Recaps

Aoba secured the Lizard Clan’s summoning contract and was sent to the Sunagakure front, where he trained Kei and Ryoichi while clashing with Pakura. After Teacher Ueno died protecting Yumiko, Aoba retaliated against Sunagakure, then returned to lead the Medical Corps and received a Jōnin promotion.

• Aoba found the Lizard Clan’s Summoning Scroll in Kozaki Castle, contracted with Green Lizard, and learned that Pale Swamp had been destroyed.
• As the war approached, Aoba was assigned to the Land of Rivers border and took charge of the D13 post with Uchiha Kei and Yuto.
• Aoba killed Yuto after revealing him as a Root spy, then trained Kei and his replacement, Ishida Ryoichi, through deadly fights with captured Sunagakure shinobi.
• Aoba fought Pakura several times, while warning her that Sunagakure’s leaders had sidelined her and intended to use her as a weapon.
• After the command center was devastated and Teacher Ueno died saving Yumiko, Aoba read her final memories and flew to attack Sunagakure’s outpost.
• Aoba crushed the outpost and wounded Pakura before retreating to D13, where Dragon Vein chakra began petrifying his back.
• Kei awakened his Sharingan, and Aoba returned to headquarters, took charge of the Medical Corps, saved critical patients, and was promoted to Jōnin.
• Aoba handed the Medical Corps to Yumiko, gave Ryoichi an improved Chakra Scalpel scroll, and tested Kei’s rapidly growing abilities.

Aoba rose to prominence on the Iwagakure front while pursuing research into Sharingan, seals, and Kekkei Genkai. After protecting Pakura from Rasa’s betrayal, he recruited her as the first member of his new organization, the Shadow Council.

• Aoba studied Kei’s Sharingan, implanted it in his own eye, and developed a way to deactivate it before returning it to Kei.
• After Hyuga Soya was killed and his Byakugan stolen, Aoba accused Danzo’s Root of leaking the team’s deployment information, then traveled to the Iwagakure front.
• Aoba rescued Konoha squads, defeated the Four-Tails Jinchuriki Rōshi, and escaped Ōnoki with Rōshi in his grasp before Iwagakure recovered the captive.
• Aoba researched and mastered Lava Release, helped relocate the Lizard Clan, and took charge of patrols that stopped Iwagakure raids.
• Rasa removed Pakura from command and sent her to Kirigakure under the guise of peace talks, while Aoba secretly followed her journey.
• Aoba substituted a White Zetsu for Pakura at the ambush, exposed Rasa’s betrayal, and Pakura renounced Sunagakure to join Aoba’s Shadow Council as Azure.
• Aoba named the organization the Shadow Council and chose the codename Valmont, while White Zetsu reported to Madara before Aoba scattered its consciousness.

Aoba uncovered Sunagakure’s plan to raid the Land of Fire, helped defeat its assault on Konoha, and became known as one of the village’s rising heroes. After the war, he treated Kosuke and tested Team Minato, while Danzo began pursuing his medicine and Hiruzen named Minato as his successor.

• Aoba found the Gelel Stone with Pakura and gathered its healing mist, Water of Life, and ore while Rasa prepared to use Sunagakure’s campaign as cover for a raid on the Land of Fire.
• Aoba warned Jiraiya that Sunagakure’s march was a pretext, then helped capture Rōshi and drove the rampaging Five-Tails through Iwagakure’s defenses.
• Aoba led thirty elite ninja against Sunagakure’s raiders, recognized that their looting concealed Rasa’s true target, and warned Hiruzen that the main force was approaching Konoha.
• Hiruzen rallied Konoha’s veterans at Mount Kikyo, where Aoba arrived and defeated Rasa after countering his Gold Dust attacks with sand and Lava Release.
• Konoha repelled Sunagakure and rescued abducted children, while Aoba secretly collected Rasa’s Gold Dust and the Shinobi World began calling him and Minato the “Konoha Twin Stars.”
• During his leave, Aoba met Minato, Kakashi, Obito, Rin, and Kosuke by the Naka River, then used his medical techniques to restore Kosuke’s injured leg.
• Aoba defeated Team Minato in a spar and criticized the team’s weaknesses, while secretly discovering that Obito’s cells were compatible with Hashirama Cells.
• Danzo ordered Root to obtain Aoba’s medicine from the corpses of treated ninja, and Hiruzen told Minato that he planned to resign and had recommended him as the next Hokage.

Aoba commanded Konoha’s front against Sunagakure, pursued forbidden techniques, and shaped the fates of several people during the Third Shinobi World War. After the war, Minato became Fourth Hokage, while Aoba drew closer to Itachi and learned Jiraiya had left for Amegakure.

• The Third Hokage sent Minato to negotiate with Iwagakure and appointed Aoba commander of the Land of Rivers front, where Aoba reunited with Ishida Ryoichi and restored his missing hand with White Zetsu cells.
• Aoba drove Sunagakure’s forces back, studied Kekkei Tōta with the resurrected Mu, and defeated Rasa and Shukaku before Bunpuku freed the One-Tail, which escaped into the desert.
• Aoba split himself with Fission Jutsu, visited Yahiko’s Akatsuki as the traveling doctor Seimei, and challenged the group to seek enough power to deter the great nations.
• Aoba searched the Land of Water for the Red Eye, defeated Raiga Kurosuki and Hozuki Mangetsu, and discovered the Chinoike Clan in Hell Valley, where Ryoichi defeated its militant members.
• After Kakashi killed Rin, Obito used his Mangekyō Sharingan to vanish with her body, and Aoba replaced Kakashi’s Mangekyō Sharingan with Uchiha Kei’s Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
• Aoba returned to Konoha for the memorial ceremony, where Fugaku upheld Obito’s wish to let Kakashi keep the Sharingan, then saved Itachi from a fall and asked whether he wanted to know life’s meaning.
• The Daimyo’s council chose Namikaze Minato as Fourth Hokage over Danzo’s objection, and Aoba supported Minato before learning that Jiraiya had left after receiving a troubling letter from Amegakure.