Naruto Shippuden: Inheritors of the Will of Fire is the sixth movie in the Naruto franchise and the third of the Shippuden series released in 2009.
Kekkei Genkai abilities are suddenly disappearing from the neighboring villages save for Konoha which the others begin to suspect the thefts were their doing. Leading to the threat of a great ninja war. Tsunade is ordered to find the culprit or Konoha will be destroyed. However, it doesn't take long for the true villain, a former Konoha ninja named Hiruko to present himself, declaring he's after Kakashi's Sharingan. Not long after Kakashi goes missing and is declared a Missing-Nin.
Naturally, Naruto and Sakura are worried for their former teacher and, along with Sai and against Tsunade's orders, go after him in the hopes of proving him innocent and bringing him back home as well as stopping Hiruko from instigating a war.
The movie has the following tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Hiruko only wanted to be as strong as the Legendary Senin whom he was friends with. But lost his way when he started doing twisted experiments on himself. After he's defeated, he comes to realize he could've been stronger if he had made friends. Kakashi comforting him and this knowledge allows him to die happy.
- All There in the Script: None of Hiruko's minions are named onscreen. They are Ichi (the snake user), Ni (the dog tamer and only female), and San (the bird user).
- Batman Gambit: Tsunade actually put a counter jutsu on Kakashi in the event Hiruko activated his puppet seal to bring Kakashi to him. Once he tried to absorb Kakashi it activates and would've imploded Hiruko. However, this meant Kakashi would die as well, something Naruto wouldn't stand for.
- Big Bad: Hiruko, a ninja trying to become immortal and kickstart the Fourth Great Ninja War.
- Body Horror. Hiriko's body underneath the bandages.
- Call-Back: Gaara's fight with Naruto is one to his fight with Sasuke during the Chuunin Exams.
- Captain Obvious:Shino: It's clear that those two are not normal dogs. Why? Because they don't look like normal dogs.
- Clear My Name: Both for Konoha as well as Kakashi.
- Continuity Snarl: Hinata is shown utilizing Eight Trigrams 64 Palms alongside Neji in the Final Battle, which contradicts the manga and anime as she isn't shown to fully develop it until the Fourth Shinobi World War arc. Then again, it is also a Non-Serial Movie.
- Deer in the Headlights: When Hiruko fails to absorb the Rasenshuriken, he's left stunned to where he doesn't dodge Naruto's Rasenshurkien
- Deus ex Machina: Hiruko's sudden inability to absorb the Rasenshuriken can be seen as this given how it has not failed him before. On the other hand, given that the Rasenshuriken is a technique that combines both shape transformation and nature transformation of chakra to its highest level and thus requires masterful focus, it makes sense that he was unable to maintain it. In fact, when he tries to absorb it, it starts forming only to fizzle out.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Sakura is in fine shape as per usual, whacking Naruto, plus Sai in one instance, for ignoring her advice or even breaking the former out of prison to go save Kakashi.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kakashi attempts this in order to stop Hiruko. Tsunade's counter jutsu would have destroyed Hiruko along with himself when he tried to absorb Kakashi, but Naruto saves him at the last moment. When Shikamaru attempts to reason with Naruto that his sacrifice is for the protection of the village and the children of the village, Naruto presents a counter-argument deconstructing the trope: While Naruto would accept sacrificing himself if there were no other options left, the village basically considered planning for Kakashi to be sacrificed from the get-go was acceptable, and that would set a bad precedent for the future generations by teaching them it was okay to treat their lives and the lives of others as expendable for the sake of convenience. This is why Naruto is so vehemently opposed to the plan.
- Mistaken for Gay: Kakashi by Naruto in the ending after the Uzumaki mistakes the former's comment of him being like "him" i.e. Obito as flirting. Most of the other Konoha 11, probably excluding Shino and Neji, also take the remark out of context, much to Kakashi's embarrassment. Naruto eventually runs away and refuses to listen to his teacher who tries to clear up the misunderstanding.
- Non-Serial Movie: Downplayed, as this could be slotted in between the Three-Tails and Hunt for the Uchiha arcs in the anime, but there is the issue of Hinata using Eight Trigrams 64 Palms long before she obtained it in the main story i.e. during the Fourth Shinobi World War arc.
- No-Sell: The entire reason for the targets of his Kekkei Genkai hunt. His Steel release lets him turn his flesh into steel and thus be immune to most if not all taijutsu and kenjutsu. He supplements this with Swift Release, making him as fast as the wind, making him unable to be hit by foes potentially strong to break his Steel Release. Shade Release lets him counter ninjutsu by absorbing its base chakra and firing it back at them as pure chakra or use certain jutsu against others (Raikiri and Rasengan are pure or close to examples of nature manipulation and shape manipulation respectably, meaning they're simple enough for Hiruko fire back.) Alternately, he can likely use it with Storm Release to produce massive thunderclouds that react to chakra. He likely targets the Sharingan for this reason (making him immune to genjutsu.)
- He ends up o the receiving end of this when Hiruko at the end when he tries to absorb Naruto's Fūton: Rasenshuriken and finds he can't.
- Oh, Crap!: Hiruko when he finds out that he can't absorb the Rasenshuriken.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted as the main antagonist shares his name with Sasori's favorite human puppet from the opening arc of Shippūden. Interestingly, this Hiruko shares Sasori's ability to create a Sleeper Agent within enemy territories, though the method is somewhat different. It should be noted that Sasori's Hiruko is written as "ヒルコ" whereas movie Hiruko is written as "卑留呼".
- People Puppets: How Hiruko supposedly gets Kakashi to leave Konoha.
- Power Copying: Hiruko's developed technique is this, the Chimera technique. He has augmented himself with the Kekkei Genkai abilities of other ninja and plans to do the same with Kakashi's Sharingan.
- His stolen Shade Release is this for ninjutsu. He is able to absorb and then release chakra with it and he's capable of using it to absorb various ninjutsu to release onto the user. However, it appears to have limits given he was unable to replicate the Rasenshuriken, implying that techniques that require immense focus from its user to sustain itself cannot be maintained by the kekkei genkai (alternately, given the Rasenshuriken's ability of damage onto the cellular level, perhaps it disrupted the Chimera technique.)
- Reused Character Design: The already-kidnapped kekkei genkai shinobi resemble characters that would appear later in the manga during the Fourth Shinobi World War. The Kiri-nin resembles Chūkichi, the Kumo-nin resembles Toroi, the Suna-nin resembles Pakura, and the Iwa-nin resembles Gari.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Lampshaded when a henchwoman yells at Team 8 for talking instead of fighting her.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: Hiruko's absorption technique takes place during these.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The kidnapped shinobi are last seen being absorbed into Hiruko and aren't shown again after Naruto tears Kakashi away from the missing-nin. Naruto earlier tries to save them along with Kakashi, but it's never brought up again at any point even when Hiruko is killed. It's tragically possible that they were all destroyed either when Naruto saved Kakashi or when Hiruko himself passed.
- You Are Number 6: Literally, Hiruko's henchman are literally named Ichi, Nin, and San (1, 2, 3). Their names are only presented in the credits.
