Sasuke's Sharingan proves to be superior against Deidara's explosives. Deidara creates one of his finest works, the C4 Karura, in order to take him down. What will Sasuke do now?

Naruto and his team, along with Hotaru and Utakata, return to Mount Katsuragi to plan their next move. Tonbei reveals a way to remove the forbidden jutsu from Hotaru's body which would result in the jutsu losing it's power. Hotaru states that if a man named Shiranami returned, the clan would be restored. Naruto decides to look for Shiranami within two days. Little do they know, the man they are looking for is actually the one after the forbidden jutsu. Meanwhile, Utakata wonders if Tsurugi spoke the truth about his master.

The Akatsuki Leader, Pain, begins his invasion of the Hidden Leaf Village. The Leaf ninja assemble to protect Naruto's whereabouts, but when Pain targets Iruka, Kakashi must face off against him.

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!

Naruto thinks back to the time when he encountered the soul of a man named Kisuke. Kisuke didn't recall anything about who he was, but a visit to the Leaf Village's hospital revealed something startling. Meanwhile, higher-ups of the Fire Country met to decide on a new security system for the Leaf Village put together by a ninja named Sabiru. Who exactly were Kisuke and Sabiru, and what connection did the two have?