Run, Kankurō

In the Leaf Village, Tsunade means to hand Team Kakashi a B-rank assignment, but Shizune pushes back with a dog-walking errand, reluctant to send Naruto far from home given the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within him. As a middle ground, Tsunade settles on a C-rank escort for a gold convoy. Returning to his cobwebbed apartment, Naruto dusts off an old team portrait and renews his vow to bring Sasuke back.

Over in Sunagakure, Deidara scoops up the unconscious Gaara with his clay bird and flees the village, prompting Kankurō to give chase while Baki dispatches a messenger hawk named Takamaru toward Konoha. Back home, Shikamaru sees Temari off at the gate for her journey to Suna, and Kakashi, worn out from a night with his Icha Icha book, gathers his files and joins Naruto and Sakura, spotting Takamaru overhead. When Kankurō catches the pair, Sasori sends Deidara ahead with Gaara and stays to fight. Kankurō attacks with his three puppets, Karasu, Kuroari, and Sanshōuo, but Sasori knows his moves intimately and wrecks two of them without effort, clearing Deidara's escape.

The episode adapts chapters 250 and 251 and belongs to the Kazekage Rescue Mission. A continuity slip is noted during Kakashi's late-night reading scene, where his Anbu tattoo is absent from his left shoulder. It first aired in Japan on 29 March 2007 and in English on 18 November 2009.