Orochimaru vs. Jinchūriki

Locked in his four-tailed state, Naruto tears into Orochimaru, whose snakes are burned to ash the moment the Nine-Tails' chakra touches them. As the same heat begins to sear the Sannin himself, he coughs up a fresh body through his replacement technique before the old one is consumed, keeping the lower half of a serpent and gliding in fast to land a punch to Naruto's face. Naruto answers by sprouting an extra fox head and chakra claws, splitting Orochimaru in two, but the Sannin knits both halves back together. He then tries to end the fight by launching a thousand blade-carrying snakes from his mouth, only for Naruto to sweep them away with a single-handed burst of pure chakra that hurls Orochimaru back. Unable to break in through the sheer ferocity, Yamato's wood clone confirms to its creator that Naruto has indeed reached the four-tailed form.

Over on the wreckage of the Tenchi Bridge, Kabuto approaches Sakura and Yamato, puzzled that Konoha knew of his rendezvous with Sasori. He reasons that since no other Akatsuki member was aware and Sasori would never surrender secrets under torture, the puppeteer must have been taken or slain. When Sakura confirms the latter, Kabuto is delighted, deducing that Sasori, who long vowed to kill Orochimaru, must have leaked the meeting so they would do the deed for him. Back at the fight, Naruto gathers the tailed beast's ultimate attack, swallowing chakra spheres so dense he sinks into the ground before firing the blast as a beam. Orochimaru raises his Triple Rashōmon in defense, but the barrier is annihilated, and he falls back on his Sword of Kusanagi to run Naruto through. The blade strikes without piercing, flinging Naruto into a nearby wall as Sakura, Yamato, and Kabuto see the four-tailed shape for the first time, with Kabuto noting it is the nearest Naruto has come to a full transformation and Sakura recoiling in terror.

The episode is set in the Tenchi Bridge Reconnaissance Mission arc and adapts chapters 294 and 295. It premiered in Japan on January 10, 2008, and in English on July 7, 2010. The opening theme is Distance and the ending theme is Awaken! Wild. It is notable as the first Naruto episode in which the title character receives no spoken lines, communicating solely through grunts, growls, and roars.