The Final Rounds: Rush to the Battle Arena!


 * Name:
 * Episode Number: Naruto Episode 59

Synopsis of Last Episode
The last episode was Hospital Besieged: The Evil Hand Revealed!. Naruto rests at the hospital, and gets a visit from Shikamaru. Naruto then complains that the Chunin Exams were tomorrow. Shikamaru finally calms him down. Sakura pays a visit to Naruto and Lee. But, Gaara pays a visit to Lee and tries to kill him! Naruto and Shikamaru stops him and asks why. Gaara explains that he just wanted to kill him. He then started to explain his childhood, of how a sand spirit was put inside him before birth. Naruto then suddenly fears Gaara and he tries to kill both Shikamaru and Naruto. Guy intervenes and Gaara leaves saying he’ll kill them both.

Plot
The episode starts off when in the battle arena in which the Chunin Exams take place. In the front gate of the arena, stood Naruto. “Tommorow…” was all Naruto could say. The scene changes to Ichiraku Ramen Bar, where Naruto simply sat with no ramen. Teuchi gives Ayame a huge bowl of ramen and then gives to Naruto. Confused, “uh, Mr. Chef?” Teuchi only replies to eat up since Naruto was in the final competition. Naruto replies, “Okay! Thanks a lot Mr. Chef!”

The scene changes to a bar, in which Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, and Choza Akimichi are drunk. “Hey, I know how you feel (half drunk), daughters are a real drag.” Inoichi replies. “Yep, I know how it feels like.” Choza then said. “Bah! It’s not it really cares. Here, mister! One more order here;” He shows the waiter the menu. “These two pages, everything on ‘em!” To their right, the door opens and Shikamaru comes in. “Wohoo! Reinforcements! Come in and order something from this menu!” Choza shouted out. Ignoring him, Shikamaru goes up to his dad and says. “Hey, dad. Can we go home already?” Shikaku grunts and looks up at Shikamaru, “Wha? Listen, don’t be a drag; you’re supposed to live up at this festival.” He then chugs almost all the liquor from the small box he’s holding. Shikamaru then doesn’t care and says that he’s in the final competition and doesn’t want to babysit his father. “Wha? You’re in it? Seriously?” Shikamaru was shocked of how drunk he is and says: “Nevermind. Just forget it.”

The scene changes out the road of Konoha, Naruto seems to walk by himself with everyone talking. He looks down and can’t seem to talk. Temari and Kankuro prepares their weapons and thinks about tomorrow. Gaara was up on the roof of their apartment and says: “Tomorrow…is a full moon.” Back at Naruto’s bed, Naruto simply looks outside and can’t seem to sleep.

On the next day, everyone seems to get ready for the Chunin Exam. Out on the woods, stood Neji, in which a lot of Kunais and other weapons were on the floor, circling Neji. “You did it. Not even a scratch.” Tenten said to Neji. “All right, that’s enough for warm up, let’s go.” Shino looks out a river and looks at his destruction bugs on his hands. Naruto wakes up from the alarm. ‘’So much for good sleep, I felt so nervous. And right off the bat is him…” Naruto then thinks back when Kakashi said about opening points of chakra in which the Sharingan can’t see. Naruto also thinks back when Lee said that Neji Hyuga is the strongest Leaf Genin from last year. Naruto simply looks, daydreaming.

The scene changes to the front gate of Konoha, the visitors come in and Third Hokage says it begins. Naruto walks to the front gate and hears a conversation. “Hey, the first match is Neji Hyuga right?” “Yeah! There’s no way we can simply miss that match! He’s of course going to win.” Naruto then stops on the road and starts laughing. “Hey! I can summon a huge toad now. Hahahaha.” Naruto was back into his own mood, all those scary people, they look so tough. The scene changes to where Naruto goes to a training site and sees Hinata at one of the posts. “Hinata? You already recovered from your injuries?” Hinata was shocked to see Naruto and immediately hides behind the post. “Uh, what are you doing here Naruto? Doesn’t the Chunin Exam start today?”

Naruto replies it is and says that wanted to pay a visit here because this was the place where he became Genin. Hinata still asks why he’s here. “oh, oh, it’s nothing.” Naruto turns away from Hinata, “It’s not like it really matters, now does it?” Hinata then apologizes. Naruto sighs and asks that Neji is a relative of Hinata, in which Hinata said yes. Naruto then said that he was strong, Hinata then says yes again. Naruto seems to look depressed, and Hinata notices and says: “But you’re strong too.” Naruto then agrees and laughs that he is. After some 10 second silence, Hinata started to talk.

“You know at the time when you cheered for me? It just felt like that I got even stronger. I started to like myself more after the prelims and I think I changed…It’s all thanks to you, Naruto.” Hinata then returns to her index finger pointing. Naruto then grins happily: “Really? I must really be influential!” Naruto then looks down. “Hey, Hinata, I may look strong to you, but I just always act tough and I end up failing in frustration.” From hearing that, Hinata abruptly said: “That’s not true! In my eyes, I think that you’re a proud failure. You always have the guts and determination to go back up, even when you fail. I’m not saying that you’re perfect or anything, it’s that, you’re an incredibly strong person.” Naruto stares in shock, and finally does a real happy smile. “Thanks, Hinata. I was really depressed to verse Neji, but now I feel like I can verse anybody.” Naruto then turns to leave. He turns back and says: “You know Hinata; I always thought you’re…” ''Thought what? What?'' “Gloomy, timid, always terrified and basically completely weird.” Hinata immediately looks down and sighs. Naruto then turns to leave and says: “But, I like people like you.” Naruto’s "people like you" words echoed through Hinata’s head. Naruto also said: “Hey, also watch me wipe the floor with Neji!” In front of him, he suddenly sees fireworks from the stadium. “Oh no! I’m late! I gotta go, Hinata. See ya.” Hinata watches Naruto until he was out of sight. Just after Naruto was out of sight, Kiba comes in with Akamaru and says: “Hey, Hinata. Sorry I’m late, after all, Shino’s battle is later. Huh?” He notices Hinata looking out at space. “Hey, what’s up with you?” Kiba then looks at where Hinata looks, in confusion.

The scene changes back to a road of Konoha and Naruto was running wildly. Out of nowhere, he hears: “Hey, Naruto!” He stops and sees Konohamaru on an alley. Konohamaru then says that he can take Naruto to a shortcut that will lead to the battle arena. “Oh thanks, Konohamaru, you’re a lifesaver!” Konohamaru then says that he knows. “Now, it should be somewhere around here. Ah! Found it.” Konohamaru found a fence and sees new wood (which is actually metal). He breaks it open, only to find another patch. “Um, sorry to disappoint you, but it seems to be barricaded.” Shocked, Naruto decides not to waste any more time. But, Konohamaru grabs Naruto and says that he knows another way.

The scene changes to an unknown area in which Konohamaru opens up a sewer pipe (in which it turns out to be a slide). Cautious, Naruto and Konohamaru jumps in. Naruto then got scared and said: “Are you sure this is the way?” Konohamaru replies that it is and he sees the exit. Naruto, excited got ready to make an entrée. Only to come out of a tree, to enter a hot spring unexpectedly. “HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT!” Naruto said as he tried to get out and tread. Konohamaru then tries to defend himself with his hands and said: “Now then, don’t be too mad. I’m pretty sure something was wrong.” Naruto then cracked his knuckles and was ready to punch Konohamaru. “Konohamaru! How did we end up in the hot springs!? And now we’re farther from the battle arena! And how did we get off from a tree!?” Konohamaru then says that there must be something else to get to the battle arena. Just when he said it, he spotted a bull. “AHA!” while Naruto seems to be confused.

Konohamaru then gets a bull ready for Naruto (while he sighs at the idea). “You expect me to ride on a bull?” Konohamaru then says: “Not just any bull, this bull is really special. This bull is so special that it can outrun a horse.” Naruto thinks up an image and says: “Cool!” Naruto then gets on the bull, and Konohamaru says good luck to him. Naruto kicks the bull like he was supposed to kick a horse, but immediately fell down in front of the animal as the bull got mad. The bull then suddenly looks at Naruto’s back and his right front foot moved on the ground. The bull had his nose blowing, looking at the red logo on Naruto’s jumpsuit. At the instance, Naruto immediately ran for his life while the bull started to yell. Konohamaru then says: “Good luck! Naruto!” and waves good-bye to him.

Back at the battle arena, many people were missing. Sakura and Ino were surprised to see that Sasuke and Naruto weren’t there. Shikamaru is surprised that his opponent, Dosu wasn’t here. Back at the roads, Naruto was still in his bullchase and other bulls seem to be attracted to Naruto’s red logo and started to follow as well. To break up the number of bulls, Naruto used Shadow Clone Jutsu and he divided up the bulls. In a matter of seconds, even more bulls than before came and all the Narutos grouped up again. “Hey! What happened? You’re objective was to split up all of the bulls!” The original one said. “Yeah! But when we broke up, we even attracted even more bulls!” The clone said. “All right, we’ve got no choice but to run!” The original one said and all the clones started to yell and run.

Conclusion
About 10 meters away from the battle arena, the Jonins guarding the front door sees a group of people that is the same person. “Naruto Uzumaki?” said one Jonin in confusion. The Narutos then slammed into the Jonins who tried to block them.

“Oh please, let me go.”

“Watch out! We have to go!”

“Come on, we need to hurry.”

“Oh no, they’re going to come.” All the clones said.

“Eh, Naruto, you’re too late to enter.” The Jonin said.

From the road to the battle arena, was the horde of bulls. All the clones, and Jonins were surprised to see what was in front of them. Before any of the people could react, they rampaged and the clones disappeared while the original Naruto went flying inside and made an entrance to the battle arena and landed hard. Everyone watched in shocked to see what happened. Shikamaru then went up to Naruto. He sure knows how to make an entrance, idiot. Shikamaru picks up Naruto and he wakes up. “What?! Everyone, watch out! A lot of bulls are going to come!” Shikamaru, confused, asked what happened. “Come on, you have to listen to me! They’re going to come!” The proctor says: “Hey! Quit fidgetting, you two! Face the audience, from here on and out, you guys are heroes out in this area.”

Trivia

 * The chasing bull part wasn’t added into the manga, this was added for filler part reasons.
 * The entrance that Naruto made was ironically related to the time in Pamplona, Spain. This is when people race in to the bullfight on narrow streets and try their best to get into the stadium.
 * Hinata and Naruto seem to have a better relationship in this episode.
 * When Naruto went up to Hinata, Hinata stepped back even more on the post. When Naruto thanks Hinata, she steps up a little further.

Next Episode
Episode 60

Byakugan vs. Shadow Clone Jutsu!