Chapter Summaries

Jiraiya and Ajisai watched the Land of Stars police investigate a bandit attack and learned how the country trained officials and maintained public security. When the bandits ambushed Uchiha Taichi’s squad, Jiraiya and Ajisai helped turn the fight around, and Taichi awakened a Two-Tomoe Sharingan before pursuing the fleeing leader with Yamazaki Shota.

• Uchiha Taichi checked Jiraiya and Ajisai’s travel documents, then led his squad to investigate the attack on Gunma Village.
• Jiraiya and Ajisai observed the squad’s investigation and learned from Village Chief Ooiwa that village officials received government training and police were salaried public servants.
• Uchiha Taichi’s squad tracked the bandits to Gunma Mountain, where Tomiyama and rogue ninja ambushed them and seriously wounded Iwaro Tetsuya.
• Uchiha Taichi, Yamazaki Shota, and Sakura Maki used their equipment and teamwork to hold off the attackers until Jiraiya and Ajisai arrived to help.
• Tomiyama fled with his remaining men, and Uchiha Taichi awakened a Two-Tomoe Sharingan before pursuing him with Yamazaki Shota, leaving Jiraiya and Ajisai to protect the injured teammates.

Jiraiya met with Shisui and Hyuga Natsu in Ageo City, where Shisui explained Konoha’s role in the Uchiha massacre and denied that Asura had incited the clan to defect. The conversation left Jiraiya struggling to piece together the truth, while Menma learned that Jiraiya had arrived.

• The villagers welcomed Taichi and Shota after they defeated Tomiyama’s bandits, and the group stayed overnight while the wounded Tetsuya received care.
• The next morning, Tetsuya was taken to a field hospital, and Jiraiya, Ajisai, Taichi, Shota, and Sakura traveled to Ageo City.
• At the Bear County Police Headquarters, Jiraiya reunited with Hyuga Natsu and Shisui, while Taichi reacted with hostility upon learning Jiraiya was from the Hidden Leaf.
• Jiraiya asked Shisui and Natsu about the Hyuga and Uchiha clans’ departure from Konoha, and Shisui described Danzō’s attack on him and the planned extermination of the Uchiha.
• Shisui said Asura intervened to stop the massacre and rescue the Uchiha, not to provoke their betrayal, leaving Jiraiya in a long silence.
• Back in Star City, Minato told Menma that Jiraiya had arrived.

Menma headed to Ageo City to meet Jiraiya while Minato stayed behind to avoid provoking his former teacher. After Menma helped Ajisai restock her ninja tools, Jiraiya spotted them together and recognized Menma as the Land of Stars’ ruler, Asura.

• Menma decided to meet Jiraiya in Ageo City, and Minato agreed to remain in Star City.
• Ajisai went into a ninja tool shop, but she could not afford the supplies she needed.
• Menma surprised Ajisai, then used his Inspection Department ID to arrange for her to buy ninja tools.
• Jiraiya parted from Uchiha Shisui and Hyuga Natsu after discussing their former ties to Konoha and the prospect of fighting in the future.
• Jiraiya searched for Ajisai and found her with Menma, whom he recognized as Asura.

Menma explained to Jiraiya that lasting peace required changing the systems that produced poverty and hunger, using the Land of Stars as an example. Jiraiya resisted Menma’s arguments and prophecy-driven suspicions nearly sparked a fight, but he backed down and the two ended on a fragile calm beside the harvest fields.

• Jiraiya asked Menma how the Land of Stars had become prosperous so quickly after annexing five countries and abolishing their nobility.
• Menma challenged Jiraiya to consider how people would live after war ended and who was responsible for the world’s poverty and hunger.
• Jiraiya recognized that nobles and daimyo exploited commoners, but he resisted Menma’s arguments about overthrowing the old order and improving society.
• Jiraiya suspected Menma might be the prophesied Child of Darkness and denounced his ideas as deceptive, while Menma remained calm.
• Menma challenged Jiraiya to fight and formed a chakra Black Receiver, but Jiraiya avoided a confrontation and asked about the Land of Stars’ farmland.
• Menma said feeding everyone was the Land of Stars’ most basic ideal, and the two temporarily eased their tension.

Menma showed Jiraiya and Ajisai how the Land of Stars’ chakra-assisted agriculture had brought prosperity to the Nether River Plains, then invited Ajisai to stay with his family. Jiraiya left carrying Menma’s warning for Mount Myoboku, while Uchiha Hikari questioned Menma about Ajisai and accepted his reassurance that she was only a little sister.

• Menma, Jiraiya, and Ajisai crossed the Nether River Plains, where a farmer described the new seeds, fair taxes, and abundant harvests that had improved local lives.
• Menma explained how chakra agriculture produced high-yield crops, and Jiraiya compared the Land of Stars’ prosperity with the hardship elsewhere in the Shinobi World.
• At a ferry crossing, Ajisai chose to stay in the Land of Stars, while Jiraiya continued his journey after Menma warned him to tell the Great Toad Sage that Menma would handle the Otsutsuki threat and threatened Mount Myoboku against interference.
• Menma brought Ajisai to his home in Star City, where Kushina, Minato, Mikoto, Gaara, and Hikari welcomed her as family.
• Minato offered to discuss Ajisai’s Sealing Release Technique with her, while Hikari watched her suspiciously throughout dinner.
• Hikari privately asked Menma whether Ajisai was really just a little sister, and Menma assured her that Ajisai was only a war victim he wanted to help.

Temari, Kankuro, and the other former Sunagakure children arrived in Star City to study at Hoshinin Academy after witnessing the Star Country’s desert-management project and rapid development. Toneri learned that his father was dying, heard his final wishes, and stayed with him until he passed away.

• Toneri, Suzuhara Ai, Sato Sayun, and Hyuga Neji escorted Temari, Kankuro, and the other former Sunagakure children across Wind Prefecture toward Star City.
• Gota explained the Star Country’s plan to slow desert expansion and restore parts of Wind Prefecture, while the children watched ninja and workers begin construction and plant vegetation.
• Temari, Kankuro, and the other children rode the Thunder Train to Star City and arrived at Hoshinin Academy, where Yakushi Nonō welcomed them and told Temari that Gaara would arrive the next day.
• Yakushi Nonō told Toneri that his father’s condition had worsened and that he had been taken to the hospital.
• Otsutsuki Sakuto urged Toneri to continue the Otsutsuki Clan and help Lord Asura end the Shinobi World’s cycle of hatred; Toneri recounted what he had seen on his mission.
• Toneri held his father’s hand as Sakuto died in the hospital.

Neji learned of Otsutsuki Sakuto’s worsening illness and the agreement between the Hyuga Branch House and Otsutsuki Clan, then attended Sakuto’s funeral, where Toneri gave Menma a prototype mental-controlled puppet. In Hidden Leaf Village, Sasuke challenged Menma again and lost for the eighteenth time, while Iruka wondered how far Menma would go.

• Hizashi told Neji that Sakuto was dying and explained the proposed marriage and mutual exchange of Hyuga and Otsutsuki techniques; Sakuto died shortly afterward.
• Hizashi and Neji attended Sakuto’s funeral, where Toneri gave Menma a sealed puppet prototype and Sakuto’s research logs.
• Menma examined the puppet and its mental-link research in his laboratory beneath Star City.
• At the end of winter term, Sasuke challenged Menma to another fight, and Menma defeated him with the One Thousand Years of Death.
• Sasuke fled after vowing to return for revenge, while Iruka watched Menma leave with his friends and reflected on the boy’s future.

Hiruzen reviewed Kakashi’s intelligence on the Land of Stars and warned that its revolutionary power could lead to a major war, while discussing Sasuke and Menma’s promise. As New Year approached, Naruto planned to give Menma a gift, leaving a long-neglected scarf washing in his machine.

• Kakashi reported that he had gathered intelligence near the Land of Stars’ border, and Hiruzen recognized the threat posed by the ideas in Will of the Star.
• Hiruzen ordered Kakashi to rest before taking over Yamato’s covert protection mission for Naruto, then asked for his assessment of Sasuke and Menma.
• Hiruzen told Kakashi that Menma was an exceptional student and urged him to protect Menma, Sasuke, and Naruto as future defenders of the Hidden Leaf.
• Menma invited Naruto to celebrate New Year with him, Hinata, and Hanabi, while Naruto eagerly accepted.
• Naruto tried to buy Menma a New Year’s gift but found he had too little money, so he washed an old dark red scarf instead.

On New Year’s Eve, Naruto visited Menma and exchanged gifts before Menma used a necklace and a mental-link puppet to let him briefly meet his parents. Naruto shared a warm New Year’s dinner and watched fireworks with Minato and Menma, while the link left him believing the reunion was a dream.

• Kakashi relieved Yamato on guard duty, and he and Sasuke followed Naruto when he left his apartment with a gift for Menma.
• Naruto gave Menma Kushina’s dark-red scarf, and Menma gave Naruto a spiral-pattern necklace before they shared New Year’s Eve dinner.
• The necklace’s faint energy lulled Naruto to sleep, and Menma’s true body used the Mental Link Puppet to project Naruto’s consciousness to his family in Star City.
• Naruto reunited with Kushina and Minato through the puppet, shared dinner with them, and was scolded by Kushina for wanting meat instead of vegetables.
• Minato and Menma took Naruto outside to set off fireworks, and Minato wished him a happy New Year.

Three years after the Land of Stars defeated the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, its academy, military, and intelligence network had expanded rapidly. Menma underwent an examination that revealed the immense chakra and rapid regeneration granted by his transformed body, leaving Orochimaru and Hiruko astonished by his Sage Body.

• Karin used her Adamantine Sealing Chains and taijutsu against Gaara, but he baited her into close range and won by trapping her in a Sand Binding Coffin.
• Yakushi Nonō and Yakushi Kabuto discussed the academy’s gifted students and the growing Land of Stars, then agreed that students could join the Anbu Intelligence Division only if they volunteered and passed review.
• Orochimaru and Hiruko nearly fought in the laboratory until Menma ordered them to stop and led them into the examination room.
• Menma explained that he had absorbed Senju Hashirama’s cells with White Zetsu cells as a stabilizer, and the examination showed that his chakra had grown comparable to a tailed beast’s.
• Hiruko struggled to cut Menma’s skin because his wounds healed almost instantly, revealing the regenerative power of his Sage Body.

Menma examined his evolving Sage Body, promoted Katasuke Tono to lead new scientific ninja tool projects, and attended the Ninja Blade tournament, where Idasuke won Kubikiribōchō. The celebrations ended with news that Mukade had stolen classified puppet technology and fled, prompting Menma to recognize the name.

• Hiruko and Orochimaru found that Menma’s body had exceptional cellular activity, chakra affinity, and natural energy absorption, while Katasuke Tono reported that his full analysis would take at least seventy-two hours.
• Menma praised Katasuke’s work and assigned him responsibility for key chakra energy storage and single-soldier combat system projects.
• Menma offered Kisame Hoshigaki leave to support his pregnant wife, Terumi Mei, and Kisame suggested that Inabi temporarily take over his duties.
• At the tournament, Idasuke defeated Zira by outlasting his Seven Heavenly Breaths and exploiting its stamina cost, then received Kubikiribōchō from Menma as the tournament’s new inheritor.
• An Anbu messenger told Kisame that Mukade had stolen combat puppet components and classified production documents from a Wind Prefecture workshop and escaped; Menma recognized the name.

Menma investigated Mukade’s defection and the Dragon Vein beneath Rōran, then triggered its power while trying to sense it. A burst of white light swallowed Menma, Mukade, and the altar, leaving their fate unknown.

• Fuka reported that Mukade had stolen puppet cores and technical blueprints from a Sunagakure City factory, and Minato recalled fragments of a classified mission to Roran.
• Menma canceled the pursuit, ordered Hikari to remain in the Land of Stars, recalled his Shadow Clones, and arranged a diversion in Konoha before traveling to Rōran.
• Menma disabled Mukade’s puppet ambush and followed him into an underground chamber containing an altar and an ancient kunai.
• Mukade released the seal and pulled out the kunai, unleashing the Dragon Vein’s energy, which engulfed and transformed him.
• Menma reached toward the Dragon Vein to sense it, but a white light swallowed him, Mukade, and the altar.

Menma confirmed he had arrived in a parallel world and traveled to Konoha, where he met young Namikaze Minato, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. After a brief clash that revealed his overwhelming abilities, Menma flew away, leaving the Leaf ninja wondering who he was.

• Menma awoke in an ancient ruin in Rōran, realized he was in a parallel world, and learned Anrokuzan had served as the country's minister for five years.
• Menma traveled to Konoha and determined it was Year 47 of the Leaf, before the Third Shinobi World War and Obito's tragedy.
• Minato and Kakashi followed Menma from Ichiraku Ramen to Hokage Rock, where Menma introduced himself as a passing traveler.
• Jiraiya tried to detain Menma, but Menma's Adamantine Sealing Chains overwhelmed the attack and startled the Leaf ninja.
• Minato struck Menma with the Rasengan, but Menma countered with an identical Rasengan and then rose into the air.
• Menma told Minato they would meet again and flew away, leaving Minato, Jiraiya, and Kakashi stunned.

Menma infiltrated the moon and seized the Giant Tenseigan, absorbing its power to awaken Tenseigan Chakra Mode. As Otsutsuki Sakuto and the Branch House mistook his transformed appearance for an ancestor, Menma considered testing his new strength on Madara or Jigen.

• Kakashi, Minato, and Jiraiya reported Menma’s Rasengan, Adamantine Sealing Chains, and flight to Hiruzen Sarutobi, who ordered extra protection for Kushina and surveillance of Mito’s former home and grave.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi sent Minato to the northwest border to investigate Kumogakure’s escalating activity, while Jiraiya voiced concern that Menma would return.
• Menma emerged outside Konoha and said he intended to confirm the identities of Jigen and Uchiha Madara before making his next move.
• Otsutsuki Sakuto inherited leadership of the Branch House and vowed to use the Giant Tenseigan to purify the Shinobi World, but Menma soon breached the moon’s passage and defeated the combat puppets.
• Menma restrained Sakuto, his wife, and the elders with Adamantine Sealing Chains, erased Sakuto’s connection to the Giant Tenseigan, and absorbed its power along with a pair of Byakugan.
• Menma awakened Tenseigan Chakra Mode, and Sakuto mistook his horned, golden-eyed form for an ancestor.

Minato’s reconnaissance squad encountered A and Killer B at the Land of Fire border, but Menma suddenly appeared and overwhelmed A with an unseen repulsive force. As Menma hinted that he intended to consume the Eight-Tails, Gyuki recognized his power and urgently told Killer B to flee.

• Minato led Dodo, Gaku, and Daimaru into the forest to investigate Kumogakure’s activity near the border.
• A and Killer B ambushed Minato’s squad, and Minato used the Flying Thunder God Technique to nearly strike A before Killer B’s tentacle interrupted him.
• Gaku recognized Killer B as the Eight-Tails’ jinchuriki, and Minato’s squad began retreating with the intelligence.
• Menma appeared between the two sides, greeted Minato, and repelled A’s attack with Shinra Tensei.
• Menma spoke of eating the Eight-Tails and finding the Ten-Tails, prompting Gyuki to panic and order Killer B to escape.

Menma overwhelmed the Fourth A and Killer B, then split Killer B’s Tailed Beast Bomb with Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion. Gyuki took the brunt of the strike to protect Killer B, who lay gravely wounded as A rushed to his side.

• Menma used his speed to kick the Fourth A through the forest and send him crashing into the rubble.
• Killer B transformed partially and attacked Menma, but Menma struck him with a Black Receiver and sent him flying.
• The Fourth A returned and attacked Menma with Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop, but Menma blocked the blow with the Black Receiver.
• Killer B formed and fired a Tailed Beast Bomb while the Fourth A grappled Menma, but Menma used Shinra Tensei to throw A away.
• Menma used Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion to split the Tailed Beast Bomb, and Gyuki fully transformed to shield Killer B from the golden blade.
• Gyuki dispersed into chakra motes, Killer B collapsed with a severe wound, and A knelt beside him, crying out for him to hold on.

After defeating Killer B and forcing A to retreat, Menma continued toward Amegakure but diverted to rescue Uzumaki Fuka from Kusagakure ninja. He took Fuka with him, leaving the villagers to flee their home before Kusagakure retaliated.

• Menma warned A to get Killer B medical help, then flew away as Minato ordered his team to report the battle to Konoha.
• While traveling toward Amegakure, Menma sensed Fuka and hostile chakra in the Land of Grass and found Kusagakure ninja attacking a village.
• The Kusagakure leader discovered Fuka’s healing ability and ordered his subordinates to kill the villagers who had witnessed them capturing her.
• Menma killed all five Kusagakure ninja with Adamantine Sealing Chains and introduced himself to Fuka as Uzumaki Menma.
• Menma urged Fuka to leave for her safety, and she followed him toward Amegakure after apologizing to the villagers and telling them to flee.

Uzumaki Fuka used Menma’s training to stop bandits, then encountered Yahiko’s Akatsuki while they dealt with another attack on a merchant caravan. She recognized the attackers as the same bandits and met Nagato, while Menma revealed that he and Fuka were distant relatives of his.

• Fuka subdued five bandits with Adamantine Sealing Chains but let them go after they begged for mercy, following Menma’s advice to make her own judgments.
• Menma gave Fuka scrolls on chakra refinement, nature transformation, and basic Five-Element ninjutsu, and explained that he taught her because she reminded him of someone he knew.
• Fuka and Menma saw Yahiko and Konan protect a caravan from five attackers who had disguised themselves as refugees.
• Fuka recognized the attackers as the bandits she had released earlier, and she recaptured them with her chains after they tried to flee.
• Yahiko introduced himself to Fuka, who recognized Nagato as an Uzumaki, and Menma arrived and said he and Fuka were distant relatives of Nagato.

Menma revealed to Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan a possible future in which their ideals ended in betrayal and tragedy, then exposed White Zetsu spies hidden inside their bodies. The three were left shaken by the evidence that unseen forces had been manipulating and watching them.

• Yahiko welcomed Menma and Fuka to Akatsuki’s base in Amegakure, where Menma explained that Nagato’s Rinnegan could not naturally belong to an Uzumaki and that Nagato’s parents had likely died because of the eyes.
• Menma challenged Yahiko’s faith in self-sacrifice and showed Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato a possible future in which Hanzo and Shimura Danzō betrayed Akatsuki, Yahiko died, and Nagato followed Uchiha Madara’s plan.
• Menma told them that Uchiha Madara was only one player in a much larger conspiracy, then used Dark Kurama’s chakra to force six White Zetsu out of their bodies.
• Fuka bound the White Zetsu with Adamantine Sealing Chains, and Menma killed them and sealed their bodies in a scroll.
• Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan realized the White Zetsu had secretly observed them and were left fearing that their lives and ideals had been manipulated by hidden forces.

Menma warned Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan that they were too weak to confront the hidden enemy and revealed that a powerful battle would soon come to Amegakure. While searching for Amado, Menma found Jigen at the repair shop and confronted him.

• Nagato vowed to grow strong enough to take revenge on the mastermind behind his parents' deaths, and Yahiko and Konan pledged to stand with him.
• Menma told the three that his target was someone other than Nagato's suspected mastermind, and that the coming battle in Amegakure would involve an even stronger opponent.
• After Menma left, Yahiko urged Nagato and Konan to prepare to protect Amegakure's villagers if the battle began.
• Menma and Fuka searched for Amado, learned from a bun seller that he lived in a nearby ninja tool repair shop, and went there.
• Menma entered the shop, recognized the young man leaving as Jigen, and blocked his path.