Aaand.. Pein’s dead! Alas, he died, as expected, but not without showing us his most powerful technique – Gidou Rin’ne Tensei (Heresy: Samsara Nature) to revive the people he killed in Konoha. But, everything in its order, so let’s start with the beginning.

Nagato is touched by Naruto’s determination to stand up against all the suffering in the world and decides that he, too will, for the last time, believe in Jiraiya’s philosophy. He warns Naruto that the path ahead of him is a dangerous one, filled with pain, sacrifice and war. In his last moments Nagato wonders whether his meeting with Jiraiya and Naruto was just coincidence or the work of a greater force.
Pein’s decision comes at the cost of his own life, because his ultimate jutsu sucks up all of his chakra. I suspect it can only be used to revive people, who were killed by Pein himself and whose souls still haven’t passed on into the afterlife completely (like we saw what happened to Kakashi). Meaning that there probably is a time period in which the jutsu can be used. Or perhaps the bodies of the dead must still be in tact, so that the soul can return to its original body. A body like Jiraiya’s which has already decomposed probably can’t be ressurected.

Even though Konan tries to stop nagao from using Gidou, his mind is made up. That just leaves one option for Konan – to explain Pein’s abilities. His six bodies represent the six realms in the Buddhist cosmology and his real body – the seventh path that links them all together – the controller of the re-birthing process. Nagato’s jutsu is quite interesting – he uses the demon statue that we saw fixing up his other six bodies, to release the souls of the people who were killed.

03

And so everyone is revived, everyone is shocked and everyone lived happily ever after. Or at least for now. Katsuya is going to explain everything to the villagers, which will surely be the cause for celebration. There will probably be those like Danzo, who won’t be very happy with the outcome of the battle, though.

In this chapter we see the conclusions to of the side-stories developed through the past 100 chapters. Pein’s death leaves Akatsuki another two members short, as Konan also decides to leave the organisation, in order to pursue her friends’ dreams. As a parting gift she gives Naruto a bouquet of paper flowers as a symbol of friendship in hopes that they might work together someday. She also takes Nagato’s and Yahiko’s corpses to give them a prepare funeral in their home country.
From a conversation between the injured Gamabunta and the Great Toad we understand that the child in the prophecy, which was foretold to Jiraiya, was not just one, but two of his students – both Nagato and Naruto are the ones who will bring a new order to the world.
We also find out that the most popular hero in the series Kakashi is going to be alright. He is ressurected along with the other citizen of Konoha, but just before that he has an interesting encounter. He meets his father – Hatake Sakumo in limbo – a place where a soul ends up beforeit can pass over to the other world. Sakumo has spent the last twenty years or so by himslef in this place, because he still had some unfinished business in the human world. That was to recieve his son’s fogiveness, so that he could transcend into heaven. There he can finally meet up with Kakshi’s mother, who has also passed away a long time ago.

Things right now don’t look too bad for Naruto and Konoha, but we still have no idea what’s going to come ahead.

17

Well, this chapter was pretty much the end of this ark, but Kishimoto decided to give us a taste of what’s coming next. And that’s Sasuke! The smexy emo-kid is returning after an absence of over half an year. Last time we saw him, some ninjas from the Thunder Village were about to attack his base. Could Sasuke’s plans for invading Konoha be delayed?