I liked this episode quite a lot. It was like an end of childhood episode. They really managed to successfully make a big deal of the old promise they should have grown out of but neither could, and so Sai comparing it to a curse was very apt. I never really thought about how it was tying not only Naruto but Sakura herself so strongly.

What comes to Sai himself, it almost feels like his character had been written for this particular ep from the beginning. How he was emotionally very lacking but thus could observe the others freely from various points of views, and finally didn't hold back anymore. Lots of old, loose threads were tied all at once.

The only weak scene was Ino crying so ardently. That felt unreal. She hasn't even seen the dude for a long time now, much less interacted with him. Just declaring him officially a rogue shouldn't bring about such a reaction. It was like she was shown Sasuke's dead body...