Night of the Crescent Moon

Yugao dwells on the sparring sessions she once shared with Hayate, the lessons in swordsmanship that shaped her, as the search party tracks down his revived team. When the group finally catches them, the sealing corps neutralizes Hayate's fellow reanimations but takes wounds protecting Yugao from his strike. With Io and Yokaze too hurt to continue, they fall back, and Sakura and Yugao treat their injuries. As Yugao readies to leave the fight, Sakura presses her on why she can no longer wield a sword. Yugao confesses that the weapon only stirs the grief of Hayate's death, and Sakura, condemning the technique Kabuto used to fuel the war, sets off alone to recover the KIA scroll.

Sakura reaches Hayate first, who recognizes her from the Chunin Exams. She holds her own against him until he slips away with a transparency technique and lands a cut, though the wound turns out to be a substitution as Yugao arrives. Yugao sends Sakura to summon the sealing team despite her wish to join the fight. As the duel unfolds, Hayate praises how far Yugao's swordplay has come. Kabuto, sensing the delay, tries to seize control of Hayate's mind and appears to pin Yugao against a tree, but Hayate wrenches back his own will long enough to be run through by her blade. He is finally bound and sealed, and the mission to reclaim the KIA scroll ends in success.

Yugao confronts her late mentor Hayate, brought back through reincarnation, while recovering the KIA scroll. Sakura engages Hayate first before Yugao takes over the duel. Kabuto attempts to override Hayate's consciousness, but Hayate reasserts control at the crucial moment and lets Yugao's sword pierce him. The sealing corps binds him, completing the mission.

Set during the Fourth Shinobi World War: Confrontation arc, the episode opens with Not Even Sudden Rain Can Defeat Me and ends on I Can Hear. The wounded medic-nin Io and Yokaze are tended by Sakura before she pushes ahead alone.