Episode Summaries

While hiding under a tree, Sakura tends to Sasuke and Naruto's wounds, even though severely sleep-deprived. Alerted from a daze by a squirrel, Sakura quickly wards it off with a kunai, ignorant to the fact that Team Dosu had sent the squirrel there with an explosive tag on its back. While en route to find a second scroll, Rock Lee stops on a branch, and sets himself the task of catching all the leaves that had fallen, believing that if he did, Sakura would fall in love with him. After catching 19 of the 20 leaves, he spots a squirrel with an explosive tag on its back, and saves it before destroying the explosive tag. Dosu and his squad challenge Sasuke, but Sakura, prepared to defend her comrades, sets off several traps at the enemy shinobi. Unfortunately, Dosu manages to destroy the trap with ease, and shortly after that makes a remark about how Sakura has no right to be a ninja. Just before they could land their attack, however, Rock Lee shows up and knocks the three of them away. Declaring as he made his entrance that he would protect Sakura until he dies, Lee uses his brute strength to pull up an underground root to block an incoming attack by Dosu. As the battle ensued, Lee prepared to use the Front Lotus after deeming that it met the criteria that his teacher, Might Guy, told him had to be met in order to use it (to protect the people most precious to him). Lee is then able to catch Dosu and use the technique, but the force of impact is cushioned by Zaku, and Dosu is saved. Unable to move as his body is recuperating from the strain of using the Front Lotus, Dosu incapacitates Lee with his own technique, which he claims is faster than Lee's taijutsu since it works at the speed of sound.