Title

The arc closes on its hardest truth: Sasuke leaves again, by choice, and there is nothing the team can do to stop him. The episode lands the reunion's verdict — the years, the promise, the hundred episodes all leading to a friend who walks away a second time, now beyond any rescue by force. It's the bittersweet bookend to Shippuden's first act, reframing the goal: Sasuke can't be dragged home, only reached, and that reaching will take everything the rest of the series has. The hunt ends; a longer reckoning begins.