Partner

Under orders from Pain, Sasori, Itachi and Kisame approach Deidara to bring him aboard. Once inducted into Akatsuki and paired with Sasori, Deidara is sent to hunt the fugitive Orochimaru in the Land of Wind, while Itachi and Kisame take a separate job in Kusagakure. When Kakuzu asks about a new partner, Pain simply tells him to wait. Guided by intelligence Kabuto had left behind, Sasori nears Orochimaru's lair, but the snakes there sniff out the pair and warn their master. Posting Deidara in the sky to seal off any escape, Sasori unveils his Third Kazekage puppet, and Orochimaru counters with a reincarnated Third Kazekage of his own.

As the two sides clash, a strike from the revived Kazekage wrecks Deidara's clay bird and provokes his revenge. The reincarnated puppet then breaks free of Orochimaru's control and withdraws to the Pure Land, and Sasori pounces on the opening, only for Orochimaru to slip into his hideout, which Deidara levels in an explosion. Later, before Pain, Sasori reckons Orochimaru still lives since no body turned up, and Itachi walks them through the Impure World Reincarnation. A fresh contract then comes in to eliminate a supposed immortal in the Land of Hot Water, and Kakuzu, Itachi and Konan take it. Sent in as a lure, Konan draws the target out, and the instant Hidan moves to strike, Itachi and Kakuzu step from cover; Kakuzu then trades blows with Hidan. Impressed by the man's deathlessness, and after Hidan wrecks one of his hearts, Kakuzu ends up bound to him as a partner in Akatsuki. News soon reaches the group of the new Otogakure, a Sunagakure-backed plot against Konohagakure, and word that the Third Hokage had fallen, prompting Itachi to volunteer for reconnaissance while quietly fretting over Sasuke.

Episode 457 of Naruto: Shippuden falls within the Itachi Shinden Book, subtitled Light and Darkness. A pair of trivia notes flag a continuity error in Deidara's shifting ponytail between shots and observe that, whereas the Ninja Escapades still counted Orochimaru among the group at Hidan's recruitment, here he has already abandoned it. The episode aired in Japan on 21 April 2016 and in English on 28 August 2018, carrying the opening theme LINE and the ending theme Blue Lullaby.