Sakura...
How is Lady Hokage?
I see.
Sakura, Guy Sensei prepared this medicine.
Please give it to Lady Hokage.
Lee...
Lady Hokage healed my body.
MEDICINE I want to do whatever I can to help her recovery.
I'll be straight with you.
Give up being a ninja.
There are numerous bone fragments
in the area around important nerves.
Moreover, they are deeply embedded.
You're not physically capable of carrying out the missions of a ninja.
Guy Sensei...
Please tell me!
Why did this kind of thing happen only to me?
What should I do?
- Leaf's History - Ah, the Medicine of Youth
Ino!
Are you here to check up on Lee, too?
I knew you'd be here.
I came here to look for you two.
You weren't at Sasuke's,
so I figured you'd be here, and waited.
Ino, don't tell me you went to visit Sasuke alone, did you?
I just thought you were visiting as an excuse to make a move on him.
Speak for yourself!
I told you, I was just looking for you two!
For what?!
The three of us are going on a mission!
Mission?
Why us three?
Sasuke, from your team, is in bad condition.
As for our team, Lady Hokage has called up Shikamaru
and Choji to help with Village repairs.
It's a D-rank mission,
so they're probably scraping together whoever is available.
We finally get a mission and
you just spoiled it for me with the way you put it.
Yo! Bushy Brow!
Oh, Sakura...
Shouldn't you say, "Oh, Naruto"?
How are you feeling?
Oh yes...
I'm fine.
R-Really, I feel great!
Especially since Guy Sensei made me this special youth drink!
Oh thanks. My hand slipped.
It tastes awful!
This is no energy drink!
Oww!
Idiot! What are you doing?!
If you're going scold me, Sakura, could you do it before hitting me?
Th-That was my last special youth drink.
Was it that precious to you?
I-I'm sorry.
Until now, I drank five liters daily and never missed a single day.
Five liters?!
You mean, this awful-tasting thing?
If I kept drinking it, I would recover without fail.
That is what Guy Sensei said.
If you have the guts to drink this super-bad stuff,
you'll have no problem getting well.
Your Ninja Way is to never give up, right?
You're right.
HIDDEN LEAF HOSPITAL
I'm gonna go and see Guy Sensei.
Naruto!
We have a mission!
Wait for me at the South Main Gate.
I'll be right back!
Cripes!
He'll never change.
Is this the Forbidden Jutsu that
will destroy the body of the practitioner?
I'm prepared for the worst.
Please teach me that Forbidden Jutsu!
Everything is for my dream.
Guy Sensei?
Oh, Naruto. What is it?
No... Well, it's about Lee's medicine.
I see... You already gathered data.
Well done!
Huh?!
One ingredient is absolutely essential for Lee's medicine.
And that is the jofuku flower!
Jofuku flower?
The jofuku flower is a mystical plant that grows in one place only.
At the foot of Mount Jofuku at the border of the Land of Fire.
It is said to glow in seven colors, and cures all sorts of illness!
Mount Jofuku...
It's a rare flower that is difficult to obtain.
So...
If you had the flower, you could make the medicine?
Huh?!
Then I'll go get them for you!
Hey, wait, wait!
Will you let me finish my sentence?!
Just you wait, Bushy Brow!
I'll get it right away!
Hey, I know!
That's odd. I know it was around here.
Found it!
Naruto is late.
What is that idiot doing?!
I know he's worried about Lee, but we have a mission.
Sakura!
Sorry to keep you two waiting!
Naruto... What's with that get-up?
It looks sorta familiar.
I'm gonna search for a medicinal herb for Bushy Brow.
This outfit helps me get in sync with Bushy Brow.
Not bad, eh?
"Not bad," you say?
Can't you tell from our reaction?
Come on, Naruto! Have you forgotten that we have a mission!
But I have to go to Mount Jofuku to get some medicinal herbs.
Mount Jofuku?
Yeah! Mount Jofuku!
For this mission, our destination is Mount Jofuku.
Huh?!
You mustn't do that, Lee!
You were told to take it easy until the surgery!
I'm sorry...
But I thought I should build up my strength a little.
Lee...
I understand how frustrating this is for you.
However, in do-or-die situations where you can't forge ahead or fall back,
sometimes staying still brings about the best result.
Having faith in yourself and waiting quietly until the time comes.
That too is courage, Lee.
Yes...
Naruto, Lady Hokage treated Lee, right?
Of course!
But hasn't Lee seemed out of sorts lately?
Like he has no energy.
That can't be helped. He was badly injured.
It's not that. He's not positive like before.
He missed his rehab sessions a few times too.
Even today, the usual Lee would...
Sakura, so that I can protect you, I'll get better a day sooner.
No, an hour, a minute, a second sooner!
It would have been more normal if he welcomed me like that.
Just for you?
But...I think Sakura has a point.
Remember, his injuries were so serious
even the Medical Team couldn't heal him.
It wouldn't surprise me if a complete recovery was impossible.
If Lee were told that...
Granny Tsunade will absolutely make him well!
I'm just saying that sometimes
it's not right to give someone false hope!
Huh?
You may want to cheer him up,
but sometimes it can become a burden that has the opposite effect!
That's why you should stop telling Lee to "hang in there" so casually, Naruto!
Bushy Brow isn't such a softie.
When I watched him battle Gaara during the Chunin Exam,
I thought he was an amazing guy
who was ready to put his life on the line.
Until the very end, until he lost consciousness,
he stayed on the attack.
I realized he was a guy who would never, ever give up.
There's no way I can understand the suffering he's going through now.
But he's doing everything in his power to overcome it.
I believe in him.
That's why I want to tell Bushy Brow to hang in there!
Naruto...
By the way, what's our mission?
Now you ask?
We're to deliver a secret message to a village
located at the foot of Mount Jofuku.
That's an easy one.
Let's finish it up quickly, so I can go pick some jofuku flowers.
Say, let's take a break.
I want to grab something to eat.
Say, Sakura? Were you even listening just now?
Are you going to the jofuku forest?
Y-Yes.
We need to find some medicinal herbs.
You'd be wise to turn back.
Why is that?
In these parts, it's called the lost woods.
Villagers don't go near it.
The lost woods?
This was the site of ancient battles.
The ghosts of ninja who were killed here wander the forest.
That's the legend.
Gh-Ghosts?
My slipper strap broke!
My mirror broke!
- It's all bad luck! - It's all bad luck!
There's no such thing as ghosts.
They're just fake rumors!
Old lady, more tea please!
That was one creepy old lady, huh?
She was scarier than a real ghost!
DO NOT ENTER That was so mean of her.
DO NOT ENTER
Huh? What's that?
Looks pretty suspicious to me.
Isn't this the forest the old lady was talking about?
So the jofuku flower is in there?
All right!
Our mission comes first, Naruto!
I'll be right back!
He never listens!
What'll we do?
We can't just leave him.
DO NOT ENTER
- It's all bad luck! - It's all bad luck!
A flower that glows in seven colors.
Just like Guy Sensei said.
Naruto!
Sakura, take a look.
This is the jofuku flower?
I never heard of a flower that glows in seven colors.
There are flowers that even florists don't know about?
Well, this is a medicinal herb!
Guy Sensei can make Bushy Brow's medicine with this.
What's that?
Could it be...a ghost?
What is that?
Doesn't it look similar to the jutsu to control sand?
The one used by Gaara of the Sand.
G-Gaara!
What's he doing here?
Let's retreat for now!
You're right!
Naruto!
Why attack us all of a sudden?
He seems to be after Naruto.
Ino... He's wide open right now.
Can you check out his real identity?
You got it!
Mind Transfer Jutsu!
No way...
What happened?
There's no consciousness there.
You're dealing with a different me today!
Can't keep...running away!
You keep copying Gaara!
Well then...
Shadow Clone Jutsu!
I don't have taijutsu like Bushy Brow.
But...
I have my own style of fighting!
He even has sand armor!
Well then, how's this?!
U-zu-ma-ki!
Naruto Barrage!
And for the finish... Rasengan!
- Naruto! - Are you all right?!
I beat it.
Finally, Bushy Brow can...
Hey!
What are you doing to the precious jofuku flowers?!
You're going to make them wilt!
Who is that?
Our apologies. Here is the secret message.
You live in this lonely forest all by yourself, old lady?
Not old lady. My name is Furofuki!
As a Medical Ninja from the Hidden Leaf,
I'm studying the jofuku flowers.
It's what I love doing, so leave me alone!
Umm... That thing we encountered is
like a guardian deity of the jofuku flower?
When an attempt is made to pull it out, the jofuku flower protects itself.
It searches the perpetrator's mind for an image of his archenemy,
transforms into it, and then attacks.
We were thinking of Gaara.
Too bad we didn't think of Choji. Then we coulda won easily!
If you hadn't trespassed into the jofuku forest,
this would never have happened.
- We're sorry. - We're sorry.
Sure am.
I-It's so heavy! Are these all jofuku flowers?
Yes. Your mission is to take this back to the village.
- Ino... - Ino...
Blame the one who ordered this mission, not me.
Rejoice, Lee! I brought you the greatest gift today!
It's my handmade special stamina recovery pills of love!
These herbal pills were made with my sweat, tears and love!
And filled with the warm friendship of your comrades!
Friendship of my comrades?
Yes. The medicinal herb necessary to make these were obtained
by none other than Naruto and his team.
Sakura?
Yes, Sakura and Ino.
Which means, these herbal pills are filled with Sakura's love too.
Sakura... In order to repay your kindness,
I will recover a day sooner.
No, an hour, a minute, a second sooner!
If you eat a hundred of these, you won't need to fear surgery!
One hundred, right?
Oh wait... Now hold on!
So how many must I eat daily?
I see you're not making the same mistake this time.
Bravo, Lee.
However, this time, it's 100 in one day!
I won't let you suffer alone!
While you are eating, I'll do 1000 speed push-ups!
Why do I have to train to break free of genjutsu now?
Don't you remember what your goal for training was?
Huh? To bring back Sasuke, of course!
Sasuke possesses the Sharingan.
Naturally, he will learn to master genjutsu.
Unless you have the means to counter that,
you can't possibly achieve your goal.
Next time on Naruto Shippuden: "Gutsy Master and Student: The Training"
We shall now begin training to break genjutsu!
Tune in again!