Neji's Judgment

Matsuri pleads with Team Guy to help free Gaara from Hoichi, offering her Heaven Scroll as payment. The Leaf squad agrees to assist without taking anything in return. Scanning ahead with his Byakugan, Neji locates the Kazekage and the group commits to the detour, knowing it may cost them the Chunin Exams. Hoichi, meanwhile, keeps siphoning tailed beast chakra from both Fu and Gaara. Fu answers his chains by weaving a cocoon from her chakra threads, stalling the absorption, and when Gaara despairs that no help is coming, she urges him to hold on, her spirit reminding him of Naruto.

Elsewhere, Kurenai, Asuma, and Guy realize the Kazekage has vanished from the village, confirming their worry that Gaara had set himself as bait, and they come across Yukata and Mikoshi struggling in the desert. Matsuri and Team Guy reach the site, where Yoro and Kegon appear hunting for their own comrade. Neji reads the cocoon and sees both hosts being drained, then talks the two wary jonin into cooperating rather than fighting. Following his plan, Yoro, Kegon, Matsuri, and Lee assault Hoichi, only to be stopped by his barrier ninjutsu, buying time for the Hyuga.

Neji drives a chakra sword into the cocoon and, after a failed first strike, uses his needle technique again to shut down the chains' absorption. As his own chakra begins sealing away, Hoichi panics, and once the process seals him, Neji frees the priest at Gaara's request. Gaara and Fu thank their rescuers just as Kurenai, Asuma, and Guy arrive to find the danger already resolved.

Team Guy abandons its exam standing to save Gaara and Fu from Hoichi's chakra-draining chains. Fu shields them with a cocoon while Neji rallies the rival ninja Yoro and Kegon into a joint assault. Neji pierces the cocoon and halts the absorption with his Gentle Fist needle technique, turning the priest's own sealing against him. At Gaara's plea, Neji releases the sealed Hoichi. The senior jonin reach the scene only after the crisis has passed.

Part of the In Naruto's Footsteps: The Friends' Paths filler run, the episode opens with Wind and closes with A Promise That Doesn't Need Words. Early on, Matsuri is briefly drawn wearing a Konohagakure forehead protector.