eighth tail. This causes the Nine Tails to put muscle on the bone. One more tail and the damn thing pops out.
• In quite possibly the single most crowning moment of awesome ever, just as Naruto's about to give in and remove the seal releasing the Nine-Tails, the Fourth Hokage appears in his head, pulls him away from the cage, verbally bitch slaps the fox and then thanks it for giving him the opportunity to see his son again. And apparently the seal was set up to do this from the beginning.
• Chapter 440, after getting a pep talk from his dad and having the Fox's seal reinforced, Naruto reverses the transformation, reactivates Sage Mode, and gives Pain a look that shouts "Round two you son of a bitch". That fight is loaded with awesome moments.
  • Chapter 441, Naruto stabs himself with a chakra rod so that he can find Nagato's location, to which Pain's only response is "bastard". He then does the shadow shuriken attack using rasen shurikens.
  • Chapter 442, Naruto backs up his double Rasenshuriken with at least 100 shadow clones disguised as rocks, and even when that fails to end the battle, he finally has an answer for Pain. A Rasengan to the stomach, backed up by not only his clones but the spirits of his forebears. And he does so while reciting a line that the character from Jiraiya's book he was named after said; "You give up... thinking I'm going to give up!"
  • Pain dodging the shadow shuriken by stabbing two clones and flipping up was pretty awesome. Naruto using a number of clones to keep himself from being pushed back by the Shinra Tensei was wicked awesome. The God Realm even fell to his knees when he saw Naruto was still close.
• Though it had been stated earlier, when Naruto finally meets Pain and Pain tells his past, the scene where the Sannin - yes, all three of them... are shown having their asses handed to them by Hanzo truly goes to show how strong that one man was and, of course, it highlights how much it took to kill the old Rain war chief.
• Remember the statue that Akatsuki uses to seal the Tailed Beasts? In a flashback, Pain used it as a combat summon. After Danzo & Hanzo forced Yahiko's death, Nagato, in an act of righteous fury, sicced his demonic summon on the whole lot of enemy ninjas, killing an entire army by himself.
• Naruto, with only the sheer, burning flame of his hope for peace, convinces Nagato to revive the entire village.

Five Kage Summit Arc

• 459 finally gives a Crowning Moment of Awesome to Zetsu for popping out of the floor directly between all 5 Kages saying "helloooo", getting the drop on all 5 of them. Zetsu's got balls for pulling a stunt like that, even if that is technically only half of him.
• After chapter 460 there is no doubt left that Raikage is Badass. He...
  • ... snaps White Zetsu´s neck with one hand!
  • ... bursts through any wall between him and Sasuke.
• Beginning with chapter 461, the fight between the Raikage and Sasuke provides plenty of these moments for all participants:
  • Raikage and escorts effortlessly counter Sasuke's attack, and use a genjutsu all to similar to flare to blind them, and all around nearly kill Sasuke. Raikage even breaks Zabuza's sword in two.
  • Suigestsu and Jugo saving Sasuke from certain death at Raikage and escort's hands.
  • Jugo in his Cursed Seal level 2 form (which seems to involve beam spam) punching the Raikage who appears to have not even been injured from it.
  • Raikage pulls a quick threefer. First he gets hit directly in the chest by Chidori, only for it to go in about an inch and cause a minor flesh wound that is barely even visible. Second, he wrecks Sasuke's shit. Third, when Sasuke recovers and puts up a wall of fire, Raikage handles it with the same grace he handles every physical barrier between him and his immediate objective, IE punch it out of existence.
  • Sasuke effortlessy takes out C by trapping him into a Genjutsu and then he fought the Raikage to a draw and actually made him lose an arm.
  • Chapter 464 has the Sand siblings effortlessly rescuing ninja from Sasuke's Amaterasu. Combined with Gaara demonstrating that both his sand and his trademark absolute defence are better than ever and not to mention Kankuro revealing his new puppet: Sasori.
• Chapter 466 is pretty much undiluted awesome from panel one all the way to the finish.
  • First, the Mizukage pretty much pwns Sasuke with her two Kekkei Genkais, Lava (Earth+ Fire) and Boil (Water+ Fire)
  • Next, Black Zetsu saves Sasuke from the Mizukage and uses a technique to restore Sasuke's chakra and keep him going.
  • After that, the Tsuchikage uses a jutsu that summons a giant freaking block to atomize Sasuke.
• Chapter 467. The Raikage, who's been owning the last few chapters in terms of Crowning Moments, moves to plow right through Tobi like a knife through butter. Tobi just stands there and lets the attack phase right through him with that freaky time-space trick he's got. He then sits down and tells the four Kages (not counting the fleeing Danzo) his grand plan to hypnotize the entire planet with the power of the combined form of the nine Tailed Beasts, and states that unless they comply, there will be war: Two Jinchuriiki and a whole bunch of humans against an immortal, A band of powerful humans, and 7 of the most devastatingly powerful creatures to walk the earth. Despite the issues of fighting such a powerful foe, all of the Kages refuse without hesitation (again, excepting Danzo). That takes guts.
• The Sage of 6 Paths. According to Tobi, he encountered a Ten Tailed Beast that was literally all of the Tailed Beasts put together. It is more or less directly stated to be an Eldritch Abomination with the capacity to destroy the world. The Sage sealed its soul inside himself, apparently without sacrificing anyone, then used its power to create the moon as a prison to store its body. He then split its power into the 9 tailed beasts, as well as granting the Uchicha and Senju clans power to control them via soul and body. In short, he curbstomped an eldritch abomination and made it his pet.
• Killer Bee's fight vs Kisame:
  • Killer Bee continues to be made of Crazy Awesome. He tossed a pencil coated in lightning chakra, which Kisame states had a higher penetrating force than wind chakra, at Kisame, which misses, but punches through a tree, and into the snow. Kisame even states it could have punched a hole in him if it hit. A pencil could have killed Kisame!
  • Kisame and Samehada also show why they were Itachi's partner. Samehada literally drinks up Killer Bee's Raiton, and even a tailed-beast cloak of four tails like afternoon tea. Samehada can also be used like a whip, and that is a five foot blade being swung on the equivalent of a rope. Also, when Samehada is completely released, all those bandages unwrap, and it gets a mouth at the tip! And after that, Kisame fuses with Samehada to become even more powerful and sharky than usual.
  • Shark!Kisame traps Killerbee, Sabu, & Ponta in a gigantic dome of water that moves whenever he does. Sabu & Ponta are at risk of drowning, so Killerbee lures Kisame away. Unfortunately, the ensuing battle leaves Killerbee unconscious, while Kisame de-merges and returns to normal. ...Except when he tries to hack Bee's legs off to 'make him easier to carry', Samehada, apparently quite attracted to Killerbee's chakra, turns on Kisame and protects Killerbee, even giving him a bit of chakra before Kisame punts it away. The chapter ends with Kisame picking up one of Bee's swords and preparing to hack his legs off.
  • Chapter 473: Killerbee and the Raikage using Double Lariat. What makes this even cooler is that, on the next page, Killer Bee is trembling before the Raikage. Who only has one arm. Further proof of Raikage's Badass credentials.
  • Kisame actually grinning and complimenting the brothers' speed as his head, sans body, flies through the air is pretty awesome.
• Chapter 475. Tobi is fighting Danzo's guards. He gets one with his special sucked through time and space technique, but in doing so is infected in the arm with that guard's flesh eating virus attack. Tobi just rips his arm off and kicks it at the other guard to distract him enough to suck him away too.
• Danzo vs Sasuke. So far Danzo had been stated to be the Rival of The Third Hokage (The freaking God of Shinobi) a Political/Manipulator Master Mind and then he takes the Sharingarm to show how utterly badass he is and then Sasuke beat the living shit out of him. Over and over again. For all his "Im holding back" stuff, the guy was sacrificing his secret card and literally having to rip a hole in reality just to survive the next 5 seconds of the battle. It was hilarious when he said he "wanted to save chakra to face Madara" when Sasuke owned his summon in one attack, killed him again (by using a "weak genjutsu" he just sneered minutes ago) lose his arm and then took Karin as a hostage. Sasuke impales both of them anyway which causes Danzo to activate an extremely powerful sacrifice technique... by a panel later both Sasuke and Tobi deadpan how dangerous the technique was. And remember that Sasuke had only completed Susano'o that single moment and was exhausted from previous fights as well.
• Sasuke sacrificing Karin to kill Danzo was a Moment of Awesome with Fridge Brilliance. Danzo spent his whole life advocating his principles that a ninja should never show emotions on the battlefield and should place his mission above his comrades. It was a fitting ending for him when Sasuke obeyed exactly those principle to kill him.
• Danzo having rigged his body with a seal that creates a sphere of destruction when he dies. You know it's hardcore when the guy can literally kill you from beyond the grave. Granted, it didn't work, but it doesn't detract.
• Team 7's reunion is full of these:
  • Kakashi managing to warp two Susano'o arrows in the span of a second or two. Badass.
  • Sakura running on the roof of a tunnel to sneak up on Sasuke and stab him also qualifies for Crowning Scene Of Awesome, being a rare moment where a ninja actually acts like one, even if Sakura screwed it up after that and forced the above hero moment.
  • Kakashi and Naruto's Big Damn Heroes to save Sakura's life and then kicking Sasuke in the gut just afterwards.
• In Chapter 489: Kabuto strikes again, and also states clearly that it is indeed Kabuto in control, not Orochimaru. Then, he makes Tobi get a Oh Crap look on his face (or his eye at any rate) by going all Necromancer and using Edo Tensei to resurrect Nagato, Kakuzu, Deidara, Sasori and Itachi. He then shows how much of a Magnificent Bastard he has become when he finalizes his alliance with Tobi. How? By revealing he has a sixth corpse which even Tobi is afraid of. The look on Tobi's face is priceless.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc

• Chapter 494 has a moment for all the Cloud Ninja. Bee especially at age five being chosen to be the new Jinchuriki of the wild Eight-Tails and being the first person to master it! Not only that, despite the fact his best friend Motoi tried to kill him, he bared him no ill will. The ending doubles as a Crowning Moment Of Heartwearming when he and Bee reaffirm their friendship. Then there is the group of Cloud Ninja who restrained the Eight-Tails for sealing, lead by A, the future Fourth Raikage, and the Third Raikage themselves. The Cloud Ninja managed to physically restrain the Eight-Tails, a beast who is one tail away from the Nine-Tailed Fox's power, with just chains before sealing it. Oh, and A? He cut off its horn, hence is the person who is responsible for the Eight-Tails having three horns.
• Chapter 495. The Shut UP, Hannibal to beat almost everything else: what Naruto's autograph would have looked like, reading "No. 1 Hokage Candidate: Naruto" which defeated Naruto's Evil Twin (actually, his manifested hatred) that a few chapters ago could not be defeated by every jutsu he has up his sleeve.
• Naruto's attempt to conquer the power of the Nine-Tails is full of these:
  • Chapter 496: First, the Nine Tails uses the Menacing ball, the attack the Four Tails and Six Tails used right off the bat, firing at Naruto. Killer Bee then catches it with the Eight-Tails, which eats the ball. Then Naruto attacks the Nine-Tails with the Gargantuan Rasengan after entering Sage Mode in just a second! Then he tosses the Nine-Tails, making him slam flat on his back and finishes off with a Giant Rasenshuriken! That folks is the Holy Shit Quotient breaking down.
  • Kushina's Big Damn Heroes moment just shows you she can be as awesome and heartwarming as her husband, Minato. She effortlessly uses chakra to tie down the Kyuubi with chains so it doesn't interfere while she and Naruto talk.
  • Chapter 499: Using his mother's love as a counter for the hatred of the fox, Naruto forces his chakra back into himself and resumes his battle with the Fox. From there is straightforward Serial Escalation. First was his normal Rasengan Barrage, which briefly stunned and annoyed the God of Hatred that Nine-Tails was, then he entered Sage Mode and used the Sage Art: Non Stop Gargantuan Rasengan Barrage to knock the fox on his back. He then began siphoning off the chakra, first getting five tails out, then he immediately followed up with a Wind Style: Rasen-shuriken and got the REST of the Fox's chakra, and absorbed it into himself; however, the awesomeness does not stop there. The chakra of the Nine-Tails, free of malevolence, formed a glowing aura around Naruto that resembled none other than the Sage of Six Paths! The Fox's true anger showed, and he still had enough power to form a Spirit Bomb sized Menacing Ball. Then Naruto imprisoned him in an stronger, new seal of Naruto's own design. So Naruto basically punched out Cthulhu, put the Nine-Tails on a new leash, and has become a perfect Jinchuriki like Killer Bee.
• The attack of the Nine-Tails on the Leaf may be a flashback, but it's still loaded with awesome:
  • From 502 - we get the Fourth Hokage blocking a full-powered Fox Menacing Ball by using a variation of the Hiraishin no Jutsu to teleport it to an entirely different place! Minato is a walking Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Minato's Crowning Moment of Awesome continues in 503! Actually defeated Madara after injuring him with the Rasengan and putting a rock with the Hirashin Seal in his body, then he stripped Madara of his Nine-Tails control. Then after Madara retreated, he teleported back to Konoha, summoned Gamabunta to crash on the Fox's body to stop it from completing its menacing ball, and THEN teleported the entire demon away. Then he comes up with a plan so Kushina can see Naruto when he's all grown up, and insured a way that Madara would finally be completely defeated by sealing half the Kyubi's chakra into Naruto.
  • Kushina gets her own one as well when confronted with Minato teleporting the Nine-Tails right to them she immediately restrains it and reckons she can drag it back inside her and take it with her when she dies. Physical God vs Mama Bear. No contest.
  • And continuing into Chapter 504, we have Minato and Kushina both diving between the Nine-Tails and Naruto when the former tries to kill the latter before the sealing process can be completed. Not only do they both move together to shield their son, Kushina grabs the claw as it exits her stomach and physically stops it from reaching her child. This would be the second time in two chapters that Kushina has overpowered the Nine-Tails, while weakened from birth, and guaranteed to die from the strain of having the Fox ripped out of her body. Not to mention the whole claw-through-the-abdomen thing. Bad. Ass.
• After getting his new powers from the Fox, Naruto shows off by detecting Kisame's negative feeling inside Samehada, then Flash Stepping to intercept him when he tries to run away; he slams the man so hard he actually gets his foot caught in the wall by mistake! Kisame escapes, but then Guy tries to use the Waterfall of Truth at that very moment. Assuming Kisame to be his dark side, Guy does the most logical thing he can think of: elbow-check it into a cliff.
• Guy's battle against Kisame does not disappoint. When Kisame tries to get away, Guy jumps straight to the sixth gate and gets thrown by Bee's giant ox arm to catch up. Then he summons his turtle from way back in the Chunin exam in midair (the turtle was not happy about that) and jumped the rest of the way. Upon landing and seeing Kisame trying to pass off a scroll to a shark summon (which he then hides among a bunch of clones), Guy uses Morning Peacock to kill most of them. Faced with the ones underwater, he opens the seventh gate and makes a giant tiger head of of chakra to hit Kisame's giant water shark head. Gai just punched so fast and so hard that he literally formed a gigantic tiger head out by pressurizing air with his fist into a nuke. Said nuke ends the fight between Gai and Kisame by, well, exploding all the sharks to death and putting Kisame decisively out of the fight. Oh, and when Gai tells you not to move? You better not freaking move.
• Konan lives up to the hype. She destroyed part of Tobi's mask and took his arm, and then she did a 'parting of the sea' with her paper jutsu...its incredible. She then figured out that Tobi can only stay intangible for five minutes, so she created a sea of six hundred billion explosive tags that will explode for ten minutes straight to make sure he dies. Bad. Ass. It's so effective that Tobi had to use Izanagi just to escape it. That's right, Konan technically killed him, even if he found a way out of it.

Shinobi World War Arc

• Both Tobi and Kabuto show how big magnificent bastards they have become. Kabuto, thanks to Orochimaru, knows Tobi's secrets as well as the importance of Zetsu. Tobi then reveals that he basically planted a new, mindless Hashirama, which he's using it to clone White Zetsu's...and has created an army of 100,000 of them.
• By Ch. 514, we can simply say that this series has already taken Serial Escalation as one of its cardinal rules: With Onoki engaging Deidara while being protected by Akatsuchi, Kurotsuchi (revealed to be actually Onoki's granddaughter) showed her proficiency with Lava Release and Water Release in trapping Kabuto. Magnificent Bastard the latter is, he reveals just how good he has been at using Orochimaru's powers by molting and turning into a horrific snake-man, capturing Yamato in the process and delivering him to Madara, who by this point is wielding his original Sharingan and one Rinnegan.
• Chapter 515. Onoki carries the entire Island Turtle from the sea to the Cloud village one handed. Naruto begins learning to control his new powers. The Konoha 11 return. Gaara is the freaking commander general of the entire army. Kakashi's a general. We fully see the entirety of Kabuto's Edo Tensei Army...which includes the past Kages, Akatsuki members, the six dead Jinchuuriki, Zabuza, Haku, Hanzo, Kimimaro, Chiyo, Asuma, Hizashi, Dan... and other powerful Shinobi.
• Chapter 516 brings us more awesome from Gaara, when he convinces the entire army to work together for the time being. He then challenges anyone who still has trouble with the Sand to take it out on him when the war's over! This Rousing Speech is definitely TV Tropes Made of Win Archive and therefore merits quoting in full:

Gaara: Three times now... we've fought world wars for our own nations, our own villages. We've hurt one another, we've hated one another. That hatred bred a lust for power, and that lust for power created ME. I was a jinchūriki, the embodiment of hatred and power. And I hated this world, and all the people in it... I wanted to destroy it with my own hands. The exact same thing Akatsuki is trying to do today. But one man, one ninja from Konohagakure stopped me. I was his enemy, yet he wept for me! I hurt him, yet he called me his friend! He saved me! My enemy, my fellow jinchuriki... he suffered the same pain as me, yet bore me no ill will! There are no enemies here because we've all suffered at Akatsuki's hand! So there is no Sand, no Rock, no Leaf, no Mist, and no Cloud! There are only "shinobi!" And if you still hold a grudge against the Sand, then when this war is over, come and take my head instead! Our enemies are after the friend who saved my life! If they take him, if we hand him over, our world is finished! I want to protect him, and I want to protect our world! But I'm too young to protect it all on my own! All of you, lend me your aid! Everyone who's with me, let's go!

• Chapter 518: Under Kankuro's leadership, Sai, Omoi and the standing members of the Surprise Attack Division working together, manage to defeat both the Zombie forms of Deidara and Sasori through clever tactics, use of the terrain, teamwork, and traps. It was awesome. Furthermore, Kankuro traps Sasori and Deidara with his puppets (among them Sasori's original puppet body) and reiterated why Sasori at this point, despite being immortal, has fallen really low.

Kankuro: Sasori... your strength came because of your soul, not in spite of it. You tried to erase it, to become a puppet yourself, but couldn't change completely. Now you've got your immortal body but you've fallen, sunk to the level of the puppets you used to control. You were supposed to be a top class ninja puppeteer, not a worthless nobody who lets someone else pull the strings.

• Sai seeing that the enemy has used his surrogate older brother. His response? Flip his shit! Yes! Sai, the emotionally stunted ROOT agent has a Roaring Rampage of Revenge! He creates ink warriors that swiftly beat the ever loving crap out of Deidara and Sasori!
• Chapter 521, the first Large Scale Battle of the War Arc has begun. Kitsuchi and the awesome kunoichi known as Kurotsuchi, his daughter, create a Zetsu Clone army volcano. Hana Inuzuka, who was supposed to be a medic, turns into an Action Girl and uses a buzz saw technique to compliment her brother's. Hinata attacks with Neji and blows Zetsu's away with an Eight Trigrams Empty Wall Palm. The entire army attacks with cool attacks...then Haku ambushes Sai, who is flying, with a Demonic Ice Mirror. Then Rock Lee, Kakashi, and Sakura arrive, with Lee intercepting Haku and Kakashi intercepting Zabuza...
• Chapter 523: The last generation of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen of the Mist have just shown why they were so feared amongst the Shinobi Nations. Even better, we learn that Zabuza's Decapitating Carving Knife can't be destroyed. All the damage it gets will be regenerated when it slashes into a victim's blood. It can theoretically regenerate from a single shard due to that power.
• Chapter 524: After the mindless Zabuza cut through Haku, injuring Kakashi slightly, we got a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming of when Kakashi remembered Naruto just fresh from the Wave Arc, he then stomped Zabuza's mindless form, cutting its hand off and freezing it for Ensui Nara to use the Shadow Possession Technique. After Mari used her Cloth Binding Technique to bind both Zabuza and Haku and prevent them from being resummoned by Kabuto (pissing him off for once), Kakashi finally stops playing around and declares he's going on a rampage against the remaining Zombies. This is, according to Kakashi, the most pissed off he's even been in his entire life. And now He has Zabuza's sword.
• Chapter 525: Neji using the Full Body Blow to blow an Zetsu to pieces, Onoki showing he REALLY won the Superpower Lottery-his Dust Release contains both Fire and Earth...and finally Wind. Its a Kekkei Tota, a higher level of Kekkei Genkai that only he and Mu, the Second Tsuchikage knew. And also Shikaku's effortless new battle plan to deal with the new threats.
• Chapter 526: Darui continues to demonstrate that he and the rest of the Cloud Nin are a force to be reckoned with by demonstrating a black lightning technique he was taught by the previous Raikage, tearing through a section of Madara's army with a panther made of lightning!
• Chapter 528: With Darui this close getting sucked in Kinkaku and Ginkaku's gourd, his consistent apologies for his failures changed his taboo word from "dull" to "sorry", allowing him to cop out and turn the tables on the Jerkass Bash Brothers, even getting Ginkaku sucked into the gourd. Oh, and do you remember that the weapons Ginkaku and Kinkaku were using could only be used by people with immense chakra? That Darui manage to use them for a bit (even while in the real danger of biting it) shows how far this awesome bastard can go.
• Chapter 529: Giving them the limelight, Ino-Shika-Cho Generation 2 was called to back up Darui and successfully distracted the raging Kinkaku, allowing him to be sealed in the same pot that was formerly used to seal the Eight-Tails. Of course they would have not succeeded without Kitsuchi's Dynamic Entry with the Second Division.
• Chapter 530: Ino keeping her cool and showing she's the Cool Big Sis of her team. Kakuzu showing he's a Magnificent Bastard, not being bothered by being cut into four pieces by Izumo and Kotetsu, and actually tearing out a ninja's heart that day. Dan actually resisting Edo Control and asking when the barrier technique is ready so his Ghost Technique won't work. Finally... Hanzo takes out Kankuro's entire team by paralyzing them and gets intercepted by Mifune!
• Chapter 531: Mifune vs Hanzo. Classic Samurai vs Ninja. And it was epic to say the least. Mifune fought Hanzo in the past, and nearly died after losing due to Hanzo's Kusarigami striking him faster than he could strike Hanzo, getting a blow in the head. During their duel in the modern era, Mifune completely shoots down all of Hanzo's attempts to use ninjutsu, revealing he's a master of Iaido-the art of the quick draw, strike, and resheathing. When Hanzo's Salamander swallows him, he just cuts himself out. And then finally, he cuts Hanzo's scythe in half and cuts him in half, winning the duel and saying that unlike Hanzo, he didn't let his skills dull. After winning the duel, Mifune proceeds to call out Hanzo for losing his faith and betraying his ideals. After he's done, Hanzo responds by using the broken remains of his Kusarigami to commit Seppuku. Kabuto, realizing that Hanzo is starting to disobey him, tries to turn Hanzo into a mindless puppet, the key word here being tries. But Hanzo decides not to have anymore of that shit, no, instead he keeps still long enough for the army to seal him away. How? through sheer force of will. Proving that Kabuto's mind control isn't quite as effective as he thought.
• Chapter 533: Choji grows chakra wings without using the three soldier pills in succession, a feat that blows away his own father. He then looks at his teacher, finally committed to fighting back.
• Chapter 535: After quickly figuring out that Iruka and the others are lying to him, Naruto tackles through two members of the Akimichi clan, Shino's dad, and a member of the Nara clan, Iruka and three random ninjas, only to fall victim to the Nara's Shadow Bind jutsu. However, in Sage Mode Naruto can sense the ongoing war from half a country away or he read the Nara's mind, and after a talk with Iruka who explains the situation and traps him in a barrier, Naruto casually breaks free from both and escapes with ease. When Aburame Shibi attemted to use his bugs to drain him of chakra, he almost immdeiately discovered that the Nine Tails' chakra was too much for them and the whole tactic proved ineffective.
• Chapter 536 had plenty. Bee and Naruto teaming up and heading to the battlefield? Check. Plowing through more ninjas assigned to stop them from leaving the island? Check. The ninja army's victory over the army of Zetsus and Choji defeating Kakuzu? Check. Madara finally entering the fray? Check. Tobi ending the chapter by summoning none other than the very Demonic Statue of the Outer Path itself? Check!
• Chapter 537 has Tobi using Gedo Mazo to smack down everyone, before declaring that tomorrow the Moon's Eye Plan will be complete.
• Chapter 540: Neji didn't turn evil. It was Zetsu disguised as Neji all along. Kudos to Sakura for realizing that before he got the jump on her and smashing her fist on his sorry head. Glad to see your Action Girl status is back, girl.
• Chapter 541: [[spoiler: Remember A's speed? Naruto can keep up with him now, even block his punches! And A admits Minato was faster than him.
• Chpater 542. Minato vs Ay. Ay uses his Lightning Nintaijutsu against Minato, who of course dodges with his teleportation technique. The look on Ay's face completely makes the moment.
• Chapter 543. Bee defeats his fully charged brother, despite not using his Tailed Beast at all, in a lariat clash and tells him how he's underestimated him for years, proving to A that Bee has genuinely surpassed him and A will let him and Naruto go and fight to save the day.
  • A gets one too by holding off both Bee and Naruto for a considerable amount of time, countering Bee's tricks and Naruto's speed.
• Chapter 544. Ay acknowledging Naruto as the savior and allowing him to pass.
  • And Naruto finally proves to be the fastest alive, avoiding A's fastest attack using his Flash Step in Nine-Tails Chakra Mode. This makes Naruto one of only two people to ever dodge A's best speed. The only other one, Minato, had mastery of a time-space jutsu that allowed him to teleport. Naruto did it through footspeed only.
  • Also in Chapter 544, Tobi has recreated Nagato's "Six Paths of Pain" technique, only he's using the former dead Jinchuuriki for the paths. On top of that, he's given them one Rinnengan and one Sharingan each, for added uberness. Considering that Jinchuuriki are by their nature exceptional ninja, proven by the fact that they successfully caged the tailed beasts, considering that they may or may not have access to their former prisoners' chakras as a matter of being controlled by Madara, and considering how dangerous Pain's paths were before, this is most likely Tobi's plan to equal out the presence of Naruto and Bee in the war. You might not like it, but it's definitely making the HSQ overheat.
• Naruto chapter 545...Garuto is back. The Holy Shit Quotient breaks down again and we don't even know if it can be fixed! Basically, Naruto shows the fruits of his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode Training...by pwning an entire division of Zetsu Clones.
  • Not just that, he shows 3 new moves: 1) Rasenrangan: multiple Rasengan "launched" against the zetsus with the chakra arms. 2) Rasenkyugan: a giant rasengan that can "grow" arms, and grab the zetsus smashing 'em against itself. And 3) mini-Rasen Shuriken which shouldn't need an explanation.
    • Out of all those new moves, the mini-Rasen Shuriken took the cake. Making tiny chakra arms out of his fucking FINGER was inexplicably awesome, the same way the four-tailed Naruto (in his first appearance) grew a chakra arm out of one of his massive chakra arms was. Also, the mini-shuriken, which was about the size of Naruto's hand, cut through the leg of an approx. 50-foot Zetsu clusterfuck. Imagine a Mass Shuriken Shadow Clone, similar to Minato's in The Movie, pulled off alongside that.
• 546. Gaara faces the Edo-Tensei-revived!Kazekage. And doesn't even flinch while telling him how full of shit he was. Congratulations.
  • Admiration for Onoki as well: his clash with his master Mu, both using Dust Release, creates a crater spanning much of the desert they're fighting on.
  • Lets put this in perspective about Gaara's power: His father, used to dealing with Shukaku's rampages thought the initial sand wave was from Shukaku being released. His shock that Gaara-who doesn't even have Shukaku anymore created the wave? That means Gaara's as strong as the one-tail Eldritch Abomination that slept inside him for 15 years!
    • It's even more awesome than that. Gaara's dad explicitly says that his sand arms are "much stronger than they used to be". Gaara is MORE POWERFUL than he was as a Jinchuriki.
• 547: Gaara is becoming GARara, he subdues three Kages at the same time and overpowers his dad's Gold Dust-the perfect counter for his sand, completely!
  • And this is also a CMOA for Gaara's mother Karura (and from beyond the grave!). When she told she told baby!Gaara that she'd protect him as she lay dying, she meant it - and ultimately fulfilled it.
• 549: Naruto isn't so helpless against Nagato or Itachi anymore. Effortlessly intercepting Itachi's speed and beginning to force him back in taijutsu, countering Bansho Ten'in from Nagato and fighting Nagato on even terms now...oh did I mention that Naruto wasn't even trying to fight back against Itachi when they clash, just trying to get answers? And B is proving to be awesome, using Samehada to cut right through Itachi's Fireball, transform his hand into the Hachibi's to block Itachi's Hozenka (putting fire over shuriken to increase their lethality), breaking Itachi's genjutsu and forcing him back.
• 550: Itachi is free from being controlled by Kabuto and can now do as he likes. AWESOME
  • And we can applause Itachi's magnificent Plan to make Sasuke protect Konoha in case he would transplant Itachi's eyes, even if circumstances ended up with it being used on his own reanimated corpse, instead.
  • Well, even though the main purpose of the attack didn't work out, the Shinobi army now has an unkillable version of Itachi on their side. This is likely worth more than Sasuke.
• 551: Nagato beats down Naruto, nearly steals his soul and fends off an attack from Killer Bee. Then Itachi pulls a Big Damn Hero moment and rescues them both. Nagato pulls out the Catastrophic Planetary Construction. And then the good guys blow the fuck out of it.
  • Not even Naruto's Six-Tailed Form could break a Chibaku Tensei before. Naruto, Itachi, and Bee couldn't do it on their own, this chapter confirmed it. It took the next three strongest guys in the entire Narutoverse just to beat Nagato, who only got stabbed due to the confusion of Chibaku Tensei being destroyed. Nagato was that strong! No wonder why he was called invincible.
• 552: Itachi's speech to Naruto. And also, "Every jutsu has a weakness." What a Determinator.
• 553: Naruto, Gaara and Oonoki work together to defeat Mu. It takes about ten seconds. Also, PLANET RASENGAN!!!
  • Naruto's Big Damn Heroes. "We need a powerful Wind user!" "I'm the only Wind user!" "EXCEPT ME!"
  • Can count as Offscreen Moment of Awesome actually, but seeing the Second Mizukage sigh in annoyance after he wore out an entire battalion (and this is while he's shouting directions!) only prefigures how difficult and opponent he really is. One can only wishes it gets an Adaptation Expansion.
  • The Third Raikage was beastly. He was a One-Man Army, taking on 10,000 soldiers all on his own over three days.
  • Naruto's plan after back up plan to hit the Third Raikage with a Rasenshuriken. The entire exchange looked like it was slow motion!
    • The Third Raikage takes a direct hit from Naruto's Rasenshuriken. And thanks to his lightning armor, it doesn't even scratch him. Which just becomes more awesome when you remember that lightning is supposed to be weak against wind.
    • It was actually said the Third Raikage's body was the reason why he tanked the Rasenshuriken, while his armor was blown away.
• 555: After Naruto asked the Hachibi how he managed to wound the 3rd Raikage, Naruto comes up with a strategy. Use Sage Mode to sense danger ahead to dodge and hit the Raikage's arm while his technique is still active with a Sage Boosted Rasengan so that his technique would hit himself. It worked before it's revealed that the 3rd Raikage's scar comes from his own technique and that he wounded himself by accident, thus never mentioning it to anyone. Awesomeness By Analysis indeed.
• What, no love for Gaara and Onoki in chapters 556 and 557? Gaara locates the clam in 556 while holding out against the Second Mizukage's attacks. Onoki, whose running out of chakra and couldn't use Jinton, forms a Rock Fist and smashes it, but its too weak since he didn't put his back into it. Making the rock fist heavier with his Aggravated Rock technique, puts his back into it (and throws it out) to destroy the clam. Gaara then seals the Second Mizukage in a pyramid. Then when the Mizukage broke out with his Jokey Boy technique, Gaara formed a plan in 557 after learning about. And he blocked the massive explosion to save his division. Finally he located the Mizukage, put him in another pyramid but the Jokey Boy clone ripped off the tags and the Mizukage poked his head out. However when Jokey Boy attacked Gaara...he got a Suna Bushin with Gold Dust inside it. Thus, Gaara stopped the explosion and defeated the Second Mizukage who commended him, calling him the 'Golden Egg' of the Kages.
• 558: We learned that the Naruto that defeated the Raikage and Muu were clones. Each of Naruto's clones are on a battlefield to defeat the White Zetsu transformed into allies.
  • Naruto still hasn't joined the fighting personally. Naruto's CLONES are now one man armies BY THEMSELVES. Everything Naruto's done since the fight with Nagato was actually a clone. A clone beat two Kages by itself!
• 559: Kabuto's "trump card" is taking the field. Which happens to be... the long-dead UCHIHA MADARA.
  • Naruto acknowledges Hinata's near-sacrifice and assures her she's strong, while his other clones arrive on the battlefield and begin single-handily turning the tide.
  • We see some of Kakashi's rampage, taking out one of the Seven Swordsmen for Sai to seal him into his drawing paper.
• 560: Madara's activates his true power... THE RINNEGAN!!! And then he uses its power to create/summon a giant meteor over the opposing forces! Can he get any more awesome?
  • How about Gaara, Naruto's clone, and Onoki actually countering Susano'o and finding its weakness-namely that it doesn't guard right under the user's feet? Wild Mass Guessing is confirmed on there too! Not to mention the fact all three were tired when they nearly beat EMS Level Madara?
• 561: Where to begin?
  • Onoki singlehandedly weakens the meteor enough to save the army.
  • Madara uses power he stole from the First Hokage to unleash an entire forest against his foes.
  • Madara's arrival pisses off Kyuubi so much that he gives Naruto his power free of charge. Which Naruto uses to summon an army of clones who all use Great Rasengans to stop Madara's Wood-Release in its tracks. Even Madara is impressed.
    • This one was not emphasized enough. The Kyuubi is working with Naruto willingly now!
• 562: Poor Holy Shit Quotient, you've broken down again. Oonoki gives Madara his Shut UP, Hannibal speech. Choujuro cuts Black Zetsu in half, expanding his sword to enormous size. Tsunade and A use Mabui's teleportation technique (which only the Third Raikage could survive before) to get to the main battlefield. Tsunade actually becomes the first to hit a solid blow on Madara in the entire fight. And finally, the ultimate teamup of all Five Kages.
  • Even more awesome, Tsunade hadn't even started to regenerate when she attacked Madara. She was nowhere near her full strength and still cut up yet she managed to land an attack.
• 563: Naruto and Tobi finally begin their clash! With Naruto pulling a Flash Step headbutt. The look in Tobi's eyes is priceless.
  • It's the gravity of the situation that makes it more awesome! Naruto is finally about to do battle with the man responsible for the deaths of both of his parents, Akatsuki, the Kyubi attack, and threatening to kill Naruto in the first minute of his life! The audience has waited long enough.
  • The Five Kages unleash a beating on Madara. Raikage even breaks his Susanoo with a punch (casually blowing Mu away along the way).
• 564: And the long-awaited battle begins! To say that the resurrected jinchuuriki aren't a pushover is a very big understatement.
  • That Flash Step headbutt of Naruto did absolutely nothing to Tobi.
    • Oh, but it did. Tobi mentions he should have phased through it. What kind of headbutt did Naruto give him?!
  • And finally, the resurrected jinchuuriki start transforming into their beasts! Seeing this, Bee starts his own host transformation saying, 'I'll go first'! Can we expect Naruto to do the same?
  • Naruto giving Tobi a Shut UP, Hannibal speech and saying that he's gonna tear his mask off his face and stop his moon's eye plan.
• And in 566 we get a Big Damn Heroes moment from Kakashi and Guy as they ambush Tobi just when he's about to take down Naruto.
• 568: Guy and Kakashi back to back versus five fully transformed jinchuuriki. So they charge in opposite directions and destroy everything in front of them with the Morning Peacock and a razor wire made of lightning. Are there any Kage vacancies yet?
• Chapter 567: Naruto on this page, forcing open the mouth of one of the Tailed Beasts to prevent it from eating him.
• 569 is mostly a montage of all the awesome things Naruto has done up until now, followed by him once again pulling a shadow clone switch, this time to free Son Goku.
  • This montage is actually the Kyuubi recalling all the times that Naruto overcame his limits through hard work, and changed people's opinions about himself/the world through his downright inspiring actions. It ends with the Kyuubi (AKA Kurama) pretty much silently challenging Naruto to change the minds of ALL the Tailed-Beasts through his actions, like he has all those other times. While sporting a very scary smile. Yes, Malevolence Made Flesh pretty much just admitted that he won't be too upset when Naruto eventually proves him wrong about all humans looking down on him. Naruto really CAN make friends with anybody.
    • "You haven't changed at all; that's why I want to help you too. Naruto, if you want to do something for us, then do what you've always done: prove it to us with your actions, because...
    • "That's who you are!"
• 570: After Naruto frees Son Goku from Tobi's control, Kurama sees his host as a genuine ally to himself and to other tailed beasts, and accepts him as a partner. Finally, Naruto fist bumps with Kurama himself and OPENS THE CAGE!
  • There is also massive Character Development for Kurama in a more subtle way. After Naruto destroys the binding stake, Kurama says "Yes! That is the real you!" Yes, over a course of just over 70 chapters, Kurama's perception of Naruto has changed from a vessel for his hatred, one that he can abuse for his own gain to one that always goes by his word, one who proves his intentions with his actions. Kurama, I applaud your improvement; your Heel Face Turn has made you even more awesome.
  • Give it up for Kishimoto breaking the Holy Shit Quotient again.
• ... And yet this does not even hold a candle to Ch. 571, which haves us witness Naruto and Kurama finally pulling off the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki form, wiping the floor with all the other active fully-formed tailed beasts before finishing off with a Bijudama showdown (Kurama+Naruto vs 5 Tailed Beasts, throwing up the same volume of chakra condensed in humungous Bijudama).
  • What about Bee in the Hachibi form backhanding the Gobi while catching Sanbi with it's tails?
• Chapter 572: Damn, that is one huge explosion. Naruto's tailed beast bomb is equal to 5 from lesser demons. He out nuked five individual nukes.
• Chapter 573: To help morale, Inoichi broadcasts to the entire armed forces at once to tell them how Naruto, Bee, Kakashi, and Gai are holding their ground. The speech was so impassioned that he went over the time limit, overtaxing himself--but it inspired everyone to push forward and help!
  • Sai deciding he can now tell Naruto that he knows that friends are is another one. He's come a long way.
  • Tobi ranting about how Naruto isn't a real threat to him, just a measuring stick for Sasuke, all while making it perfectly clear that Naruto is way more of a hassle than he ever thought possible. This is Tobi, a Smug Snake if ever there was one, pretty much acknowledging that he might have a problem.
• Suigetsu gets a quick one in 574. While wandering around one of Orochimaru's old hideouts, Juugo goes berserk and punches him. Naturally, the punch just makes him turn to water. Then Suigetsu uses his water to casually suffocate Juugo on the spot (to unconsciousness, not fatally), and is clearly expending no effort to do it.
  • 574 also has Karin starting her escape from captivity like a boss. She pretends that she's having a breakdown where she keeps going back and forth between loving and hating Sasuke. When the Konoha guards get bored of listening to her and turn their attention away, she reveals that there's a blade hidden in her glasses and cuts open the picture she has of Sasuke, revealing even more tools for escaping from her cell.
• 574 Sasuke has finally revealed his new powers and tries them out by completely destroying the place he was staying in. After he gets outside, he kills some White Zetsu for information about the war and runs into who else but his reanimated older brother, Itachi. Itachi proves that he's still the cooler brother by not even stopping (he's got important bad-ass older brother stuff to do) and shrugging off Sasuke trying to grab him with a Susanoo arm. Given Sasuke couldn't beat Itachi when his brother was dying from a fatal illness, I'd say this new perfect health Itachi could probably take on this upgraded Sasuke.
• 575: Using Heroic Willpower, Onoki resists Madara's technique to put him to sleep...and then blasts away the entire landscape with Jinton. Which also decimates Madara's Susano'o and leaving him with the first real injury he'd suffered that wasn't self inflicted.
  • Madara states that he let himself get hit by Onoki since he could've absorbed the attack but wanted to show them Hashirama's face to make them give up.
• 576: After multiple pages of Madara insulting her skills as a Senju, medic-nin, and kunoichi, Tsunade gives him a Shut UP, Hannibal by telling him that even if she can't use the Wood Release or heal herself without medical ninjutsu, if he thinks she's just a weak kunoichi, he's got another thing coming.
• 577: Madara gets another Shut UP, Hannibal from Tsunade. She smashes through his Susano'o on her own and Onoki and A hit the other side. Even Madara said her Super Strength is greater than A's. And Mei is strong enough to counter Madara's area covering Katons!
• 578: From Tsunade surviving Madara's Mokuton FATALITY with an instant healing technique and Madara whipping out the Tajuu Mokuton Bunshin no Jutsu (giving even Naruto's iconic and Biju-powered Kage Bunshins a run for their money), I'd say these pale in comparison to this exchange between Kabutomaru and Itachi:

Kabuto: You explained very well how you plan to defeat me. I hope it works as perfectly as it sounds, but as I said earlier, this jutsu has no weaknesses or risks... Itachi: Any jutsu has a weakness. This jutsu's weak point and risk... IS ME!

• • Sasuke reminds Itachi that he's always said "later, later" when it comes to Sasuke... so Sasuke going to help him beat Kabuto (without killing him) so he gets his answers now. Maybe a Heel Face Turn isn't impossible anymore... It other words the Uchiha brothers team up for the first time.
• 579. We start to get a taste of Kabuto's full abilities, him dancing around Sasuke and Itachi's Susano'o, showing he mastered Hozuki Clan techs...Uzumaki Clan techs...and Jugo's clan's techs. And then he reveals his Super Mode...Sage Mode Snake Style!
  • Put simply, if you can make Itachi Uchiha go Oh Crap, you're doing something awesome.
• In chapter 581 Kabuto says he and Sasuke are Not So Different because they both wish for the destruction of the Leaf Village and says he should join him. In response, Sasuke says "I'm not like you".
• Chapter 582: Kabuto lands a devastating blow on Itachi before he can set up Izanami, by exploiting his need to protect Sasuke. If Sasuke wasn't there, or if Itachi was alive? He'd be under Kabuto's control again or dead!
  • Itachi also responds to Kabuto saying the "Uchiha are nothing" by telling him that he reminds him of his past self and because of that he will lose.
• Chapter 584: After Orochimaru hit Kabuto's Berserk Button by revealing the plan that he was supposed to be killed by Mother, Kabuto managed to push the chair Orochimaru sat in over and repeated slashed into his chest.
• Chapter 585: Kabuto bisects Itachi just as he's about to activate Izanami. Not to mention Kabuto shows he's mastered all the DNA he's gotten...which includes the Sound 4 and Orochimaru.
• Chapter 586: Itachi activates Izanami which traps Kabuto in an endless loop.
• Chapter 588: The Kages try to trap Madara using a combo attack using last of their chakra. It looks to be successful and they boast their power... at which point Madara says that he will fight seriously and busts out Susanoo's perfect form. Which in this case is a size of a skyscraper.

Madara: Five Kages or not, this will help you realize just how futile everything has been...

Part 2 Filler Arcs

• The Three-Tails Arc. You have all the regular elements of filler: A Filler Villain, some abilities that have not been seen before and probably won't be seen again, and a deviation from the original manga. However, this filler actually advances the canon storyline! And as far as it goes, it's actually good and interesting to watch. The only way it could be made better is if the Konoha ninjas, Orochimaru's henchmen, and Akatsuki all get into a Battle Royale With Cheese at the end of the arc. And think about that one, too. Did you ever think in a million years that you would see any canon antagonist, let alone Akatsuki, appear in a filler arc?
• The Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu Arc. It lets us see one of the Tailed Beast hosts that only got the chance to appear in the art books (due to being killed off before we even know he existed). The story is good, with a character that Naruto can relate to, and the end of episode 148... Oh, hi there Pai- Oh Crap!

Movies

• From the first movie, Naruto defeating the main antagonist Dotō with a Rainbow Rasengan.
  • Sakura and Sasuke defeating Fubuki and Mizore. First, Sakura uses her 'cherry blossom blizzard' to distract Mizore. Then Sasuke uses his Lion Combo to send Fubuki plummeting towards Mizore which blew both of them up due to their chakra armours.
• Gaara's fight against Ranke in the second movie is also pretty awesome. Especially his taunting ("first time fighting a shinobi?") and his Sand Lightning Rod.
• From the third movie: Naruto generating hundreds of clones in order to catch an ally, and managing to stomp the Big Bad into the ground as a secondary effect. For those of you keeping track, he effectively combined a Zerg Rush, Foe-Tossing Charge, and Offhand Backhand. This is immediately followed by the King and Prince helping him with his Rasengan. The latter is also a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• The second Shippuuden movie contained quite a few crowning moments as well.
  • First, Sai, for showing the Elite Mooks from the Sky country how aerial battle is done. Shino, for having his bugs destroy the entire enemy attack force by himself,while a heavy metal version of Flight of the Bumblebee plays in the backround. And most notably Naruto, for showing off his truly Herculean stamina throughout the entire movie; this was clearly noticeable when without stopping overmuch in between, he carried a wounded guy to the hospital, went on a mission to the Fire Country's outskirts, got poisoned by a fish, fought a purple worm, went Kyuubi and revved it all the way up to four tails, returned to normal, immediately continued on to the Big Bad's Cool Airship Doomsday Device where he was beaten to a pulp, subsequently beating the Big Bad to a pulp to get even, and beating him to a pulp again after he activates his chakra-devouring Lovecraftian Superpower, which Naruto overcharged by feeding him more chakra than he can absorb. And when that was finished and the enemy still wouldn't heel, he decided to help everyone escape and remain behind by himself so he could have fun demolishing the place for good measure. Oh, and do consider the fact that it was strongly implied that Naruto was just returning home from a mission at the start of the movie.
  • Sasuke gets two as well. First, his ability to have freakin' epic teamwork with Naruto despite the fact that he hates him. We see it time and again: if those two are not at each other's throats (sometimes literally), they're working together to defeat whoever they're fighting in the most epic way possible. Second, his ability to look straight into the eyes of someone who has his life in their hands and, doubling with a Crowning Moment of Funny, call them "pathetic." He also deserves mention for literally tossing Amaru into the boat after she refuses to leave Naruto behind, and then clearing the ramp to save the lives of everyone in the boat.
  • Naruto gets one when he cuts off Sasuke from the airship and promises to bring him back to Konoha. And then goes on to destroy the airship, despite knowing that doing so will probably kill him.
• The third Shippuuden movie: Naruto's gigantic Rasenshuriken is not the only Crowning Moment of Awesome; each one of the Rookie 11 got their part in the movie. And Tenten got to finish The Dragon!