Chapter Summaries

After Dan Katō was gravely injured and forced off the battlefield, Konoha shifted its strategy in the southeastern Land of Wind and appointed Orochimaru commander-in-chief of a new theater. Orochimaru explained that Dan could not recover without losing his Spirit Transformation Technique, and he planned to travel onward to the Land of Wind by mid-August.

• Sunagakure’s attack left Dan Katō too badly injured to return to battle, weakening Konoha’s support in the southeastern Land of Wind.
• Half a month later, Orochimaru arrived in Yugakure and told Akaseki that Konoha would establish a separate theater in the southeast under his command.
• Akaseki questioned the expanded campaign, while Orochimaru argued that Konoha had to be ready to fight on the enemy’s timetable.
• Orochimaru told Akaseki that repairing Dan Katō’s organs would make him lose the ability to use the Spirit Transformation Technique, and Dan could not accept that result.
• Orochimaru said he had another half month before he needed to reach the Land of Wind, where he was heading to take up his post.

Akaseki and Orochimaru found a village whose residents carried uncontrolled Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu Chakra that strengthened their bodies. After Akaseki subdued the villagers, they shared the cave’s suspected location and let Orochimaru examine them, leaving the Akaseki Squad ready to continue its search.

• Akaseki and Orochimaru reached a mountain village and noticed that its residents had strange, violent chakra within their bodies.
• Hengjie offered the Konoha ninjas food, but Orochimaru said they had come to provide medical consultations, making the villagers tense and their bodies change.
• Akaseki summoned Susanoo and struck the ground, convincing Hengjie and the villagers to calm down.
• The villagers gave the Akaseki Squad the suspected location of Ryūchi Cave, shared physical data, and invited them to stay.
• Orochimaru examined Hengjie overnight and concluded that the villagers’ Senjutsu Chakra merged with their bodies to enhance them rather than travel through chakra pathways.

Akaseki and Orochimaru found the hidden entrance to Ryūchi Cave and reached the White Snake Sage. After bluffing his way past the first trial, Akaseki changed his approach when he realized the White Snake Sage was not intimidated by the Sage of Six Paths.

• Orochimaru explained how Jiraiya's senjutsu chakra differed from the nature energy leaking from Ryūchi Cave, and he warned Akaseki not to absorb it recklessly.
• The spatial marker left by the Sage of Six Paths activated, guiding Akaseki and Orochimaru through a sealed passage into Ryūchi Cave.
• Akaseki claimed to be Ninshu's Third head and used the Uchiha Gunbai to persuade Tagorihime to lead them past the first trial.
• Tagorihime introduced herself as an elder and sage of Ryūchi Cave, then brought Akaseki and Orochimaru to the White Snake Sage.
• After the White Snake Sage questioned his claim, Akaseki softened his tone and said he needed Ryūchi Cave's power to restore Ninshu.

Akaseki persuaded the White Snake Sage that Hagoromo had chosen him to revive Ninshu, and she eagerly accepted him into Ryūchi Cave. She enrolled Akashi Uchiha and Orochimaru in the cave’s scroll and personally led them to train in true Sage Mode.

• The White Snake Sage questioned Akaseki about Hagoromo’s hopes, and Akaseki claimed Hashirama Senju had been the previous chosen successor.
• Akaseki convinced the White Snake Sage that Shikkotsu Forest had failed and Ryūchi Cave would help him revive Ninshu.
• The White Snake Sage overruled Tagorihime and added Akashi Uchiha’s name to the beginning of Ryūchi Cave’s scroll, then enrolled Orochimaru as well.
• The White Snake Sage agreed to personally teach Akashi Uchiha and Orochimaru true Sage Mode and led them away from the temple.

In Ryūchi Cave, White Snake Granny explained that Sage Mode’s bodily mutations were normal, but losing mental control could turn a practitioner into a snake. Akaseki and Orochimaru chose to proceed, and after the Dragon-Subduing Staff injected Akaseki with nature energy, he opened the first two gates of the Eight Gates Technique to resist its influence.

• White Snake Granny warned Akaseki and Orochimaru that losing control of Ryūchi Cave’s Sage Mode would erode their minds until they became snakes, and she explained how it differed from the Sage Modes of Mount Myoboku and Shikkotsu Forest.
• White Snake Granny showed them the Dragon-Subduing Staff, which could interrupt early transformations, and explained that later practitioners would have to overcome the mental erosion on their own.
• Orochimaru realized that early failures were common because later loss of control could not be stopped from the outside, but he and Akaseki decided to continue.
• White Snake Granny used the staff’s snake head to bite Akaseki and inject nature energy, causing his body to grow rapidly and his mind to begin changing.
• Akaseki recognized the mental influence and opened the first two gates of the Eight Gates Technique, slowing and beginning to expel the erosion.

Orochimaru and the White Snake Sage realized that his repeated transformations into a white snake reflected his natural affinity rather than loss of control, though that affinity made the later stages especially dangerous. Meanwhile, Akaseki advanced unusually smoothly toward a point of no return, unaware that his trial had entered its later stages.

• The White Snake Sage repeatedly knocked Orochimaru out of his white-snake form and warned that his strong affinity could make later mental erosion especially severe.
• Orochimaru and the White Snake Sage concluded that Orochimaru’s consistent white-snake transformation was his individual mutation, not a sign that he was losing control.
• Orochimaru observed Akaseki’s lion-like changes and golden-red Sharingan as Akaseki stayed lucid and began recovering from the mental effects of nature energy.
• Orochimaru recognized that Akaseki was nearing the point where the Dragon-Subduing Staff could no longer stop his transformation.
• The White Snake Sage chose not to interrupt Akaseki, judging that a male lion should charge ahead, while Akaseki mistakenly believed he was still in the early stages.

During Sage Mode training in Ryūchi Cave, Akaseki reached the final stage and began transforming into a snake, so he activated the Immersion Platform to fight the mental interference. Inside a Deep Immersion as truck driver Hong Yan, he struggled against his own growing cruelty as Hong Yan knelt to beg a cargo owner to inspect a refrigerated compartment.

• Akaseki opened his third gate and resisted the worsening mental effects of nature energy with other emotions.
• White Snake Granny told Orochimaru that no challenger had ever passed the final stage, where nature energy began transforming them into snakes.
• As Akaseki's body turned snake-like, he activated the Immersion Platform and chose the Deep Immersion scenario "I'm an Experienced Driver."
• Akaseki entered the life of Hong Yan, who suspected someone or something was trapped inside a refrigerated truck, while the cargo owner and his wife repeatedly refused to let him check.
• Hong Yan ignored Manager Li's attempt to make him leave and knelt to beg the owner to open the compartment, even as Akaseki's thoughts swung between cruelty and forced benevolence.

Akaseki struggled against mental corruption while witnessing Hong Yan save a girl trapped in a refrigerated truck and donate blood to her. After the girl recovered and her family apologized, Hong Yan’s kindness restored Akaseki’s spiritual form, leaving him changed by the ordeal.

• Orochimaru watched Akaseki’s Sage Mode transformation intensify as White Snake Granny revealed that no one had survived the final trial before.
• Hong Yan found Wang Nini unconscious in the refrigerated truck and rushed her to the hospital, where he learned she needed Rh-negative blood.
• Wang Nini’s parents accused Hong Yan of trying to extort them and blocked him from donating blood, while Hong Yan was injured in the ensuing struggle.
• Wang Nini’s grandmother arrived, and the hospital identified the child as Wang Nini; Hong Yan offered his Rh-negative blood and helped save her.
• Wang Nini’s parents apologized and offered Hong Yan a reward, but he refused it and accepted their invitation to share dumplings after her recovery.
• Hong Yan’s compassion brought a light into Akaseki’s mental world, and Akaseki’s snake-like spiritual form gradually returned to normal.

Akaseki woke after successfully mastering Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode and learned that his success had made him the cave’s fourth elder, though it had not secured Ryūchi Cave’s allegiance. With Tagorihime’s instruction, he entered Sage Mode on his own and discovered that it dramatically increased his chakra reserves and recovery rate.

• Akaseki woke in Ryūchi Cave and discovered a strange hole near his tailbone, then met Tagitsuhime, who told him he had passed out from exhaustion.
• Akaseki learned from the White Snake Sage that he had mastered Sage Mode and become Ryūchi Cave’s fourth elder, and she told him Tagorihime would teach him to enter it.
• Akaseki returned to White Ground, where Tagorihime explained how to absorb nature energy and warned him about its mental effects.
• Akaseki entered Sage Mode successfully on his first attempt and kept absorbing nature energy, increasing his chakra reserves and recovery rate as a crimson mane emerged.

Akaseki learned more about Ryūchi Cave’s Sage Mode, discovering that senjutsu chakra greatly enhanced his Sharingan and that the mode offered powerful regeneration and control over inorganic objects. As Orochimaru reached the final stage of his transformation, he used the Heavenly Cloud Sword’s demon-god power to stabilize his nature energy and emerge with eight heads and eight tails.

• Tagorihime stopped Akaseki from absorbing more nature energy and explained that he had converted half his chakra into senjutsu chakra.
• Akaseki found that senjutsu chakra heightened his senses and let his Sharingan clearly see chakra pathways, then tested the mode’s rapid regeneration.
• Tagorihime explained that Ryūchi Cave’s Sage Mode could regenerate severed limbs and organs and use Senjutsu-Inorganic Reincarnation to control nature energy in inorganic objects.
• Akaseki and Tagorihime sensed Orochimaru entering the next stage of his sage transformation, as his body became increasingly snake-like.
• Orochimaru spat out the Heavenly Cloud Sword and stabbed himself, triggering its demon-god power to stabilize his senjutsu chakra and transform him into an eight-headed, eight-tailed form.

After Orochimaru mastered Ryūchi Cave’s Sage Mode, he told Akaseki that new orders sent them to the Land of Wind ahead of schedule. Before leaving, Akaseki learned Inorganic Reincarnation and received the White Snake Sage’s scale to summon giant snakes against their enemies.

• Orochimaru returned to human form after using the Heavenly Cloud Sword’s lingering demon god power to complete his Sage Mode, and he explained the transformation to Akaseki.
• Orochimaru told Akaseki that new orders required them to reach the southeastern Land of Wind war zone a week early, cutting short their training in Ryūchi Cave.
• Akaseki told Tagorihime that power was a means to accomplish important goals, and she agreed to let him and Orochimaru continue training for the remaining half day.
• Akaseki revealed to the White Snake Sage that his Sharingan had copied Senjutsu and that he had learned Inorganic Reincarnation.
• Orochimaru asked whether Ryūchi Cave’s giant snakes could be commanded, and Akaseki mentioned their enemies and the giant salamanders.
• The White Snake Sage gave Akaseki a white scale that he could use to summon giant snakes.

Akaseki and Orochimaru learned that the Rain Ninja had abandoned Lingering Rain Mountain to attack Konoha forces in the Land of Wind, and Akaseki received an S-rank mission to strike the mountain with Jiraiya. Akaseki found Jiraiya’s cabin, startled Nagato and the sick Konan with a staged attack, and was interrupted when Jiraiya returned.

• Orochimaru explained that the Rain Ninja had left Lingering Rain Mountain guarded by giant salamanders and joined the Sand Ninja’s desperate push into the Land of Wind.
• Akaseki proposed attacking the salamanders, and Orochimaru assigned him an S-rank mission with Jiraiya as his teammate.
• Akaseki traveled north through the Land of Rain and followed Jiraiya’s coded marks to his cabin after three days.
• Akaseki found Konan sick and Nagato caring for her while Jiraiya and Yahiko were away gathering herbs.
• Akaseki disguised his voice and staged an attack, frightening Nagato and snatching Konan before Jiraiya returned and recognized him.

Akaseki and Jiraiya prepared to attack the giant salamanders around Amegakure, while Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan stayed behind. They infiltrated Lingering Rain Mountain and chose to strike the salamanders first, targeting the weaker juveniles.

• Akaseki told Yahiko, Nagato, and the recovering Konan a story and assigned them a written reflection, with Yahiko writing for Konan.
• Jiraiya reviewed the mission to Lingering Rain Mountain, and Akaseki explained that Ryūchi Cave's snakes would help counter the giant salamanders.
• Akaseki and Jiraiya agreed to attack the salamanders while avoiding a direct fight with Hanzō, retreating if he appeared.
• Jiraiya left Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan with supplies and instructions before setting out with Akaseki.
• On August 9, Jiraiya and Akaseki infiltrated the swamp near Amegakure without alerting the salamanders.
• Akaseki chose to infiltrate Amegakure and use summoned snakes to kill the smaller salamanders first.

Akaseki used the White Snake Sage’s Scale to summon Ryūchi Cave snakes into Amegakure, where they devoured many salamanders before the Great Salamander King and Hanzō returned. Garaga then appeared, mistook Hanzō for an old enemy because of the Black Salamander King’s poison sac, and fixed his gaze on him.

• Akaseki activated the White Snake Sage’s Scale, summoning countless snakes across Amegakure to attack the salamanders.
• The summoned snakes devoured many salamanders, then withdrew when they were full, while the Great Salamander King and other giant salamanders returned to the village.
• The Great Salamander King fought the remaining snakes and used Reverse Summoning Technique to bring Hanzō back to Amegakure.
• Jiraiya and Akaseki recognized that Hanzō had returned and prepared to act as the salamanders and snakes continued fighting.
• Garaga arrived from Ryūchi Cave, recognized the scent of the Black Salamander King’s poison sac on Hanzō, and confronted him.

Akaseki joined Garaga’s battle against Hanzō and taunted Hanzō over the destruction of Amegakure and the giant salamanders. Hanzō turned his fury toward Akaseki, but Garaga’s uncontrolled attacks kept interrupting them.

• Hanzō recognized Garaga as the crimson serpent who had fought the Black Salamander King years earlier and warned him to leave.
• Jiraiya summoned Gamahiro to help the Great Salamander King against the giant snakes, while the giant salamanders fought elsewhere.
• Hanzō wounded Garaga with his chained sickles, and Akaseki struck Hanzō with Susanoo’s Thunderflame Greatsword.
• Garaga rejected Akaseki’s appeal to the White Snake Sage’s authority and attacked Akaseki, so Akaseki abandoned the idea of recruiting him.
• Akaseki taunted Hanzō about the giant snakes eating most of the salamander population, provoking Hanzō to turn his anger toward him.
• Akaseki tried to draw Hanzō’s hostility, but Garaga snapped at him again and forced him to dodge.

Akaseki used Swamp Release to prepare the battlefield for Inorganic Reincarnation, allowing him to trap the giant salamanders and devastate their forces. He pinned the Great Salamander King and gave Jiraiya an opening to burn him, while Hanzō arrived but could not free the king.

• Akaseki left Garaga to occupy Hanzō and went to help the three giant snake beasts fighting the giant salamanders.
• Akaseki cut off an attacking salamander’s tail with his Susanoo and used Swamp Release to turn the surrounding ground into a swamp.
• Akaseki activated Inorganic Reincarnation, animated the swamp, and trapped dozens of giant salamanders so the snakes could attack them.
• The Great Salamander King charged Akaseki, but Akaseki formed a swamp monster that seized and pinned him.
• Jiraiya burned the immobilized Great Salamander King with Toad Oil Flame Bullet, and Hanzō arrived and forced Jiraiya back.

Akaseki and the snakes defeated Hanzō’s forces, but Hanzō escaped by retreating through the Great Salamander King. Afterward, Jiraiya discussed Akaseki’s Sage Mode and growth, advising him to improve his physical conditioning and coordinate his abilities.

• Hanzō retreated after Akaseki and the snakes overwhelmed his forces, then summoned the Great Salamander King and other giant salamanders away from the battlefield.
• Garaga called Hanzō a coward, ate several salamanders, and left after settling his score with the Black Salamander King.
• Jiraiya asked Akaseki about his Sage Mode, and Akaseki explained that he combined Ryūchi Cave’s senjutsu with Swamp Release.
• Akaseki asked Jiraiya why his chakra reserves had stopped growing, and Jiraiya explained that physical conditioning could help as he matured.
• Jiraiya advised Akaseki to coordinate his strongest abilities, and Akaseki recognized that combining Swamp Release, Inorganic Reincarnation, and Susanoo could increase his power.

Akaseki destroyed Amegakure with Swamp Release after deciding reconciliation was impossible, while Jiraiya rescued the few remaining villagers. Akaseki left the Land of Rain to report to Konoha’s forces in the Land of Wind, where the Rain Ninja had withdrawn and Sunagakure once again faced the countdown.

• Akaseki expanded Swamp Realm: Advent across Amegakure, then used Sage Mode and Inorganic Reincarnation to sink and demolish the entire village.
• Jiraiya told Akaseki that Amegakure’s defeat would force it out of the war, and he had already moved the remaining Rain Ninja out of danger.
• Akaseki and Jiraiya left Lingering Rain Mountain, and rumors spread that Akaseki had buried Amegakure’s villagers alive.
• Akaseki bragged about destroying Amegakure in front of Yahiko, who was upset that the village had been demolished.
• Akaseki informed Konoha’s outposts in the Land of Rain that Amegakure had been destroyed, then traveled to the Land of Wind to report back.
• Akaseki found that the Rain Ninja had withdrawn from the Land of Wind and that Konoha’s pressure there had eased, leaving Sunagakure’s countdown to resume.

After the Hokage Building’s revised proposal lowered the Ninja Academy’s minimum admission age to four and formalized early graduation applications, Akaseki and Orochimaru returned to Konoha amid a leadership change on the Land of Wind front. Akaseki suspected the Uchiha might gain command and realized Obito, Hatake Sakumo’s son, and his own godson could all begin academy this year.

• The Hokage Building’s revised academy proposal passed after the Jonin Commander no longer opposed it, and Akaseki learned he had transfer orders back to Konoha.
• Akaseki and Orochimaru discussed the proposal’s earlier defeat and suspected Hatake Sakumo had been removed as supreme commander after opposing it.
• Akaseki and Orochimaru returned to Konoha on January 21 and learned Hatake Sakumo had also arrived with transfer orders.
• Akaseki speculated that the Uchiha Clan might take command of the front, while Orochimaru noted that he and Hatake Sakumo had children old enough to enroll in the Ninja Academy.
• Akaseki realized Obito and his own godson were also four and might start at the academy.

Kakashi, Obito, and Guy began at the Ninja Academy as Hatake Sakumo, Orochimaru, and Akaseki brought them to enroll. After the children entered the school, Orochimaru and Tsunade argued over Dan Katō, while the Military Police arrested villagers who had criticized the new enrollment age and slandered the Third Hokage.

• Hatake Sakumo and Orochimaru met at the academy gates while bringing Kakashi and Obito to enroll, and their sons exchanged an awkward glare.
• Akaseki arrived with Guy, whose parents were also present, and his interruption broke the tension between Hatake and Orochimaru.
• Villagers mocked Might Duy and Guy under their breath, so Akaseki alerted a Uchiha clansman, frightening the gossipers into the crowd.
• After the children entered the school, Akaseki asked Orochimaru about Obito's talent, and Orochimaru said it was about the same as Akaseki's.
• Orochimaru and Akaseki encountered Tsunade carrying supplies to visit Dan Katō, and Orochimaru criticized Dan until Tsunade parted from them angrily.
• The Konoha Military Police Force arrested villagers who had criticized the enrollment-age change and slandered the Third Hokage near the academy.