The Super Secret S-Rank Mission

With the island's coordinates leaked to the Akatsuki, Motoi dispatches an owl to alert the Fourth Raikage. Aoba proposes moving Naruto and Killer B off the island, then learns to his shock that the landmass is actually the shell of a swimming turtle. Because Naruto would charge into battle recklessly if he realized the Fourth Shinobi World War was already underway, Aoba spins him a lie: his S-rank task is to enlist all the island's creatures into an animal fighting unit.

In Kumogakure the five Kage convene, and the Third Tsuchikage volunteers to reach the Island Turtle himself since he can fly. Granting that ability to Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, the three set out. Naruto, meanwhile, runs into Condor, a Konoha ostrich who can speak and agrees to act as translator to avoid being drafted, and brawls with a giant gorilla, hippo, penguin, and koala jealous over a giant armadillo's crush on him. He wins and shelters the animals, still believing his mission is real.

Inside the Mountains' Graveyard hideout, Kabuto volunteers to seize the Eight and Nine-Tails and to claim Yamato as well for his Hashirama cells. He even asks to experiment on Zetsu, arguing Black Zetsu can manage without White Zetsu without stalling Tobi's plan to revive the Ten-Tails, which stuns the pair since that knowledge was hidden, and Kabuto credits Orochimaru's research. Tobi agrees, promising Zetsu if Kabuto captures both jinchūriki, then unveils the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Hashirama's Artificial Body, and the White Zetsu Army massed beneath the lake among a giant tree's roots.

Kabuto departs with a reincarnated Deidara, who conjures a clay bird, and notes he has refined the reanimation so Deidara can wield nearly his full strength. As they fly toward the island, Ōnoki attacks Kabuto, only to find his fist lodged in a Clay Clone. The real Deidara and Kabuto trail the Kage from nearby, and Deidara hurls his clay double and bird at his former leader before detonating them, apparently killing the Tsuchikage.

The episode is part of the Fourth Shinobi World War: Countdown arc and adapts chapters 512 and 513. In keeping with the manga, the Iwagakure ninja here wear crimson forehead protectors rather than the earlier brown and blue. It aired in Japan on March 15, 2012, and in English on August 9, 2014, opening with Newsong and closing with By My Side.