The Unison Sign

As their last strikes meet in a burst of force, Sasuke urges Naruto to vanish and take their bond with him. In the blast the two slip into shared memory, recalling their Academy days and the times they each refused to complete the Seal of Reconciliation, along with Naruto's grim promise in the Land of Iron that their next duel would be fatal. Wandering through scenes from their shared history, both begin to wonder whether death has already claimed them.

Sasuke reflects on how the village once shut them both out, musing that this shared isolation may have made them something like brothers. Naruto rejects the idea, offering an apology to Tsunade for dying short of becoming Hokage and fretting over who will now undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Sasuke dismisses such worries about the living, pointing out that Sakura and Kakashi remain to sort it out, while his own thoughts turn to a reunion with Itachi.

When Sasuke stirs at night, Naruto cautions that too much movement will drain the last of their blood. Pressed on why he kept clinging to their connection even as Sasuke severed it, Naruto answers plainly that they are friends, and that watching Sasuke shoulder so much pain wounds him too. Sasuke revisits his own memories, recognising that Naruto's craving for attention once mirrored his lost family, that he had mistaken that longing for weakness, and, through visions of Naruto's struggles and his talks with Itachi about the meaning of Hokage, he grasps at last how much his friends matter.

Dawn finds them awake again, and Sasuke laughs when Naruto insists he still wants to keep fighting. As the sun climbs he concedes the loss, deciding the chain of vengeance should end with his own death. He offers Naruto a path to lift the Infinite Tsukuyomi later by passing his Rinnegan to another. Naruto counters that if Sasuke is willing to die, he should instead live and help unite every shinobi. Doubtful anyone would cooperate with him and afraid of betraying Naruto once more, Sasuke asks how he can be so sure; Naruto again points to their friendship. Sasuke turns away in tears, the two left where they fell with their dominant arms shattered and bleeding.

Several animation slips appear during Sasuke's vision of Naruto's bonds: the right side of Obito's body is not shown formed from Hashirama's cells, and Killer B is mistakenly drawn in an Allied Shinobi Forces forehead protector. In place of the standard closing sequence, the credits roll over a montage of the two boys' childhood, and this marks the first entry in the franchise to place its title card only after the credits finish. The episode adapts chapters 698 and 699 within the Kaguya Ōtsutsuki Strikes arc.