As the battle with Momochi Zabuza resumes, Kakashi stands before Momochi, his knife to the assassin's throat. Momochi says, "You cannot defeat me with just your bad imitations." The second Momochi is also a fake, the real one coming from behind, swinging his sword, which flies free and buries into the ground. Kakashi is driven away by the force of the assault and both fighters enter the water.

     

Kakashi surfaces, feeling the water is unusually heavy. He is trapped by the Hydro-Prison technique in which he is held beneath the surface by Momochi's outstretched arm. It is a trap from which there is no escape.

Momochi announces to his captive that he will finish him off later, but first he will exterminate the child Ninjas and the old man. To the kids he says scornfully, "You three have forehead protectors on as if you are ninjas but ninja refers to someone who has gone through plenty of life and death situations. In other words, when you appear in my bingo book, you can call yourself a ninja. You three aren't ninja."

Naruto watches him disappear, only to reappear again and kick Naruto down. The boy's forehead plate tumbles off, and Momochi grinds it into the ground. From the water prison, Kakashi orders his students to take the old man and run. It is their only hope.

Sasuke knows that to survive, they must save their imprisoned teacher. He charges and unleashes a weapon assault, but his superior enemy catches him by the neck and throws him onto the ground. Zabuza now towers over the frightened Naruto. The pain in the boy's bandaged hand arises, and he remembers his vow to never again be so helpless that someone must rescue him. He must quash his fear and never retreat.

He charges the superior enemy, while in the background Kakashi yells: "Idiot! Stop!" He is kicked back and lies immobile on the ground. Sakura yells at him that they have no way of defeating him no matter what they try. Naruto retrieves his forehead protector and pulls himself to his feet. To his enemy he says, "Hey, no-brow, put this in your bingo book. The man who will become the Hokage of Konoha one day ... Uzumaki Naruto." He calls to Sasuke. He has a plan.

Momochi Zabuza just laughs. "You sure don't learn, do you? Still pretending to be ninja? When I was your age, my hands were already soaked in blood.

Kakashi recalls the The Demon Zabuza's reputation, when the village of the mist was known as the Village of the Bloody Mist, from the final test. Student friends who had eaten from the same pot were separated into groups of two and forced to fight until one was killed. A year later, a small boy who had not even gained the right to become a ninja, had killed all of the candidates - it was Momochi Zabuza. Now he is poised to kill Sasuke.

At that moment, Naruto created a seal, "The shadow replication technique." Momochi appears unimpressed, despite being surrounded by dozens of Narutos. They draw their knives and fall upon Momochi in a mob. With one giant effort, Momochi throws them all back, many of them disappearing. As he flies back, Naruto removes his throwing knife and sends it to the recovering Sasuke, who catches it and opens it, creating the four-sided Fuuma Shuriken, the Shadow windmill.

"A shuriken won't work on me," says Zabuza. Sasuke launches the shuriken with all his might and it spins around the duplicate Zabuza and toward the real one who is holding Kakashi prisoner. The real one catches it in mid-air. Suddenly a second one appears, having been hidden in the shadow of the first. It is a shadow shuriken technique. Zabuza leaps up and easily avoids being hit, but the shuriken transforms into Naruto, who now emerges from behind Momochi and sends his throwing knife toward the surprised enemy.

(Continued in Episode 9)