The Exploding Human

Synopsis
A man called Tadaichi leaves a hot spring. As a storm brews, he is approached by someone on the road, wanting to confirm his status as a Konoha shinobi. Tadaichi confirms he's from Konoha, but denies being a shinobi, claiming to be just a merchant. The person reveals they checked his Anbu history, and uses a dōjutsu against him. The person is approached by another, congratulating them. The first promises to stain everything red. Sakura and Naruto visit Kakashi. Sakura asks about missing Konoha shinobi, which Kakashi is already aware of. An explosion happens by one of Konoha's gates. Naruto and Sakura go investigate. Five people are attacking the security personnel from the gates. Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji arrive at the scene, where Ino recognises Tadaichi as a regular from Yamanaka Flowers, certain he'd never turn against the village. Tadaichi is hit with a shuriken, but feels no pain, and begins expanding. Naruto creates clones and takes the security personnel away from Tadaichi, who explodes. The explosion slightly injures the other four attackers, who move into the village and begin expanding as well. At Shikamaru's suggestion, Chōji expands himself, and uses his butterfly wings to flap at the explosion. Naruto adds to it with a Rasengan. More controlled attackers appear beyond the gate, and Sakura deduces the injuries are what is causing them to explode. Hinata arrives, and upon learning of the situation, she confirms there is no one near casting genjutsu, though she detects a foreign chakra in the attackers. Shikamaru restrains the attackers with his shadow, and Hinata attacks their chakra network, defeating them without triggering explosions. Later, Sakura tries releasing the genjutsu, but is unsuccessful. Kakashi decides to have Sasuke analyse the genjutsu with his dōjutsu, and asks Sai to inform him. Elsewhere, Sasuke thinks back to his journey, and feeds a few stray cats. Noticing one of Sai's ink hawks, Sasuke opens up a scroll, and the hawk turns into a message in it. Sasuke hears an explosion nearby, where controlled people are also exploding upon being injured, which Sasuke recognises as the same ones from Konoha's message. Two shinobi come to the aid of an older man in the attacked village, Iō. Iō mistakes Sasuke for an attacker, and commands the other two to attack him. Sasuke easily counters Chino's Water Release with his Fire Release, and dodges Nowaki's wind-infused weapons. The attackers cross Chino's water wall, and Sasuke stops them with his Sharingan, surprising Chino. Sasuke asks them about the one Iō mistook him with, but Iō refuses to talk. Chino explains she and Nowaki are former shinobi who are now wandering performers. Iō wants to check on his daughter Amino. Inside the shelter, Amino is also under the genjutsu, causing others to run away. She stabs herself in the neck, and explodes. Iō screams he will never forgive Fūshin, and runs into the fire. Sasuke questions one of the people he released from the genjutsu about who Fūshin is. He is told Fūshin is the leader of the Lightning Group, a group who steals money from bad people and gives it to those in need. After the group was supposedly betrayed by Kirigakure, they asked for shelter in the village, who refused to harbour them in fear of retaliation. Sasuke tries using genjutsu to see into the memories of the controlled attackers, but meets resistance in the memories, seeing a red eye. Sasuke surmises it's a kekkei genkai.

Trivia

 * This arc actually comes after The Last; the novel was adapted into the anime because the story focused on Sasuke's redemption after the war. The minor continuity error explains why Hinata doesn't act shy around Naruto; at this time they were already married.