Recaps

Moriyue, Kazeki, and Ando prepared for the Chunin Exams and arrived in the crowded Sunagakure square, where Gaara organized the candidates. Assigned to separate rooms for the Written Exam, Moriyue spotted Neji and decided to mislead other candidates about the questions.

• Moriyue praised Kazeki and Ando's vigilance, then told Ando to find sacks for the practical exam.
• Moriyue, Kazeki, and Ando made their way through Sunagakure's packed streets toward the exam registration.
• Gaara used sand to organize the crowd and announced that the Written Exam was about to begin.
• Moriyue and his teammates registered and were assigned to adjacent but separate rooms.
• Moriyue entered his room, noticed Neji among the candidates, and planned to give others wrong answers.

Moriyue helped restore the exam hall’s television, and Shikamaru explained the Chunin Exam’s score-sharing rules. As examinees found ways to communicate with their teammates, Kazeki and Ando followed Moriyue’s predicted strategy in their exam room.

• Moriyue slapped the malfunctioning television, restoring Shikamaru’s image.
• Shikamaru explained that each examinee could answer one question and that teammates’ combined scores could not exceed 100.
• Examinees tried different methods to communicate with teammates, including sensory techniques and signals through the walls and windows.
• Kaede reached her teammates’ minds, while Ajisai and his teammates sensed her signal and a Sunagakure ninja used dust to send information.
• Kazeki and Ando answered the questions according to Moriyue’s prediction, with Kazeki realizing he had guessed the exam format correctly.

Moriyue disrupted the examinees by tapping a rhythm that looped in their minds, and the resulting chaos stopped everyone from working. Neji proposed a way for teams to coordinate their answers through the walls, leaving the examinees to decide whether to follow his plan.

• Kazeki and Ando began answering the fifty-point question while Moriyue examined the test and decided he could not solve its physics problem.
• Moriyue tapped a rhythm on his desk, causing examinees including Ajisai to hear the sound repeating in their minds.
• When an examinee stood up to confront Moriyue, Moriyue asked whether violence was allowed, and Shikamaru warned that fighting would lead to disqualification.
• The examinees crowded the walls and shouted messages to their teammates, drowning out Neji's attempt to restore order.
• Neji and Hinata used a clash of Gentle Fist chakra waves to create a loud bang that silenced the room.
• Neji proposed that teams signal through the walls and split the questions so one side answered the forty-point question and the other earned thirty points.

Moriyue disrupted Neji’s attempt to help more examinees pass by enveloping the wall in lightning, and the Written Exam ended with Shikamaru’s bonus question eliminating anyone who named a teammate. Moriyue revealed that he had named Shikamaru and challenged his fitness to be chief examiner.

• Neji explained how sharing answers could help the examinees pass, but a Sunagakure ninja opposed letting more competitors through.
• Moriyue covered the wall in lightning, stopping the exchange of information and making Neji back away.
• After time expired, Shikamaru asked examinees to name a teammate they would sacrifice as a decoy, then eliminated those who did so.
• Moriyue stayed behind despite writing a name, then showed that he had written Shikamaru’s name.
• Moriyue criticized Shikamaru’s question as hypocritical and accused him of being unfit to serve as chief examiner.

Moriyue challenged Shikamaru’s handling of the first exam, then joined Ando and Kazeki for the second examination in Sunagakure. Temari announced a race to Konoha’s Forest of Death, and Moriyue’s team took an early lead after recognizing that the race had already begun.

• Moriyue openly told Shikamaru he was unqualified to be chief examiner, but Shikamaru dismissed the confrontation and sent the examinees who passed to prepare for the next examination.
• Moriyue met Ando and Kazeki, accepted the supplies Kazeki had stored in a Sealing Scroll, and kept his earlier dispute with Shikamaru to himself.
• Temari announced that examinees had to race from Sunagakure to Konoha’s Forest of Death, with the last fifty arrivals eliminated and combat forbidden.
• Moriyue immediately pulled Ando and Kazeki into a run, and Neji’s team followed close behind.
• Temari clarified that the race had started when she said “now,” leaving the examinees who had waited for a separate starting signal scrambling to catch up.

Moriyue’s team raced toward Konoha while laying lightning traps for the squads behind them. When Kazeki tried to transfer Chakra to Moriyue, his altered Chakra drained nearly half of hers and left a mark on her palm; she concealed what happened and then transferred Chakra to Ando.

• Kazeki sensed a squad following close behind, including a Hyuga, as Moriyue and Ando ran ahead.
• Moriyue and Ando planted camouflaged lightning traps along the route, using up much of their Chakra.
• Moriyue stopped using Lightning Torment and continued running with surprising strength, prompting Kazeki to tell him to replenish his Chakra.
• Kazeki transferred Chakra to Moriyue, but his Chakra assimilated it and flowed back to drain nearly half of hers, leaving a blackish-red mark on her palm.
• Kazeki assured Moriyue she was all right, kept the incident unexplained, and began transferring Chakra to Ando.

Moriyue’s team raced ahead in the Chunin Exam while their traps delayed the other examinees, turning the route into a contest of sabotage. Kaede took to the air and scattered scale powder over the crowd, leaving Moriyue’s group with an unobstructed path.

• Kazeki choked Ando while restoring his Chakra, and Moriyue enjoyed their bickering.
• Moriyue’s lightning traps shocked and delayed the teams behind them, prompting other examinees to set traps of their own.
• Kaede flew over the traps with her Scale Blades and scattered camouflaged scale powder that temporarily blinded the examinees below.
• Moriyue sneezed as his team continued far ahead, and he praised Ando for learning his underhanded tactics.

Moriyue’s team traveled in first place during the exam’s second round when Kaede, the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, caught up with them. After Kaede broke through Kazeki’s sandstorm technique, she cheerfully chatted with Moriyue, who decided he needed to deal with Hidan and Kakuzu before they could target her.

• Ando reflected on how Moriyue’s guidance had helped him understand the written exam and accept that he could try again if he failed to become a Chunin.
• Kazeki spotted Kaede flying toward the group and used Wind Release: Sand Dance to trap her in a growing sand tornado.
• Kaede used repeated Wing Slash attacks to break apart Kazeki’s sandstorm and happily celebrated her chance to fight freely.
• Moriyue told Kaede she could visit Kumogakure after the exam, then resolved to get acquainted with Hidan and Kakuzu and prevent them from targeting her.

Moriyue's group reached the second exam's registration point first after turning the endurance test into a trap-filled race. As Asuma and Kurenai greeted them, a vast crowd of battered examinees surged out of the desert behind them.

• Kaede's group caught up with Moriyue's party, and everyone relaxed when she showed no hostility.
• Neji agreed with Rock Lee that the exam had become unusually brutal as examinees fell into traps along the route.
• Moriyue discovered that Kaede had forgotten her teammates, so she rushed off to find them.
• Moriyue, Ando, and Kazeki arrived first at the registration point, surprising Asuma and Kurenai by revealing their Kumogakure forehead protectors.
• Asuma and Kurenai watched a huge crowd of battered examinees approach, and Asuma wondered if they were refugees migrating.

After the grueling first exam, the surviving examinees gathered in Konoha, where Kaede introduced Moriyue to her wary Takigakure teammates. Konoha sent the exhausted contestants to Hot Spring Village, leaving Moriyue surrounded by angry rivals whose grudges would have to wait for the third exam.

• Asuma and Kurenai realized the bedraggled arrivals were examinees, and the proctors eliminated the last hundred contestants.
• Kaede brought her two explosion-scorched teammates to meet Moriyue, while they worried about her befriending him.
• Moriyue heard that Takigakure researched forbidden techniques and considered seeking information about Earth Grudge Fear.
• Konoha reception staff directed the successful examinees to Hot Spring Village, and Kaede went to the women's baths with Kazeki.
• Angry examinees surrounded Moriyue, but Rock Lee urged them to postpone their grievances and bathe before fighting.

Moriyue and Ando arrived at Hot Spring Village and soaked in a bathhouse while Moriyue stayed alert to Konoha’s surveillance and deterred other examinees from provoking him. Shira of Sunagakure joined them, and Moriyue recognized an opportunity in the taijutsu specialist despite Shira’s comrades’ contempt for him.

• Moriyue noticed that Hot Spring Village’s attendants behaved like disguised ninjas monitoring the examinees.
• Moriyue entered the bathhouse and warned the other ninjas that he might discharge electricity, prompting a bald, muscular man to give up his pool.
• Shira of Sunagakure asked to share Moriyue’s pool, and Moriyue introduced himself before the two shook hands.
• Sunagakure ninjas insulted Shira for his lack of ninjutsu and genjutsu and criticized Gaara for allowing him into the Chunin Exams.
• Moriyue recognized Shira’s Seven Heavens Breathing Method and considered recruiting him to learn powerful taijutsu.

Moriyue and Ando saw Shira being bullied by his Sunagakure companions, but Moriyue stopped Ando from intervening because Shira still believed enduring their treatment would earn their respect. Later, Kazeki introduced Moriyue to Tenten, Kaede, and Ajisai, and the group agreed to get acquainted over a meal.

• Moriyue told Shira that his Sunagakure companions were brainwashing him, but Shira insisted they would recognize him if he became stronger.
• After Moriyue and Ando left the bath, several Sunagakure ninja surrounded Shira, insulted him, and punched him while he endured it silently.
• Ando wanted to defend Shira, but Moriyue stopped him and said Shira had to choose his own path.
• Kazeki introduced Moriyue and Ando to Kaede, Ajisai, and Tenten, while Ajisai suspected Kazeki was a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki.
• Moriyue invited the group to a restaurant, and his courteous manner eased Tenten's suspicion of him.

Moriyue treated the other examinees to dinner, gathered intelligence, and realized Ajisai had mistaken chakra inside Kazeki for tailed-beast chakra. Meanwhile, Danzo ordered Root to watch the group and moved to disrupt Gaara’s arrival in Konoha.

• Moriyue took Tenten, Ajisai, Kazeki, Kaede, and Ando to dinner, where he collected information about their motives and noticed Ajisai watching Kazeki.
• Danzo sent Root operatives to monitor Moriyue, Ajisai, and a Takigakure girl, ordering them to eliminate anyone who threatened Konoha’s stability.
• After dinner, Moriyue sensed the chakra inside Kazeki responding to him and concluded that Ajisai had mistaken it for tailed-beast chakra.
• Danzo learned that Gaara was due to reach Konoha the next day and ordered his allies in Sunagakure to prepare to act against him.

Moriyue and his teammates prepared for the third Chunin Exam, a dangerous scroll-gathering race from the Forest of Death to a desert tower. Though Kazeki and Ando urged him to withdraw out of concern for his inexperience, Moriyue led them into the exam with confidence.

• After a cafeteria brawl ruined the examinees’ meal, the group blamed the trouble on whoever had thrown the first punch, and Moriyue found himself surrounded by hostile looks the next morning.
• Kazeki warned Moriyue that their enemies were strong and that he lacked the experience to face them, while Ando suggested they return to the village with the intelligence they had gathered.
• Moriyue reassured Kazeki and Ando that he would make them Chunin and led them to the exam site.
• Asuma and Kurenai explained that teams had to gather both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll and reach the desert tower after signing a liability waiver.
• Moriyue signed up and collected an Earth Scroll, then joked about robbing teams and selling their scrolls as Ando urged him to target only vulnerable opponents.

Moriyue led Ando and Zero into the Forest of Death to find a Heaven Scroll, where he tested a powerful electromagnetic attack on a giant bear. The blast killed the beast and echoed through the forest, drawing attention from Asuma and the other examinees.

• Asuma warned the examinees about the Forest of Death's dangerous beasts and sent the remaining teams to their starting points.
• Moriyue asked Ando for the sacks and ropes they had packed and said their first priority was finding a Heaven Scroll.
• Moriyue's team encountered a giant black bear blocking their route, and Ando and Zero dodged its attack.
• Moriyue launched electrified steel nails with an electromagnetic force, blasting a hole through the bear's chest and killing it.
• Moriyue pushed the bear's paw off himself and realized his first test of the Electromagnetic Cannon had caused a huge commotion.

Moriyue concealed the origin of his powerful new Electromagnetic Cannon by claiming it was a forbidden technique created for Kumogakure, and Ando and Kazeki were moved by his explanation. Meanwhile, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino escaped a swarm of hornets before Hinata detected three people ahead, including one with strange Chakra pathways.

• Moriyue explained that his Electromagnetic Cannon had left his arm numb, and Kazeki treated the injury with herbs and bandages.
• Moriyue claimed that his experimental modifications had shortened his life and that he wanted to leave Kumogakure with useful ninjutsu.
• Ando apologized for doubting Moriyue, and Kazeki was moved by his apparent sacrifice for Kumogakure.
• Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were chased by giant hornets, and Shino's Kikaichū devoured the swarm.
• Hinata detected three active Chakra signatures ahead and wondered how one person with such strange Chakra pathways was alive.

Moriyue's team encountered Hinata's group in the forest and launched a fight over their scrolls. As the battle began, Moriyue realized Hinata's Byakugan might reveal the Dog Talisman's secret and resolved to deal with her first.

• Akamaru sensed enemies nearby, and Moriyue's team prepared to attack for their scrolls.
• Moriyue deflected four explosive-tagged kunai with his Blunt Saber and lightning, revealing Hinata's group as the attackers.
• Ando charged Kiba while Kazeki fought Hinata with a water-infused lightning technique.
• Shino sent his Kikaichū to rescue Hinata from Kazeki's Lightning Butterfly Technique.
• Moriyue recognized Hinata and worried that her Byakugan could detect the Dog Talisman near his heart, so he decided to target her.

Moriyue and his companions attacked Hinata, Kiba, and Shino to seize their scroll, and Moriyue defeated Hinata despite her Byakugan and Gentle Fist. He left with Hinata tied inside a sack as Shino summoned a swarm of insects.

• Moriyue used lightning to interfere with Hinata's Byakugan and charged at Team 8.
• Moriyue tricked Shino with a lightning attack, then bypassed him to attack Kiba and Hinata.
• Hinata's Gentle Fist failed to find Moriyue's acupoints, and Moriyue knocked her down with a series of attacks.
• Shino summoned huge insects as Moriyue told Ando and Kazeki to retreat with him.
• Moriyue put the dazed Hinata in a sack, tied it shut, and ran off with her.

Moriyue’s team captured Hinata during the Chunin Exams, but their search turned up no scroll, leaving them unsure whether they had taken the wrong person. As Hinata woke and confronted them, Ando warned that several teams were closing in on their position.

• Kazeki recognized Hinata as the Hyuga Clan’s eldest daughter and recalled the past kidnapping incident that led to Hizashi Hyuga’s death.
• Moriyue explained that he intended to take Hinata’s scroll and later trade her for resources, rather than kill her.
• Moriyue and Kazeki searched Hinata for the Heaven Scroll but found nothing.
• Hinata woke up bound and disheveled, then demanded to know where she was and what Moriyue’s team had done to her.
• Ando reported that several teams were moving to surround them, and Moriyue prepared to face them.

Moriyue’s team was tracked down by a large group of Sunagakure ninja, but Moriyue chose to fight rather than avoid them. As Shira struggled with his loyalty to the village, Moriyue unleashed a devastating lightning attack; the chapter ended with the tattooed Sunagakure ninja threatening him after he refused to surrender.

• Kazeki sensed a large group nearby, and Ando identified them as Sunagakure ninja who had tracked the team.
• Moriyue handed the bound Hinata to Kazeki and Ando, then charged at the Sunagakure group to teach them a lesson.
• Yoru urged Shira to recognize that his village companions were exploiting him, while Shira hesitated over whether to help them.
• Moriyue’s lightning attack blasted the Sunagakure ninja around Shira, leaving Moriyue injured but alive.
• The tattooed Sunagakure ninja demanded the scrolls and the women, and Moriyue refused.

Moriyue survived the battle by exhausting his life force, and his team collected enough scrolls to advance to the desert tower. After Hinata tried to use her Byakugan to investigate him, Moriyue threatened Naruto to force her obedience.

• Moriyue recovered after Kazeki shared her Chakra, while Ando collected two Heaven Scrolls and one Earth Scroll from the defeated ninjas.
• Hinata activated her Byakugan to inspect Moriyue, but he moved behind her and caught her investigating him.
• Moriyue used his killing intent and Hinata's fear for Naruto to threaten that Konoha might abandon or harm him.
• Moriyue pressured Hinata to obey by describing how Naruto could be endangered if she died during the Chunin Exams.

Moriyue discovered that Hinata had secretly left insect traces for Shino’s team to follow and decided to use her to lure them into an ambush. He left the coming fight to Kazeki and Ando, who prepared traps as Shino’s team approached.

• Moriyue questioned Hinata about Gentle Fist and learned the basics of her technique.
• Moriyue found Shino’s insects hidden on Hinata and realized they had been tracking the group.
• Hinata revealed her resolve to protect Konoha and Naruto, and Moriyue planned to use her to obtain Shino’s scroll.
• Moriyue told Kazeki and Ando to handle the next battle while he stayed out of the fight with Hinata.
• Kazeki prepared concealed traps and countermeasures for Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru as the team waited in the woods.

Moriyue’s team ambushed Kiba and Shino as they came to rescue Hinata, incapacitated them, and took their scroll. With Hinata, Kiba, and Shino tied up together, Moriyue considered how to profit from keeping them alive.

• Kiba and Shino entered the forest to rescue Hinata, but a foul-smelling trap knocked Kiba and Akamaru unconscious.
• Shino summoned a giant beetle to clear the smoke and stench, but Kazeki and Ando attacked him before he could finish speaking.
• Kazeki and Ando overwhelmed Shino with coordinated water and electricity attacks.
• Moriyue returned to find Kiba and Shino tied up with Hinata, and Ando handed him Shino’s scroll.
• Moriyue thanked Hinata and said some captives were more valuable alive than dead, making Hinata tremble at his smile.

Moriyue coerced Shino into sharing what Konoha knew by threatening Hinata and Kiba, then learned of a powerful, mysterious presence near a waterfall. Moriyue suspected it might be connected to the Talismans, though the clue remained uncertain.

• Moriyue intimidated Shino with threats against Hinata and Kiba and pressured him to reveal information about Konoha.
• Shino agreed to talk after Moriyue invoked his promise not to abandon his companions, and Moriyue untied Hinata and Kiba.
• Hinata attacked Moriyue as soon as she was freed, but he subdued and tied her up again while Shino gave up resisting.
• Shino said Konoha’s team had heard of a powerful creature or force near a waterfall, though they knew few details.
• Moriyue connected the waterfall clue to the Talismans and decided to keep it in mind.

Moriyue questioned Shino, obtained intelligence about talismans and ninjutsu, and kept Hinata captive despite promising to release his prisoners. As his group headed toward the finish line to ambush exhausted examinees, they spotted two squads fighting.

• Moriyue had Kiba untied, but Kiba attacked and was subdued by Ando and Kazeki.
• Moriyue persuaded Shino to trade intelligence and ninjutsu scrolls for the scrolls and his companions, then kept Hinata as a valuable hostage.
• Shino told Moriyue that someone might attack Gaara and mentioned a mysterious power possibly connected to talismans.
• Moriyue chose to wait along the path to the finish line and tested Shino's ninjutsu with his Reverse Jutsu Formula, repeatedly coughing up blood.
• Ando spotted two squads confronting each other in the distance.