Chapter Summaries

Yuki and the mountain folk came to Ono Village seeking medicine for his sick daughter, Aiko, and the villagers and young ninja learned they had fled feudal oppression rather than harmed anyone. After Chino promised they could resettle with land and homes, Hagoromo left, entrusting the Shinobi World to Menma.

• Yuki led the mountain folk toward Ono Village to find help for Aiko, and Hayama Yu and the other young ninja surrounded them in the forest.
• Shikamaru noticed Aiko and the frightened women and children, and Yuki knelt to beg the ninja to save his daughter.
• Chiyo Chizuru diagnosed Aiko with a cold and gave her medicine while villagers fed the mountain folk.
• Yuki explained that his people had taken goods only to survive and had never killed anyone, so Chino said they could resettle after an investigation.
• Hagoromo watched the mountain folk learn they would receive land and homes, then told Menma he would return to the Pure Land and leave the Shinobi World in his care.

Sato Sayun left his vacation to meet Sasuke at Training Ground Thirteen and serve as his sparring partner, revealing that he could wield a transplanted Three-Tomoe Sharingan. The chapter ended as Sasuke prepared to fight him and Sayun drew Lightning Blade Kiba.

• Sato Sayun told Suzuhara Ai, Morishita Shun-jin, and Murahashi Hazuki that Uchiha Hikari had assigned him to train a new junior disciple.
• After Sayun left, Murahashi Hazuki teased Suzuhara Ai about her feelings for him and suggested she use his love of games to win him over.
• Sasuke waited at Training Ground Thirteen, wondering how Naruto's training was progressing and who Uchiha Hikari had chosen as his sparring partner.
• Sayun arrived, introduced himself as Uchiha Hikari's disciple, and told Sasuke that he had to defeat him to continue training.
• Sayun revealed his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and Sasuke recognized him as a formidable opponent.
• Sasuke challenged Sayun, who drew Lightning Blade Kiba as electricity crackled across the blade.

Menma reviewed the Land of Stars' extensive wartime preparations and assigned Hikari and several elite commanders to a new operation. The meeting ended with Menma revealing that their target was not human, while the countries of the ninja world still had a week to answer his ultimatum.

• Minato reported that the Land of Stars had completed its military mobilization, organized three main forces, and stockpiled supplies for a prolonged war.
• Menma instructed officials to prioritize logistics and prepare the economy, military equipment, schools, and citizens for severe wartime conditions.
• Miroku pledged that the Shrine Maiden Sect would support public morale, treat wounded ninjas, and help pacify newly liberated regions.
• Menma ordered Hikari to assemble three thousand elite troops and named Shisui, Hizashi, Kisame, and Kakuzu to join the operation.
• Kakuzu asked whether they would attack Iwagakure for bounty money, but Menma said their target was not human.

Kurotsuchi remained imprisoned in Iwagakure after opposing Ōnoki and Kitsuchi’s plans to attack the Land of Stars. Deidara attacked the village and freed her, asking if she was disappointed in Iwagakure too.

• Kurotsuchi recalled how Ōnoki had tricked her into returning from the Land of Stars and ordered her confined after she opposed Iwagakure’s plans for war.
• Kitsuchi visited Kurotsuchi and questioned why she and other returned students supported the Land of Stars’ Star Ideology.
• Kitsuchi dismissed Kurotsuchi’s hopes for peace as possible Uchiha genjutsu and left her imprisoned until the war ended.
• Deidara began bombing Iwagakure, prompting Kitsuchi and Ōnoki Ku to rush down the mountain while Kurotsuchi watched from her cell.
• Deidara’s explosive ants destroyed the guards, and he opened Kurotsuchi’s cell and asked whether she was disappointed in Iwagakure.

Deidara persuaded Kurotsuchi to leave Iwagakure with him and pursue the art of explosions in the Land of Stars. On the coast, Menma urged Naruto to recover from training and helped him understand that true strength also meant knowing why he fought.

• Deidara told Kurotsuchi he wanted to go to the Land of Stars after being inspired by the explosion at the Chunin Joint Exams.
• Kurotsuchi joined Deidara on his clay bird, and they escaped Iwagakure as Kitsuchi and the other ninja pursued them.
• Naruto woke on the coast exhausted from training, and Menma told him to rest and recover.
• Naruto asked how long it would take him to contain the complete Kurama, and Menma told him not to rush while his body was still growing.
• Menma told Naruto that strength included strength of heart, and Naruto reflected on his lessons and experiences among the people of the Land of Stars.

Kimimaro asked Shikamaru for advice on designing a clan compound that could also serve as a training dojo for Shikotsumyaku transplant recipients. As the group gathered for a farewell dinner on their last day in the Land of Stars, Sato Sayun brought back an exhausted Sasuke from special training.

• Kimimaro explained that he wanted a dojo-like compound where he could train ninja who received Shikotsumyaku transplants, and Shikamaru advised him to begin on a small scale.
• Choji, Kiba, Ino, Sakura, Haku, and the others arrived with ingredients and began preparing a farewell feast at Kimimaro's house.
• Shikamaru asked whether Menma and Naruto would attend the farewell dinner, and Haku said they should arrive soon.
• Sato Sayun appeared with a badly exhausted Sasuke and explained that he had put him through special training at Teacher Hikari's instruction.
• Haku caught Sasuke as Sato Sayun tossed him into the courtyard, and Sakura and Ino rushed to check on him.

After Sasuke and Naruto recovered from their brutal training, Menma and Shikamaru discussed the coming Fourth Shinobi World War during a farewell barbecue. Menma revealed that the ninja villages were not the war’s true targets, leaving Shikamaru thinking of the mysterious enemies who had appeared during the Chunin Joint Exams.

• Haku treated Sasuke with the Mystical Palm Technique, while Shikamaru sent Ino and Sakura to get him food.
• Menma returned with an exhausted Naruto, who quickly sprang up and went to watch Sasuke; seeing Naruto energized Sasuke to try getting up too.
• Everyone gathered for a barbecue, where Shikamaru thanked Haku and Kimimaro and later joined Menma for a conversation.
• Shikamaru worried that Sakura and Tenten would face questioning after returning to Konoha, and Menma said the war would not last long if his plan went smoothly.
• Menma told Shikamaru that the ninja villages were not the Fourth Shinobi World War’s main targets and that hidden enemies were the real threat.

Menma, Naruto, and Sasuke saw Shikamaru and the other Konoha rookies off at Star City North Station as they prepared to travel to Ueno City. After explaining the Land of Stars’ security procedures and exchanging farewells, Menma promised Shikamaru that peace would come soon, and the rookies boarded the train.

• Kimimaro handed out tickets for the express train to Ueno City and led Shikamaru and the others through the station.
• Menma showed his Jonin certificate at the checkpoint, then explained to Naruto and Sasuke why even he followed ordinary security procedures.
• Naruto and Sasuke bickered as the group made its way to the platform, where Menma and the others said their goodbyes.
• Shikamaru thanked Menma for taking care of them and wished there could be no war, and Menma promised that peace would come soon.
• Shikamaru, Choji, and the other rookies boarded the train while Menma, Naruto, and Sasuke watched from the platform.

Menma led the Star Ninja Army into the Land of Rivers to locate the passage to Mount Myoboku, while Katsuyu Sage questioned whether conflict with the toads could be avoided. Menma found unusual natural-energy fluctuations beneath a massive waterfall and headed toward them with Hikari.

• Menma ordered Shisui and Hizashi to establish a secure camp for the three-thousand-strong force in the rainforest.
• Menma searched the region with the Mind's Eye of the Kagura while Katsuyu Sage admired the tropical rainforest and recalled Menma's promise to give it a reserve.
• Menma explained to Hikari that Mount Myoboku had helped Iwagakure develop its Artificial Humans and said he would strike back because the toads had crossed his boundary.
• Menma told Katsuyu Sage he would leave the Three Great Sage Regions alone if they stayed out of the shinobi world, and might offer them protected territory in exchange for a price.
• Menma and Hikari followed a natural-energy fluctuation downstream and found a vast waterfall where Menma sensed the passage to Mount Myoboku.

Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima discussed the Great Toad Sage’s prophecy and the mysterious figure connected to Asura, the Child of Darkness, and the recent Otsutsuki revelations. The Great Toad Sage revealed that he had dreamed again and said the figure was coming.

• Fukasaku recalled that Jiraiya had revealed Naruto’s older brother was the prophesied Child of Darkness.
• Fukasaku told Shima that the techniques of the mysterious person who fought Asura in Amegakure resembled those used by one of the Otsutsuki at the Chunin Joint Exams.
• Fukasaku and Shima went to the Great Toad Sage after Fukasaku connected Mount Myoboku’s expanded contracts with the growing crisis.
• Shima woke the dozing Great Toad Sage, who said he had dreamed again.
• The Great Toad Sage identified the dream’s subject and said, “He—is coming.”

The Great Toad Sage revealed a vision of a catastrophic war and a dark power consuming the Shinobi World, while warning Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima that the Child of Darkness was coming. As humans breached the temple, he ordered them to flee and never return to the Shinobi World.

• Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima questioned the Great Toad Sage about Menma, Naruto, and the prophecy of the Child of Darkness.
• The Great Toad Sage described a future war involving humans, white humanoid creatures, and souls returned from the dead, ending with darkness swallowing the Shinobi World.
• The Great Toad Sage said he could no longer see the Child of Prophecy and foretold that a solitary figure would gain allies and battle enemies from space above the Shinobi World.
• The Great Toad Sage warned that the coming battle could not be avoided, as explosions and battle cries erupted outside the temple.
• A red toad reported that humans had broken in, and the Great Toad Sage rose from his pot and ordered Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima to flee and never return to the Shinobi World.

Menma’s Star Ninja Army invaded Mount Myoboku, using Kunai Guns and coordinated tactics to overwhelm the toads while capturing ordinary ones. After the Toad Triad entered the battle, Menma sent Kakuzu, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Hizashi Hyuga to face them, and the two sides prepared to fight.

• Menma ordered Shiro, Yukimi, Chino, and Junren to lead forces across Mount Myoboku while Murahashi Hazuki established a medical camp for wounded ninja and captured toads.
• The Star Ninja Army used Kunai Guns and explosive kunai to defeat waves of resisting toads across the mountain and lowland basin.
• Gamabunta and Gamahiro arrived and attacked the Star Ninja, prompting Kakuzu to ask Menma for permission to test his secret technique on them.
• Menma sent Kakuzu, Kisame Hoshigaki, and Hizashi Hyuga to fight the Toad Triad.
• Kakuzu bound Gamahiro with black tendrils and clashed with Gamaken, blocking his attack with Earth Release: Earth Spear.
• Kakuzu, Kisame, and Hizashi faced the three toad brothers as both sides spread into battle formations.

Star Nation forces led by Hizashi Hyuga demanded that Mount Myoboku submit to an investigation over its support for Iwagakure, but the Toad Triad refused and fought back. Kisame and Kakuzu engaged the toads as Hizashi battled Gamahiro, leaving the confrontation underway.

• Hizashi Hyuga presented Star Nation’s investigation order and accused Mount Myoboku of interfering in the Shinobi World by aiding Iwagakure.
• Gamabunta rejected the demand and told the Star Ninja to leave Mount Myoboku.
• Kisame Hoshigaki and Kakuzu attacked the Toad Triad after Hizashi declared that the toads were resisting arrest.
• Kisame clashed with Gamabunta, while Kakuzu unleashed a combined Fire Style and Wind Style attack against Gamaken.
• Hizashi struck Gamahiro with Air Palms as Gamahiro descended with its twin blades, and the battle continued amid smoke and flames.

Kisame Hoshigaki flooded the battlefield and helped defeat Gamahiro, while a giant toad emerged from beneath Mount Myoboku’s temple. The Great Toad Sage absorbed the mountain’s natural energy and confronted Menma, saying they had finally met as foretold in his dream.

• Kisame Hoshigaki drowned Kakuzu’s flames with a massive Water Style jutsu, and Gamabunta and Gamaken escaped the flood as Gamahiro lay defeated.
• Kakuzu and the other fighters noticed the mountains near the temple collapsing as the enormous Iwayado Great Toad rose from beneath them.
• Uchiha Hikari sensed natural energy rushing toward the temple, where the Great Toad Sage emerged and drew it into himself.
• Gamabunta and Gamaken joined the Great Toad Sage, who said he knew the Land of Stars ninja and had seen Menma in a dream.
• Menma asked the Great Toad Sage what his dream had shown that made him so intent on interfering.

Shikamaru and the other Leaf rookies returned from the Land of Stars and were taken to the Anbu for questioning about their experiences. Their clan leaders worried about the interrogation, but Shikamaru returned home saying it had been routine.

• Shikamaru and the other rookies registered their return with Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, who told them retired shinobi were receiving conscription orders.
• Three Anbu shinobi escorted the rookies to the Anbu, where Ibiki Morino questioned them about their time in the Land of Stars.
• Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza discussed the questioning, with Shikaku reassuring Inoichi and Choza saying he trusted Menma not to harm Choji and the others.
• Shikamaru returned home and told Yoshino Nara that the Anbu had asked routine questions before greeting Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza.

Shikamaru told Shikaku that the Shinobi Allied Forces would lose badly in the coming war, a judgment shaped by what he had seen in the Star Country. Shikaku then revealed that Itachi Uchiha had attacked Asuma and Kurenai, leaving Shikamaru stunned.

• Inoichi and Choza left Shikaku's veranda to return home to their children, and Shikaku asked Shikamaru to finish their shogi game.
• While they played, Shikamaru told Shikaku that he had not met the Star Country's major figures, and Shikaku asked what he thought of the approaching Fourth Shinobi World War.
• After recalling the Star Country's people, cities, and Scientific Ninja Tools, Shikamaru said the entire Shinobi Allied Forces would lose badly.
• Shikaku accepted his son's judgment, then told him that Asuma and Kurenai had been hospitalized after two S-rank rogue ninja attacked them.
• Shikaku identified the attacker who had acted as Itachi Uchiha, and Shikamaru's pupils trembled.

Danzo studied the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu and learned that the Leaf’s pursuit teams had been defeated, while he kept Jiraiya under surveillance. At Ichiraku Ramen, Kosuke the Toad delivered urgent news that Mount Myoboku had been attacked by humans, and Jiraiya sprang into action.

• Aburame Tatsuma gave Danzo the interrogation results, which described how Shikamaru and the others had been captured in the Land of Rivers and taken to the Land of Stars.
• Danzo learned that the two elite Root squads sent after Naruto had been wiped out by a single Hoshinin, then asked about Jiraiya and dismissed his public antics as deliberate misdirection.
• Danzo studied the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu while enduring pain from his transplanted arm.
• Jiraiya and Iruka ate ramen at Ichiraku, where Jiraiya reflected on Naruto and Menma without revealing their identities to Iruka.
• Kosuke the Toad appeared in Jiraiya’s ramen and warned that humans had attacked Mount Myoboku, prompting Jiraiya to leap to his feet.

Jiraiya returned to Mount Myoboku and found it under attack by the Land of Stars, with Uchiha Hikari’s Susanoo battling the toads and Menma confronting the Great Toad Sage. He faced his former comrades Shisui and Hizashi as they declared the Land of Stars would impose a new order on the shinobi world.

• Jiraiya left Iruka’s ramen shop with Kosuke the Toad and used Reverse Summoning to escape Root’s surveillance and reach Mount Myoboku.
• Jiraiya surfaced beside the dead Gamahiro and saw Uchiha Hikari’s Susanoo fighting the Iwayado Great Toad amid the flooded, devastated mountain.
• Jiraiya found the injured Gamabunta and learned that Menma was fighting the Great Toad Sage.
• Shisui and Hizashi arrived with Kisame Hoshigaki and Kakuzu, presenting a warrant to seal Mount Myoboku over its alleged aid to Iwagakure.
• Jiraiya condemned the Land of Stars’ intervention, and Shisui declared that it would forge a new order for the shinobi world.

Shisui and the Land of Stars forces confronted Jiraiya and the toads over Mount Myoboku, as Menma ordered the sacred land eradicated. Jiraiya chose to defend Mount Myoboku and began gathering natural energy to enter Sage Mode against Shisui’s Susanoo.

• Gamabunta condemned the humans for invading Mount Myoboku, while Kakuzu and Kisame prepared to fight the toads.
• Shisui formed a towering Susanoo and told Jiraiya that Menma had ordered Mount Myoboku’s destruction.
• Jiraiya questioned whether Minato knew of the invasion, and Hizashi confirmed that Minato knew and had ordered them not to hold back against him.
• Jiraiya reflected on the Great Toad Sage’s prophecy and his doubts after seeing the Land of Stars prosper.
• Jiraiya chose to fight for Mount Myoboku, applied Toad Oil, and began using Sage Mode as Gamabunta and Gamaken prepared to protect him.

Jiraiya struggled to enter Sage Mode while Shisui, Kakuzu, and Kisame attacked him and the toads. The chapter left Gamabunta overwhelmed by Kisame’s shark swarm as Samehada approached Jiraiya.

• Shisui’s Susanoo fired a rain of chakra arrows, which Gamaken blocked with its shield while Gamabunta intercepted the rest with water spheres.
• Kakuzu trapped Gamabunta’s sword arm with black tendrils and blasted its head with a combined chakra beam, forcing Jiraiya to leap clear.
• Gamaken struck Kakuzu with its iron fork, but Shisui’s Susanoo shattered Gamaken’s shield and sent it flying.
• Jiraiya reached the wounded Gamabunta and continued gathering natural energy, but he had not yet completed Sage Mode.
• Jiraiya spotted sharks in the water and warned Gamabunta to get out, but Kisame’s Thousand Feeding Sharks swarmed and badly mauled the toad.
• Kisame blended into the shark swarm as Samehada moved toward Jiraiya.