Clone vs. Clone: Mine are Better Than Yours!

The squad works out that the enemy copies are illusions rather than solid foes, another layer of genjutsu. To flush out the real attackers, Naruto disguises a batch of shadow clones as his teammates and trades blows with the phantom clones through the night. Convinced the whole group is spent, Team Oboro presses in, at which point Kabuto, Sakura, and Sasuke close the trap.

When Sasuke tells Naruto to rest after burning so much chakra, Naruto instead surges forward and floors all three Ame genin at once. The move stuns even his allies, and Kabuto marvels that Naruto's reserves must be enormous to keep fighting after stacking a Multiple Shadow Clone Technique on top of a Transformation. Naruto downs the enemies and claims their scroll.

With the objective met, the group makes for the tower and links up with Kabuto's own team. Hidden from Naruto and the others, Kabuto is exposed as a spy serving Otogakure, passing along every scrap of data he has gathered to his master, Orochimaru.

Naruto uses disguised shadow clones to expose and exhaust the illusory Team Oboro, then knocks out all three Ame genin and secures their scroll. Kabuto notes the abnormal size of Naruto's chakra reserves. After the group reaches the tower with Kabuto's team, Kabuto is revealed as an Otogakure spy feeding his intelligence to Orochimaru.

The episode is set during the Chūnin Exams arc and adapts two chapters. It marks an early hint at Kabuto's true allegiance, tying the exam's second stage to Orochimaru's schemes.