Despite Naruto's timely appearance, Sasuke decides to relinquish their scroll to Shiore to ensure their team's survival. However, Naruto stops Sasuke and punches him in the face. Refusing to accept Sasuke's mindset, Naruto takes the scroll from him. Naruto begins fighting Shiore and his snakes, although he is easily beaten and injured.
As he is about to be devoured by the snake, Naruto taps into the Nine-Tails' chakra and hits the snake down with one punch. Shiore manages to use the snake to toss Naruto into a tree, and then uses the snake to attack Sasuke, only for Naruto to rush in and save him, asking him if he was okay and calling him a baby, echoing the same words Sasuke told him after their battle against the Demon Brothers.
The ninja, recognizing Naruto as the Nine-Tails'container, uses a seal to block Naruto's access to the fox's chakra, rendering him unconscious. He throws him to the towards the ground but Sakura saves him. She then yells at a still Sasuke about how he shouldn't be a coward.
Her words remind Sasuke of his brother and it rejuvenates Sasuke with determination as he prepares to battle the Kusa shinobi. Meanwhile, Anko finds the real Shiore and her team, dead and faceless, and recognizes it to be the work of someone she knows.
Aika and her team stopped to rest by a tree. Gaara had noticed Aika's poor health. Aika's never really noticed her own health condition because she didn't want to bring down her team.
"Aika rest" Gaara commanded
"why?" She asked
"Your breathing heavy, you need to rest" Gaara said turning away, Aika was surprised that he noticed.
Aika nodded and leaned against the tree. Temari helped her get her breathing back to normal. Temari told Aika to sleep for a bit and that they'll watch over her. Aika didn't argue and fell asleep quickly, it's been hard for her to sleep lately.