Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato head out for a new mission near the Fire Temple. When the other party fails to show up at the rendezvous point, the team gets separated and Naruto stumbles upon one of the four hidden tombs they came to protect. Due to a misunderstanding, he fights one of the monks-in-training from the Fire Temple, Sora, who also uses wind chakra based techniques. After the confusion, the monks and Team Kakashi travel to the Fire Temple, and Naruto recognizes it from his nightmare.

Naruto thinks back to the time when Team 7 was on a mission to capture a group of thieves who stole a golden statue. When making a move on the thieves, Naruto and Sasuke had managed to take back the statue but were separated from Sakura, who was captured. On top of that, the thieves' leader had used a special thread-like technique to bind one of Naruto's hands to one of Sasuke's. Literally stuck to each other, would Naruto and Sasuke be able to work together to save Sakura and keep the golden statue safe at the same time?

As he is resting, Naruto starts dreaming his past experiences with Sasuke that made the two friends closer. When he tries to follow Kakashi, who is in pursuit of Sakura, he is stopped by Yamato, saying that he has orders from Kakashi to return Naruto to Konoha. Naruto devises a plan to sneak out and leaving a shadow clone to fool Yamato. He goes into Sage Mode to locate Kakashi. He then starts remembering the experiences that brought Sasuke pain in his life. Naruto decides what he can do for Sasuke if they come face to face.

Miina wakes up in the middle of a night after having a nightmare where Naruto is consumed by numerous snakes inside his subconscious while the Nine-Tails looks on and goes to Dokku for consolation.

The Nine-Tailed Naruto clone tries to attack Dokku and the orphans, when Might Guy and Rock Lee arrive to repel it.

Gaara and Ohnoki manage to overcome the Second Mizukage’s mirage attack. Having taken an interest in Gaara, the Second Mizukage decides to further test the young Kage’s skills.

Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba find themselves up against some familiar faces from the past. The Sound Ninja Four have been brought back by Kabuto’s Reanimation Jutsu, and they are ready to seek vengeance.

The reanimated shinobi appearing before Gaara and Ohnoki is revealed to be none other than Madara Uchiha himself…which raises the question of who the masked man claiming to be Madara really is.