The Results of Training

Impatient as ever, Naruto strikes before Kakashi can even declare the bell test underway, trading thrown shuriken and slipping free of them with a well-timed shadow clone. He morphs a clone into an oversized shuriken and sneaks another behind Kakashi with a kunai, a display that impresses not only his teacher but Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune watching from concealment. Kakashi remarks that his student is as hasty as he was during their very first bell test, then vanishes into the trees once the match formally begins.

Naruto and Sakura press their assault, her monstrous strength shattering the ground while his clones swarm, forcing Kakashi to open the First Gate and answer with the Front Lotus, a move the pair recognize as Rock Lee's. The real Naruto then charges in threatening One Thousand Years of Death, sending a mortified Kakashi into retreat. A wounded Sasuke turns out to be Kakashi's genjutsu, which Sakura dispels while locating him, and a Rasengan aimed at his hiding spot narrowly misses. Naruto avoids the bell-and-rope bait with a clone before landing a punch on the real Kakashi, who escapes with a substitution. Elsewhere, Deidara and Sasori breach Sunagakure past a traitor's slain guards, and Deidara's hunt for Gaara ends with the Kazekage blocking his path.

The third episode of Naruto: Shippuden opens the Kazekage Rescue Mission and adapts chapters 246 through 248. It premiered in Japan on February 22, 2007, and in English on October 28, 2009, using Hero's Come Back!! as its opening theme and Shooting Star ~Shooting Star~ as its ending. It should not be confused with the identically titled Boruto episode 171.