One Worth Betting On

Hearing the account of what befell A, Karai, and Nigai after they lifted a ninjutsu scroll from Sugi Village, Tsunade grasps what the insect truly is and understands that a matching one has burrowed inside the Raikage. Once she lays this out and secures a promise from him, she snatches and crushes a bug that has been drifting near A for a while, never realizing the Nokizaru Group had been steering it to eavesdrop on them. Setting up for the procedure, Tsunade assigns Shizune to run the operation while she supervises. A objects at first, convinced the Sannin herself should hold the scalpel, but Tsunade eases his worries.

With Amai assisting, Shizune opens the surgery, and when blood spatters across Tsunade the still hemophobic Sannin flees the room in a panic. Pressed for a reason, Shizune shares the story of the two men Tsunade loved and lost, Nawaki and Dan, and how those deaths left her the way she is. The Raikage responds coldly that he would never have trusted his subordinates to someone in such a fragile state, and the affront pushes Shizune to snap back in her mentor's defense, flinging the extracted, explosive parasite down at his feet. Back in the present timeline, Naruto and B press on toward the front while A and Tsunade continue the trek to headquarters.

Part of the Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation arc, the episode first aired in Japan on November 1, 2012, and reached English audiences on March 28, 2015. The opening theme is If and the ending theme is MOTHER. During her recollection, Shizune misspeaks by placing Nawaki's death in the Third Shinobi World War, when it actually occurred during the Second.