Chapter Summaries

Hyuga Hiashi began a secret reform to strengthen the Hyuga Clan by giving fifty elite Shinobi Body Tempering Pills to prepare them for Sage Mode. Hinata watched over the meeting and left the clan’s plans in Hyuga Hiashi’s hands, while a future meeting with Orochimaru was arranged.

• Hyuga Hiashi decided to fully support Hinata’s plan to make the Hyuga Clan strong enough to endure without depending on outside protection.
• Hyuga Hiashi gathered fifty elite Hyuga Shinobi and presented the Body Tempering Pills, explaining that they improved physique and chakra and could help prepare them to cultivate Sage Mode.
• Hyuga Hiashi urged the Shinobi to take the pills and grow stronger, but kept Hinata’s larger plan secret.
• Hinata used her Byakugan to watch for observers as the Shinobi took the pills, then used the Body Flicker Technique to return to her bedroom.
• Hyuga Hiashi was set to meet Orochimaru outside the village in a month to discuss further cooperation.

Hinata agreed to accompany Shikamaru to Sand Village to oversee the Joint Chunin Exam after he promised to pay for her meals, though the exam was still months away. After beating Shikamaru at Konoha's Back Mountain, she left a mark to arrange a meeting with Black Zetsu and further her plan to weaken the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

• Hinata learned that Kumogakure would join Sand Village's Joint Chunin Exam, and Konoha suspected the Raikage was seeking the four parts of Impure World Reincarnation.
• Shikamaru asked Hinata to accompany him to Sand Village, arguing that her Byakugan could help prevent Kumogakure from disrupting the exam and damaging the villages' cooperation against Akatsuki.
• Hinata complained about Sand Village's climate and negotiated for Shikamaru to pay for her food before agreeing to go.
• Hinata beat Shikamaru at Konoha's Back Mountain and secretly left a mark to arrange a meeting with Black Zetsu.

Hinata met Black Zetsu in secret and discussed the Akatsuki’s plans, Orochimaru’s disappearance, Sasuke’s unusual chakra, and the approaching revival of the Three-Tails. Black Zetsu warned her to stay cautious and avoid exposing herself as Hinata hoped he had not noticed her hidden actions.

• Black Zetsu questioned Hinata about her plan to provoke the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and she realized that weakening them would not meaningfully help the Akatsuki.
• Black Zetsu told Hinata that Orochimaru had vanished and might be seeking information about the Otsutsuki clan through Impure World Reincarnation.
• Black Zetsu reported that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki and carried unfamiliar chakra that suppressed Indra’s influence.
• Black Zetsu warned Hinata that the Three-Tails’ revival was approaching, that Konoha suspected her, and that she should avoid further action.
• After Black Zetsu and White Zetsu left, Hinata worried that Black Zetsu might have seen through her acting.

The Hyuga Clan embraced Hinata’s ambitions after learning about Natural Energy and the promise of immortality, while its members trained harder under Hyuga Hiashi’s leadership. Concerned by the clan’s sudden change, Tsunade decided to send Shikamaru and others on a mission with Hinata, hoping her absence would reveal the Hyuga Clan’s secrets.

• The first fifty Hyuga Clan shinobi improved after taking the Body Tempering Pill and trained eagerly for another dose.
• Hyuga Hiashi revealed Natural Energy to the Main Family Elders and explained Hinata’s ambitions, winning their agreement to her plan.
• Tokuma Hyuga visited Hinata to ask what she wanted for dinner, while Hinata planned to give him her insights into Natural Energy for his birthday.
• Tsunade and Shizune discussed the Hyuga Clan’s unusual training and agreed that Konoha needed to gather intelligence about its objectives.
• Tsunade ordered Shikamaru and the others to depart on June fifteenth with Hinata, hoping her absence would prompt the Hyuga Clan to reveal its secrets.

Tsunade suspected that the Hyuga Clan’s sudden, relentless training was connected to Sage Jutsu and worried about Hinata’s influence and the clan’s growing power. Hyuga Hiashi left Konoha for a secret meeting, and he used the Rinnegan to check for anyone watching him.

• Tsunade told Shizune that she suspected the Hyuga Clan’s transformation was related to Sage Jutsu and Hinata’s research.
• Tsunade warned Shizune that Hinata had changed and worried that the Hyuga Clan might become too powerful.
• In late May of Konoha Year 62, Hyuga Hiashi traveled toward the Land of Fire Capital with four clan guards under the pretense of visiting an old family friend.
• Hyuga Hiashi checked the area with his Byakugan and sent his guards ahead while he stayed behind.
• Hyuga Hiashi activated the Rinnegan to check for surveillance.

Hyuga Hiashi met with Orochimaru to discuss increasing the supply of secret medicine and revealed that he had awakened the Rinnegan. Orochimaru recognized the eye and wondered whether the Byakugan evolved into it like the Sharingan, while Hinata said she did not know how her eyes had changed.

• Hyuga Hiashi used his Rinnegan to spot suspicious animals and drove them away with a repulsive force before heading to meet Orochimaru.
• Hinata remotely warned Orochimaru to keep her involvement secret while she listened in from her home in Konoha.
• Orochimaru noticed Hyuga Hiashi's newfound confidence and asked what he would receive in return for producing more secret medicine.
• Hyuga Hiashi said he had long understood Orochimaru's interest in intelligence and revealed his Rinnegan.
• Orochimaru asked Hinata about her eyes, and she replied that they had evolved naturally and she did not know why.

Orochimaru negotiated with Hyuga Hiashi for a Caged Bird-free Hyuga child and learned that evolving the Byakugan required the Ten-Tails’ original chakra. Hinata backed Hiashi’s claim that the Sage of Six Paths had made that power inaccessible, leaving Orochimaru’s ambitions frustrated and giving Hinata another reason to resent the Sage.

• Orochimaru offered the Hyuga Clan five hundred doses of secret medicine each month in exchange for a branch-family child without the Caged Bird.
• Hyuga Hiashi explained that the Byakugan could evolve into either the Tenseigan or the Rinnegan, but required the Ten-Tails’ origin chakra.
• Hiashi claimed that the Tailed Beasts’ creation had divided and exhausted the chakra needed for Byakugan evolution, so Orochimaru could not awaken it by reincarnating into a Hyuga body.
• Hinata silently recognized that Hiashi was bluffing and suggested that the Sage of Six Paths had divided the Tailed Beasts to block the Hyuga Clan from evolving its Byakugan.
• Hinata decided that the Sage of Six Paths had given her another reason to beat him up.

Hyuga Hiashi struck a deal with Orochimaru to trade Urashiki’s cells for secret medicine for the Hyuga Clan. After Hinata suggested using Urashiki’s cells to grow a body, Orochimaru asked her to retrieve a specific sample, leaving Hinata reluctantly facing the prospect of cutting Urashiki to pieces.

• Hyuga Hiashi offered Orochimaru Urashiki’s cells in exchange for secret medicine, and Orochimaru agreed to provide five hundred doses each month.
• After Hiashi left, Hinata asked whether Orochimaru would clone a body or transplant the cells, and Orochimaru said she was the one who could obtain them.
• Hinata suggested growing a baby from Urashiki’s cells, and Orochimaru considered using Karin’s Uzumaki bloodline and a womb to cultivate a body.
• Orochimaru told Hinata to extract Urashiki’s cells from a particular place, but Hinata refused to touch his private parts.
• Orochimaru suggested that Hiashi could handle the extraction, and Hinata realized she might have to hack Urashiki to pieces herself.

Hinata agreed to Orochimaru’s plan and considered how to keep the Hyuga Clan’s evolution moving while testing Orochimaru’s commitment. She concluded that the clan was growing stronger through Body Tempering Pills, but she still needed another way to improve her own strength.

• Orochimaru considered cultivating a perfect body from infancy and asked Hinata to help him obtain Urashiki’s sperm, with Hyuga Hiashi handling the capture.
• Hinata agreed to Orochimaru’s request and ended their remote call, then assessed whether he had seen through Hyuga Hiashi’s test of his loyalty.
• Hinata reasoned that Orochimaru would keep supplying five hundred Body Tempering Pills each month as long as he continued to gain from their cooperation.
• Hinata noted that the fifty Hyuga Clan members taking the pills were adapting to them, while Hiashi and the clan’s elites drove the clan into a wave of training.
• Hinata decided she needed to improve her own strength further, since Body Tempering Pills had little effect on her and her remaining options seemed to be gathering and fusing Tailed Beast chakra or another unknown method.

Hinata experimented with Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku to find ways to strengthen her body, but she failed to trigger photosynthesis and only found a slight effect from using Natural Energy on her bones. She began wondering how Kaguya Otsutsuki’s inherited abilities, the God Tree, and Natural Energy were connected.

• Hinata judged that Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku offered little new combat utility but could improve her vitality and bone density.
• Hinata tried using Wood Release and sunlight to perform photosynthesis, but felt only warmth and no other effect.
• Hinata turned to Shikotsumyaku and tested whether Natural Energy could strengthen the bones in her little finger.
• Hinata noticed that the bone strengthening was subtle and temporary, while Natural Energy stored in her Yin-Yang Seal also influenced her constitution.
• Hinata considered how the God Tree, Natural Energy, and Kaguya Otsutsuki’s inherited abilities might relate to the evolution of life.

Hinata reasoned that extending life and gaining greater power required actively evolving the body, beginning with bones and bone marrow and changing cells through the blood. She sought Akaboshi’s research from Orochimaru and considered letting him investigate Urashiki’s cells to help uncover the laws of life evolution.

• Hinata concluded that passive exposure to Natural Energy differed from actively evolving the body and planned to begin with bones and bone marrow.
• Hinata contacted Orochimaru and asked for Akaboshi’s research materials, also requesting that he investigate someone.
• Hinata used All-Knowing, All-Powerful to appear beside Orochimaru and collect Akaboshi’s research materials.
• Orochimaru warned Hinata that Akaboshi’s evolution as a snake offered little reference for human research, and Hinata agreed after reviewing the documents.
• Hinata explored Orochimaru’s secret base and considered letting him study Urashiki’s cells to uncover the laws of life evolution.

Hyuga Hiashi told Hinata that the Hyuga Clan had finalized a deal with Orochimaru, exchanging Urashiki’s cells for five hundred doses of secret medicine each month. He also revealed that Konoha’s Anbu had been following them, and concluded that the clan’s plans would eventually make it impossible for Konoha to accommodate them.

• Hyuga Hiashi returned to the Hyuga residence and found Hinata exhausted from studying Orochimaru’s experimental notes.
• Hiashi told Hinata about the agreement to give Orochimaru Urashiki’s cells in exchange for five hundred doses of secret medicine monthly.
• Hiashi urged Hinata to bring back Orochimaru’s notes so the Hyuga Clan could develop its own researchers, and Hinata proposed handing Urashiki himself over for study.
• Hiashi revealed that Anbu had followed them outside the village, and Hinata asked what he planned to do about it.
• Hiashi said the clan’s plan was succeeding and predicted that more than one hundred Hyuga ninja could learn Sage Mode within a year, leaving Konoha unable to accommodate them.

Hinata and Hyuga Hiashi discussed the Hyuga Clan’s growing power, its plans to leave Konoha, and the approaching war between Akatsuki and the Five Great Shinobi Villages. They decided the clan needed to build its strength while remaining in Konoha for now, leaving its future choices unresolved.

• Hyuga Hiashi and Hinata agreed that the Hyuga Clan did not intend to seize the Hokage Position and would rather leave Konoha peacefully than fight the village.
• Hinata told Hyuga Hiashi that a major conflict could begin within a year or two, as Nagato, Obito Uchiha, and Black Zetsu pursued goals the Five Great Shinobi Villages would oppose.
• Hinata warned Hyuga Hiashi that Black Zetsu could deploy tens of thousands of White Zetsu as an army.
• Hyuga Hiashi concluded that the Hyuga Clan would have to choose a side once Akatsuki and Konoha went to war, though he hoped to avoid fighting Konoha.
• Hyuga Hiashi urged Hinata, Hizashi, Neji, and the rest of the clan to grow stronger, and told Hinata to stay in contact with Orochimaru.

Hinata discussed Obito and Black Zetsu with Hyuga Hiashi, then spoke with Shikamaru about the pressure of others’ expectations and their upcoming trip to Sunagakure. The chapter left Hinata and Shikamaru arriving at the Hokage Building to prepare for the Joint Chunin Exam.

• Hinata told Hyuga Hiashi that she and Black Zetsu shared interests for now, while Obito remained troublesome, and Hyuga Hiashi encouraged her to handle complicated relationships herself.
• Konoha maintained a superficial peace as Tsunade held authority and the village prepared for the multinational Joint Chunin Exam.
• Hinata and Shikamaru reminisced about their Chunin Exam, and Shikamaru explained that others’ expectations had made the exam feel important to him.
• Hinata admitted she had wanted to torment Neji as an examiner and planned to make Hanabi suffer when she took the exam.
• Shikamaru told Hinata they would leave for Sunagakure in a few days, and the two arrived beneath the Hokage Building.

Tsunade briefed Hinata and Shikamaru on Kumogakure’s plan to seize Sunagakure’s Impure World Reincarnation during the Joint Chunin Exam and warned that Kumogakure might provoke Hinata to damage Konoha’s relations with Sunagakure. The chapter ended with Hinata asking how she could respond when both intervening and alerting Sunagakure could backfire.

• Tsunade told Hinata and Shikamaru that Kumogakure had joined Sunagakure’s Joint Chunin Exam to try to seize its Impure World Reincarnation.
• Shikamaru explained that Sunagakure could not refuse Kumogakure’s participation because of its weakened position and diplomatic constraints.
• Tsunade considered Hinata and Shikamaru’s changed circumstances and resolved to uncover Hyuga Hiashi’s intentions.
• Tsunade warned that Kumogakure might provoke Hinata into acting inside Sunagakure to drive a wedge between the villages.
• Shikamaru said that neither intervening directly nor passing intelligence to Sunagakure was a safe option, while doing nothing could let Kumogakure take the technique.
• Hinata recalled Kumogakure’s past attempt to abduct her and asked what she was supposed to do.

Hiashi Hyuga explained why the Hyuga Clan could withstand Konoha’s pressure and revealed his plan to use Orochimaru to stir conflict among the Five Great Shinobi Villages. He and Hizashi discussed Hinata’s transfer to Sunagakure and the possibility that Konoha would use her relationship with Gaara, leaving their plan unresolved.

• Hizashi Hyuga complained that Tsunade had transferred Hinata to Sunagakure, while Hiashi Hyuga said Konoha was acting out of political necessity.
• Hiashi Hyuga argued that the Hyuga Clan was more united and firmly under his control than the Uchiha Clan had been.
• Hizashi Hyuga worried that Orochimaru might expose the Hyuga Clan, but Hiashi Hyuga said they possessed something Orochimaru wanted.
• Hiashi Hyuga had asked Orochimaru to sow discord among the Five Great Shinobi Villages during the Chunin Exam in Sunagakure, postponing their original deal.
• Hizashi Hyuga suggested Konoha might use Hinata’s relationship with Gaara, and Hiashi Hyuga acknowledged Gaara’s ability before their discussion trailed off.

Hinata prepared for a month-long trip to Sunagakure for the Chunin Exam, where Konoha planned to work with Gaara against Kumogakure’s scheme. She also reflected on her training and hoped Orochimaru could uncover the secrets of Urashiki’s body to help her develop a path to greater power.

• Hyuga Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga discussed Kumogakure’s aggression, the tensions among the villages, and the state of the Hyuga Clan.
• Shikamaru told Hinata they would leave for Sunagakure the day after tomorrow and stay until the exam ended in August.
• Hinata planned what to pack for the long stay, including Land of Fire goods she hoped to sell to female shinobi.
• Hinata reviewed her abilities and considered how she could unite her studies in dojutsu, ninjutsu, Natural Energy, sealing, medicine, and other fields.
• Hinata decided that Orochimaru’s research into Urashiki’s body could help her understand chakra and Natural Energy and develop her own way to improve.

Hinata met Gaara in secret to coordinate against Kumogakure’s plans for Sand Village and its Impure World Reincarnation. After giving Gaara Tsunade’s warning, Hinata teased him about asking after Sasuke and suggested he was worried about Naruto.

• Hinata and Shikamaru traveled to Sand Village with Wind God and Thunder God for their separate mission duties.
• Hinata secretly met Gaara at the Kazekage’s Office, and they agreed to work together to detect and stop Kumogakure’s operation.
• Hinata gave Gaara Tsunade’s letter and warned that Kumogakure might try to steal the Impure World Reincarnation or drive a wedge between Konoha and Sand Village.
• Gaara destroyed the letter, then asked Hinata about Sasuke’s return, prompting her to tease him about worrying over Naruto.

Hinata secured Gaara’s cooperation in investigating Kumogakure’s scheme and left Shikamaru to coordinate Konoha’s Chunin Exam teams. As Kumogakure’s Genin traveled through the Land of Wind, Orochimaru and Kabuto emerged nearby and headed toward Sand Village, where the Raikage was expected to attend the finals.

• Gaara agreed to act against Kumogakure if Hinata obtained reliable intelligence, and Hinata warned him that Sand Village also needed to stay alert.
• Hinata returned to Shikamaru’s room and reported that her meeting with Gaara had gone smoothly, then teased Shikamaru about Temari.
• Shikamaru spent the following days with Temari while Hinata monitored the arriving Chunin Exam teams and relaxed in Sand Village.
• A Kumogakure team of Genin and Jonin traveled across the Land of Wind and planned to rest in a nearby town before continuing to Sand Village.
• Orochimaru and Kabuto emerged after the Kumogakure team passed, discussed the Raikage’s expected visit, and set off toward Sand Village.

Orochimaru replaced three Kumogakure Genin with his agents and explained to Kabuto Yakushi how he planned to exploit Kumogakure’s pursuit of the Impure World Reincarnation scrolls. He intended to use the resulting conflict to target Kirigakure and obtain Urashiki’s eye, then set out with Kabuto to persuade the Raikage.

• Orochimaru killed three Kumogakure Genin, disposed of their bodies, and left three agents to impersonate them.
• Kabuto Yakushi warned Orochimaru that replacing the Genin could draw suspicion, but Orochimaru said the villages’ pursuit of Impure World Reincarnation would fuel conflict.
• Orochimaru reasoned that Kumogakure would push for war if it came close to securing every scroll, while the other villages, especially Konoha, would resist.
• Orochimaru planned to help Kumogakure obtain Sunagakure’s scroll, then join it in attacking Kirigakure to pursue Urashiki’s eye and advance the Hyuga Clan’s goal.
• Orochimaru ordered Kabuto Yakushi to prepare for a trip to the Land of Lightning to persuade the Raikage, with the infiltrators serving as leverage.