The Naruto anime earned its place among the shonen "big three" not only with its outstanding combat system and great character design, but its strong emotional weight in nearly every arc. Major story arcs in Naruto always explore not just how, but why, various ninjas fight – and it's often intensely personal. The anime quickly established this fact with its first few arcs, like with Naruto Uzumaki convincing Zabuza to tearfully acknowledge Haku's sacrifice, not to mention Naruto's inspiring words to Hinata when the latter fought her cousin Neji.
Pound for pound, the most emotionally impactful and devastating arc in the Naruto anime is the Konoha Crush, which was almost pure action from start to finish. Taking place between the famed Chunin Exam story arc and the Search for Tsunade arc, the Konoha Crush arc was an emotional turning point not just for Naruto Uzumaki, but all the Hidden Leaf villagers and even Naruto's enemies. In that tearful arc, Naruto learned who his true enemies were and who they weren't, and more than a few lives were changed in the process.
Hiruzen Sarutobi Fought His Own Predecessors During Operation Konoha Crush
It's common for Leaf Village ninjas to fight villains from other villages or factions all throughout the Naruto franchise, but it's truly a tragic twist of fate when shonen heroes are forced to fight their own friends and allies. Villains often do that to show how cruel and exploitative they are, and it can apply serious psychological pressure on the heroes, who are loathe to harm their friends or teammates. Such was the case during Operation Konoha Crush, with Orochimaru forcing Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, to fight his two predecessors. The only bit of mercy was the fact that Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, didn't join the fight as well from beyond the grave.
Orochimaru had plenty of jutsu with which to fight Hiruzen, but he instead made good use of the Edo Tensei jutsu, with the Konoha Crush arc being Naruto's first arc to show that dark jutsu in action. The reanimated Hashirama and Tobirama Senju stepped forth to fight their own successor, and Hiruzen was understandably outraged to see the first two Hokage being desecrated and used like that. Even if Naruto fans didn't have any emotional attachment to the Senju brothers at the time, fans could still sympathize with Hiruzen, who was horrified at the sight of such respected Hokage being reduced to tools, an insult to their memory. That helped set the grim tone for the entire Konoha Crush story arc and added to the arc's general sense of tragedy and heartbreak.
The Konoha Crush Arc Killed Off Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shattered His Aura of Invinicibility
Seeing Hiruzen distraught at the exploitation of the first two Hokage was already grim enough, but then the Konoha Crush story arc delivered a true emotional blow with Hiruzen's death at the hands of his former student, Orochimaru. One layer of this tragedy was the simple fact that Hiruzen Sarutobi's aura of invincibility was broken, leaving Naruto characters and fans alike shaken by the fact that even the Hidden Leaf Village's #1 protector could fall in battle. It was a serious threat for the village to lose its Hokage, but it was also an emotional blow to everyone because they felt like they could no longer take their peace and safety for granted. Hiruzen's death created a sense of vulnerability for the mighty Hidden Leaf Village, prompting the elders to ask the toad sage Jiraiya to replace him, only for Jiraiya to seek out lady Tsunade to become the next Hokage instead.
Of course, the greatest blow was a personal one, with Hiruzen being not just the village's leader and #1 protector, but a popular grandfather figure for everyone. Hiruzen was not some distant lord sequestered in his castle, nor was he a tyrant who ruled through fear or a harsh disciplinarian with few friends. As the leader of a shonen-style city, Hiruzen embraced the power of friendship with everyone, and the flashbacks in his funeral confirmed that. He was a man of the people, happily spending time among the ninjas and villagers whom he had vowed to protect, thus his image as a granfatherly Hokage for all. Everyone at Hiruzen's funeral felt like they had lost a part of their family, and for Konohamaru, it was literal. Even though Konohamaru had often pestered his grandfather and resented being in the man's shadow, he was still a young boy who loved his Hokage grandfather and wasn't nearly ready to say goodbye.
The Konoha Crush Arc Featured One of Naruto's Best Talk Jutsu of All
The Konoha Crush story arc was not the first time Naruto used his famed talk jutsu, but his first major talk jutsu had to wait until the Konoha Crush story arc. When the arc began and interrupted the Chunin Exam, Naruto already had his ultimate nemesis in plain sight: Gaara of the Sand, a fellow genin and jinchuriki. Sasuke and Sakura both tried to fight Gaara, but not even Sasuke's best jutsu at the time could overcome Gaara's increasingly powerful jinchuriki form, so it fell to Naruto to finish that fight. Ultimately, Naruto fought Gaara to a stalemate, with both boys exhausted and laying on the ground a handful of paces from one another.
That was when Naruto used his talk jutsu, empathizing with Gaara as a fellow jinchuriki who had known nothing but isolation and misery for the "crime" of being a Tailed Beast's living vessel. For years, Gaara was convinced that he was just a living weapon who could only find validation by killing, but that was simply Gaara's brutal way of running from his emotional anguish, and it would never bring him joy. Gaara was prompted to revisit some past scenes in flashbacks, and realized deep down that Naruto, his supposed enemy, was right. By the time Naruto was done, Gaara's older brother and sister Kankuro and Temari arrived, but they were not hostile to Naruto despite the Leaf vs Sand battle taking place. Instead, they evacuated their brother, and Gaara apologized for all he had done.
Naruto and Gaara shared a life-changing moment together, and it didn't take long for Gaara to begin internalizing Naruto's empathy. Gaara's villainy ended in that moment, replaced with regret about his horrible actions as a supposed living weapon. The fruits of Gaara's redemption would have to wait until later, with Gaara rescuing Rock Lee from Kimimaro's wrath in the Sasuke Retrieval story arc. Even if Gaara could only say "I'm sorry" at the time, his heartfelt regret was clear, and it was both tragic and inspiring to see him come to terms with his own villainy before discarding it.
The Konoha Crush Story Arc Sets Up More Emotional Plot Twists Later in Naruto
The Konoha Crush story arc helped set up future story threads such as Tsunade rising to power as the Fifth Hokage and the future alliance between the Leaf and Sand villages, but that wasn't all. The emotionally devastating story arc helped set a new standard for the personal drama and tragedy the Naruto anime was capable of, far beyond what the Land of Waves and Chunin Exam story arcs ever had. The Konoha Crush story arc dealt an emotional blow with Hiruzen's death and funeral while also showing the tragic but also inspiring redemption of Gaara. All of which proved that even the greatest heroes could fall and even the scariest villains could become good. This made the arc a serious emotional ride, and later arcs would follow its example while upping the ante even more.
The single best example is the Pain arc, widely considered the Naruto anime's best. In many ways, Pain's invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village was Operation Konoha Crush 2.0, since both story arcs involved a supervillain waging war on the entire Hidden Leaf Village, only for Naruto to save the day after many lives are lost and use a talk jutsu to redeem the villain. In the Pain arc, the Leaf Village did not lose anothe Hokage, but it did lose many other stalwart defenders, Kakashi Hatake prominent among them, dealing yet another emotional blow.
Of course, it may have been fairly obvious that characters like Kakashi would be revived to keep the story going, but fans still got to see Naruto's horrified reaction to the village's utter destruction and the loss of so many friends. Most of all, Naruto fans got to see one of the series' best talk jutsu in action, with Nagato and Konan agreeing to embrace Jiraiya's dream of world peace and believe in their late mentor once again. Nagato gave his very life to complete his redemption, a natural evolution of Gaara risking his life to save Rock Lee from Kimimaro. With emotional twists like those, it's no wonder these two story arcs are among Naruto's best, no matter the flashy jutsu involved.
