Naruto Vol. 41
- ISBN
- 9781421528427
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 200
- Chapters
- 370–379
- Anime
- Season 6: 師の予言と復讐の章 (Master's Prophecy and Vengeance) ep. 113–143
Chapters 370 to 379 are the Jiraiya volume, and the one that introduces the technique the rest of the series runs on. He goes into Amegakure after Pain and meets Konan first, a former student, which tells him something about who he is actually fighting. The middle chapters put two of their titles on sages and one on a prophecy, and the last three set him against Pain's bodies with the count rising. Shippuden season 6 covers chapters 343 to 411, so a viewer who reached the end of it has seen this book and most of the three after it. Nothing here resolves: the fight is unfinished on the last page and continues in Vol. 42. Viz lists 200 pages at $11.99, and Box Set 2 covers volumes 28 to 48.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Pain is Nagato, and Konan is another former student: Jiraiya taught both the leader of Akatsuki and the partner sent out to meet him, which the book confirms rather than teases. Jiraiya destroys three of the bodies, decides the fight is won, and is badly hurt when three more arrive. The volume matters more for what it plants than for what it spends. Senjutsu is established here as Jiraiya's, taught by the toad sages, and the series then hands it to Naruto in Vol. 44, has him finish it in Vol. 45, and spends Vols. 46 and 47 cashing it against this same enemy. Introducing a power through the character it fails to save is careful construction. It also means the book cannot be read alone: it is the first half of a fight whose second half is a different volume.
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