Chapter Summaries

Tsunade punished Danzo for his crimes, disbanded Root, and removed Koharu Utatane and Mitokado Homura from their active advisor duties. After the meeting, she also ordered Sakura to pay for the broken conference room door.

• Koharu Utatane and Mitokado Homura blamed their support of Danzo on confusion, while Danzo accused them of plotting with him.
• Tsunade stripped Danzo of his positions, ordered him imprisoned pending investigation and trial, and disbanded Root.
• Tsunade made Koharu and Homura honorary advisors who would no longer handle practical affairs, and they left the meeting in dismay.
• Tsunade reprimanded Sakura for disrupting the meeting and breaking the conference room door, then required her to pay for its repair.
• Sakura followed Tsunade back to the Hokage building and muttered that Tsunade might spend the money on food, drink, and gambling.

Tsunade introduced Sakura Haruno to Ryūichi, a former Root sensory ninja who had defected and sought refuge in Konoha, then explained how the village would handle Root’s members. Sakura said she wanted to learn Senjutsu, and Tsunade told her the arrangements were ready while warning her that training could be fatal.

• Ryūichi revealed that he had left Root after Sakura Haruno knocked Shimura Danzō unconscious and had gone to Tsunade for help.
• Tsunade told Ryūichi that Danzo had been taken into custody and Root disbanded, then ordered him to return the next morning.
• Tsunade instructed Sakura Haruno to treat former Root ninja normally, while Sakura admitted she remained wary of them.
• Tsunade explained that she had limited the Hokage Advisors’ authority without publicly stripping them of their positions.
• Sakura Haruno asked to learn Senjutsu, and Tsunade warned her of its high death rate before directing her to contact Sage Katsuyu.

Sakura Haruno extracted Shisui’s Mangekyō Sharingan from Itachi’s crow in her hidden laboratory, triggering the Genjutsu Chakra Itachi had left inside her. When Itachi tried to leave, Sakura stopped him and held him there.

• Mebuki Haruno worried about Sakura’s decision to learn Senjutsu, while Kizashi Haruno defended her and Sakura fled breakfast.
• Sakura trained her students through sparring ahead of the Chunin Ninja Exams, then left clones with them and went to her underground laboratory.
• Sakura used the Chakra Itachi had left inside her to summon his crow and discovered Shisui’s Sharingan in its eye.
• The crow dissolved into feathers, and Itachi’s image appeared, asking where Sasuke was and what had happened to him.
• Itachi prepared to leave with the Sharingan, but Sakura used Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals to catch his hand and stop him.

Sakura Haruno trapped Uchiha Itachi’s Shadow Clone and questioned him about Shisui’s Sharingan and the Genjutsu he had left for Sasuke. Itachi explained that he trusted Sakura to stop Sasuke from going astray, then vanished, leaving her with Shisui’s eye.

• Sakura Haruno restrained Itachi’s Shadow Clone in an ice-sealed room, and he agreed to answer her questions truthfully.
• Sakura said she would not transplant Shisui’s Sharingan into her original body or use Kotoamatsukami on her comrades, while Itachi explained that his Genjutsu was meant to protect Konoha through Sasuke.
• Itachi ran out of Chakra before explaining Kotoamatsukami’s trigger conditions, then revealed he had trusted Sakura to change Sasuke’s mind if he turned against the village.
• Itachi vanished into black feathers, and Shisui’s Sharingan dropped into Sakura’s hand.
• Sakura sealed the eye in its container and prepared a clone body to experience a Sharingan transplant.

Sakura Haruno activated a living clone and transplanted Shisui’s Sharingan into it, then projected her mind into the clone. The clone awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and discovered she had also gained Kotoamatsukami, startling the original by offering to test it on her.

• Sakura Haruno considered the risks of creating a clone that could live independently and potentially surpass her.
• Sakura Haruno used Yang Release Chakra to make the clone’s heart beat and its body breathe, then transplanted Shisui’s Sharingan into it.
• Sakura Haruno projected her mind into the clone, which activated the three-tomoe Sharingan and experienced its enhanced vision.
• The clone adapted to her new body, then channeled Yin Release Chakra to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.
• The clone felt her ocular power and discovered she had automatically learned Kotoamatsukami, then asked the original if she wanted to see it tested.

Sakura Haruno tested the duplicate’s newly awakened Kotoamatsukami and learned how powerful it was, along with its severe costs and long cooldown. She returned to Konoha, spent the following weeks training and preparing for the Chunin Ninja Exams, and the story ended on the first test’s date, July 1.

• The duplicate used Kotoamatsukami on the original Sakura Haruno, making her undress so the duplicate could borrow her clothes.
• Sakura Haruno broke free of the Genjutsu, and she and the duplicate concluded that the technique could be devastating at full strength but had a long cooldown and heavy ocular-power costs.
• Sakura Haruno sealed the duplicate away, gathered its test results, and considered whether Danzo might know more about Kotoamatsukami.
• Sakura Haruno sealed the underground base in ice and returned to Konoha through the underground river.
• Sakura Haruno spent the following days training with her duplicate, preparing three children for the Chunin Ninja Exams, and getting ready for Senjutsu training.
• July 1 arrived, the date of the first Chunin Ninja Exams test.

Sakura Haruno and Kakashi Hatake monitored the Chunin Ninja Exams, whose combat-focused format reflected Konoha’s preparations for the Akatsuki threat. As Konoha hosted an unusually large gathering of villages, Sakura worried that other nations might see the event as a sign of danger rather than cooperation.

• Kakashi explained to Sakura that his own Chunin exams used written, team, and individual rounds scored together, while this year’s first round tested teams’ ability to gather and protect information through cheating and defense.
• Sakura watched Konohamaru’s team seize part of another team’s exam paper and protect their own answers as weaker teams struggled and some were caught making too much noise.
• Sakura recognized that the round-robin team battles and later combat exams emphasized fighting strength, and she and Kakashi agreed that the format signaled preparation for war against the Akatsuki.
• Sakura observed Tsunade talking with Gaara and Mei Terumi while Cloud and Stone observers looked uneasy at Konoha’s large-scale exams and its efforts to unite the villages.
• Sakura felt dispirited about the other villages’ suspicions and asked Kakashi to patrol somewhere else.

Kakashi and Sakura Haruno patrolled Konoha during the Chunin Ninja Exams and discussed Kakashi’s newly awakened Mangekyō Sharingan. When the first exam ended, Kakashi asked Sakura if she was free soon.

• Sakura Haruno left the exam venue with Kakashi to patrol around it, teasing him about his lateness and lack of training.
• Sakura sensed Kakashi’s Mangekyō Sharingan and realized his strength had reached the level of a Kage.
• Kakashi told Sakura that using the Mangekyō burdened him and that its Kamui technique consumed enormous amounts of Chakra.
• Sakura and Kakashi watched over Konoha from a rooftop and continued their uneventful patrol.
• When a bell signaled the end of the first exam, Kakashi asked Sakura if she was free soon.

Sakura Haruno agreed to help Kakashi train to master his Mangekyō after she returned from Shikkotsu Forest, where she planned to learn Senjutsu. She left to meet Konohamaru and the others, while her friends’ dramatic farewells made her feel as though they expected her not to come back.

• Sakura Haruno told Kakashi she would soon go to Shikkotsu Forest to train in Senjutsu and offered to help him during the exams if his need was urgent.
• Kakashi apologized for neglecting Sakura during the earlier Chunin Ninja Exams, and Sakura teased him about favoring Sasuke.
• Sakura explained that she planned to prepare Konohamaru and the others for the round-robin team battles with repeated, stamina-focused practice fights.
• Kakashi asked Sakura to help him train with his Mangekyō, and she agreed to do so after returning from Shikkotsu Forest.
• Sakura joined Konohamaru and Moegi after the exam, then complained that her friends’ warnings about her Senjutsu training made it sound as though she would never return.

Sakura Haruno said farewell to her friends and students before traveling with Katsuyu to Shikkotsu Forest to begin Senjutsu training. Sage Katsuyu welcomed her, saying she had been waiting for a long time.

• Sasuke warned Sakura that Senjutsu training carried a high failure and death rate, but Sakura assured him she would return safely.
• Hinata and Haku hugged Sakura goodbye, and she summoned Katsuyu to take her away.
• Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi rushed over with a handmade mug and said farewell to their teacher.
• Sakura hugged her students and told them their team would never truly disband before Katsuyu reverse-summoned her from Konoha.
• Sage Katsuyu greeted Sakura at Shikkotsu Forest and said she had been waiting for her.

As Konoha’s Anbu worked to screen Root’s members, Sasuke grew exhausted and troubled by what he learned about the Uchiha Clan. Kakashi then brought him to an operating room, where Hotaru Hyuga briefed the team on a cautious operation to remove something from Danzo, leaving the procedure about to begin.

• Sasuke and Hinata worked long hours helping screen Root’s ninja, and Sasuke heard Root members describe the Uchiha Clan as traitors, leaving him increasingly confused about his family and village.
• Kakashi interrupted Sasuke’s thoughts and asked him to join an important mission, then led him to an operating room at Konoha Hospital.
• Hotaru Hyuga assigned Haku and the medical-nin to operate on Danzo, while Sasuke and Kakashi were to watch him and Hinata was ordered to remain outside and report any danger to Tsunade.
• Danzo recognized the people present and warned them not to trust the Uchiha, but Hotaru struck him unconscious and ordered the mission to begin.

After Sasuke demanded the Sharingan taken from Danzo, Hotaru Hyuga returned them to him, leaving Tsunade to handle the fallout gently. Kakashi later met Sasuke at Team 7’s training ground, where Sasuke apologized for disrespecting him.

• Hotaru Hyuga found eleven ordinary Sharingan on Danzo, gave them to Sasuke when he demanded they be returned to the Uchiha, and avoided a fight.
• Tsunade decided not to punish Sasuke harshly and told Kakashi to talk to him about his actions.
• Kakashi left Tsunade’s office and wandered to Team 7’s old training ground, where he found Sasuke waiting.
• Sasuke bowed to Kakashi and apologized for the way he had treated him, and Kakashi accepted.

Tsunade defended her decision to let Sasuke learn about Konoha’s dark past, while Hiruzen admitted his habit of delaying hard choices had contributed to the Uchiha Clan Massacre. Kakashi persuaded Sasuke to consider the consequences of refusing to surrender the Sharingan, and Sakura’s blunt reply left him stunned.

• Hiruzen criticized Tsunade for exposing Sasuke to Danzo and Root’s secrets, but Tsunade argued Sasuke needed to face the truth as a Konoha jonin.
• Tsunade confronted Hiruzen over his past delays in addressing the Uchiha, and he admitted he had not expected matters to end in massacre.
• Sasuke apologized to Kakashi but firmly refused to hand over the eleven Sharingan taken from Uchiha corpses.
• Kakashi warned Sasuke that defying the village could cost him his rank, his place in Konoha, and his chance to reunite with Naruto and Sakura.
• Sasuke agreed to ask Sakura for her opinion, and Tsunade sent his letter to Shikkotsu Forest.
• Sakura replied that Sasuke was a Konoha ninja as well as an Uchiha and threatened to deal with him if he sent another stupid question; Sasuke was stunned by her scolding.

Sasuke went to Tsunade intending to surrender the Sharingan, but she took him to Konoha Hospital’s new constant-temperature laboratory and showed him the eyes recovered from Root. He reclaimed the identified Sharingan, including his father Uchiha Fugaku’s, while Tsunade pressed him to understand his mistake.

• Sasuke spent a sleepless night wondering what Sakura meant and decided to trust her.
• Sasuke told Tsunade he had been wrong to keep the Sharingan from the village and offered her a scroll.
• Tsunade told Sasuke to keep the Sharingan and brought him to a guarded laboratory beneath Konoha Hospital.
• Tsunade showed Sasuke the Sharingan recovered from Root and explained that Danzo had treated them as consumables.
• Tsunade let Sasuke take the identified Sharingan, including Uchiha Fugaku’s eyes, while the unidentified ones remained in the laboratory.
• Sasuke thanked Tsunade, and she asked him to explain what mistake he had made.

Tsunade confronted Sasuke about disobeying orders and distrusting Konoha, then persuaded him to see the village and the Uchiha as part of the same community. Sasuke handed over the eleven Sharingan for identification and left agreeing to bury his clan members’ remains.

• Tsunade told Sasuke that his mistakes were disobeying orders and treating the Uchiha and Konoha as opposing sides.
• Tsunade explained that Konoha was a community of clans and that she valued Sasuke more than the Sharingan.
• Sasuke accepted Tsunade’s explanation, apologized, and handed her the container of eleven Sharingan.
• Tsunade said identifying the remaining eyes could take three to five months and asked Sasuke to keep the laboratory visit secret and cremate and bury the remains.
• Sasuke asked Tsunade to notify him if she identified his mother’s eyes, then left the laboratory.
• After Sasuke left, Tsunade admitted she had found him exhausting to handle, while someone in Shikkotsu Forest wondered how things had gone with Sasuke.

Sakura Haruno arrived at the Shikkotsu Forest to begin Senjutsu training with Sage Katsuyu, who explained how Senjutsu Chakra worked and why sensing Natural Energy was difficult. The chapter ended with Katsuyu proposing to help Sakura learn quickly by swallowing her.

• Sakura Haruno met Sage Katsuyu, who had been eating tree bark and had saved a piece for her.
• Sakura declined the bark, ate food packed by her mother, and asked to start training.
• Sage Katsuyu created a clone to introduce Sakura to Senjutsu and explain the need to balance Natural Energy with physical and spiritual energy.
• Sakura described her experience adjusting Chakra proportions, but Katsuyu warned that Natural Energy was harder to control and sense.
• Sage Katsuyu offered to speed up Sakura's training by merging with her, then clarified that she would swallow Sakura.

Sakura Haruno began learning Senjutsu with Katsuyu, who swallowed her to help her sense natural energy. Sakura lost control during her first attempt and nearly became a slug, but Katsuyu removed the excess energy and explained the fatal outcome of failed training.

• Katsuyu explained that she could guide natural energy into Sakura by swallowing her, unlike using the Combination Transformation Technique.
• Sakura agreed, removed her clothes, and entered Katsuyu, where she sensed natural energy for the first time.
• Sakura became entranced by the new sensation and failed to control the natural energy in the required balance with her spiritual and physical energies.
• Katsuyu spat Sakura out before the energy could fully overwhelm her, and Sakura admitted she had lost focus.
• Sakura saw signs of naturalization on her body, which faded as Katsuyu extracted the excess energy.
• Katsuyu warned that failed trainees lost their minds, became part of her main body, and died forever.

Sakura Haruno learned that failed Senjutsu students were absorbed into Sage Katsuyu and analyzed why she had failed her first attempt. With Katsuyu guiding her through repeated attempts, she gradually endured Natural Energy longer and showed fewer signs of its effects, bringing her closer to completing her training.

• Katsuyu explained that those who failed Senjutsu training were absorbed into Sage Katsuyu, and Sakura Haruno suspected that Katsuyu’s clones came from former ninja who had failed.
• Sakura Haruno identified her main difficulty as controlling the large influx of Natural Energy and balancing it with her physical and spiritual energies.
• Katsuyu offered to channel Natural Energy into Sakura Haruno and remove it before it could overwhelm her, while warning that the process would be uncomfortable.
• Sakura Haruno repeated the exercise dozens and then hundreds of times, getting used to being expelled by Katsuyu after each failed attempt.
• Sakura Haruno gradually lasted longer and suffered fewer visible effects from Natural Energy, steadily approaching the end of her training.

Sakura trained to control Senjutsu Chakra in Shikkotsu Forest, gradually improving despite repeated failures and mounting exhaustion. A week later, she faced the final hurdle: enduring a sudden surge of Natural Energy as Katsuyu began the dangerous test.

• Katsuyu counted Sakura's fifty-eighth attempt, which ended when Natural Energy overwhelmed Sakura and began transforming her body, so Katsuyu spat her out and drew the energy away.
• Sakura recognized that she had mastered most of the techniques but needed patient practice to control the shifting balance of Natural Energy and her own energies.
• After resting and reading Naruto's encouraging letter, Sakura regained her motivation and asked Katsuyu to resume training after she ate.
• Sakura continued training through a week of attempts, nearing mastery and eventually lasting more than an hour before facing a sudden, dangerous influx of Natural Energy.
• Katsuyu counted Sakura's one hundred and ninety-fifth attempt as Senjutsu Chakra around Sakura grew violent during the final test.

Sakura Haruno successfully gathered Senjutsu Chakra and completed the first stage of her training, then tested Sage Mode by using powerful Ninjutsu in Shikkotsu Forest. Katsuyu stopped her from damaging a giant tree and began preparing her for the next stage: absorbing Natural Energy without help.

• Sakura Haruno controlled Natural Energy and formed Senjutsu Chakra, achieving a highly complete Sage Mode with markings on her face.
• Sakura tested her new strength by punching through the bark of an ancient tree, but said Sage Mode was less effective than the Monstrous Strength Technique.
• Sakura experimented with several Sage Art techniques and unleashed Mutually Multiplying Ice Clone Explosion, devastating the area around a giant tree and churning the lake into huge waves.
• Sage Katsuyu stopped Sakura's explosions to protect her food supply and praised her progress, then complained that Tsunade had repeatedly avoided learning Senjutsu.
• Sakura returned to the platform eager to discuss a giant Ninjutsu, but Katsuyu directed her to the next training stage: sensing and absorbing Natural Energy without Katsuyu's help.