What Happens in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc?
Orochimaru, his arms rotting, sends the Sound Four to collect Sasuke, whose curse mark and humiliation by Itachi have convinced him the Leaf cannot make him strong enough. They seal him in a coffin-like barrel to awaken the mark's second stage and carry him toward the Sound. Tsunade, newly installed, can spare only genin, so Shikamaru Nara, promoted to chunin for his exam judgment, leads Naruto, Neji, Choji and Kiba on a pursuit that is openly a suicide mission on paper.
The arc is structured as a relay of sacrifices. Each Sound ninja is left behind with one pursuer: Choji against Jirobo, Neji against the spider-like Kidomaru, Kiba and Akamaru against Sakon and Ukon, Shikamaru against Tayuya. Sand reinforcements arrive at the desperate moment, Temari and Kankuro and finally Gaara repaying his debt, and Rock Lee, fresh from career-threatening surgery, staggers in drunk-boxing against the bone-wielding Kimimaro, Orochimaru's own discarded vessel candidate.
Every pursuer wins at a price. Choji and Neji are left at death's door and survive only through Tsunade's medical corps; the squad's failure is total anyway, because Sasuke reaches the border by his own choice. The retrieval was never really blocked by the Sound Four. It was blocked by Sasuke.
The finale at the Valley of the End, beneath statues of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, is Part I's defining fight: curse-mark Sasuke against a Naruto cloaked in the Nine-Tails' chakra, Chidori against Rasengan. Sasuke wins, stands over the unconscious Naruto in the rain, and chooses not to kill him, walking to Orochimaru on his own terms. Kakashi arrives too late, and the manga cuts to the timeskip.
These chapters fill volumes 20 to 27, the most prized continuous run of Part I for many collectors because the arc never left the weekly top tier of reader response. The Valley of the End fight is the single most reprinted sequence of the first half, excerpted in art books, exhibitions and the anime's own anniversary remake reel.
Arc at a glance
Manga chapters 172 to 238 (volumes 20 to 27). Anime: episodes 107 to 135. Key events: Sasuke's defection, the Sound Four gauntlet, Kimimaro, the first Valley of the End duel, the Part I ending.
Why collectors care
Volumes 20 to 27 in early Japanese printings form a natural display set, and the Valley of the End chapters' original Jump issues are documented targets for issue collectors. The arc also ends the era covered by the second databook, Hyo no Sho.
