He Flies! He Jumps! He Lurks! Chief Toad Appears!

Falling to what should be his death, Naruto succeeds in summoning Gamabunta. Furious that a mere child has called him, the boss toad demands to know where Jiraiya is. To decide whether he will accept Naruto as his underling, Gamabunta sets a challenge: the boy must ride his back through an entire day without being thrown off.

Far away in Konoha, Temari remembers a quarrel a year earlier in Sunagakure when she argued with Baki over shattering the alliance treaty between the two villages; back in Suna, Baki reports to the Fourth Kazekage that everything is proceeding as planned. Gamabunta keeps trying to shake Naruto loose while Jiraiya conducts so-called research by peeping on a group of women. Diving into a waterfall to dislodge the boy, the toad scatters the women and spoils Jiraiya's fun. Naruto slips, but forms a chain of shadow clones to keep himself from falling. Worn out at last, he drops from the toad's back. Impressed that he held on so long, Gamabunta catches him with his tongue and remarks that no one since the Fourth Hokage lasted that long. Seeing the boy completely drained, the boss toad deposits him at the Konoha Hospital.

Naruto's struggle to stay atop Gamabunta is original to the anime. The episode adapts chapters 95 and 96, aired in Japan on November 5, 2003, and in English on November 4, 2006, and uses the opening Turning Sadness Into Kindness with the ending Viva★Rock-Japanese Side.