Chapter Summaries

After Riku Suzuki and his teammates survived the exam and became Konoha Genin, Chisen selected Riku and Takahashi Emi for a provisional two-person squad, leaving its third seat empty. Riku and Emi visited Chisen’s laboratory and asked why Kenji and Aoi had not joined them.

• Chisen treated Riku, Aoi, Kenji, and Emi after they returned from the Forest of Death with the Heaven Scroll.
• Tsunade ended the exam and awarded the surviving candidates Konoha forehead protectors, marking their qualification as Genin.
• During the instructor assignments, Chisen recommended Aoi for the Medical Department and Kenji for Might Guy’s squad.
• Chisen chose Riku and Emi for Team Chisen but left its third position open until he found a suitable candidate.
• Riku and Emi entered Chisen’s underground laboratory, where Riku asked why Kenji and Aoi were not on their team.

Chisen reorganized his new genin squad around Lu and Emi’s strengths, then went to the Anbu base to recruit the injured, pain-insensitive trainee Hei Lingqi. He secured Hei Lingqi’s transfer and promised to heal his arm, leaving the boy confronted with a squad that survived Kinsharo by using their brains.

• Chisen explained that Kenji Watanabe and Aoi Matsushita had been reassigned to training suited to their abilities, and Lu accepted the changes.
• Chisen made Lu and Emi official members of Team Chisen, assigned them two weeks of intensive study, and said he was searching for a third member who could serve as an unconventional variable.
• Chisen presented the Hokage’s authorization to the Anbu and negotiated Hei Lingqi’s transfer in exchange for repairing his crushed left arm.
• Chisen examined Hei Lingqi’s injury and challenged his belief that pain was useless, explaining that his lack of a pain reflex had helped lead to his defeat.
• Chisen told Hei Lingqi that he would heal his arm and join him with Lu and Emi, who had survived Kinsharo by using their brains.

Chisen restored Hei Lingqi’s pain pathways and persuaded him to leave the Anbu and join Team Chisen. He brought Hei Lingqi to meet Lu and Emi, then assigned them to show him ordinary pleasures in Konoha as therapy.

• Chisen injected Hei Lingqi with a bone growth stimulant and treated his injuries over several days.
• On the seventh day, Hei Lingqi felt pain again after Chisen repaired his pain pathways, and Chisen offered him a choice between remaining in the Anbu or leaving with him.
• Hei Lingqi walked out of his cell and followed Chisen, accepting that he would no longer serve as an Anbu shadow.
• Chisen brought Hei Lingqi to the Pathology Department laboratory, where Lu and Emi recognized him and learned he was joining Team Chisen.
• Chisen gave Lu and Emi money and ordered them to take Hei Lingqi around Konoha for food and fun, avoiding talk of killing, covert operations, and chakra.

Lu and Emi took Hei Lingqi out of the laboratory to help him experience ordinary life, guiding him through Konoha’s crowded streets and teaching him to enjoy barbecue. Their conversation challenged his Anbu conditioning and left him considering that living and savoring life might not be repulsive.

• Lu and Emi led Hei Lingqi into the sunlight, where the noise and crowds overwhelmed his Anbu-trained senses, and helped him calm down with sunglasses and breathing.
• Hei Lingqi mistook his hunger for a medical side effect, so Lu and Emi took him to Yakiniku Q for barbecue.
• Hei Lingqi burned his mouth by eating hot beef too quickly, then learned to cool his food and savor its flavor.
• Lu questioned why Hei Lingqi had spared a defeated Hyuga ninja but risked his life against a powerful enemy, and Hei Lingqi defended his actions as mission priorities.
• Lu told Hei Lingqi that Chisen wanted him to learn to value his life, and Hei Lingqi gradually began grilling and eating the meat with care.

Lu and Emi helped Hei Lingqi experience ordinary pleasures, and he chose the name Black Crow and joined their team. Chisen ended the outing by ordering combat training, and the chapter left the three assembled in the fog outside Training Ground Forty-Four as Chisen approached.

• Emi bought shaved ice and dango after the team ate barbecue, and Hei Lingqi began distinguishing painful sensations from other feelings.
• Hei Lingqi watched crows and chose the name Black Crow, then joined hands with Lu and Emi as they introduced themselves as teammates.
• The three returned to Chisen's laboratory, where Black Crow said the barbecue's sensations had not been bad and Chisen ordered them to assemble at Training Ground Forty-Four with their Ninja Tools.
• At dawn, Lu and Black Crow arrived at the training ground, where Black Crow explained how his restored sense of pain had changed his combat calculations.
• Emi arrived from a tree and assessed the wet soil's effect on her chakra, and Chisen emerged from the fog to begin training.

Chisen tested Lu, Emi, and Black Crow by challenging them to take a bell from him, but he countered their coordinated attack with gravity, nerve strikes, and ringing bells. After their first attempt failed, Lu prepared to use irritant dust Aoi Matsushita had given them, leaving the test ongoing.

• Chisen challenged Lu, Emi, and Black Crow to take one of the bells attached to him before noon or return to the Ninja Academy.
• Lu, Emi, and Black Crow devised a plan using Emi’s terrain control, Black Crow’s blade, and Lu’s shuriken to exploit Chisen’s injured leg.
• Chisen evaded their attack by relaxing into his fall, used the bells to disrupt Black Crow, and numbed Black Crow’s wrist with a nerve strike.
• Lu, Emi, and Black Crow regrouped in the fog and identified how Chisen had used the bells and his movement to defeat them.
• Lu revealed the irritant-dust kunai Aoi Matsushita had given them and handed two to Black Crow.

Lu, Black Crow, and Emi exploited Chisen’s senses and injuries in an attempt to seize a bell, but Chisen countered their tactics with vibration-based tracking and precise anatomical strikes. Lu’s final gambit disrupted Chisen’s tracking and exposed his injured knee, yet Chisen stopped Black Crow just short of taking a bell, leaving the team seemingly defeated.

• Lu and Black Crow charged Chisen through a cloud of powder while Emi trapped them inside a reflective stone dome that turned Chisen’s bells into a deafening acoustic weapon.
• Chisen used vibrations through his walking stick to locate Lu and Black Crow, then disarmed them with precise strikes despite being unable to see or hear.
• Lu ordered Emi to collapse the dome and liquefy the ground, flooding Chisen’s vibration tracking with chaotic seismic noise and depriving him of stable footing.
• Lu covered Chisen with a barrage of weapons, forcing him to rely on his injured right leg and aggravating his knee ligament.
• Black Crow crept through the mud and reached for Chisen’s bell, but Chisen paralyzed his hand with a pressure-point grip and sent him tumbling away.

After Team Chisen lost the bell hunt, Chisen revealed that the real test was their survival and teamwork, and passed them. The injured teammates treated Lu’s dislocated wrist and worked out how to catch up with Chisen before the ten-minute deadline.

• Chisen praised Lu, Emi, and Black Crow for their coordination and survival tactics, then declared Team Chisen had passed.
• Black Crow reduced Lu’s dislocated wrist while Emi held his arm steady, and Lu controlled his muscle tension to prevent further injury.
• Lu realized Chisen’s injured leg meant they only needed to catch up with him and keep pace, not reach the ramen shop within ten minutes.
• Black Crow helped Emi stand and supported her as Lu made a sling for his wrist, and the three prepared to follow Chisen.

Chisen led Lu, Emi, and Black Crow through a grueling two-and-a-half-kilometer pursuit to test their judgment and teamwork. At Watanabe Ramen, he praised their performance and fed them, while Black Crow savored the warmth and pain of being alive among his companions.

• Chisen continued walking through the fog, and Lu, Emi, and Black Crow caught up by following his pace and supporting one another.
• Lu noticed Black Crow was enjoying his pain and redirected him to focus on Chisen’s walking stick and rhythm.
• The three followed Chisen to Watanabe Ramen and collapsed at the entrance after sprinting the final stretch.
• Chisen assessed their performance as perfect despite their injuries and ordered them rich ramen suited to their condition.
• As the three ate, Black Crow felt the broth wash away his exhaustion and grew emotional while listening to Lu and Emi argue over chashu.

After ramen with Kenji, Lu, and Emi, Chisen assigned his students a dissection lesson at Konoha Hospital. Black Crow struggled with the unfamiliar feeling of having friends and a home, sought refuge in an abandoned training ground, and heard someone approaching as the chapter ended.

• Lu, Emi, and Black Crow ate ramen with Kenji, and Chisen told them to rest before beginning anatomy and dissection lessons the next day.
• Lu and Emi invited Black Crow to walk home with them, but he admitted he had no need for an escort and watched them leave.
• Black Crow wandered through Konoha, overwhelmed by the village’s noise and everyday life, until he reached an abandoned training ground.
• Black Crow climbed into a pine tree to hide and tried unsuccessfully to sleep because his full stomach and sensitive nerves kept him alert.
• Black Crow heard a steady walking stick and footsteps approaching, recognized the gait as possibly Chisen’s, and peered down from the tree.