The Ultimate Weapon Arc is the seventeenth filler arc in the original Naruto anime and the sixteenth (and final) of the Post-Sasuke Retrieval filler arcs.
Short Summary
The Four Celestials from Takumi Village seek to resurrect their long-dead founder, Seimei. To do so, they attack Sunagakure in order to use the Shukaku within Gaara as a life-source, kidnapping his only student, Matsuri, as bait. Konohagakure dispatches the Konoha 11 (sans Tenten) to backup Gaara and his siblings in order to stop the Takumi ninja and rescue Matsuri.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Matsuri appeared canonically at the end of the Rescue the Kazekage arc as a mere fangirl of Gaara's along with her equally forgettable friend Sari. Here she's given a background and an explanation for how her crush on Gaara came about, plus a somewhat implied crush on Naruto. Doubles as an Adaptation Expansion.
- The Sand Council also makes its debut here before its more prominent, and canon, appearance in the next storyline. One of the members, Jōseki, is shown to be the one behind not having any other Suna-nin aid in Matsuri's recovery, just in case Gaara loses control of Shukaku.
- Armor of Invincibility: The “Invincible Armor” of the Celestial group is intended to be this, as it lets the wearer absorb the chakra of an attacker.
- Arms Dealer: Takumi village is this to the Shinobi countries, too bad they didn’t see fit to help them when things went south. This is the reason for the Celestials to try and attack them.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Seimei figures out what has happened prior to his resurrection (and what the overall plan was) by simply looking at an imprisoned Gaara.
- Back from the Dead: The Celestials brings back Seimei so he can serve as their ultimate weapon, at the cost of their lives.
- Badass Longcoat: The Celestials all wear long coats and manage to invade Sunagakure and escaping it with a hostage.
- The Bus Came Back: Not counting Gaara and Kankurō's appearance in Legend of the Stone of Gelel, this marks the return of the Sand Siblings after being absent since the opening of the Mizuki Strikes Back filler. Jiraiya also returns at the end after not being seen in person since "Please, Mr. Postman!", though he had a couple of guest cameos in "Laughing Shino" and "The Top Five Greatest Ninja Battles".
- Filler: While this is a clear filler arc, the episodes do provide a reason for Ino (who was basically useless during combat situations) to later learn medical ninjutsu, which wasn’t given in the Manga. It also led to the final scenes from the manga that weren’t yet adapted into the earlier fillers such as the Land of Rice Fields and Mizuki Strikes Back storylines, with Jiraiya finally returning to take Naruto for some training.
- I Have Your Wife: The Celestials kidnap Matsuri (Gaara’s only student at the Suna Ninja academy) to goad Gaara to pursue them, so they can drain his chakra and extract Shukaku.
- Makes Us Even: Naruto and Shikamaru’s main motivator for helping Suna is to repay the aid given during the Sasuke Retrieval Mission (though it failed, the Sand Siblings did save the retrieval teams’ lives).
- Named Weapons: The Celestial group uses several: “The Weakenessless Soaring Shortswords” used by Kujaku and “Garian Sword” used by Ryugan.
- Razor Wind: Kujaku of the Celestials can do this thanks to her dual swords.
- The Teaser: This arc was the start of using pre-opening credits teasers that Shippūden would use for the majority of its run. Ironic that it began here for the final arc of Part I given that it’s only five episodes long.note
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Seimei’s defeat, Gaare first skewers the guy, then buries him alive and simultaneously crushes him, to make certain he doesn’t come back.
- Walking Armory: Seimei effectively becomes this due to his prowess with weaponry that he took from the deceased Celestial group.
- Willfully Weak: The reason that Sunagakure didn’t move out in force to deal with the Celestials was that they feared Gaara would lose control and become a larger threat to their other shinobi. Not even Baki was sent to aid the Sand Siblings.
- Written-In Absence: Humorously downplayed at the very end when Tenten appears angrily demanding why she was the only one of the Konoha 11 not included in the mission. Lee replies that she had a different assignment and gives no further details before Tenten drive kicks him into the ground.
