Chapter Summaries

Akaseki reinforced the Kannabi Bridge outpost as Iwagakure prepared to attack, while his clone kept Kusagakure's leader from abandoning Konoha. At the outpost, Akaseki sensed a concealed Stone Ninja squad approaching, just as the defenders braced for a jinchuriki-led assault.

• Akaseki left Yamanaka Sansan in Kusagakure with his Mirror Clone and traveled with twelve Konoha ninja toward Kannabi Bridge.
• Akaseki's clone summoned Cao Bao and his aides, then detained them at a birthday banquet with Yamanaka Sansan so the Grass Ninja could not betray Konoha.
• Akaseki and his men reached the Kannabi Bridge outpost, where Gongzhi Jiu reported that a jinchuriki and over a hundred Stone Ninja were advancing and might attack the next day.
• Akaseki told Gongzhi Jiu he could use the first stage of Susanoo, giving the outpost a better chance of holding off the jinchuriki.
• Akaseki opened his Sharingan and the Gate of Life, sensed Stone Ninja approaching with the Earth Style: Hidden Fish Technique, and recognized their concealed squad.

Akaseki discovered Gajarin’s Stone Ninja squad tunneling toward the Kannabi Bridge outpost and struck them with Underworld Gate, trapping most of them in corrosive earth. Roshi transformed to save several comrades, but Akaseki’s explosive trap badly injured Four-Tails and left Gajarin’s fate unclear.

• Gajarin led six elite Stone Ninja, including Kitsuchi and Roshi, underground toward the Kannabi Bridge outpost to attack its sealing formation.
• Akaseki and Gongzhi Jiu detected the squad from above, and Akaseki realized Gajarin was leading a surprise attack.
• Akaseki sent a Mirror Clone to cast Underworld Gate, turning the surrounding earth into a toxic swamp that killed Gray Rock and severely injured several Stone Ninja.
• Roshi’s passive Tailed Beast Transformation triggered, and he escaped the swamp holding Kitsuchi and three other Jonin while Gajarin stood on his shoulder.
• Akaseki’s Mirror Clones lured Roshi into an explosive trap, blasting Four-Tails’ legs and part of his right arm down to the bone.
• Gajarin, who had been helping Roshi, was caught in the blast and appeared to be in grave danger.

Akaseki’s explosive ambush badly wounded Roshi’s group but failed to stop the Four-Tails’ rapid regeneration, so Gongzhi Jiu interfered with Roshi’s bond to the beast while Akaseki faced him with Susanoo. Akaseki drew Roshi away from the Kannabi Bridge Outpost and eyed the wounded Kitsuchi as a target for revenge.

• Akaseki’s Underworld Gate explosion killed Gajarin despite Roshi’s effort to shield him, and Gajarin warned the survivors against underground earth-burrowing ambushes before dying.
• Roshi’s Four-Tails body rapidly regenerated, and Gongzhi Jiu explained that the Jinchuriki could only be defeated by overwhelming force and sealing.
• Gongzhi Jiu began interfering with Roshi and the Four-Tails’ mental connection, but their close bond let Roshi stand again.
• Akaseki formed a larger Susanoo and blocked Roshi’s punch, then began evading the Four-Tails’ attacks rather than meeting them head-on.
• Akaseki taunted Roshi over Gajarin’s death, drawing his anger and leading him away from the outpost while Roshi carried four wounded men, including Kitsuchi.
• Akaseki watched for a chance to kill Kitsuchi, hoping to avenge Nawaki.

Akaseki used Susanoo and his newly developed Wings of the Void to keep Roshi from reaching the Kannabi Bridge Outpost while Gongzhi Jiu helped hold off the Stone Ninja. After the fighting lasted until dawn and both defenders neared their limits, the Stone Ninja retreated and Akaseki and Gongzhi Jiu withdrew safely.

• Roshi erupted magma across the battlefield, but Akaseki used Susanoo to withstand the spray and evade the molten ground.
• When Roshi turned toward the Kannabi Bridge Outpost, Akaseki took flight with Wings of the Void and harassed the hand holding the injured jonin, preventing Roshi from advancing.
• Akaseki and Gongzhi Jiu kept Roshi and the other Stone Ninja occupied while the Konoha defenders held the outpost, leaving the Stone Ninja with only two jonin able to fight.
• The battle continued from early morning until dawn, draining Akaseki and putting Gongzhi Jiu in danger while Roshi remained capable of fighting.
• The Stone Ninja retreated from the outpost, and Akaseki and Gongzhi Jiu withdrew without Roshi pursuing them.

After the Stone Ninja’s failed dawn raid, Akaseki learned that enemy Jonin could recover quickly and decided to infiltrate their river-valley camp before they were ready. He left alone with two Mirror Clones, opened the Gate of Life, and used his Earth Style to locate vibrations inside the valley.

• Gongzhi Jiu reported that Konoha had lost four Chunin while the Stone Ninja had lost twelve Chunin and two Jonin, and noted that an Uchiha survivor had awakened a Two-Tomoe Sharingan.
• Akaseki worried that the Stone Ninja Jonin could recover from their injuries and attack again by nightfall or the next morning.
• Akaseki told Gongzhi Jiu that his dojutsu power had fully recovered and his chakra was at ninety percent, then rejected the suggestions to send a clone or support squad in his place.
• Akaseki created two Mirror Clones and traveled with them toward the Stone Ninja’s river-valley camp, switching to Hidden Fish Technique near the valley.
• Akaseki opened the Gate of Life, continued infiltrating alone, and used Earth Pulse to pinpoint vibrations in the valley.

Akaseki infiltrated the Stone Ninja camp and killed their medical ninja, then escaped Roshi’s pursuit. He returned to Konoha’s position, leaving the Stone Ninja without effective medical support before their next battle.

• Akaseki used a Mirror Clone to draw out the Stone Ninja and confirm that their most important wounded target was Kitsuchi.
• Akaseki changed his target when he discovered the Stone Ninja medical ninja treating Kitsuchi, then burst through the ground and killed the medic with Susanoo.
• Roshi transformed and pursued Akaseki, but Akaseki escaped with help from his Mirror Clones, which disrupted the Stone Ninja guarding the valley entrance.
• Akaseki returned to Gongzhi Jiu and reported that he had killed the Stone Ninja medical ninja and likely several Chunin.

Akaseki and Konoha held the Kannabi Bridge Outpost until the Stone Ninja withdrew, and Torifu Akimichi arrived with reinforcements. After six months of stalemate in the Land of Grass, Akaseki received orders to oversee operations in the ravaged Land of Rain, where he and the Sannin encountered several strange children.

• Roshi's assault on the Kannabi Bridge Outpost failed, and the Stone Ninja retreated under Akaseki's harassment.
• The Stone Ninja launched one final attack on February 16, then withdrew completely as Konoha reinforcements approached.
• Torifu Akimichi arrived with an elite force, and Akaseki remained in command of the outpost and the Land of Grass operations.
• Konoha established the Grass Support Force, and Akaseki spent six more months in the Land of Grass before receiving transfer orders to the Land of Rain.
• Akaseki and the Sannin began their new assignment in the Land of Rain, where they encountered several strange children who approached the Konoha ninja.

Akaseki traveled to the western Land of Rain to meet Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, while reflecting on his newly awakened Swamp Release and completing another deep-immersion storyline. He found the Sannin confronting three war orphans and learned that the children, Yahiko, Nagato, and Xiao Nan, wanted to become ninja to change their country.

• Akaseki reported to Mitokado Homura and learned that Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were on an S-rank mission in the western Land of Rain.
• Akaseki told Nonō that he had awakened Swamp Release and went to find Orochimaru, allowing Guan Ze to inspect other missions while Nonō accompanied him.
• While traveling, Akaseki completed a deep-immersion story about lacquer-fan maker Hong Yan and processed the experience.
• Akaseki found Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade facing three children, and he warned Nonō not to harm them.
• The orange-haired boy introduced himself as Yahiko and named the other children Nagato and Xiao Nan after saying they wanted to become ninja and change their country.

Akaseki revealed that Nagato’s parents had been killed by Konoha ninja and urged Jiraiya to take the children to Konoha for protection. Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato refused, so Jiraiya decided to stay with them in the Land of Rain.

• Akaseki recognized Nagato as the child of parents whose bodies he had found, and Jiraiya recalled that Konoha shinobi under his command had killed them by mistake.
• Orochimaru exposed the incident, and Akaseki told Nagato that the shinobi world, rather than Konoha, had killed his parents.
• Akaseki suggested bringing Nagato to Konoha as an Uzumaki orphan, while Jiraiya offered to take all three children there and raise them as children of Konoha.
• Yahiko refused to leave the Land of Rain because he wanted to make it peaceful, and Konan and Nagato chose to stay with him.
• Jiraiya accepted their decision and resolved to look after the three children in the Land of Rain.

Akaseki questioned Nagato about his parents’ deaths and warned the children about a mysterious ninja with ringed eyes, while Jiraiya arranged to stay in the Land of Rain and care for them. Back at the Konoha outpost, Akaseki and Orochimaru discussed Akaseki’s newly awakened Swamp Release and why it was not Wood Release.

• Akaseki asked Nagato what happened after he saw the two Konoha Chunin, and Nagato said he had passed out and awakened outside the village.
• Akaseki apologized for Nagato’s parents’ deaths and warned Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko to report anyone with ringed eyes to him or Jiraiya.
• Jiraiya agreed to stay and look after the children, with Nonō helping, while Akaseki, Orochimaru, and Tsunade returned to the Konoha outpost.
• Akaseki wondered how Nagato had ended up outside the village and suspected Madara Uchiha had a hidden scheme, while Konan’s reaction made him suspect she had seen Madara.
• Akaseki told Orochimaru he had awakened Swamp Release, and Orochimaru explained that Akaseki had focused on conversion and overlooked Wood Release’s essential vitality.

Akaseki recovered and removed a Sharingan eye, then sent it to the Uchiha Clan and received another blind clan elder’s eye in return. He visited Jiraiya and the three children in the Land of Rain, where his attempt to impress them with his cooking ended in disaster.

• Orochimaru suggested stimulating Akaseki to awaken Wood Release, but Akaseki refused and promised to try again after six months.
• Akaseki underwent surgery to restore his right-hand Three-Tomoe Sharingan, removed the eye, and sent it to Naka Shrine with Tanuki Treasure.
• Seven days later, Tanuki Treasure returned with Uchiha Nanfeng’s blind left eye, which Akaseki transplanted.
• Akaseki followed Jiraiya’s trail marks to his hut in the Land of Rain and met Nonō, Konan, Nagato, and Yahiko.
• Akaseki cooked for the group using skills he had gained during Immersion, but served them several unappetizing dishes.

Akaseki taught Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan table manners and told them a strange story about favoritism, leaving Konan with a nightmare. Nonō arranged for Akaseki to impersonate her so he could hear Konan’s secret without putting her at risk of having to report it to Danzo, and Konan began explaining that Nagato might be in danger.

• Akaseki forced Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan to finish his inedible cooking while lecturing them about table manners.
• Akaseki questioned Nonō about the children, then told them a fable in which A Luo inherited the family legacy while Yin Luo left.
• Konan woke from a nightmare about Akaseki’s story and went to Nonō, where she hinted that she had an important secret.
• Nonō asked Akaseki to transform into her and listen to Konan, so she would not learn a secret she might have to report to Danzo.
• Akaseki impersonated Nonō, and Konan said she needed to tell her because Nagato might be in danger.

Konan told Nonō about seeing rings in Nagato’s eyes, prompting Akaseki to suspect the Rinnegan had once controlled Nagato and that Madara Uchiha might still be watching him. Nawaki’s refusal to take the Rinnegan was revealed, while Akaseki left Jiraiya’s group to continue training.

• Konan recounted seeing rings in Nagato’s eyes after a nightmare, and Akaseki reassured her that it had probably been a dream.
• Akaseki and the Hell Yama King suspected that Madara Uchiha had controlled Nagato through the Rinnegan and wondered whether any Six Paths power remained.
• Nawaki revealed that he had sealed Nagato’s Rinnegan with Wood Release instead of taking the eyes, despite Black Zetsu urging him to claim them.
• Akaseki examined Nagato with his Sharingan, found nothing unusual, and warned Nonō to report any sign of someone following them.
• Akaseki left Jiraiya’s group and resumed training by eating and digesting stones to strengthen his dōjutsu.

Akaseki returned to Konoha with Nonō, Orochimaru, and Tsunade as the village struggled with wartime trauma and shortages of Medical Ninja. He proposed that the Hyuga Clan’s aptitude for chakra control and vision could make its members valuable medical personnel, while Orochimaru pointed out the political obstacles.

• Akaseki, Nonō, Orochimaru, and Tsunade traveled back to Konoha while Jiraiya remained in the Land of Rain to care for local orphans under Sarutobi’s emergency conditions.
• Tsunade described the psychological strain on Konoha’s shinobi and the growing burden of caring for wounded comrades, while Orochimaru argued that expanding the number of Medical Ninja would not solve the rear’s shortages.
• Akaseki criticized Danzo and the Shimura Clan elder for invoking the Warring States Period to encourage shinobi to keep fighting.
• Tsunade explained that chakra control mattered more than bloodline talent for training Medical Ninja, but Orochimaru warned that Konoha could not spare additional personnel from the front.
• Akaseki suggested recruiting the Hyuga Clan as Medical Ninja, and Orochimaru challenged him to win the Main Family’s cooperation and secure the Hokage’s acceptance of their control over those medics.

After Orochimaru moved into the Uchiha Clan compound, Konoha speculated about the political meaning of his marriage into the clan. At the Jonin Meeting, Tsunade proposed expanding medical ninja training, and Jiancheng and Orochimaru suggested recruiting combat-ready ninja with medical aptitude, hinting that the Hyuga Clan should help.

• Akaseki visited Obito and reassured Obito's Grandmother that Orochimaru could be a good father to him.
• Orochimaru moved into the Uchiha Clan compound, prompting speculation about his ties to the clan.
• At the Jonin Meeting, Tsunade proposed training more medical ninja and assigning one to every Four-Man Combat Team.
• Dan Katō supported Tsunade's proposal, and Akaseki voiced support on Jiraiya's behalf.
• Jiancheng and Orochimaru proposed training combat-capable ninja with medical talent and suggested that the Hyuga Clan should contribute.

Orochimaru and Jiancheng pushed the Hyuga Clan to become Medical Ninjas, using Tsunade’s proposal to challenge the clan’s rules, but Hyuga Jisuke rejected the plan as impractical. Orochimaru then asked Yamanaka Weiyi for his clan’s position, and Weiyi agreed that the Yamanaka Clan would try if the village needed it.

• Orochimaru argued that the Hyuga Clan should help ease Konoha’s burden by training as Medical Ninjas, alarming Hyuga Jisuke and Hyuga Shiyan.
• Jiancheng and Orochimaru accused the Hyuga representatives of resisting village cooperation, while Tsunade and Dan Katō realized their proposal was being used to pressure the clan.
• Dan Katō warned that Hyuga ninja were already priority targets, but Akaseki argued that their Gentle Fist skills would help protect them if they became Medical Ninjas.
• Hyuga Jisuke asked how long Tsunade’s training would take, then dismissed the plan because the Hyuga Clan’s ninja had no time to study Medical Ninjutsu.
• Orochimaru asked Yamanaka Weiyi for his view, and Weiyi said the Yamanaka Clan was willing to try if the village needed it.

Hyuga Jisuke realized the Uchiha had used their medical-ninja plan to embarrass the Hyuga while securing Yamanaka support. Hiruzen Sarutobi approved a gradual training plan, and the chapter ended with Danzo warning that the Uchiha might befriend Ino-Shika-Cho.

• Hyuga Jisuke recognized that the Uchiha had deliberately let him mistake their target for the Hyuga Clan, damaging the Hyuga main family's standing.
• Yamanaka Weiyi joined Orochimaru in supporting the medical-ninja plan, while Danzo argued that the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques and team arrangements should be protected.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi approved Tsunade's plan to train Yamanaka medical ninja gradually and provide the clan with support and resources.
• After the meeting, Akimichi and Nara jonin exchanged pleasantries with Kensho Uchiha, while Orochimaru left without speaking to Sarutobi.
• Danzo accused Sarutobi of being too accommodating to the Uchiha, and Sarutobi pointed out Danzo's changing arguments against the clan.

Ranwu and Akaseki discussed Tsunade’s medical ninja training plan and Akaseki argued that Konoha’s wars and expansion would ultimately support rebuilding Ninshu. After visiting Kushina, Akaseki prepared to leave for Yugakure, where he planned to establish an outsourcing operation and later meet Orochimaru near the Land of Hot Water.

• Ranwu told Akaseki that Tsunade’s program would screen out unsuitable candidates and train a batch of battlefield medical ninja within six months.
• Akaseki argued that Konoha’s wars would keep demand for medical ninja high, and linked the training budget to resources gained through his work in the Land of Grass.
• Ranwu questioned Akaseki about Ninshu’s fall, and he blamed the Sage of Six Paths’ successor without naming him outright.
• Ranwu and Akaseki gossiped about Jonin Kato’s frequent visits to Tsunade and suspected Jiraiya was a poor teacher.
• Ranwu and Akaseki visited Kushina, who was lonely because Minato had not returned to Konoha.
• Akaseki prepared to transfer to Yugakure after New Year’s, planning to start its outsourcing operation and meet Orochimaru in six months to explore Ryūchi Cave.

Akaseki learned that Sunagakure had launched a carefully planned attack on Dan Katō’s Support Unit and hurried with Tsunade, Konoha Kuno, and Yamanaka Sansan to reinforce him. They flew toward the Land of Wind, with Tsunade resting as Akaseki used Air Release to speed their journey.

• Tsunade arrived in Yugakure with Konoha Kuno and Yamanaka Sansan and asked Akaseki to summon Tanuki Treasure to reinforce Dan Katō.
• Akaseki summoned Tanuki Treasure in Vermilion Bird and Sky Serpent forms, and he and the others flew toward the Land of Wind.
• Tsunade explained that Sunagakure had lured Dan Katō and other Support Unit fighters away before attacking their camp and blocking their return with sealing techniques.
• Akaseki learned that the attack was designed to eliminate Dan Katō, whose silent kills had made him Sunagakure’s most hated target.
• Akaseki said they would arrive in half a day and warned that using Air Release to accelerate Tanuki Treasure would leave him with little chakra for the battle.
• Tsunade began meditating to recover, and Akaseki activated Air Release: Wings of the Void.

Akaseki and Tsunade reached the besieged Konoha headquarters at Kudengtō Valley, where Tsunade destroyed Sunagakure’s sealing barrier and the reinforcements drove off Sandstorm Luo Yan’s forces. Akaseki used the Hell Yama King to save the gravely wounded Dan Katō, whose life was stabilized despite catastrophic organ loss.

• Akaseki directed the group to fly straight into Kudengtō Valley, where Tanuki Treasure detected the sealing barrier trapping Dan Katō’s spirit outside the headquarters.
• Tsunade broke the barrier with a single stomp, and Akaseki saw Dan Katō’s spirit vanish as the fighting continued inside the breached base.
• Sandstorm Luo Yan ordered a retreat, but Akaseki’s taunts drew several Sand Ninja back into range, allowing Yamanaka Sansan and Konoha Kuno to defeat them.
• Tsunade called Akaseki back to treat Dan Katō, whose abdomen had been devastated by an explosive attack.
• Akaseki had the Hell Yama King gather and stitch Dan Katō’s remains, stabilizing his breathing despite the loss of much of several organs.