Writhe

Yamato keeps watch as Naruto drills his elemental training, yet the best he can manage is to slit a few leaves. Kakashi has him disperse the clones so their lessons combine, then warns, after Naruto nearly blacks out, that weariness stacks up along with the knowledge. Unwilling to stop with the goal so near, Naruto calls up a new batch of shadow clones that carry everything the earlier ones absorbed. A thought hits him, and he asks whether any other Konoha ninja command Wind Release and might coach him; Kakashi names one, a shinobi likely bent over a shogi board just then.

That shogi player turns out to be Asuma, locked in a match with Shikamaru under a standing bet that the loser buys the squad's next barbecue. Asuma loses, but his win is spoiled when a Naruto shows up hoping for pointers on shaping wind-type chakra. Shikamaru scoffs that the technique is far too hard for him, and Asuma, startled to hear the boy shares his wind affinity, agrees to help only if Naruto foots that upcoming dinner. A glance inside his frog wallet Gama-chan proves he has just enough. Asuma draws his chakra blades, threads wind energy into them, and instructs the boy to grate his own chakra together; when Naruto wonders why blades this sharp need it, Asuma tells him to fling the weapons at the trees. Naruto's sticks in the trunk while Asuma's punches clean through and lodges in a boulder, and he confesses he was even holding back. Naruto then pops away, revealed as nothing but a shadow clone, which prompts Shikamaru to gripe that saddling him with the tab was harsh given Choji's appetite. Elsewhere Shizune tells Tsunade of a raid on a nearby Land of Fire village that she pins on Amegakure; enraged, the Hokage summons Asuma's team and, fearing Akatsuki want Naruto, ships him off on a menial grave-robber errand. The returning clone passes the trick to the others while Sai quietly sketches him, and Naruto at last splits his leaves before collapsing under the combined exhaustion as Kakashi catches him.

At the Yamanaka shop Asuma quietly buys a bouquet without naming its recipient, but Ino tells him to greet Kurenai for her, leaving him flustered that word has spread; Shikamaru and Choji later spot the flowers and pile on the same teasing, since the couple's so-called secret fools no one. Called in by Tsunade, Team Asuma reports for a job that could involve Akatsuki, and from a rooftop Asuma watches Kurenai through her window yet decides against going to her. The squads cross paths with Team Yamato heading out, and Konohamaru, fresh from bagging another cat with Team Ebisu, wishes Uncle Asuma luck. Baffled by the title, Naruto hears from Shikamaru that the Third Hokage fathered Asuma, making the jonin a genuine uncle to Konohamaru, which stuns Ino and Choji too. Asuma waves off his lineage, though Naruto says it deepens the tie he feels through their matching wind nature. The episode adapts chapters 317 and 318 from the Twelve Guardian Ninja arc, and it ends on shadowy figures surveying a wrecked village and vowing that only after Konoha falls will the Land of Fire climb back to the summit.