Naruto’s and Sakura’s combined skills force Kakashi to use his Sharingan right off the bat. Naruto masterfully unleashes his jutsu one after another.

On her way to the Sand Village, Temari encounters Kakashi and his team. Kakashi admonishes Naruto when he tries to rush ahead…

Teams Kakashi and Guy take a short rest. Granny Chiyo watches Naruto dozing off and is reminded of Sasori as a child. The pursuit resumes, and when Chiyo wonders why Naruto puts such effort into...

Chiyo and Sakura take cover, and Sasori wastes no time unleashing a ruthless attack.

Sakura hurries to get to Naruto with Granny Chiyo, who is suffering from the poison. The members of Team Guy rush to assist Team Kakashi. Meanwhile, with all preparations complete, Kakashi reveals his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Yamato disguises himself as Sasori after creating a wood replica of Hiruko, and goes to meet the spy. The spy turns out to be Orochimaru's right-hand man, Kabuto Yakushi, who reveals the location of Orochimaru's current hideout to Yamato. Orochimaru interrupts the meeting, appearing to attack Kabuto, and while it initially appears that Orochimaru has come after Kabuto, Kabuto attacks Yamato and reveals that he is truly loyal to Orochimaru. Orochimaru calls out Naruto, Sakura and Sai from where they are hiding and observing the meeting, and prepares to fight the team.

Kabuto creates a fake corpse that resembles Sai, containing hidden traps to slow down Yamato's clone after sensing it. Naruto hasn't completely recovered from using the Demon Fox's chakra, and Yamato says that he will be left behind if he cannot keep up. Naruto is determined to finish his mission and not slow the team down. However Team Kakashi is forced to take a break when it's clear that Sakura has not fully recovered from her own injuries. Yamato then uses this opportunity to talk to Naruto alone and reveals to him that the one who hurt Sakura was Naruto himself. Naruto is shocked by what Yamato says to him.

Furido taunts Sora until Sora unleashes his true powers, before informing Sora that he is planning to use the four corpses to save the Land of Fire. Naruto continues his fight with F?ka and learns that she can use all five elements. F?ka manages to kiss Naruto and begins draining his chakra. Realizing that Naruto is in trouble from extra-sensory perception, Sora rushes to rescue him. Sakura, Sai and Yamato arrive to help but are trapped by Fudo and Fuen. F?ka drains Naruto's chakra until she begins drawing on the Nine-tails's, which is too unnatural for her to successfully absorb. The enemy team retreats when Chiriku brings reinforcements.

The struggle between Naruto and Sora continues. Asuma and Kazuma fight. Sai arrives, having snuck out of hospital, and binds Kazuma with an ink snake. Kazuma breaks out of Sai's jutsu and charges Asuma, but is killed. Naruto eventually reaches Sora, who manages to release the Nine Tails's chakra. Sora then leaves the village to travel the world. Asuma and Shikamaru play shogi and discuss who the king of Konoha is. Elsewhere, two Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakuzu, appear chasing the Two Tails Jinchūriki.

Team Asuma continues their battle with Akatsuki's Hiden and Kakuzu.

Shikamaru continues his fight with Hidan. Hidan manages to injure Shikamaru and curses him the same way he did Asuma, but when Shikamaru survives Hidan's attack, Hidan realizes something isn't quite right.

Naruto runs into unexpected difficulties as he trains with Gamakichi and Gamatatsu. While Kakashi's group searches for Guren and her gang, Yukimaru seems to develop interest in Naruto.

The sealing unit prepares the sealing barrier and the other two teams go into battle with Guren and her henchmen. Kakashi, Naruto and Sai stall Guren and Gozu while Shino prepares to go against Guren's crystal style. Meanwhile, Lee goes against Guren's other henchmen and gets trapped in their smokescreen. Can Lee find a way to defeat them?

By using himself as an explosive, Deidara creates an explosion ten kilometers in diameter, something not even Sasuke will be able to escape from. Is this the end of Sasuke? Elsewhere, someone approaches the Akatsuki leader and gives him orders to catch Naruto himself. Who is this true mastermind of the Akatsuki plot lurking in the shadows?

While the members of Team Hebi head towards Itachi's location, Jiraiya infiltrates the Hidden Rain Village in hopes of gathering information on the Akatsuki leader. Jiraiya captures two Rain ninja and interrogates them about Pain, but what he learns shocks even him.

Naruto manages to find Shiranami's location but he discovers that the Shiranami he found was actually the ninja bandits disguised as him. Hotaru finds the real Shiranami where the latter convinces Hotaru not to have the forbidden jutsu removed, and takes her back to the Tsuchigumo Village. After Naruto is saved by Utakata from the ninja bandits, the two return to the Tsuchigumo Village, where they find that Shiranami has everyone in the village under his control.

Shikamaru tries to decipher the dying message Jiraiya left before his death but cannot figure out what it says. Shikamaru asks for Naruto's help, thinking he might know the code. Can the saddened Naruto decipher Jiraiya's dying message?

In a flashback of Naruto and Sakura's, Team 7 is on a mission to take an ostrich called Mr. Ostrich to his home. They arrive at a village where they see a swordsman named Tsukado who has a vendetta to carry on a man named Katazu who killed his distant relative Shikazo. Tsukado fails to defeat him so Naruto decides to teach him unusual revenge lessons. Katazu has then took his brother's identity and attracted Shikazo's pursuers while Kageki and his family went into hiding. Tsukado decides not to kill him and ends their years of fighting though Kanabun wants them to keep fighting. The swordsmen, Team 7 and Mr. Ostrich chase the Kanabun Gang out of town.

During the two-and-a-half-year time period in which Naruto was training under Jiraiya, the latter decided that it was time for Naruto to learn how to repel genjutsu. During this training session, the two traveled to a village which Jiraiya had previously been associated with, but they discovered that something dark was amidst.

Naruto thinks back to the time when Team 7 was on a mission to capture a group of thieves who stole a golden statue. When making a move on the thieves, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to take back the statue but were separated from Sakura, who was captured. On top of that, the thieves' leader had used a special thread-like technique to bind one of Naruto's hands to one of Sasuke's. Literally stuck to each other, would Naruto and Sasuke be able to work together to save Sakura and keep the golden statue safe at the same time?

Sasuke uses Susano'o to slip past Gaara and the Raikage and heads towards Danzo. Just as the latter is within Sasuke's grasp, however, the Mizukage stands in his way.

As he is resting, Naruto starts dreaming his past experiences with Sasuke that made the two friends closer. When he tries to follow Kakashi, who is in pursuit of Sakura, he is stopped by Yamato, saying that he has orders from Kakashi to return Naruto to Konoha. Naruto devises a plan to sneak out and leaving a shadow clone to fool Yamato. He goes into Sage Mode to locate Kakashi. He then starts remembering the experiences that brought Sasuke pain in his life. Naruto decides what he can do for Sasuke if they come face to face.

As they continue their voyage towards the Land of Lightning, Naruto, Aoba, Guy and Yamato sail through a thick fog. To pass the time, Yamato tells Aoba and Naruto some ghost stories (much to Naruto's dislike).

Hinata’s father Hiashi summons the Hyuga clan to discuss the role they will be playing in the upcoming Fourth Great Ninja War.

Minato is forced to use his Flying Raijin jutsu and leave his wife Kushina behind to save their newborn son, Naruto, from a masked assailant.

Darui manages to seal away Ginkaku. Fueled by the rage of losing his brother, Kinkaku transforms into a monster that resembles a jinchuriki’s Tailed Beast State.

Kakashi assigns Sai to take over for the Sealing Corps, who are recovering from sealing the reanimated shinobi. But Sai is not sure if he can handle the responsibility. Soon afterwards, the Third Company is attacked by Jinin Akebino.

Miina wakes up in the middle of a night after having a nightmare where Naruto is consumed by numerous snakes inside his subconscious while the Nine-Tails looks on and goes to Dokku for consolation.

Hinata defends Neji from a White Zetsu clone while he’s recovering from an earlier fight. She then remembers the time Neji protected her the same way after she temporarily lost her sight.

A reanimated boy who can control weather appears before Team Ino-Shika-Cho, Sakura, and Kiba, who are all fighting in different locations. To their surprise, the boy seems to know them.

A reanimated Granny Chiyo attacks Kankuro and Mifune’s team. Kankuro fights back by using the human puppet of Sasori. The sight of Sasori causes Granny Chiyo to recall the painful memories that led her grandson to create his human puppets.

The Five Kage are outmatched by the real Madara Uchiha’s devastating attacks. Just when Third Tsuchikage Ohnoki is about to give up, he remembers the words of the previous Tsuchikage.

The identity of the masked man is revealed to be Kakashi’s old friend Obito, previously believed to have died in the battle of Kannabi Bridge. Naruto and the others are further shocked when they learn that Obito has been working with Madara Uchiha...

Kakashi becomes part of the ANBU Black Ops, an elite team of shinobi who are under the direct command of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

After being saved by the target he was ordered to kill, Tenzo realizes that the man known as “Kakashi the Friend Killer” is someone who values the lives of his comrades more than anyone.

Ino and Choji fight to protect an immobilized Sakura although they have depleted most of their chakra due to the relentless fighting.

Sasuke leaves the village in order to obtain power from Orochimaru. Naruto and his friends learn that Sasuke is in danger and decide to go after him. To keep this a secret, only Naruto and Shikamaru set out on this mission, but on the way the duo are accosted by masked ANBU shinobi!

The shinobi under Madara’s Infinite Tsukuyomi continue to slumber and have pleasant dreams. Meanwhile, Naruto and the others have escaped the genjutsu, thanks to Sasuke’s protective Susano’o. As Sasuke starts remembering the death of Itachi, his Sharingan starts to resonate and show him the truth that Itachi never spoke a word of.

As a child, Sasuke craved attention from his older brother Itachi. Sasuke and Itachi have a chance to spend some time alone when their parents are away. Meanwhile, Sakura is very shy and tends to spend her free time by herself. One day, her new friend Ino gives her a present.

Instead of returning to the Hidden Leaf, Sasuke sets out with Chino and Nowaki to investigate the cause of the exploding humans.

Orochimaru brings Sasuke to the Coliseum fighting ring, to lure out En Oyashiro, who may have some information regarding the Exploding Human incident. The match is called off when more Exploding Humans appear and the opportunity to meet Oyashiro seems lost. However, impressed by Sasuke’s Sharingan, Oyashiro approaches him in person.

Naruto had once lived a lonely existence, ostracized by everyone. But Iruka's words and his very presence have supported Naruto to this day. As Naruto's wedding nears, Iruka begins to lose sight of what he was to Naruto, and is unsure of what to say for his message.