Chapter Summaries

Konoha's genin prepared for the Joint Chunin Exams as Naruto sought advice, Sasuke learned Naruto could use the Nine-Tails' power, and Neji defended Hinata and Hanabi from the Hyuga elders' Caged Bird plans. The first test began without Konoha's usual tricks.

• Naruto trained harder and rejected Deidara's offer of explosives, while Deidara encouraged him to believe in himself.
• Kaede warned Sasuke that Naruto could use the Nine-Tails' power and that Sasuke's Sharingan might not restrain him.
• Neji used Hinata's closeness to Naruto to stop the Hyuga elders from insisting she receive the Caged Bird, and promised to protect his sisters.
• Sakura, Rock Lee, and Karin formed a temporary team, while Might Guy encouraged them to aim high in the exams.
• Shikamaru explained that his team planned to withdraw after reaching the third round to keep the Ino-Shika-Cho clans' strength concealed.
• The Joint Chunin Exams' first test began without Konoha using its usual tricks.

Konoha’s first Chunin Exam test challenged examinees with impossible questions and escalating pressure, rewarding teams that stayed calm rather than those who could answer. Twenty-eight teams passed and learned they would next compete in a three-day survival test using wristbands that tracked their locations and vital signs.

• The examinees struggled with questions beyond their knowledge, and Shikamaru, Sasuke, and the One Heart Society concluded the test was assessing how they handled problems they could not solve.
• Proctors pressured the examinees by warning that one failure could disqualify an entire team, then removed those who protested; many Kumogakure ninjas were disqualified.
• The remaining examinees faced repeated time warnings, and Naruto woke near the end to find his paper blank.
• Konoha passed every team that kept all three members in the hall, leaving eighty-four examinees from twenty-eight teams for the second stage.
• Mitarashi Anko explained that the teams would survive for three days in a shrinking forest zone, while Konoha’s wristbands monitored vital signs, tracked locations, and could summon wearers out of danger.
• Ōnoki and A recognized the wristbands’ potential military use as Uchiha Toko presented them as a Konoha research result.

Uchiha Toko used the Chunin Exam summoning bracelets to collect participants’ DNA for Orochimaru, while teams began scavenging and choosing strategies in the arena. Sakura’s team encountered a Kumogakure squad, and their first battle began as Lee blocked an attack aimed at Karin.

• Ōnoki and A considered the bracelets’ strategic value, while genin from their villages began examining them and Anko explained how the bracelets formed temporary summoning contracts.
• Tōno Hōsuke delivered the collected DNA of non-Konoha participants to Kabuto Yakushi, who returned it to Orochimaru’s laboratory.
• Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji found supplies and headed toward the resource-rich center, while Shikamaru’s and Shino’s teams chose to conserve strength and wait for the activity zone to shrink.
• Uchiha Toko served food to the VIP guests, and A criticized Konoha’s fried chicken as the leaders watched the arena.
• Sakura’s team encountered three Kumogakure genin led by Kamui, and both teams prepared to fight.
• A Kumogakure genin attacked Karin with a lightning-wrapped kunai, but Lee blocked the strike with his weighted arm guards.

Rock Lee, Sakura, and Karin defeated the Kumogakure team through overwhelming taijutsu and sealing techniques, while the focus then shifted to Sasuke and Omoi contesting a powerful Chakra-metal blade. Sasuke gained the advantage by using an unusually powerful and precisely controlled Lightning Ball technique, leaving Omoi surrounded by pursuing spheres.

• Rock Lee opened the Third Gate and injured a Kumogakure ninja, while Sakura furiously battered another after he cut her hair.
• Karin's sealing formulas immobilized the Kumogakure fighters, and the wristbands summoned them out of the testing ground; Sakura's injured opponent was sent to Konoha Hospital.
• Sasuke, Omoi, and Kurotsuchi's teams met at a resource point where Sasuke and Omoi both wanted the Chakra-metal Ninja Blade.
• Naruto greeted Kurotsuchi, and Sasuke asked him to propose an alliance against the Kumogakure team; Kurotsuchi agreed but asked where Deidara was.
• Omoi rushed for the blade, but Sasuke intercepted him, and the two traded taijutsu before Omoi used Lightning Style: Earth Current.
• Sasuke countered with four powerful Lightning Balls, absorbing Omoi's attack with two and trapping him with the other two.

Sasuke defeated Omoi's team and recovered a Chakra short blade, then made a resource-backed alliance with Kurotsuchi to influence which teams advanced. The VIPs watched the scheme unfold as Takagi Shoban defended Sasuke and mocked A over Kumogakure's defeat.

• Sasuke defeated Omoi's team with Lightning Style, and Omoi and his teammates escaped northwest under cover of the explosion.
• Sasuke chose not to pursue them and retrieved the Chakra short blade while Neji identified their escape route.
• Kurotsuchi proposed that Konoha and Iwagakure cooperate to decide which nine teams would advance, and Sasuke agreed to give Iwagakure three slots, Konoha four, Kirigakure one, and Amegakure one.
• Kurotsuchi's team gave Sasuke a metal staff, and Sasuke directed them to a nearby set of alloy ninja tools as Konoha's contribution before they finalized the alliance.
• Ōnoki excused Kurotsuchi's scheming, Uchiha Toko praised her initiative, and A criticized the alliance as Takagi Shoban retorted that Kumogakure's elite team had fled from Sasuke.

During the Chunin Exams, Shikamaru's team eliminated a Kirigakure team, while Raikage A learned that Konoha's clans were too well guarded to target and chose Konohamaru as a kidnapping target. The next morning, Sasuke summoned Shikamaru's team to help with a major plan.

• Takagi Shoban praised Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji after they trapped and eliminated a Kirigakure team near the shrinking zone.
• A secretly met with Kumogakure's spy chief, who reported that Konoha's Hyuga and Uzumaki families were too well protected to attack.
• A decided Kumogakure would abduct Konohamaru after the Chunin Exams, believing only one Special Jonin guarded him.
• Sasuke and Kurotsuchi finalized their cooperation and began contacting their teammates.
• Shikamaru received a scroll from Sasuke and told Ino and Choji to join him because Sasuke was planning something major.

Sasuke and Kurotsuchi gathered their allies and planned to seize control of the next Safe Zone, each secretly preparing to betray the other. Sasuke recruited a Kirigakure team and arranged a coordinated attack for the following day, while Kumogakure's teams also began regrouping.

• Sasuke and Kurotsuchi assembled their teams at a central resource point, shared survival supplies, and agreed to find Kirigakure and Amegakure teams to fill two remaining slots.
• Sasuke told his allies he intended to prevent Iwagakure from taking three advancement slots, and he directed Shikamaru to contact seven Konoha teams and prepare an ambush.
• Kurotsuchi warned her Iwagakure allies that Sasuke was likely planning to eliminate them from the exams, while the Kage discussed her assessment in the VIP room.
• Omoi's team began gathering the remaining Kumogakure teams, while Sasuke recruited a Kirigakure team whose members surrendered because they served under Fugaku's command.
• Sasuke reunited with Shikamaru's group, learned that seven teams were ready to attack from two directions, and told everyone to rest before the battle the next day.

Kumogakure's teams failed to cooperate after racial tensions split the genin, leaving Omoi's group unable to mount a united push. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Shikamaru organized their alliance's defenses around the newly refreshed Safe Zone.

• Omoi proposed that the seven Kumogakure teams cooperate to break through Konoha and Iwagakure's blockade, but the white teams refused to accept his command.
• The Kumogakure genin argued over racial discrimination and leadership, and the teams separated along racial lines when the Safe Zone refreshed.
• A and Ōnoki watched the conflict, while A recognized that racial division had spread through Kumogakure and that he had few ways to control it.
• Shikamaru reviewed the new Safe Zone and assigned guards to six passes while directing Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji to escort the ambush forces and provide support.
• Sasuke assigned the three Kirigakure genin to guard the area around Trap No. 4 and allowed them to retreat if they faced opponents they could not handle.

As the Safe Zone shrank, Shikamaru’s team lured nine Kumogakure ninja into a series of traps and prepared Naruto to finish them off. Naruto descended into the smoke with Nine-Tails Chakra and pinpointed the trapped opponents, leaving the battle poised to begin.

• Hinata spotted nine Kumogakure ninja approaching, and Shikamaru assigned the team positions around Trap Number Eight.
• Shino’s insects devoured the Kumogakure ninja’s Lightning Style techniques, and Kiba and Akamaru struck before drawing the pursuers toward the trap.
• Kiba used Shisui’s simplified Body Flicker Technique to split into six convincing figures while the Kumogakure ninja pursued him.
• Sakura remotely detonated Shikamaru’s sequence of Exploding Tags, trapping the nine Kumogakure ninja in repeated blasts.
• Naruto called on Nine-Tails Chakra, leaped into the smoke, and used Multiple Shadow Clone Technique to locate the trapped ninja.

Naruto and the Konoha team eliminated Kumogakure squads while Shikamaru tried to understand their divided attack. Sasuke defeated Omoi in a sword fight, but Kurotsuchi turned on him by trapping him in her quicklime cement.

• Naruto used Shadow Clones and Super Big Ball Rasengans to eliminate the first Kumogakure squad, then Shikamaru ordered the team to prepare for another attack.
• Neji reported four Kumogakure squads approaching the overlap between Konoha's and Iwagakure's defenses, and Sasuke suggested internal conflict had split their forces.
• Kurotsuchi caught members of two squads with Quicklime Congealing Technique, and Iwagakure's Earth Dragon Bullet sent the trapped ninja out of the arena.
• Sasuke agreed to fight Omoi while Kurotsuchi handled the remaining Kumogakure ninja, then defeated Omoi with a wire-assisted sword strike.
• Kurotsuchi declined Sasuke's request to take down the arena and began drawing the surrounding cement toward him.

Sasuke revealed that the Iwagakure forces had been fighting his Shadow Clone and joined Naruto, Neji, and the hidden Konoha squads for the final battle. Konoha and Iwagakure clashed across the field, and the chapter ended as their combined Fire Style and Earth Style attacks collided.

• Kurotsuchi trapped Sasuke with Lava Style cement and an ambush, but Sasuke's Shadow Clone vanished under the Iwagakure attack while his real body joined Naruto and Neji with Konoha reinforcements.
• Konoha and Iwagakure charged into battle, and Hinata warned the others as Iwagakure's Earth Style: Rock Iron Wolf Fang Formation erupted from the ground.
• Sasuke cut through the stone spikes, Neji and Hinata cracked the stone barriers, and Naruto engaged Kurotsuchi with his Wind Style-enhanced speed and attacks.
• Rock Lee was trapped and attacked underground, but Karin pulled him free with her Adamantine Sealing Chains, and Sakura treated his injuries while defending herself.
• Shikamaru's squads disrupted Iwagakure's assault teams and forced Kurotsuchi to order an early release of the Earth Dragon Bullet.
• Sarutobi Kōnosuke and two clansmen unleashed the Great Fire Dragon Jutsu, sending it to meet Iwagakure's Earth Dragon Bullet.

Sasuke used Lightning Style: Kirin to defeat the Iwagakure squad, and the surviving Konoha and Kirigakure teams finished the survival round. The nine advancing squads were transported to the successful examinees’ area, where Uchiha Toko discussed the next round with Takagi Shoban.

• Shikamaru had the Konoha squads withdraw as Sasuke gathered storm energy and prepared Lightning Style: Kirin.
• Sasuke unleashed Kirin, shattered the Iwagakure squad’s Earth Style defenses, and left the battlefield strewn with charred supplies.
• Shikamaru said his squad would withdraw, and Sasuke confirmed that the Kirigakure squad would advance as he had promised.
• Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji left the Safe Zone, and the remaining nine squads were transported after the survival examination ended.
• Takagi Shoban praised Konoha’s strength, and Uchiha Toko joked that the many Konoha finalists might discourage the Feudal Lords from attending the matches.

After the Chunin Exam, Uchiha Toko strengthened his cooperation with Nagato and brought Deidara into Akatsuki. When Konohamaru was reported kidnapped and Ebisu seriously injured, Toko suspected Kumogakure and set out to rescue him, with Konan and Deidara joining the pursuit.

• Ōnoki returned to Iwagakure, while A secretly arranged a kidnapping operation with Kumogakure's agents before departing Konoha.
• Uchiha Toko discussed Nagato's condition and a potential alliance, and Nagato tentatively accepted Toko's proposal for cooperation.
• Uchiha Toko introduced Deidara to Nagato, who accepted him into Akatsuki.
• Uchiha Inaho reported that Konohamaru was suspected of being kidnapped and that Ebisu had been seriously injured.
• Uchiha Toko ordered Kakashi to search Konoha and secure the borders, then set out with Konan to rescue Konohamaru.
• Deidara prepared to follow after picking up Naruto and the other two.

Uchiha Toko intercepted A and the Kumogakure force while pursuing Konohamaru, then battled the Raikage as Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, and Deidara moved to rescue the child. Toko defeated A and demanded that he choose between war and peace.

• Uchiha Toko and Konan caught up with A's Kumogakure group, and Toko confronted the Raikage over Konohamaru's kidnapping.
• Toko and A began fighting while Deidara carried Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji after the fleeing Kumogakure troops; Neji spotted Konohamaru bound in a sack.
• A used his enhanced Lightning Release speed against Toko, who countered with his Mangekyō Sharingan, lightning techniques, and Susanoo.
• A unleashed his forbidden Tiger Kill technique, but Toko struck the Chakra node in A's injured knee and overwhelmed him with Lightning Dragon Fang.
• A knelt in a charred crater as Toko asked whether he chose war or peace.

Kakashi tried to keep Sarutobi Hiruzen from rushing to rescue Konohamaru as Deidara, Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji attacked the Kumogakure force carrying him. The trio discovered the sack held a child spy instead of Konohamaru, and as Kumogakure closed in, Sasuke prepared to lead a breakout and capture prisoners to learn where Konohamaru was.

• Sarutobi Hiruzen worried over Konohamaru's kidnapping while Kakashi explained that Inuzuka Fu and Sumimaru were pursuing the kidnappers and that the Fifth had already gone after them.
• Deidara bombarded the Kumogakure delegation from the sky as Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji infiltrated its formation underground with Blue Snake.
• Sasuke and Neji fought the Kumogakure ninja while Naruto grabbed the sack from the jonin carrying it.
• Naruto opened the sack and was stabbed by a child spy, whom Sasuke killed with Purple Lightning after the boy called Naruto a demon fox.
• Sasuke, Naruto, and Neji formed a defensive line as Kumogakure's commander ordered his forces to kill them, and Sasuke planned to break north and capture prisoners to find Konohamaru.

Sasuke, Neji, and Naruto fought their way through a Kumogakure ambush until Konoha reinforcements arrived and the battle expanded into a full-scale clash. As the Konoha clans joined forces, Naruto froze at the sight of the battlefield’s devastating carnage.

• Sasuke, Neji, and Naruto battled through Kumogakure’s lightning barrier, and Sasuke killed Asai to bring it down.
• Deidara’s explosives delayed the Kumogakure pursuers until Konoha reinforcements arrived from the northeast.
• Hyuga and Uchiha forces coordinated their assault and regrouped with Sasuke, Neji, and Naruto.
• Sasuke took command and led the combined unit toward the wider battle while Naruto stared in shock at the brutality around him.
• A Kumogakure Exploding Tag unit detonated beneath Konoha’s central force, killing twenty-three ninja and leaving Naruto trembling.

Naruto lost control after witnessing the battlefield's horrors, and Kurama took over to fight the Kumogakure forces. After Konoha defeated the enemy army, Uchiha Toko captured A and forced Konohamaru's kidnapper to reveal himself, then agreed to exchange A for Konohamaru.

• Naruto's despair triggered Kurama to take control of his body in the Five Tails state, and he tore through the Kumogakure ranks while Sasuke held back from using Genjutsu.
• Inuzuka Gaku and Aburame Shibi helped defeat the Kumogakure army, but Konoha still could not find Konohamaru and learned that more Kumogakure troops had reached the border.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen arrived and demanded to know where Konohamaru was, while the captured Kumogakure ninja refused to cooperate.
• Uchiha Toko arrived carrying the unconscious, badly wounded A and threatened to kill him unless the person hiding with Konohamaru came out.
• The kidnapper appeared with Konohamaru and threatened his life, and Uchiha Toko agreed to trade A for him.

Uchiha Toko negotiated Konohamaru’s release while refusing Kumogakure’s demands beyond exchanging him for the Raikage. After leaving Sasuke and Neji to help Naruto and oversee the battlefield cleanup, Toko led Konoha’s forces to the Land of Lightning border, where Kakashi faced Kumogakure’s Jinchuriki.

• Uchiha Toko struck down a Kumogakure prisoner who resisted capture, then refused the hostage-taker’s demand to escort all the prisoners home in exchange for Konohamaru.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen declared that Konoha’s children and shinobi were worth protecting, and Toko insisted that the village would not accept unlimited demands or fear war.
• The Kumogakure hostage-taker agreed to take the prisoners to the border, where negotiations over their exchange would continue after the Raikage returned home.
• Sasuke and Neji stayed behind to watch over Naruto, who had been shaken by the battlefield, and Toko assigned Sasuke the task of organizing the recovery of Konoha’s fallen.
• Uchiha Toko led Konoha’s army across the Land of Hot Water to the Land of Lightning border, where Kakashi’s forces faced Kumogakure’s troops and its Jinchuriki.

After witnessing the devastation of battle and failing to save a wounded Kumogakure ninja, Naruto questioned why people used Chakra to kill. Kurama admitted he had no answer, and Naruto returned to the village with Deidara, shaken by how casually Deidara spoke about killing enemies.

• Neji and Sasuke helped collect the dead after the battle while Naruto struggled to face the battlefield's carnage.
• Naruto tried to rescue a wounded Kumogakure ninja, but the man attacked him and Sasuke killed him before he could cause more harm.
• Naruto asked Kurama why Chakra had become a weapon, and Kurama said he did not know why humans kept turning it toward slaughter.
• Deidara took Naruto back to the village on his clay bird after Sasuke said Naruto was not in a good state.
• Naruto asked Deidara how many people he had killed, and Deidara dismissed the deaths as enemies who had become part of his art.

Uchiha Toko returned A to Kumogakure during a hostage exchange, then stopped the hostage-taker’s explosion and rescued Konohamaru. When Killer B attacked, Toko summoned Susanoo and struck at the Kumogakure army, leaving Gyuki and Matatabi badly injured as they shielded their forces.

• Uchiha Toko tossed A back to Killer B and Yugito Nii in exchange for Konohamaru.
• The Kumogakure hostage-taker activated an Exploding Tag, but Uchiha Toko sealed its blast and rescued Konohamaru, killing the man.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen checked Konohamaru and stood beside Uchiha Toko as the Konoha army’s morale rose.
• A’s right arm exploded while Kumogakure medical ninja treated him, prompting Killer B to transform into Gyuki and charge Uchiha Toko.
• Uchiha Toko summoned Susanoo and struck Gyuki down before announcing he had brought the confrontation to the border to show Kumogakure the consequences of provoking Konoha.
• Gyuki and Matatabi intercepted Uchiha Toko’s lightning blade attack, but both Tailed Beasts were badly struck and Matatabi reverted to Yugito Nii’s original form.