A Wound That Never Heals

Team 7 is tasked with tracking a series of attacks on former shinobi living in the village, each victim left with slashed clothing. The police confirm the latest was an outsider skilled in Wind Release, and the method points to a single culprit. As nightly patrols continue, Mitsuki grows preoccupied with his missing cat Mikazuki, which he finally locates in the care of a flute-playing girl named Hibiki who has been feeding it.

When another ex-shinobi is struck, Mitsuki wounds one of two attackers and spots blood near an oden cart run by Hibiki's brother. Hibiki, hiding injured behind the stand, is later tended by her brother, who vows they need only one more target before she can live a normal life. Mitsuki pieces together that the pair are hunting the man who murdered their father, a Wind Release thief marked with a chest scar.

Mitsuki confronts Hibiki, admitting he once failed to stop someone like her and asking her to surrender rather than repeat his mistake. She thanks him and slips away. The police then flag shopkeeper Daizen Matsushige, a Wind Release user tied to past robberies and killings, as a person of interest, and Mitsuki realizes he already spoke with the man.

Daizen ambushes the siblings with the Sickle Weasel Technique, but Mitsuki blocks it and Team 7 closes in. Daizen bares a scarless chest until Mikazuki claws away his disguise, exposing the very mark that ties him to the killing. Cornered, Daizen tries to flee and is stopped by Wind Release: Breakthrough.

Because Daizen intended to resume his crimes in Konoha, Hibiki and her brother receive only banishment, while Mitsuki draws a week of administrative leave for concealing what he knew of their guilt. The story echoes his earlier brush with the Rain Killer. Its opening theme is Kirarirari and its ending is Biboroku.