The following article contains spoilers for Naruto: Shippuden.
Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden delivered some of the most iconic fights in anime history, like when the overzealous Rock Lee clashed with the mysterious and formidable Gaara, or when Rock Lee’s sensei Guy pushed the seemingly invincible Madara Uchiha to the near brink. And what tops the best battles list is perhaps when franchise protagonist Naruto went head-to-head with Pain after the latter killed his sensei and later, destroyed his village, Konohagakurue.
And if you want to watch the epic matchup, you can begin by streaming episode 163 of Shippuden, coined Explosion! Sage Mode, when Naruto makes his grand entrance.
Pain’s assault on the Hidden Leaf Village plays out during season 8 after he silenced Jiraiya — a legendary Sannin and Naruto’s mentor — and the arc officially wraps by episode 176.
Pain, or Nagato, was the frontman of the Akatsuki — a group of S-ranked criminals and the primary antagonist of Shippuden — while Obito Uchiha lingered in the background.
Although Naruto eventually developed into the strongest shinobi in the series, Nagato’s Six Paths of Pain was the sturdiest test the young jinchūriki had faced to that point. And if it wasn’t for Nagato expelling a tremendous amount of chakra before Sage-mode Naruto showed up from Mount Myōboku, it’s likely the Rinnegan user wouldn’t have died in the encounter.
The Six Paths of Pain — six corpses with chakra-receiving rods pierced through them — were controlled by Nagato’s visual prowess. The Deva Path, Pain, was the body of Nagato’s friend Yahiko who was ambushed and murdered by Hanzo of the Salamander during the Third Shinobi World War. Yahiko was the original leader of the Akatsuki when the organization’s mission was to bring peace to the war-torn ninja world using pacifist measures.
Prior to that, Nagato, Yahiko, and another friend-turned-Akatsuki-member Konan, also trained under Jiraiya when they were orphaned during the Second Shinobi World War.
Fresh off the heels of killing Jiraiya, the Six Paths of Pain slaughtered countless Konohagakure ninjas and civilians, and leveled the entire village before they took on Naruto, who fought in both Sage mode and in his Tailed Beast mode. Thanks to his father and Fourth Hokage, Minato, Kurama’s ninth tail didn’t emerge from Naruto, and instead, Naruto returned to his normal form to finish off the Deva Path.
He eventually followed his senses to Nagato and Konan’s hiding place — a tall paper tree outside of the village — and after some soul searching fueled by typical protagonist monologues, Nagato chose to use his Rinnegan to restore life to those who lost it during Pain’s massacre.
The jutsu used up the last of Nagato’s charka, and he died with somewhat of a redemption arc.