Hopes Entrusted to the Future

With Suna's shinobi still hunting for their missing leader, Gaara turns up unharmed and calls for the exam to proceed. Reaching Fugi through a clone of sand, he lets the conspirator understand that Hoichi's attempt on his life had already collapsed. As Gaara speaks about how far he has grown and what he wants for the village, Fugi grasps how badly he had read his Kazekage.

Elsewhere, Matsuri asks Shira for a bout, wanting proof that their teacher's spirit lives on in them. Shira comes out on top, and Matsuri tries to pass over her group's scroll, only for Team Shira to turn it down since it matches their own. Citing trouble at home in the village, Gaara scraps the final round entirely, and each hopeful's results are written up and shipped to their home Kage for judgment.

Consumed by shame over his plot to unseat Gaara, Fugi takes his own life. Once the reports circulate, Konan elevates Team Ajisai and sends them straight into an S-rank job that costs Ajisai her life, her body later retrieved at a tower. Fu and her squad, meanwhile, walk into an ambush laid by Hidan and Kakuzu.

In Konoha, Tsunade raises Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Sakura, Choji, and Ino to chunin while passing over Team Komugi. Tenten and Lee earn the rank despite never securing both scrolls, and Neji is jumped two tiers to jonin as reward for rescuing the Kazekage. Far away, Naruto and Jiraiya begin the trek home.

This installment belongs to the anime-original In Naruto's Footsteps arc. During the exchange between Shira and Matsuri, one subtitle release misspells the title "Kazekage" as "Kazakage."