Reunion

Poring over Sai's Bingo Book, Yamato deduces that its owner has killed everyone whose portrait is crossed out, and a photo of Sasuke tucked inside points to Sai's real assignment. His posting as a go-between for Orochimaru and Danzo was a cover; the true order was to kill Sasuke. Yamato explains that Danzo acts not to ruin the village but to guard it, and views Sasuke, marked as Orochimaru's next body, as a danger worth removing. Naruto rejects the idea outright, trusting the honest smile Sai showed over his finished picture book, while Sakura remembers Sai claiming he had found that a smile can defuse a tense moment. The three hurry off to find both Sai and Sasuke.

Sai slips into Sasuke's quarters and looses three ink serpents, but Sasuke, sensing him, wakes at once. Sai admits Danzo sent him to kill, then declares he now means to preserve the bond Sasuke shares with Naruto and bring him home. Annoyed at being disturbed over a bond, Sasuke shatters the restraints and blows apart a section of the hideout. Drawn by the chakra, Yamato's group races through the corridors toward the light ahead, and Sakura seizes Sai to punish him until Sasuke's voice stops her cold.

Naruto rushes out at the sound, and Yamato announces that he has taken over from Kakashi as squad leader and that they have come to bring Sasuke back. Sasuke sneers at the notion, dismisses Sai as a feeble stand-in, and listens as Sai, choosing to think for himself for Naruto's sake, insists Sasuke should grasp the bond his old comrades would protect at any cost. Sasuke replies that he understood the bond completely, which is precisely why he cut it away, and names his sole remaining tie as the hatred binding him to his brother Itachi. The episode adapts chapters three hundred five through three hundred seven of the Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission.