The Bounty Hunter Arc is the sixth filler arc in the original Naruto anime and the fifth of the Post-Sasuke Retrieval filler arcs.
Short Summary
Kiba, Hinata, and Naruto are sent after Gosunkugi, a murderous thief who commits crimes for money. In the Land of Stone, they have competition from Sazanami, a bounty hunter who wants to capture Gosunkugi himself. Things become complicated when it's revealed that Sazanami may not be who he claims.
Long Summary
Naruto, along with Kiba and Hinata, is sent to the Land of Stone to apprehend Gosunkugi, a thief who has stolen a treasure from the Land of Tea's daimyō. Shino is unable to assist due to him being on a different mission and Tsunade does not assign a proper leader for the team. Naruto isn't thrilled about getting such a boring mission, especially with Jiraiya still gone, but Kiba tells him that an easy assignment once in a while isn't so bad, though he's personally not that happy about it either. Hinata is just happy to be on a mission with Naruto and makes rice balls in the shape of his face that the Uzumaki boy and Akamaru find tasty. The team arrives at an outpost town which is inhabited by rough-looking characters who either won't give them the time of day or will try and steal their money. Looking around, they spot wanted posters of Gosunkugi that goes for three million ryō, much to their confusion. Next, they enter a saloon and ask a grouchy bartender for some information, but he refuses to tell them anything and declines their orders of ramen and cheeseburgers. One of the patrons, a large bald-headed man, comes and grabs Gama-chan under the pretense of wanting to "keep it safe", but Naruto throws him off into a table where the rest of his gang is seated. Before a fight can break out, a different patron goes up to the bartender, asks for some milk, and gives to Akamaru on the bald man's tab. The angry thug attacks the man but is swiftly dispatched with a quick-draw strike. The bandit is revealed to be a wanted man named Michizō Manaka, whose bounty the other patron allows the bartender to claim as compensation for the milk and the broken table. He apologizes to a bearded patron with a giant mace about taking Michizō's bounty before heading out.
Outside, Naruto and the others follow the bounty hunter and ask for his name. He is called Sazanami and he is, as shown before, a bounty hunter and he explains the details of his profession, impressing the rookie ninjas. When shown Gosunkugi's picture and asked why he has such a high bounty on his head despite being a lowly thief, Sazanami incredulously retorts that the man is a hardened criminal who murders people and robs their corpses for their valuables, much to the genin's surprise. Apparently, the Tea daimyō was unaware of Gosunkugi's other criminal activities. They tell Sazanami of their mission to apprehend Gosunkugi, and he pokes fun at their young age much to Naruto's irritation. He promises to make it up to them by offering to buy them dinner and giving them whatever they want to eat. After a while, the four are out of the town with no food stores in sight, Sazanami instead leading them to a plantation. The bounty hunter's real intention is made clear: he's going to kill them so he has less competition in hunting down Gosunkugi. Drawing his sword, Sazanami goes on the attack and takes Hinata hostage, forcing Kiba to use his Beast Mimicry to keep up with the man. Knocking Hinata out, he's shown to easily keep pace with Kiba and takes him out quickly and does the same with Akamaru. Naruto uses Shadow Clones to divert Sazanami's attention but he easily takes out most of the clones and is quick to see through Naruto's sneak attack as well, taking him out.
Later that evening, the genin awake to find themselves still alive. Sazanami has gone after Gosunkugi, who is passing through town along with four other masked individuals. Akamaru points his team in the direction outside the town opposite to the plantation and they head after the bounty hunter and his prey. As Sazanami moves in, he discovers the four men are facing him without a sign of their boss. Said boss reveals himself quickly enough and tells his hunter that he has an important job to accomplish and it won't do to have another obstacle in his way. Gosunkugi reveals that he's a shinobi that utilizes nails which quickly disables Sazanami and orders his men to kill the other man. Before he can, Naruto uses his Shadow Clones and surrounds the cliff, causing the crook to retreat. Sazanami begs the Konoha-nin not to pursue Gosunkugi as he doesn't think they can hack him. At a cabin where they tend to the bounty hunter's injuries, the same bearded man, another bounty hunter, attacks looking for Sazanami. He is driven away by Naruto, but not before being recognized from the saloon earlier. The fleeing man drops a wanted poster, but not of Gosunkugi. It is of Sazanami, who the poster calls Tokichi, and he is wanted for murdering a family of three. In the morning when everyone is rested, the genin confront Sazanami about this information and he reveals after some resistance that he didn't commit the crime. Long ago, in a different nation, Sazanami was a swordsmith by the name of Tokichi and lived a humble but pleasant life. One day, when a festival was taking place in his village, Tokichi went to deliver a sword for a client when he heard a dying scream coming from the customer's home. Hurrying to the already opened gate and hearing a commotion inside, he ran in and was briefly attacked by a fleeing Gosunkugi. He entered the home to find the client along with his wife and child dead, much to his horror. Worse, Tokichi was spotted by two men along with their daughters at the scene of the crime and was promptly arrested. He tried to explain what really happened, but the villagers didn't believe him on the count of him being the only one who didn't go to the festival and with the murder weapon being a unique type of blade that left unique marks on the victims. Being a swordsmith who could forge any weapon, the villagers naturally assumed it to be him. Breaking the ropes used to bind him, Tokichi fled his village and became a fugitive, aimlessly wandering from town to town until he saw his wanted poster alongside Gosunkugi's. From day forward, Tokichi became Sazanami the bounty hunter and began hunting down Gosunkugi to clear himself of the latter's crime, catching and claiming other bounties in order to make a living as well as gathering any information he could about his main query. Sazanami asks the shinobi to stand aside and let him take in Gosunkugi, but Naruto refuses on the count of it being their mission to bring Gosunkugi in for their client. They leave the cabin with Naruto going on to say that leaving Gosunkugi to Sazanami would be suicide in the latter's condition and that they need to bring the criminal down. Back at the cabin, the other bounty hunter returns and talks with Sazanami, who tells the former that he can have the bounty on his head after settling the score with Gosunkugi, but the big guy isn't having any of it, saying he'll let the Konoha ninja weaken the murderer before he apprehends him.
The team arrives in the second post station town to find that everything from politics, the economy, and military operations are run by monks. In the center of the town lies the OK Temple, where their tourist attraction lies in the Golden Bell. Naruto theorizes that the bell may be what Gosunkugi is going to steal and surely enough, his men aren't far away from where the ninja are. Kiba and Akamaru detect the enemies' presence and the lackeys surround the team. Sazanami shows up eager to settle things with his query and decides to have some friendly competition with the Konoha-nin despite his wound. Hinata uses her Byakugan and realizes that the fight is just a stalling tactic and that the men along with Gosunkugi himself are on their way to the OK Temple. They reach the summit too late to save the monks and the real henchmen come out to attack, but they're easily dispatched by Sazanami and the genin. Gosunkugi is carrying the Golden Bell via a winch down to his boat. The ninja and bounty hunter make their way down with Naruto in the lead, the Uzumaki landing a hit on the criminal before the latter severs the rope, sending the three Konoha-nin into the drink. Sazanami is able to grab what's left of the rope and hook onto the bell, pulling himself onto the boat and disabling Gosunkugi. Just then, chains wrap themselves around Sazanami and pin him to the Golden Bell. It is the work of none other than the bearded hunter from before, who arrests Sazanami along with Gosunkugi. The Konoha ninjas are powerless to stop this from happening with the government involved.
Sazanami is taken back to his old village and is jeered by his former neighbors for the crime he didn't do with Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata watching helplessly from the shadows. Suddenly, the other bounty hunter tells the people to shut up as they had no right to make wanted posters of Sazanami without performing a proper investigation, crumpling up the respective poster after saying so. The village headman reveals that Gosunkugi has been found guilty of all charges and confessed to the killing of the family, hereby acquitting Sazanami. When asking the bounty hunter why he helped clear him, the man, Gatsu, reveals he overheard Sazanami's telling the Konoha-nin about the circumstances that lead to his life being ruined and that the former had to see if his character matched with what the wanted posters said about him. A touched Sazanami is apologized to by the villagers, them calling him by his original name Tokichi, a sight that Naruto and the others are glad to see before they leave for Konohagakure. On the way back, Naruto says he can't wait to get back home, but Kiba reminds him that even though things turned out all right, they still failed the mission and that Tsunade is likely going chew them out for it. Naruto now tearfully states that he doesn't want to go home, much to his teammates' amusement.
The Bounty Hunter arc has the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Ending: With charges against Sazanami dropped, it's unknown what he'll do with his life. Either he'll go back to being a swordsmith or continue as a bounty hunter with Gatsu.
- Ax-Crazy: Gosunkugi is a Soft-Spoken Sadist who is shown to always kill those he robs. Naruto and the others are suitably disgusted by his actions.
- Badass Normal: Sazanami is able to quickly defeat Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata without much difficulty with his Iaijutsu. Note that the former two were able to hold their own against members of the Sound Ninja Four by that point.
- Bad Guy Bar: Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata stumble into one to get information on Gosunkugi. The bartender refuses to even let them have anything to eat before one thug tries to steal Naruto's cash.
- The Bartender: The one from the Asia Saloon is not a fan of Naruto and company. He refuses to serve them anything, but its strongly implied by Sazanami that aside from milk, which Kiba requested for Akamaru, the saloon didn't have any ingredients for ramen or cheeseburgers.
- Bounty Hunter: It's the arc title.
- Call-Back: The daimyō from the Land of Tea, the same one who put his corrupt minister and Kyūroku Wagarashi in their places for trying to cheat in the Great Todoroki Shrine Race, is mentioned to have been robbed by Gosunkugi which sets the plot of this arc in motion. Thankfully he is not mentioned to have been killed.
- Clear My Name: Sazanami became a bounty hunter in order to track down Gosunkugi, who committed murder in his village and likely intended him to get framed for it. He finally gets it from Gatsu.
- Everyone Laughs Ending: Everyone except Naruto, who isn't looking forward to Tsunade's wrath for failing the mission.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Hinata makes tasty rice balls for the journey and Naruto tells her she'll make one heck of a wife.
Heh heh... - Friendly Rival: It's what Naruto and Sazanami settle on to go after Gosunkugi together. Sazanami wins...at least until he's captured by Gatsu...who proceeds to clear him of all charges.
- Graceful Loser: Sazanami is able to apprehend Gosunkugi (for a spell) before Naruto and the others. None of them are bitter about it.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Sazanami became one to quickly cut down his queries and defeat Gosunkugi effectively.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sazanami and Gatsu are kinder people than what we're led to initially believe. Sazanami spares the Konoha team despite claiming he was going to kill them for their intent to capture Gosunkugi and Gatsu believes in getting his facts about who's a criminal rather than send a potentially good man to rot for another's crimes.
- The Leader: Averted, Tsunade does not assign the position to anyone in the squad.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: The genin can't give Sazanami a proper farewell without causing a ruckus so they silently leave for Konoha wishing the man the best.
- The Reveal: It is initially thought that Gosunkugi is a run of the mill thief who isn’t much of a threat. Sazanami then drops the bomb that Gosunkugi routinely murders his victims before stealing their money and later that he’s a shinobi, making things far more difficult.
- Secret Test of Character: Gatsu gives Sazanami one to see if he's being honest about being innocent of what he's being accused of and the latter passes.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Yeah, its great that Sazanami got cleared and all that, but Gosunkugi was turned in to the Land of Stone's government and will receive punishment there, costing the Leaf Ninja their mission. Kiba points out that Tsunade will give them a scolding which Naruto isn't looking forward to.
- Warrior Monk: The second post station in the Land of Stone is said to be governed by monks, but we never see them. The most important ones we see end up being slaughtered by Gosunkugi when he steals the Golden Bell.
- What You Are in the Dark: Gatsu overheard the Sazanami's backstory and wanted to see if he really was the horrible murderer that the posters claimed he was. As noted by Gatsu, he could've just ignored the story, assumed Sazanami was lying about everything, and arrested him, but his pride as a man wouldn't let him ignore it and so comes to find that his fellow bounty hunter is a righteous person. Good on him.
- Wretched Hive: The first Post Station in the Land of Stone is treated as such, being populated with ruffians and bounty hunters.
- Written-In Absence: Shino is on a different mission and so Naruto is assigned to work with Kiba and Hinata. It's likely if he had been there, he would've been made team leader which is why Tsunade doesn't put anyone in charge this time around.
