Chapter Summaries

Tang Ping took command of the ninja army at Kikyo Mountain, secured control over intelligence and logistics, and arranged a covert reconnaissance mission for Hinata Cang Yue. He then performed an enhancement surgery on Yamaa Koji, who completed the first stage of his Demi-God Form after absorbing two tanks of Nutrient Solution.

• Tang Ping ordered Mitarashi Shishio to join the reconnaissance squad and report Sunagakure's movements.
• Tang Ping told Nara Tabito to integrate village reinforcements and seek him a share of procurement authority, then completed the handover of command.
• Tang Ping assigned Hinata Cang Yue a covert reconnaissance mission and went with Yamaa Koji to Kikyo Mountain's hospital.
• Tang Ping used the Operating Room to perform an enhancement surgery on Yamaa Koji, integrating traits that strengthened his body and recovery.
• Yamaa Koji absorbed two tanks of Nutrient Solution over nearly a day, completing the evolution that gave him the beginnings of a Demi-God Form.

Tang Ping tested Yamaa Koji after his surgeries and found that his enhanced body could rival an Elite Jonin specializing in taijutsu, then planned his advancement through missions and the Eight Gates. The chapter ended with Hinata Cang Yue reporting that Sunagakure was secretly mobilizing to attack Kikyo Mountain.

• Yamaa Koji awoke feeling stronger after completing four surgeries, and Tang Ping questioned him to record the results.
• At the training ground, Yamaa Koji shattered a thick wooden stake with a punch that used no Chakra, and Tang Ping judged him comparable to an Elite Jonin specializing in taijutsu.
• Tang Ping told Yamaa Koji to complete missions, earn promotion to jonin, and seek the Eight Gates, while warning him to abandon dangerous missions when necessary.
• After Yamaa Koji left, Hinata Cang Yue hurried to Tang Ping and reported that Sunagakure was secretly gathering its forces to attack Kikyo Mountain.

Tang Ping learned that Sunagakure was preparing an early assault and tried to secure his position as commander-in-chief rather than risk being used and discarded by Konoha. Danzo took over command of the Southwest Shinobi Army, unaware that Sunagakure’s attack was imminent.

• Tang Ping realized that his earlier battle had helped trigger Sunagakure’s advance and told Hyuga Cang Yue to help Koji grind missions while he considered his options.
• Tang Ping asked Nara Tabito whether Konoha could appoint a permanent commander-in-chief within three days, then requested that his own temporary appointment be made official or given a set term.
• Nara Tabito relayed Tang Ping’s request to Konoha, where Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura objected to rewarding him, while Danzo denounced the Uchiha’s supposed ambition.
• Believing Sunagakure posed no immediate threat, Danzo asked to take command at Kikyo Mountain and soon replaced Tang Ping as Southwest Shinobi Army Commander.

Danzo arrived at Kikyo Mountain Fortress with reinforcements, took command of the Southwest Shinobi Army, and reassigned Tang Ping to the warehouse. He confronted Tang Ping over two missing bottles of Nutrient Solution, but the chapter ended before he could enjoy his new authority.

• Danzo arrived at Kikyo Mountain Fortress with several hundred reinforcements and took over as commander.
• Tang Ping met Kobayashi Hei and welcomed Danzo’s arrival because he expected Danzo to take the blame.
• Danzo assumed command, assigned Tang Ping to manage the warehouse, and stripped Nara Tabito of his aide’s authority.
• Danzo demanded that Tang Ping explain what he had done and accused him of taking two bottles of Nutrient Solution worth twenty million ryo.
• Tang Ping said he had accidentally broken the bottles, and Danzo ended the meeting after condemning him.

Danzo investigated reports of Sunagakure massing supplies and took command as its army prepared to attack Kikyo Mountain, while Tang Ping ignored his warehouse appointment and trained in Sage Mode. Konoha sent more reinforcements, including academy students and clan troops, as both villages prepared for a decisive battle.

• Mitarashi Shishio reported that Sunagakure was sending supplies to the front lines, and Danzo ordered more surveillance and asked Aburame Shikuroo to have the Wandering Shrine Maiden verify the intelligence.
• Tang Ping ignored his warehouse-manager post and fished near Kikyo Mountain while training his Sage Mode and waiting for Sunagakure to attack.
• Sunagakure assembled more than three thousand shinobi for the coming battle, leaving only some forces behind to maintain the occupied territory.
• Konoha dispatched a third wave of reinforcements, including ungraduated Ninja Academy students and private clan troops led by Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura.

Tang Ping met Kushina Uzumaki as she arrived at Kikyo Mountain to reinforce Konoha’s forces, then encountered her students, including Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. Kushina left to strengthen the fortress’s Sealing Barrier, while Tang Ping received a new mission.

• Tang Ping recognized Kushina Uzumaki as Konoha’s Jinchuriki and learned she had been sent to the battlefield amid threats from the Cloud and Kirigakure.
• Kushina affectionately greeted Tang Ping and promised to protect him from the Sunagakure ninja.
• Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin, and their unnamed teammate arrived, and Kushina introduced them as her students.
• Tang Ping told Obito to aim his first sword at the person he loved, leaving Obito confused and Rin silently unsettled.
• Nohara Rin explained that Koharu Elder had sent the squad to find Kushina so she could reinforce the Sealing Barrier.
• Kushina left with her students, and Tang Ping received a new mission.

Tang Ping led Squad 404 on a reconnaissance mission, discovered Sunagakure’s One-Tail Jinchuriki, and rescued the young Guren, whose Crystal Release marked her as a promising future subordinate. After returning to Kikyo Mountain, he clashed with Utatane Koharu at a war meeting as Konoha prepared for Sunagakure’s coming attack.

• Tang Ping gathered Yamaa Koji and Hinata Cang Yue and led Squad 404 to scout Sunagakure’s army, where they spotted the caged Bunpuku, the One-Tail Jinchuriki.
• Hinata Cang Yue detected someone in a burned village, and Tang Ping saved the wounded young Guren after recognizing her Crystal Release.
• Squad 404 left Guren at their laboratory in the Land of Rivers and returned to Kikyo Mountain, where they learned Sunagakure’s army would attack the next day.
• At a war meeting, Tang Ping traded insults with Utatane Koharu before Nara Shikaku outlined Konoha’s preparations for the attack.

Sunagakure and Iwagakure joined forces to attack Kikyo Mountain, while Tang Ping watched Konoha's defenses face a new threat. The battle began with Shukaku confronting Kushina Uzumaki as the two armies charged.

• Hinata Cang Yue spotted several hundred Iwagakure ninja among Sunagakure's forces, and they used a combined Earth Release technique to raise a ramp toward Kikyo Mountain.
• Tang Ping went to the command post, where Danzo ordered Konoha's ninja to bombard the ramp with Exploding Tags.
• Shukaku emerged from the Sunagakure formation and fired a Drill Air Bullet at Kikyo Mountain, but the fortress's Sealing Barrier absorbed it.
• Utatane Koharu approved sending Kushina Uzumaki to fight Shukaku, and she rushed from the fortress to confront the tailed beast.
• Kushina Uzumaki dodged Shukaku's attack and sent golden chains after it, while Sunagakure launched its formal assault.

Konoha and Sunagakure's forces clashed at Kikyo Mountain as Shukaku's attack forced Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze from the battlefield. Danzo ordered Tang Ping to restrain Shukaku, so Tang Ping summoned Taiyi to attack from the air.

• Konoha's forces fought Sunagakure and Iwagakure as Danzo engaged Rasa, Mitarashi Shishio confronted Explosion Release Hunter, and Nara Shikaku assigned forces to deal with Chiyo and Ebizo.
• Tang Ping clashed with Pakura while the battle spread across the field and Sunagakure pressed its numerical advantage.
• Shukaku fired a Tailed Beast Ball toward Kikyo Mountain, and Kushina Uzumaki deflected it before Minato Namikaze arrived and carried her away.
• Shukaku attacked the battlefield with Drill Air Bullets, and Danzo's message ordered Tang Ping to use his Summoning Beast to restrain him.
• Danzo summoned Baku, and Tang Ping summoned Taiyi, whose aerial fireballs and evasive flight drew Shukaku's attacks away from the nearby shinobi.

Tang Ping and Konoha’s forces fought Sunagakure at Kikyo Mountain, where Danzo lost a leg and Shukaku was temporarily incapacitated. Tang Ping withdrew after Taiyi’s devastating attack, leaving Pakura and the surviving fighters to face the next clash.

• Rasa trapped Danzo’s right leg with Gold Dust, broke it, and forced Danzo to cut it off and retreat toward Kikyo Mountain.
• After Danzo withdrew, Nara Shikaku directed Konoha’s fighters to handle Shukaku while the others held back Sunagakure’s forces.
• Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi restrained Shukaku long enough for Akimichi Choza to blast it into a crater with Super Push Palm.
• Tang Ping ordered Taiyi to unleash Sunset, which broke through Rasa’s Gold Dust and Chiyo’s shields and left Shukaku unable to fight.
• Tang Ping withdrew when Pakura blocked his path, while signal flares called Konoha’s defenders to tighten the fortress defenses.

Tang Ping forced Danzo to relinquish command of Konoha’s forces at Kikyo Mountain and secured the position for himself. He ended the chapter ready to lead the defense against Sunagakure under a clan-backed five-year agreement.

• Tang Ping arrived at the commander's office, laughed at Danzo's injuries, and challenged his record as commander.
• Tang Ping argued that Danzo's leadership would not save Kikyo Mountain and demanded that he give up the commander's position.
• Danzo agreed to relinquish command, hoping to shift responsibility for the looming defeat onto Tang Ping and the Uchiha Clan.
• Tang Ping offered to lead the defense in exchange for a five-year term and limited authority, and Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu accepted his conditions.
• Tang Ping officially took command, with the Advisor Elders and shinobi clans guaranteeing the agreement in their names.

Tang Ping took command of Konoha’s defense at Kikyo Mountain and rejected Shikaku’s plan to trade lives for time, instead choosing a costly counterattack. As the Sunagakure army reached the summit, Tang Ping’s forces prepared to begin the plan.

• Tang Ping ordered Danzo out of the commander’s seat, then heard Shikaku’s plan to delay the enemy using traps and barriers despite heavy Konoha casualties.
• Tang Ping proposed a counterattack, and Shikaku judged it feasible despite Koharu and Homura’s objections; Tang Ping put Shikaku in charge of carrying it out.
• Konoha’s forces retreated up Kikyo Mountain while traps inflicted heavy losses on the advancing Sunagakure and Iwagakure forces.
• Tang Ping assembled more than a thousand Konoha ninja at the summit and waited for the enemy along the only safe path up the mountain.
• The Sunagakure army reached the summit, and Tang Ping’s Crazy Counterattack Plan began as Obito watched from the rear.

Tang Ping used a massive cache of camouflaged Exploding Tags to destroy Kikyo Mountain and devastate Sunagakure’s army. As Konoha launched a counterattack, he prepared to face Rasa and Pakura alone.

• Rasa offered Tang Ping’s forces terms of surrender, but Tang Ping signaled the attack with “Explosion is art!!”
• Camouflaged Exploding Tags detonated across Kikyo Mountain, killing or disabling over a thousand Sunagakure ninja and wrecking the fortress.
• Rasa shielded his troops with gold dust while Pakura charged toward Tang Ping, who stopped Mitarashi Shishio from intervening.
• Rasa and Pakura focused on Tang Ping as Akimichi Choza led Konoha’s forces into the disorganized Sunagakure army.
• Tang Ping welcomed the coming fight, preparing to face Rasa and Pakura without holding back.

Tang Ping entered Sage Mode and fought Pakura and Rasa, revealing powerful flame control and the Sage Art: Flame Mantle. As the battle shifted in his favor, an unknown figure emerged from the ground behind him.

• Tang Ping entered Sage Mode with the help of the Hot Spring as Rasa and Pakura attacked him.
• Tang Ping caught and crushed Pakura’s Scorch Release fireball, then struck her and fought off both opponents with taijutsu.
• Tang Ping activated Sage Art: Flame Mantle and used a controllable Dark Thrust to pressure Rasa and Pakura.
• Pakura blasted Tang Ping away while Rasa coordinated an attack, and Nara Shikaku warned him as a figure appeared from the ground behind him.

Tang Ping killed Kari while fighting Rasa and Pakura, then revealed he had mastered Sage Mode. As the two Sunagakure Kage-level fighters prepared their ultimate attacks, Tang Ping unveiled his thirty-meter Sage Art: Zhurong True Body, leaving the battlefield stunned.

• Tang Ping sensed Kari’s Underground Submarine Technique, seized him, and killed him with Kotozuki: Yang while blocking the other attacks.
• Rasa recognized Tang Ping’s Sage Mode, and Tang Ping confirmed it.
• Pakura gathered six Scorch Release fireballs while Rasa shaped a massive golden cube for their final attack.
• Tang Ping formed Fire Armor Avatar and then expanded it into the thirty-meter Zhurong True Body clad in crimson armor.
• Ninja on both sides stared in shock as Tang Ping’s ultimate form appeared.

Tang Ping used his Sage Art to overwhelm Rasa and Pakura at Kikyo Mountain, establishing his authority over the Konoha army. Sunagakure retreated after rescuing its leaders, and the chapter left news of the battle spreading across the shinobi world.

• Tang Ping unveiled the Zhurong True Body and used the Sage Art: Ama-no-Murakumo Sword to split Pakura's fireball and Rasa's Gold Dust Cube, cutting into the mountain.
• Rasa and Pakura, exhausted and unable to continue fighting, refused to admit defeat as Tang Ping prepared to strike them.
• Ebizo sent a puppet to rescue Rasa and Pakura, then ordered the Sunagakure army to retreat while Tang Ping's Sage Art and Zhurong True Body dissipated.
• Tang Ping ordered Nara Shikaku and the Konoha jonin to avoid pursuing the enemy and to tend to the battlefield and wounded.
• The Konoha shinobi accepted Tang Ping's command, while intelligence about the battle at Kikyo Mountain began stirring reactions across the shinobi world.

After Sunagakure’s defeat, Ōnoki chose to keep supplying it while Kumogakure and Kirigakure prepared to attack Konoha. Hiruzen Sarutobi’s advisers rejected an immediate counterattack into the Land of Wind, but the meeting turned to driving Sunagakure out of the Land of Fire.

• Ōnoki refused to send troops to support Sunagakure but agreed to provide its promised supplies to keep the Southwest Shinobi Army occupied.
• The Third Raikage ordered Dodai to gather intelligence on Uchiha Tang Ping, then commanded Kumogakure’s army to invade the Land of Fire.
• Kirigakure ordered its forces, led by the Yuki Clan, to advance toward the Land of Fire’s southeastern border.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura debated Konoha’s response, and the advisers opposed Danzo’s proposal to invade the Land of Wind.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi proposed driving Sunagakure out of the Land of Fire, prompting a lively discussion about the occupied territory and Konoha’s funding.

Konoha’s leaders formed a new army under Sarutobi Shinnosuke to reclaim territory from Sunagakure, while Uchiha Tang Ping remained at Kikyo Mountain as the Southwest Army’s celebrated commander. The chapter ended with Honda Taka telling Tang Ping that someone from the village had arrived.

• Utatane Koharu invoked Utatane Noken’s death to secure the vanguard role for the Utatane Clan, and Hiruzen Sarutobi assigned the remaining forces to the major clans.
• Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura pushed for Sarutobi Shinnosuke to command the new army, while Danzo objected and resented the plan.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi approved a thousand-man army under Sarutobi Shinnosuke to drive out Sunagakure, leaving the original Southwest Shinobi Army stationed at Kikyo Mountain.
• Uchiha Tang Ping relaxed by the river while Nara Shikaku handled camp duties, as his title, Purification Flame, spread through the camp.
• Tang Ping pressured Honda Taka to praise the title by bringing up the Honda Trading Company’s supplier prospects, and Honda Taka then told him someone from the village had arrived.

Tang Ping received Konoha’s order to cooperate with a newly formed force, then used the meeting to secure a supplier for his ally and arrange to recruit talented orphans from abroad. The chapter ended with him establishing the Starting Point Orphanage in the Land of Rivers as a source of future shinobi.

• A messenger delivered Konoha’s order requiring Tang Ping and the Southwest Shinobi Army to cooperate with a new force, and Tang Ping handed responsibility for the matter to the other jonin.
• Nara Shikaku recognized that the new force would undermine the Southwest Shinobi Army, while the gathered jonin accepted the village’s order.
• Tang Ping asked Shikaku to add Honda Trading Company to the army’s supplier list, and Shikaku agreed.
• Tang Ping asked whether he could establish an orphanage in the Land of Fire, and Shikaku explained that only the village could do so.
• Tang Ping proposed using Konoha’s channels to find talented orphans abroad for drug-development experiments, and Shikaku said the village probably would not interfere.
• Tang Ping ordered Konoha to find one hundred talented orphans and send them to the Starting Point Orphanage in the Land of Rivers.

Tang Ping watched Konoha’s new thousand-man army arrive at Kikyo Mountain and considered the threat posed by Sunagakure. When Sarutobi Shinnosuke and the other representatives came to meet him, Tang Ping took offense at Shinnosuke’s refusal to call him “sir.”

• Tang Ping gave Yamaa Koji a scroll containing the Eight Gates and anticipated a renewed fight against Pakura and Rasa.
• Konoha’s newly assembled thousand-man ninja army reached Kikyo Mountain, where Tang Ping judged the clan forces elite but untested in battle.
• Hinata Cang Yue returned from the Land of Rivers after her Tenseigan’s second fetal movement period and said she felt something on the moon calling to her.
• Nara Shikaku led Sarutobi Shinnosuke and representatives of the Utatane, Sarutobi, Mito, and Shimura Clans to meet Tang Ping.
• Sarutobi Shinnosuke addressed Tang Ping by his commander title rather than calling him “sir,” and Tang Ping sharply rebuked him.