Naruto: Shippuden season 1

The first season of the Naruto: Shippuden anime series is directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Pierrot and TV Tokyo. They are based on Part II for Masashi Kishimoto's manga series. The season is set two and a half years later, with Naruto Uzumaki and his team rescuing Gaara from the criminal organization Akatsuki. The first season aired from February to October 2007 on TV Tokyo. It was also released on DVD in Japan over eight discs between August 1, 2007, and March 5, 2008, under the name Kazekage Rescue (風影奪還). There is also a special feature included with the seventh Naruto: Shippuden compilation DVD based on the second ending of the series called Hurricane! "Konoha Academy" Chronicles (疾風!"木ノ葉学園"伝).

The first season premiered from October 28, 2009, to April 21, 2010, on Disney XD. The season ran on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block from January 5 to August 10, 2014.

A series of eight DVDs of the season was released in North America between September 29, 2009, and April 6, 2010. The last volume also contained episodes from the second season. Viz also collected the season in three DVD boxes between January 26 and August 3, 2010, also sharing the third volume with the second season. In the United Kingdom, Manga Entertainment released it in three DVD volumes from June 14 to October 4, 2010, while a DVD box containing the first 52 episodes was released on March 7, 2011.

The series' first season used five musical themes: two opening and three endings. The opening themes are "Hero's Come Back!!" by Nobodyknows+ (used for episodes 1 to 30) and "Distance" by Long Shot Party (used for the remaining episodes). The ending themes are "Nagareboshi (Shooting Star)" (流れ星 〜Shooting Star〜) by Home Made Kazoku (used for episodes 1 to 18), "Michi (To You All)" (道 〜to you all) by Alüto (used for episodes 19 to 30), and "Kimi Monogatari" (キミモノガタリ) by Little by Little (used for the remaining episodes). The first film, Naruto Shippuden the Movie, based on the Naruto: Shippuden series, was released on August 4, 2007. The broadcast versions of episodes from 24 to 27 included scenes from the film in both the opening and ending themes, while it retained the original music.