The Land of Rice Fields Arc is the second filler arc in the original Naruto anime and the first of the Post-Sasuke Retrieval filler arcs.
Short Summary
Naruto and Sakura, along with Jiraiya, travel to the Land of Rice Fields to find Otogakure and bring Sasuke back to Konoha. While there, they have encounters with members of the Fūma, a clan of which several members have pledged their allegiance to Orochimaru.
Long Summary
Sakura is depressed at herself for not doing more to stop Sasuke from leaving Konohagakure and decides to take matters into her own hands. Determined to bring back her ex-teammate, Sakura is intercepted by Naruto, who is just as driven to take back his friend, and Jiraiya, who warns the two that leaving the village without permission will result in them being branded missing-nin like Sasuke. Beforehand, Jiraiya foresaw the genins' choices and pleaded with Tsunade to give them an official assignment to investigate Otogakure, so the three of them set off for the Land of Rice Fields; Oto's home country.
Upon arriving in the country, Jiraiya visits several backwater towns to gather intel while making Naruto and Sakura wait on the outskirts. Suddenly, the latter two are attacked by a masked shinobi who flees as swiftly as they came. In a second encounter with this shinobi, three others, known as Kamikiri, Jigumo, and Kagerō, attack the former which the Konoha ninja protects them from. The person removes their mask to reveal a girl named Sasame Fūma, a member of the Fūma clan, who is looking for her cousin. She explains that when Orochimaru convinced the country's daimyō to allow him to establish a village in the country, the latter sent several of the land's ninja clans to its borders to help secure more territory and power for his benefit. Most of the clans were severely decimated by the armies of the rival nations among them being the Fūma. With their status having declined, several of the remaining Fūma were enticed by Orochimaru to join Otogakure in order to restore their standing with the daimyō. Among the supporters was Sasame's cousin, Arashi, who departed with the emissary a while ago with no word of him since. Realizing that he might have fallen victim to one of Orochimaru's deceptions, Naruto resolves to rescue Arashi alongside Sasuke once they find Oto.
The Fūma trio attacks the group again but a timely rescue by Jiraiya drives them away. During his intel gathering, the Toad Sage had a run-in with a gang of bandits led by a man called Hanzaki, also of the Fūma clan. Hanzaki had tried to warn Arashi and the others not to get themselves involved with Orochimaru to no avail, to which Sasame states that Hanzaki and his group are traitors to the clan for suggesting that they do nothing to restore their power. This tips Jiraiya off about the trap that the Fūma clan has laid for them and he and the genin are able to counter it. Upon retreating from her initial encounter with Naruto and Sakura, Sasame went to the Otogakure base only to be intercepted by Kamikiri and the others. They told her that Arashi was still alive and training with Orochimaru and that the only way to reunite with him was to join Oto as they had, but in order to do so, she would need to bring proof of her loyalty. The mission they gave her was to drug the Konoha ninja with a sleeping potion and bring them to Orochimaru for study. What they didn’t tell her is that the only part that will be studied is their severed heads. A furious Naruto dispatches Kamikiri and Jigumo without much difficulty, but then Kagerō (who had been injured by Naruto's Rasengan in their last fight) arrives and reveals her true form, namely a beautiful woman with blonde hair and a white dress. She uses her most powerful attack, Ephemeral, on Naruto and Jiraiya but a shield of the Fire Toad's stomach protects them from harm. Ephemeral is a forbidden jutsu that can only be used once in exchange for one's life force, leaving a desperate Kagerō to take her injured comrades away and back to the hideout. Kamikiri and Jigumo report their loss to Orochimaru and Kabuto, begging for them to heal Kagerō but the former Sannin says that they must be punished for failing their task and cuts them down when they attempt to use force. In the meantime, Sasame, who confesses to her betrayal, tries to commit suicide but is stopped by Jiraiya who says that she must face the consequences of her actions as a shinobi. As punishment for her actions, Jiraiya merely sends her back to the town where he encountered Hanzaki, the latter having been worried ever since she left in search of Arashi, and wait for them to return to with Sasuke and her cousin. It was a favor for Hanzaki since the former treated Jiraiya to so much high-class food at the inn he entered, much to Naruto and Sakura's chagrin.
Summoning Gamakichi to scout ahead, the Konoha-nin enter the hideout leaving Sasame to return on her own. They arrive at a three-way fork in the tunnels and decide to each go their own paths, Naruto and Sakura sticking together on one while Jiraiya and Gamakichi take the others. Jiraiya encounters Kotohime, another Fūma, and is able to best the ninja despite her attempts to woo him with her musical jutsu. The genin, meanwhile, are forced to contend with a myriad of traps on their path which ultimately traps Naruto in a pit and forces Sakura to continue alone. Upon entering the inner sanctum she encounters Kabuto who taunts the kunoichi over her perceived incompetence and tells her that Sasuke succumbed to his curse mark. Orochimaru appears briefly to unnerve Sakura before returning to his personal chambers, leaving Kabuto to kill the girl. Naruto, having escaped the earlier trap thanks to Gamakichi and a returned Sasame, comes to the rescue and attacks Kabuto, seemingly winning with a Rasengan. Kabuto, however, used the opportunity to weave chakra strings in Naruto's heart cavity and pulls out his own heart in order to kill him. Sasame comes along just in time and gives Sakura a charm to wrap around her kunai which is able to cut the threads and save Naruto’s life. Sasame explains that the chakra threads are a technique that is only known to Fūma clan, which then reveals that “Kabuto” is actually Kagerō in disguise (the real Kabuto presumably fled shortly after healing the Fūma kunoichi). Before dying, Kagerō warns Sasame that she’d be better off not meeting Arashi and that he is no longer the man he once was.
The group heads to the door that Orochimaru went through earlier, only for the Sannin to come out and warmly greet Sasame. He proceeds to tear off his skin, revealing it to be Arashi. Before she can embrace her cousin, Sasame is stopped and is eerily told the same thing by Arashi that Kagerō mentioned. No sooner does that happen is when Arashi mutates into a horrific monstrosity comprised of his own flesh, as well as the remains of Kamikiri and Jigumo. With no other choice, Naruto does his best to fight the creature off but between its sheer power and taking a blow for Sakura, he can’t keep up and Sasame, while briefly successful at awakening Arashi's consciousness by cutting off Jigumo, can’t make the cadaver stop and is almost killed before Sakura protects her. Having been called a “ball and chain” by the cadaver earlier, Sakura is prepared to die in order to protect her new friend, but Naruto, trapped in a jutsu that Arashi cast on him before, shouts after her to not throw her life away, even for someone else’s sake. Through sheer force of will, Naruto breaks the jutsu and inadvertently cuts Kamikiri away from Arashi restoring his personality. In a quick stroke, he shields Sasame from some sharp debris and says that it's only thanks to her that he could regain himself. With all the fighting taking place, the hideout starts to come tumbling down and Jiraiya shows up on Gamahiro (with an unconscious Kotohime) so that everyone can escape to the surface. Arashi cannot go with them due to him not being human anymore and the remnants of his clansmen holding him in place, but before his death, he reveals that Sasuke is alive and that Orochimaru has no intention of letting him die so easily. The Fūma were tasked with guarding Sasuke while he was still there so no one would take him back to Konoha. With that the Konoha group leaves Arashi behind as the hideout collapses, his last words once again thanking his cousin.
The next day, as Jiraiya and the genin head back to Konoha, Sasame and the remainder of the Fūma clan thanks them for all that they’ve done, with Sasame planning to not let the life Arashi helped to protect go to waste. She and Kotohime are left in Hanzaki's care as the Konoha-nin say their goodbyes. On the road, Sakura is feeling down about not doing enough and on not finding Sasuke, but Naruto and Jiraiya encourage her by saying that she more than pulled her weight and that at least they know that Sasuke will be safe for the time being. In the hospital, Sakura tells an injured Naruto that he may have to wait a while but when she’s fully prepared, she swears that next time she won’t be a ball and chain. Sakura goes to Tsunade and requests that she be made her apprentice, at which the latter agrees but warns her that it won’t be easy. Jiraiya watches from outside with pride, thinking that they got more accomplished on the mission then he first thought.
The Land of Rice Fields Arc has the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: This arc was added to give Sakura more overt character growth when she makes her decision to train under Tsunade so she can become a medical-nin. In the manga, she made her choice to better herself after seeing Naruto's determination to bring back Sasuke even after the mission failed. Her line telling Naruto that next time she was coming with him to take Sasuke back was altered here to line up with the scene where Arashi calls her a "ball and chain" (or "a useless dead weight" in the English dub), so instead of the above she tells Naruto, "Next time, I won't be a ball and chain."
- Sakura doesn’t recognize Jiraiya when meeting him after the Time Skip in the manga but is properly introduced to him here and becomes as exasperated by his womanizing antics as Naruto. She also meets Gamakichi for the first time whereas the two wouldn’t share a scene in the manga until the climax of the final arc.
- All There in the Manual: According to a databook, the country that Otogakure resides in was renamed the Land of Sound after the village was established. At no point in this arc is that ever mentioned and the country is always referred to as the Land of Rice Fields (or Rice Paddies in the dub) even by the Fūma clan.
- Also, Kotohime's name is only known from the credits of episode 139.
- BFS: Hanzaki wields a giant zanbatō...which does zilch against the likes of Jiraiya.
- Big Damn Heroes: Let's just say that it was a good thing Sasame decided to go after the Konoha ninja, otherwise Naruto would've died an extremely horrible death. Jiraiya also shows up with Gamahiro to get everyone out of the collapsing hideout once the fighting has ended.
- Bittersweet Ending: Arashi and most of the Fūma clansmen die due to their association with Orochimaru and Sasame must leave her beloved cousin behind. On the bright side, with the hideout destroyed Orochimaru has no reason to venture back there for the foreseeable future and the surviving Fūma can rebuild their status on their own merits without fear of him. On the Konoha side of things, they failed to locate Sasuke but at least know that he's safe from being used as Orochimaru's new body for three years. Plus Sakura gained some serious spine during the battle with Arashi and begins to take steps to better herself as a shinobi by training under Tsunade.
- Body Horror: Taken to ghastly extremes with the Casualty Puppet jutsu, which consists of the remains of Arashi, Jigumo, and Kamikiri. There's also Kagerō, who in addition to her original reveal, also pulls her own pulsating heart out in an attempt to kill Naruto.
- Broken Pedestal: Played for Laughs example; Jiraiya becomes this to Sakura after she learns of his perverted side. It gets to the point that she shields Sasame from him, only for the Sannin to become aghast since the latter is too young for him.
- Death Glare: Kotohime, the Fūma harpist that Jiraiya came across, gives a subtle one to Jiraiya when he tells Hanzaki to look after her and Sasame. It can be inferred that she was mad at Jiraiya for besting her during their battle (never shown onscreen) or annoyed that she had to go live with Hanzaki and that she actually had fun working for Orochimaru.
- Everyone Has Standards: World-class perv he may be, but Jiraiya would never put the moves on a child and becomes incredulous when Sakura insinuates him trying to hit on Sasame.
- Family Honor: The main motivation for the Fūmas on Otogakure's side; they believe that proving themselves worthy to Orochimaru and by extension, the Sound daimyō, will make him restore their prestige. Too bad for them that Orochimaru considers them yet more pawns to be used for experimentation. Hanzaki had tried to warn them about Orochimaru but as a result, he got branded a traitor via the Sannin's manipulations.
- Kagerō takes this to a deadly extreme, using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique just to kill Jiraiya and Naruto and when that fails, linking her heart up with the latter just to bring his corpse to Orochimaru. Most of her dying breath was her still being convinced that the Fūma will regain their power through Orochimaru, though considering she warned Sasame not to see Arashi, she most likely knew that it was a lie and only fought because Kabuto forced her.
- Gonk: Kagerō barely looks human in her disguise. Jigumo as well even if it's mainly due to his long limbs. Downplayed with Kamikiri who is average-looking at worst.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The barely glimpsed Sound Daimyō allowed Orochimaru to found Otogakure in exchange for power and as a result caused many ninja clans to decline due to his ambitions, which led the Fūma to accept Orochimaru's offer and caused the majority of the arc's events.
- By allowing Oto's formation, the fool played a part in them initially worming their way into the Land of Fire's graces, paving the way for Konoha Crush and the death of the Third Hokage. Granted, Orochimaru most likely would've found another method to get the resources he needed for the operation even without the Daimyō's help, but still.
- Considering that he was never technically around in this arc, the same can be said for Orochimaru himself.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Sasame is this to the Konoha ninja for this arc.
- I Will Find You: Sasame hasn't seen her cousin Arashi for at least a year and will do anything to find him. Subverted as she had already found Otogakure by the time of her second encounter with Naruto and Sakura; she was luring them into a trap with the other Fūma loyal to Oto so that they would let her see Arashi.
- Latex Perfection: Arashi and Kagerō used it to disguise themselves as Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi respectively.
- Manipulative Bastard: Orochimaru was able to earn the Daimyō's favor by promising him power and more influence in the surrounding territories and the fool fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He even let the snake rename his country for god's sake!
- Our Zombies Are Different: The Casualty Puppet has the still living Arashi combined with the freshly killed Kamikiri and Jigumo to make up a disturbing three-man torso which can utilize all of their abilities. Arashi is the main body and intelligence whereas the other two are little more than enhancers for his chakra.
- Progressively Prettier: Kotohime is far easier on the eyes in her normal form as compared to her monstrous guise in the hideout.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Kamikiri, Jigumo, and Kagerō make this up for the arc's first half.
- Reused Character Design: The Sound Daimyō, only seen in a flashback at the beginning of the arc, is clearly the same character model used for the Tea Daimyō in the previous Land of Tea filler.
- Samus Is a Girl: Kagerō, the deformed hunchback of the Fūma clan, is actually an attractive young woman with a jutsu that can kill in one hit in exchange for the user's life. Happens again when it's revealed that she was disguised as Kabuto.
- Earlier, Sasame was thought to be a boy during her initial encounter with the Konoha genin only to be proven wrong upon removing her mask...plus Naruto accidentally groping her before.
- Spiders Are Scary: Jigumo uses spiders in his jutsu, much like Kidōmaru before him. His long arms and legs give off vibes of the Rake (the creature, not the gardening tool).
- Supporting Protagonist: While Naruto is still vital here, Sakura is clearly the central focus of this arc despite not taking much of a combat role. Through Naruto and Sasame's bravery, she begins to grow more of a spine and increases her resolve to find Sasuke and better herself by the end which leads her to seek out Tsunade for training.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Naruto accidentally grabbed Sasame's chest while fleeing from the other Fūmas, making her initially uncomfortable around him. When Naruto realizes what he's done, Sakura promptly clocks him over the head.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Daimyō, if you really think about it, was this for allowing Orochimaru to establish Otogakure in his land in the first place. A few sweet words and promises caused the fool to cave and a lot of death and destruction possibly could have been prevented had he refused. Lampshaded by Jiraiya.
- Took a Level in Badass: While not by a wide margin, Sakura does manage to save Naruto from being killed twice in this arc and wasn't afraid to die in order to protect Sasame from the cadaver puppet. The final episode of the arc is fittingly titled "Sakura's Determination!"
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Frogs creep out Sakura, especially talking ones like Gamakichi. Downplayed with Sasame; who while at first is taken aback seems perfectly fine with him later.
- You Have Failed Me: Orochimaru, Arashi, is displeased with how the Fūma trio failed to bring back Naruto's team to him and makes them pay with their bodies. This time, that IS way worse than it sounds.
