A Shinobi of the Leaf

Kakashi walks a bound Kinoe away from Orochimaru's laboratory when one of the glass silos ruptures without warning. A massive serpent bursts free, lunges at Kakashi, and gulps down Kinoe whole. Kakashi slays the creature to pull his prisoner back out, an act that leaves Kinoe stunned given that he himself had been hunting Kakashi. The dead snake then leaks a toxic haze that saps Kakashi's strength, so Kinoe hauls him clear and revives him with an antidote.

Danzo had ordered Kinoe to claim the Sharingan, but the friendship that has grown between the two makes that impossible. Kinoe slips away, leaving behind a note describing how he means to fool Danzo using a carved wooden eyeball as a substitute. Enraged by this betrayal, Danzo has a cursed seal branded onto Kinoe. Kakashi carries word of everything to Hiruzen, who dispatches Kakashi and Yugao to deliver a summons to Danzo.

Root operatives block the pair, insisting Danzo is absent. Kakashi sends Yugao back to Hiruzen and pushes inside alone to free Kinoe. As they try to leave, Danzo and his agents surround them, and only Hiruzen's timely arrival breaks the standoff. The Hokage persuades Danzo to release Kinoe into Kakashi's Anbu unit, though Danzo flatly refuses to lift the cursed brand.

Kakashi kills the escaped snake and rescues Kinoe from its belly, then nearly succumbs to the poisonous fog it releases before Kinoe's antidote saves him. Kinoe abandons his mission to steal the Sharingan, leaving a decoy wooden eye to deceive Danzo, who retaliates with a juinjutsu curse mark. Hiruzen intervenes at Root headquarters and negotiates Kinoe's transfer into Kakashi's squad. The following day the young operative presents himself to his new comrades as Tenzo, the name Kakashi urges him to adopt in place of his Root designation.

The installment belongs to Kakashi's Anbu Arc, subtitled The Shinobi That Lives in the Darkness, and traces how Kinoe ultimately becomes the shinobi later known as Yamato. It first aired in Japan on 20 March 2014, with the English broadcast following on 4 October 2016. The episode is titled after, but distinct from, the manga chapter Konoha Shinobi. Its opening theme is Size of the Moon and its closing theme is Rainbow.