Original subtitles

Ino, Choji.

Let's get this over with and go home.

Yeah, we got it! Innat right, Choji?

Huh?

Choji?!

Aaahhh!

Ugh, that idiot!

[Shikamaru] Damn it.

Ino, use Formation--

I know! I know!

All right! Shadow Strangle Jutsu!

[Shikamaru] I'm counting on you, Ino.

That was all the chakra I had. I'm at my limit.

Here I go! Mind Transfer Jutsu!

Ahh.

Good... Looks like it worked.

Ah ha! I thought so!

Super Expansion Jutsu!

Huh?

What's the deal, Choji?!

Why were you hanging back?! This hunt was your idea in the first place, you know!

Listen, everybody needs food to survive, right?

The village is crisis right now; we have to make sure we eat!

Yeah, but you're the only one who's taking a break!

What if the herd got away while you were slacking off?

Well,

I wasn't worried. I already knew just what Shikamaru would do.

Augh.

Come to think of it Ino knew what to do before I said anything, too...

Heh.

"Team 10's Teamwork"

They're demons! They show up every year during the harvest and take whatever they want!

This year, we were preparing to fight them off, or die trying!

But That Baji! He was too clever for me.

I'm not sure if he knew of my plan or not.

But he kidnapped my granddaughter to keep us in line!

Who is this Baji?

He's the leader of all the bandits, the ones who've stolen the crops every year.

[sobs] Please, Please, I beg you, help us save our village!

And save my granddaughter from those outlaws!

And who's this guy?

That's Tofu; he was once a bandit.

[Kakashi] An ex-bandit?

I don't blame you for your mistrust.

But I- The things that they did, I just couldn't be a part of it!

Tofu here is the one who told me my granddaughter had been abducted and offered to help.

He knows where their hideout is. He'll be an invaluable guide.

I suppose that's true.

Please, allow me to help.

Well then, let's get ready to go.

[others, in unison] Right!

[Asuma] Shikamaru. You got a minute?

Hm?

[Tofu] The hideout's located in a natural fort.

It's deep inside a cavern that branches out like an anthill's passageways.

There's only one way to get inside. And they have three forts guarding that route.

But the trickiest obstacle of all is Baji's intellect.

He's very hard to outsmart.

That's why people fear him so much.

[Kakashi] The main purpose of this mission is to rescue the hostage.

That means we'll have to confront Baji's gang.

Shikamaru, what are your thoughts?

Hmm, let me see here.

Huh?

He may still be a genin, but he's a skilled tactician.

It's unfortunate that there's only one way in, but we won't be moving a large force through...

It's just a few of us, so maybe we can get past the forts undetected.

However, I'm sure they've set up numerous traps to defend it.

Since that's the most obvious plan of attack.

That route is still our best chance to escape without having to fight our way out after we make the rescue.

At the very least, we need to confirm that we'd have safe passage.

[Asuma] Okay!

So the first thing to do is to find a way for a small team to infiltrate the hideout.

All right! Then let's go, already!

We genin aren't going.

Whaa?!

Like I just explained to you, the bandits know the routes in, and are sure to guard them.

The only ones capable of getting in undetected are Kakashi and Asuma Sensei.

I believe that it's best to let them handle this.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

And it's a good one!

Seems like the best way, Kakashi.

Agreed. Don't be so upset, Naruto.

Well, Shikamaru, take care of things here.

Guess I'll have to.

What am I gonna do??

Well, You heard what we decided.

Just wait here for a while, okay?

Huh? Hey, where'd that Tofu guy run off to?

He said Nature called.

[Tofu] What's the big idea?!

Huh?!

You guys... What was that?

[Sasuke] Hey, look over there!

They have Tofu!

The bandits captured him?! But how did they...?!

Just perfect.

So what are we going to do now?!

Come on! Don't just sit there!

The enemy is a gang of thugs with lots of men.

They have a hostage and three forts. And beyond that, their citadel.

Well, it's gonna be a drag, but we'll have to go after them ourselves.

Boss Baji!

I've brought the deserter!

Good. You can go now.

Yes, sir!

Phew!

That hurt.

Welcome back, my friend.

Ngh, those men of yours, train them better. Okay?

Remember, I'm a very valuable informant.

Sorry. They've been trained to be suspicious even if a captive gives them the correct password.

Eagh. Well, better safe than sorry, I guess.

So, do you have information for me?

Heh heh. The village hired shinobi just like you thought.

Mmm. And how strong are they?

Eh, it's just two jonin and six genin.

Two small teams made up mostly of genin?

Get rid of the jonin, and the genin will fall. No problem.

Yeah, I bet! And the two jonin aren't even with the genin right now!

Oh? Why's that?

They're looking for a way to get in here without passing by the forts.

[Baji] Hm, hm. That's just what I'd do, too.

But if they don't anticipate our traps along the way, they'll be on nothing more than a suicide mission.

Unfortunately, one of them already thought of that.

Hmm?

He's a genin named Shikamaru. And he already assumed that there'd be traps.

So a two-man squad made up of jonin

bypasses our forts, alert for traps, while trying to find a way inside, huh?

As if I could be defeated so easily by such a predictable strategy!

BOOSSS!!!

Mmm?

Boss! A bunch of shinobi are here! Somehow they managed to get past all three of our forts!

They did what?!

[Baji] Why didn't the forts warn us?!

[Henchman] The shinobi just showed up out of nowhere! That's all I know!

Those three forts are there to prevent just this sort of thing!

It's impossible to get past them!

You! Are you a double agent?! Did you conspire with the men at the forts to let these ninja in?

No! No way! I swear, I'd never do that! You've gotta believe me!

Bah! Talk is cheap!

Wait! I know! Those shinobi think I've been captured, right?

Well... if you convince them to give up one of their group for me in a hostage exchange,

then I'll be able to stall them and feed you inside information!

Hmm...

Not a bad idea. After all, keeping you here does me no good.

But if I can exchange you for their leader, then I can crush him along with their plans!

The more cards that I have to play in this game, the better.

All right, guys! Let's pulverize all these crooks--!

Slow down, Naruto.

What?!

Don't forget there's still a hostage.

[Shikamaru] Bringing down their hideout might not be that difficult,

but before we can do that, we have to find and free the village elder's granddaughter.

Oh. Right.

But how? What's the plan?

We'll take advantage of their next move.

[Sakura] And what's that going to be?

[Shikamaru] My guess is...

... that they're going to try a hostage exchange.

Well that makes sense if they want to avoid a direct confrontation.

Hold on: a hostage exchange?

You mean one of us will have to become those bandits' new hostage?

Shikamaru!

I want to talk to you. Show yourself!

If you want to save him,

Then you'll choose to take his place and become my captive instead!

Hm. Just what I was expecting.

So what's your answer?!

Shikamaru?!

Okay! Sounds good!

Hm!

He answered my question!

So far, it's all going just as I planned.

Hurk! Urgh! Augh!

What the-? My voice is gone!

Hmm. My Hidden Jutsu, the Muting Jutsu.

If you can't speak, you can't convey any strategy you might come up with!

I just have to have faith in them.

What could he be thinking?!

That numbskull.

Hey! Don't go off on your own!

Listen, Shikamaru would never do anything unless he had a plan.

He's right.

Shikamaru said he'd take advantage of this hostage exchange.

But what did he mean by that?

Hm?

I'm sorry for all the trouble that I caused.

You can knock off the act anytime now.

Huh?

Nngh!

We already know that you're a spy.

And we have for a very long time!

Heh heh heh heh!

But then why-?!

Ah!

Did you... come here to save me?

How did you get past the forts?

Oh. Right. You're still under my jutsu.

Release!

Hey, It's going to be all right.

I asked how you got past the forts!

That part was easy.

Hm?

All of us were suspicious of Tofu right from the very start.

Because of that,

We secretly placed a mini-wireless on him.

[Baji] What?!

As we thought, he said the password, not knowing he was giving it to us.

The lilies on the mountain pass shine at nighttime.

But I've never fully trusted passwords.

Those guards at the forts had strict orders, even if someone did give them the correct password!

Maybe. But it seems they're not as suspicious as you are.

All that we had to do is tell them,

"A spy who knows the password should have come through before us. We're after him."

And just like that, they let us in.

[Baji] They... What?!

It was a childish trick, I know.

But it worked well, so who cares?

Ungh.

Well, you're certainly no child, I'll give you that much, Shikamaru.

But still. even if you're a smart tactician, you're just a prisoner now.

And I have my own strategy, one that'll wipe out your little genin friends!

Don't be afraid.

My friends are gonna be here any minute to save us both.

Don't bother trying to put on a brave act!

Ninjutsu may be powerful, but there's no way to destroy this place without harming the hostage.

That's the whole point of a hostage!

Uh! Hold on...

If you knew that Tofu was my spy, why'd you agree to the hostage exchange?!

Heh!

Gee, I wonder...

Ugh!

[explosion]

Uh?

Fire Style!

Fire Ball Jutsu!

An assault? So the loss of their leader causes the genin to panic and attack, heedless of the hostages.

Or is this a diversionary tactic?

Either way, they can't attack at full force when I have hostages.

And your genin friends lack the jutsu to pinpoint our location.

So I still have the upper hand here. And there's no way that you can possibly come out on top.

Just calm down! You know that the boss has planned ahead for situations like this!

And this place is a natural fort! A large force can't get in!

HWAAHHH!

What's your deal?

HUUHH!?

Boss! Trouble!

What's wrong?

Sir! More shinobi have appeared!

All right, no need to panic.

You can't fall apart every time! I gave you contingency plans for this kind of thing.

Dh... Yes, but...

We're facing a thousand men! It's an army!

A thousand?! Ahh!

[Naruto] Hee hee! Shikamaru's not here!

That means there's no one to tell me not to do this!

Shikamaru and the hostage are in the west tower. We have to make sure not to destroy that one!

Right! You got it, Choji!

Okay!

Expansion Jutsu!

Human Boulder!

Yeah! Go get 'em, Choji!

Hm!

You're so calm. You even seem to enjoy this!

Huh? What, seriously? I do?

Aren't you scared about what might happen?

No way.

But why not?!

Because I have faith in my friends.

Don't get overconfident, kid! I still have the upper hand, here!

I can escape by using my hostage as a shield!

You see, as long as I have the girl with me, I can negotiate my way out of here.

And if I can escape before those genin brats get here, all of your plans won't mean a thing, anyway!

You'd abandon your men like that?!

Those men down there? What a laugh!

you just don't get it! Once I escape, I can form a new gang anytime I want!

Shikamaru!

Oh! Good!

Are you both all right?

Yeah. But just barely.

How do you think we feel?! You sure scared us!

How did you find this place?

She's from the Yamanaka clan of the Hidden Leaf, and they have a very powerful Hidden Jutsu.

The Mind Transfer Jutsu. I'm sure you've at least heard it mentioned before.

The Mind Transfer Jutsu?!

When I first approached you,

All right! Mind Transfer Jutsu!

Then, using that Jutsu, Ino looked through my eyes and located our position.

Release!

You guys! I found out where Shikamaru and the hostage are being held!

Now you know what happened.

Give me a break, would you? You act like we had it all planned;

you're just lucky I figured out what you had in mind!

[Choji] Yeah, it was touch-and-go for a while there.

But that's ludicrous! How could you have possibly known from the start

that I would call for a hostage exchange and trade Tofu for you?!

Well, when a player loses a card, he wants to replace it, doesn't he?

Ngh! A card?

In your case, the card you lost was actually three things: the forts we bypassed.

Once they were out of play, you needed to replace them as quickly as possible.

And the easiest and fastest way to do that,

Was through an exchange of hostages.

You're a tactician. You believe in analyzing every bit of data you get.

And your top priority is figuring out your enemy's strategy.

Because of that, I knew right off the bat that you would target me.

And that's the whole story.

He heh.

That's simply amazing.

And you beat me. I've got to hand it to you.

Nothing I did was amazing.

What is truly amazing is that my friends believe in me no matter what.

Shut up!

Ha-hah!

[Baji] Paper Bombs!

Try to make a move against me, and I'll set these off and blow you up!

You hear me? Make a move and I'll--

Hngh!

Shadow Possession Jutsu. Gotcha.

Aah!

[Kakashi] My, my, This year's rookies are quite talented, aren't they?

[Asuma] We heard everything, Shikamaru. That was quite a risk you took,

going in there alone without telling the others your strategy.

Despite that, the mission ended successfully. Well done, Shikamaru.

Thanks, but it really wasn't a risk.

You see,

I knew what my friends could accomplish, and I had faith in what we could achieve together.

I didn't have to tell them a thing; I knew these guys would know what I was thinking.

When I think about those old missions, Team 10 always had each other's backs during battle.

No, that's not quite right. It wasn't just Team 10. It was all of us!

Naruto, Lee, Kiba...

And now, our faith in our friends has spread beyond just our own individual teams.

It encompasses the entire village.

Wouldn't you agree, Asuma?

Well, what do you say, you guys? Should we go back and have some barbecue?

Yeah!

Hey, wait up!

As punishment, you get to carry all this back to the village, Choji.

Aw, come on! Help me out, would ya?

[chuckle]

People may call me a tactician who plays his cards close to his chest,

But these guys know everything there is to know about me.

[Tsunade] I have a mission for Team 7!

But it appears things are not going well between Naruto and Sasuke.

[Kakashi] I'm embarrassed to admit it, but they're not.

[Tsunade] I guess it can't be helped. You and Sasuke will handle this mission, then.

[Kakashi] What shall I do with Naruto and Sakura?

[Tsunade] Don't worry. I have the perfect assignment for them.

[Naruto] Next time on Naruto Shippuden, "Drive Towards Darkness."

[Naruto] This is for the good of the mission, too!