Arc Length: Chapters 311-342
While Naruto is training with Kakashi and Yamato to perfect a new Rasengan-style technique, two Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu, capture and seal the Two-Tails, killing her host, Yugito Nii of the Hidden Cloud Village. On the way, Kakuzu kills a priest of the Land of Fire. The Hokage gets news of the recent events and Team 10 is then sent to deal with Hidan and Kakuzu. However the fight ends badly: Hidan is revealed to be effectively immortal and kills Asuma. Shikamaru vows to get revenge on him, and goes after the two Akatsuki members with Kakashi, Ino and Choji. Naruto eventually masters his new Rasenshuriken technique and joins Team 10 to help defeat Kakuzu, while Shikamaru gets his revenge on Hidan by blowing him up and trapping him under a pile of rubble in a massive pit.
Tropes
- And I Must Scream: Hidan is torn to bits by multiple explosions and buried alive by Shikamaru. And since he's immortal, he'll stay in this state for a very long time.
- Big Damn Heroes: When all hope seems lost for Team 10 and Kakashi, who are about to be killed by Kakuzu, Naruto and Yamato stop the fire wall with a combined attack in the nick of time.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Hidan loves to slowly torture any opponent that is caught in his jutsu. All while screaming out how much he loves the pain. All this before he finally finishes them off by himself with his spear through his heart which, in turn, also causes his opponent to die in that matter.
- A Day in the Limelight: This arc focuses heavily on Shikamaru as he gets more Character Development and screentime than even Naruto who only has appearances during his training and at the very end of the arc. This is actually lampshaded in one of the anime's after episode stingers with the characters musing that they should rename the show Shikamaru Shippuden.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Naruto's new Rasenshuriken is this. This move is so powerful that it can actually destroy someone's chakra network on a molecular level effectively ending their careers as a ninja. Unfortunately for Naruto, since he uses his hand directly to land the move, he takes some of the damage as well meaning prolonged use of the Rasenshuriken can cripple him for life. Naruto doesn't take this well.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even someone as Ax-Crazy as Hidan found that killing priests is a bad thing.
- Immortality: Both Hidan and Kakuzu have a form of immortality that makes them very tough opponents to deal with. Hidan borderlines Complete Immortality as he can survive almost anything (getting stabbed through the heart, getting blown up, having his entire head chopped off). Kakuzu is a little more unique as his way of immortality is stealing the hearts of other people and implanting them in his own. Kakuzu can have up to 5 hearts meaning he must be killed five times in a row before he gets another heart. Constantly stealing people's hearts turned him into The Ageless as despite looking around in his 30s/40s, Kakuzu is over 90 years old as he fought the First Hokage back in the day. Despite the two of them being immortal, this doesn't save them from experiencing the pain of being attacked.
- Immortality Hurts: On the other hand, being immortal doesn't stop Hidan from experiencing the huge amounts of pain that is inflicted to his body. After getting his head sliced off, Hidan, who was still alive, yells at everyone saying they do not know painful it is having your head chopped off.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Kakashi does this to Kakazu. He only survives because he has multiple hearts keeping him alive.
- Killed Off for Real: Asuma and Kakuzu.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Hidan does this a LOT thanks to his immortality. Stabbed twice through the heart? Yells at the two guys that stabbed him to stop as it hurts like hell (just note Hidan wasn't yelling just out in pain when he said this; he sounded more annoyed than anything). Gets his head chopped off? Yells at his partner for not helping him out.
- Off with His Head!: Asuma manages to slice Hidan's head clean off at one point. Unfortunately, thanks to his immorality, Hidan survives and Kakuzu manages to sew his head back on. However, Kakuzu takes any other time to poke fun at Hidan for losing his head.
- One-Hit Kill: Naruto's new technique, the Rasenshuriken, is so powerful that anyone who is hit directly by it is pretty much done. Even Kakuzu (who dodged the first one) stated that getting hit by that will be bad for him despite his semi-immorality.
- Revenge: Shikamaru decides to get revenge on Hidan, who killed Asuma.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Not that he wasn't a badass from that start but Shikamaru displays MUCH more of his tactical skills allowing him to single out Hidan and cripple Kakuzu. Not to mention being one of few people to take down a member of the Akatsuki by himself!
- Also Naruto. He finally developed his first true Finishing Move that can basically one shot anyone unfortunate enough to get hit by it. However, turns out this move damages himself as well and is pretty much banned from using it.
- The Unreveal: Shikamaru is told by a dying Asuma something we can't even hear with only a Shikamaru's shocked expression to go by. It turns out later that Asuma wants Shikamaru to one day train his child.
