The third season of the Naruto anime television series, labelled as the "3rd Stage" in the Japanese DVD release, is directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo. Based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga series, the season follows Naruto Uzumaki and his friends, attempting to prevent Sasuke Uchiha from leaving the Leaf Village in search of power by joining up with Orochimaru. The third season ran on TV Tokyo and its affiliates, from May 19, 2004 to April 20, 2005.
The English dub aired on both Cartoon Network's Toonami and YTV's Bionix programming blocks from April 21, 2007, to January 12, 2008.
Sony Pictures Entertainment collected the episodes in a total of twelve DVD volumes, each containing four episodes, between January 1 and December 7, 2005. The English adaptation of these dub was released between twenty-first and thirty-second DVD volumes released by Viz Media, while various compilations were later released.
The Japanese version of this season features eight theme musics: three openings and five endings. The openings are "Go!!!" by Flow, used for episodes 84 to 103, Sambomaster's "Seishun Kyōsōkyoku" (青春狂騒曲, lit. Youth's Rhapsody), used for episodes 104 to 128, and "No Boy No Cry" (ノーボーイ·ノークライ, Nō Bōi Nō Kurai) by Stance Punks, from episodes 129 to 131. The endings are "Ima Made Nando Mo" (今まで何度も, lit. Many Times Before) by The Mass Missile (used for episodes 84 to 89), "Ryūsei" (流星, lit. Meteor) by TiA (used for episodes 90 to 103), "Mountain A Go Go 2" (マウンテン·ア·ゴーゴー·ツー, Maunten A Gō Gō Tsū) by Captain Straydum (used for episodes 104 to 115), "Hajimete Kimi to Shabetta" (はじめて君としゃべった, lit. The First Time I Spoke With You) by GaGaGa SP (used for episodes 116 to 128), and "Nakushita Kotoba" (失くした言葉, lit. Lost Words) by No Regret Life (used for episodes 129 to 131). The English version uses opening "Go!!!" by Flow, for episodes 84 to 104 and uses Sambomaster's "Seishun Kyōsōkyoku" (青春狂騒曲, lit. Youth's Rhapsody), for episodes 105 to 128. It replaces the endings with an instrumental version of "Rise" by Jeremy Sweet and Ian Nickus.
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