Chapter Summaries

Orochimaru used a special medicine to drive Kumogakure’s Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Mona, into a rampage as retaliation for Kumogakure’s plan to abduct Kushina. Chiyue met Orochimaru at his hiding place while the Eight-Tails broke through its seal, then learned how the medicine worked.

• Orochimaru hid in Kumogakure with help from a spy and planned to make the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki go berserk using medicine.
• Chiyue disguised himself as a tourist, tracked Orochimaru, and spent several days searching for the Two-Tails Jinchuriki without finding them.
• Orochimaru gave Mona the medicine, and dark red Tailed Beast Chakra erupted as the Eight-Tails began overwhelming his unstable seal.
• Kumogakure’s Anbu tried to calm Mona while another shinobi sent an urgent distress signal, drawing powerful shinobi to the scene.
• Chiyue entered Orochimaru’s restaurant unnoticed, startling him, and explained that White could conceal his Chakra presence.
• The Eight-Tails broke through the seal, and Orochimaru showed Chiyue the remaining special medicine, which could only be used once.

Chiyue and Orochimaru watched the Eight-Tails rampage through Kumogakure after Orochimaru’s potion magnified its Jinchuriki’s hatred and weakened the seal. Chiyue claimed he could restrain the Nine-Tails to some extent, and the chapter ended with the Third Raikage arriving to confront the freed Eight-Tails.

• Chiyue guessed Orochimaru had invited him along as insurance in case their mission went wrong, then agreed to watch the Eight-Tails rampage.
• Orochimaru explained that his potion had amplified the Jinchuriki’s hatred and resentment while loosening the Eight-Tails’ seal.
• The Eight-Tails broke free and fired a Tailed Beast Ball into Kumogakure, devastating the village as Chiyue and Orochimaru watched from a distance.
• Chiyue said he could restrain the Nine-Tails to some extent, leaving Orochimaru wondering how he could do it.
• White sensed a powerful Chakra approaching, and the Third Raikage struck the Eight-Tails and sent it sliding through the village.
• The Eight-Tails rose and began gathering another Tailed Beast Ball as the Third Raikage charged and slammed its jaw.

The Third Raikage stopped the Eight-Tails’ rampage long enough for Chiyue to send White to retrieve its broken horn, and Chiyue and Orochimaru escaped Kumogakure. Dodai’s investigation traced the rampage to a hallucination potion given to the Jinchuriki, Mona.

• The Third Raikage arrived, ordered Dodai to rescue the wounded and investigate, then struck the Eight-Tails with Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite and broke off its horn.
• Chiyue told White to retrieve the horn and urged Orochimaru to leave before Kumogakure discovered them.
• White took the Eight-Tails’ broken horn and returned it to Chiyue, who sealed it in a scroll before leaving with Orochimaru.
• The Third Raikage dragged the Eight-Tails out of the village, and their battle continued toward Lightning Cloud Canyon as Dodai investigated the rampage.
• Dodai’s investigation led to the Jinchuriki’s restaurant, where he found a bottle of purple liquid; analysis showed it contained hallucination flowers that intensified negative emotions.

The Eight-Tails and the Third Raikage fought until both collapsed, ending their battle in a draw and leaving the Raikage wounded by his own Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite. After Kumogakure sealed the Eight-Tails again, Dodai reported the village’s severe losses and the sabotage that caused the rampage, while the Third Raikage ordered an investigation.

• The Eight-Tails tried to escape Lightning Cloud Canyon, but the Third Raikage repeatedly blocked it and attacked with Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite.
• The Eight-Tails dodged while firing a Tailed Beast Ball, causing the Third Raikage’s attack to strike his own chest as the blast wounded them both.
• Exhausted, the Eight-Tails and the Third Raikage collapsed, and Dodai’s team carried the Raikage to the hospital while Kumogakure’s ninja sealed the Eight-Tails.
• After waking, the Third Raikage learned from Dodai that the village had suffered heavy casualties and destruction, and that a spy had poisoned the Eight-Tails’ Jinchuriki’s food to trigger the rampage.
• The Third Raikage ordered an investigation, then concealed how he had received the wound on his chest.

After Kumogakure’s Eight-Tails rampage became public, the Third Kazekage and his advisers discussed the threat to Sunagakure and the worsening war against Konoha. Desperate to avoid defeat, the Third Kazekage ordered Ebizo to target wealthy officials in the Land of Rivers despite Chiyo’s warnings.

• Kumogakure’s spy purge and the news of the Eight-Tails rampage spread to the other great villages, prompting Ōnoki and the Third Hokage to react with amusement.
• The Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizo suspected Iwagakure had provoked Kumogakure, and the Third Kazekage ordered Bunpuku to be closely watched.
• The Third Kazekage admitted Sunagakure was running out of money and supplies and might be forced to retreat from the Land of Rivers.
• Ebizo proposed targeting wealthy officials in the Land of Rivers, but Chiyo warned that doing so would damage Sunagakure’s reputation and future prospects.
• The Third Kazekage rejected Chiyo’s objections and ordered Ebizo to carry out the plan, promising to let him retire from public life afterward.

Sunagakure assassinated the Land of Rivers' daimyo and officials, leading Konoha to suspect a plot to frame them. After returning from Kumogakure, Orochimaru learned of the incident and was ordered back to the Land of Rivers battlefield.

• Black-clad attackers infiltrated the Land of Rivers' daimyo residence and officials' homes, killing the daimyo and many officials.
• Hatake Sakumo and Shikaku Nara concluded that Sunagakure had likely carried out the assassinations deliberately, and Hatake left to investigate.
• Chiyue returned to Konoha with Orochimaru, then went home while Orochimaru was summoned to the Hokage's Office.
• Orochimaru told the Third Hokage that the retaliation mission had succeeded and urged him to keep the returning spies' identities secret.
• Mitokado Homura gave Orochimaru an intelligence scroll and ordered him to return to the Land of Rivers battlefield.

As the war against Sunagakure continued, Nawaki was injured by an Explosive Tag on the battlefield. Back in Konoha, Chiyue decided to take his impatient rookies on a mission and found Jiraiya sleeping on his dirty sofa.

• Hiruzen agreed to record Chiyue and Orochimaru's achievements, while Homura and Koharu warned him against trying to win Chiyue over.
• News spread that the Eight-Tails had devastated Kumogakure and that Sunagakure had attacked the Land of Rivers' Daimyo Residence, while Konoha pushed Sunagakure into the Land of Wind.
• Nawaki spotted Explosive Tags beneath a corpse, shoved his companion out of danger, and was knocked unconscious by the blast; Minato rushed him to camp.
• Chiyue asked the mission department to find a suitable mission in the Land of Rain or the Land of Iron for his rookies.
• Chiyue found Jiraiya asleep on his sofa, threw him into the courtyard, and scolded him for dirtying the cushions.

Chiyue rushed to the hospital after learning Nawaki had been seriously injured by an Explosive Tag while saving a companion. Nawaki’s condition had stabilized, and he began recovering in Konoha as Chiyue teased him and described his easygoing role as a Jonin Instructor.

• Jiraiya told Chiyue that Nawaki had been hurt by an Explosive Tag while rescuing a companion, and that Tsunade had stabilized him before bringing him back to Konoha.
• Chiyue found Nawaki wrapped in bandages in the hospital, with Minato, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya beside him.
• Chiyue teased Nawaki about being blown up by an Explosive Tag, and Nawaki strained his injuries trying to argue back.
• Orochimaru blamed Jiraiya for suggesting that Nawaki and Minato collect bodies on the battlefield, while Nawaki defended Jiraiya.
• Nawaki asked Chiyue about being a Jonin Instructor, and Chiyue said he mostly waited for others to complete missions because his squad members’ clans handled their training.
• Jiraiya asked Chiyue what he would do about the squad’s civilian-born member.

Chiyue discussed Masumi’s attitude and his limited responsibility as a squad captain while Jiraiya offered to guide the boy. After Orochimaru challenged Jiraiya over Chiyue’s treatment by Konoha’s leadership, Chiyue scolded Nawaki for risking his life to save someone.

• Chiyue said Masumi needed to correct his desire for approval from Uchiha Ryoi and Hinata Suzune, but insisted that Masumi’s growth was his own responsibility.
• Jiraiya offered to talk to Masumi, but Minato ushered him out so he and Chiyue could speak privately.
• Orochimaru told Jiraiya that he had helped keep Chiyue from earning battlefield merit, and Jiraiya admitted misleading Nawaki and Minato but denied helping suppress Chiyue.
• Jiraiya struck a tree and wondered why Konoha’s leaders wanted to turn Chiyue into another Kagami Uchiha.
• Chiyue tugged Nawaki’s ear and reprimanded him for risking his life instead of using ninjutsu to save someone, while Minato watched.

Chiyue reunited with Minato and the injured Nawaki, who lamented that Chiyue had been kept in the village as a Jonin Instructor. After teasing Nawaki with a mild hot pot meal, Chiyue and Minato left the hospital, with Minato still troubled by how their ideals differed from Jiraiya’s.

• Chiyue let Nawaki go after he raised his hands in surrender, and Nawaki and Minato told him they had expected him to join them at the front lines.
• Chiyue explained that he would have been kept in the village even without the Uchiha Clan and said he did not mind being a Jonin Instructor.
• Nawaki said he would apply for the Special Jonin exam after recovering, and Minato pointed out that Nawaki’s age made his application more likely to be accepted.
• Minato and Chiyue agreed to eat hot pot, then ordered a rice porridge version for Nawaki, who could not eat spicy food while recovering.
• Chiyue and Minato left the hospital, and Minato admitted he felt hurt by Chiyue being held back and Jiraiya sending him to the front lines.
• Chiyue said he did not blame Jiraiya, though their ideals clashed because Jiraiya sought peace through saviors while Chiyue was a pragmatist.

Chiyue told Minato that changing Konoha required a new Hokage, then dismissed Minato’s hopes of becoming one. The next morning, Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto brought supplements for Nawaki, including kidneys that made everyone laugh.

• Minato asked Chiyue whether Konoha’s situation could change, and Chiyue said a new Hokage might bring change.
• Minato began to suggest that he could become Hokage, but Chiyue told him he had no hope and sent him to bed.
• Chiyue considered Tsunade the likely Fourth Hokage because of her prestige, while Orochimaru showed signs of turning dark.
• Kushina and Uchiha Mikoto arrived at Chiyue’s house with gifts for Nawaki, and Kushina scolded Chiyue for eating hotpot in the hospital.
• Chiyue found pigeon meat and kidneys among the supplements, and he, Minato, and Uchiha Mikoto laughed at Kushina’s purchase.

Chiyue and his friends visited Nawaki in the hospital, where Kushina scolded him for risking his life and Minato and Chiyue left him to endure it. Chiyue invited Minato to join his team on a mission through the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron, and Minato agreed to report their plans to the Hokage.

• Minato prepared the ingredients while Chiyue cooked a meal, and Kushina learned that the butcher had made an improper joke about the kidneys.
• Chiyue, Minato, Kushina, and Uchiha Mikoto brought food to Nawaki at the hospital, where he eagerly ate the restorative meal.
• Kushina lectured Nawaki about risking his life to save someone, while Chiyue and Minato left the ward and laughed at his silent pleas for help.
• Chiyue told Minato he planned to take his students through the Land of Rain and then the Land of Iron so they could experience the realities of war.
• Chiyue invited Minato to come along, and Minato agreed to pick up a mission while Chiyue explained the plan to the Hokage.

Chiyue examined a high-paying escort mission to the Land of Iron and recognized the danger of encountering Hanzō, so he left without accepting it. Meanwhile, Danzo met Hanzō in the Land of Iron and claimed he had come to discuss cooperation, but Hanzō mocked his explanation.

• Chiyue reviewed an A-Rank escort mission carrying food and medicine to the Land of Iron and learned it could become an S-Rank mission if Amegakure attacked.
• Chiyue realized the mission had gone unaccepted because its team might encounter Hanzō, and he left without taking it.
• Danzo met Hanzō on a battlefield in the Land of Iron, bringing nearly all of Root while Hanzō approached alone.
• Hanzō mocked Danzo's injuries and demanded to know why he had come.
• Danzo said he wanted to discuss cooperation and insisted the village's mission had nothing to do with his personal visit, but Hanzō did not believe him.

Hanzō rejected Danzo’s attempt to negotiate over the Land of Iron and nearly killed him after Danzo threatened Konoha’s power. Danzo escaped to Konoha, where the Third Hokage and the other leaders considered how to respond despite Konoha’s ongoing war with Sunagakure.

• Hanzō refused to cooperate with Danzo and insisted that the war in the Land of Iron concerned only the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron.
• Danzo threatened Hanzō with Konoha’s enmity, and Hanzō responded with killing intent as Root ninja moved to protect Danzo.
• Hanzō attacked the Root ninja, who suffered heavy casualties while buying time for Danzo to escape.
• Danzo returned to Konoha and told the Third Hokage that Hanzō had refused to negotiate and ignored Konoha’s threats.
• Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura joined the Third Hokage and Danzo, but the leaders recognized that Konoha could not start another war while fighting Sunagakure.

The Third Hokage and his advisers debated how to keep Hanzō from joining Sunagakure and decided Yagami Chiyue might be the best person to contact him. Danzo secured Chakra Metal and equipment from Koharu and Mitokado Homura, while Minato got approval to travel with Chiyue’s team; the Third Hokage then summoned Chiyue to his office.

• The Third Hokage rejected recalling Hatake Sakumo from the Land of Rivers battlefield, and Danzo proposed sending Yagami Chiyue to negotiate with Hanzō instead.
• Koharu and Mitokado Homura hesitated to give Danzo more Chakra Metal, but he pressured them into having their clans contribute supplies for Root.
• Minato asked the Third Hokage for permission to travel with Chiyue’s team to the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron, and the Hokage approved while requesting Chiyue’s presence.
• Minato told Chiyue that the Third Hokage wanted to discuss something with him, but he did not know why.

Chiyue rejected the Third Hokage’s mission and accused him of failing to trust and support him. He stormed out declaring he would retire from the village, then asked Minato to write his retirement application.

• Chiyue went to the Hokage’s office after Minato said the Third Hokage had a special mission for him.
• The Third Hokage asked Chiyue to accept a mission, but Chiyue refused before hearing its details because he suspected it involved Hanzō.
• Chiyue angrily listed his service to the village and challenged the Third Hokage’s suggestion that he was unwilling to serve.
• Chiyue said he was being targeted because of the Uchiha Clan and declared he would retire and give up his ninja status.
• Chiyue left the office, then asked a bewildered Minato to help write his retirement application.

Chiyue forced Minato to write a retirement application, then told his students and the Hyuga family that he was quitting because the village leadership kept targeting him over his Uchiha blood. Minato set out to find Jiraiya and seek help, but Orochimaru only knew that Jiraiya was probably visiting a place where children were not allowed.

• Chiyue made Minato write a retirement application and hoped the news would spread through the village and beyond.
• Chiyue told Masumi that he would retire and that Naruto would appoint a new Jonin Instructor.
• Chiyue told Suzune that he was tired of earning merit only to be targeted, and advised her to keep training.
• Suzune told the Hyuga Great Elder that Chiyue was retiring because of the village's treatment of him, and the elder feared they had driven away a valuable village genius.
• Minato searched for Jiraiya, then found Orochimaru teaching Nawaki in the hospital and urgently asked where Jiraiya was.

Minato told Nawaki and Orochimaru that Chiyue had become so disappointed with the Third Hokage’s criticism that he wanted to retire, prompting Orochimaru and Jiraiya to confront the Hokage. Orochimaru exposed the real cause of Hanzō’s resentment, leaving Jiraiya to challenge the Hokage over assigning Chiyue a mission he had already refused.

• Minato told Nawaki that Chiyue wanted to retire after the Third Hokage questioned his willingness to serve the village.
• Orochimaru promised to ask the Third Hokage what happened and sent Tsunade a message before heading to the Hokage’s Office Building.
• Orochimaru told Jiraiya that the village’s leaders could turn against their own, and Jiraiya joined him in confronting the Third Hokage.
• The Third Hokage claimed Chiyue’s mission was to negotiate with Hanzō, while Jiraiya objected to making Chiyue handle negotiations that Danzo had failed to resolve.
• Orochimaru revealed that Hanzō’s resentment stemmed from Konoha sending no representative of equivalent status after the war, and Jiraiya accused the Third Hokage of using Hanzō as an excuse to pressure Chiyue.

Jiraiya left the Hokage's Office after the Third Hokage refused to change his decision about Chiyue, while public speculation spread that Chiyue had been forced to retire. As the Third Hokage prepared to calm the rumors, Cast Iron revealed that the Hokage's Chakra weapon could not be forged because its materials were missing, alarming the elders.

• Jiraiya left the Hokage's Office, saying Tsunade could take up the matter and asking the Third Hokage to protect him if anyone came after him.
• News of Chiyue's retirement spread through Konoha, prompting people to speculate about the Hokage's Office and focus suspicion on the Uchiha Clan.
• Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura confronted the Third Hokage over rumors that the Elder Council had forced Chiyue to retire, and he said he would issue an explanation.
• The Third Hokage asked Cast Iron about the Chakra weapon, and Cast Iron reported that its mold was ready but the materials were unavailable.
• Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura reacted in alarm when the Third Hokage questioned the missing Chakra Metal.

The Third Hokage discovered that Chakra Metal had disappeared from the village stores and learned that Danzo had taken it without permission. Danzo admitted he intended to give it to Orochimaru, leaving Hiruzen furious over the unauthorized transfer and the missing materials.

• Cast Iron told the Third Hokage that the logistics department had no Chakra Metal available for forging a weapon.
• The Third Hokage questioned Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, who blamed Danzo for taking the supplies.
• The Third Hokage summoned Danzo to the Hokage's Office while Koharu and Homura resolved to protect themselves.
• Danzo arrived and complained about Root's losses and the clans' refusal to send recruits.
• The Third Hokage demanded an explanation for the missing Chakra Metal, and Danzo admitted he had taken it.
• Danzo said he had intended to give the Chakra Metal to Orochimaru, but the Third Hokage pointed out that he had already arranged a weapon for Orochimaru to give Nawaki.