Chapter Summaries

Namikaze Minato analyzed the growing conflict between the Land of Rain and the Land of Iron, then led his squad on an unauthorized patrol route in search of a fight. The patrol ended with Minato discovering three starving children hiding nearby, including a red-haired boy who reminded him of Kushina.

• Namikaze Minato explained that the Land of Rain’s iron trade threatened the Land of Iron’s livelihood and could lead to war, while Uchiha Dan and Tsunade teased him about being Tsunade’s brother-in-law.
• Namikaze Minato left camp with his three rookie squad members to patrol and agreed to search the left-hand route for Amegakure spies.
• The squad found no spies, since Hanzō of the Salamander had stopped sending infiltrators after several were caught.
• Namikaze Minato sensed someone hiding behind a tree and ordered them to come out.
• Three ragged children emerged: an orange-haired boy, a blue-haired girl, and a red-haired boy whose hair reminded Minato of Uzumaki Kushina.

Namikaze Minato and his team encountered three homeless children and gave them food, but enemy ninja attacked before he could learn their story. Minato defeated their leader with the Flying Thunder God Technique and appeared in front of the children again as another attacker closed in.

• Namikaze Minato offered Marching Pills to three hungry children, who told him they had no home.
• Namikaze Minato sensed enemies approaching and shielded the children as four attackers launched Water Severing Wave.
• Namikaze Minato coordinated his teammates, then used the Flying Thunder God Technique and Rasengan to knock out the enemy leader.
• One of the remaining attackers ordered his comrades to target the children, but Namikaze Minato appeared in front of them using a Kunai held by his teammate.

Namikaze Minato protected six allies from a squad sent to kidnap him, then used Shikkotsu Forest Sage Mode and Samehada to defeat the attackers. He left one enemy alive but immobilized and drained of Chakra, who could only stare in disbelief at Minato’s strength.

• Namikaze Minato blocked the attackers’ Fire and Earth Release techniques while they targeted the six people behind him, and an Earth Release ninja escaped Minato’s first attack with an Earth Clone.
• Namikaze Minato entered Shikkotsu Forest Sage Mode and took Samehada from a Storage Scroll, then raised the six allies into a protected Earth Release barrier.
• Namikaze Minato killed the Earth Release ninja with a crushing kick and killed the Fire Release ninja with a Rasengan after teleporting to a marked stone.
• A fleeing enemy was caught by Minato’s clone in a Water Prison, then pinned down and drained of Chakra by Samehada.
• The captured ninja asked how nine-year-old Namikaze Minato could be so strong.

Namikaze Minato and Uchiha Dan captured a Root ninja sent by Shimura Danzō and decided to help Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan find homes in the Land of Fire. After the three children were adopted by separate families, Minato worried whether they would be happy.

• Namikaze Minato identified Shimura Danzō as the likely mastermind behind the kidnapping and said Root operatives would keep being killed.
• Uchiha Dan emerged from hiding, agreed to take the captive for study, and followed Minato to meet Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan.
• Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan explained how war and persecution had left them orphaned and wandering together.
• Uchiha Dan offered to find the three children families in the Land of Fire, and they agreed despite having to live apart.
• Uchiha Dan sent the two captives to Orochimaru, then found kind families who adopted Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan.
• Namikaze Minato returned to camp feeling downcast and wondered whether the three children would be happy.

Namikaze Minato asked to teach the three children ninjutsu, and Uchiha Dan agreed under conditions that protected their independence and Minato’s training. As Uchiha Dan, Tsunade, and Minato headed back to Konoha, an Iwagakure ninja group also approached the village, carrying out Dan’s promise to send Hiruzen Sarutobi a grand gift.

• Uchiha Dan teased Namikaze Minato about Konan, and Tsunade scolded Dan before Minato explained he wanted the children to learn to protect themselves.
• Uchiha Dan agreed that Minato could train the children, provided he taught them one at a time, expected nothing in return, and kept up his own training.
• Uchiha Dan worried that Minato’s bonds could become weaknesses, while Tsunade sensed Dan knew more than he was saying.
• After repeated Root failures, Hiruzen Sarutobi stopped sending forces against Uchiha Dan and reconsidered Shimura Danzō’s plan to recruit talented clan youngsters.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi feared Tsunade’s return and placed his hopes in Orochimaru’s research into countering Uchiha Dan.
• Uchiha Dan, Tsunade, and Namikaze Minato headed back to Konoha as a band of Iwagakure ninjas traveled toward the village.

Uchiha Dan’s scheme brought Iwagakure ninja to Konoha to confront Utatane Koharu over unpaid medicine, and the confrontation triggered rumors that she had sold strategic supplies for personal profit. Hiruzen Sarutobi faced public demands for answers while Utatane Koharu denied the accusations, leaving him anxious about what she might reveal.

• Uchiha Dan and the others returned to Konoha and reunited with Uzumaki Mito, Kushina, and Nawaki.
• Iwagakure ninja caused a scene at Konoha’s gate and demanded that Utatane Koharu explain why she had not delivered medicine they had paid for.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi met the Iwagakure group and escorted them to the Hokage Building, where they left Konoha shortly afterward.
• Rumors spread that Utatane Koharu had sold Marching Pills to Iwagakure and diverted medicine from Konoha’s strategic reserve, prompting villagers to demand answers.
• Utatane Koharu denied the accusations to Hiruzen Sarutobi, who knew she had secretly replaced the missing supplies and feared she might expose his own involvement in their profits.

Hiruzen Sarutobi publicly denied that supplies were missing from Konoha’s strategic reserve warehouse, then saw a prophecy that Tsunade would uncover a problem there. After Hiruzen’s promise put his credibility at risk, Tsunade and Uchiha Dan planned to expose the truth and turn the villagers against him.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi addressed the crowd outside the Hokage Building and declared that the strategic reserve warehouse was accounted for and Koharu was innocent.
• After the crowd dispersed, Hiruzen Sarutobi saw a prophecy of Tsunade discovering a problem with the warehouse and panicked over his public promise.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi confronted Koharu, who insisted she had covered the warehouse shortfall herself and urged him to ask En.
• Uzumaki Mito explained to Tsunade and Kushina that Hiruzen Sarutobi would lose the villagers’ trust if his public denial was exposed as a lie.
• Uchiha Dan told Tsunade to wait for an opening and expose it so the villagers would lose faith in Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi struggled to protect his credibility as Tsunade challenged him to investigate the strategic warehouse and drew public support. The chapter left him trapped, unable to secretly cover up the warehouse’s problems.

• The chapter explained that Tsunade had stronger legitimacy and prestige than Hiruzen Sarutobi, while his authority relied largely on his credibility.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi suspected Uchiha Dan was behind the Iwagakure shinobi and the stolen supply shipments, but feared that acknowledging it would expose Utatane Koharu’s smuggling.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi considered allowing an investigation and making Utatane Koharu take the blame to protect his own reputation.
• An Anbu Ninja told Hiruzen Sarutobi that Tsunade had blocked the strategic warehouse and demanded a thorough investigation.
• Tsunade promised to guard the border for three years if the warehouse was clean and called for severe punishment if it was not, prompting villagers to join her protest.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi realized the growing crowd had ruined his plan to sneak into the warehouse and cover up its problems, and he cried out in despair.

Hiruzen Sarutobi reconsidered his suspicion that Uchiha Dan had tampered with the strategic reserve warehouse and learned that Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura had secretly replenished its supplies. Confident Tsunade would find no shortage, Hiruzen planned to delay the investigation and let public anger turn against her, though he still worried Uchiha Dan might have replaced the supplies.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi weighed three explanations for the warehouse situation and decided to verify whether Utatane Koharu had replenished the shortfall.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi told Utatane Koharu about Tsunade's challenge, and Koharu grew confident that Tsunade would find no problems.
• Mitokado Homura described how he had secretly purchased and transported the ingredients and had Orochimaru make the supplies.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi concluded that Uchiha Dan probably did not know the shortfall had been made up and decided to drag out the investigation so public anger would fall on Tsunade.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi worried that Uchiha Dan might have swapped the supplies, but Utatane Koharu insisted the warehouse barrier prevented his Flying Thunder God Technique from entering.

After ten days of public anger over the suspected sale of Konoha’s strategic supplies, Ryohei Hyuga and other clan leaders confronted Hiruzen Sarutobi. Torifu Akimichi and Uchiha Fukuyama called for a thorough investigation, leaving Hiruzen under pressure to give the village an answer.

• Utatane Koharu insisted that Uchiha Dan could not have breached the reinforced warehouse barrier, and Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered Homura to inspect it.
• As the investigation stalled, Konoha residents grew convinced that Utatane Koharu had sold strategic supplies and that Hiruzen was protecting her.
• Ryohei Hyuga struggled to contain unrest involving the Police Force and the Hyuga Branch Family, then brought Uchiha Fukuyama, Torifu Akimichi, and other clan leaders to confront Hiruzen.
• Hiruzen asked the clan leaders how to resolve the matter, and Torifu Akimichi called for a thorough investigation and an answer for the people.
• Uchiha Fukuyama echoed Torifu Akimichi’s demand, insisting that the investigation would give Lord Hokage his due.

Torifu Akimichi proposed a five-member team to investigate the strategic supply depot, and Hiruzen Sarutobi agreed while secretly resenting him. Uchiha Dan told Tsunade that the suspected problem was the quality of the supplies, then left as Hiruzen arrived to stage the investigation.

• Torifu Akimichi recommended Ryohei Hyuga, Mitokado Homura, Uchiha Fukuyama, himself, and Tsunade to lead the investigation alongside Medical Ninjas and supply workers.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi approved the team while privately deciding to deal with Torifu Akimichi after the investigation.
• Uchiha Dan told Tsunade that he had not inspected the depot because of its barrier and explained that the supplies might be inferior in quality.
• Uchiha Dan left the tent and told Tsunade to play along with Hiruzen Sarutobi's expected performance.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived with a crowd, praised Tsunade, and criticized her for making a rash promise to guard the border if the investigation found no problem.

Tsunade forced an inspection of Konoha’s strategic reserve warehouse despite Hiruzen Sarutobi’s attempt to sway public opinion against her. She found inferior Marching Pills, leaving Torifu Akimichi and the others stunned as the investigation began.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi portrayed himself as patient and conciliatory, then agreed to let Tsunade inspect the warehouse.
• Ninjas dismantled the barrier, and Tsunade, Torifu Akimichi, and the others entered the underground warehouse as news drew a crowd.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi privately taunted Uchiha Dan and planned to use the inspection to damage Tsunade’s reputation.
• Tsunade stopped the planned inventory and opened crates from different parts of the warehouse.
• Tsunade found Marching Pills whose color showed they were inferior goods, shocking Torifu Akimichi and the others.

An inspection of Konoha’s strategic supply depot uncovered inferior goods despite its inventory quantities matching, shocking the village’s leaders. Hiruzen Sarutobi fainted after Uchiha Dan publicly suggested Utatane Koharu might be responsible without his knowledge.

• Mitokado Homura confirmed that Marching Pills in the depot were inferior goods and realized the problem predated his own replenishment of supplies.
• Tsunade ordered the gathered workers to inspect every crate in pairs and record their findings.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi grew anxious as the inspection dragged on, while Uchiha Dan mocked his impatience.
• A messenger told Hiruzen Sarutobi that quantities matched but inferior goods had been found, and Tsunade needed more workers to inspect the supplies.
• Uchiha Dan repeated the bad news for the crowd and suggested Utatane Koharu might have acted alone, causing Hiruzen Sarutobi to spit blood and faint.

Uchiha Dan treated Hiruzen Sarutobi after he fainted, leaving him cornered by the crowd’s suspicions about the reserve warehouse scandal. Hiruzen sent help to Tsunade, then reflected on how his concern for his reputation and indulgence of his allies had weakened his authority and brought him to this point.

• Uchiha Dan examined Hiruzen Sarutobi, secretly tampering with his treatment before Hiruzen woke and accused him of what he was doing.
• Uchiha Dan acted innocent and reminded Hiruzen that he had suggested Utatane Koharu might have acted alone, making it difficult for Hiruzen to blame her without appearing to evade responsibility.
• A messenger told Hiruzen Sarutobi that Tsunade needed help, and Hiruzen agreed to send people from the Hokage Building.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi reflected that his desire to protect his reputation had led him to indulge Utatane Koharu, surrender authority to allies, and neglect oversight.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi recognized that Utatane Koharu, Shimura Danzō, and Mitokado Homura had formed an alliance, while Tsunade and the villagers increasingly turned against him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi announced Utatane Koharu’s punishment after investigators uncovered that she had sold Konoha’s strategic supplies for profit, while public anger against both leaders grew. When Hiruzen visited Koharu in prison, she accused him of betraying her and threatened to expose their shared crimes unless he freed her within a month.

• Investigators found that nearly thirty percent of Konoha’s strategic reserve supplies were defective or had been replaced, and that Utatane Koharu had sold supplies to other villages for profit.
• Konoha’s people turned their sorrow and disillusionment into anger, calling for Hiruzen Sarutobi to step down and Tsunade to become Hokage.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi stripped Utatane Koharu of her elder position, confiscated her ill-gotten gains, and sent her to Konoha Prison pending further investigation.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi told Koharu that he would free her within three months after finding a way to remove Tsunade and hold on to the Hokage Position.
• Utatane Koharu accused Hiruzen Sarutobi of sacrificing her to protect himself and threatened to reveal their secrets unless he got her out within one month.

Uchiha Dan manipulated Hiruzen Sarutobi and Utatane Koharu’s emotions, worsening their conflict before confronting Koharu in her cell. He attacked her and hinted that he had been responsible for the disappearances of her followers and clansmen.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi grew furious with Utatane Koharu and considered killing her to protect Konoha, then left her cell without learning whether she had made contingency plans.
• Uchiha Dan appeared in the cell and revealed that he had used genjutsu to influence Hiruzen Sarutobi and Utatane Koharu’s emotions.
• Uchiha Dan struck Utatane Koharu into the wall with his Mangekyō Sharingan, while she insisted Hiruzen Sarutobi would protect her.
• Uchiha Dan told Utatane Koharu that Hiruzen Sarutobi was considering killing her, and she refused to believe him.
• Uchiha Dan asked whether it had been difficult watching her followers and clansmen disappear over the past year, and Utatane Koharu realized he might have caused it.

Uchiha Dan used genjutsu to make Utatane Koharu reveal her crimes and implicate Hiruzen Sarutobi, while Hiruzen experienced the exchange as a prophecy. The chapter ended with Hiruzen returning to face a memory-wiped Koharu.

• Uchiha Dan revealed that he had manipulated Utatane Koharu into sabotaging the strategic reserve warehouse and forgetting her actions.
• Utatane Koharu begged Dan to spare her and offered to help Tsunade and expose Hiruzen Sarutobi.
• Through the prophetic vision, Hiruzen heard Koharu accuse him of corruption, plotting against the Uchiha Clan and Former Senju Clan, and ordering her to mistreat Dan.
• Dan's genjutsu forced Koharu to reveal that she had hidden a ledger beneath the well in her backyard, recording payments that included money sent to the Sarutobi Clan.
• Dan vanished, Koharu lost her memory of the exchange, and Hiruzen returned to appear before her.

Hiruzen Sarutobi killed Utatane Koharu to keep her ledger and betrayal from being exposed, but Mitokado Homura witnessed the murder. The news fueled demands for Tsunade to replace Hiruzen as Hokage until Sunagakure and Amegakure declared war on Konoha.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi stabbed Utatane Koharu before she could reveal that Uchiha Dan had manipulated her and taken the ledger.
• Mitokado Homura arrived, found Utatane Koharu dead, and carried her body out of the prison in grief.
• News spread that Hiruzen Sarutobi had executed Utatane Koharu in front of Mitokado Homura, prompting villagers to question his fitness as Hokage.
• Konoha residents increasingly called for Tsunade to replace Hiruzen Sarutobi as Hokage.
• Sunagakure and Amegakure joined forces and declared war on Konoha.

As Sunagakure and Amegakure declared war on Konoha, Uchiha Dan explained why the conflict was unavoidable and warned Tsunade’s faction that Hiruzen Sarutobi might use wartime authority against them. He told the group to follow their own judgment at the front and revealed that Orochimaru could be trusted, leaving them expecting to be assigned together.

• Uchiha Dan told Tsunade’s faction that war would divert Konoha’s people from trying to force Hiruzen Sarutobi out of office.
• Hatake Sakumo openly joined Tsunade’s faction and questioned the cost of war, while Uchiha Dan said Sunagakure’s resource crisis and Hanzō of the Salamander’s ambitions had made conflict unavoidable.
• Uchiha Dan warned that Hiruzen Sarutobi might use wartime command to undermine his opponents and advised the group not to blindly follow Shimura Danzō’s orders.
• Uchiha Dan told the group that Orochimaru was one of their allies and could be trusted if they were assigned under him.
• Uchiha Dan predicted that Hiruzen Sarutobi might place him and Orochimaru on the same side because their apparent grudge made Orochimaru seem useful for setting him up.

Uchiha Dan’s predictions about the war orders proved accurate, but Orochimaru publicly reprimanded him and kept him under guard at the right-flank battlefield. Afterward, Orochimaru secretly told Uchiha Fukuyama that Dan’s apparent body was a clone and gave him a covert mission in the Land of Rain.

• Uchiha Dan explained how the Uchiha would be divided among the war units and predicted that Hatake Sakumo would be sent into the most dangerous fights.
• Two days later, the Hokage’s orders matched Uchiha Dan’s predictions, and his group hurried to the right-flank battlefield.
• Orochimaru scolded Uchiha Dan for arriving late, assigned him to remain on standby, and placed two people to watch him.
• Orochimaru privately told Uchiha Fukuyama that the Dan who had been with them was a Spirit Wood Clone and that Dan’s real body was already in the Land of Rain.
• Orochimaru instructed Uchiha Fukuyama to hide his clan members, receive intelligence about Hanzō of the Salamander from Dan, and scout for concealed ambush sites.