The physical battle concludes in Episode 169, followed by Naruto's meeting with the real Nagato and the arc's resolution in Episode 175. Key Events and Turning Points

: Having mastered Sage Mode at Mount Myoboku, Naruto arrives just in time to defend the village, marking his growth into a true hero.

What follows is rarely a clean break. The descent of a pain arc is a long, sputtering slope. The acute agony may fade, but it leaves behind a debris field: muscle spasms, exhaustion, and the insidious return of fear . The patient thinks, Will it happen again if I move? This echo phase is often longer than the first two combined. It is where secondary suffering lives—the shame of canceled plans, the fatigue of having fought a battle inside one’s own flesh, and the slow work of coaxing the nervous system back to baseline.

Naruto cannot refute the logic of the cycle of hatred. He feels the pain of Jiraiya and Hinata. However, he chooses to believe in Jiraiya’s teachings. He breaks the cycle not by logic, but by forgiveness. Instead of killing Nagato, he tells him, "I cannot forgive you... but I will not kill you."

Pain argues that the world is in a constant cycle of hatred. Peace is impossible because humans instinctively hurt one another. He believes the only way to unite humanity is through shared trauma—using the Tailed Beasts to create a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" that will scare the world into temporary peace.

The arc primarily spans , though some filler and standalone episodes are interspersed within this range.

: Pain showcases his terrifying power with the Almighty Push (Shinra Tensei), leveling the entire village in a single move.