This episode was not bad but it wasn't that good either. I found the few minutes that were spent to show Chouji, Shika, and Ino very refreshing. Infact I am liking this trio even more now than before. The fight scene was animated very well. Sasuke definitely grabbed all the highlights with his well adjusted tai/nin to counter every one of Naruto, almost. The fight clearly showed how limited Naruto's skills were. The comfort the Naruto-fans can take is that he can absorb a lot of hits. All the fights Naruto won so far because the opponents always underestimated him which gave Naruto the advantage of having the element of surprise and awe to his side. That was not the case in this episode because Sasuke has a very good idea about Naruto's ability. That was the point established in those flashbacks of Naruto's fight against Gaara, Sakura's Sasuke-kun-saved-me comment and Itachi's comments. Sasuke, here, wanted to find out how far ahead in the scale he measured-up to Naruto. I have to say, Sasuke measured up pretty good. Now only if he had a monster in him like Naruto or Gaara.
Few other observation is in order. Although the animation of this fighting was very nice, the style and fluidity still remained unbeaten of which were shown respectively in Gaara Vs. Lee and Sasuke Vs. Oro-sama. I thought the first 30 seconds of the episode was akward especially the flashback that was used to establish the reason behind why Sasuke is in the hospital. Skip that 30 sec. The crack in Sarutobi's face has been fixed. Chouji and Shika are very good at keeping friends at ease. Naruto calls name too or atleast that is how AH has translated. Naruto and Sasuke went to their special jutsu too quickly. As Tramadram mentioned, the opening theme is starting to sound good. The ending theme still remains questionable. And lastly, Ino is hot!
Offtopic: Anthriel, as Xavier8200 mentioned already, you are too modest. If you need a new sig you can borrow my ASS pic.
