Encounter

At the shore of a lake, Kabuto promises Yukimaru some fun before fitting a piece of headgear onto the boy and feeding him a pill that forces out his chakra. The energy stirs a creature resting beneath the water, but Yukimaru collapses from the effort before it can fully surface. Satisfied at having pinpointed the beast, Kabuto reflects on how valuable the child is to Orochimaru. In the forest, Kakashi summons Pakkun and tucks a crystal holding one of Shino's trapped insects into the hound's paw, sending him to Konoha to brief Tsunade. Nearby, Guren orders her subordinates to stay behind while she reports to Orochimaru's base.

Naruto's attempt to sync up with his toad partner Gamariki ends with both of them crashing into a hot spring where Jiraiya is spying on the bathing women, draining the water and scattering his targets. Blaming the poor pairing, Naruto peels off his supposedly injured arm cast and summons the now much larger Gamakichi and Gamatatsu instead. Meanwhile, Guren spots Orochimaru grooming Sasuke and bitterly recalls being passed over as his next vessel. Orochimaru sets Sasuke against thousands of armed shinobi, and Sasuke fells every last one without a fatal strike, drawing praise that his gifts outstrip even Orochimaru's own youthful reputation. Orochimaru then offers Guren a mission that, if completed, might restore her chance to become his vessel.

Later, Kabuto rests the worn-out Yukimaru at the same spring, where the boy overhears Naruto musing that the toads' training never reveals their true hearts. Naruto tells him home is wherever the person always on your mind can be found, then finds the child gone and only a single white flower left in his place. Pakkun reaches Konoha to pass on Kakashi's message. This installment adapts chapters 342 and 343 and sits within the Three-Tails' Appearance arc. It aired in Japan on January 15, 2009, and in English on August 27, 2011, using the opening Closer and the ending Bacchikoi.