Chapter Summaries

Naruto fought Kiba in the Chunin Exam preliminaries, revealing his improved skills while keeping the Rasengan in reserve for Neji. After an accidental and humiliating use of Kakashi’s Konoha Thousand Years of Death on Akamaru, Naruto defeated Kiba with his shadow clones and Uzumaki Naruto Barrage.

• Sasuke defeated Dosu Kinuta with Lion's Barrage, then Kakashi took Sasuke away to treat his Cursed Seal.
• Naruto got up after Kiba’s first attack, and Hinata defended Naruto’s strength when Kiba questioned her cheering.
• Naruto dodged Kiba and Akamaru’s Fang Over Fang by using the Substitution Technique and hiding on the ceiling.
• Naruto mistook Akamaru for Kiba and used Kakashi’s Konoha Thousand Years of Death on Akamaru, prompting Kakashi to vanish in embarrassment.
• Naruto overwhelmed Kiba with Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu and Uzumaki Naruto Barrage, ending the match.

Hinata faced Neji in the Chunin Exam and refused to give up despite being badly injured, drawing strength from Naruto’s encouragement. After Naruto caught her, he swore to knock some sense into Neji and challenge him over how he had treated Hinata.

• Naruto learned Sasuke had been taken to the hospital, then encouraged Hinata before her match against Neji.
• Neji attacked Hinata and condemned her softness while insisting that the divide between the Main Family and Branch Family could not be crossed.
• Hinata challenged Neji’s hatred and gained the upper hand, but seeing the mark on his forehead made Neji renew his resolve and strike her with the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms.
• Hinata struggled back to her feet and declared that she would not give up, but she collapsed into Naruto’s arms after telling him she had tried her best.
• Naruto comforted Hinata and promised to take up her torch; after she fainted, he told Neji her tear reflected grief over the brother who once protected her and vowed to knock sense into him.

After the preliminaries, Naruto learned he would face Neji in the third exam and vowed to defeat Gaara for what he did to Lee. He visited Hinata in the hospital, where their closeness was interrupted by Hanabi, and left after accepting Hanabi’s challenge to win her respect.

• The Third Hokage announced the third-exam matchups and scheduled the tournament for one month later.
• Naruto confronted Gaara over his attempt to kill Lee and promised to beat him.
• At the hospital, Kakashi declined to train Naruto, who then went to visit Hinata.
• Naruto and Hinata shared an affectionate moment before Hanabi interrupted them and brought Hinata food from their mother.
• Hanabi challenged Naruto to defeat Neji, promising to call him by his name if he won, and thanked him for a toy as he left.

A shopping trip with Hinata turned into a confrontation with Jiraiya after female Naruto tried to report him for peeping. Jiraiya knocked Naruto unconscious and carried her away to make her his disciple.

• Naruto transformed into a girl to accompany Hinata shopping, but an underwear shop owner tried to dress her up, so Naruto escaped with Shadow Clones.
• Naruto spotted a white-haired man peeping near the hot spring district and prepared to call Konoha's security force.
• The man, Jiraiya, introduced himself as a writer and attacked Naruto with a giant toad after she mocked Icha Icha Paradise.
• Jiraiya recognized Naruto's talent and tried to recruit her as his disciple, but Naruto said she already had a teacher.
• Jiraiya struck Naruto unconscious, slung her over his shoulder, and disappeared.

Jiraiya began training Naruto in the Summoning Jutsu and tested his attitude toward the Nine-Tails' power. Naruto summoned only a tiny red tadpole, leaving Jiraiya exasperated.

• Naruto woke at Konoha's back mountain and found Jiraiya distraught that Naruto's transformed girl disguise had turned out to be a boy.
• Jiraiya gave Naruto the toad summoning contract, and Naruto wrote his name beside Jiraiya's and Minato Namikaze's.
• Jiraiya asked whether Naruto could deliberately use the Nine-Tails' power, and Naruto said he saw the Nine-Tails as a friend and did not want to borrow its strength whenever he pleased.
• Jiraiya taught Naruto the Summoning Jutsu hand seals, and Naruto summoned a red tadpole instead of a toad.

Naruto corrected his Chakra control, summoned Gama Kichi, and then relied on the Nine-Tails’ power after Jiraiya pushed him off a cliff to force him into the Sealing Space. He survived by summoning a gigantic toad, whom Jiraiya recognized as the Great Toad Sage.

• Jiraiya discovered that Naruto’s Chakra was too chaotic for the Summoning Jutsu because his body kept forming it like the Rasengan.
• Naruto gathered normal Chakra and summoned Gama Kichi, an underage toad from Mount Myōboku.
• At a hot spring, Gama Kichi told Naruto about the Great Toad Sage before overheating and floating unconscious in the water.
• Jiraiya pushed Naruto off a cliff to make him meet the Nine-Tails and learn to withstand its Chakra.
• The Nine-Tails gave Naruto as much Chakra as his body could handle, and Naruto summoned a gigantic toad that cushioned his fall.
• Jiraiya recognized the injured toad as the Great Toad Sage.

Naruto accidentally summoned the Great Toad Sage, who recovered and foretold Naruto’s future before being returned to Mount Myōboku. The toads there nearly declared war on Ryūchi Cave while searching for him, and Naruto left with a prophecy that he would marry a Byakugan girl and have two children.

• The Great Toad Sage woke, healed with Natural Energy, and told Naruto he would face a powerful-eyed young man in a contest that would leave a wound in his heart.
• The Great Toad Sage told Naruto he would marry a girl with the Byakugan and have two children, delighting Naruto before Jiraiya was reverse-summoned to Mount Myōboku.
• Lord Shima and Shima Toad discovered the Great Toad Sage was missing, while Toad Boss Bunta rallied the toads to declare war on Ryūchi Cave.
• Jiraiya explained that Naruto had summoned the Great Toad Sage, and Lord Shima and Shima Toad sent him back to retrieve him.
• Fukasaku and Shima examined Naruto, then the Great Toad Sage returned to Mount Myōboku to calm the chaos.
• Jiraiya warned Naruto not to summon the Great Toad Sage again, and Naruto blamed Jiraiya for starting the incident before demanding ten bowls of ramen.

Naruto and Shikamaru found Gaara threatening Lee in the hospital, where Gaara tried to convince Naruto that they were alike and destined for hatred and killing. After Hinata reassured Naruto, he resolved to defeat Gaara and become his friend.

• Naruto and Shikamaru went to Konoha Hospital to visit Lee and Choji, and found the building deserted at lunchtime.
• Sakura visited the sleeping Lee, and Gaara emerged from the ceiling and surrounded him with sand.
• Shikamaru immobilized Gaara with the Shadow Imitation Technique, but Gaara revealed his violent past and urged Naruto to join him.
• Naruto rejected Gaara's worldview, but Gaara attacked him until Might Guy intervened and sent Gaara away with a threat to kill Naruto.
• Naruto went to Hinata for comfort, told her about Gaara, and vowed to defeat him and make him his friend.

Naruto and Neji fought in the Chunin Exams as Naruto challenged Neji’s belief that fate and talent determined a person’s worth. After Neji overwhelmed Naruto with Rotation and Sixty-four Palms, Naruto refused to surrender, and the Nine-Tails offered him its power.

• Neji trained with Tenten before the match, while Hinata woke Naruto, made him breakfast, and went to watch him compete.
• At Kikyo Castle, Naruto and Neji traded accusations and embarrassing childhood stories before beginning their match.
• Naruto attacked Neji with a hundred Shadow Clones, but Neji countered that talent and fate limited what people could achieve.
• Naruto argued that Hinata had worked hard to change and pointed out that Neji himself was trying to prove the Branch Family’s strength; Neji was briefly left speechless.
• Neji used Rotation to repel Naruto’s clones, then struck Naruto with Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms, but Naruto stood back up and refused to concede.
• As Neji prepared to attack Naruto’s fatal chakra points, the Nine-Tails offered Naruto its power, but Naruto refused.

Naruto defeated Neji without using the Nine-Tails’ power, then helped him confront his hatred of the Hyuga Main Family. Neji admitted he had been wrong, while Naruto learned that becoming Hokage would not give him authority over clan rules.

• Naruto forced his damaged chakra pathways open and refused the Nine-Tails’ offer of power, insisting he would beat Neji himself.
• Neji explained that the Caged Bird seal controlled the Branch Family and described how that system had shaped his hatred of the Main Family.
• Naruto used Shadow Clones and ten Rasengans to overwhelm Neji’s Rotation, then emerged from a tunnel dug by Gama Kichi and knocked Neji unconscious.
• After Neji woke, Naruto told him to apologize to Hinata, and Neji admitted he had mistaken his hatred of the Main Family for hatred of Hinata.
• Neji pointed out that the Hokage could not change a clan’s ancient rules, surprising Naruto.

Hizashi reconciled with Neji in the infirmary, while Naruto delayed Sasuke’s match until Sasuke arrived and fought Gaara. When Orochimaru’s attack trapped Hinata inside the Four Violet Flames Formation, Naruto overcame his difficulty using Flying Thunder God and vanished into the barrier to reach her.

• Hizashi told Neji that he had served the Main Family willingly out of love for Hiashi, and urged Neji not to let hatred make him suffer.
• Naruto held up Sasuke’s match until Sasuke arrived, then Sasuke used Kakashi’s Lightning Blade to pierce Gaara’s sand defense.
• Orochimaru revealed himself in disguise and launched an attack on Konoha, while a genjutsu and the Four Violet Flames Formation trapped the Hokage and others inside Kikyo Castle.
• Kakashi assigned Naruto to help Sasuke stop Gaara, but Naruto refused when he saw Hinata trapped inside the barrier and ran to Kikyo Castle.
• Naruto struck the barrier with the Nine-Tails’ chakra until Minato directed him to use the Flying Thunder God mark on the roof.
• Naruto successfully used the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished from outside the barrier.

Naruto entered the Four Violet Flames Formation and saved Hinata and Hanabi from the Second Hokage’s tsunami. Orochimaru summoned Naruto’s parents as Impure World Reincarnation, leaving Naruto stunned as the Third Hokage faced Orochimaru’s accusations about Konoha’s corruption.

• The Third Hokage and Hyuga Hiashi fought the First and Second Hokage while Hinata shielded Hanabi from the Second Hokage’s tsunami.
• Naruto entered the barrier with Space-Time Ninjutsu and used a Rasengan to stop the wave before it hit Hinata and Hanabi.
• Naruto reunited with Hinata and Hanabi, and Orochimaru revealed that Naruto had mastered a technique capable of bypassing barriers.
• Orochimaru summoned Minato and Naruto’s mother as reanimated corpses, leaving Naruto shocked to recognize his parents.
• The Third Hokage attacked Orochimaru, who accused him of complicity in Konoha’s dark dealings and declared that Konoha no longer needed to exist.

Orochimaru tested Naruto by forcing him to fight his reanimated parents and break through the Triple Rashomon, then revealed that he had come to judge Naruto’s strength and secretly cared about him. Orochimaru left Konoha, while Naruto learned that his parents could not yet be restored completely.

• Orochimaru attacked the Third Hokage’s guilt over the Fourth Hokage, but the Third Hokage evaded Orochimaru’s snake and fought the First and Second Hokage.
• Minato and Kushina nearly killed Naruto, but they stopped before striking him, allowing Naruto to embrace Kushina and understand that she wanted him to stop Orochimaru.
• Naruto and Hinata combined their Chakra to create the enormous Hinata Rasengan, and Minato and Kushina helped Naruto break through Orochimaru’s Triple Rashomon.
• Orochimaru subdued Naruto, explained that he had tested Naruto’s strength and considered him his disciple, then said Naruto’s parents could not yet be restored completely.
• Orochimaru and the Sound Four left Konoha, and Orochimaru told Kabuto that the parents’ unexplained intervention could only be called a “Parents’ Miracle.”

Naruto recovered after seeing his mother in the sealing space, then hurried to rescue Sasuke and Sakura from Shukaku. With the Nine-Tails’ chakra, Naruto released the giant fox, which greeted Shukaku as an old friend.

• Naruto spoke with Minato about Kushina and agreed to let the Nine-Tails lend him chakra in exchange for later favors.
• Naruto woke in Hinata’s lap, thanked the Third Hokage, and left to help Sasuke despite being depleted.
• Shukaku found Sasuke and Sakura and attacked them with a Void Sphere, but Naruto rescued them in time.
• Naruto synchronized chakra with the Nine-Tails, who emerged in his giant fox form and greeted Shukaku.

Naruto and the Nine-Tails defeated Shukaku, then Naruto confronted Gaara about Yashamaru’s supposed betrayal and reached him through their shared childhood pain. Gaara stopped fighting and left with Kankuro and Temari, uncertain whether he and Naruto would become friends.

• The Nine-Tails overwhelmed Shukaku, repeatedly smashed his regenerating body, and threatened him with a Tailed Beast Bomb until Shukaku emerged.
• The Nine-Tails arranged for Naruto to wake Gaara, after which Shukaku and the Nine-Tails returned to their hosts.
• Naruto and Gaara exchanged blows and saw memories of each other’s childhoods, including Yashamaru’s apparent betrayal of Gaara.
• Naruto argued that Yashamaru might have lied under orders and offered to become a friend who would never betray Gaara.
• Gaara acknowledged Naruto’s feelings, gave up fighting, and left with Kankuro and Temari, answering Naruto’s question about friendship with uncertainty.

Naruto returned to Konoha with Sasuke and Sakura after the battle with Gaara, then the Third Hokage questioned Jiraiya about Naruto's use of the Flying Thunder God Technique. Jiraiya refused to teach the technique to Konoha's ninja and left after accusing Hiruzen of placing the village's burdens on a child.

• Naruto thanked Sasuke for weakening Gaara, and Sasuke accepted his explanation while Sakura questioned Naruto about the fox he had summoned.
• Kakashi met Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura at Konoha's gates, sent Naruto to the Third Hokage, and took Sasuke and Sakura for treatment.
• The Third Hokage accused Jiraiya of teaching Naruto the Flying Thunder God Technique, and Naruto left the office after obediently calling Jiraiya his master.
• The Third Hokage explained that Naruto had used Flying Thunder God and Rasengan to defeat Orochimaru and save him, then asked Jiraiya to teach the technique to Konoha's ninja.
• Jiraiya criticized Hiruzen for neglecting Naruto's suffering and refused to teach Flying Thunder God before storming out.

Hanabi ran away after arguing with Hinata about Naruto, and Naruto found her hiding in an abandoned house on Hokage Rock. He brought her home after apologizing for overlooking her, and Hanabi began trusting him as he carried her back.

• Hanabi secretly kicked Naruto when he visited Hinata, then argued with Hinata about feeling overlooked and believing Naruto cared only for her sister.
• Hinata told Naruto that Hanabi had run away, and Naruto went out into the rain to search for her.
• Naruto found Hanabi in an abandoned house on Hokage Rock and explained that he had once hidden in remote places because people hated him.
• Hanabi accused Naruto of favoring Hinata, and Naruto apologized while explaining that he had always thought of Hanabi as his little sister.
• Hanabi injured her leg when the floor gave way, so Naruto bandaged it and carried her home.
• Hanabi asked whom Naruto would save if she and Hinata were in different directions, and he said he would use the Clone Technique to save both.

Neji apologized to Hinata and reconciled with her, while Jiraiya took Naruto away on a mission to find the Fifth Hokage. After entering Naruto’s Sealing Space, Jiraiya met Minato and learned how Naruto had broken the seal and how Minato had watched over him.

• Neji tearfully apologized to Hinata, and she forgave him as Hanabi watched Naruto and Neji bicker.
• Jiraiya arrived at the Hyuga Clan courtyard and used a toad to take Naruto away, saying they were going to find the Fifth Hokage.
• At an inn in Adofuku Street, Jiraiya subdued Naruto and entered his Sealing Space to investigate the seal.
• Jiraiya met Minato in the Sealing Space, where Minato explained Naruto’s early release of the seal and his own role in raising and teaching Naruto.
• Jiraiya apologized for not protecting Naruto sooner and promised Minato that he would train Naruto into a first-rate ninja.

Itachi and Kisame confronted Naruto and Sasuke at an inn, where Itachi brutally overwhelmed his younger brother. Naruto awakened the Nine-Tails’ power to drive Kisame back, and Jiraiya’s arrival forced the Akatsuki pair to withdraw, leaving Sasuke badly injured and Naruto guarding him.

• Naruto opened the inn door to Itachi and Kisame, who demanded that he come with them, and Sasuke arrived to challenge Itachi.
• Itachi caught Sasuke’s Chidori and tormented him while Kisame blocked Naruto; Naruto’s clones failed to stop them, and Sasuke rejected Naruto’s offer to fight together.
• Naruto’s anger unleashed a two-tailed Demon Fox Cloak, and he overwhelmed Samehada with Nine-Tails’ Chakra before punching Kisame through the inn wall.
• Naruto shielded the badly injured Sasuke and refused to let Itachi hurt him, declaring that they were comrades.
• Jiraiya returned with a hypnotized young woman and confronted Itachi, who used a smoke bomb to escape with Kisame.
• Itachi explained that fighting Jiraiya would have been too costly, then smiled at the bond Naruto and Sasuke had formed.

Naruto began training with Jiraiya after bringing the badly injured Sasuke back to Konoha, determined to become strong enough to face Itachi and Kisame. Jiraiya set him to learn Wind Release and shared his history with Orochimaru, then headed with Naruto to find Tsunade, who had just encountered Orochimaru in Tanzaku City.

• Naruto carried Sasuke to Konoha Hospital and promised they would defeat Itachi and Kisame next time.
• Naruto learned his Chakra nature was Wind Release, and Jiraiya told him to practice cutting a leaf with Chakra.
• Naruto trained through the night, destroying many leaves without managing to cut one successfully.
• Jiraiya told Naruto about his former team with Orochimaru and Tsunade, including his later defeat by Orochimaru.
• Jiraiya took Naruto toward Tanzaku City after hearing Tsunade had been seen nearby.
• In Tanzaku City, Orochimaru asked Tsunade to undo the Reaper Death Seal.