Arc Length: Chapters 248-281
Akatsuki members Deidara and Sasori find Gaara and capture him, intending to extract the One-Tailed Beast Shukaku. Kankuro tries to stop them, but fails after his puppets are defeated and he is poisoned. Naruto and his team find out what happened, and they set off to find and rescue Gaara. Along the way, they cure Kankuro of his poisoning and meet Chiyo, Sasori's grandmother.
Tropes:
- Back from the Dead: Gaara's tailed beast is forcibly extracted from him and kills him in the process. Fortunately, Chiyo uses a technique she developed to revive him at the cost of her own life.
- Badass in Distress: Gaara gives Deidara quite the fight before he's captured.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Much like the Itachi and Kisame in their arc back in Part 1, and the Hidan and Kakuzu arc later on, both Deidara and Sasori equally hold the spot of Big Bad for this arc.
- Bittersweet Ending: Naruto and co manage to kill of a member of Akatsuki, save Gaara's life, re-establish the leaf village as allies to the sand, and gain valuable information needed to track down Sasuke. Unfortunately Gaara was already dead by the time they retrieved him, forcing Lady Chiyo to sacrifice herself to bring him back to life. Sasori's position in the Akatsuki gets filled by a new member, they succeed in extracting Shukaku, and the information the heroes get about Sasuke will ultimately prove useless since they won't be able to save Sasuke.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Multiple are shown off:
- Kakashi's Mangekyo is incredibly powerful, but multiple uses render him nearly unconscious.
- The Eight Inner Gates are shown off again, with Guy opening six of them to defeat Kisame
- Distressed Dude: Gaara, now the Kazekage, is abducted by Akatsuki. This arc is focused on rescuing him.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The (at the time) unknown leader of Akatsuki, who both Deidara and Sasori are working for and whose jutsu prevents the heroes from reaching Gaara before he dies.
- Heroic Sacrifice: As Gaara was already dead (thanks to Akatsuki) by the time Naruto and co. retrieved him, Chiyo ultimately has to perform this to save him, trading her life for his.
- Marionette Master: Sasori and Chiyo's fighting style.
