The Battle Over the Barrier

At the lakeside, Kabuto pushes Yukimaru to swallow a large dose of pills, knowing the boy would not survive them. Guren steps in and volunteers to take on the tailed beast without risking Yukimaru, and Kabuto agrees only on the condition that she obey his instructions, promising to send Rinji with orders. While she waits atop a cliff, Kabuto positions Yukimaru on a facing ledge overlooking the Leaf shinobi as they set up the Four-Corner Sealing Barrier, reminding the boy that Guren might die trying to save him.

Rinji reports that two fighters guard the sealing team, one a weapons specialist and one a taijutsu master. With her chakra running low, Guren makes herself the lure so Rinji can slip past and collapse the barrier. Rock Lee and Tenten are stunned to find the Crystal Release user alive, having assumed Kakashi's group had already handled her. Armed with jade crystal blades along her forearms and clad in her crystal armour, she matches both of them. Rinji breaks toward the exposed sealing team, only for Naruto and Gamatatsu to drive him back with a Wind Release: Toad Gun. Lee is thrilled to see Naruto, who has called up Gamatatsu and Gamakichi, while Shino sends his insects against the crystal without success against her Tearing Crystal Falling Dragon.

The fight loses all meaning when the Three-Tails tears loose from its seal. Guren orders a retreat, their sabotage complete, but the freed turtle unleashes a Water Release: Great Water Mass Bullet that shatters her crystal dragon and hurls her onto an island. Naruto and Shino go under, the toads vanish, and Lee grabs Ino as he reaches solid ground. Yamato and Kiba regroup with Kakashi and Sai, who admit their own attempt on Guren failed, and the tailed beast's roars tell all four that danger is loose. Seeing the Three-Tails about to crush an exhausted Guren, Yukimaru draws on his ability to steer the creature and shields her. This, it emerges, was Orochimaru's design all along: he expected Yukimaru to release his real power only to protect someone he cared for, so he assigned Guren as her protector to let a bond take root. Far off, Tobi of the Akatsuki flits along the shoreline, delighted to have finally pinned down the beast.

Guren spares Yukimaru the lethal pills by agreeing to face the tailed beast herself, and she and Rinji succeed in bringing down the sealing barrier. Naruto returns to the fight alongside his summoned toads, reuniting with Lee and Shino. The Three-Tails breaks free, scatters both sides, and nearly kills Guren before Yukimaru seizes control of it to save her, revealing that Orochimaru engineered their relationship for exactly this outcome. Tobi confirms he has located the Three-Tails.

The episode sits inside the Three-Tails' Appearance arc and premiered in Japan on April 16, 2009, reaching English audiences on January 24, 2012. Its opening theme is Light of a Firefly and its ending theme is Deep Breath. In the English dub, Tobi's actor Michael Yurchak voices the moment he spots the Three-Tails using the character's genuine voice rather than the disguised Tobi tone, a choice that suggests the reveal of Tobi as Obito had already been settled during production, even before that twist reached print.