Creeping Shadow

Kakashi seeks out Jiraiya and reports that the Ame Orphans are trying to reshape Amegakure through talk rather than force. Pleased that his former students have matured, Jiraiya thinks back on his time with them. In Amegakure, Kyūsuke delivers requests to Yahiko, jobs the Akatsuki agree to take, and Yahiko voices his resolve to one day eclipse Hanzō. When Hanzō learns of the group, he approves of an organization that seems to share his ideals.

Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato visit a raided village where locals demand a strike on Iwagakure. The Akatsuki urge negotiation instead, but Konoha Anbu posing as Iwa-shinobi refuse to talk and attack the three. Watching Yahiko and Konan beaten stirs Nagato's memories of his parents dying at Konoha hands, and his grief unwittingly summons the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, which slaughters many of the disguised enemies. Yahiko brings Nagato back to himself before Nagato collapses.

After the group flees, Danzō arrives to find the fallen fighters revealed as Root members among nineteen corpses, one fretting that active Akatsuki will endanger their undercover teams. Danzō declares that peace with Iwagakure must be prevented for Konoha's sake, orders the bodies collected and all traces erased, and eyes the strange power he witnessed. He then presents seven of the dead to Hanzō, claiming to have found members of Hanzō's own clan while traveling to a peace conference, and convinces him the Akatsuki are wolves in sheep's clothing set to seize the village. Elsewhere, Obito tells Zetsu there is no peace in this world and that the Infinite Tsukuyomi is the only escape.

Nagato involuntarily summons the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for the first time after seeing his friends assaulted. Danzō frames the Akatsuki by delivering Hanzō the corpses of his own clansmen, poisoning Hanzō against Yahiko's group. Obito and Zetsu discuss the plot and the goal of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

The episode falls within the Fourth Shinobi World War: Climax stretch. Its opening theme is Size of the Moon and the ending theme is Rainbow. It aired in Japan on January 23, 2014, and in English on July 5, 2016. Trivia notes that one shot mistakenly renders Obito's Sharingan with two tomoe rather than three.