Showdown: Gaara vs. Kimimaro

Gaara reaches Lee in the nick of time. Noting that Lee has lost the speed and agility he once had, and recalling the wounds he dealt him at the Chunin Exams, Gaara draws his comrade back with sand and orders him to stay out of the fight. He then turns his sand on Kimimaro, who assumes the gourd is Gaara's only supply and tries to destroy it. Gaara instead binds him with sand pulled from the ground and buries him with a Sand Binding Coffin, though Kimimaro's dense bones spare him from being crushed.

Escalating, Gaara attempts the Sand Waterfall Funeral, but Kimimaro endures by triggering his cursed seal. Summoning far greater volume, Gaara raises a tsunami of sand with the Quicksand Waterfall Flow and follows with the Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral, smothering his foe and flattening the surrounding ground, yet to the shock of both, Kimimaro still survives.

Part of the Sasuke Recovery Mission arc and adapted from two manga chapters, the episode devotes its second half to Kimimaro's backstory. Gaara likens Kimimaro's eyes to Sasuke's, both searching for a reason to exist. Kimimaro recalls being caged for his kekkei genkai and let out only to kill, wielded as a weapon against Kirigakure, crossing paths with Orochimaru, Zabuza, and Haku, and finding his entire Kaguya clan wiped out. Taken in by Orochimaru, he decides his purpose is to serve him, which is why he refuses to die, and he enters the second stage of his cursed seal to break loose and lunge at Gaara and Lee. Elsewhere, Naruto keeps chasing Sasuke, trying to talk him into returning to Konoha.