Meanwhile, team Kakashi takes a short rest for the night. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi and Temari move through the forest and recall their past about Gaara and how he countered his beast, about the chunin exams and Sasuke.ĭeidara and Sasori follow the tracks to their destination while Chiyo and her brother try to use all of their knowledge and jutsu to try to heal Kankuro. Temari gets the bad news and joins Team Kakshi to search for Gaara. The Sand Village repairs the damages around the mountain area and remove the explosives set on the walls.
Tsunade, immediately understanding the emergency, assigns Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi to rescue Gaara. An expert deciphers the letter and reports that Gaara, the Kazekage of the Sand has been attacked and kidnapped by a bandit. The Hidden Leaf receives the emergency letter from the Sand village. Kankuro ignores Baki’s efforts to stop him and immediately sets out in pursuit with a platoon to rescue Gaara. Gaara, his strength completely exhausted, is whisked away by Deidara. However, this provides Deidara with the opportunity to capture Gaara. In order to protect his village from Deidara’s explosive clay, Gaara uses his chakra to create a giant sand shield. Naruto and Sakura defeat Kakashi in the survival challenge and Tsunade assigns them to a new three-man squad led by Kakashi, who tells them they are now his equals. Gaara is quick to detect Deidara’s presence, and an aerial battle ensues with Deidara on his giant paper bird and Gaara atop sand. The combination of Naruto and Sakura’s new powerful techniques forces Kakashi to use his Sharingan right off the bat.
Learning that all of his friends now outrank him, Naruto gives a copy of Jiraiya's new book Make-Out Tactics to Kakashi Hatake, who challenges Naruto and Sakura to the bell retrieval test to evaluate their new skills. It’s an older Naruto, who has returned from a two and a half year training journey with Jiraiya. Kakashi then asks Konohamaru to record a message from the Kazekage but Gaara is shy and uses his sand to blow Kakashi and Kankuro away.A figure passes through the gates of the village hidden in the leaves. Kakashi agrees with everyone and goes to Gaara to ask for extra shinobi guards, which he agrees. Tsunade reveals she made up the rule of the mission due to a lot of weddings during the war. Everyone however compromises to be in guard and switch shifts together so everyone can attend. Hinata asks Kakashi to let her clansmen serve as security but Kakashi refuses and vows to resolve it. He tells the others and Hinata overhears this, and is distressed.
Konohamaru is about to turn in his video message when he overheard Kakashi talking with Tsunade about the mission. Hinata then meets with Kiba and Shino, who also nearly reveal the mission. Hinata had lunch with Sakura, Ino, and Tenten, who all nearly reveal the mission. He goes for a walk to clear his head and runs into Hinata, who reports Naruto has been helpful with the wedding preparations. Kakashi starts to worry over the mission because everyone had bought extravagant gifts for the wedding and thinks he is being unfair because the five Kage will be attending, thus the need for several shinobi to be on guard.