Our story begins with Temari and Kankuro being rousted out of bed, their sensei demanding to know where Gaara's gotten off to. It's nice to start things off on a threatening note. At the hospital, Shikamaru's playing some sort of tile game and watching over Naruto, still tuckered out from his rollicking adventures with Chief Toad. It makes me wonder if somebody put Shikamaru up to watching Naruto, since he doesn't strike me as altruistic. Ninja Florist - Sakura's picking a narcissus, and is startled by Ino who tells her if it's for Sasuke, he's not back yet. You'd think Sakura would learn when she goes to Ino's florist shop, she might be there. Sakura says it's for Lee, who no doubt will have an even longer stay after trying to train while half-broken. Speaking of the hospital, the first one to make it is Gaara. Oh, dear. Naruto finally comes to, where he's been out the last three days, and flips out over the tournament being tomorrow, and poor Shikamaru is reintroduced to how quickly Naruto changes gears from 'yelling' to 'yelling even more.' There's even a fruit basket for Naruto. Aww! It was actually for Choji, who got sick from eating too much BBQ. Naruto says it's just like him, and Shikamaru snarks that it's like both Choji and Naruto to not have any female visitors. Hah! Naruto wants to torment Choji by eating in front of him. Shikamaru's right, sometimes that kid is a drag. Geez.
At the hospital reception area, Sakura signs herself in, wondering where everybody's gotten to. A sign on the desk reads 'out to lunch.' The hell? As she's signing, a Gaara-shaped shadow creeps up behind her. OH GOD SAKURA, TURN AROUND! She does, but he's gone. Whew. Lee's room, who's out cold, and Sakura brings him another flower, which is all kinds of sweet. Choji's demolished his hospital food, and is briefly creeped out by the door opening by itself. The fruit basket pokes its head in, and Choji immediately suspects Shikamaru. Gaara's looming over Lee's bed, replaying their fight in his head, particularly Guy saving Lee. He's hit with a migraine, we flash on a younger Gaara and possibly his mother and some other people. Gaara summons up his sand to finish Lee... then stops, finding himself getting punched in the face by Naruto! No, wait, he punched Shikamaru. Oh! Shadow Paralysis hi-jinks. Naruto demands to know what the hell Gaara is doing. It's Ino who's brought Choji the fruitbasket! Choji: "All right! The age of chubby has arrived!" BWHAHAHAHA! Gaara answers Naruto, he was trying to kill him. Dur. Shikamaru asks if Gaara's got beef with Lee because he lost, but Gaara just plain wants to kill him. Naruto asks him how can he be such of a selfish prick, and Shikamaru insightfully asks if Gaara had a messed up childhood. The Sand Ninja calmly replies that if either of the boys get in his way, he'll kill them, too.
Being crafty, Shikamaru tries for a bluff. He spins Gaara a tale about not knowing their true strength, since they didn't show it during the prelims, plus Gaara's handicapped! Like the Eskimo said to the ice salesman, Gaara ain't buying. Naruto's ready to throw down, saying he's got a monster inside him and I guess banking on the Demon Fox to take down Gaara. That's risky. Gaara says he's got something like that inside him, too, and confirms the horrible childhood thing, which started with killing his mother to become the strongest Shinobi possible. He's possessed by a Sand Spirit, Shukaku, the spirit of an angry monk. This is apparently a Jutsu done by horrible, horrible parents. Naruto realizes he has more in common with Naruto than Naruto wants to admit. Shikamaru comments that it must be a sick kind of love to do that to a kid, but Gaara doesn't know the meaning of the word. Family means nothing to him, and his own father's been trying to assassinate him since he was six years old. They were scared their weapon would go out of control, and now just want to bury him and cover up the grave. With a start, Naruto realizes how much that sounds like his life. Huh.
Gaara says that everyone needs a purpose in life, and that he's found his - to kill others, something he taught himself after offing the killers that would regularly come for him. It's the only time he feels joy, and the only time he feels alive. Naruto realizes that while they are the same, he had somebody who realized he was alive, and cared for him, which Gaara never had. Faced with such an amoral Ninja prodigy who he's so alike and so incredibly different from, Naruto thinks there's no way he can beat somebody like this. Gaara senses Naruto's frozen up, and sand starts to swirl around him, freaking out Shikamaru who's still got Gaara under Shadow Paralysis. The sand looks about to crash down on our hero when MIGHT GUY shows up! Thank god. He reminds them to save it for the tournament, and Gaara immediately has a violent flashback to his own mother at Guy's arrival, and it's become obvious that memories of his mother physically hurt the kid. Young Gaara clutching his chest: "There's no blood, but it hurts here." He staggers out, but not before vowing to kill everyone there.
Next Episode: Konohamaru's short cuts!
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