Chapter Summaries

Daren Yi confronted the Konoha 11 with the horrors of Root’s experiments and reflected on Hashirama Senju’s peaceful village as a kind of genjutsu that could help turn ideals into reality. After the handover, he ordered the test subjects treated or spared further suffering, and led the children back toward the Hokage Building.

• Daren Yi told the Konoha 11 that the future of the Land of Fire depended on the kind of people they became, prompting them to reject the possibility of repeating Danzō’s cruelty.
• Daren Yi reflected that Hashirama Senju had created a peaceful village where children could grow up treating peace as normal and carry his ideals forward.
• Daren Yi received the handover list and ordered Root’s Hashirama cells and Sharingan transferred to Izumi Uchiha for safekeeping.
• Daren Yi ordered the test subjects saved where possible and directed that those beyond help be spared further suffering, with treatment and compensation costs charged to several clans and families.
• Izumi Uchiha took the Sealing Scroll, and Daren Yi led the Konoha 11 toward the Hokage Building to check on Naruto’s situation.

Daren Yi and the Konoha 11 exposed the Third Hokage and the Council Elders’ crimes, while Naruto Uzumaki became Acting Hokage and began overworking himself as he reviewed village records. Naruto asked Shikaku Nara about genin deaths, and Daren revealed that Naruto had exhausted himself reading documents with Shadow Clones.

• Daren Yi ordered Izumi Uchiha to kill Utatane Koharu after she confronted him over the Konoha 11 kicking the unconscious Shimura Danzō.
• Neji Hyuga showed the jonin footage from the Root base, revealing cruel experiments and prompting their outrage; Hiruzen Sarutobi recognized the footage’s connection to Obito.
• More than ten days later, Naruto Uzumaki served as Acting Hokage while Shikaku Nara handled much of Konohagakure’s administration.
• Naruto asked Shikaku whether genin had the village’s highest mortality rate after reviewing its records and archives.
• Daren Yi explained that Naruto had used Shadow Clones to read documents all night and had worn himself out.

Naruto Uzumaki discussed the unequal risks and opportunities facing civilian ninja with Shikaku Nara, then explained that he wanted to become Hokage so children would not have to grow up as orphans. He left without a concrete plan, but resolved to keep helping people one family and child at a time.

• Naruto told Shikaku that Genin faced high death and disability rates, while ninja from clans survived and advanced more often than civilian ninja.
• Shikaku explained that civilian ninja had emerged through the Ninja Academy system, but most still lacked access to advanced training and C-rank Ninjutsu.
• Shikaku said Minato Namikaze had sealed the Nine-Tails inside Naruto to give him a powerful start, despite the pain it would bring him.
• Naruto said he wanted to become Hokage so every child could enjoy a happy childhood with their parents, and admitted he had no clear way to achieve it.
• Naruto resolved to keep helping people through small steps and recalled the story of The Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountains as encouragement.

Naruto Uzumaki asked Shikaku Nara to help reform Konohagakure’s academy, training, and battlefield policies, but Shikaku warned that the proposals challenged the power of the Ninja Clans and the wider order they upheld. Naruto also learned that the assets transferred to him as Hokage formed part of the Uzumaki Clan’s inheritance and political foundation.

• Naruto Uzumaki presented Shikaku Nara with proposals to delay academy graduation, expand Ninjutsu access, and restrict children’s participation in battle.
• Shikaku Nara warned that Jonin and Ninja Clans would resist the reforms, but agreed to help gradually unite the interests of Ninja Clans and Civilian Ninja.
• Naruto asked Shikaku about the large number of assets that had appeared under his name.
• Shikaku explained that Ninja Clans gained income by protecting merchant families and controlling access to Chakra and Ninjutsu.
• Shikaku told Naruto that the transferred assets were his due after defeating Hiruzen Sarutobi and becoming Hokage, and warned that his reforms challenged the entire world order.

Naruto Uzumaki committed to pursuing reforms as Hokage despite Shikaku Nara's warnings, while Daren Yi negotiated with the Nine-Tails for more Chakra. Daren Yi revealed that his Mangekyō Sharingan had planted flame trees in the Nine-Tails, then lamented that this Naruto's life was too happy.

• Naruto Uzumaki rejected Shikaku Nara's warning that his reforms could cost him the Hokage position and ordered him to revise the proposals, taking full responsibility.
• Shikaku Nara left the Hokage's Office, while Daren Yi and Izumi Uchiha remained with Naruto.
• Naruto Uzumaki took Daren Yi to meet the Nine-Tails in the sealing space after the fox asked to see him.
• The Nine-Tails accused Daren Yi of making him thinner, and Daren Yi offered to free him five years early in exchange for more Chakra.
• Daren Yi showed the Nine-Tails his Mangekyō Sharingan Dojutsu and revealed flame trees rooted in the fox's body.
• Daren Yi reflected on an alternate future in which Naruto became an enemy of the world, then said he regretted how happy the current Naruto was.

Daren Yi harvested fruits from the Nine-Tails Medicine Garden, sharing them with Naruto and Izumi Uchiha while explaining their effects. He left with Izumi after reassuring the Nine-Tails that the saplings would produce fruit more slowly, and Naruto was encouraged by Daren Yi’s praise.

• Daren Yi harvested nearly a hundred fruits from the flaming sapling, gaining Physique Reserve Energy, and promised to slow the trees’ output so the Nine-Tails could recover.
• Naruto ate one fruit and felt his body and mind regain vitality, while Daren Yi gave him the remaining four as rent from the Nine-Tails.
• The Nine-Tails protested that the saplings were burning its body, but Daren Yi reassured it that it would not be allowed to get any thinner.
• Daren Yi explained that the fruits could exist in both spiritual and physical forms, then fed one to Izumi Uchiha, whose Mangekyo Dojutsu Power recovered and strengthened.
• Daren Yi left the Hokage's Office with Izumi after praising Naruto, who resolved to live up to Daren Yi’s confidence in him.

Naruto defended Daren Yi to the Nine-Tails, while Daren secretly expanded his control over the Sealing Space and used Naruto’s will to calm the ocean of Emotions and Desires in his Mind World. Daren admitted that the admired, selfless Ancestor of Shamate was a deception, then confronted and consumed a manifestation of his own wicked thoughts.

• Naruto offered the Nine-Tails three fruits in exchange for forgiving Ancestor of Shamate, but the Nine-Tails accepted the fruit and refused to forgive him.
• Naruto argued that the Nine-Tails was judging Daren Yi just as humans had judged Tailed Beasts, leaving the Nine-Tails unsure of his certainty.
• Daren Yi watched unseen as roots from a vast tree spread through the Sealing Space and connected Naruto and the Nine-Tails to his Mind World.
• Daren Yi used Naruto’s radiant will to calm the ocean of Emotions and Desires, then admitted that he had hidden his control of others to protect his own initiative.
• Daren Yi pulled his mirror reflection out, shaped it into a bottle, and drank it as a fizzy, corrosive beverage.

Naruto enjoyed a warm morning at Ichiraku Ramen with Teuchi before Neji and Hinata arrived, and the three later joined the Konoha 11 for a Shamate Organization meeting. Daren Yi declared that the group’s first step toward fighting the Otsutsuki Clan was to debut as idols and win over the Shinobi World.

• Naruto ate ramen with Teuchi and said Ichiraku was his favorite, while reflecting on how his life had changed since becoming Hokage.
• Neji reminded Naruto that Ancestor of Shamate had called a meeting, and Hinata gave Naruto another homemade lunchbox.
• Naruto praised Hinata, leaving Neji jealous and imagining that he would one day surpass the Hokage.
• Neji ordered twenty bowls of ramen and decided to observe Teuchi after being startled by his sudden presence.
• Daren Yi gathered the Konoha 11 at a training ground and told them to debut as Shamate idols to prepare for their future fight against the Otsutsuki Clan.

Daren Yi forced the Konoha 11 to join an idol project by promising to teach them Shamate Sage Mode, then introduced a television drama about the Senju and Uchiha clans. The script’s casting and synopsis left Naruto wondering about his identity as Daren Yi questioned him about Minato Namikaze.

• Daren Yi announced that the Konoha 11 would become idols, and Sasuke and the others reluctantly agreed after he offered to teach them Shamate Sage Mode.
• Daren Yi distributed scripts for Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, starring Indra, Asura, Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki.
• Shikamaru Nara speculated that Naruto represented the Senju Clan’s future, while Naruto and Sasuke privately wondered whether Naruto had another hidden identity and whether their connection explained Sasuke’s feelings.
• Daren Yi asked Naruto whether he knew Minato Namikaze’s true identity, leaving Naruto uneasy.

Daren Yi claimed Minato Namikaze secretly descended from Tobirama Senju and Hashirama Senju through Jiraiya and Tsunade, making Naruto part of a tangled Senju family history. Naruto absorbed the revelation about Jiraiya being his grandfather and ended by embracing the love passed down through generations.

• Daren Yi told Naruto that Minato Namikaze was secretly a descendant of Tobirama Senju and Hashirama Senju, and credited Naruto's traits and talents to them.
• Daren Yi claimed Jiraiya was Tobirama Senju's son and Minato Namikaze's father, while Tsunade was Minato's mother, and said their close relation kept their family ties secret.
• Daren Yi explained that Mito Uzumaki had supported Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki's relationship, while Jiraiya hid his paternal feelings and publicly treated Minato as his disciple.
• The Konoha 11 reacted with shock, and Naruto realized Jiraiya was his grandfather.
• Naruto remembered Minato Namikaze and silently promised his father and Jiraiya that he understood their inherited love.

Daren Yi explained the title Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms with a contrived connection to Wood Style, then revealed his plan to cast Naruto in several roles and have him master Wood Style. He insisted Naruto had the potential because his body was already evolving through the fruits he had eaten.

• Shikamaru questioned how Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms related to the Senju-Uchiha conflict, and Naruto wondered whether Hashirama had been unfaithful to Mito.
• Daren Yi claimed the title referred to Hashirama’s Wood Style and argued that his peach-blossom-like techniques had bloomed for Madara alone.
• Sakura was disappointed that the drama would not depict a romance, while Shikamaru worried that filming it would be troublesome.
• Daren Yi told Naruto he would play Asura, Hashirama, and himself, and that he needed to master Wood Style for the roles.
• Naruto doubted he could learn Wood Style, but Daren Yi said his potential was exceptional because the fruits had already accelerated his bloodline evolution.

Daren Yi explained that mastering Wood Style required a Sage Body’s extreme Yang Release alongside Water and Earth chakra, then encouraged Naruto to test the theory. Naruto awakened Wood Style and turned the training ground into a forest, while Daren Yi received Naruto’s understanding through Deep Blue and realized he could use Wood Style too.

• Daren Yi explained that sunlight represented the extreme Yang Release needed to catalyze Water and Earth chakra into Wood Style.
• Naruto meditated beside a tree and sensed the connection between soil, water, and yang.
• Naruto awakened Wood Style, causing saplings and trees to erupt across the training ground and lifting several of the Konoha 11 into the branches.
• Neji and Sasuke exchanged a competitive look and silently agreed to fight and grow stronger after Naruto’s breakthrough.
• Rock Lee helped Tenten and Sakura onto a branch, while Daren Yi felt sorry for him as the girls watched Neji and Sasuke.
• Naruto proudly told Daren Yi he had succeeded, and Daren Yi received Naruto’s Wood Style understanding through Deep Blue.

After Naruto mastered Wood Style, Daren Yi urged him to surpass Hashirama Senju by following a fabricated Red Dust Immortal Path of Nine-Life Nirvana Reincarnation. Naruto accepted the challenge and vowed to forge the path himself.

• Naruto mastered Wood Style by touching a tree, leaving Shikamaru questioning whether Daren Yi's claims about Minato Namikaze were true.
• Naruto told Daren Yi he wanted to face the Starry Sky Otsutsuki Clan in the coming Thousand-Year Blood War and World-Ending Calamity.
• Daren Yi proposed the Red Dust Immortal Path, claiming Naruto could evolve his Sage Body through nine cycles of Nirvana Reincarnation.
• Daren Yi argued that Hashirama Senju could have transformed his body after his battle with Madara Uchiha, and compared the path to the Uchiha Clan's evolution of the Sharingan into the Rinnegan.
• Naruto vowed to follow the cultivation path to the end and forge a way forward through his own will.

Daren Yi offered the Konoha 11 Deep Blue Fruits to aid their Sage Mode training, warning them to consider the risks before accepting. He returned home to share a quiet evening with Izumi Uchiha and promised to find instructors for Sasuke the next day.

• Sasuke complained that Daren Yi had forgotten to find him a powerful ninja to guide his training, and Daren Yi promised to do it next time.
• Daren Yi showed the Konoha 11 eleven Deep Blue Fruits made from Nine-Tails Chakra and explained their benefits for cultivating Shamate Sage Mode.
• Daren Yi gave the Konoha 11 a day to consider whether to accept the fruits, warning that failed Sage Mode training could turn them into stone statues.
• Sasuke, Neji, and Rock Lee immediately declared their willingness to take the risk, while Daren Yi urged everyone to consult their families and teachers.
• Daren Yi returned home and shared a meal with Izumi Uchiha, then said he would ask Kakashi and Might Guy to train the children the next day.

Daren Yi arrived at the Hokage Building with dumplings Izumi Uchiha had made, where Naruto and Shikaku reacted to his Mangekyō Sharingan. He asked about Kakashi and Might Guy and learned that they had moved into Konoha Maximum Security Prison.

• Izumi Uchiha made Daren Yi a carefully decorated breakfast of Three-Color Dumplings using her Mangekyō Sharingan.
• Naruto Uzumaki tried to take a dumpling, and Daren Yi threatened him with two mysterious gifts he would receive the next day.
• Shikaku Nara saw Daren Yi's Mangekyō Sharingan and concluded that Fugaku Uchiha had secretly trained him as a hidden clan asset.
• Daren Yi asked where Kakashi and Might Guy were, and Shikaku said they had moved into Konoha Maximum Security Prison.

Shikaku explained why Kakashi and Might Guy were pressuring Hiruzen Sarutobi for information about Obito, then warned Naruto that the other four great shinobi villages were uniting against Konohagakure. Daren Yi refused to be drawn into the crisis, leaving Shikaku preparing to negotiate with him directly.

• Shikaku said Kakashi was keeping constant watch on Hiruzen Sarutobi while Might Guy joined him, hoping to learn what happened to Obito Uchiha.
• Shikaku explained that reading Hiruzen's memories was too dangerous, so Kakashi was their best option for finding information.
• Shikaku gave Naruto and Daren Yi a joint proposal from Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure to hold a Five Great Nations Chunin Exam in Konohagakure.
• Shikaku told Naruto that the four other villages had aligned against Konohagakure and were massing forces at the Land of Fire's borders because they feared Naruto's future strength.
• Daren Yi dismissed Shikaku's hints about the Uchiha Clan's position, so Shikaku decided to speak plainly and negotiate with him directly.

Shikaku urged Daren Yi to keep the Uchiha Clan aligned with Konohagakure ahead of a joint Chunin Exam that the Four Kage would attend, warning that the other villages meant to test Konohagakure and court the Uchiha. Daren agreed to discuss the clan’s demands but found little left in Konohagakure that he wanted.

• Shikaku explained that the Four Kage planned to assess Konohagakure’s strength and learn the Uchiha Clan’s stance at the joint Chunin Exam.
• Shikaku pleaded with Daren Yi to keep the Uchiha Clan from abandoning Konohagakure and offered to consider any conditions they set.
• Shikaku looked to Naruto Uzumaki with faith in the young Hokage’s future, while Naruto chose to trust Daren Yi and remained silent.
• Daren Yi considered what demands to make and recalled that Konohagakure had already transferred the Uchiha’s assets to Izumi and that he had copied the Scroll of Sealing.

Kakashi brought Naruto and Shikaku Hiruzen Sarutobi’s confession, which claimed Obito had been experimented on, controlled, and driven out of control before escaping. Kakashi vowed to find Obito, while Naruto withheld judgment until a fair trial; Kakashi then returned to the prison, intent on confronting Hiruzen again.

• Kakashi arrived at Naruto’s office and handed him a document detailing Hiruzen Sarutobi’s interrogation and confession.
• Kakashi reported that Obito’s whereabouts were unknown and that Hiruzen described him as dangerous, unstable, and escaped after losing control during the Uchiha Clan Downfall.
• Kakashi blamed himself for failing to save Obito, promised to keep searching for him, and tried to explain that Obito had once been kind and treasured his companions.
• Naruto said Obito would have to take responsibility and receive a fair trial, though he privately doubted he could judge him without resentment.
• Exhausted and overcome by grief, Kakashi left to return to the prison and continue confronting Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Daren Yi sent Kakashi away with Might Guy so he could question Hiruzen Sarutobi privately. After learning that Daren Yi and Naruto had framed him over Obito Uchiha, Hiruzen admitted his guilt, and Daren asked what he had truly thought about the Uchiha Clan, Hatake Sakumo, Naruto, and others.

• Daren Yi knocked Kakashi unconscious and asked Might Guy to take him home and ensure he slept for twenty-four hours.
• After Kakashi and Might Guy left, Hiruzen Sarutobi asked Daren Yi for tobacco and teased him about Izumi Uchiha and his influence on the Shinobi World.
• Daren Yi revealed that he and his allies had framed Hiruzen over the matter involving Obito Uchiha.
• Hiruzen realized his warnings about Obito had been unnecessary, then suspected Naruto had planned the framing and admitted his guilt.
• Daren Yi asked Hiruzen what he had thought about the Uchiha Clan, Hatake Sakumo, Naruto, and the others.

Hiruzen Sarutobi confessed how repeated compromises and his reliance on Danzo had made him numb to the people he sacrificed, and asked Daren Yi to warn Naruto Uzumaki not to follow his example. After Daren Yi promised to preserve Hiruzen’s account for future Hokage, he asked whether Hiruzen would ever have reflected if he had not been defeated.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi explained that he had once agonized over difficult choices but gradually grew numb to the suffering of those he sacrificed.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi admitted that he repeatedly forgave Danzo and used him as a scapegoat while benefiting from his dark deeds.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi asked Daren Yi to tell Naruto Uzumaki that he had overcome him and must never become like him.
• Daren Yi said Hiruzen’s confession would become reference material for future Hokage, and Hiruzen accepted the idea.
• As Hiruzen Sarutobi prepared to leave, Daren Yi asked whether he would have reflected on his mistakes if he had not been defeated.