Medic Ninja in Danger

With the enemy either beaten back or holed up for the night, the Allied Shinobi Forces pause to recover. On watch, Kiba and Akamaru are alarmed when Neji collapses from straining his Byakugan too hard, and Kiba, who can pick out foes by scent, urges him to visit the Logistical Support and Medical Division. Far away, Nagato and Itachi walk and talk under the dark sky. Neji reaches the main medical grounds but is stopped at the gate by a pair of Akimichi, who refuse him entry until the Sensor Division verifies who he is. He eventually reaches Sakura's tent for a short exchange. Word then spreads that three medics have been murdered, throwing the compound into alarm.

As the healers debate what to do, Neji vows to hunt the killer with his eyes while a shadowy Iwa-nin observes. Comrades begin quizzing one another to prove their identities. When two Kumogakure medics do exactly that, Neji appears claiming he lost the person he was following. The mysterious Iwa ninja walks up to Sakura, but rather than an assassin he proves to be a suitor, confessing his feelings, which she rejects, telling him her heart belongs to another. Back in the tent, Neji cuts down the two Kumo medics, admitting that he is the one they suspect, then sets off after Sakura. At a shrine, Nagato and Itachi puzzle over why their controller is working so hard to keep them from reaching the front, guessing the pair will be deployed once the fighting resumes. The genuine Neji, who stayed away out of pride, rests while Hinata covers his post, telling Shino that she will give everything because this war protects Naruto.

Back at the medical grounds, the false Neji asks after Shizune, and Sakura catches the lie when she mentions Shizune is treating Tonton's sprained leg, to which he answers it was lucky it was not her hand. He asks Sakura to examine his hand again and lunges to kill her, but she slams him into the earth and delivers a second crushing strike that undoes the henge, exposing a White Zetsu Army clone. She presses it to explain how it duplicated Neji's chakra so precisely. The same slaughter erupts across other Alliance zones, with reports flooding in of allies killing allies. Ao suspects genjutsu but notes even Itachi could not manage a feat on this scale, and once Inoichi passes along the medical division's findings, Shikaku starts devising a countermeasure against the clones.