This episode was great.
It's awesome to see Rock Lee back in action, he is such a funny character and his fighting styles are awesome. The guy he is fighting has some dodgy techniques going on too though, something about bones poking out of skin just gives me the shivers.
When Shikamaru mentioned Azuma coming to his rescue earlier in the episode, I kind of twigged that the shadowy figures were going to save them, but I certainly didn't expect it to be the sand ninja!
I'm really chuffed Gaara is back, the guy was never a proper villian, more of a pawn (and a victim himself) in someone else's game.
I wish I could watch the next episode now. Naruto has this cliff-hanger ending down to perfection.