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Naruto wrestles with fusing the Rasengan to his wind nature. During training, one of his shadow clones slips into a three-tailed Version 1 state and wipes out the rest, until Yamato pins and calms it with his Wood Release: Foo Dog Heads. Flat on the ground as rain starts to fall, Naruto thinks of Sasuke and pushes himself back onto his feet to keep drilling.

At the Akatsuki hideout, Hidan bristles at having to hold position for three days while the Two-Tails is drawn out of its jinchūriki, Yugito Nii. He snaps that he serves his own aims, and the leader counters that membership means advancing the group's real purpose. As one of the newer recruits, Hidan is unaware of the plan, so the leader spells it out: the organisation intends to stir up conflict and profit from war, wielding the tailed beasts to spark more fighting and raise a private mercenary force. Back in Konoha, Izumo, Kotetsu, and Shikamaru deliver news of Asuma's death to Tsunade, and Shikamaru insists on being the one to tell Kurenai, carrying a final message from Asuma.

In the training clearing, Naruto compares the technique to looking left and right at once, and Kakashi demonstrates the answer with a shadow clone. By adding a second clone to shape and apply the wind chakra, Naruto completes his own jutsu, the Wind Release: Rasengan. Kakashi's admission that he has grown fond of him is comically misread before Yamato arrives with word of Asuma. The episode covers chapters 329 and 330 of the Akatsuki Suppression Mission, airing in Japan on 23 October 2008 and in English on 21 May 2011.