Shikamaru is still locked in battle with Tayuya who says not only is he smart, he has guts. Shikamaru says it’s against his policy to hit a helpless girl but she’s definitely not a helpless girl. He tries to punch her but she catches his fist. He tries to strangle her with his shadow but she uses more chakra and her horns get longer and she forces his shadow back.

Meanwhile Kiba grinds some herbs and makes a poultice for Akamaru and himself. He smells someone coming and has to run again.

Kimimaro destroys all of Naruto’s clone. The barrel’s seals break and then it explodes! Sasuke appears with dark grey hair sticking up and the cursed seal activated, but then he returns to his normal state. Naruto tentatively smiles, laughs and tells him to come back. Sasuke starts to chuckle and then leaps away. Kimimaro appears behind Naruto and is about to slice him when Lee appears out of nowhere and kicks him back. Kimimaro asks who he is and Lee replies "Revived from Konoha as the admirable green beast Rock Lee!" Naruto asks him about his body but Lee tells him to go after Sasuke. Naruto tells Lee that Kimimaro uses his bones to attack and is extremely strong. Lee gives Naruto the thumbs up nice guy pose and reminds him of his promise to Sakura. Kimimaro runs after Naruto and is about to strike him with his bone sword but Lee catches it with his hands. Lee swings around and crashes his leg down onto Kimimaro’s shoulder.

Meanwhile back in Konoha, Genma and Raidou are lying on hospital beds. Genma says to Tsunade that if Sasuke was in the barrel then there’s no way a group of genins could defeat them when jounins were defeated and a special team should be formed to back them up. Tsunade says they can’t since Konoha has lost power since the raid by Orochimaru. Jounins and chuunins have been sent to deal with threats to the country, both internal and external. Even if Orochimaru gets the sharingan, averting war with other countries is the top priority. Raidou points out that once Orochimaru regains his powers he’ll immediately… But Tsunade says she’s thought about it and made her move. Suddenly a doctor and Gai appear by the doorway. Gai crashes to the floor, all worn out. He ran to the hospital immediately after his mission and wants to know about Lee’s surgery. Tsuande tells him it was a success and he’ll be able to resume training tomorrow. Another doctor comes by and tells them Lee has disappeared! Gai screams in anguish!

Lee attacks Kimimaro with a series of kicks and manages to connect a punch, but Kimimaro gets up and readjusts his shoulder.

Tsunade notes that Lee probably left in the evening when she was treating Raidou and Genma. He was in a rush and took her sake bottle instead of his medicine. Gai is visibly upset and explains that if Lee drinks even a sip of sake it will be terrible! Lee is a natural Suiken (drunken fist) user.

Lee uses Konoha dai senpuu (great spinning wind) – another series of kicks, but Kimimaro avoids them all. Lee says to Kimimaro that he’s surprisingly strong and moves in a unique way. Kimimaro responds that Lee’s moves are too direct. Lee attacks directly again, misses and falls to the ground. Kimimaro is about to strike him with his sword but Lee hold up his hand and says "Please Wait!" he has to take his medicine. Kimimaro relents and Lee takes out the sake bottle. He says since he was little he never liked medicine.

Gai explains when Lee learned Ura Renge (Primary Lotus) they went to a restaurant to celebrate. Lee mistakenly drank his sake and ended up destroying the restaurant.

Lee drinks several gulps of the sake and comments that medicine always has a weird taste and starts to stagger around and hiccups. He loses his politeness, his personality changes and he swears at Kimimaro!

Kiba wades through the river again. Shikamaru is still locked in battle with Tayuya. Naruto continues to run after Sasuke.

Review:

Not too much action but at least we find out what happened to Genma and Raidou. Good to see Lee back in action!

Notes:

Sasuke laughs for the first time in the entire series.

Thoughts:

Genma and Raidou did not get private rooms. Lee and Sasuke had their own rooms but maybe because that was more long term.

Why is Tsunade walking around the hospital with a sake bottle?

Lee apparently needed no recuperation! It seemed he had his operation after the team left Konoha so it’s only been a day.

Kimimaro is either super-confident, super-nice, or super-stupid to allow an opponent a chance to take a substance which will allow him to continue to fight!