Naruto's Favourite Pupil

is episode 234 of the Naruto: Shippūden anime.

Sumary
Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi are training to prepare for the upcoming war. After heading to the hospital, Sakura makes them carry and stock boxes. Konohamaru, wanting something more important to do leaves with his team ranting. Shikamaru asks Konohamaru who the "King" was and writes the kanji for King on a stone shaped like a shōgi piece and gives it to him. Konohamaru then goes to see Tsunade who outright says no. Frustrated after seeing Temari who was there to deliver a message from Suna as well as check on the progress of the village after Pain's invasion, Konohamaru later challenges Temari while she is on her way home. The two have an intense spar with Konohamaru being unable to land an attack on Temari. Eventually after Temari taunts him that the Sarutobi clan was left with no good heir and that Naruto had a poor pupil. The two almost end up severely harming each other but the fight is stopped by Shikamaru who had been informed of Konohamaru's intentions by Udon and Moegi. After hearing Moegi's story, Konohamaru realises that the 'King' he wanted to protect were the civilians of the village who were unable to defend themselves. Shikamaru smiles at him because Konohamaru correctly answered Asuma Sarutobi's riddle that he shared with Shikamaru. Temari compliments him for mastering such a high-level technique and then Team Ebisu for being such promising young shinobi and then leaves for Sunagakure to report to Gaara about everything that happened.

Trivia

 * In this episode, Shikamaru uses the Shadow–Neck Binding Technique in a similar manner to the Shadow Sewing Technique. This is most likely an animation error.