The Burden

Synopsis
Kakashi finds the unconscious Kiba, Akamaru, Lee, and Sai in a wooded path and manages to briefly render Kiba conscious long enough to find out where Sakura had gone. At the Samurai Bridge, Sakura tells Sasuke that she has defected from Konoha and wishes to join him. Sasuke alerts her that his goal is to destroy Konoha and that if she still wishes to join him, she must kill Karin, claiming she'd be a perfect replacement as she is a medic-nin as well. Sakura pulls out a kunai and walks up to Karin but hesitates to kill her. Sasuke, in turn, forms a Chidori in his left hand and prepares to kill Sakura from behind, only for the attack to be blocked by Kakashi, who realises in shock that Sasuke had intended to murder her and exclaims how far Sasuke had fallen.

Kakashi tells Sakura to take Karin elsewhere and to heal her since she possesses a lot of information on their enemies while, as their teacher and the one responsible for letting the situation come to a head the way it had, he deals with Sasuke. Kakashi recalls when he used to wonder how the Third Hokage still had a soft spot for Orochimaru despite everything Orochimaru had done and how the Hokage had no choice but to fight his former student to the death, and finally comes to understand himself how the Third felt. Sasuke summons shuriken from his bracelets and throws them towards Kakashi, who blocks it with his Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall. Sasuke leaps over the wall and prepares to finish off Kakashi with his Chidori Sharp Spear, but Kakashi jumps off the bridge to evade the attack.

Sasuke praises Kakashi's usage of his Sharingan, albeit insulted that a non-Uchiha is using it. He notifies Kakashi that only a true member of the Uchiha clan can use it effectively, and forms his Susanoo. Sasuke has the Susanoo fire an arrow at Kakashi, who uses Kamui to warp the arrow away. Sasuke is impressed that Kakashi was able to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan and attempts to use the Susanoo once more, only for his vision to become blurred; as a result, his Susanoo and his Sharingan deactivate. Kakashi attempts to convince Sasuke to change his ways, repeating what he once told Sasuke about how revenge does not get anyone anywhere; Sasuke retorts that Kakashi should stop talking as if he was his sensei and exclaims that he would only stop his tirade if Kakashi could bring his father, mother, and brother back to him. Sakura, who has finished healing Karin, sneaks up behind Sasuke, recalling her memories of Sasuke, back when they had passed the bell test as well as her conversation with Sasuke before he defected from Konoha. She holds a kunai to his back, finding herself unable to kill him. Sasuke turns around and grabs her throat with one hand while prying the kunai out with the other. Kakashi, weakened by the Mangekyō, is unable to stop him as Sasuke attempts to kill Sakura, only for Naruto to arrive in the nick of time and whisk Sakura out of harm's way.

Trivia

 * This episode has a few animation errors:
 * Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan is inaccurately depicted as having a red design on a black background, though this error was fixed in episode 215.
 * Sasuke's Susanoo is incorrectly depicted with five fingers instead of six, holding a gourd in the secondary right hand instead of an Amaterasu orb in the primary right hand and the bow in the left hand instead of nothing. Its teeth are also depicted incorrectly.