Hospital Besieged: The Evil Hand Revealed!

Night shift at Konoha Hospital, and death walks in wearing a gourd. Gaara slips past security into Rock Lee's room to finish what the preliminaries started — sand creeping over the sleeping boy — when Naruto and Shikamaru intercept. The standoff becomes the arc's thesis statement: Gaara narrates his origin as a sacrifice, a weapon loved by no one, whose mother's name was given to the sand. Naruto recognizes every word. Guy's arrival ends the attempt; Gaara's parting promise hangs over the finals.