Chapter Summaries

Plot points

• Byakuya and his team reach Kirigakure disguised as grain merchants. At the final checkpoint, a guard reveals that Konoha’s recent infiltration was blamed on a Chunin under Elder Genji. The operation to ambush the Konoha team failed after someone attacked Kirigakure’s elite forces, and the Mizukage now suspects an insider.
• Byakuya secretly hears the conversation using his Heaven Release ability. He and Izumi Orange speculate that Karatachi Yagura may still be concealed—or that Kirigakure is blaming a lesser ninja to protect a powerful figure.
• The group slips away from the convoy during the downpour and reaches Yakushi Nonō’s safe house, avoiding Kirigakure patrols. Nonō reveals that she has infiltrated the Mizukage Building as a clerical worker by bribing the previous employee and impersonating her.
• Nonō explains that Kirigakure is heading toward civil war regardless of the Konoha incident. She suspects Genji deliberately let the accusation circulate to unsettle the Third Mizukage and provoke a mistake.
• The conflict reflects a deep policy dispute: the Mizukage favors isolation, while Genji wants to open Kirigakure to growth and change. Nonō also shares that Genji supports Yagura, though he may favor Mei Terumi even more.
• Byakuya decides to meet Yagura alone. Nonō agrees after seeing the Flying Thunder God formula he leaves at her house, which gives him a reliable escape route. He departs, reaches Yagura’s home, and announces himself as “a friend from far away.”

Character developments and interactions

• Byakuya takes charge, weighs the risks, and chooses to prioritize Nonō’s intelligence network before approaching Yagura. Despite his team’s concerns, he trusts his ability to protect them and escape.
• Izumi Orange challenges Byakuya’s plan, warning that exposing Nonō could endanger the whole team. She also helps navigate Kirigakure in the rain.
• Yakushi Nonō demonstrates exceptional espionage skill and provides a strategic analysis of Kirigakure’s factions. Though initially cautious about Byakuya’s plan, she supports it once reassured by his escape technique.
• The grain merchant is exposed as knowingly helping the Konoha ninja for money. He fears the consequences of his greed but manages to pass the checkpoint.
• The checkpoint guard unintentionally confirms Kirigakure’s heightened alert and reveals the failed ambush and suspicions of an internal traitor.

Significant themes

• Espionage and mistrust: Kirigakure’s searches and patrols reflect fear of enemies both outside and within the village.
• Political maneuvering: The alleged betrayal may be a deliberate tactic in the power struggle between Genji and the Mizukage.
• Isolation versus progress: The leadership conflict centers on whether Kirigakure should preserve its closed policies or pursue development.
• Risk and loyalty: Byakuya’s willingness to enter danger—and his orders that the others stay hidden—shows the trust and responsibility binding the team.

Key plot points and events

• Byakuya reaches Kirigakure and discovers that the supposed contact who directed him to “Shark Village” was not sent by Yagura. Yagura believes Genji may have arranged the deception, though neither understands his motive.
• Byakuya and Yagura negotiate a political bargain. Yagura’s minimum goal is to remove the Third Mizukage and become the Fourth; ideally, Genji and the Tailed Beast Jinchūriki will also support him. Konoha’s minimum demand is that Kirigakure not attack the Land of Fire.
• Byakuya presses for more than a peace treaty: he wants Kirigakure to end its isolation, begin trade with Konoha, and establish mutual embassies. Yagura agrees, though he warns that changing Kirigakure’s policies will be difficult.
• Byakuya reveals that only four Konoha ninja entered the Land of Water. He reminds Yagura of his role in the upheaval at Sunagakure, reassuring him that he can be a valuable ally.
• Yagura leaves to reassure Genji. Byakuya plants a Flying Thunder God marker and returns to his team.
• Byakuya and Nonō conclude that Genji probably engineered the earlier deception. Byakuya urges Nonō to return to Konoha once Kirigakure’s civil war begins, so she can prepare the village. He also proposes that she become his deputy in a planned Foreign Trade Department, which could help her care for war orphans.
• Yagura meets Genji, whom he calls “teacher,” and confesses to ambition. Genji forgives him, then learns that Byakuya has arrived and supports using him against the Mizukage and possibly the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
• Yagura proposes opening Kirigakure to Konoha’s influence and trade as a way to speed recovery after the civil war. He also admits that Konoha could eventually serve as a useful external enemy. Genji accepts this pragmatic reasoning and orders Yagura to contact the ninja clans the following day.

Character developments and interactions

• Byakuya acts as a cool-headed negotiator, balancing distrust with cooperation. He openly states Konoha’s interests, secures commitments, and uses his reputation to bolster Yagura’s confidence. He also shows strategic foresight by arranging an escape marker and planning for the political aftermath of the conflict.
• Yagura reveals his ambition to become Mizukage but insists that Kirigakure must change. His conversation with Byakuya forces him to clarify his goals; his later confession to Genji shows both remorse and continued political calculation.
• Genji is presented as Yagura’s mentor and a powerful counterweight to the Mizukage. Though he forgives Yagura, he questions plans that could weaken Kirigakure and ultimately approves a gradual, strategic approach to change.
• Nonō supports Byakuya’s diplomatic proposal and agrees to help with the Foreign Trade Department because it could give her a way to aid war orphans. Their relationship is marked by mutual trust and respect.
• Byakuya and Yagura negotiate as uneasy partners: they have shared interests, but both remain wary of the other’s motives. Yagura and Genji, meanwhile, interact as teacher and student, mixing loyalty, confession, and political strategy.

Significant themes

• Power and political ambition: Yagura seeks the Mizukage’s position, while Genji’s authority exists to prevent unchecked rule.
• Diplomacy as strategy: Treaties may be unreliable, but trade and embassies can create lasting channels of influence and intelligence.
• Pragmatism over trust: Alliances are built around shared interests and enforceable arrangements, not goodwill alone.
• Change through external pressure: Opening Kirigakure to Konoha may modernize the village, but could also foster rivalry and future conflict.
• Human consequences of war: Byakuya’s plan for Nonō connects political and economic policy to the care of children orphaned by conflict.

Plot points and events

• After speaking with Genji, Karatachi Yagura believes Genji was behind the misleading information that kept Shuten-doji in Shark Village and the subsequent attempt to capture him. Yagura plans to contact Kirigakure’s major kekkei genkai clans.
• Byakuya returns to Kirigakure and visits Genji, presenting himself as Konoha operative Shuten-doji. Genji recognizes that he is wearing a false face but agrees to talk.
• Byakuya proposes a rules-based international trading system: reduce tariffs, establish transparent and stable rules, restrict unfair practices, and include smaller nations through a bank backed by their resources. Genji is impressed and says he will support the plan once Yagura becomes Fourth Mizukage.
• Genji asks Byakuya to help occupy Kirigakure’s Three-Tails and Six-Tails jinchūriki during the coming conflict. He also requests that Byakuya eliminate Kushimaru Kuriarare, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, when the opportunity arises.
• Genji explains that Yagura must succeed the Third Mizukage because he will continue weakening Kirigakure’s powerful, disobedient kekkei genkai clans. Yagura has also agreed to let Genji move against the Hōzuki Clan.
• Byakuya asks about Mei Terumi, but Genji refuses to discuss her and questions how Byakuya knows her name. Byakuya then confirms that Genji arranged the information that led him to Shark Village. Genji admits he was testing whether Konoha’s ninja were qualified to participate.
• Byakuya leaves using the Flying Thunder God Technique. Genji recognizes the technique and reflects on Konoha’s deep reserves of powerful ninja.

Character developments and interactions

• Byakuya shows himself to be both a political strategist and a capable operative. He seeks influence through trade, while also weighing how to use Kirigakure’s conflict to pursue his own goals.
• Genji emerges as a pragmatic power broker. He is willing to cooperate with Konoha for political and economic gains, but keeps sensitive matters—especially Mei Terumi—strictly guarded.
• Yagura remains Genji’s chosen successor and potential partner in reshaping Kirigakure, though the chapter emphasizes that their aims are not identical.
• Byakuya and Genji establish a tentative alliance, mixing candid discussion with mutual suspicion. Their exchange over the Shark Village incident shows that both understand the other’s maneuvering without needing every detail stated aloud.

Significant themes

• Diplomacy and commerce as alternatives to war: Byakuya argues that shared trade rules and mutual benefit could reduce conflict.
• Political power and succession: Yagura’s rise is tied to Genji’s plan to weaken rival clans and consolidate control.
• Trust, secrecy, and manipulation: Characters cooperate while concealing information, testing one another, and pursuing separate agendas.
• Power as deterrence: Genji’s reaction to Byakuya’s technique reinforces Konoha’s reputation as a village difficult to challenge because it continually produces formidable ninja.

Ebizo rejected Mitokado Homura as Konoha’s negotiator and refused Sugiyama Eiji’s attempt to trade four towns for Sunagakure’s support in rebuilding the Land of Rivers’ shinobi village. Meanwhile, Namikaze Minato lamented that Shuten-doji was unavailable to help against Kumogakure, then rushed to confront the Two-Tails Jinchuriki.

• Ebizo and Mitokado Homura argued over Shuten-doji’s influence and the terms of the Konoha–Sunagakure negotiations, and Ebizo demanded that Konoha send a different negotiator.
• Ebizo learned that Shuten-doji had gone to Kirigakure and told Sugiyama Eiji that Sunagakure would compensate the Land of Rivers for farmland and mines it ceded.
• Sugiyama Eiji offered four border towns in exchange for Sunagakure’s support in dissolving and rebuilding the Land of Rivers’ shinobi village, but Ebizo refused to risk Konoha’s anger.
• Namikaze Minato complained that Konoha had not sent Shuten-doji to help against Kumogakure’s forces, while Kakashi hoped to see Shuten-doji fight beside Minato.
• After hearing that Kumogakure’s Two-Tails Jinchuriki had been spotted to the southeast, Namikaze Minato rushed to confront them.

Kumogakure launched a surprise attack on Namikaze Minato’s camp, but Minato anticipated it and forced A’s raiding force to withdraw. At the camp, Minato learned Shuten-doji was away on a mission in Kirigakure, while Orochimaru urged Jiraiya to support Shuten-doji for Fourth Hokage and revealed more about his extraordinary growth and abilities.

• A led Kumogakure ninja toward Konoha’s camp after the Two-Tails jinchuriki drew Minato away, but Minato was waiting and had recognized the diversion.
• The Two-Tails jinchuriki arrived, and A ordered the Cloud force to withdraw while Minato held back from pursuit because Killer B remained unaccounted for.
• Minato asked Akimichi Todō to return to Konoha to request Shuten-doji’s support, but Sarutobi Hiruzen’s message said Shuten-doji was on a classified mission in Kirigakure.
• Uchiha Obito asked Jiraiya for more training, so Jiraiya began teaching him Konoha Taijutsu.
• Orochimaru met Jiraiya and asked him to support Shuten-doji becoming Fourth Hokage, arguing that Minato was too indecisive for the role.
• Orochimaru told Jiraiya that Shuten-doji had once nearly died fighting Pakura, then rapidly learned the Flying Thunder God Technique and Water Severing Wave, and possessed Storm Release and an unfamiliar kekkei tōta.