Something Important…

As Naruto swears he will recover Sasuke, Kabuto springs an ambush, hardly shocked the team found the hideout given that Yamato is one of Orochimaru's own experiments. Naruto charges with a Rasengan that Kabuto swats aside, then follows up with shadow clones. Kabuto snaps one Naruto's wrist and disables the other using his chakra scalpel.

Yamato's Wood Release tries to cage him, but Kabuto vaults clear into the air. When Sakura scales the timber and swings her enhanced fist, he dodges again, and her strike punches through the rock, shattering a hornet nest that sends the swarm at Kabuto.

Kabuto cuts the hornets down with his scalpel, but judging himself outmatched by the three shinobi, he releases his captive Sai, whom he still believes loyal. He mocks Naruto for chasing a Sasuke who has changed and is no longer the friend he knew. Remembering how Naruto described that bond, Sai instead slips behind Kabuto and pins him, throwing the man's own words about people changing right back at him. Sai says he wants to witness the bond between the two friends for himself.

With Yamato's wood holding Kabuto and a wood clone posted as a guard, the team prepares to infiltrate the base. Kabuto warns that Sasuke has likely finished his training and rests somewhere inside, yet the maze of empty rooms and lonely corridors risks leading them straight into Orochimaru's private chambers. Undeterred, they split into pairs, Yamato with Sakura and Naruto with Sai, and search room after empty room. When Naruto shouts Sasuke's name down a hallway, Sasuke stirs, opens a Sharingan-lit eye, then closes it again. The episode adapts chapter 304.