Regrets

Traveling toward the central battlefield, the five Kage catch sight of the Ten-Tails in its tree shape and puzzle over what it might be. Tsunade turns to Katsuyu for an account of what the beast's scattered divisions had been doing. The slug reveals that Shikamaru was among those the tree struck down, and when Sakura tries to heal him from a distance, Katsuyu explains that its own clones perished too, their chakra drained away, so Sai and the medics race to reach him in person. As the Allied Shinobi Forces sink into hopelessness, Obito seizes on their broken spirit and promises to spare anyone who lays down their weapons. Hashirama's wood clone counters that surrender is no mercy, since the future Obito intends for them would be as grim as dying. Hiruzen's words prompt Orochimaru, newly on the scene with Suigetsu and Karin, to remark that such gloom hardly suits his old teacher.

As their duel rages on, Madara discloses that the Ten-Tails will bloom in roughly fifteen minutes even though it lacks the full chakra of both the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails, and that he means to take over Obito's role by drawing on Hashirama's senjutsu. Answering the wood clone's call for a Yamanaka, a startled Ino uses her Mind Body Transmission Technique to link Hashirama to the whole Alliance, letting him relay the warning and urge everyone to keep fighting. When the tree lunges again, a Sasuke wrapped in Susanoo shears off a huge section of its root and asks whether Naruto has hit his limit. Naruto responds by slipping into Sage Mode and Tailed Beast Mode at once, and through Ino's link his memories and emotions reach every soldier; recalling his lost childhood companions, he vows to carry no further regrets and to keep their sacrifices from being wasted.

Katsuyu's clones die from having their chakra siphoned off, so the medics must treat Shikamaru in person. Obito's offer of mercy is rebutted by Hashirama's clone, who uses Ino to broadcast that Madara will make the Ten-Tails flower within fifteen minutes. Sasuke shows up cloaked in Susanoo, and Naruto floods the army with his own feelings to revive their will to fight.

Set in the arc that follows the Ten-Tails' first jinchūriki and gathered in volume 67, the chapter uses Ino's mind link to turn Naruto's private sorrow into fresh resolve for the whole Allied Shinobi Forces.