War Begins!

The last survivors of the Infiltration and Reconnaissance Party flee the Akatsuki's ambush unit, slowed by Muta Aburame's jamming insects. Cut off from the others, Muta commands his kikaichū to ferry the gathered intelligence on the enemy back to the Allied Shinobi Forces command. Overhead, the Surprise Attack Division descends into hostile skies, with Omoi weighed down by dread at facing a full-scale war. Once grounded, the sensor Zaji finds his perception scrambled, then spots a wounded Muta and rushes over, unaware that Sasori is puppeteering the fallen shinobi and that Deidara has packed explosive clay into his insect jar.

Kankurō's chakra threads yank Zaji clear just as Ittan reshapes the ground with an earth-moving jutsu, though the blast still claims Muta's life. Scarcely a moment later, the manipulated corpses of comrades Ranka and Tokuma attack. Omoi's crescent-moon blade technique is interrupted when Sai arrives to parry a strike from Shin, a face that stuns him. Omoi is equally shaken to learn Shin is Sai's brother, as Shin urges his sibling to run, insisting the reanimated cannot be slain.

Furious that the enemy would force him to battle kin and allies, Omoi hurls a reverse beheading attack at Deidara that turns out to be a feint, snapping Tokuma and Ranka free of Sasori's strings. Seizing the chance, Ittan heaves the earth upward while Kankurō links his threads to Sasori's severed ones and drags him down, slamming him into Deidara. Sasori compliments the young puppeteer, prompting Kankurō to recall their previous encounter before revealing the Sasori puppet he now wields against its former master.

Muta's dying act preserves the reconnaissance intel for the Allied command before Sasori and Deidara turn his body into a bomb. Sai's reunion with the reanimated Shin exposes their brotherhood to the division. Omoi's decoy assault liberates two controlled allies, and Kankurō closes the exchange by deploying the puppet built from Sasori's own remains.

Episode 262 of Naruto: Shippuden belongs to the Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation storyline and adapts chapters 517 and 518. It premiered in Japan on May 10, 2012, and in English on October 4, 2014. The opening theme is Assault Rock and the ending theme is Cascade.