Chapter Summaries

Danzo sent Ren to spread rumors against Minato, while Minato discovered that the Autumn Fruit Organization was being accused of aiding the Land of Wind. Minato and Saigawa investigated the high-yield rice fields and observed a Konoha spy passing intelligence to Wang.

• Danzo ordered Ren to smear Minato, and Orochimaru questioned his use of public opinion against Konoha's enemies.
• Minato celebrated the High-Yield Rice harvest in Liangju Town and received a chakra reward, but learned that the Seed Merchant Guild was under investigation for allegedly aiding the Land of Wind.
• Minato decided to investigate the accusation and traveled toward the Land of Wind with Saigawa, teaching him chakra techniques along the way.
• Minato and Saigawa found Sand ninjas guarding experimental High-Yield Rice fields near the River Country border.
• A Konoha spy in Sand Hidden Village hid a scroll for his ANBU contact, and Wang retrieved it while Minato watched from hiding.
• Minato woke Saigawa and followed Wang into the darkness.

Minato trained Saigawa during a fight with a Root operative, then discovered Orochimaru had joined Root and confronted him. Orochimaru challenged Minato to a direct fight and told him to activate Sage Mode.

• Ren attacked Minato and Saigawa, and Minato coached Saigawa through the fight.
• Ren wounded Saigawa with a hidden Senbon Needle, but Minato killed Ren and took the intelligence scroll.
• Minato treated Saigawa and stopped him from removing Ren's mask, then found no identifying features beneath it.
• Orochimaru appeared and revealed that Danzo had recruited unregistered people into Root to prevent their identities from being exposed.
• Orochimaru said Root had assigned him to lure Minato into a trap, but he preferred a direct fight to test Minato's senjutsu.
• Orochimaru offered to suspend the mission against Minato if Minato defeated him, then ordered him to activate Sage Mode.

Minato fought Orochimaru to demonstrate the difference between their methods of absorbing Natural Energy. After discovering how Orochimaru’s imperfect Cursed Seal made his body extraordinarily resilient, Minato ended the fight, and Orochimaru promised to stop Root’s smear campaign against him.

• Saigawa fled as Minato and Orochimaru prepared to fight, while Minato entered Sage Mode and Orochimaru used his Cursed Seal.
• Minato struck Orochimaru with a powerful punch that sent him crashing through several trees, but Orochimaru praised Minato’s strength and reflected on the damage his shortcuts had caused.
• Orochimaru charged Minato, who used Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique to sever Orochimaru’s limbs and wound his torso; Orochimaru regenerated with the Great Serpent Substitution Technique.
• Minato and Orochimaru fought with taijutsu, and Minato realized Orochimaru’s Natural Energy-enhanced body could recover from severe injuries and made taijutsu ineffective.
• Minato stopped the fight, and Orochimaru promised to end Root’s smear campaign against him before sinking into the ground.

Orochimaru rejected Danzo’s interference as he pursued immortality through Natural Energy. Minato protected the Autumn Fruit Organization’s seeds from a Kyoto seizure, and the South Guard General decided to cooperate with the organization after the attempt to undermine it failed.

• Aburame Ryūma delivered Danzo’s message, but Orochimaru told him to say that he would share research with Danzo only and wanted no unnecessary interference.
• Kyoto officials led by Sa Hyōe no suke moved to confiscate the Autumn Fruit Seed Merchant Guild’s High-Yield Seeds in Liangju Town.
• Minato Namikaze, Akimichi Jirokuma, and Saigawa stopped the seizure, and Minato killed samurai spies while declaring the seeds would not go to Kyoto.
• Minato gave Sa Hyōe no suke an order clearing the merchant guild and told him to warn the South Guard General that the Autumn Fruit Organization and Cicada of Summer Organization had his backing.
• After hearing that the effort against the Autumn Fruit Organization had failed, the South Guard General ordered his people to cooperate with it and plant High-Yield Rice next year.
• The Autumn Fruit Trading Company sent sales teams and ox carts loaded with High-Yield Seeds toward Peace Guard Road and Hawk Guard Road.

Minato learned that Konoha had recalled him from Kyoto to undertake an S-Rank intelligence mission in the Land of Water, where the village had lost contact with its agents. Before he left, Senju Takeoto explained that she could not provide the Book of Sealing but gave him access to the Second Hokage’s research notes.

• Autumn Fruit expanded along the guard roads, and Minato’s merchant guilds, academy enrollment, and seed sales brought his chakra total to 1,151 units by the end of his twelfth year.
• Qian Kong summoned Minato to the Advisory Building, where Senju Takeoto showed him an S-Rank mission scroll and explained that Konoha needed someone to investigate the Land of Water after its intelligence network there collapsed.
• Takeoto told Minato that Konoha had considered sending Orochimaru or Jiraiya, but Orochimaru refused and Jiraiya could not be found; the village also chose not to send Hatake Sakumo.
• Minato realized the mission meant he would be recalled from Kyoto, but told Takeoto he would complete it and spend as much free time in Kyoto as possible.
• Minato asked Takeoto about forbidden techniques and the Book of Sealing, and she explained that the Senju Clan had no copy and that its forbidden-technique inheritance had been lost at the Battle of Uzushio.
• Takeoto gave Minato a scroll granting him access to the Second Hokage’s research notes at the Senju Clan Grounds, and Minato hoped the notes would help him develop stronger techniques.

Minato inspected the Cicada of Summer Merchant Guild and Spring Flower Sealing Technique School before preparing to return to Konoha for missions that might take him to the Land of Water. He left their operations in trusted hands and hoped to find Senju research notes on the Flying Thunder God technique.

• Minato visited the Cicada of Summer Merchant Guild, reviewed its expanding sales and light bulb supply, and told Uzumaki Shinmen to hire more guards and handle increased shipments.
• Shinmen reported that the Empty District could provide forty million ryo worth of light bulbs each month, and Minato agreed the guild could sell them.
• Minato visited the Spring Flower Sealing Technique School and told Director No Aya that Da Jian would support the orphanage while he was away.
• After leaving the school, Minato worried that managing his organizations was exhausting him and hoped to obtain Senju research notes that could help him learn the Flying Thunder God.

Minato returned to Konoha and searched the Senju Clan’s old scrolls for Tobirama’s research. After reading records about Tobirama’s battles and Water Release experiments, he found a question about sealing a living person that caught his attention.

• Minato returned to Konoha at night and reunited with Kushina, who learned he had come to see Senju Sangjian.
• Minato asked Senju Sangjian for access to Tobirama’s preserved ninjutsu notes, and she led him to the Senju Clan’s underground archive.
• Minato read Tobirama’s early records, which described his frustration with Hashirama and his repeated battles against the Uchiha.
• Minato examined Tobirama’s Water Release research and found that he had reduced Water Dragon Bullet’s hand seals to three.
• After searching many scrolls, Minato discovered Tobirama’s question about what would happen if a living person were sealed away.

Minato studied Tobirama Senju’s notes and concluded that the key to the Flying Thunder God involved sealing souls. Kushina revealed that the Uzumaki Clan’s soul-sealing technique was the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and agreed to take Minato to the Mask Hall.

• Minato read Tobirama Senju’s account of experimenting with sealing living creatures, discovering that their souls disrupted the techniques, and finding a key to living-organism sealing before the notes ended.
• Minato searched the other scrolls for more information about the Flying Thunder God but found none, then realized Kushina could help with Sealing Techniques.
• Kushina grew alarmed when Minato asked about sealing souls, then explained that the Uzumaki Clan’s only soul-sealing technique killed its user.
• Minato insisted he needed the technique and planned to learn how to weaken it, so Kushina agreed to take him to the Uzumaki Clan’s Mask Hall before dawn.

Minato examined the Death God Mask with Kushina and began learning the Dead Demon Consuming Seal before the Third Hokage assigned him an S-Rank mission to investigate the collapse of Konoha’s spy network in the Land of Water. He would lead Nara Shikaku’s team after the New Year.

• Kushina brought Minato to the Uzumaki Mask Hall, where he put on the Death God Mask and saw the Death God looming above the world.
• Kushina warned Minato that the Dead Demon Consuming Seal traded the user's soul for the Death God's power, then taught him its hand seals and chakra manipulation.
• Minato returned to the village and met the Third Hokage in the Hokage Office, where he learned that Konoha's spies in the Mist Hidden Village and Land of Water had disappeared.
• The Third Hokage assigned Minato to infiltrate the Land of Water, investigate the spy network's collapse, and rebuild it with Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Choza.
• The Third Hokage scheduled the team to depart on the first Monday after the New Year.

Minato visited Orochimaru to ask for research on souls and spiritual energy, then traded his discovery about shaping Natural Energy for Orochimaru’s scrolls. He left with the Corpse Manipulation Technique and research on half-dead states, planning to wash off the laboratory smell at the bathhouse.

• Minato watched Orochimaru operate on an experiment subject and discussed the Land of Water Spy System mission and the Third Hokage’s suppression of powerful shinobi.
• Minato asked Orochimaru for soul research, but Orochimaru demanded something in exchange.
• Minato described how Natural Energy could be shaped and extended like a short staff, and wrote the technique down for Orochimaru.
• Orochimaru gave Minato scrolls about the Corpse Manipulation Technique and soul research involving half-dead states.
• Minato left the laboratory and decided to visit the bathhouse to get rid of the smell of preservatives.

Minato pushed himself to learn soul manipulation and the Half Dead Demon Consuming Seal, succeeding after cutting his wrist and losing a dangerous amount of blood. He sealed the white mouse’s soul, but the mouse died when he released the seals, and Kushina supported him on their way back to the Senju Clan Grounds.

• Minato and Kushina practiced the Dead Demon Consuming Seal in the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Hall as the new year began.
• Minato wore the Death God Mask to see souls, then cut his wrist and bled onto a white mouse to make himself see souls without the mask.
• Minato formed the first four hand seals of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, contacted the Death God, pulled out the mouse’s soul, and sealed it with the Half Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
• Minato released the seals, but the blood-depleted mouse died despite his efforts.
• Kushina treated Minato’s wound and supported him as they left the Mask Hall for the Senju Clan Grounds.

Minato joined Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza on a dangerous mission to establish a spy system in the Land of Water. While they waited for a merchant caravan in Dadu Port, Minato proposed involving the Nara Clan in livestock gigantification and relaxed at a bathhouse, unaware of how seriously the others viewed the mission.

• Minato reassured Shikaku that his training injury would not interfere with the mission and accepted Shikaku as captain.
• Shikaku explained that the team would use a medicinal-herb merchant caravan as cover while establishing a spy system in the Land of Water.
• Minato hinted that the Nara Clan could help develop livestock gigantification, and Shikaku agreed to visit Liangju Town with him after the mission.
• Minato invited the group to a bathhouse in Dadu Port while they waited for the caravan to arrive.
• Minato pondered why his sealed mice died after being unsealed as the Ino-Shika-Cho trio reflected on the mission's deadly risks.

Minato joined Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi on a mission to investigate Konoha spies on an island in the Land of Water, using Boli G Lang’s tracking ability to find a hidden intelligence scroll. After discovering the spies had been killed and capturing a Mist ninja lying in wait, Minato considered the prisoner useful for testing his techniques.

• Minato inspected the Nara Clan’s trading ship as it sailed from the Land of Fire toward the Land of Water.
• Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Minato, and Boli G Lang investigated a vanished spy’s house on the island and used blood-detecting powder to find traces.
• Boli G Lang followed the faint blood scent to a cave, where the group found a scroll reporting that Mist ANBU had killed three Konoha spies and were purging the spy network.
• Minato sensed an ambush beneath the sea, captured an unconscious Mist ninja, and brought him back to Yamanaka Inoichi for interrogation.
• Minato watched the captured Mist ninja and considered him a suitable test subject for the Flying Thunder God and Half Door Demon Sealing.

Minato and his companions confirmed that Mist Hidden Village had exposed Konoha’s Spy System and continued toward Kyoto in the Land of Water to investigate the remaining intelligence network. The chapter ended with Nara Shikaku warning that Kyoto’s advisor, Hiruma, was a powerful Jinchuriki and Minato cautioning the group against taking risks.

• Yamanaka Inoichi searched the captured Mist ninja’s memories and learned that Mist agents had killed three spies and were waiting for investigators.
• Minato took the Mist ninja to Mount Myōboku and tested a combination of sealing techniques, but the ninja’s soul escaped after his death.
• Minato returned to the medicine ship, and the group continued deeper into the Land of Water after finding no survivors on two islands.
• Nara Shikaku explained that Konoha had three separate spy networks and that the team needed to find the overseer based in the Land of Water.
• Shikaku identified Hiruma as Mist Hidden Village’s Kyoto Advisor and a likely Jinchuriki, while Minato warned that the group should plan cautiously.

Nara Shikaku, Minato, Akimichi Choza, and Yamanaka Inoichi followed a trail of intelligence through Kyoto and met Suikazan Fuguki, who led them to a coded scroll hidden beneath a spring. As Akimichi Choza went to retrieve it, Minato pulled him back when the spring surged up in a cloud of corrosive vapor.

• Nara Shikaku found a coded marking in the furniture-shop safehouse and deciphered the name Suikazan Fuguki.
• Nara Shikaku explained that Suikazan Fuguki was a Mist Hidden Village jonin and a potential defector because of his history with the Kaguya Clan.
• The four met Suikazan Fuguki, who said a friend had left a coded scroll in a spring outside Kyoto that might reveal Konoha's traitor.
• Suikazan Fuguki led the group to the spring, and Akimichi Choza jumped in to retrieve the scroll.
• Minato seized Akimichi Choza by the collar and pulled him back as the spring surged up with dense white vapor and a strong acidic stench.

Minato's team was trapped by Hiruma's corrosive attacks and Suikazan Fuguki's betrayal, but Minato discovered a new insight into the Flying Thunder God technique. The four remained surrounded by acid and corrosive gas as Minato realized the technique required a three-dimensional sealing space.

• Suikazan Fuguki revealed that he had betrayed Konoha to gain a position as Mizukage Advisor, and Hiruma emerged from the acid spring as the Six-Tails Jinchuriki.
• Minato tried to evacuate Akimichi Choza, Nara Shikaku, and Yamanaka Inoichi, but Hiruma's acid attacks and corrosive gas trapped them inside a small safe zone.
• Minato used Wind Release: Tornado Technique to lift the group above the acid, while corrosive mist surrounded and began to engulf the tornado.
• As Nara Shikaku listed the directions they could not escape, Minato realized that his Flying Thunder God sealing space needed six enclosing surfaces and had to be three-dimensional.

Minato used the Flying Thunder God to escape the Six-Tails’ acidic mist and rescue Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Choza. As Suikazan Fuguki attacked them, the three young clan leaders bought Minato fifteen seconds to enter Sage Mode.

• Minato sealed his body and soul into the Six Unities Space, then used Flying Thunder God to escape the acidic mist and return to rescue Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Choza.
• Minato transported the group to the edge of the island, set Flying Thunder God marks, and began absorbing Natural Energy while Akimichi Choza guarded him.
• Suikazan Fuguki attacked with Samehada, and Akimichi Choza enlarged himself to block the sword before it struck him aside.
• Nara Shikaku restrained Suikazan Fuguki with Shadow Possession while Yamanaka Inoichi attempted the Mind Body Switch Technique, but Samehada disrupted it.
• Samehada struck Nara Shikaku and left two lasting scars on his face, while the three Ino-Shika-Cho leaders successfully stalled Fuguki for fifteen seconds as Minato entered Sage Mode.

Minato confronted Suikazan Fuguki and the Six-Tails Jinchuriki, Hiruma, while seeking answers about Konoha’s spy list and Hiruma’s control of the Six-Tails. Minato overwhelmed Hiruma with Flying Thunder God and Sage Art, but Hiruma’s transformation escalated as reinforcements were summoned.

• Minato blocked Suikazan Fuguki’s Samehada, made it recoil by channeling Natural Energy through his kunai, and struck Fuguki with a Rasengan.
• Hiruma approached in his Six-Tails Jinchuriki form, and Minato questioned him about the Sealing Technique and his control of the beast.
• Minato attacked Hiruma with Metal Storm, then teleported above him and crushed him into a pit with a Sage Art: Super Big Ball Rasengan.
• Hiruma rose with four tails and fired streams of acid at Minato, who evaded them by teleporting between Flying Thunder God kunai.
• Suikazan Fuguki sent a shark toward Kyoto for reinforcements, while Nara Shikaku noticed that Minato appeared at the Trident Kunai.

Minato used Flying Thunder God and Sage Art Rasengan attacks against Hiruma, whose control over the Six-Tails Saiken weakened until he began to rampage. Minato rescued Shikaku and the others from a Tailed Beast Ball, then left to inspect the island while Shikaku reflected on his orders to watch Minato.

• Minato scattered Flying Thunder God kunai across the island and used the technique to strike Hiruma with Super Big Ball Rasengan attacks.
• Saiken urged Hiruma to let it out, but Hiruma refused as his will weakened and Suikazan Fuguki warned that he was about to rampage.
• Minato baited Hiruma into aiming a Tailed Beast Ball at Fuguki, then escaped by teleporting to Shikaku’s kunai and taking Shikaku, Akimichi Choza, and the others with him.
• Minato and his companions watched the Six-Tails rampage as Guardian Ninja and Mist ninja arrived to suppress it, then withdrew when Minato’s Sage Mode ended.
• Minato left to inspect the island, while Shikaku reconsidered his effort to monitor Minato and thought about the influence of Danzo Advisor and Mitokado Homura Advisor.

Minato confronted Suikazan Fuguki over the leaked Konoha spy list, then used Flying Thunder God to exile him to the deep sea. Suikazan survived both a six-hundred-meter and a twelve-hundred-meter plunge, and Minato promised to send him deeper next time.

• Minato retrieved his Flying Thunder God kunai from Suikazan Fuguki and questioned him about the detailed list of Konoha spies, but Suikazan refused to answer.
• After the Mist Sealing Squad stopped the Six-Tails Jinchuriki’s rampage, Minato told Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and their team to lie low while he left aboard a deep-sea salvage vessel to gather intelligence.
• Minato left Boli G Lang to guard Shikaku and Inoichi, while Shikaku reasoned that Minato’s special kunai technique could let him return despite the distance.
• Minato teleported Suikazan Fuguki to a seabed about six hundred meters deep, and Suikazan merged with Samehada to swim back to the surface.
• After Suikazan returned to the Mist Hidden Village, Minato exiled him again to a seabed about twelve hundred meters deep, and Suikazan once more swam upward as Minato vanished.