Minato discovers he cannot teleport out of the sphere. To buy time and prevent the village from being crushed, Minato, Hiruzen, Tsunade, and Kushina combine forces to set up a barrier called the Four Red Yang Formation .

The episode presents an alternate-reality retelling of the famous Pain's Assault arc. Because it takes place within a dream reading of Jiraiya's novel, the timeline and events are heavily altered:

📉 Fans and critics heavily scrutinized the episode for attempting to squeeze almost the entirety of the epic Pain fight into just a few minutes of screen time.