Naruto Anime Analysis (Season 5)

Season 5: Episode 216

Source: Wikipedia

"The Targeted Shukaku"

"A group of rogue ninjas from the Takumi Village—called Shitenshonin (Four Celestials in the English dub)—invade the Sand Village and kidnap Matsuri, a Ninja Academy student under Gaara. They seek Gaara's powers to revive their village's ultimate weapon. Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari pursue them with no other help from the Sand Village. Meanwhile, Shikamaru assembles the Konoha 11 (minus Tenten) and splits up into two-man teams: Shikamaru and Ino, Naruto and Lee, and Kiba and Choji. Each 2-man cell will assist one of the Sand Shinobi. Neji and Hinata will avoid combat and scout ahead, while Sakura and Shino act as medical support and command and control (using Shino's bugs to pass along information)."

Analysis

To conclude the anime series, the following five episodes are focused on the Three Sand Siblings: Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari. Moreover, it also showed the Konoha 11 (minus Tenten), who are sent on a mission to assist them. It is reminiscent of the Sasuke incident when Shikamaru's squad didn't get him back. Therefore, Shikamaru must make sure it's successful and doesn't make the same mistake as the Sasuke incident. Lastly, Kakashi is also shown in the next few episodes after a long time of not appearing in other episodes. Other details will be mentioned in the analysis.

The episode starts by showing an exposition of background information and events necessary for understanding the storyline. In the beginning, Kakashi went to the village of artisans that was founded by the late Seimei, a man who founded Takimi Village. He was sent on a mission to investigate the area, so during the night he was hiding behind a bamboo forest. After some time, he summoned his ninja hounds to inform them about a mission. Therefore, a Japanese flute plays in the background to add to the dramatic effect as a dialogue takes place among them:

Pakku: That's the village of artisans unless I'm mistaken.

Kakashi: Yeah, the village has a reputation for creating some of the finest ninja tools around. They are used throughout the five great nations because of their high quality, but rumours have been swirling around lately.

Pakku: What kind of rumours?

Kakashi: Something about them developing an ultimate weapon to attack the five great nations.

Pakku: Uh hah, so then our mission is to infiltrate the village and conduct a search to find out whether this ultimate weapon exists, right?

Kakashi: You got it.

Pakku: Just leave it to us.

Thereafter, the ninja hounds leave to infiltrate and search the village, while Kakashi remains. After some time, Kakashi read the make-out series until he hid the book when Pakku arrived from the underground.

Pakku: Hey, listen, something's weird.

Kakashi (nervous): What? What do you mean?

Pakku (serious): I mean, the entire village is deserted, but I found something even stranger than that.

Kakashi (worried): What?

Pakku leads him to a building that holds the late Seimei's stone coffin. When they got there, the coffin was empty. Therefore, it means that something strange has happened, and since there was a full moon, it symbolises something bad was about to happen. After seeing the coffin was empty, Kakashi said: