Jūgo of the Northern Hideout

Sasuke, Karin, and Suigetsu travel to the Northern Hideout intending to add Jūgo to their ranks. Karin cautions that Jūgo harbors buried murderous impulses that erupt without warning, and that Orochimaru once drew fluids from his enzymes to craft the cursed seals. Arriving to find the guard gone, they are set upon by a prisoner locked in the second stage of his own seal. Having slaughtered the guards, the inmate turns on Sasuke, who cuts him down with his blade. Deeper inside they meet more prisoners in the same transformed state, and Sasuke instructs Suigetsu to subdue them without killing.

Confined to his cell, Jūgo remembers how Kimimaro once calmed one of his killing sprees and vowed to stay by his side. Now alone, Jūgo mutters that he will kill any man who enters, then insists he would kill a woman just the same, flip-flopping endlessly. Karin steers Suigetsu down a wrong corridor so she can be alone with Sasuke and guide him to the cell. As she unlocks the door, Jūgo declares he will kill whoever it is, and Sasuke swings it open. Jūgo lashes out in a partial transformation, and Sasuke answers by shifting into the second stage of his own cursed seal, repelling the strike and telling Jūgo he came only to talk.

This is episode 117 of Naruto Shippūden, part of the Itachi Pursuit Mission arc, adapting chapters 349, 350, and 351. In Konoha, Naruto and Sakura are called to Tsunade's office, where she and Jiraiya reveal that Sasuke has killed Orochimaru. As Sakura weeps, Naruto brightly declares he never doubted Sasuke and asks whether this means his friend will come home, only for Jiraiya to explain that returning to the village was never part of Sasuke's plan. The episode uses the opening theme Light of a Firefly and the ending theme My Answer.