The Serpent's Pupil

Orochimaru's borrowed vessel, Gen'yumaru, has begun to reject him, leaving the Sannin hacking up blood and mulling over another body swap. As Kabuto flips through his old Ninja Info Cards from the Chunin Exams three years earlier, Orochimaru recalls their first meeting in the Forest of Death, where he swallowed Sasuke's scroll and made the boy stab his own leg. He knew at once he had found the ideal host after watching Sasuke channel his Sharingan and combine a windmill blade attack with a fire jutsu to burn him.

Orochimaru remembers branding Sasuke with the Cursed Seal of Heaven and his run-in with Anko soon after, then dwells on the exams themselves, from Sasuke resisting Yoroi Akado's chakra drain to finish him with the Lion Combo, to the later bout in which Sasuke turned the Chidori on Gaara. Kabuto quietly reaffirms his devotion, recalling Orochimaru's assault on Konoha, the killing of the Third Hokage and Fourth Kazekage, and his stand against Jiraiya and Tsunade. In Konoha, Tsunade learns her lake squad has vanished and the Three-Tails is gone, so she sends another team.

Sasuke drives a Chidori Sharp Spear through Orochimaru's door aiming for his heart, and the Sannin barely blocks it, marveling at his pupil's mastery. Sasuke declares there is nothing left to learn and refuses to hand over his body now that he has surpassed his mentor, dismissing Orochimaru's craving for Uchiha power as the futile envy of a lesser talent. Enraged, Orochimaru reveals his true form and lunges to seize him, but Sasuke cuts away the binding snakes and, activating the second stage of his cursed seal, likens himself to a hawk that will hunt the grounded serpent. The episode adapts chapters 343 and 344, and features in-scene posters for the Will of Fire film and the tenth anniversary of Naruto.