Chapter Summaries

Shiraishi Yoshijo admitted to Mie that he had sold Konoha's intelligence and said he had forced himself on her as an attempt to atone and keep her in his life. Mie remained angry and conflicted as he recalled his lonely childhood and his affection for her and Teacher Kawano.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo held Mie in the bathtub and defended his actions, while Mie accused him of ruining her life and getting her husband killed.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo denied killing Mie's husband and explained that Mie and Teacher Kawano were the only people in Konoha he did not want to hurt.
• Mie rejected his claims of gratitude and accused him of forcing her on purpose, and Shiraishi Yoshijo admitted that he had.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo confessed that he had sold Konoha's intelligence, apologized for what happened to Mie's husband, and said his actions were his way of atoning and trying to help her move on.
• Mie slapped Shiraishi Yoshijo, and he explained that he had feared she would cut him out of her life if he tried to make amends normally.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Mie he had admired her since childhood, recalled trying to set her up with his uncle, and described how he became more cautious after his uncle died.

Shiraishi Yoshijo forced Mie to stay with him, claiming he wanted to protect her and her child from Danzo’s schemes. He ordered Omi to bring Mie’s child and Kawano to him, then prepared to confront Danzo at the Root Base Camp as his plan to leave Konoha neared completion.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Mie he had stayed away because he suspected the Hokage had used Kawano to guide him, though he had never forgotten her.
• Mie rejected Shiraishi Yoshijo’s offer to raise her child, accusing him of killing the child’s father, but Shiraishi Yoshijo insisted they would leave Konoha together.
• Mie begged Shiraishi Yoshijo to leave her family alone, but he refused and said he would take her away to start a new life.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo reasoned that Danzo might turn Mie’s child against him, so he had forced Mie to stay to protect her family.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo ordered Omi to bring Mie’s child and Kawano to him, then said he would go to the Root Base Camp and confront Danzo.

Shiraishi Yoshijo confronted Mie about their relationship and the consequences for her family, then told Kawano how Danzo had used them in the conflict against him. Kawano believed Shiraishi Yoshijo but challenged him over mistreating Mie.

• Mie accused Shiraishi Yoshijo of disregarding her family and reputation, and blamed him for her husband's death.
• Mie attacked Shiraishi Yoshijo, who pinned her down and spanked her until Omi entered with Kawano and Mie's child.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Ikeda Kazuhiro that he would now be called Shiraishi Kazuhiro.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo admitted to Kawano that he had slept with Mie and explained how the Hokage and Danzo had tried to assassinate him and used Mie's family against him.
• Kawano accepted Shiraishi Yoshijo's account but grabbed his ear and challenged him over bullying Mie.

Shiraishi Yoshijo found Root abandoned, wrecked its rebuilt base, and provoked Sarutobi Hiruzen’s anger as the Hokage learned Danzo planned to send villagers to Shiraishi Yoshijo’s home. The chapter ended with Sarutobi ordering every Anbu to keep the villagers away and arrest anyone who disobeyed.

• Kawano challenged Shiraishi Yoshijo about marrying Mie, and Shiraishi asked him to speak with her while arranging guards for him.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo led his ninjas to Root and discovered Danzo had emptied the base and disappeared.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo ordered his people to smash the abandoned Root base before leaving as Anbu watched.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen reprimanded Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura for escalating their conflict with Shiraishi Yoshijo and asked where Danzo was hiding.
• Mitokado Homura revealed Danzo planned to have villagers storm Shiraishi Yoshijo’s home, and Sarutobi ordered Shinnosuke to deploy every Anbu to stop them.

Danzo planned to provoke Shiraishi Yoshijo into a conflict with the Hokage before Shiraishi could build his power. At home, Shiraishi reunited with Mie and Kazuhiro, then tried to persuade the boy to call him Dad.

• Danzo learned that Shiraishi had demolished Root and ordered Root members to send people to storm Shiraishi’s home and test his reaction.
• Danzo resolved to force a break between Shiraishi and Hiruzen, fearing Shiraishi’s clan support would eventually overwhelm Root.
• Shiraishi returned home with Mie, Kawano, and Kazuhiro, arranged defenses for an important meeting with clan leaders, and told Kawano he would find a way to handle Mie.
• Shiraishi asked Kazuhiro to call him Dad, but Kazuhiro said his father was a hero who would always live in people’s hearts.
• Shiraishi tried to explain death to Kazuhiro by comparing it to animals and their offspring.

Shiraishi Yoshijo told Kazuhiro that his father died because he was weak, upsetting the boy and angering Mie. He urged Kawano and Mie to leave Konoha with him to protect Kazuhiro from the war and Danzo's surveillance, then considered taking Mie to see the world and thought of Chizuru at the overseas Base Camp.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Kazuhiro that his father had died because he was weak, and Kazuhiro cried and said he hated him.
• Mie took Kazuhiro from Shiraishi Yoshijo and accused him of bullying the child.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Kawano that he would soon leave Konoha and that Kawano would have to come with him.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo warned Kawano and Mie that Danzo would keep watching them and that Kazuhiro might be sent to the battlefield after joining the Ninja Academy.
• Mie objected to Shiraishi Yoshijo's advice, while Kawano said he was glad he had brought Shiraishi Yoshijo home.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo sat outside, considered taking Mie beyond Konoha, and thought of Chizuru at the overseas Base Camp.

Shiraishi Yoshijo worried about immortality, family, and the future of his descendants after Cheng warned him of the burdens of living forever. At a meeting with the clan heads, Takemoto Masamasa confronted him over his relationship with another woman while things with Takemoto Anna remained unresolved.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo considered killing or imprisoning Chizuru because of her ties to Danzo, but decided not to act rashly.
• Cheng warned Shiraishi Yoshijo that immortality would bring loneliness and difficult choices about his women, children, and descendants.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo spent the evening brooding over how he could sustain his family’s lives, then went to eat when Teacher Kawano called him.
• Clan heads arrived at Shiraishi Yoshijo’s home, and he had dozens of armed ninja patrol the courtyard before the meeting.
• Takemoto Masamasa berated Shiraishi Yoshijo for pursuing another woman before settling things with Takemoto Anna, while the other clan heads laughed.

Shiraishi Yoshijo told the clan heads that the Fire Daimyo wanted to meet him and proposed they leave Konoha to establish a Ninja Military Academy under the Daimyo’s control. The clan heads weighed the academy’s promised wealth against the danger of the Hokage faction hunting them, and the chapter ended before they voted.

• Takemoto Masamasa and Kawaigawa Aonobu misunderstood Shiraishi Yoshijo’s remarks about the woman and accused him of sleeping with her, but he dismissed their concerns and turned to the Konoha rumors.
• The clan heads pressed Shiraishi Yoshijo for news from the capital and for a plan to return the hundreds of clan members serving with him.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo revealed that the Fire Daimyo wanted to meet him and proposed that the clans run a Ninja Military Academy for the Daimyo.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo explained that the academy could grow wealthy with the Daimyo’s backing, but its leaders would have to stay out of political power and obey the Daimyo’s limits.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo asked the clan heads to vote on leaving Konoha, then warned that they would have to fight the Hokage faction and might face assassinations even if they won.

Shiraishi Yoshijo brought the clan leaders to meet the Daimyo, promising that their departure from Konoha would hinge on a duel with the Hokage and claiming the largest share of the military academy’s profits. Disguised and escorted through the palace by Right Red, the group waited for the Daimyo behind a screen.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo told the clan leaders he expected to face the Hokage one-on-one and warned that he would take the largest share of the military academy’s profits.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo exposed the clan leaders’ scheme to gather information and then used a teleportation formula to take them to the capital of the Land of Fire.
• Right Red greeted Shiraishi Yoshijo and revealed that he had spent years infiltrating the Guardian Ninja to contact the Daimyo.
• Right Red gave Shiraishi Yoshijo and the clan leaders black hooded robes and masks, then led them through the palace while Shiraishi sensed nearly a thousand ninja within it.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo assessed the guards and the figures behind a screen in the palace hall, then waited for the Daimyo to emerge.

Shiraishi Yoshijo treated the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and asked him to grant protection, claiming the Hokage’s faction had forced him to flee Konoha. The Daimyo challenged him over alleged treason, and Shiraishi Yoshijo blamed Shimura Danzō for his military losses as the Daimyo considered his defense.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo met the Daimyo, introduced the clan heads, and offered to treat his failing health.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo removed a black substance from the Daimyo’s body, secretly recognizing that it was poison, and told him the treatment had cured him.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo presented the Daimyo with a document requesting a way to survive outside Konoha.
• The Daimyo accused Shiraishi Yoshijo of betraying Konoha and the Land of Fire through his dealings with Hanzo and his costly war against Amegakure.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo denied the accusations and blamed Shimura Danzō for planting spies in his forces, while the Daimyo pondered his explanation.

Shiraishi Yoshijo secured the Daimyo’s support for establishing a Ninja Military Academy, offering his clan’s exclusive service in return for protection from Konoha. After Shiraishi and the clan heads returned to Konoha, the Daimyo and his children discussed how they might bind or eventually eliminate him.

• The Daimyo questioned Shiraishi Yoshijo about his plan, and Shiraishi explained that his clan would serve only the Daimyo while the academy and its graduates remained under the Daimyo’s control.
• Shiraishi asked the Daimyo to mediate when Konoha pursued the clan, and the Daimyo agreed to choose the academy’s location and begin construction soon.
• Shiraishi revealed that Danzo had led an assassination force against him and that he could use space-time Ninjutsu to transfer the clan’s vulnerable members to safety.
• The Daimyo approved the plan, and Shiraishi used space-time transportation to return to Konoha with the clan heads.
• After Shiraishi departed, the Daimyo, Zhixiong, and Yuexiang discussed the danger he posed and considered using a marriage alliance before eventually eliminating him.

Shiraishi Yoshijo explained how he planned to use the Daimyo’s ambitions and the clan heads’ Ninjutsu inheritances against Konoha, then forcibly took Mie to bed. After Mie bit a chunk from his chest and cried, she grabbed him as he tried to leave.

• Shiraishi Yoshijo told Kawaigawa Aonobu and Takemoto Masamasa that the Daimyo could use the clans’ Ninjutsu inheritances to destroy Konoha and the Ninja Military Academy.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo carried Kazuhiro to Kawano’s room and left him there, then returned to Mie and forced himself on her.
• Mie bit into Shiraishi Yoshijo’s chest, and he let her wound him while he wiped the blood from her face.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo apologized and held Mie as she cried for over an hour.
• When Shiraishi Yoshijo started to dress and leave, Mie reached out and grabbed him.

Shiraishi Yoshijo explained that fear and Danzo’s schemes had led him to hurt Mie while trying to protect them both, and Mie’s resentment toward him eased. After they slept together again, Mie asked him not to force her to marry him, insisting she wanted to preserve her dignity.

• Mie questioned Shiraishi Yoshijo about marrying a widow, his feelings for her, and why he had slept with her.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo admitted that Danzo had exploited his fear of being hurt and that he had chosen to hurt Mie first rather than explain himself.
• Mie said her resentment had already lessened after her father spoke to her, then initiated sex with Shiraishi Yoshijo.
• Afterward, Mie asked Shiraishi Yoshijo not to force her to marry him, saying she feared gossip and wanted to keep her dignity.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo struggled to understand Mie's request as she insisted she did not want to marry him.

Mie agreed to live with Shiraishi Yoshijo as his housekeeper and lover, while insisting she could not marry him. The next morning, she urged Kazuhiro to call Yoshijo his adopted father, but Kazuhiro rejected the idea and begged to return home.

• Mie proposed living with Shiraishi Yoshijo as his housekeeper and raising any children they had without marrying him, and Yoshijo accepted.
• Mie stayed the night with Yoshijo, then cared for him the next morning and promised to remain with him.
• Mie hid an old family portrait after apologizing to the man in it, then welcomed the sunlight as the start of a new life.
• Kazuhiro called Yoshijo a bad uncle, and Yoshijo spanked him while Kawano watched without intervening.
• Mie told Kazuhiro to call Yoshijo Father because he would be his adopted son, but Kazuhiro said he already had a father and asked to go home.

Shiraishi Yoshijo confronted a hostile mob outside his home and killed more than a hundred attackers with a lightning strike, claiming self-defense. As he fortified his mansion and discovered Orochimaru had helped the mob bypass the Anbu, Omi and Kosuke prepared to defend the estate.

• Mie left Shiraishi Yoshijo to discipline Kazuhiro, but a stone thrown from outside shattered a window and drew Yoshijo to the gate.
• Kosuke warned Yoshijo that Anbu had been assigned to protect him, yet an angry crowd had broken through their blockade and begun pelting his home with stones.
• Yoshijo used lightning to kill more than a hundred people in the mob, telling Kazuhiro to watch their fear and rage as they died.
• Yoshijo ordered Kosuke to notify the Anbu and Police Force that he had acted in self-defense, then returned home as Mie and Kawano protested his actions.
• Yoshijo summoned Ninja Butterflies to raise a barrier around the mansion and struck hidden gray snakes with Lightning Senbon, recognizing Orochimaru's involvement.
• Omi arrived with more than a hundred people and, after hearing Yoshijo's warning, hid them nearby while she and Kosuke guarded the gate.

Orochimaru let Shiraishi Yoshijo kill a group of people and ordered their families notified, escalating the crisis and provoking public outrage. Sarutobi Hiruzen collapsed after learning what happened, then woke in the hospital and angrily confronted Orochimaru and the village leadership.

• After Shiraishi Yoshijo killed people, Orochimaru ordered his subordinates to collect the bodies and notify their families.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen learned of the deaths and ordered the news sealed, but the bereaved families gathered outside his office demanding justice.
• Overwhelmed by the crisis and the crowd's cries, Sarutobi Hiruzen vomited blood and collapsed.
• When Sarutobi Hiruzen woke in the hospital, Orochimaru accused him of coddling a criminal and failing to act against Shiraishi Yoshijo.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen blamed the village leaders for provoking Shiraishi Yoshijo and declared that he would no longer take responsibility for their decisions.

Sarutobi Hiruzen broke with Orochimaru and chose to blame Danzo for the crisis, while Nara Shikazumi advised him on how to handle Shiraishi Yoshijo. The chapter ended with Hiruzen realizing that, despite being Hokage, he was little more than a puppet.

• Nara Shikazumi urged the leaders to unite, arrest Danzo, and recognize that Shiraishi Yoshijo had been forced into his current position.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen ordered Danzo's arrest, declared Shiraishi Yoshijo not guilty, and said the dead villagers' families would be detained as spies.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen dismissed Orochimaru from all his duties, and Orochimaru left after warning that Hiruzen would regret it.
• Nara Shikazumi advised Hiruzen to lure Shiraishi Yoshijo out of Konoha and, after capturing Danzo, send Yoshijo to war against Sunagakure.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Nara Shikazumi to visit Shiraishi Yoshijo, then angrily concluded that he was only a puppet.

Nara Shikazumi visited Yoshijo to thank him and tried to persuade him to remain in Konoha with promises of compensation and restored reputation. Yoshijo rejected the offer and insisted he would leave, while privately anticipating Konoha’s ruin because of its collusion with the Daimyo.

• Nara Shikazumi visited Yoshijo with Shikaku and thanked him for saving his life, while Shikaku went outside to befriend Kazuhiro.
• Yoshijo explained to Nara Shikazumi that he saw leaving Konoha as his only chance to escape the dead end he had been living in.
• Nara Shikazumi offered to have Danzo handed over and Yoshijo publicly cleared, but Yoshijo refused to stay in Konoha even if made Hokage.
• Yoshijo told Nara Shikazumi to relay that the Hokage should come at him directly if he intended to act.
• After Nara Shikazumi left, Yoshijo reflected that Konoha’s collusion with the Daimyo meant his departure would bring the village hardship, and he looked forward to its despair.

Sarutobi Hiruzen confronted Danzo over his campaign against Shiraishi Yoshijo, who was considering leaving Konoha. After learning Shiraishi Yoshijo had joined the Hana Organization, Hiruzen ordered Anbu to let the coming civilian gathering proceed.

• Nara Shikazumi told Sarutobi Hiruzen that Danzo’s provocations had pushed Shiraishi Yoshijo close to leaving Konoha.
• Konoha increased surveillance of the clans as the Hokage’s notice denying rumors failed to calm the village, while Anbu arrested people making moves.
• Danzo went to the Hokage Building after Hiruzen threatened to issue an arrest warrant if he failed to appear within three days.
• Hiruzen threatened to hand Danzo over to Shiraishi Yoshijo, but Danzo revealed that Shiraishi Yoshijo had joined the Hana Organization as a core member.
• Hiruzen told Danzo to stop his plan and submit to Anbu supervision, but Danzo warned that civilians would soon gather and left.
• Hiruzen ordered Sarutobi Shinnosuke to recall some Anbu and let the gathering happen without interference.

Sarutobi Hiruzen secretly encouraged Danzo’s plan to drive Shiraishi Yoshijo out of Konoha, while Shiraishi used the threat to rally the shinobi clans. A massive crowd gathered at Shiraishi’s mansion, where he faced them from behind a barrier and prepared to respond.

• Sarutobi Hiruzen decided to help Danzo’s scheme, believing Shiraishi Yoshijo’s departure would let him control the shinobi clans.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo had deliberately said he wanted to leave Konoha to provoke Sarutobi Hiruzen and make the clans feel threatened.
• Two days later, villagers marched toward the Hokage Building, and the crowd was guided toward Shiraishi Yoshijo’s home while Sarutobi Hiruzen let the protest continue.
• Jiraiya worried about the growing crowd, while Tsunade recognized that powerful people were fueling the unrest and warned him not to interfere.
• Shiraishi Yoshijo protected his mansion with a barrier and waited at the gate as more than ten thousand villagers arrived, throwing stones and other objects at him.