Nightmare

Naruto jolts awake from a dream of his rampaging tailed-beast cloak form, unsettled by what he saw. Meanwhile Sai pores over library books on building friendships. Sakura finds him and invites him along to visit the hospitalized Kakashi, insisting he ought to meet the leader of Team Kakashi. Drawing on his reading, Sai asks to join Naruto and Sakura's chat and tries to coin nicknames, but when he sizes Sakura up and calls her ugly, she beats down both him and Naruto.

At the hospital, Kakashi notices the bruises and learns the team encountered Sasuke, which Yamato had already reported. Sakura fears Sasuke is being pushed with drugs under Kabuto's watch, and Kakashi resolves that the team, Naruto especially, must grow stronger. He hints at a new training plan to build a jutsu surpassing the Rasengan that only Naruto could wield, but the arrival of Asuma and Team 10 cuts the talk short. Asuma treats the young ninja to barbecue while he speaks with Kakashi privately.

At the restaurant, Ino grows smitten with Sai. When Sai nearly calls Choji a fatso, Naruto scrambles to stop him. Realizing certain labels are off limits, and that women dislike being described by looks, Sai decides to call people the opposite of what they are and greets Ino as beautiful. Sakura, still stung at being called ugly, wrecks the place and pummels him again. Away from the group, Shikamaru slips off to eavesdrop on Asuma and Kakashi discussing the Akatsuki, whose hunt for tailed beasts will inevitably bring them to Konoha. Outside the village, two grave robbers dig up bodies, grumbling that they have not yet found their target.

Sai attempts to forge friendships with his teammates, blundering through nicknames and repeatedly angering Sakura. Kakashi tells Team 7 they must grow stronger and teases a new signature technique for Naruto beyond the Rasengan. Asuma and Kakashi privately weigh the Akatsuki's approach and Naruto's vulnerability as a jinchuriki. Two grave robbers are shown searching for an unnamed body outside the village.

Placed in the Twelve Guardian Ninja arc and adapting chapters 311 and 312, the episode runs the opening Blue Bird and the ending Gentle Rainbow. It marks the series' first installment produced in the 16:9 high-definition format.