As the battle between The Hokage and his former student continues, we get a rare glimpse at why Orochimaru left the Leaf Village. The episode is laced with various flashbacks from a time long before the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the village. In these flashbacks, we see that Orochimaru was capturing and experimenting on fellow shinobi in an attempt to learn and take their Jutsu. When The Hokage confronted his student, a fight ensued, but Sarutobi spares the younger ninja's life and Orochimaru gets away.
In the fight between the two, Sarutobi releases a Jutsu that was developed by The Fourth Hokage, which is designed to rip an opponent's soul right out of his body and seal it away with the caster of the Jutsu. The Third Hokage uses the Reaper Death Seal Jutsu to strip the summoned souls of the first two Hokage who were resurrected and are forced to fight Sarutobi (the resurrection occurred in the previous volume). He then grabs a hold of Orochimaru's soul, but the snake-like assassin isn't going to leave quietly.
Meanwhile, Sasuke catches up to Gaara and Kankuro, but can Kankuro fend off the last of the Uchiha Clan, while Temari catches up and takes Gaara, leaving Sasuke having to go through the puppet-master shinobi before he can attack the weaker Sand Ninja. But their fight gets interrupted yet again, this time by Shino who wants to finally have the fight that Kankuro bowed out of during the Chunin Exams. This leaves Sasuke free to chase after the remaining Sand Ninja once again.
Before the end of these four episodes, Gaara will start to reveal his true form and the monster that dwells inside of him. Sasuke will also attempt to use his Chidori a third time, even though he knows it could very well kill him, and Sakura and Naruto finally catch up to Sasuke and Gaara. The final episode on this disc, "Assasin of the Moonlit Night," reveals a lot about Gaara, as seeing the three Leaf Ninja causes the tormented Gaara to go into flashbacks.
We learn that upon Gaara's birth, his father, and the leader of the Sand Village, summoned and sealed away a great sand demon called Shukaku inside of Gaara, and whenever he falls asleep, Shukaku is free to take over. Much like Naruto, Gaara is shunned as he grows up, but unlike our favorite knuckle-headed ninja, Gaara never really develops any friendships, and becomes an awesome weapon for the Sand Village.
Meanwhile, interspersed throughout these four episodes, we get to see Might Guy and Kakashi fighting off hordes of Sound Ninja at the arena, while other shinobi of the Leaf (particularly parents of major characters in the show) fend off other invading forces. It is nice to see how other ninja handle themselves in a battle.
A lot happens in Volume 19, since it all but concludes the third season of the show and the fight to save the Leaf Village is in full swing. We get a hint at just what Gaara really looks like, and there is the promise of a fight between he and Naruto. Plus, Orochimaru and Sarutobi's fight begins to draw to a close. Unfortunately, this story arch won't be wrapped up until the next volume, but fans of the show will definitely want to pick up this disc in order to continue the exciting story.
