Chapter Summaries

Soji endured Madara Uchiha’s assault until Madara’s borrowed youth began to fade, then recalled the Chakra stored in his Ice Clones. With Madara’s final attack closing in, Soji regained enough strength to counterattack and knocked him unconscious with Void Strike.

• Madara Uchiha’s strength and life force dwindled after hours of fighting, and his body began reverting to old age.
• Soji noticed Madara Uchiha’s decline and decided to activate his contingency rather than face Madara’s final attack without Chakra.
• Soji recalled his Ice Clones from Madara Uchiha’s hideout and Obito Uchiha’s Kamui Dimension, restoring some of his Chakra.
• Madara Uchiha charged at Soji and struck toward his chest as his youthful state rapidly faded.
• Soji caught Madara Uchiha’s fist, struck his chest with Void Strike, and left him unconscious.

Soji killed Madara Uchiha after an exhausting battle, sealed away his corpse and bloodstained snow, and returned to Madara’s lair to claim its treasures. The remaining White Zetsu fled underground before Soji could confront them, leaving him free to begin collecting the spoils.

• Soji struck frail Madara Uchiha through the chest with a Void Strike and believed he had killed him, unaware that Madara’s Sharingan briefly glimmered.
• Soji stored Madara Uchiha’s corpse and the bloodstained snow in a spatial Storage Scroll before heading back to Madara’s lair.
• Soji told a White Zetsu that he had killed Madara, then killed it with one punch when it refused to believe him.
• The remaining White Zetsu abruptly lost their expressions and fled underground using the Mayfly Technique while Soji watched with his Byakugan.
• Soji decided to leave the fleeing White Zetsu alone and focus on collecting the treasures in Madara’s lair.

Soji searched Madara Uchiha’s hideout and found valuable First Hokage Wood Release research, but most of the other scrolls were Uchiha Fire Style techniques or the Moon Eye Plan. He left with plans to give useful items to Uchiha Homura while feeling increasingly unlucky about his haul.

• Soji searched Madara Uchiha’s hideout with his Byakugan and gathered its portable contents, but found that Obito Uchiha had escaped with the White Zetsu.
• Soji discovered detailed research on the First Hokage’s Wood Release Cells and considered saving it for a future trade or using it to help Uchiha Homura awaken the Power of the Forest and All Things.
• Soji opened several scrolls of advanced Uchiha Fire Style techniques, which he could not use, and decided he would give them to Homura while beating him in between gifts.
• Uchiha Homura continued teaching Itachi Uchiha about the Uchiha Clan’s history as Itachi looked forward to his pregnant mother Mikoto Uchiha’s new baby.
• Soji opened the Moon Eye Plan scroll, dismissed it as worthless, and continued through Madara Uchiha’s collection with little hope of finding anything useful to himself.

Soji found Madara Uchiha’s records about the Hyuga Clan and concluded that they descended from Otsutsuki Hamura’s Main Family, which had fled the moon. The discovery strengthened Soji’s plans to visit the moon and claim the Giant Tenseigan, and he decided his own path to awakening the Tenseigan was sound.

• Soji examined Madara Uchiha’s Wood Style scrolls, considered transplanting Hashirama Senju’s cells, then chose to focus on developing his Ice Release and Yin Release instead.
• Soji read Madara Uchiha’s personal notes about Hashirama Senju, including their childhood contests, and set the embarrassing scroll aside.
• Soji found Madara Uchiha’s account of the Hyuga Clan and learned that Madara had discovered clues suggesting it was not native to the ninja world.
• Soji reasoned that the Hyuga Clan descended from survivors of the Moon Otsutsuki Main Family, who had fled to the ninja world and established the Main House and Branch House system.
• Soji decided that he would visit the moon to deal with Otsutsuki Toneri and the Giant Tenseigan, which he hoped to control and use to awaken his own Tenseigan.

Soji discovered that Madara Uchiha had survived their battle by using Izanagi, undoing what Soji thought was a decisive victory. As the underground hideout collapsed, Soji stopped the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path from swallowing everything, but Madara reclaimed the Uchiha Flame Fan and a scroll about Hashirama Senju.

• Soji opened Madara Uchiha's final hidden scroll and discovered it recorded Izanagi.
• Soji checked Madara Uchiha's sealed corpse, then watched it vanish and realized Madara had rewritten reality with Izanagi to survive their battle.
• Soji regretted believing he had defeated Madara and felt guilty about the consequences for Minato, Obito, and Rin Nohara.
• The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path stirred and began sucking in the hideout's contents while the cavern shook.
• Soji froze the statue's mouth with Ice Release—Ice Breath, stopping it from swallowing the scrolls and White Zetsu corpses.
• The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path took the Uchiha Flame Fan and the scroll titled "A Few Things About Hashirama Senju," then vanished.

Madara Uchiha revived himself with Izanagi after Mizuki Ember killed him, then escaped with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and some of his belongings. Soji gathered the remaining White Zetsu corpses and scrolls and headed back to Konoha with Little Gold.

• Madara Uchiha revived at the battlefield, admitted his defeat to Mizuki Ember, and left with White Zetsu to find a new hideout.
• Madara Uchiha remotely controlled the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, recovered White Zetsu corpses, and seized the scroll related to Hashirama Senju and the Uchiha Flame Fan.
• Mizuki Ember froze the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's mouth, but Madara Uchiha summoned it and escaped with his recovered items.
• Soji found that Madara Uchiha had taken most of the White Zetsu corpses, gathered the remaining scrolls, and summoned Little Gold for help.
• Little Gold loaded the 168 remaining White Zetsu corpses, and it carried Soji and the scrolls toward Konoha under cover of night.

After returning to Konoha, Soji learned that a Kirigakure ninja had killed a Hyuga Main House heir and stolen his Byakugan. The Hyuga Clan gathered to discuss the incident, and Soji wondered what action they intended to take.

• The Golden Eagle asked Soji who Madara Uchiha was, so Soji spent the flight teaching it ninja history.
• Soji returned to the Hyuga compound, where a servant told him that Hyuga Ryusuke had called an urgent meeting.
• Soji joined the gathering of Main House members and Branch House jonin at the Clan Head's residence.
• Hyuga Ryusuke announced that a Kirigakure ninja had killed the Fifth Branch's next heir and taken one of his Byakugan.
• The First Elder identified the culprit as Ao, and Ryusuke explained that the heir had secretly left Konoha alone and encountered him.
• Soji asked why the clan had convened after the death and theft, as murmurs rose among the attendees.

Hyuga Ryusuke’s clan meeting debated whether Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka should die for failing to protect Fifth Elder’s son, who had secretly drugged them before leaving Konoha and was killed with one Byakugan taken. After a tied vote and Soji’s abstention, Ryusuke chose severe punishment instead of execution, but Soji abruptly objected.

• Fifth Elder demanded that Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka be executed, while Branch House members pleaded for their lives.
• Hizashi Hyuga and Hyuga Hiashi argued that the pair should be severely punished but spared, citing their newborn child, the clan’s strength, and Konoha’s likely reaction.
• Hyuga Ryusuke called for a vote among the Main House, which ended in a twelve-to-twelve tie between execution and severe punishment.
• Soji abstained, and Hyuga Ryusuke ruled that Chizuru and Kiyoka would receive severe punishment rather than execution.
• As the Branch House members celebrated the decision, Soji suddenly said that he objected.

At the Hyuga Clan meeting, Soji objected to both severe punishment and execution for Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka. He declared the couple innocent, leaving the Branch House jonin hopeful and the Main House members stunned.

• Soji objected after the clan announced its decision, confusing the elders and alarming the Branch House jonin.
• The Fifth Elder argued that Soji’s objection meant he supported executing Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka, but Soji denied supporting either punishment.
• Clan Head Hyuga Ryusuke asked Soji to explain his position, and Soji declared the couple innocent.
• The Branch House jonin reacted with gratitude and tears, believing Soji had offered them a third possibility beyond execution or severe punishment.

Hyuga Soji defended Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka as innocent, then struck Fifth Elder after he insulted Soji’s grandfather. Soji’s challenge to the Main House’s authority left the council silent, while Hyuga Ryusuke remained quiet and Chizuru and Kiyoka bowed to Soji in gratitude.

• Soji declared Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka not guilty, angering Fifth Elder, who demanded that someone be held responsible for his son’s death.
• After Fifth Elder insulted Soji’s deceased grandfather, Soji used the Body Flicker Technique to punch him into a wall and warned him not to speak of Hyuga Kumokawa.
• Second Elder and the other Main House members denounced Soji and called on Clan Head Hyuga Ryusuke to punish him, but Ryusuke remained silent.
• A Main House member renewed the demand to punish Chizuru and Kiyoka, and Soji challenged the idea that the Main House had to sacrifice Branch House members to show its authority.
• Hyuga Hiashi realized that declaring the couple innocent was the answer his father favored, while the Branch House members and the couple were deeply moved.
• Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka turned from Ryusuke and kowtowed to Soji, striking their foreheads hard enough to draw blood.

Soji offered to protect Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka, then demonstrated his strength by attacking the Hyuga Clan members who had allowed their punishment. He left the meeting hall with most of the clan’s blood collected, while Hyuga Ryusuke and Hyuga Hiashi remained untouched.

• Soji asked Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka to join him and promised to protect them.
• Soji knocked the Fifth Elder and Fourth Elder down, then beat every Main House member present except Hyuga Ryusuke and Hyuga Hiashi.
• Soji explained that he punished the Main House for its treatment of the Branch House and secretly collected the fallen members’ blood.
• Soji condemned the Branch House members for compromising on Chizuru and Kiyoka’s punishment, then struck each Branch House jonin, including Hizashi Hyuga.
• Soji noted that he had collected blood from most Hyuga Clan members and planned to ask Hyuga Ryusuke and Hyuga Hiashi for theirs later.

After defending Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka, Soji was appointed the Hyuga Clan’s Punishment Elder with broad support. He accepted the role and resolved to reform the clan from within before its Main House–Branch House conflict could lead to rebellion.

• Clan Head Hyuga Ryusuke admitted he had agreed with Soji but had failed to speak up, and the clan members recognized they had wrongly blamed Chizuru and Kiyoka.
• Hyuga Ryusuke prostrated himself and asked Soji to become the clan’s Punishment Elder, and Branch House jonin and most Main House members supported the appointment.
• Soji accepted the position and warned that he would punish anyone who harmed the clan or village, while promising not to punish people arbitrarily.
• Soji reflected that reform had to come from the Main House and cited the Moon Otsutsuki Clan’s destruction as a warning of what could happen if Branch House resentment turned into rebellion.
• Soji resolved to reform the Hyuga Clan so future Branch House members would have no reason to rebel against the Main House.

After becoming the Hyuga Clan’s Punishment Elder, Soji punished himself and then accepted Clan Head Hyuga Ryusuke and Young Clan Head Hyuga Hiashi’s requests to be punished as well. By doing so, he secretly collected the last Hyuga blood samples he needed, while the assembly ended with Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka declared innocent and appointed to help him.

• Soji struck himself to acknowledge that he had broken clan rules, convincing the Hyuga clansmen that he would treat everyone equally.
• Hyuga Ryusuke admitted his responsibility and asked Soji to punish him, and Hyuga Hiashi also volunteered; Soji struck both men and collected their blood with Ice Release.
• Soji celebrated completing his ten-year effort to collect blood from every Hyuga clan member and looked forward to researching the Tenseigan.
• Ryusuke declared Chizuru and Kiyoka innocent, then told them to follow Soji and assist with punishments.
• Soji appointed Chizuru and Kiyoka to help him enforce the clan’s rules, and the assembly ended without objections.

After becoming the Hyuga Clan’s Punishment Elder, Soji gained widespread support among the Branch House and returned to the village’s public eye, partly to strengthen Minato’s position as the future Fourth Hokage. He delegated minor clan disputes to his assistants and began researching Hyuga Gene Fluid, aiming to improve his abilities before the Nine-Tails Attack.

• Soji’s actions at the clan meeting spread through the Hyuga Clan and village, and politically astute observers interpreted his new position as support for Minato Namikaze.
• Branch House members flooded Soji with minor disputes because they admired him, so he handed those cases to Hyuga Chizuru and Hyuga Kiyoka and withdrew to his basement laboratory.
• Soji began studying blood samples from more than 1,600 Hyuga Clan members to develop Gene Fluid that could increase his bloodline purity and help him awaken the Tenseigan.
• Soji set a deadline of the first half of Konoha Year 48 to create the Gene Fluid, before the expected Nine-Tails Attack.
• Soji resolved to gain the Byakugan’s genjutsu ability, since genjutsu was his weakest area despite his unusually strong resistance to illusions.

Soji met Orochimaru in his courtyard and learned that Orochimaru had completed the defensive Chakra Armor he had commissioned. Soji paid for two sets and planned to send them to protect his fiancée and father-in-law in the Land of Snow.

• Soji sensed that someone had entered his home and guessed the hidden intruder was Orochimaru.
• Orochimaru emerged from a small yellow snake and reminded Soji about the Chakra Armor research.
• Orochimaru teased Soji before revealing that he had successfully completed the Chakra Armor.
• Orochimaru showed Soji two sets of armor that could withstand powerful attacks and adjust to fit different wearers.
• Soji paid Orochimaru two hundred million for the two sets to protect his relatives in the Land of Snow.

Orochimaru delivered the Chakra Armor and collected Soji’s payment, then revealed that he planned to leave Konoha. After Soji accepted his decision, Orochimaru invited him to leave the village together.

• Orochimaru swallowed the scrolls containing the Chakra Armor payment and stayed to speak with Soji.
• Soji realized Orochimaru was troubled about leaving Konoha but avoided pressing him about it.
• Orochimaru said he was preparing to leave Konoha, and Soji explained why he understood the decision.
• Orochimaru asked whether Soji wanted to leave Konoha with him.

Orochimaru asked Soji to defect from Konoha with him, but Soji refused because of his responsibilities and bonds in the village. Before Orochimaru left, Soji gave him a detailed topographical map of the Land of Fire to help him escape safely.

• Orochimaru invited Soji to leave Konoha with him, and Soji honestly explained that he could not abandon his clan and other bonds.
• Orochimaru accepted Soji's decision and said he hoped they would not become enemies after he left the village.
• Soji returned with a scroll and gave Orochimaru a copy of the Land of Fire Topographical Map he had made using his Byakugan.
• Orochimaru examined the detailed map and realized it would make his defection much safer, leaving him excited and more confident in his plan.

Soji received Orochimaru’s latest cell and gene research in exchange for the map scroll, then used the new techniques to accelerate his own genetic research. Three days later, Orochimaru staged his escape from Konoha after the Third Hokage discovered his human experiments, and became an S-rank rogue ninja.

• Orochimaru gave Soji his latest cell and gene research scrolls, and Soji eagerly accepted them despite their gastric fluid.
• Soji cleaned the scrolls, applied Orochimaru’s techniques in his underground laboratory, and estimated that he could finish his research within three months.
• The Third Hokage and the Anbu raided Orochimaru’s research base and found a missing genin dead on the operating table.
• Orochimaru knocked down the Anbu with a Wind Style ninjutsu and escaped after exchanging a silent look with the Third Hokage, who let him go.
• Orochimaru fled toward the Land of Fire’s borders and was listed by Konoha as an S-rank rogue ninja.

After Orochimaru vanished following his defection, Konoha’s leaders argued over whether the Third Hokage had helped him escape and agreed to investigate his associates. Jiraiya took responsibility for pursuing Orochimaru, while Root was assigned to eliminate his remaining supporters in the village.

• Danzo accused the Third Hokage of obstructing the pursuit after Anbu and Root failed to find Orochimaru.
• The Third Hokage, Danzo, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu agreed to investigate Orochimaru’s former associates, with the Third Hokage warning Danzo against using force.
• Jiraiya arrived and learned that Orochimaru had defected after being caught conducting human experiments.
• Jiraiya asked to pursue Orochimaru alone, and the Third Hokage approved his request.
• The leaders assigned Jiraiya to pursue Orochimaru and Root to clear out his remaining supporters in the village.

After Orochimaru defected, Danzo’s purge of his former associates made Konoha uneasy, but Soji focused on his research until Danzo arrived at his home with Root. Soji confronted him at the gate, unaware that Danzo intended to recruit him into Root.

• Danzo led Root in purging Orochimaru’s former associates, while Soji continued researching the Hyuga Clan Gene Fluid and sent Orochimaru’s Chakra Armor to the Land of Snow.
• On the seventh day after Orochimaru’s defection, Hyuga Chizuru informed Soji that Danzo and Root had come to his residence seeking answers.
• Soji told Hyuga Chizuru to notify Hyuga Ryusuke, then went to meet Danzo.
• Hyuga Kiyoka blocked Danzo and Root at the gate and demanded a written order from the Hokage before allowing them in.
• Soji arrived and faced Danzo, who had targeted him for recruitment into Root because of the Byakugan’s value.