Chapter Summaries

Third Raikage A negotiated a long-term Healing Tag sale with Yagura Karatachi, offering Kirigakure only the drawback-heavy First-Generation version. Dada overheard the deal, briefly encountered Kaguya Tsuki, and later wondered what she had wanted to tell him.

• Yagura Karatachi met the Kumogakure group and asked Third Raikage A to discuss a private proposal.
• Yagura asked to buy Healing Tags long-term, and Third Raikage A said access was limited to Kumogakure and its allies.
• Dada listened through his Communication Snail and learned that Third Raikage A planned to offer Kirigakure only First-Generation Healing Tags.
• Kaguya Tsuki approached Dada and addressed him as Lord Yotsuki, but Dada used the Body Flicker to leave before she could explain herself.
• Third Raikage A and Yagura agreed to the deal, then separated with their groups.
• Dada praised Third Raikage A's plan to market different generations of Healing Tags before realizing he had not learned what Kaguya Tsuki wanted.

Dada brought the contestants to Paradise Hot Spring for a three-day rest, where they relaxed, reunited with family, and discovered more about the inn. The stay ended with the boys accusing Chishin Yusuke of peeking after he got a nosebleed.

• Dada took the twenty-one contestants to Paradise Hot Spring in the Land of Hot Water and arranged rooms and baths for them.
• Uzumaki Kagari and Dada warned Chishin Yusuke not to use his Red Eye in the women's bath.
• Killer B and Yahiko admired Dada's height while the contestants relaxed in the hot springs.
• Konan told Kagari that her mother worked as a head chef at the inn and explained that she hoped to open a hot spring inn for her mother.
• Konan revealed that Paradise Hot Spring belonged to Dada, surprising Kagari.
• Chishin Yusuke got a nosebleed, and the boys chased him while he insisted it came from soaking too long.

At Paradise Hot Spring, Hirohiko explained to Dada how his sealing-based jutsu countered attacks, while Chishin Yusuke repeatedly caused trouble in the bath. Underground, Madara rejected Yotsuki Dana as a pawn and worried that Nagato was straying from his plan.

• Kagari learned from Konan that Dada appeared to control Paradise Hot Spring and the Kitano Trading Company.
• Hirohiko explained that he used Fuinjutsu to seal counterattacks into his body, and demonstrated the jutsu to Dada.
• Dada realized Chishin Yusuke was floating face-down, prompting the bathers to rush to save him before everyone went to a banquet.
• White Zetsu reported the Joint Chunin Exam results to Madara, who was surprised that a Kumogakure shinobi had won.
• Madara considered recruiting Yotsuki Dana as a pawn but rejected him in favor of an Uchiha, then worried that Nagato was being influenced by his wandering shinobi teacher.

After returning to Kumogakure, Dada joined Third Raikage A and Dodai as Dodai reported the Eastern Archipelago’s vast mineral wealth and highly efficient Chakra Metal mining. Kumogakure’s development of the islands appeared poised to bring the village great benefits.

• Dada returned to Kumogakure, reunited with Satomi, and was summoned to the Raikage Building by Third Raikage A.
• Dada found Dodai at the Raikage Building, where Dodai reported that the Eastern Archipelago contained seventy islands and numerous mineral deposits.
• Dodai revealed that the archipelago held nine Chakra Metal veins, including two enormous super veins, as well as iron and copper mines.
• Dodai explained that Kumogakure’s ninja were using sensory abilities, Earth Release, and sealing scrolls to mine and transport ore with remarkable efficiency.

Dada, the Third Raikage, and Dodai finalized a long-term plan to develop the Eastern Archipelago while keeping Kumogakure’s activities concealed and drawing Kirigakure into closer economic ties. The Third Raikage also ordered Dada to teach taijutsu at Kumogakure’s new Ninja Advanced Study School.

• Dada, the Third Raikage, and Dodai spent the night revising the archipelago strategy after recognizing its long-term value and the risk posed by Kirigakure.
• They decided to limit development, send United Steel’s eleven merchant associations to establish local businesses, expand Healing Tag cooperation with Kirigakure, and equip Kumogakure’s elites with Chakra Metal while researching new applications.
• Dodai left to mobilize the village’s departments, while Dada and the Third Raikage discussed how they would continue working despite their sleepless night.
• The Third Raikage explained that the Ninja Advanced Study School would use rotating instructors and told Dada to teach taijutsu, adding that he would teach too.
• Dada left the Raikage’s Office and encountered the Raikage Secretary arriving for work.

Nagato completed a hunting mission in the Land of Soup, then discovered that his master, Thunderwind, had left him and retired. After deciphering a hidden warning in his master's letter, Nagato realized his parents might be in danger from a conspiracy involving the White Monster and the dead, while Thunderwind watched him from afar before leaving.

• Nagato killed a wild boar, collected his mission reward, and sold the boar to the village chief for extra money.
• Nagato returned to the rented courtyard and found his master's belongings gone and a farewell letter addressed to him.
• Nagato tried to post a mission to find Thunderwind, but the Underground Exchange owner said Thunderwind had deregistered his codename and retired.
• Nagato deciphered a hidden message in the letter warning him of a conspiracy and telling him to beware for his parents' safety, the White Monster, and the dead.
• Thunderwind watched Nagato from a distant tower and left, intending to rest before returning to village life.

After discovering that construction in Kumogakure was progressing slowly under conventional methods, Dada decided to consult Earth Release specialists and organize a seminar. The chapter ended as three United Steel Company ninja arrived to offer their expertise.

• Dada woke after sleeping through the day and visited the Small Katsuyus’ grazing grounds, where Limuyi explained that their new building was nearly finished but still empty.
• Dada learned that Kumogakure had relied on craftsmen and traditional wooden construction, and considered using ninja abilities and cement to improve building methods.
• Unable to sleep, Dada went to Shikkotsu Forest and supervised Sage Katsuyu’s mathematics studies through the night.
• Dada summoned three United Steel Company technical specialists with Earth Release experience to the Special Strategy Department.
• Dada welcomed the three ninja and asked them to advise him on construction.

Dada explored using Earth Release and construction materials to build structures, learning about the powerful blueprint-based technique Earth Release: All Things Change and deciding to recruit Kakuzu to pursue it. He also expanded Communication Snail distribution in Kumogakure, where Kuroki Ryosuke received a call from Mihara Yuu and agreed to meet her.

• Dada asked three industrial ninjas how ninjutsu could be combined to construct buildings, and they told him about the Fire Temple's Earth Release: All Things Change.
• The ninjas explained that Earth Release could shape structures made with cement and steel reinforcement, though cement could require more Chakra and they were unsure about steel.
• Dada decided to contact Kakuzu through the Underground Exchange to pursue the unfamiliar technique.
• Dada began distributing Communication Snails to Jonin and Special Jonin and opened the Communication Snail Management Department to handle applications and support.
• Kuroki Ryosuke received a Communication Snail and accepted a call from Mihara Yuu, who invited him to discuss leading students over dinner.
• Kuroki Ryosuke offered to share his experience raising children and asked Mihara Yuu whether she preferred grilled meat or sashimi.

Dada expanded Kumogakure’s Communication Snail rollout while Kakuzu arrived to take on a new high-paying mission. The rollout reached about sixty percent of the village’s jonin, and Kakuzu left for the Fire Temple to obtain a ninjutsu scroll.

• Communication Snails became popular in Kumogakure as ninja customized their shells and chatted with Small Katsuyu.
• Kakuzu told Dada that he had not found anyone who knew the Light-Weight Rock Technique, then accepted a mission to obtain Earth Release: All Things Change from the Fire Temple.
• Kakuzu hurried toward the Land of Fire before the tavern server could bring tea.
• Dada visited the Communication Snail Management Department and overheard Kawanishi Kyohei discussing his Small Katsuyu’s diet and admitting that he had talked with her all night.
• Limuyi reported that about sixty percent of Kumogakure’s jonin had received Communication Snails, while Dada said chunin distribution would remain limited for now.

Mihara Yuu’s team gathered mushrooms near the Land of Lightning’s border when Jiraiya discovered her Communication Snail and demanded answers about its connection to Katsuyu. As Jiraiya prepared to subdue her, Dada continued teaching Sage Katsuyu coordinates in Shikkotsu Forest.

• Mihara Yuu sent her three genin to collect mushrooms using the tree-climbing technique, then relaxed with her Small Katsuyu, Xixi.
• Mihara Yuu asked Xixi to contact Lord Kuroki, but Xixi could not reach him from the distant border.
• Jiraiya approached Mihara Yuu, recognized the resemblance between Xixi and his friend’s Summoned Beast, and demanded an explanation.
• Mihara Yuu prepared to defend herself and privately told Xixi to activate the public-channel distress call.
• Jiraiya said he would subdue Mihara Yuu to uncover the truth about Katsuyu and Tsunade.
• In Shikkotsu Forest, Dada corrected Sage Katsuyu’s mistakes as he taught her mathematics and coordinate systems.

Dada learned that a Small Katsuyu had been lost and ordered Sage Katsuyu to improve her coordinate calculations. Jiraiya discovered that the Shinobi World had changed during his training at Mount Myōboku, and he set out to learn what had happened to Tsunade.

• Sage Katsuyu reported that one of her clones had perished, and Dada struggled to locate it from her inaccurate coordinates.
• Three genin found their unconscious teacher, Mihara Yuu, and a responding Kumogakure ninja discovered that his Communication Snail and Ninja Tool Bag had been stolen.
• Four Kumogakure jonin used a Ninken to track the attacker and pursued the trail, leaving others to care for Mihara Yuu.
• Jiraiya interrogated Mihara Yuu and learned that Kumogakure ninja used Communication Snails resembling Katsuyu, whose clone ignored Jiraiya and vanished.
• Jiraiya learned about the Joint Chunin Exam, the Night of the Purple Moon, and the Third Hokage's death, then resolved to find out what had happened to Tsunade.

Jiraiya escaped Cloud Ninja pursuers while investigating Kumogakure’s use of Shikkotsu Forest’s contract, and Mihara Yuu recovered and reported how he attacked her. In Konohagakure, Jiraiya demanded that the village rescue Tsunade, but Hatake Sakumo and the elder advisers remained unmoved.

• Jiraiya realized Kumogakure might have acquired Shikkotsu Forest’s Contract Scroll during the Night of the Purple Moon or through Tsunade, and decided to keep investigating in the Land of Lightning.
• Four Cloud Ninjas pursued Jiraiya, who used Needle Jizo as a decoy and escaped when their Ninken lost his scent.
• Mihara Yuu woke after three days in Kumogakure Hospital and learned that her Communication Snail, Xixi, had dispersed.
• Yotsuki Dana questioned Mihara Yuu, concluded that Jiraiya had interrogated her and likely escaped by Reverse Summoning, and expected him to return.
• Jiraiya angrily demanded that Hatake Sakumo, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura rescue Tsunade, whom he believed Kumogakure was holding.

Jiraiya argued with Konoha’s elders over Tsunade’s disappearance, but they refused to pursue her while the village was rebuilding. Meanwhile, Danzo supplied Orochimaru with children and a mysterious living specimen for secret experiments, and Jiraiya later told Orochimaru what he had learned in the Land of Lightning.

• Jiraiya demanded that Konoha act to find Tsunade, but Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura reprimanded him for abandoning the village and urged him not to provoke Kumogakure.
• Hatake Sakumo privately agreed with the elders’ concerns about Jiraiya’s absences, though he thought they had handled the confrontation too harshly.
• Danzo brought Orochimaru a group of controlled orphan children for experiments and gave him a wriggling piece of flesh, warning that it was more valuable than the children and that no results could leave the base.
• Orochimaru prepared the Root laboratory materials without using the specimen, then returned home and found Jiraiya waiting for him.
• Jiraiya told Orochimaru about his discovery concerning Tsunade in the Land of Lightning, and Orochimaru considered the situation troublesome.

Kakuzu delivered Earth Release: All Things Change and the Fire Temple abbot’s head to Dada, who put the technique into research. In Konoha, Jiraiya visited his teacher’s grave and asked Orochimaru for help, leaving Orochimaru to answer his plea.

• Kakuzu gave Dada the genuine All Things Change scroll and the abbot’s head, explaining that he had sold the body for its bounty.
• Dada paid Kakuzu, then ordered the research department to study and improve the technique and assigned Uzumaki Hirohiko to help.
• Dada arranged for Chakra Metal weapons to go to Anbu and his own department while the village researched further uses for the metal.
• Jiraiya visited his teacher’s grave, poured out his sake, and asked Orochimaru what he had done on the night Konoha was attacked.
• Orochimaru said he had been in his laboratory and realized the danger too late, and Jiraiya believed him and asked him to help prevent another mistake.

Dada and the Third Raikage watched researchers transform Earth Style Turning Palm into a technique that rapidly built precise reinforced-concrete structures. Mine Taro then announced a larger demonstration using the open ground as a stand-in for Konohagakure, just as a streak of rainbow light approached.

• Dada arrived at the research site, where Mine Taro revealed that the team had studied Earth Style Turning Palm with help from United Steel Company and Earth Release specialists.
• A ninja used the original technique to raise a maze of earthen walls, and Dada and the Third Raikage inspected its layout and limitations.
• The team demonstrated an improved version that used prepared materials to rapidly construct a precise two-story reinforced-concrete building.
• Dada imagined using the technique for roads and other infrastructure, while the Third Raikage considered expanding Kumogakure with it.
• Mine Taro announced a joint experiment to demonstrate the technique's full power by treating the open ground as Konohagakure, and a streak of rainbow light sped toward them.

Dada witnessed Mine Taro and Uzumaki Hirohiko demonstrate a Heavenly Transfer Technique-assisted Earth Release that could rapidly build fortresses or crush nearby structures into a sphere. In the Leaf Ninja Village, Orochimaru warned Jiraiya that Tsunade might have brought the Shikkotsu Forest Contract Scroll to Kumogakure herself, and the chapter ended as they discussed finding help to investigate and rescue her.

• Mine Taro and Uzumaki Hirohiko used the Heavenly Transfer Technique and an improved Earth Release to raise a concrete fortress from the ground.
• Mine Taro and Hirohiko demonstrated how the jutsu could gather nearby buildings and materials into a crushing sphere, unsettling Dada.
• Orochimaru questioned Jiraiya's assumption that Kumogakure had captured Tsunade and suggested she might have taken the Shikkotsu Forest Contract Scroll there herself.
• Orochimaru told Jiraiya that Tsunade's squadmates' bodies had never been found and that she had not searched for them, deepening suspicions about her.
• Jiraiya resolved to investigate and clear Tsunade's name, and Orochimaru offered to help while warning that they would need outside assistance.

The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning learned that Kumogakure had seized seven trading companies tied to a weapons-industry conspiracy and was gifting their assets to him, signaling that the balance of power had shifted. He accepted the assets but ordered Furuya Jun'en to replace the Thunder Cloud Nine Warriors with his own people.

• The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning left a banquet after an attendant told him that Minister Furuya Jun'en was waiting in his study.
• The Daimyo read the Third Raikage's letter, which said Kumogakure had taken control of seven trading companies and their assets and was gifting them to him, while raising the timing of the marriage agreement.
• The Daimyo and Furuya Jun'en concluded that Kumogakure's gift declared a change in the balance of power between the ninja village and the Daimyo.
• The Daimyo ordered people to take over the companies and their assets, despite his anger at Kumogakure's show of strength.
• After the Thunder Cloud Nine Warriors checked on him, the Daimyo told Furuya Jun'en to remove them gradually and replace them with his own people.

Dada used the Technique of Thousand Mechanism Construction to expand Kumogakure, then led Earth Release ninja in flattening mountains for development. Meanwhile, Jiraiya and Orochimaru pursued a disguised mission that could bring them closer to Kumogakure.

• Dada used the Technique of Thousand Mechanism Construction to build Kumogakure's outer walls in two days, while the Barrier Team planned to extend the village barrier later.
• Dada gathered twenty Earth Release ninja and coordinated them to soften and move a mountain, creating flat land for Kumogakure's expansion.
• Jiraiya and Orochimaru met a nervous intermediary at an underground mission office and received an address and a token for collecting the deposit.
• Orochimaru and Jiraiya revealed that they had captured, interrogated, and placed the intermediary under genjutsu, then erased his memories.
• Jiraiya and Orochimaru recognized the layered mission as an opportunity to get close to Kumogakure.

Furuya Jun'en arranged for two members of the Thunder Cloud Nine Warriors to escort Prince Ryuki, but attackers ambushed them and killed one while wounding the other. After an assassination attempt and public scandal exposed Kumogakure's security failures, the Third Raikage sent Dada to investigate in Asuka City.

• Furuya Jun'en ordered two young Cloud Ninja to escort Prince Ryuki to the Land of Soup.
• As the convoy entered a valley, disguised attackers stole the Cloud Ninja's Communication Snails and trapped them inside a Rock-Dwelling Toad's stomach wall.
• A black-haired swordsman and his allies defeated the two Cloud Ninja, killing one and leaving the other badly wounded.
• Three days later, Kumogakure learned of the attack, and Sage Katsuyu confirmed that the Small Katsuyu belonging to the guards were alive but sealed off from contact.
• Criminals infiltrated Asuka City and attempted to assassinate the Daimyo, spreading news of Kumogakure's security failures across the Shinobi World.
• After the investigation squad found no useful clues, the Third Raikage assigned the case to Dada, who set off for Asuka City the next day.

Dada investigated the deaths of two Cloud Ninja and the assassination attempt on the Land of Lightning's Daimyo, then assessed two ninja the Daimyo had hired to guard Asuka City. He left off confronting the tall recruit Iga Saemon by slapping his face and remarking on his height.

• Dada led Kumogakure's Special Strategy Department to Asuka City to investigate the attacks and sent subordinates to inspect the area around the city.
• The Daimyo told Dada that his retainer Furuya Jun'en would coordinate the investigation and revealed that he had hired two ninja to help guard Asuka City.
• Dada warned the Daimyo to be wary of the recruits' unknown backgrounds and told Furuya Jun'en that he wanted to assess them.
• Furuya Jun'en introduced the recruits as Iga Saemon and Saito Mitsumasa while they trained with the samurai.
• Dada walked up to Iga Saemon, patted his face, and commented on his height, leaving the Training Ground silent.