Chapter Summaries

Kagetsu demonstrated his newly awakened Yin Release Kekkei Genkai to Nara Shikaji, revealing powerful shadow control and the ability to animate stone. Shikaji brought him to meet the clan elders and warned him to have his body checked for signs of Kekkei Genkai Disease.

• Nara Shikaji doubted Kagetsu's claim that he had awakened a Yin Release Kekkei Genkai and asked him to demonstrate it.
• Kagetsu's shadow overpowered Shikaji's Shadow Secret Technique and forced control of his body, while Shikaji struggled to resist.
• Kagetsu explained that his Kekkei Genkai's Forced Control had limits based on an opponent's chakra, willpower, and nature transformation.
• Kagetsu used shadow branches to animate stone slabs into nimble arms, shocking Shikaji with the depth of his Yin Release.
• Nara Shikaji took Kagetsu to meet the clan elders and advised him to get his body examined for possible Kekkei Genkai Disease.

After Kagetsu awakened a new Kekkei Genkai, Nara Shikaji urged him to sharpen his combat skills amid rising tensions between countries. At the Training Ground, Kagetsu showed Anko and Shisui his living shadow and challenged Shisui to spar.

• Nara Shikaji told Kagetsu that border tensions, especially Sunagakure's unusual moves, might lead to conflict and urged him to train.
• Anko and Shisui were surprised to find Kagetsu training at the Training Ground.
• Kagetsu used a black shadow to grip Anko's finger without hand seals, and Shisui sensed an unfamiliar quality in Kagetsu's Chakra.
• Kagetsu revealed that he had completed his technique and showed them the living shadow beneath his feet.
• Kagetsu invited Shisui to spar, and Shisui eagerly agreed while Anko wondered why Kagetsu was challenging him.

Kagetsu fought Shisui in the Training Ground while keeping his eyes closed, using his shadow to counter Shisui’s attacks and protect himself. Kagetsu ultimately immobilized Shisui and held a kunai to his throat.

• Anko cleared space for Kagetsu and Shisui to spar.
• Shisui attacked with ricocheting kunai, but Kagetsu’s shadow caught them and hurled them back.
• Shisui combined Fireball Jutsu with Fire Release: Hosenka Tsumabeni, but Kagetsu’s shadow blocked the attacks and stopped Shisui’s close-range strike.
• Shisui tested Kagetsu’s shadow with further attacks and learned it could defend against both physical strikes and ninjutsu.
• Kagetsu trapped Shisui’s feet with an earthen hand, bound him with black lines, and pressed a kunai to his throat.

After defeating Shisui in their spar, Kagetsu revealed that he had awakened a Kekkei Genkai, which he claimed had developed through his work with Orochimaru. The chapter left Kagetsu contemplating his Shadow Release and sensing that his shadow possessed a will of its own.

• Shisui admitted defeat, and Anko questioned Kagetsu about how he had become so strong.
• Shisui suspected Kagetsu's shadow ability was a Kekkei Genkai, and Kagetsu confirmed it to him and Anko.
• Anko and Shisui wondered whether Kagetsu's Kekkei Genkai could make the Nara Clan a Kekkei Genkai Clan.
• Shisui congratulated Kagetsu after Kagetsu said Orochimaru's experiments had inspired his awakening.
• Kagetsu stayed at the Training Ground and considered how to develop Shadow Release, sensing that his shadow had a will of its own.

With the Third Kazekage still missing, Chiyo learned that the Third Raikage was leading a major Kumogakure mobilization against Sunagakure. She ordered the village to prepare for war and declared that the ninja who earned the greatest merit would become the Fourth Kazekage.

• An Anbu delivered intelligence that Kumogakure was mobilizing its forces and that the Third Raikage would lead the assault.
• Rasa and Pakura volunteered to lead reinforcements and face the Raikage as Sunagakure's leading candidates for Kazekage.
• Chiyo ordered Sunagakure to gather funding and troops, prepare for war, and ask Konoha to send one of the Sannin for support.

Orochimaru assigned Kagetsu, Anko, and Shisui a B-rank intelligence mission, with Minato leading them toward the battlefield before splitting off with two Jonin. The three continued on their own to investigate Grass Country and Rain Country, though the mission scroll gave them few specifics.

• Orochimaru handed Kagetsu the mission scroll and introduced Minato as the team’s leader.
• Minato joined Akimichi Todo and Inuzuka Gaku, then explained that the team would support Sunagakure by gathering intelligence behind the lines.
• Minato, Todo, and Gaku escorted Kagetsu, Anko, and Shisui for a day and a half before splitting off near the battlefield.
• Kagetsu read the vague mission instructions and decided they needed to infiltrate Grass Country and Rain Country to learn their positions.
• Shisui explained that other teams, including Anbu, were likely gathering intelligence separately.

Kagetsu, Shisui, and Anko ambushed a squad of Cloud Ninjas in the forest. By the end of the encounter, Shisui had killed the squad, using genjutsu and Kagetsu’s shadow technique to turn their leader against his own men.

• Kagetsu received a warning from a black bird and signaled Shisui and Anko to hide as a Cloud Ninja squad approached.
• The Cloud Ninja leader attacked Kagetsu with a Lightning Clone, but Kagetsu emerged from a shadow and stabbed his ankle before the leader unleashed Lightning Ball.
• Shisui and Anko launched a coordinated attack, and Shisui used his Sharingan genjutsu to kill the Cloud sensor ninja.
• The Cloud Ninja leader struck at Shisui, but hit a genjutsu illusion and was trapped by Kagetsu’s shadow technique.
• Kagetsu’s technique forced the leader to kill the two remaining Cloud Ninjas, and Shisui finished off the leader.

Kagetsu, Anko, and Shisui took shelter from the rain after fighting through several Kumogakure squads, and Shisui shared intelligence about the Raikage’s stalled campaign and Kumogakure’s need for supplies. They concluded that the Land of Fire’s border posts were likely under attack and rested before more battles, with Kagetsu sensing something as he opened his Status Panel.

• Anko worried that Kumogakure pursuers might track them, and Kagetsu urged the group to avoid further battles after they crossed out of the Land of Fire.
• Shisui reported that Rasa had halted the Raikage’s advance and that Kumogakure teams were searching for food and supplies.
• Kagetsu reasoned that Kumogakure would target the Land of Fire for provisions because the Rain Country had little food to spare.
• Shisui identified two young Jonin close to the Raikage as leaders of the invasion into the Land of Fire, and Kagetsu suspected A and B.
• Kagetsu distributed combat supplies and told Anko and Shisui to recover; Shisui took first watch as Kagetsu opened his Status Panel.

Kagetsu reflected on how his Shadow Release let him use Shadow Puppet in new ways, while the Cloud Shinobi struggled against the Yellow Flash and Rasa. Kagetsu, Shisui, and their companion were then confronted by a powerful kunoichi who attacked them with blue fireballs.

• Kagetsu used his Shadow Release to set a concealed shadow trap for Shisui during their sparring, but Shisui had since learned more about the technique.
• A learned that Roi's squad had gone missing, and Dodai explained that Yugito had gone after them while the Cloud Shinobi sought a way to stop the Yellow Flash.
• Dodai told A that Rasa's gold-dust attacks had stalled the Cloud Shinobi and even restricted the Third Raikage's movements.
• Kagetsu sensed six enemies ahead, including one with powerful Chakra, and Shisui blocked their incoming blue fireballs with Water Formation Wall.
• A slender kunoichi landed before Kagetsu, Shisui, and their companion and called them little rats.

Kagetsu, Shisui, and Anko faced three Kumogakure Jonin, including the Jinchuriki Yugito, and Kagetsu took control of the First Hokage’s body to cover their retreat. He blocked the pursuers with Wood Release as Shisui and Anko carried his unconscious body away.

• Shisui confronted Yugito but discovered she was a Jinchuriki when she quickly broke his Genjutsu.
• Anko summoned a giant snake, but Yugito’s blue flames burned it until it was nearly dead.
• Kagetsu released the First Hokage’s body from a scroll and used the Shadow Puppet Technique to take control of it.
• Kagetsu ordered Shisui and Anko to retreat with his unconscious body while he stayed behind to delay the Cloud Shinobi.
• Yugito pursued them, but Kagetsu used Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence to block her path.

Kaisan I and the Cloud Shinobi were trapped in a regenerating Wood Release forest, where Yugito fought to clear a path. With their escape failing and their comrades captured, Yugito released the Two-Tails and began forming a mass of condensed Chakra.

• A Wood Release forest sprang up around Kaisan I and five Cloud Shinobi, and its branches captured two of them.
• Kaisan I blasted through the trees with Lightning Release: False Darkness, but the forest quickly regenerated.
• Yugito used blue flames and explosions to clear a path, while the forest grew more crowded and captured another Cloud Shinobi.
• Kaisan I offered to draw the forest's attention so Yugito could escape, but Yugito refused and said they should find and defeat the caster.
• Yugito transformed into the Two-Tails, and a black mass of condensed Chakra formed in its mouth.

Kagetsu stayed behind to restrain the rampaging Two-Tails while Shisui carried him away from the Cloud Shinobi. After subduing Yugito and sealing some of the Two-Tails’ Chakra inside his unstable clone, Kagetsu escaped, leaving Kaisan I to protect her.

• Shisui saw a pillar of light explode in the sky but continued carrying the unconscious Kagetsu away.
• Kaisan I recognized that Yugito had lost control and ordered a companion to report that Konoha had another Wood Release ninja.
• Kagetsu used Wood Release: Adamantine Imprisonment to trap the Two-Tails and struck it with the Dark Walking Technique.
• Kagetsu extracted some of the Two-Tails’ Chakra and sealed it inside his unstable clone as Yugito regained consciousness.
• Kagetsu fled, and Kaisan I chose to protect the weakened Yugito instead of pursuing him.

After recovering from the technique that helped his team survive Cloud Shinobi, Kagetsu confirmed to Namikaze Minato that he had used Wood Release and recounted the battle. He discovered that his technique had also extracted a portion of the Two-Tailed Matatabi’s consciousness along with its Chakra.

• Kagetsu woke while Shisui carried him toward a border defense station, and Anko complained that their mission had been far more dangerous than its B-rank classification suggested.
• Kagetsu returned to camp and slept for three days as his depleted mental energy recovered.
• Shisui told Kagetsu that the mission intelligence had been reported to Namikaze Minato, who then questioned Kagetsu about his Wood Release and the battle with Cloud Shinobi.
• Kagetsu recounted the battle and said the body that had used Wood Release had collapsed; Minato reinforced Kagetsu’s seal and told him not to repeat the risky technique.
• Kagetsu inspected the seal on his abdomen and entered his inner consciousness, where he found an extracted portion of the Two-Tailed Matatabi that had lost some of its Chakra permanently.

Kagetsu spoke with the split fragment of Matatabi and offered it freedom in exchange for cooperation with his research, then examined a status panel revealing his unstable Wood Release artificial body. In Konoha, Orochimaru told the Hokage and others that Kagetsu had invented technology for creating clone bodies with Kekkei Genkai.

• Matatabi asked Kagetsu how he had split it, and he explained that he had used a sealing technique and Yin Release power.
• Kagetsu proposed that Matatabi cooperate with his research in exchange for a degree of freedom, but Matatabi drove him from its prison without answering.
• Kagetsu inspected a status panel describing an unstable artificial body made from First Hokage cells that could use Wood Release.
• Anko and Shisui arrived to see Kagetsu and brought him food.
• At a meeting in Konoha, Danzo demanded that Kagetsu be handed over to him, while Orochimaru rejected his claim that Kagetsu had awakened Wood Release.
• Orochimaru told Hiruzen and the others that Kagetsu had created technology to cultivate clone bodies with Kekkei Genkai from clan cells.

Namikaze Minato escorted Kagetsu, Shisui, and Anko back to Konoha, where the village leadership questioned Kagetsu about Wood Release and his artificial Kekkei Genkai technology. Kagetsu denied mastering Wood Release but said the unfinished technology could be replicated and improved with enough resources, and was not limited to Wood Release.

• Namikaze Minato explained that Kumogakure had been forced to abandon its plans to invade the Land of Fire and led Kagetsu, Shisui, and Anko back to Konoha.
• Minato brought the group straight to the Hokage Building, where the Hokage and Advisors heard his mission report before questioning Kagetsu.
• Shimura Danzō demanded that Kagetsu be handed over after claiming Root had found traces of Wood Release where Kagetsu fought, but the Third Hokage refused.
• Kagetsu denied mastering Wood Release and described his Kekkei Genkai Artificial Body technology as unfinished and impractical for now.
• Orochimaru argued that the technology required specialized knowledge and mocked Danzō's demand to seize it, while Danzō insisted the village should control its materials.
• Kagetsu told the Third Hokage that the technology could be replicated and improved with sufficient resources and was not limited to Wood Release.

Kagetsu asked the Third Hokage to establish a Kekkei Genkai database, but Hiruzen deferred the proposal as war approached. At the Technology Development Department, Shisui revealed he had awakened Three Tomoe and asked Orochimaru to prepare a Turning God Tree trial for him.

• Kagetsu proposed that Kekkei Genkai Shinobi and captured Kekkei Genkai Shinobi cooperate with the Technology Development Department to build a database, but the Third Hokage said the clans would need to discuss it at a Jonin Meeting.
• The Third Hokage rebuked Danzo for focusing on internal matters and directed him to attend to the battlefields and other villages.
• Namikaze Minato left to return home, while Orochimaru questioned Kagetsu about his Kekkei Genkai Artificial Body and praised his alternate path to Wood Release.
• Shisui asked Orochimaru to let him undergo the Turning God Tree trial and revealed that he had awakened Three Tomoe while fleeing Cloud Ninja.
• Orochimaru agreed to prepare the Awakening Ceremony if Shisui was familiar with his Three Tomoe power and had Fugaku's approval.

Kagetsu revealed to Orochimaru that he had split off a portion of the Two-Tails, making himself a Jinchuriki, and explained that he had spoken with it in his consciousness space. Orochimaru offered his Eight-Tails research and help mastering the Two-Tails in exchange for Kagetsu’s help perfecting his consciousness-splitting method.

• Kagetsu told Orochimaru he had become a Jinchuriki by cutting off a portion of the Two-Tails, and showed him the seal and the Two-Tails’ Chakra.
• Orochimaru learned that the separated portion carried the Two-Tails’ consciousness and that Kagetsu had met it in his consciousness space.
• Orochimaru summoned a sealed jar and revealed that it contained Chakra he had secretly taken from Blue B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki.
• Orochimaru offered Kagetsu his Eight-Tails research and help controlling the Two-Tails in return for Kagetsu helping him perfect his method of splitting consciousness.
• Kagetsu accepted Orochimaru’s proposal.

Orochimaru guided Kagetsu through a trial to draw on the Two-Tails’ Chakra, but the beast’s influence drove him toward losing control. Kagetsu’s mysterious shadow power restrained Matatabi and restored his will, leaving him able to use the Chakra more safely and speak to the beast.

• Orochimaru warned Kagetsu that Kumogakure excelled at befriending Tailed Beasts and advised him to suppress the Two-Tails with his will and sealing techniques.
• Kagetsu entered his inner world and drew on the Two-Tails’ Chakra, triggering a partial transformation and Matatabi’s invasion of his mind and body.
• Orochimaru prepared to stop Kagetsu when he appeared close to completing a Tailed Beast Transformation.
• A pitch-black shadow spread across Kagetsu and bound Matatabi, preventing it from controlling his body.
• Kagetsu regained his will, made the Two-Tails’ Chakra gentler and more controllable, and assured Matatabi that they did not need to be enemies.

Kagetsu gained control of the Two-Tails' leaked Chakra by using his Shadow Puppet Technique, though the beast still had not accepted him and the power would not replenish after being spent. Orochimaru tested Kagetsu's abilities, and his enhanced Fire Release and chakra cloak proved devastating.

• Cat Matatabi acknowledged Kagetsu's victory and let him freely use the Chakra she had leaked.
• Kagetsu explained to Orochimaru that he had used Shadow Puppet Technique to seize control of the Two-Tails' leaked Chakra, which remained an external, one-use source of power.
• Orochimaru challenged Kagetsu to demonstrate his abilities despite Kagetsu's injuries.
• Kagetsu's blue Great Fireball destroyed Orochimaru's Onefold Rashomon, and he unleashed a barrage of powerful Fire Release techniques.
• Kagetsu's chakra cloak melted three incoming Kunai into molten iron, leading Orochimaru to recognize how effectively it countered close-range fighters.

After the Trial Ground was destroyed, Kagetsu and Orochimaru discussed the First Hokage Cells experiment and the limits of the Kekkei Genkai Artificial Body. Kagetsu proposed developing a Chakra Amplification Device to give Konoha’s ninja extra Chakra in battle, and Orochimaru agreed to speak to his teacher about it.

• Orochimaru regretted that the Two-Tails they had fought was not real, while Kagetsu said the result was good enough.
• Orochimaru told Kagetsu that the Technology Development Department had been assigned a task involving the First Hokage Cells.
• Kagetsu explained that the Kekkei Genkai Artificial Body remained costly, unstable, and difficult to use, and suggested adapting it for Yamanaka Clan control.
• Kagetsu proposed using derivative technology to create a device that stored Chakra and returned it to a ninja when needed.
• Orochimaru recognized the device’s potential for war and said he would discuss it with his teacher.