Taking place in the aftermath of the Kage Summit, Team Kakashi is sent out on a mission by Tsunade to a location known as "The Hole" to investigate an incident where its people were killed. Regretting that she could not assign more people to the mission because of recent incidents elsewhere, the team sets out nonetheless. While there, they split up into two teams, with Yamato and Sai encountering officers from the neighboring Hach? Village where Shiseru and her team, after learning they are from Konoha shinobi, escort them to their village leader Disonasu. Elsewhere, Sakura and Naruto, who are at The Hole's water spring, encounter Kabuto Yakushi who reveals that the ninja he reanimated were behind the killing so he can use The Hole's waters to create a clone of the still living Hidan. As a fight ensues, between the two sides as Yamato and Sai rejoin with their team-mates, a flashback of the destruction of the village shows the reincarnated shinobi as the cause. The flashback ends with two young children, Leo and Miina, being rescued by their teacher Dokku and escaping with a few survivors.