Revived Souls

The dead soldiers assaulting Team Asuma turn out to be villagers and Kohaku Clan members slain during earlier raids by Furido's squad. Away from the fighting, Shikamaru joins Tsunade and Shizune to map out how the village should defend itself, while Asuma orders Team Ebisu to funnel every capable ninja toward the power station and races there himself.

At the station he faces four familiar corpses: Kitane, Nauma, Tou and Seito, the elite of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. These four have been restored whole, keeping their real minds and skills yet bound to serve whoever raised them. Yamato and Sakura reach Asuma, who warns that the quartet intends to unleash Limelight, a technique that annihilates everything inside a sealed zone once the casters hold the four compass points.

Asuma instructs the others to keep even one of the four from reaching an assigned direction, taking Kitane as his own opponent. Naruto tracks down Sora and demands to know why he targeted Tsunade and sided with the attackers. Sora blames the Third Hokage for ordering Asuma to kill his father Kazuma, and tries to slip away again, only to be intercepted by Fuka.

Fuen snares Sakura but grumbles about capturing a woman and asks after Sai, while Fudo pins Yamato, hardens himself with Rock Armour, and lands a blow powered by his enhanced strength. Beyond the village limits, Sora meets Furido, who reveals that Konoha is to be reduced to ash supposedly for the good of the Land of Fire, a declaration that leaves Sora shaken.

The installment belongs to the Twelve Guardian Ninja arc, with Blue Bird as the opening theme and Broken Youth as the ending. It first aired in Japan on July 10, 2008, and reached English-speaking audiences on February 2, 2011. The story threads the reanimation plot together with Sora's personal grievance against the Sarutobi line.