Episode 36: Clone vs. Clone: Mine are Better than Yours!

Squad Seven and Kabuto are surrounded by lots of Grass Village clones. Seizing the initative, Naruto leaps forward to smack down one of the Grass clones, and punches through him. It's like Zabuza's water clones, only way more messy, and also with a dose of T-1000 liquid metal. Sasuke flicks on his Sharingan, and is able to slice up the clone's arm before he can cut Naruto down, and Kabuto prevents Sasuke from getting a knife in the neck. His Curse Mark's starting to act up, too, which is the perfect end to the perfect day. These Shadow Clones don't act a thing like Naruto's, according to Sasuke because it's Genjutsu, with Kabuto pointing out somebody else is pulling their strings. The Grass clones are just harriers, wearing the Leaf Village crew until the real Grassers can walk in and take their scroll. Seven ducks kunai, and Naruto goes for his own Shadow Clone, though Kabuto doesn't want him wasting his Chakra. Naruto thinks that there's no way his blunderbuss approach won't work, and it does admittedly shock the Grassers as Naruto's clones tear through the other clones. It doesn't do much more than give us some cool reforming effects. Sasuke decides they've got to choice but to do it and weigh in with Naruto.

Morning, and things didn't go well. Mubi (the cloner), finally calls off his clones as the Grassers move in for the kill, the one whose shoulder Sasuke injured earlier wanting to settle the score. Then the voices of the Leafers start to come from behind the Grass Villagers, and the Squad Seven the Grassers were taunting turns out to be a Transformation/Shadow Clone combo of Naruto's. Nice! I wonder why the Grass Villagers all wear the funky respirators. Naruto's about out of Chakra and Sasuke wants to finish it, but Naruto isn't having that, getting all three Grassers with one blow. Sasuke's blown away by how much Naruto's improved, and the Grassers are just plain shocked. Kabuto's amazed Naruto's been able to keep up this well, too. The Grass Ninja shake off this latest setback, switching from Genjutsu to Ninjutsu - Fog Clone Jutsu, but it's just regular clones. Naruto decides to Shadow Clone again to try and hit the real Grassers, and Kabuto leaps to help. The Curse Mark pains Sasuke whenever he uses Sharingan, which? Fascinating. Naruto leaves himself open to one of the real Grass Ninja cutting Kabuto good in the leg. Seven picks an inoppurtune time to bicker, and Naruto's out of Chakra. The Grassers were using Earth Style Jutsu to hide underground the whole time, and Kabuto gets cut good on the face, and looks pissed. Naruto does an awesome flip kick to take all three down while they were distracted.

Naruto's rifling through the Grass Villagers, and finds the scroll they need. Kabuto thinks the Curse Mark is a bruise, and there's something in Kabuto Sasuke doesn't like. Kabuto's squad rejoins him at the base of the tower, and he compliments Naruto in a nice moment (because any time Naruto gets complimented I find it's a nice moment). Inside the tower, Kabuto hands off his Ninja Card chock-full of Sasuke-data, to... Orochimaru! Face/heel turn! Squad Seven can't go any further, blocked by an adventure game puzzle. I wonder how the hell [i]Squad Ten[/i] figured it out - it doesn't appear to be food-related so Choji's useless, Ino's Ino, so maybe Shikamaru? Er, DIGRESSION. Sakura's got a clue, thankfully, and decides now you can open both scrolls without something horrible happening. As they start to do so, that's when we fade out.

Next Episode: All the supporting characters we like!