Chapter Summaries

Tenten proposed a sea-and-land shortcut to intercept Kabuto in the Land of Rice Fields, and Guy led the Konoha team toward it aboard a Kirigakure assault speedboat. As the boat entered a dark, turbulent zone, Tenten used the movement of foam to guide their course.

• Tenten mapped a shortcut across the bay and peninsula, and Neji confirmed it could save at least a day compared with returning through Konoha.
• Tide arranged a Kirigakure assault speedboat and sent Guy, Chisen, Neji, and Tenten ahead while he stayed behind to oversee work in the Crescent Archipelago.
• The four Konoha Ninja boarded the speedboat after checking their equipment, injuries, and engines, then left the Land of Water's main island at night.
• Chisen considered why Kabuto had left the Crescent Archipelago's core vessel unused and concluded that Kabuto's larger operation was likely underway in the Land of Rice Fields.
• When the speedboat reached the turbulent zone, Tenten found that the compass was unreliable and studied the foam to determine the current's direction.

Chisen and Neji reasoned that Kabuto was likely operating in the southern Land of Rice Fields and examined the dangers posed by his Immune-Integrated Vessels. The group reached the peninsula before dawn and began crossing its unstable salt flats toward the hills.

• Neji told Chisen about Orochimaru's Byakugan-blocking underground facility and said Kabuto could be using any of several old bases in the Land of Rice Fields.
• Chisen concluded Kabuto was most likely in the southern mountains, where nearby caves and Orochimaru's facilities could provide laboratory space and cooling water.
• Chisen reasoned that immune-integrated glands might evade Akamatsu Kinpei's Antibody Awakening Agent and wondered whether Kabuto was preparing for a catastrophe that would destroy outside support systems.
• As the boat left the turbulent waters, Tenten, Neji, Chisen, and Guy agreed on their order for crossing the hazardous salt flats.
• The speedboat landed before dawn, and Neji found no nearby people or chakra signatures while surveying the route inland.
• Tenten led the group across the salt crust, with Neji following, Chisen probing with his cane, and Guy bringing up the rear.

Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen crossed the strait and traced signs of Kabuto’s underground facility in the southern mountains of the Land of Rice Fields. They entered a valley marked with an old Otogakure emblem and heard the facility’s generator humming underground.

• Guy steadied Chisen across the saline flats, and the group reached the limestone ridge overlooking the strait.
• Neji used his Byakugan to detect a three-level underground facility with interconnected chambers and a large cavity containing circulating liquid.
• Chisen inferred that Kabuto’s culture workshop drew cooling water from a large underground river system beneath the southern mountains.
• The group crossed the strait over exposed reefs, and Tenten found recent vehicle tracks leading toward a mountain valley.
• Neji identified a newly placed warning sign bearing Otogakure’s old emblem, and the group followed a maintained gravel road into the valley.
• Tenten heard machinery beneath the road, and Chisen identified the sound as a generator powering the underground facility.

Neji, Guy, Tenten, and Chisen found a hidden ventilation duct into Kabuto’s underground facility and discovered an unfinished Immune-Integrated Vessel with six independently pulsing glands. Concluding Kabuto was away and might return to harvest the glands, Guy entered the facility to destroy the test subject first.

• Neji found that the sealed cave entrance led to an abandoned access tunnel, and Tenten spotted a concealed ventilation duct in the mountain wall.
• Neji scanned the facility through the duct and saw its three levels, including a living test subject in a top-level tank with six developing glands in its back.
• Chisen identified the subject as Kabuto’s first finished Immune-Integrated Vessel, designed to grow transplantable organs that would not trigger rejection.
• Neji found no sign of Kabuto among the facility’s ten staff and researchers, while Chisen reasoned that the glands were still developing and Kabuto might return to harvest them.
• Guy decided to enter the facility and destroy the test subject, and Tenten passed him equipment as he crawled into the duct.

Guy, Tenten, Neji, and Chisen infiltrated Kabuto’s Land of Rice Fields facility through its ventilation ducts and reached the central culture chamber. There they found an inactive test subject suspended in a vast tank, with six complex glands embedded along its spine.

• Tenten gave Guy a cable and iron-ball explosives, while Neji, Chisen, and Tenten followed him through the ventilation duct.
• The group descended a shaft into the main duct, and Neji confirmed the researchers remained in the gene-editing room and Kabuto had not returned.
• Guy and the others exited through a vent on the top level and found a locked door leading to the central culture chamber.
• Tenten detonated an iron ball to blast the door’s lock, and Guy led the group into the chamber.
• Guy inspected the inactive test subject in the tank, while Chisen examined its six pulsing glands through the prism.

Chisen explained how Kabuto’s six engineered glands could make activated vessels accept transplanted tissue without rejection, and Guy ordered the specimen destroyed completely. The team drained its culture fluid and watched the glands die; Chisen then asked to take a tissue sample before they blew up the prism.

• Chisen explained that Kabuto planned to transplant the specimen’s six immune-suppressing glands into other vessels to upgrade them.
• Neji assessed the specimen’s enhanced body structure, while Chisen described destroying it by shattering the prism and draining its culture fluid.
• Tenten proposed using chakra threads to guide an iron ball through the prism’s inlet and detonate it inside.
• Guy ordered the culture fluid drained so he could confirm the specimen’s irreversible death and leave Kabuto no usable tissue.
• Chisen forced open the rusted outlet valve, and the culture fluid drained as the specimen’s six glands stopped pulsing and died.
• Chisen declared the specimen irreversibly dead and asked to take a tissue sample to investigate Kabuto’s gene-editing technology.

Guy, Tenten, Neji, and Chisen destroyed Kabuto’s test subject and followed the trail toward the old Otogakure site in the northern Land of Rice Fields. They discovered Kabuto had prepared an ambush ahead, and Neji planned to use the narrow pass to strengthen his Vacuum Palm.

• Chisen collected tissue samples from the test subject, and Tenten dropped an iron ball into its prism to shatter the enclosure and kill it.
• Guy destroyed the subject’s remaining spinal tissue, then led the group out of the underground facility with Chisen’s samples intact.
• Chisen explained that Kabuto would retreat to the old Otogakure site, so Guy’s group headed north toward it.
• Tenten found fresh footprints in the pass, and Neji detected twelve to fifteen stationary chakra signatures waiting in the hills.
• Guy identified thirteen attackers arranged in an encirclement trap and assigned positions for the coming fight.
• Neji took the center of the pass and prepared to use Vacuum Palm, expecting the narrow walls to amplify its force.

Guy and his team discovered that Kabuto had modified thirteen ordinary people with chest-embedded chakra beads that gave them powerful automatic defenses. As Guy prepared to use the Eight Gates to exploit a brief gap in those defenses, he revealed a plan based on chakra field interference.

• Tenten, Guy, Neji, and Chisen prepared to face thirteen ambushers blocking the pass, with Chisen ready to treat the wounded.
• The ambushers exposed black chakra beads embedded in their chests, and Neji determined that the beads replaced their chakra sources and were damaging their blood vessels.
• Guy recognized that the thirteen were ordinary people whom Kabuto had modified into expendable jinchuriki.
• Neji's Vacuum Palm and Tenten's explosive kunai failed to penetrate the beads' automatic chakra membranes.
• Chisen concluded that repeated attacks could exhaust the beads, but the team's own resources would run out first, so Guy proposed using the Eight Gates.
• Guy explained that two precisely timed punches could exploit the formation's movement and create a zero-density vacuum zone between overlapping chakra fields.

Guy used the Jinchuriki membranes’ interference gaps to destroy three beads and disable their bearers, but the remaining ten formed a synchronized defensive dome and advanced on the pass. Chisen ordered a retreat as the formation approached.

• Guy explained how overlapping Jinchuriki membranes created brief gaps and removed his weighted gear before preparing an attack.
• Neji identified two closely spaced targets, and Tenten and Neji forced the front and middle rows to activate their membranes.
• Guy opened the first six gates, shattered one Jinchuriki’s bead with Morning Peacock, and destroyed two more beads by striking an interference gap.
• The ten remaining Jinchuriki formed a synchronized circular defense and advanced toward the pass, while their beads’ chakra reserves began to drain.
• Chisen emerged from cover, assessed the advancing formation, and ordered Guy and the others to retreat.

Guy and his team retreated into a narrow gully, where they trapped one of the Jinchuriki and treated the injured man while the others blocked the exit. As Chisen examined a fragment of a bead, he connected Kabuto’s defenses to his escape routes.

• Chisen explained that the ten Jinchuriki’s synchronized beads would run out of chakra in fifteen minutes, but the team would exhaust its resources first.
• Guy led the team toward a narrow side gully, where Tenten stalled the Jinchuriki with an iron ball and Neji caused a rockfall to obstruct the entrance.
• Guy shattered the bead of the first Jinchuriki to enter the fissure, then Chisen removed the fragments from the man’s chest and saved his life.
• The remaining Jinchuriki blocked the gully entrance, forcing Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen to remain in a cave overnight while Kabuto continued his work.
• Chisen studied a bead fragment and determined that Kabuto had compressed God Tree root crystals into beads with an altered molecular structure.
• Guy observed Chisen drawing in the silt as Chisen noted that Kabuto positioned defenses along his retreat routes rather than inside his facilities.

Chisen devised a way to send Kabuto a deceptive message through the bead fragments, hoping to lure him away from the former site of Otogakure and weaken the blockade. The message reached one of the Jinchuriki, but Kabuto was still checking whether it was a trap.

• Chisen explained that Kabuto had concentrated his remaining combat forces along the routes to his undefended laboratory, leaving the group trapped in the forked ravine.
• Chisen used a copper coil and bead fragments to transmit a message claiming that the Immune Integration glands had a three-minute oxygen limit, one gland was abnormal, and the extraction window would close in four hours.
• Neji and Tenten recognized that the false deadline might draw Kabuto south and leave fewer Jinchuriki guarding the ravine.
• Neji noticed that one Jinchuriki's bead had changed frequency after receiving Chisen's signal.
• Guy concluded that Kabuto was using the bead link to verify that the group remained trapped before deciding whether to act.

Chisen had Neji use brief Byakugan activations to make Kabuto’s monitoring system detect three Hyuga targets and believe the pursuers had split up. The ruse succeeded, and Chisen concluded Kabuto was still working at the old Otogakure site, but Neji warned that continued surveillance could let Kabuto uncover their deception.

• Chisen explained that Kabuto was remotely monitoring the beads and proposed using Neji’s Byakugan to create false signals at separate locations.
• Neji activated and deactivated his Byakugan three times at different points in the gully, making the beads register multiple Hyuga targets.
• Chisen observed the beads’ responses and confirmed that Kabuto’s system was treating the signals as separate targets.
• Guy checked Neji’s strained meridians and told him he could not activate his Byakugan again that night.
• Tenten worried Kabuto might evacuate, but Chisen said his continued adjustments to the beads showed he was still working at the old Otogakure site.
• Neji warned that Kabuto could discover the false signals’ pattern if he continued monitoring them.

Chisen devised a fake chakra signal to mislead Kabuto’s surveillance while the group rested in a cave near Otogakure. Three villagers from Sawada Village arrived and reported that Otogakure’s agents had taken supplies and abducted villagers, using a technique that left people unable to move.

• Chisen set up a piezoelectric device to transmit a fake chakra signal and told Guy to activate it periodically through the night.
• Chisen carved a map of the terrain into his cane and reasoned that Kabuto would likely commit his remaining resources to a final project at Otogakure.
• Chisen, Guy, and Neji heard three people approaching the cave and identified them as ordinary civilians.
• Chisen introduced the group as Konoha ninja, and a man from Sawada Village said Otogakure’s agents had seized grain and herbs and abducted six young men.
• The man described the agents’ grayish-white robes and dark chest patches, and said they had rendered resisting villagers unable to move.

Chisen and Guy learned that Kabuto was still operating at the former site of Otogakure and planned a hidden route around the Jinchuriki blockade. They prepared to infiltrate the facility with Sawada Saki as their guide and left the villagers organizing information to identify the captives.

• An old man showed Chisen and Guy where Sawada Village, Zeshimo Town, the abandoned mine, and the former site of Otogakure lay, and described renewed activity at the mountain facility.
• A middle-aged villager gave Guy a jar of Life-Sustaining Balm, which Chisen identified as fresh Source-Free Maintenance Fluid that indicated Kabuto was sustaining at least five vessels and was not preparing to evacuate.
• Sawada Saki offered poisoned bamboo stakes and told Guy that Kabuto's people had taken her sixteen-year-old brother, Sawada Kazuki.
• The old man described an overgrown northern path that bypassed the Jinchuriki blockade, and Guy chose it as the team's route to the former site of Otogakure.
• Saki explained how to cross the flooded mine and agreed to guide Guy, Chisen, Neji, and Tenten, while the old man planned to lead them to the entrance.
• The old man sent the middle-aged villager back to record Kazuki's clothing and shoe marks so he could identify him if the Konoha Ninja rescued the captives.

Guy and Chisen’s team crossed the ridge toward the abandoned mining site, planning to use false chakra signals and a landslide to draw Kabuto’s guards away from the old Otogakure site. They reached the Ventilation Shaft entrance, and Neji began scanning the underground facility before they entered.

• Chisen moved the ceramic plate and changed its signal interval to make Kabuto believe a flanking force was approaching the old Otogakure site.
• Guy arranged for Saki to trigger explosions and a landslide on the eastern Rubble Slope, drawing guards away while the team entered from the Northern Old Road.
• The group crossed the Ancient Riverbed and climbed a concealed waterfall route over the ridge, with Chisen struggling through his worsening knee injury.
• Saki led the team through the forest to the abandoned Mine Pit and identified the Ventilation Shaft leading to Otogakure’s underground facilities.
• Guy gave Saki Tenten’s Iron Ball and seven Exploding Tags, instructing her to trigger the disturbance and retreat to the Mine Pit entrance.
• Neji used his Byakugan to scan the Ventilation Shaft, tunnels, and Underground Level, finding no chakra signatures.

Neji, Guy, Chisen, and Tenten confirmed that Kabuto was preparing five Immune Integration gland transplants in Otogakure and planned their assault on his stronghold. The chapter ended with Guy warning that Kabuto’s modified Impure World Reincarnation could summon the dead, whom they could only stop with sealing techniques they did not have.

• Neji reported five inactive vessels, four additional Jinchuriki guards, and Kabuto in the innermost room, and Chisen deduced that Kabuto was preparing five gland transplants.
• Saki left the group and headed east, while Guy prepared a bamboo spike alarm and the others checked their equipment and combat readiness.
• Guy, Tenten, Neji, and Chisen reviewed the Ventilation Shaft entrance and predicted that Kabuto would fight while completing the transplants.
• Guy revealed that Kabuto had modified Impure World Reincarnation to summon the dead without living sacrifices and warned that they lacked sealing tools to stop them.

Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen entered Kabuto’s underground laboratory after learning he might summon past Hokage, and they found his Jinchuriki experiment nearly complete. The four Jinchuriki detected them as they reached the stairwell, leaving the group poised to confront them.

• Neji explained that his Eight Trigrams Palm could briefly seal the chakra pathways of reanimated bodies, while Guy reasoned that Kabuto’s limited chakra would restrict his summons and control.
• Tenten raised the possibility that Kabuto could summon Konoha’s past Hokage, and Guy described how the Hokage might briefly resist Kabuto’s control.
• Tenten broke open the Ventilation Shaft entrance, and the group crossed the flooded Horizontal Tunnel toward the old iron door while Guy helped Chisen stay upright.
• Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen opened the iron door and entered the facility, where they heard Kabuto operating and found five prepared vessels, opened storage jars, and no sign of him.
• Neji spotted the four Jinchuriki waiting at the passage entrance and reported that their beads were increasing their chakra output.
• Guy stepped onto the stairwell, and the facility lights dimmed as emergency red lights came on.

Chisen, Guy, Neji, and Tenten confronted Kabuto’s Impure World Reincarnation of Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Namikaze Minato, then planned how to exploit the reanimated Hokage’s weaknesses. The battle began with Tenten disrupting Minato’s first teleportation, buying Guy and Neji a brief opening.

• Chisen identified the underground pulses as a life-support system keeping five extracted glands active while Kabuto prepared his technique.
• Kabuto used Summoning Technique: Impure World Reincarnation to summon Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Namikaze Minato.
• Chisen explained how Guy could draw Tobirama toward Hashirama, while Tenten and Neji targeted Minato’s teleportation and the Hokage’s reanimation Curse Marks.
• Minato recognized Guy’s Konoha stance before Kabuto’s control Curse Mark suppressed his consciousness and sent his Flying Thunder God Kunai toward the stairwell.
• Tenten’s Chakra Threads deflected Minato’s kunai and trapped his ankle after his delayed first teleportation, giving Guy and Neji a brief opening.

Guy and Neji disrupted Kabuto’s control of the reanimated Hokage and reached his operating room, but Kabuto had completed a fifth gland transplant and revealed his research’s purpose. The chapter ended with Kabuto telling Guy he pursued the work because he feared death more than anyone.

• Guy redirected Tobirama’s Water Severing Wave into Hashirama’s Wood Style, causing the dome to collapse and freeing part of the stairwell.
• Neji sealed the Impure World Reincarnation mark on Hashirama, breaking Kabuto’s control long enough for Hashirama to obstruct Tobirama’s next attack.
• Hashirama’s resistance helped Guy cross the passage and reach Kabuto, who was finishing a fifth gland transplant while using an implanted chakra bead to sustain his techniques.
• Kabuto activated a barrier formed by the four jinchuriki’s beads, separating Guy and his companions from the reanimated Hokage.
• Kabuto explained that the fifth vessel’s gland was nearly integrated and could enable organ transplants despite major immune mismatches.
• Guy asked Kabuto why he was conducting the experiments, and Kabuto said he feared death more than anyone.

Kabuto’s attempt to create rejection-proof transplant glands failed, and Guy confronted him after the final vessel died. Kabuto injected black liquid into the bead at his neck and transformed into black liquid when Guy attacked, while Neji found a crack in the barrier outside.

• Kabuto forced Vessel Five’s gland to activate, but the vessel died when its immune system rejected and destroyed the implant.
• Guy crushed Kabuto’s last preservation canister and condemned him for stealing organs, while Kabuto’s other four transplants continued to fail.
• Kabuto injected black liquid into the bead at the back of his neck, overloading his chakra and suppressing his emotions.
• Neji’s Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm opened a brief fissure in the Jinchuriki barrier, and he alerted Guy from the passage.
• Kabuto formed hand seals as Guy charged, then his body turned into translucent black liquid when Guy’s fist passed through his chest.