Zero Hour! The Konoha Crush Begins!

The assault opens with Orochimaru grabbing the Third Hokage as his prisoner while the Sound Four throw up a purple barrier that walls off the fight from any rescue. An Anbu chasing the group brushes the wall and is killed on contact. At the same time, Sand shinobi call up an enormous serpent that smashes straight through the village defenses, and ninja from the Sound and Sand villages pour into Konoha as skirmishes flare through the streets.

Kankurō and Temari haul the unstable Gaara out of the village so he can recover his strength, with Sasuke giving chase, hungry to settle their unfinished duel. Kakashi, busy holding off the attackers, turns to Sakura, who has shaken off the sleep-inducing genjutsu, and instructs her to wake Naruto and Shikamaru. He tells her a real mission awaits them for the first time in a while, and that it carries an A-rank classification.

This installment marks the true start of the Konoha Crush, adapting chapters 115 and 116. It juggles several fronts at once, from the sealed rooftop standoff to the breach in the walls to Sasuke's pursuit of Gaara, setting up the wider defense of the village. The episode aired in Japan on January 28, 2004, opening with Turning Sadness Into Kindness and closing on Alive. It also carries the alternate title Zero Hour! The Destruction of the Hidden Leaf Village Begins!