Chapter Summaries

Uchiha Kai and Hyuga Rei visited the injured Morino Kei at Konoha Hospital, where Chishima Tsurume was caring for him. They told him their mission had been reclassified as A-rank, though its reward stayed the same.

• Uchiha Kai and Hyuga Rei brought fruit and steak rice to Morino Kei, who was being fed meat porridge by Chishima Tsurume.
• Hyuga Rei teased Morino Kei, and he hurt his back while reacting before eagerly accepting the food.
• Uchiha Kai explained that Aburame Keiichi had defeated the attacking Mist Ninja Anbu and brought the team back to Konoha for treatment.
• Uchiha Kai told Morino Kei that the Mission Assignment Office had upgraded their mission to A-rank.
• Morino Kei celebrated the A-rank achievement and expected a larger reward, but Uchiha Kai told him the original payment had not changed.

Morino Kei complained about the low pay for the Yugakure mission before Uchiha Kai reminded him that Huiyi had killed a Mist Anbu captain on Yugakure's turf. In the Hokage's office, Shimura Danzō confronted Hiruzen Sarutobi over the fallout and pleaded for relief from the blame and pressure.

• Morino Kei protested the A-rank mission's payment, and Uchiha Kai explained that Huiyi's actions in Yugakure had made the full fee fortunate.
• Morino Kei began criticizing Shimura Danzō, but Uchiha Kai stopped him, and Hyakusou entered to quiet the hospital room.
• Uchiha Kai left with Hyuga Rei after telling Morino Kei to focus on recovering, leaving him with Chishima Tsurume.
• Shimura Danzō confronted Hiruzen Sarutobi about Huiyi killing a Mist Anbu member in Yugakure and warned that the incident risked drawing the Mist Ninja into conflict.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi said Huiyi had acted on his orders, while Danzō described the daimyo's complaints and asked Hiruzen to ease the pressure on him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi rejected punishing Aburame Keiichi and ordered the Soup Ninja to account for the attack on Konoha shinobi. He granted Shimura Danzō broad authority over foreign affairs and enemies during the war, and Danzō vowed to kill Konoha’s foes.

• Shimura Danzō complained to Hiruzen Sarutobi about having to bear the consequences of Aburame Keiichi’s actions.
• Danzō blamed Keiichi for provoking the Mist, but Hiruzen said the conflict had been planned and insisted Keiichi must not be punished.
• Hiruzen ordered a formal demand for the Soup Ninja to explain how foreign enforcement forces attacked Konoha shinobi in neutral territory.
• Danzō warned that the Mist had recovered its strength and challenged Hiruzen to commit to confronting them.
• Hiruzen granted Danzō control over village affairs concerning foreign relations and enemies for the duration of the war.
• Danzō accepted the authority and declared that he would kill Konoha’s enemies.

Danzo persuaded Hiruzen to send Academy graduates to the war and proposed deploying the Uchiha Clan against the Mist Ninja. Hiruzen realized Danzo was exploiting resentment over the Uchiha’s lack of front-line battle merits to force the clan into combat.

• Danzo urged Hiruzen to send two delayed classes of Ninja Academy graduates to replenish Konoha’s dwindling forces.
• Hiruzen agreed to make the decision but said the village also needed experienced ninja to serve as the main force.
• Danzo proposed sending the Uchiha Clan, and Hiruzen objected that it would deepen the village’s divisions.
• Danzo claimed the other clans resented the Uchiha for earning no front-line battle merits, while Hiruzen defended their Police Force service and recalled that he had rejected their offer to fight.
• Danzo invoked Tobirama’s policy and argued that the Uchiha were the only clan able to provide the troops Konoha needed against the Mist Ninja.

Shimura Danzō left the Hokage Building smiling while the Hokage reviewed a freshly written document. Uchiha Kai assessed his growing strength, and in Kirigakure Karatachi Yagura faced an angry challenge from Elder Fenyue during a meeting with Mist Ninja leaders.

• Shimura Danzō walked out of the Hokage Building smiling as the weary Hokage sat with a freshly written document.
• Uchiha Kai smashed a training dummy apart, checked his status panel, and realized his physical and mental attributes exceeded ordinary limits.
• Uchiha Kai concluded that his strength and tactics could let him defeat an ordinary Jonin, though he still considered himself vulnerable in the Shinobi World.
• Karatachi Yagura convened a meeting of Mist Ninja leaders and called on the elders to work with him as temporary representative.
• Elder Fenyue accused Karatachi Yagura of dishonestly claiming the Third Hokage had appointed him and threatened to expose him.

Karatachi Yagura confronted Elder Fenyue over corruption and the Mist Ninja’s stagnant leadership, presenting evidence and using his power to silence the room. After Fenyue surrendered his authority and resources, Suikazan Fuguki dragged him away, while Genshi offered no objection.

• Karatachi Yagura invited the elders to raise their concerns, then challenged Elder Fenyue to answer for his problems.
• Fenyue angrily defended his decades of service until Karatachi Yagura displayed documents and photographs implicating him in corruption.
• When Fenyue raised his cane to strike, Karatachi Yagura unleashed his killing intent and Chakra, forcing everyone in the room into submission.
• Karatachi Yagura condemned the Mist Ninja’s isolation and stagnation, and Fenyue collapsed and admitted his guilt.
• Fenyue offered to surrender his power and resources but insisted Karatachi Yagura could not kill him; Karatachi Yagura reminded him that Kiriki Seiryuu's team had been denied authority to investigate vital intelligence.
• Suikazan Fuguki dragged Fenyue away, and Genshi stiffly agreed with Karatachi Yagura’s handling of the matter.

Uchiha Kai attended his first clan meeting at Naka Shrine and learned from Uchiha Liu that Uchiha Huohuo had been assigned to help care for Mikoto's newborn. Thinking of Uchiha Itachi and the future massacre, Kai remained determined to prevent that outcome as the meeting had yet to begin.

• Uchiha Kai arrived at Naka Shrine for his first clan meeting, unsure of the procedure and uneasy beneath his cold exterior.
• Uchiha Liu told Kai that clan meetings were disorganized and often devolved into arguments and credit-taking.
• Uchiha Liu recalled that Kai had helped him and Uchiha Huohuo avoid Danzo's scheme and worsen relations between the clan and villagers.
• Uchiha Liu explained that Uchiha Huohuo had been chosen to help care for Mikoto's newborn because Mikoto needed rest and Fugaku was busy.
• Uchiha Kai thought of Uchiha Itachi and reaffirmed that he would not let the Night of the Massacre happen, then joked with Liu about Huohuo becoming a nanny.

Uchiha Fugaku told the clan that Hiruzen Sarutobi had offered them a chance to send willing shinobi to the war’s understaffed front lines. The Uchiha clansmen welcomed the opportunity to fight and earn military merits.

• Uchiha Liu joked with the clansmen before Uchiha Fugaku arrived with Uchiha Yashiro, Uchiha Tekka, Uchiha Inabi, and Uchiha Mikoto.
• Uchiha Fugaku opened the meeting and explained that his discussion with Hiruzen Sarutobi had prompted the gathering.
• Uchiha Fugaku described how the Uchiha had been kept from the front lines and how their Police Force work brought them little recognition.
• A young Uchiha blamed Danzo for obstructing the clan, and Uchiha Fugaku agreed that Danzo was stifling their prospects.
• Uchiha Fugaku revealed that Hiruzen Sarutobi had asked him to send willing Uchiha shinobi to the understaffed front lines while the Police Force’s duties were eased.
• The assembled Uchiha clansmen celebrated the chance to fight and earn military merits.

Uchiha Fugaku told the clan that they had been assigned to fight the Mist Ninja, provoking outrage among the Uchiha. As the clan demanded that he resist the order, Fugaku spotted the unusually calm Uchiha Kai, who was actually lost in thought.

• Uchiha Fugaku announced that the Uchiha Clan would be sent to fight the Mist Ninja, and the clansmen erupted in anger at the assignment.
• Uchiha Fugaku tried to calm the clan, but Uchiha Jingyun and others condemned the order as humiliation and refused to be treated as pawns.
• Uchiha Fugaku struggled to balance his duties as clan head and Konoha Jonin while the clansmen looked to him for a response.
• Uchiha Fugaku noticed Uchiha Kai sitting calmly and mistook his composure for admirable self-control.
• Uchiha Kai wondered where he was and what the people around him were doing.

Uchiha Fugaku explained how Madara’s rebellion and Konoha’s political persecution had weakened the Uchiha Clan, then asked Uchiha Kai why the clan had fallen behind. Kai answered that the Uchiha had grown too weak.

• Uchiha Fugaku silenced the clan members and said they had to accept the situation rather than fight the tide.
• Fugaku recounted how Uchiha Madara’s rebellion led to Hashirama Senju’s death and left the Uchiha facing hostility and political restrictions.
• Fugaku asked why the Hyuga Clan was now more widely regarded as Konoha’s strongest clan and called on Uchiha Kai to answer.
• Uchiha Kai first tried to decline, then said that schemes could not suppress a sufficiently keen blade.
• Fugaku pressed Kai to explain the clan’s condition, and Kai declared that the Uchiha had grown too weak.

Uchiha Kai challenged the clan elders to face the Uchiha Clan’s weakness, misconduct, and declining reputation instead of relying on past glory and empty slogans. He left them confronting his criticism of their treatment of villagers and refusal to accept criticism.

• Uchiha Kai insulted the clan’s weakness, then asked the elders to hear him out despite Uchiha Fugaku’s concern.
• Uchiha Kai thanked the elders before arguing that neighborly relations and hollow slogans could not protect or strengthen the Uchiha Clan.
• Uchiha Kai defined strength as courage and challenged whether the Uchiha still deserved to be called the strongest shinobi clan.
• Uchiha Kai cited Uchiha Ko’s attack on a fellow clan member after a spar, prompting Uchiha Sakumo to lower his head.
• Uchiha Kai condemned Police Force members who abused villagers and framed them, warning that such conduct damaged the clan’s standing.
• Uchiha Kai urged the elders to stop clinging to their ancestors’ glory and recognize that a clan unwilling to improve was not strong.

Uchiha Kai confronted the clan with its decline, and Uchiha Fugaku urged the Uchiha to face the Mist Ninja war and earn respect through their strength. Fugaku ended by presenting Kai as the clan’s hope for the future.

• Uchiha Kai told the clan that it had stagnated and could not match the village’s rising legends, then said its members fell far short of Danzo.
• Uchiha Sakumo admitted that Kai spoke the truth, while Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Yashiro recognized the boy’s promise.
• Uchiha Sakumo asked Fugaku what path the clan should take and how it could find hope despite its mediocre generation.
• Uchiha Fugaku argued that the clan had to fight the Mist Ninja earnestly, win merits, and avoid giving Danzo an excuse to target them.
• Uchiha Fugaku pointed to Kai’s A-rank mission and his killings of two Mist Ninja Anbu as proof that the clan’s hope stood before them.

Uchiha Fugaku persuaded the Uchiha clansmen to join the Mist Ninja front line, asking them to buy time for the younger generation and the clan’s future. Uchiha Kai revealed the strength of his Sharingan, ending the chapter by confidently accepting that future.

• Uchiha Fugaku and the other Uchiha leaders bowed to the clansmen and asked them to fight at the Mist Ninja front line.
• The clansmen raised Fugaku and voiced their fears that the clan would lose its future if they left.
• Uchiha Yashiro vouched for Uchiha Kai’s talent, convincing doubtful clansmen to trust Fugaku and agree to go.
• The Uchiha clansmen united in solemn vows to fight for their clan’s survival and future.
• Uchiha Fugaku asked whether Uchiha Kai and the younger generation could shoulder the clan’s future.
• Uchiha Kai revealed a remarkably powerful One-Tomoe Sharingan and declared, “Who else but me?”

After completing a hidden quest, Uchiha Kai gained Clarity of Mind and began to suspect his worsening discomfort was Bloodline Disease caused by his Spirit outpacing his Body. The next morning, the story shifted to the oppressive Hyuga Clan compound in Konoha.

• Uchiha Kai completed the hidden quest Where the Heart Leads and received Spirit and the Clarity of Mind talent.
• Uchiha Kai added the Spirit point to his attributes and noticed his Sharingan seemed closer to advancing to Two Tomoe.
• Uchiha Kai connected his discomfort when using the Sharingan to Bloodline Disease and theorized that Itachi had suffered from a similar imbalance.
• Uchiha Kai resolved to use the panel to strengthen himself, returned home, and fell asleep.
• The narrative moved to the Hyuga Clan compound, where the morning light revealed its imposing and oppressive atmosphere.

Rei confronted her father, Hyuga Xun, over the abuse and bondage imposed on her by the Hyuga clan. After he insulted her mother, Rei threatened him and left the courtyard, while Xun taunted her that she could not escape her fate.

• Rei reflected on the Caged Bird seal and the imprisonment she felt within the Hyuga clan.
• Hyuga Xun scolded Rei for sitting idle, and she answered with contempt and rejected him as her father.
• Hyuga Xun cursed Rei and said he should have killed her before she was born.
• When Xun insulted her mother, Rei activated her Byakugan and threatened to smash his head if he spoke of her again.
• Rei deactivated her Byakugan, condemned Xun, put on her shoes, and left the courtyard as he taunted her about escaping fate.

Hyuga Rei left Hyuga Xun behind after rejecting his claims that she could not escape the Caged Bird’s fate, then visited the flower-filled place where she had first met someone. Watching Nishikata and Takagi play together, she shared candy with them and listened to Nishikata vow to become Hokage.

• Hyuga Xun mocked Hyuga Rei’s hope of changing the Hyuga clan’s rules and warned that she could not escape the Caged Bird’s fate.
• Hyuga Rei dismissed Hyuga Xun’s words and walked out through the courtyard gate, leaving him to smash things in anger.
• Hyuga Rei sat beneath a tree at a secluded spot filled with dandelions and poppies, recalling an earlier meeting there.
• Nishikata teased Takagi by taking her hairclip, then gave her his last lollipop when she pretended to cry.
• Hyuga Rei chatted with Nishikata and Takagi, teased Takagi about being possessive, and offered them candy.
• Nishikata declared that he would become a ninja and the man who became Hokage, while Takagi smiled and applauded.

Uchiha Ko entered Shimura Danzō’s hidden base seeking power, unaware of who Danzō was. Danzō exploited Ko’s resentment toward his father and the Uchiha, and Ko asked him to explain their hostility toward Danzō.

• Root shinobi escorted Uchiha Ko through a dark corridor and brought him to Shimura Danzō.
• Danzō realized Ko did not know where he was or who he was, and took interest in the boy’s ignorance.
• Danzō claimed the Uchiha had misrepresented him to their descendants because of political disputes.
• Uchiha Ko described how Uchiha Sakumo controlled and abused him, then asked Danzō to tell him about the Uchiha’s hostility toward him.

Uchiha Ko agreed to join Shimura Danzō’s Root after Danzō described it as the shadowy counterpart to the Anbu and promised Ko power to change his clan. Danzō used Kagami Uchiha as an example of a loyal Uchiha, then gave Ko training scrolls and told him to await further instructions.

• Uchiha Ko asked Shimura Danzō who he was and what power he could gain.
• Shimura Danzō explained that Root served in darkness alongside the Anbu and named himself Root’s leader and the Hokage’s shadow.
• Uchiha Ko knelt before Shimura Danzō and begged to join Root, saying he wanted to guide the Uchiha away from his father’s path.
• Shimura Danzō accepted Uchiha Ko and described Kagami Uchiha as a trusted shinobi who had served Tobirama Senju.
• Shimura Danzō gave Uchiha Ko scrolls to build his reserves and instructed him to focus on training until he received further orders.

Danzo reflected on Tobirama Senju’s warnings about the Uchiha and continued monitoring the clan, convinced that harsh control was necessary to protect Konoha. He examined Uchiha Kai’s new team and grew suspicious of Hiruzen Sarutobi for placing Uchiha, Hyuga, and Senju descendants together.

• A Root shinobi told Danzo that the boy had been secretly sent away and that the Uchiha had not noticed.
• Danzo recalled Tobirama Senju’s warning that the Uchiha’s bloodline could produce another Uchiha Madara, and remembered arguing with Hiruzen Sarutobi over how to handle the clan.
• Danzo examined a dossier on Uchiha Kai, whom Hiruzen had protected, and noted that he served on Aburame Keiichi’s newly formed squad.
• Danzo read that Uchiha Kai’s teammates were Hyuga Rei and Morino Kei, a descendant of the Senju line, and questioned Hiruzen’s motives.

Danzo investigated Uchiha Kai after learning that the newly graduated Genin had killed two Mist Ninja Anbu and received the Shadow Clone Jutsu from Orochimaru. Kai’s records showed years of hard training but no sign of his sudden strength, leaving Danzo convinced the Uchiha were hiding a dangerous secret weapon.

• Danzo reacted with disbelief to reports of Uchiha Kai’s A-rank mission and ordered a Root shinobi to bring him Kai’s file.
• The Root shinobi returned with Kai’s records, and Danzo noted Kai’s brief encounter with Orochimaru and the Shadow Clone Jutsu he received.
• Danzo read that Kai had spent ten years training intensely despite seeming mediocre and not awakening the Sharingan during his Academy years.
• Danzo saw that Kai awakened the Sharingan during his clash with the Mist Ninja and doubted that his sudden transformation was genuine.
• Danzo concluded that the Uchiha had secretly raised Kai as a weapon and decided he had to stop him.