Despite having formulated a strategy beforehand, Choji quickly loses to Dosu, concluding the preliminaries. The nine qualifying Genin are assigned opponents, and they are all allowed to leave for a month of training before the finals. Elsewhere, Kabuto prepares to kidnap Sasuke under Orochimaru’s orders, but he is stopped by Kakashi and is forced to retreat. Naruto later meets with Kakashi in hopes of training with him, but is given Ebisu as a replacement.