The Jinchūriki of the Sand

is episode 4 of the Naruto: Shippūden anime.

Synopsis
As soon as Deidara begins feeding his mouth hands clay, Gaara goes on the offensive and sends his sand after the Akatsuki member. Deidara jumps onto his bird and begins flying all throughout the village with Gaara’s sand right behind him. Just when Deidara believes that he is in the clear, he’s attacked from all sides. While Deidara is a bit surprised that Gaara was able to notice him so quickly, Gaara tells him that birds like the one that Deidara is riding do not exist in the desert. Begin episode.

Gaara jumps onto a pillar of sand that begins to ascend into the air until he is level with Deidara. A Suna guard overhears the commotion and comes outside, only to encounter one of the men who had been blown away by Deidara’s clay spiders. Kankuro speaks with another guard about how nothing big should have happened, since Yuura was known for keeping the village’s security up. Yuura, however, is nowhere to be found, since he is currently with Sasori, who tells Yuura that he should return to his village because there will be even more problems if the villagers found out he was involved with Akatsuki.

Back in the air, Gaara summons a large wave of sand to overtake Deidara.

Back with the bell test, Naruto and Sakura still have not gotten the bells from Kakashi yet, and dawn will be coming soon. When Sakura goes on for the strike, Kakashi kicks her and its revealed that it was only one of Naruto’s shadow clones that transformed into Sakura. The real one comes from above with her fist radiating with chakra. Kakashi narrowly avoids the punch as it creates a huge crater in the ground. It’s time for Shinobi Tactic #3: Ninjutsu. Kakashi begins forming seals at a rapid rate and uses Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Naruto and Sakura avoid the fireball, but Naruto is driven into the ground, quite literally, when Kakashi’s hand surfaces from the earth and he uses Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu. While it seems that Naruto is stuck in the ground, it’s only another Shadow clone. Naruto and Sakura charge at Kakashi, who begins forming seals rapidly once again. This time, it’s Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu. The huge waterfall overtakes both Naruto and Sakura.

They didn’t call Kakashi a Copy Ninja for nothing.

Deidara creates several exploding clay birds as the arm of Shukaku chases him. The birds, once sent, detonate on various areas of the sand, but nothing serious happens as a result of this. In Konoha, Naruto and Sakura begin contemplating another plan to get the bells, but remember that Kakashi is no pushover: he’s smarter than Shikamaru, has a better sense of smell than Kiba, knows taijutsu better than Lee, and can use his Sharingan better than Sasuke, as well as having more experience. It seems that the match is a bit one sided and Naruto and Sakura are at an extreme disadvantage, since Kakashi has never shown any weakness. While it seems that all is lost, Naruto comes to a realization that Kakashi has had a weakness all of this time, and if they had paid any attention to how much time they’ve spent with Kakashi, they would have noticed the weakness a lot sooner.

Kakashi, on the other hand, can’t believe that he’s been forced to use the Sharingan this much. What he would prefer right now is to continue reading Make-Out Tactics, since there’s apparently something dramatic involving the main character. As much as he’d like to read it, he’ll have to hold off Naruto and Sakura until dawn before anything can happen.

Deidara’s birds begin moving a lot faster and are able to bypass all of the sand obstacles. Deidara detonates the birds.

Naruto and Sakura make their move, but the difference is that Naruto threatens to reveal the ending of Icha Icha Tactics and what the secret is about the main character. Kakashi covers his ears and closes his eyes since he could easily read Naruto’s lips with the Sharingan.

When he opens his eyes, Naruto and Sakura are each holding one bell, quoting their sensei: “A ninja must read what’s underneath the underneath.”

Despite actually losing the test, Kakashi, along with his students, have a good laugh at this predicament. Gaara has concealed himself within his ultimate defense and the third eye on the outside, watching Deidara. Suddenly, Deidara is overtaken on all sides and surrounded by sand claws. The episode comes to a close as Gaara prepares to use Sand Coffin.