Naruto's Ninja Handbook

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Naruto's Ninja Handbook
Premiere date:	7 April 2004
Episode Length:	24.5 minutes
Episode Code:	078
Episode Airdate:	7 April 2004 10 March 2007
Manga Arc:	Invasion of Konoha

Naruto's Ninja Handbook (Japanese: 爆発！これぞナルト忍法帖～～っ！！, - Bakuhatsu! Korezo Naruto ninpōchō~~!!) is episode 78 of the anime series Naruto. The episode is part of the Invasion of Konoha arc, and is the first half of the climatic battle between Naruto and Gaara. This episode brought "Go!" as the opening theme.

[edit] Plot

Naruto has decided to stop playing nice and vows to protect his friends. Seeing Sakura slowly getting killed by Gaara's sand further motivates Naruto to stop Gaara so that Sakura will be freed.

Naruto decides to use Kakashi's "other original move". Naruto wraps an explosive scroll on a kunai, and begins his assault. Naruto does Kage Bunshin to make four clones. Three are captured by one of Gaara's arms, but the one that is at the top grabs the real Naruto and flings him toward Gaara. Naruto then does another Kage Bunshin, who are captured by Gaara's other arm. Again, the top-most one flings Naruto toward Gaara. Last, Naruto does another Kage Bunshin to fling himself below the branch Gaara stood on, and then swing himself onto the branch right behind Gaara. Naruto then performs "A Thousand Years of Death", sticking the kunai into Gaara's behind. Naruto is then whacked away by Gaara's tail. Gamakichi, Temari, and Pakkun are not impressed by Naruto's move, but that changes when the explosive tag suddenly goes off, greatly damaging Gaara's protective sand armor. Since the armor was very weak at the base of the tail, Gaara himself suffered some damage.

Sasuke tells Naruto to hurry up and save Sakura, then run. Sasuke will deal with Gaara. Remembering how everybody he knew was killed, Sasuke vows that he will not lose anybody important to him again, professing that Naruto was indeed his friend. Naruto then remembers Haku's words, that it was most important to protect those you love. Seeing Sasuke barely able to do anything due to the activation of the Cursed Seal of Heaven, Naruto gathers great amounts of chakra to create 1,999 clones, then begins his attack.

Naruto starts off with all the clones throwing shuriken at Gaara, who cannot dodge it because of Naruto's previous attack. Gaara had to use the sand armor to absorb all the shuriken. This creates an opening for Naruto, who performs his Uzumaki Naruto combo, propelling Gaara into the air, and then using 1,000 fists to punch Gaara. Last, Naruto has two clones punch Gaara down to complete the combo, and Gaara gets stomped to the ground.

Temari is surprised that Naruto is actually winning against Gaara in his current state. However, Gaara cannot suffer the humiliation of getting beaten by Naruto, and changes to his perfect form - Shukaku - a humongous tanuki (Raccoon dog) made up of sand. All the clones are destroyed by the humongous tanuki suddenly popping out into the air. Gaara then does Sand Coffin to enclose Naruto, and then prepares to do Sand Burial. However, before Gaara can finish Naruto off, Naruto calls upon the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra and summons Gamabunta, which releases him from Sand Coffin. Sasuke watches helplessly, realizing just how much stronger Naruto has grown. Temari realizes that she is in dangerous ground, and runs.

At first, Gamabunta does not want to fight Shukaku, saying that although Naruto is his subordinate, they have not had a drink together yet. However, Gamakichi tells Gamabunta that Shukaku was bullying him, and Naruto was fighting well against Gaara until Shukaku came. Gamabunta is thus motivated, and officially accepts Naruto. Using his huge sword, Gamabunta was able to cut off an arm of Shukaku, which then disintegrates into sand. Gamabunta does note that Shukaku was so heavy, that it took all of Gamabunta's strength to cut off that arm.

Gaara gets excited, telling Naruto that he is very interesting. Gaara then performs Forced Sleep Jutsu, which allows Shukaku's real personality to surface, showing the real power of the one-tailed demon tanuki. Shukaku spits out air bullets full of chakra, while Gamabunta counters with water bullets, but one air bullet does hit Gamabunta. Gamabunta realizes that he himself cannot take another one of those hits, and also realizes that Shukaku was getting stronger and stronger as time passed. Gamabunta tells Naruto that he must wake Gaara up, and since Gaara just got asleep, it shouldn't take much to wake Gaara up. However, it is very hard for Gamabunta to grab hold of Shukaku so Naruto can punch Gaara, and Gamabunta is not good at transforming. Gamabunta tells Naruto that they will do a "combination-transformation", and Naruto must turn them into something with fangs and claws. Before Naruto could think up something, Gamabunta starts charging.

As Gamabunta charges, Naruto tries to think of something with fangs and claws. The first thing that comes to mind was when Naruto had the strange red chakra during his fight with Haku, and Naruto remembers that the chakra took on the shape of a nine-tailed fox, the Kyūbi. Thus, Naruto does Henge no Jutsu, and out of the smoke comes the Kyuūbi.

[edit] Trivia

• Original title: "Explosion! These Are the Naruto Ninja Chronicles!"

• In the english version this is the first episode to use the exact same opening to the series instead of making new ones using the original music.

• In the English dub they refer to the part about Gamabunta and Naruto having to toast sake to make their partnership complete as "sealing the deal".

• Gamakichi refers to Sakura as Naruto's "this" and raises his pinky, meaning that Sakura is Naruto's "significant other". Naruto fails to correct Gamakichi on this point.

• In the dub, Gamakichi directly says "his little girlfriend". Naruto still fails to correct him.

• Gamabunta refers to Gaara as being the "spiritualist medium" as he and Naruto charge Shuukaku in the US dub. In the original manga, the last chapter in Volume 15, the term is "reibai" meaning, "The person who is possessed [by a demon]."

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