Good episode.
Though the only problem I have with this episode is the whole thing with Naruto begging the Raikage to forgive Sasuke as a last resort in a fruitless and futile attempt to save Sasuke. When it comes to Naruto begging A to forgive Sasuke, like last time, I have to side with A on this one. Sasuke's a criminal and a threat to peace and stability and keeping him alive won't solve anything. Naruto should stop playing the redeemer for just once in his lifetime (JUST ONCE) and let the authorities do there job by executing that damned Uchiha bastard.
What really grinds my gears is when Naruto spurts out his "I don't want the Leaf and the Cloud to kill each other out of hatred" bull-crap. Does he honestly think that any ninja from his village (namely his peers) would be stupid enough to actually go out of there way to hunt down the one or few Cloud ninja that would happen to have killed Sasuke on site just because that Sasuke was once there friend? That is without a doubt one of the most retarded things I have ever heard.
So according to Shikamaru's analogy, If group of Cloud ninja kill Sasuke, the rest of the village would be fine with it except for Naruto, Sakura and Ino. So they go off to hunt down this Cloud ninja group and get killed by them in the process. This causes Ino's father and Sakura's parents and other loved ones to go out to kill those Cloud ninja. Then those Cloud ninjas loved ones go out to kill the loved ones of Naruto, Sakura and Ino. Then it gets to the point where the infamous "cycle of hatred" goes on eternal never-ending loop as evident of a war breaking out between the two villages.
I could probably see that happen but that doesn't excuse the fact that that argument is flawed and invalid. First of all, if the Hidden Cloud Village wants to kill Sasuke and have him branded as a rogue-ninja, The majority of the population of the Hidden Leaf Village will either fully support it, not have much knowledge about it or not care about it whatsoever. Naruto's peers may have a problem with it but they have shown fully well that they have excepted the reality that Sasuke is a criminal and are prepared to take him out for the good of the Shinobi World. The only people who will take it pretty hard are Naruto (he pretty much hyperventilated due to the Sasuke situation and stress from other things), Sakura (this is debatably since she seemed more concerned about Naruto) and Ino. Which brings me to my next point.
Second of all, Would Naruto, Sakura and Ino really be that stupid enough to potentially start a war with the Cloud by going after Sasuke's killer(s)? Ino probably wouldn't be considered much of a threat and most likely wouldn't be able to do so anyways. Sakura is definitely smart enough to know the harsh reality around Sasuke and would let the law handle Sasuke like how the law handles any other criminal. If Naruto were to go out and kill Sasuke's executors then that would be a huge contradiction to his quest for world peace and make him look like one giant hypocrite. He talks about Sasuke like he's loved by every single person in the village when he in reality is probably the only one who consciously cares about that little emo prick. Nobody in the Leaf would give a crap if Sasuke died whether they support his death or don't know him well enough to care about what happens to him either way. In politics, this would probably be a minor thing compared to the Hyuga Incident.
Though Danzo wasn't a popular candidate for Hokage, anyone would know that it would be a smart thing for a political leader to give permission to brand a shinobi as a Rogue-Ninja despite what your opinions of said political leader are. Why would the Leaf go to war with the Cloud over a criminal when there Hokage gave them the okay to off that Uchiha's sorry ass? The only reason that those two villages would be at war in the first place is because some idiots got carried away and provoked people on both sides all just to fulfill a desire for vengeance. But in the case of the Hyuga Incident, a Cloud official tried to kidnap a Hyuga girl to obtain the Byakugan. This would rightfully be considered a serious issue but instead of starting a war, they made the necessary sacrifices in order to avoid war. Now if the Leaf was willing to make a sacrifice during the Hyuga Incident then that means that they can be capable of making a sacrifice (which is small compared to the Hyuga Incident) by letting Sasuke be branded as a criminal thus following the orders to kill him on site.
In conclusion, Naruto is nowhere near ready to take on the role of Hokage if he can't handle one single criminal properly.
That being said, I can't wait for the narusaku moment in the next episode.