While Sasuke and Team Snake hunt down Itachi, Jiraiya infiltrates the Hidden Rain Village in order to find out the true identity of the Akatsuki leader.
Tropes Associated with Hunt For Uchiha Arc
- A Day in the Limelight: Sasuke and Jiraiya take center stage in this arc, although for the latter it doubles as A Death in the Limelight.
- All for Nothing: The eight-man team from Konoha ultimately didn’t get anything accomplished in the end with Sasuke and his team being too elusive and the Akatsuki blocking their attempts to reach him. Hell, the majority of the group doesn’t even see an Uchiha outside of Naruto's shadow clone's brief glimpse of Hebi and his earlier run-in with Itachi's own clone.
- Combat Commentator: Zetsu serves as one during the entirety of the fight between Sasuke and Itachi, even telling who won out loud to Tobi and Team 7 once it's over.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Several from both Uchiha brothers: Itachi's Black Flame (which he gives to Sasuke before dying), the Susanno, and Orochimaru's comeback to kill Itachi. Also, Deidara's suicide attack is this turned to eleven.
- The Mangekyo Sharingan is this as well, as overuse can render the user blind.
- Killed Off for Real: Jiraiya, Deidara and Itachi.
- Not So Stoic: Itachi briefly goes insane, cackling about his false desire to be perfect.
- Secret-Keeper: Implied in the manga, but the anime confirms that Naruto never recounted his brief encounter with Itachi's clone out of a combination of shock and him unable to discern why the Uchiha shared some of his power with him.
- Schrödinger's Butterfly: The Sasuke vs Itachi fight doesn't start after three or four episodes of exposition. It seems like they're killing each other several times, only to reveal it's been an illusion and they were still standing still and speaking.
- Taking You with Me: Deidara attempts this to kill off Sasuke. It doesn't work.
- The Reveal: Tobi is the true leader of the Akatsuki, and Madara Uchiha, despite looking so goofy.
- The Unreveal: However, his face is in the shadows when he takes his mask off to show it to Kisame.
- Villainous Breakdown: Deidara loses it when he's outmatched by Sasuke
- Itachi invokes this to keep up his persona as an evil to be destroyed for the sake of the village to harden Sasuke's resolve.
- Wham Episode: Several in this arc, Jiraiya's death and reveals of the Akatsuki "leader" being one of Jiraiya's students and that he control six bodies; Tobi being the real leader of the Akatsuki and that Itachi was actually ordered to kill the Uchiha clan under orders of the Leaf Village elders to prevent war. The biggest being that Sasuke now wants to DESTROY Konoha for its part in Itachi's death.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Several, for Jiraiya's and Itachi's backstories.
