Despair

Naruto and Asuma reach the scene just as Sora surrenders to the beast's nature. Asuma recognizes the enemy Furido as Kazuma, Sora's father, a man he believed dead by his own hand years earlier. Kazuma lays out that stray fox chakra had been sealed and held down within Sora, and now that the seal is broken, that power is overtaking the boy, all engineered to unleash a small-scale tailed beast on the Leaf. Sakura and Yamato arrive stunned to find Sora wrapped in a version of the fox's cloak.

While Asuma and Kazuma clash, Naruto tries to reach Sora, shielding Sakura from a roar aimed at her and swearing he will not let the fox's power harm her again. Yamato pins Sora with Wood Release but cannot smother the chakra, since Sora lacks the First Hokage's Necklace, and the boy shifts into a single-tailed state. Team Asuma appears in time, Shikamaru's shadow technique locking Sora down while Choji seizes him. Naruto then reveals that he is himself the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Sora rejects the claim, insisting those who carry tailed beasts are doomed to lifelong isolation and demanding to know how Naruto could have friends at all. Naruto recounts enduring the same hateful stares as a child and pulling stunts for attention until he stumbled into real bonds, telling Sora that he and the others are now his friends too. Ino's mind-transfer fails when Sora yields further to the fox, the searing chakra burns Choji's hands, Shikamaru's reserves give out, and the freed Sora descends into rage and swells into a three-tailed form.

This is the 69th episode of Naruto: Shippuden, part of the anime-original Twelve Guardian Ninja storyline. It aired in Japan on July 31, 2008, and in English on February 23, 2011. The opening theme is Blue Bird and the ending theme is Broken Youth.