Naruto vs PainFinal Battle

At the end of the first story arc information is revealed that sends Naruto and Sakura off on another mission almost immediately. Kakashi is in the infirmary after the mission (again), so Lady Tsunade assigns a new leader for the mission and reluctantly a replacement for sasuke chosen by the village elders.

Thus we are introduced to Sai and Captain Yamato. Yamato being an ANBU member taking Kakashi's place and Sai being an aggravating, and emotionless pain in the butt. He is on a secret mission, and manages to get on the bad side of both Sakura and Naruto right away. Part of Yamato's orders are to keep an eye on Sai.

To make up for the leap right back into another mission, there are some hijenks leading up the start of the action. Most of the lead up are reveals on Yamoto and Sai. They arrive at their destination and Orochimaru is there.

What follows is a flat out battle between Naruto and Orochimaru with Naruto completely giving himself over to the Nine-Tailed Fox demon. The carnage that ensues is truly epic in proportion, and even Sakura gets hurt in the cross fire. This leads to Naruto realizing he can't keep relying on the Fox demon for power, or someone he cares about could die.

More intrigue with Sai occurs, and a brief fight with Sasuke also goes down. Naruto (as expected) is beaten like a red headed step-child, and after the villains take off, he realizes how far he has to go to catch up to Sasuke. The Arc ends with Naruto working his friendship magic on Sai, who joins the team for real.

I will give this story Arc the Following ratings:

Story Development: A -With important additions to the cast and a number of revaluations, the bigger picture becomes more focused.

Action: A++ -The battle between Orochimaru and Naruto is frightening. Naruto is separated from shows like DBZ, by the more realistic power levels of their "super powers". The nature based techniques give individuals strong abilities, but ones that can be countered. With Naruto unleashing the Demon Fox, we see what "superhuman" means in the world of Naruto. Orochimaru comes close to being killed, and for any fan of the series that should tell you something right there.

Arc Story: b+ -A good balance is maintained between action and character/story development. They don't stretch things out too badly in this story arc, one of the things the show is notoriously bad about.