Eight Man Squad

Word that Sasuke had beaten Orochimaru reached the Leaf, yet it came with the grim realisation that he still had no intention of coming home. Naruto pressed the Fifth Hokage to dispatch a search party after Itachi Uchiha, reasoning that Sasuke, bent on hunting his brother, would surface wherever Itachi did. Kakashi argued that confronting an Akatsuki operative demanded a compact group of gifted shinobi, so he folded the tracking specialists of Team Kurenai into his own squad. The combined roster of eight then set out on the pursuit.

The unit relied on two coordinated assault patterns, both expanded further in the anime. In one setup Sakura, Kiba and Akamaru drew and occupied the target's attention while Naruto slipped through a gap to land a Rasengan. The other opened with Yamato striking through Wood Release, followed by Kiba and Akamaru driving in with the Fang Passing Fang before Naruto sealed the exchange with another Rasengan.

Kakashi Hatake and Yamato headed the squad, with Naruto, Sakura, Kiba and his companion Akamaru rounding out the fighting core. Their assignment, the hunt for Itachi and Sasuke, began as a mission to capture the rogue Itachi and had the group fan out across the region. Deidara's self-detonation drew them back together, and Kiba's nose picked up Sasuke's scent nearby, which shifted their focus toward the younger Uchiha. Stalled by the masked Tobi, they discovered Itachi had already fallen in his duel with Sasuke, and by the time they reached the site both the corpse and Sasuke were gone. The trail went cold, leaving the mission a failure, and the squad was later disbanded.