Chapter Summaries

Kabuto revealed that Orochimaru’s Divine Plant technique could integrate God Tree genetic fragments into a living body, then began using it on himself. Chisen explained the technique as Guy launched Morning Peacock to stop Kabuto’s transformation.

• Kabuto completed the seals for Divine Plant and formed a dense black chakra thread.
• Chisen entered the operating room and explained that the bead at Kabuto’s neck held God Tree cells intended to transform him into a tree.
• Kabuto said he had revised the technique to integrate God Tree genes while preserving his consciousness and began threading it through his chest.
• Kabuto’s cells began genetic restructuring, supported by immune-regulating factors stored in the bead.
• Guy attacked with Morning Peacock as the thread emerged from Kabuto’s back.

Guy and Neji stopped Kabuto’s Divine Plant Technique by destroying a vulnerable chakra node and vaporizing part of his cervical spine, leaving him conscious but unable to control his body. Chisen explained that Kabuto’s experiment had succeeded physically, but his reckless method had caused the failure, while the weakening of his control over the three Hokage brought the battle to a halt.

• Kabuto’s body regenerated from Guy’s physical attacks, and he explained that the Divine Plant Technique made him resistant to injury.
• Neji used Eight Trigrams-Sixty-Four Palms to create an opening in a vulnerable chakra node in Kabuto’s neck.
• Guy used a punch under the Seventh Gate to vaporize the opening and sever Kabuto’s spine, leaving him conscious and unable to move voluntarily.
• Chisen examined Kabuto, collected a tissue sample, and concluded that the God Tree cells now controlled Kabuto’s body.
• Kabuto said the symbiosis had failed, but Chisen argued that the technique had succeeded and Kabuto’s method had failed.
• As Kabuto’s conscious control weakened, the Impure World Reincarnation links to the three Hokage began collapsing, and Hashirama stopped fighting.

After Guy defeated Kabuto and freed the Hokage and jinchuriki from his control, Chisen treated the surviving prisoner and the team found six abducted villagers alive. The group prepared to leave the underground facility with the villagers, while Kabuto remained paralyzed and in danger of dying without medical care.

• The three Hokage vanished after Hashirama acknowledged Guy, and the freed jinchuriki stopped attacking as Tenten helped Neji recover.
• Chisen removed Kabuto’s bead and told him that Guy’s punch had left him paralyzed below the fifth cervical vertebra, with forty-eight hours to reach a medical facility.
• Chisen found Orochimaru’s final writing in Kabuto’s notebook and kept Kabuto’s own last-page note to himself.
• Neji used his Byakugan to find six sedated men from Sawada Village alive in the storage rooms, and Tenten and Neji carried them into the passage.
• Tenten found a Tiantang Pharmaceutical Factory label on an IV line, and Chisen identified the anesthetic as a standard product before examining one of the rescued men.

After Kabuto's control was severed, the sedated captives and ten Jinchuriki recovered at the Otogakure Ruins while Chisen treated their injuries. By nightfall, the young captives had reunited with their families, and Guy accepted a cloth sling from one of the freed Jinchuriki.

• Chisen confirmed that the six young captives were safely sedated and found that the ten Jinchuriki's beads had become dormant and would eventually be expelled.
• Chisen gave the Jinchuriki water and rations as they regained movement and fragments of their memories.
• Saki arrived at the ruins, learned Kazuki was asleep, and quietly cried beside him; Tenten helped replenish Saki's basket.
• Kazuki woke and found Saki asleep beside his bed, while the other five young captives also woke later that day.
• The old man from Zeshimo Town and two mothers arrived and reunited with the six young people.
• One Jinchuriki braided Guy a cloth sling for his injured arm, and the group lit a bonfire outside the ruins after nightfall.

After clearing Otogakure's ruins, Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen helped the rescued villagers and jinchuriki return home and gathered Kabuto's records and experimental samples. On the fourth morning, the four set out south for Konoha with their evidence.

• The old man cooked porridge with rice reclaimed from Otogakure's storeroom, and Guy arranged for Sawada Village and Zeshimo Town to share the remaining supplies.
• More than twenty villagers arrived with mule carts, verified the six rescued youths' identities, and loaded grain, herbs, anesthetics, and antibiotics; Saki and Kazuki returned to Sawada Village with them.
• Saki gave Tenten her sharpened bamboo tubes, and Tenten gave Saki a leather clip before Saki and Kazuki departed.
• The ten jinchuriki left Otogakure, discarded their robes, and one man gave Chisen his broken bead, which Chisen labeled as a failed specimen.
• Chisen examined Guy and confirmed his arm was healing, while Neji regained normal movement and watched Tenten practice with kunai and chakra threads.
• Chisen packed Kabuto's records and experimental samples, and Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen left the ruins for Konoha on the fourth morning.

Chisen, Guy, Neji, and Tenten traveled back from Otogakure to Konoha, resting and treating their injuries along the way while carrying Orochimaru’s research records. They reached Konoha and entered the hospital for examinations, where Guy argued with an orthopedist over how long he needed to keep his splint on.

• Chisen wondered whether someone would resume Orochimaru’s unfinished research, and Guy promised they would pursue that person if they did.
• Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen crossed from the Land of Rice Fields into the Land of Fire and stayed an extra day in Mitsui Town to recover.
• Neji organized Kabuto’s records by experiment, while Tenten maintained her weapons and Chisen treated his injured knee with elderberry bark.
• After their injuries improved, the four continued toward Konoha, and Guy told a boy at the village’s outskirts, “We’re home.”
• At Konoha Hospital, Chisen reported his own diagnosis and requested treatment, while Guy debated with an orthopedist about keeping his arm splint on.

After returning to Konoha, Guy, Neji, Tenten, and Chisen reported their mission to Tsunade and began recuperation leave at the Maple Bath. Guy and Neji soaked while their injuries eased, Tenten washed her hair and spoke about Saki’s bamboo tubes, and Guy moved into the hottest part of the spring to test his endurance.

• The four teammates left Konoha Hospital, and Neji told them Tsunade was waiting for their mission report.
• At the Hokage’s Office, Chisen reported Kabuto’s condition and detention, Neji confirmed the experimental records and facility were secured, and Guy and Neji estimated their recovery times.
• Tsunade approved the mission and granted the team one week of recuperation leave.
• At the Maple Bath, Neji found that his fingers had returned to normal, while Chisen and Guy relaxed in the hot spring.
• Tenten told a Medical Department Chunin that Saki from the Land of Rice Fields had sharpened the bamboo tubes on her pouch.
• After soaking for about twenty minutes, Guy moved beneath the hot spring outlet to test his endurance.

Kakashi was caught using a Shadow Clone to peek into the women's bath and was made to read from Paradise of Passion as punishment. After the group finished bathing and ate dinner at Maple Bath, Tenten and Neji played shogi in the lounge.

• Guy, Chisen, and Neji exposed Kakashi's attempt to watch the women's bath through the bamboo partition with a Shadow Clone, and Tenten confirmed that the clone had loosened a bamboo slat.
• Chisen warned Kakashi about the possible legal penalties, and Neji demanded that he read page forty-seven of Paradise of Passion aloud before the group agreed to let him off with a warning.
• Kakashi discussed Tsunade's criticism of the Land of Rice Fields mission, while Guy defended Chisen's role in the team's medical and tactical work.
• Guy, Neji, Tenten, Chisen, and Kakashi left the baths, and Tenten gave Chisen the mugwort bath salts she had bought in Mitsui Town.
• The group ate a home-cooked dinner prepared by Maple Bath's proprietress, then Tenten and Neji played shogi using kunai as substitute pieces.
• Neji caught Tenten cheating and taught her shogi rules and tactics before they continued their game.

On his first day of recuperation leave, Chisen visited the Ninja Academy and advised four students about their training and anxieties. He began asking Kenji Watanabe how his studies might help with the ramen shop he hoped to inherit.

• Chisen fell asleep in the lounge while Guy practiced with a nutcracker, and Tenten agreed to buy a replacement fastener for his knee brace.
• Tenten left Chisen a new nylon fastener the next morning, and he sewed it onto his brace before visiting the Ninja Academy.
• Chisen warned Riku Suzuki that anger made his shuriken technique ineffective and explained that calm repetition would better prepare him to avenge his brother.
• Chisen encouraged Aoi Matsushita to pursue medical ninjutsu, gave her a herbal extract to ease her nausea, and suggested she redirect her fear into medical study.
• Kenji Watanabe explained that he wanted to inherit his father's ramen shop rather than become a ninja, and Chisen asked how academy training could help him make ramen.

Chisen helped four Academy students connect their training to the lives they hoped to lead, then returned with dango to support their practice. As Lu confronted his guilt over his dead brother, Chisen challenged him to eat and stay strong enough to survive.

• Chisen showed Kenji how taijutsu training could help him knead dough and prepare noodles, while he taught Emi to study the density of stones to improve her Earth-Style walls.
• Chisen rebuked Teacher Noda for letting war fears turn the children’s training into coercion, and Noda admitted he had passed his anxiety on to them.
• Lu asked how to improve his throwing and said he wanted to outlive the Stone Ninja; Chisen left, bought dango, and returned to the practice room.
• Lu made a more controlled throw, and Chisen gave the students dango and advised Aoi on using sweetness to help manage fear.
• Chisen confronted Lu’s refusal to eat, linking it to guilt over his older brother’s death, and Lu began to cry.

Chisen coached Emi, Kenji, Lu, and Aoi through individual exercises at the Naka River, helping them make progress with chakra control, stone skipping, and their fears. That night, Tsunade summoned him and asked whether he would form a new ninja class.

• Chisen took Emi and the other three children to the Naka River, where Kenji practiced sensing stones, Lu worked on skipping them, and Aoi watched fish and discussed fear and pain with Chisen.
• Emi used chakra to split a granite fragment along its internal layers and proposed applying the structure to an Earth Release defensive wall.
• Chisen told the children to continue practicing without him at the academy the next day, then left for home as the group thanked him.
• An Anbu summoned Chisen to meet Tsunade at the Tsukimi izakaya, where Tsunade discussed Noda's report and Konoha's need for new ways to train its students.
• Tsunade asked Chisen whether he was interested in forming a new ninja class.

Chisen accepted Tsunade’s offer to lead a genin team, insisting on choosing three students and controlling their training. While preparing the exam grounds with Tenten, he demonstrated how deceptive environmental cues could guide even an experienced ninja into a trap.

• Chisen accepted the assignment from Tsunade on the conditions that he select three students, set his own curriculum, and keep the team at the standard size of three.
• Chisen assessed Riku Suzuki, Aoi Matsushita, Kenji Watanabe, and Takahashi Emi as possible students before heading to the Forest of Death for the genin exam.
• Chisen corrected Tenten’s pressure-trigger trap design and advised her to use a diagonal tripwire coated with a nonlethal datura extract.
• Might Guy arrived while training and praised Tenten’s traps, but Chisen pointed out how a false visual cue could manipulate his instincts.
• Chisen revealed that the mossy stone Guy had avoided was a decoy and that a concealed fishing line in the mud would have triggered a nerve-paralyzing agent nozzle.

Chisen discovered evidence that an infiltrator had tested an underground route into Training Ground Forty-Four and devised a three-part biochemical screening plan to catch spies during the genin examination. As Konoha prepared the defenses, a potbellied merchant arrived at the eastern gate screening station.

• Neji reported destroying Orochimaru's abandoned tunnels and finding sinister chakra traces underground near the barrier's edge.
• Chisen identified the traces as residue from an underground infiltration test using Softening Powder, and Kakashi warned that spies might target the examination.
• Chisen planned underground gas markers, Purple Gold Vine carpets, and medical screenings to expose infiltrators through physical reactions and blood readings.
• Konoha began covert preparations, and Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki opened a screening station at the eastern gate.
• A smiling, potbellied merchant entered the screening tent.

Chisen prepared for the first joint genin exams by helping Konoha detect spies and planning survival training for potential students. As the exams began, he watched the entrants’ movements from the Monitoring Room and explained to Naruto how nervousness could impair them.

• Izumo and Kotetsu screened a suspected Lightning Country merchant, while Neji confirmed his purple gold vine reaction and Kakashi ordered surveillance to continue.
• Chisen reviewed the traps and preparations he had made for the examinees, and Tsunade challenged him about teaching his students to suppress emotion.
• Tsunade praised Chisen’s security work and left him to prepare for the exams.
• Konoha opened the first joint genin exams, and Izumo and Kotetsu continued screening arrivals as foreign delegations gathered in the arena’s VIP gallery.
• Chisen watched the entering students’ gaits from the Monitoring Room and explained to Naruto that nervous movement could leave examinees vulnerable to freezing in danger.
• Chisen switched the surveillance feed to three children in grayish-brown linen clothes.

As the genin candidates gathered for a dangerous, unrestricted survival exam, Chisen analyzed the trained specialists and clan heirs they would face while Naruto defended the academy graduates’ resolve. The arrival of Sunagakure’s Kinsharo revealed a terrifying new threat, whom Chisen identified as a severely ill boy carrying a potentially catastrophic chakra force.

• Chisen analyzed the Anbu-raised children and the Hyuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka heirs, while Naruto objected to treating them as tools or unbeatable bloodline monsters.
• Kakashi warned that teams from Sunagakure and Kumogakure included exceptionally dangerous candidates, and the exam gates opened to the gathered genin.
• Chisen observed Riku Suzuki, Aoi Matsushita, Kenji Watanabe, and Takahashi Emi using their own habits to stay focused as they entered the arena.
• The Anbu recruits and clan heirs entered the plaza alongside Sunagakure’s red-haired prodigy, Kinsharo, whose killing intent frightened the other candidates.
• Chisen scanned Kinsharo and concluded that he was a severely ill patient whose unstable chakra could make him a biological bomb.

Riku Suzuki led Kenji Watanabe, Aoi Matsushita, and Takahashi Emi through the Forest of Death, where they avoided a poisoned trap and encountered Kinsharo after he killed an Amegakure genin. Kinsharo attacked with gold-dust spears, and the chapter ended as Emi raised a specially formed earth wall to defend against one.

• Riku led Kenji, Aoi, and Emi away from the other candidates and into the forest using a quiet, cautious route.
• The group detected and bypassed a low wire trap coated with datura juice.
• Aoi used her medicine to control her reaction to the smell of blood as the group moved deeper into the forest.
• An Amegakure genin crashed into a tree and died, and Kinsharo emerged from the shadows.
• Kinsharo attacked the group with gold-dust spears; Riku deflected one, while Kenji used Earth Release to blunt another.
• Emi used Earth Release: Lattice Reorganization Defense Wall to raise an unusual earthen barrier against the spear aimed at her.

Lu’s squad escaped Kinsharo by exploiting his physical weaknesses, then hid and prepared for the dangers of night in the Forest of Death. As Kakashi and Chisen watched, a concealed Anbu squad began attacking other genin near a swamp.

• Lu directed Kenji to disrupt Kinsharo’s footing, Emi to retreat, and Aoi to hand over her medicine bottle.
• Lu’s sedative-filled bottle briefly paralyzed Kinsharo, allowing the four genin to escape into the forest.
• The squad hid in a tree hollow, where Aoi treated Emi’s injured fingers and Lu assigned their night-watch duties.
• Kakashi and Naruto watched the squad’s escape on the surveillance feeds as Chisen explained his survival-focused training.
• A gray-clad boy silently killed Satomi and disarmed Dahui, holding a short blade to his throat without showing any killing intent.

A Konoha exam team was overwhelmed by an Anbu candidate squad, prompting Naruto and Chisen to argue over whether harsh failure could help young ninja grow. Riku’s team detected another Anbu ambush near Hyuga Setsuna’s group, and Setsuna spotted three concealed attackers just before they struck.

• The gray-clad Anbu candidate defeated Team 37, but Konoha examiners intervened before he could kill Daiki and rescued Satomi.
• Naruto condemned the Anbu candidates’ brutal treatment of the students, while Chisen argued that their training helped them survive and learn the danger of combat.
• Riku’s team detected fresh blood and an odorless swamp scent moving toward the stone forest, but Riku ordered his teammates to stay hidden.
• Hyuga Setsuna, Aburame Yota, and Inuzuka Rina entered the stone forest, where their senses detected neurotoxin and an absence of visible chakra.
• Setsuna spotted three concealed figures against the rocks and shouted for his team to scatter as he assumed the opening stance of the Gentle Fist.

Chisen’s explanation of the Anbu candidates’ chemical tactics followed their defeat of Hyuga Setsuna’s team, while Riku Suzuki’s team left their shelter and was ambushed by Kusagakure ninjas. The chapter ended as Aoi Matsushita’s homemade odor powder spread at the enemy’s feet.

• The gray-clad Anbu candidates used poison smoke and physical misdirection to disable Hyuga Setsuna, Aburame Yota, Inuzuka Rina, and Akamaru, then took their Heaven Scroll without killing them.
• Chisen told Naruto and Kakashi that extreme strengths could become vulnerabilities and that he had taught his students to control their emotions rather than suppress them.
• Riku Suzuki’s team rested through the night, planned a cautious route toward the Central Tower, and set out with only an Earth Scroll.
• Aoi Matsushita detected hallucinogenic gas as the team neared a dry riverbed, but four Kusagakure ninjas attacked through the fog.
• Riku wounded one attacker with shuriken, Kenji Watanabe trapped another in mud, and Takahashi Emi blocked a fireball with an Earth Release wall.
• Aoi threw homemade powder at the remaining Grass Ninja, targeting their sense of smell and respiratory tract.

Riku Suzuki’s team survived the Forest of Death, collected the required scrolls, and avoided unnecessary fights while growing into a tightly coordinated group. After Lu helped rescue three injured Anbu candidates from Kinsharo, the team reached the Central Tower and opened its doors.

• Lu’s team defeated four Grass Ninja and took their Heaven scroll before heading deeper into the forest.
• When Kinsharo attacked three Anbu candidates, Lu threw an exploding-tag kunai to interrupt his assault, allowing two Anbu to rescue the injured candidates.
• Lu explained that he had acted for rational and psychological reasons, while his teammates recognized that he had also preserved their humanity.
• Over the next two days, Riku Suzuki’s team advanced through the Forest of Death by fending off ambushes with coordinated techniques.
• On the evening of the fourth day, Riku Suzuki, Takahashi Emi, Kenji Watanabe, and Aoi Matsushita reached the Central Tower and Lu pushed open its doors.