The Sealed Power

Worried that Tsunade has gone all day without eating, Shizune checks on her, and Tsunade blames Jiraiya's book about Konoha's younger shinobi for keeping her glued to the pages. Shizune goes to fetch dinner while the Hokage reads on. In the tale, Neji challenges the masked man's aims, and the stranger argues that reforming a village like Konoha would prompt the other hidden villages to follow, bettering the world in turn. He invites Neji to witness his meaning, and when Naruto moves to intervene, the masked man freezes him with a Gentle Fist strike. Neji vows to return to Naruto once he has seen what awaits, then leaves with him.

Jiraiya slips into Orochimaru's lair and finds a heavily bandaged figure. The Ame Orphans report to the masked man that the Leaf genin ultimately aided the children despite their mission orders, and he tells them to keep watching. Neji learns the observed genin are his own teammates and is asked whether he wishes to see if they can change the future of the shinobi. As Naruto strains fruitlessly to draw on the Nine-Tails, Sasuke senses Sasori and opens with a Phoenix Sage Fire attack, drawing the puppeteer into a fight that soon poisons him. The Asuma and Kurenai squads converge on the scene, Lee and Tenten are herded toward it by explosive tags, and the Nine-Tails presses Naruto to release the seal just as Jiraiya materializes before him.

The installment is part of the Jiraiya Shinobi Handbook: The Tale of Naruto the Hero arc, an anime-original storyline framed as a book Tsunade is reading. It sets up the following chapter, leaving Naruto cornered by the Nine-Tails' offer and Sasuke wounded as Jiraiya arrives to intervene.