As she, Ino, and Choji decide to take an alternate route to the center building to avoid being ambushed again, Sakura collapses due to her ongoing chakra-storing for the Reserve Seal. Coming to after remembering her training with Tsunade, Sakura and her team find themselves confronted by a the Hidden Sand's Team Saya. Saya makes it clear that she wants Ino and Sakura to herself, with her team mates Mamushi and Sana going after Choji. Saya quickly places the Leaf kunoichi in a corner when she uses her Puppet Imitation jutsu on Ino after the puppet gets her hair, later having her puppet get a hair sample from Choji as he was overpowering Mamushi and Sana. After deducing Saya's method to be an imitation of her clan's abilities, Ino uses her Mind Transfer jutsu to enter Choji's body to force Saya out of their team mate while Sakura attempts to figure out to hold Choji at bay while maintaining her chakra flow. Elsewhere, having an ulterior motive to test their skills, Sasuke frees Suigetsu so he and Karin can hunt him down. Ultimately, Suigetsu is put into a jelly-like state after being hit by Karin's Adamantine Attacking Chains.