Chapter Summaries

After Sasuke accidentally attacked Shizune while drunk, he gained the Eternal Memory talent and used alcohol to reproduce an immensely powerful fire technique. Jiraiya began teaching him the third stage of Gallant Rasengan training, combining fire-nature Chakra with the jutsu’s form transformation.

• Drunken Sasuke mistook Shizune for an assassin and set her clothes ablaze before Tsunade and Shizune calmed him down and helped him recover.
• Tsunade and Shizune learned Sasuke had come to give Tsunade a gift ahead of Kimimaro’s surgery, then teased him about his drunken attack and powerful Great Fireball Technique.
• Sasuke opened a D-Rank Scroll and gained the permanent talent Eternal Memory, which let him recall his experiences in vivid detail.
• Sasuke told Jiraiya he might have completed the second stage of Gallant Rasengan training, then used sake to perform a fire technique that evaporated a lake.
• Jiraiya demonstrated combining fire-nature Chakra with the Rasengan’s form transformation, and Sasuke watched the Chakra control with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Uchiha Sasuke perfected the Fire Release: Gallant Rasengan through repeated experiments with alcohol, then began considering going undercover with Orochimaru after learning that an Anbu mission had ended in two deaths and one injury. He asked the forum for advice and received a suggestion to use revenge against Shimura Danzō as his cover story.

• Uchiha Sasuke repeatedly failed to combine Fire-nature Chakra with the Rasengan until he identified how alcohol affected his control.
• Uzuki Yugao told Sasuke that two Anbu operatives had died and another had been injured on a mission to the Sound Ninja Village, leaving Orochimaru's condition unknown.
• Uchiha Sasuke used the right amount of alcohol to create a Gallant Rasengan that shattered a giant rock, then left without acknowledging Naruto's excitement.
• Sasuke considered going undercover with Orochimaru because of the village's political conflict and the need to gather intelligence.
• Forum users advised Sasuke to claim he wanted revenge against Shimura Danzō, and the system offered him a C-Rank Scroll for accepting the suggestion.

Sasuke tried to persuade Jiraiya to let him go undercover with Orochimaru, but Jiraiya demanded a complete plan and warned him not to tell anyone, especially Naruto. After leaving the Hokage’s office, Sasuke ran into Neji by the river and sat with him.

• At Orochimaru’s base in the Sound Ninja Village, Yakushi Kabuto urged Orochimaru to get outside for his arm’s recovery, but Orochimaru said it was not enough and returned to the tunnel.
• Sasuke argued that he was best suited to investigate Orochimaru and hear the terms of the supposed deal, while Jiraiya refused to approve the mission without a thorough plan.
• Sasuke told Jiraiya that Konoha’s political tensions had made him distrustful and uneasy, and Jiraiya felt guilty and angry about the village’s divisions.
• Jiraiya warned Sasuke to keep the plan secret and said Naruto could not be trusted with it because he might reveal it to others while defending Sasuke.
• Sasuke left the Hokage’s office, kicked a stone into the river, and accidentally hit Neji, who surfaced from the water after training.
• Sasuke and Neji joked about Neji’s Water Release training and then sat together on the riverbank.

Neji told Sasuke that the Hyuga Clan had blocked his attempts to buy and practice with a heavy bow because long-range attacks could counter the Caged Bird’s limited range and threaten the Main Family’s control over the Branch Family. After Neji explained why he had cut his hair and accepted the consequences of resisting the clan, Sasuke summoned a weary-looking old monkey, leaving his next move unclear.

• Neji explained how the Hyuga Clan delayed his bonus withdrawal, confiscated his Bamboo Bow, and opposed his plans to develop archery.
• Neji said he had discovered that the Caged Bird could only harm Branch Family members within five meters, and he argued that the clan suppressed long-range combat to protect the Main Family’s power.
• Neji told Sasuke that he opposed the Branch Family’s unequal treatment and had cut his hair to set himself apart from the clan’s leaders.
• Sasuke worried that Neji’s defiance would worsen his standing in the clan, while Neji said he did not care about attaining a position there.
• Sasuke stood, formed hand seals, and summoned a weary-faced old monkey.

Sasuke, Neji Hyuga, and Deceitful Monkey Kitsu agreed that Neji would take part in a dangerous plan tied to Sasuke’s effort to infiltrate Orochimaru’s ranks and protect the Hyuga Clan’s future. As Orochimaru retrieved a Hannya mask from the Uzumaki Clan ruins, Sasuke shared a quiet final dinner with Naruto and Jiraiya before withdrawing to his room.

• Sasuke told Neji Hyuga and Deceitful Monkey Kitsu about the conflict involving Jiraiya, Shimura Danzō, the Anbu, and the Root Organization, and warned that another war could follow.
• Sasuke explained Orochimaru’s plan to take his body and considered going undercover, while Neji volunteered for a dangerous plan to help free future Hyuga children from the Caged Bird fate.
• After Deceitful Monkey Kitsu advised that the plan was the best option but left the final choice to Sasuke, Sasuke agreed to proceed with Neji’s participation.
• Orochimaru and Yakushi Kabuto found twenty-seven Hannya masks in the Mask Hall, and Orochimaru used a snake to retrieve one before leaving.
• Sasuke cooked a lavish dinner for Naruto and Jiraiya, then Jiraiya gave Sasuke and Naruto invitations to Shizune and Izumo Kamizuki’s wedding.
• Sasuke left the table and returned to his room, while Naruto noticed that Sasuke and Jiraiya had been acting strangely.

At Kotetsu Hagane and Kato Shizune's wedding, Sasuke, Naruto, and the other guests celebrated while Jiraiya and Tsunade shared a brief, awkward exchange. The festivities ended with news that Neji Hyuga had defected from the village, and the chapter revealed that he had headed north to use himself as bait against the Sound Ninja.

• Sasuke and Naruto arrived at the wedding, where Sakura and Ino bickered over where to sit and whom Sasuke would sit beside.
• Izumo Kamizuki officiated as Kotetsu Hagane and Kato Shizune exchanged vows, and Jiraiya gave the newlyweds his blessing.
• Jiraiya teased Tsunade about their relationship, but he faltered when she looked at him, and she walked away.
• After the ceremony, Kiba Inuzuka asked Jiraiya about assigning ninja hounds to the Anbu and introduced him to Inuzuka Tsume.
• Shiranui Genma and Namiashi Raidō reported that Neji Hyuga had defected from the village the previous night.
• The chapter revealed that sixteen-year-old Neji had headed north to lure the Sound Ninja into a trap.

After Neji Hyuga defected as part of Sasuke’s plan, Jiraiya confronted Sasuke over putting his friend at risk, then listened to his reasoning and asked for a full briefing. Hyuga Hiashi resisted pressure to have Neji killed, but Sasuke ended the chapter by announcing a bounty and ordering his comrades to kill Neji without mercy.

• Jiraiya left Shizune’s wedding with Sasuke and confronted him about Neji Hyuga’s defection and the risks of their plan.
• Sasuke defended his plan, argued that Neji had made his own choice, and criticized the Will of Fire; Jiraiya set aside his anger and asked Sasuke to explain the plan in detail.
• Hyuga Seyo urged Hyuga Hiashi to have Neji eliminated, but Hiashi refused to act against his brother’s son and told Seyo to leave the matter to Jiraiya.
• Tenten, Naruto, and Kiba Inuzuka asked Sasuke to join the team pursuing Neji, and Sasuke announced a two-hundred-thousand-ryo bounty and ordered them to kill Neji without mercy.

Neji Hyuga reached the Land of Rice Fields seeking Orochimaru, but mistakenly entered an Exchange Office disguised as a shop and was recognized as a newly posted bounty target. He fought off the first attack, but the six-armed Sound Ninja prepared to strike again.

• Second Pillar left Tenten, Naruto, and Kiba Inuzuka after insisting Neji had abandoned them first.
• Neji traveled to the impoverished Land of Rice Fields and entered an intact building to seek food and information.
• The shopkeepers pretended to welcome Neji, and he learned about Orochimaru and how to approach one of his subordinates.
• A javelin nearly struck Neji, and the shopkeeper revealed that the building was an Exchange Office where Neji's head carried a 200,000-ryo bounty.
• The six-armed Sound Ninja attacked Neji with spiderwebs, but Neji blocked them with Water Style: Water Formation Wall.
• The Sound Ninja shaped a bow from sticky gold and spider silk as Neji braced for another attack.

Neji fought Kidomaru, whose spider-based attacks and Cursed Seal transformed their encounter into a dangerous game. Neji defeated him but stopped short of killing him, then tried to persuade him to accept the loss and help him reach Orochimaru.

• Kidomaru redirected a golden arrow toward Neji, but Neji’s Water Formation Wall deflected it and left him impressed by the heavy bow.
• Kidomaru recognized Neji as a Hyuga and attacked again, summoning Rain Spider and filling the room with spiders whose Chakra threads hampered Neji’s Heavenly Spin.
• Neji severed the threads, charged Kidomaru through a golden arrow, and knocked him down with Konoha Whirlwind before stopping a Gentle Fist strike at his throat.
• Kidomaru withdrew from his Cursed Seal state and insisted that his Adhesive Gold Armor could have blocked Neji’s strike, while Neji said Kidomaru had lost.
• Kidomaru demanded that Neji strike him again to prove the armor’s defense, but Neji told him that a true player had to accept defeat.

Kimimaro recovered from surgery and told Sasuke about Orochimaru’s people and bases while Sasuke explained his plan with Neji. At Orochimaru’s Sound Ninja Village base, Neji offered to help secure Sasuke as a vessel and acted as Sasuke’s envoy to negotiate a transaction.

• Kimimaro guessed that Neji had left Konoha to carry out a plan with Sasuke, and Sasuke explained their scheme to him.
• Sasuke questioned Kimimaro about Kabuto, the Sound Five, and Orochimaru’s organization, but stopped when Kimimaro grew exhausted.
• Neji traveled with Kidomaru to the Sound Ninja Village and told Orochimaru he wanted to escape the Hyuga Branch Family’s Caged Bird fate.
• Neji offered to deliver Second Pillar to Orochimaru and claimed he could represent Sasuke as an advance envoy.
• Neji told Orochimaru that Sasuke knew Konoha’s role in the Uchiha massacre and wanted to clarify the terms of his transaction with Orochimaru.

Neji negotiated with Orochimaru to secure Sasuke’s defection while secretly protecting himself with coded messages. Sasuke and Jiraiya confirmed that Neji was alive, Orochimaru’s arms had recovered, and Danzo was communicating with Orochimaru, then prepared for Sasuke to leave.

• Neji told Orochimaru that Sasuke wanted to see Konoha destroyed and personally kill Shimura Danzō, and Orochimaru accepted the terms.
• Neji insisted that Sasuke receive coded messages through Danzō’s network, with different passwords confirming Neji’s safety and Orochimaru’s condition.
• Danzo received the message “Here is everything you want” with the password “Flame Armor” and decided to help pass it to Sasuke, believing Sasuke was colluding with Orochimaru.
• A Root ninja delivered the message and password to Sasuke, who reported them to Jiraiya and confirmed that Neji was alive, Orochimaru’s arms had recovered, and Danzō and Orochimaru had a communication channel.
• Jiraiya accepted that he would have to fight Danzō, while Sasuke prepared to leave and was moved by Jiraiya’s assurance that his safety mattered most.

Sasuke left Konoha to reach Orochimaru, while Jiraiya sent Uchiha Itachi to protect him from a distance. After Sasuke left Tenten behind, Neji learned that Orochimaru had received Sasuke’s response: an order to execute Neji immediately.

• Sasuke left Konoha under the moonlight, and Jiraiya assigned Uchiha Itachi to follow and protect him in secret.
• Tenten confronted Sasuke on the road and begged to go with him, but Sasuke promised to bring Neji back alive and knocked her unconscious.
• Neji awoke in Orochimaru’s base and met Tayuya and Jirobo, who escorted him to Orochimaru.
• Neji told Orochimaru that Sasuke was already on his way to the base.
• Yakushi Kabuto arrived with Sasuke’s message ordering Orochimaru to execute Neji Hyuga immediately.

Neji Hyuga persuaded Orochimaru to send Jirobo to the Valley of the End, where Sasuke gave him a demand about the Living Corpse Reincarnation ritual. Jirobo returned with the message while the other Sound Four members confronted Sasuke and challenged him to spar.

• Orochimaru showed Neji Hyuga a scroll ordering his execution, but agreed to honor their plan until nightfall and let Neji send Jirobo to the Valley of the End.
• Jirobo reached Sasuke, gave the code phrase, and learned that Sasuke wanted Orochimaru to perform the Living Corpse Reincarnation ritual before continuing their deal.
• Sasuke questioned Jirobo's claim that Orochimaru could not use the ritual again so soon and ordered him to get confirmation from Neji Hyuga.
• Tayuya, Kidomaru, and Sakon Ukon revealed that they had followed Jirobo, then sent him back to report to Orochimaru.
• Sakon asked Sasuke to face the Sound Four in a series of challenges, and Sasuke asked what would happen if he killed them.

Sasuke agreed to a contest with Sakon, Kidomaru, and Tayuya to settle who would lead the Sound Four, while racing to reach Neji before nightfall. He defeated Tayuya’s summoned demons and cornered her, but she disputed the rules, leaving the outcome contested.

• Sasuke agreed that whoever made him admit defeat would become the true leader of the Sound Four, and that if he beat them all they would follow his lead.
• Sasuke consulted the system’s netizens, then chose Tayuya to pose the first challenge.
• Tayuya summoned three Angry Demons and attacked Sasuke while playing her flute.
• Sasuke used his flaming sword, a flash of light, and wire to evade the demons and rush Tayuya.
• Sasuke held his blade to Tayuya’s neck, but she claimed he had broken the rules by interrupting her performance, and Kidomaru protested.

Sasuke used the Cursed Seal to break Tayuya’s genjutsu and defeated her, then faced Kidomaru’s spider-cocoon game. With help from the system’s netizens, Sasuke gathered clues about the cocoons and Kidomaru’s arrows, but still had to choose a hiding place.

• Sasuke checked the netizens’ advice and learned that activating the Cursed Seal could disrupt Tayuya’s genjutsu.
• Tayuya used Dream Sound Lock, but Sasuke dispelled it with the Cursed Seal and told her to go back.
• Sasuke challenged Kidomaru, while Sakon withdrew to watch and planned to face Sasuke afterward.
• Kidomaru explained a game in which Sasuke had to hide behind one of seven cocoons while avoiding arrows and spider eggs.
• Sasuke asked Kidomaru three questions with help from the netizens, learning clues about the egg positions and arrow pattern.
• Kidomaru turned around and began the game, leaving Sasuke to choose a cocoon.

Second Pillar survived Kidomaru’s arrow-and-cocoon puzzle with help from the senior forum members, then faced Sakon and Ukon’s proposed body-invasion game. After refusing and accepting their lethal turn-based attack challenge, he read a suggestion to kill them immediately and beckoned them to fight.

• Second Pillar chose position two and escaped Kidomaru’s arrows and the released spiders, then accepted Kidomaru’s offered handshake.
• Second Pillar thanked the senior forum members and asked for advice about facing Sakon and Ukon, whose defensive abilities Drifting Boy analyzed.
• Sakon and Ukon proposed entering Second Pillar’s body, but he disgustedly refused.
• Sakon proposed that they take turns attacking and defending until one admitted defeat or died, and Second Pillar accepted the challenge.
• Second Pillar read the forum comments and a system suggestion to execute Sakon Ukon, then beckoned them to fight.

Sasuke defeated Sakon and Ukon after Sakon sacrificed an ear to claim the first attack, then killed him with Fire Release: Gallant Rasengan. Tayuya and Kidomaru accepted Sasuke as their leader and helped him retrieve his pack as he prepared to continue toward Neji.

• Sakon used a riddle about his ears to secure the first attack, then cut off his left ear to make his answer true.
• Sakon and Ukon attacked Sasuke with a combined strike, but Sasuke’s Flame Armor held and forced them to retreat.
• Sasuke drank from his flask and prepared Fire Release: Gallant Rasengan while Sakon and Ukon transformed and summoned Rashomon.
• Sasuke used Shunka to slow time and struck Sakon with the Gallant Rasengan, killing him in a violent explosion.
• Kidomaru and Tayuya knelt to acknowledge Sasuke, retrieved his pack, and promised to explain Sakon’s death to Orochimaru.
• Sasuke accepted their support and set out, thinking that he still had time to reach Neji.

Neji Hyuga persuaded Orochimaru to let him verify the timing of Living Corpse Reincarnation, while Sasuke waited at the Sound Ninja Village border and opened the rewards from his Forum System. After Sasuke gained new abilities and considered how his Mangekyo: Shunka appeared to others, Kidomaru sensed someone approaching.

• Neji Hyuga argued that he and Sasuke had shown their sincerity, and Orochimaru agreed to let him verify Living Corpse Reincarnation.
• Yakushi Kabuto offered witnesses and records as evidence, and Orochimaru revealed his youthful face before sending Neji Hyuga and Jirobo to complete the verification.
• At the Exchange Office, Sasuke opened his scrolls and received Chakra Enhancement, 200 Exploding Tags, Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique, Demon Sleep Secret Medicine, and Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique.
• Kidomaru and Tayuya debated whether Sasuke's technique was Flying Thunder God, and Sasuke concluded that Mangekyo: Shunka only altered time in his own perception.
• Kidomaru sensed that someone had arrived.

Sasuke confirmed Jirobo’s password and hurried to Orochimaru’s base to find Neji. Meanwhile, Jiraiya defended Sasuke’s secret mission before Konoha’s leaders and suspended Utatane Koharu, appointing Tsunade to temporarily replace her; Sasuke reached Orochimaru but refused to talk until he saw Neji.

• Kidomaru and Tayuya told Jirobo that Sasuke had killed Sakon Ukon, and Jirobo gave Sasuke the password, “Hokage.”
• Sasuke ordered Jirobo, Kidomaru, and Tayuya to lead him to Orochimaru, while Jiraiya told Konoha’s leaders that Sasuke had not defected and was carrying out a secret mission.
• Jiraiya suspended Utatane Koharu from her advisor position and proposed that Tsunade temporarily take over her duties.
• Jirobo led Sasuke and the others through Orochimaru’s base, where Sasuke recognized architectural similarities to Konoha’s Root Organization base.
• Sasuke entered Orochimaru’s hall and demanded to see Neji before they spoke; Orochimaru sent a small snake toward the door.

Neji Hyuga and Sasuke completed the first stage of their plan by joining Orochimaru and negotiating a deal tied to Sasuke’s revenge against Shimura Danzō. Orochimaru gave Neji a Cursed Seal, leaving Sasuke to threaten the Sound Ninja if Neji did not survive.

• Neji learned from Kidomaru that Sasuke had arrived, then entered Orochimaru’s hall to meet him.
• Sasuke confirmed that Orochimaru’s last Living Corpse Reincarnation had been half a year earlier and agreed to train with Orochimaru for two and a half years in exchange for Sasuke’s body.
• Neji revealed Orochimaru’s plan to overthrow Konoha, and Sasuke proposed making his battle against Shimura Danzō the first battle of that plan.
• Orochimaru questioned Sasuke about Uchiha Itachi, and Sasuke angrily refused to discuss him before Neji led them toward the exit.
• Orochimaru called Neji forward and bit his neck, giving him a Cursed Seal that caused him to collapse.
• Sasuke threatened to kill Orochimaru’s people if Neji died, and Orochimaru ordered Yakushi Kabuto to care for him.