Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato head out for a new mission near the Fire Temple. When the other party fails to show up at the rendezvous point, the team gets separated and Naruto stumbles upon one of the four hidden tombs they came to protect. Due to a misunderstanding, he fights one of the monks-in-training from the Fire Temple, Sora, who also uses wind chakra based techniques. After the confusion, the monks and Team Kakashi travel to the Fire Temple, and Naruto recognizes it from his nightmare.

As Pain tells Naruto about why he does what he does, Hinata appears on the scene and confesses her feelings to Naruto. In order to save him, she attacks Pain... Things are about to get messy and Naruto is about to go over the edge!

As the ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village work on repairing their village in the aftermath of Pain's invasion, Naruto and Sakura come across a familiar face among the carpenters: Inari and Tazuna have arrived to help out. Inari recalls what happened after Gato's death and how Naruto and Sasuke came to his rescue.

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?

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.

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.

The Nine-Tailed Naruto clone tries to attack Dokku and the orphans, when Might Guy and Rock Lee arrive to repel it.

Gaara and Ohnoki manage to overcome the Second Mizukage’s mirage attack. Having taken an interest in Gaara, the Second Mizukage decides to further test the young Kage’s skills.

Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba find themselves up against some familiar faces from the past. The Sound Ninja Four have been brought back by Kabuto’s Reanimation Jutsu, and they are ready to seek vengeance.

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.

The reanimated shinobi appearing before Gaara and Ohnoki is revealed to be none other than Madara Uchiha himself…which raises the question of who the masked man claiming to be Madara really is.

The Allied Shinobi Forces begin their onslaught against Obito and Madara. But Ten Tails suddenly transforms and hurls powerful Tailed Beast Bombs toward distant towns.

Kakashi holds on to the hope that Obito can return to being the young man that he remembers. But Obito has abandoned the present as well as the memories of his friends and is determined to end the world!

Gaara meets with Fugi, the mastermind behind the assassination attempt on his life. He confides that perhaps, after all the fear and pain he has wrought upon the Sand, he has no right to be their leader.