Orochimaru's Hideout Discovered

With Kakashi standing in as their leader, Team 8 sets out for Orochimaru's stronghold, and the trip stirs up Kiba's memory of Sakon and Ukon, a battle that once left Akamaru badly hurt. Sensing the weight on his mind, Hinata draws it out of him, though Kiba shrugs it off, insisting that if Shikamaru and Naruto could fell a pair of Akatsuki, he can handle one of Orochimaru's followers. Shino admits he too wants to prove his worth, and Kiba reads it as sourness over being left off the Sasuke Recovery Team. Shino clarifies that his letdown runs deeper: Naruto failed to recognize him upon returning to Konoha. Hinata privately shares the same longing to earn Naruto's notice, while Kakashi reflects on how far his squad has come.

At the hideout, Guren orders the massacre's survivors to halt their killing and fall in behind her if they want to live. At a hot spring, Jiraiya is dismayed to learn the bath is not co-ed and is stuck there with Naruto, who eyes the scar on the Sannin's chest and recalls wounding him in his four-tailed state. Naruto voices his reluctance to draw on the Nine-Tails, since its power harms those near him, and his wish to grow stronger another way, prompting Jiraiya to compare him to a seasoned shinobi and remind him to mend his broken arm. The Orochimaru Search Team traces a scent to the base, finding a dying man branded with a cursed seal; once Hinata activates her Byakugan she detects enemies ahead, and the group is stunned to discover ranks of dead and dying prisoners before a timed trap erases every trace of the site. Later, Jiraiya needles Naruto by calling him weak but is caught off guard when the boy only grins, still set on saving Sasuke, which convinces the Sannin to teach him a new skill. Meanwhile, Guren's twenty-one followers march for Orochimaru until sixteen turn on her, and she crushes them all with her Crystal Pentagonal Prison, the remaining five swearing loyalty. Team 8 follows her scent to a meadow where people trapped in crystal disintegrate, Shino's insects among the encased, and Kakashi realizes with alarm that this is Crystal Release.

In a clearing, Jiraiya introduces cooperation ninjutsu, pointing to how his Flame Bullet fused with Gamabunta's oil creates a stronger blaze, and summons the flamboyant toad Gamariki, who cannot stand Naruto. Though Naruto recalls pulling off a similar combination with Yamato to form the Typhoon Water Vortex, he and the toad simply refuse to cooperate. Elsewhere, Orochimaru calls Sasuke in to gauge his strength and finds no trace of fear in him. The episode is part of the Three-Tails' Appearance arc, aired in Japan on January 8, 2009, and in English on August 20, 2011, with opening theme Closer and ending theme Bacchikoi. It was the first Naruto episode simulcast on Crunchyroll.