Sakura's Tears

Trapped against a cliff face in his four-tailed state, Naruto is skewered by the Sword of Kusanagi in Orochimaru's grip, yet the Nine-Tails' chakra sheathing his body stops the blade from breaking through. Orochimaru pulls the weapon back and begins the slow return to his true form, admitting that Genyumaru's body is starting to reject him, and confessing he has reached his limit, though he takes comfort in still having Sasuke as a spare vessel. Nearby, Sai keeps watch on the Sannin, unaware that a wood clone of Yamato is watching him in turn.

Kabuto marvels that Naruto would push himself this far for Sasuke, insisting the boy is long gone and only a monster is left. His taunt jars Sakura into remembering Naruto's vow to bring Sasuke home no matter the cost, a promise his nindo would never let him break. Weeping, she rushes forward against Yamato's warning and pleads with Naruto to change back, but he swats her away with a tail and wounds her. Before he can finish the job, Yamato pins him with pillars of Wood Release. Assuming Kabuto means to kill the injured Sakura, Yamato restrains him too, only for Kabuto to explain that he is healing her, and that he spares them because they share Akatsuki as a common foe worth thinning.

Once Kabuto departs, Naruto tears loose from the restraints, forcing Yamato to unleash his Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old sealing jutsu. Channeling the Wood Release of the First Hokage together with the gemstone set into the necklace Naruto wears, the jutsu pins down and seals the tailed beast's chakra, and through agonizing strain on both of them Yamato returns Naruto to himself. In a parallel thread, Sai approaches Orochimaru claiming to be a harmless envoy carrying a message from Danzo Shimura. Surprised the man still lives, Orochimaru agrees to listen but warns Sai to word things carefully; when Sai smiles and says he can only repeat the message exactly, the Sannin hurls a blade at him. The episode adapts chapter 296.