Chapter Summaries

Lin Qing explained to Sara what her future self was like and discussed with Minato how Itachi’s possible foresight and their time travel might affect history. The group reached the Dragon Vein’s source and found a giant armor that seemed to draw life force from the people of the Country of Roran.

• Sara asked Lin Qing what her future self was like, and he described her as a true king before teasing her about nearly drowning in sewage.
• Lin Qing told Sara he would free her after taking out Itachi, then explained that Itachi might be able to foresee the future.
• Minato described the time-travel “black box,” in which events caused by time travelers would not affect the future until the passage ended.
• Choza Akimichi asked whether Itachi already knew they had arrived, and Lin Qing and Minato laughed before the group continued underground.
• Lin Qing tore through the wall and barrier, revealing a hundred-meter suit of armor submerged in the Dragon Vein and covered in wormlike creatures.
• Lin Qing recognized that the armor held abundant life force as well as Dragon Vein power, and concluded that it had come from the people of the Country of Roran.

Lin Qing confronted Itachi’s plan to use Moon Power and Roran’s people’s life force, but the Queen of Roran defended Crow and his goal of changing the future. Itachi revealed his Complete Body Susanoo and challenged Lin Qing, only for Lin Qing to pierce it before he could finish speaking.

• Lin Qing explained his direct fighting style and prepared to attack the armor, but the Queen of Roran intervened and admitted she knew Moon Power was used to create it.
• The Queen argued that Crow only took the lifespan Moon Power had added and claimed he wanted to protect Roran and create a happier world; Lin Qing called him an idiot and refused to let him go.
• Itachi attacked Lin Qing and the Queen from inside the armor, but Lin Qing rescued her and sent her to Choza Akimichi.
• Itachi revealed that he had waited for Sasuke’s birth and lived inside the armor to prepare for Lin Qing’s arrival.
• Itachi unveiled his Complete Body Susanoo, equipped with the Totsuka Blade, Yata Mirror, and steel wings, and challenged Lin Qing to a fight.
• Lin Qing’s Blade of Ruin pierced through the armor and Susanoo, stopping inches from Itachi’s eye.

Lin Qing pierced Itachi Uchiha’s Susanoo and Dragon Vein armor, then forced him out of the underground base to protect Roran. In the sky above Roran, Itachi’s Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto locked onto Lin Qing and began inferring his battle tactics.

• Minato, Choza Akimichi, and Shibi Aburame witnessed Itachi Uchiha’s Complete Body Susanoo as the Queen of Roran claimed the Crow had already calculated their defeat.
• Lin Qing used Time Stop and Star Platinum to pierce Susanoo and the Dragon Vein armor, but the damage quickly regenerated.
• Lin Qing challenged Itachi to fight aboveground to avoid destroying Roran, then used C-Moon to reverse gravity and launch the underground base into the sky.
• Itachi used the Yata Mirror to block Lin Qing’s attack and spread Susanoo’s steel wings to clear the surrounding debris.
• Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto locked onto Lin Qing, allowing Itachi to infer his movements and tactical options.

Lin Qing overwhelmed Itachi Uchiha’s Susanoo, rendering Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto’s predictions useless against his relentless attacks and Time Stop. Itachi restored his defenses with the Dragon Vein and tried to exploit Lin Qing’s unwillingness to endanger Roran’s civilians, prompting Minato’s team to prepare to intervene.

• Lin Qing and Itachi Uchiha fought across the sky as Minato, Choza Akimichi, and Shibi Aburame watched from the ruins.
• Minato said Lin Qing was about to defeat Itachi, and that his team should wait until something unexpected happened.
• Lin Qing’s Stands tore apart Susanoo’s Dragon Vein armor and blasted through its defenses, while Itachi’s predictions failed to give him an advantage.
• Lin Qing threw a Steel Ball during Time Stop, and Itachi blocked it with the Totsuka Blade at the cost of injuring himself.
• Itachi drew power from the Dragon Vein to repair Susanoo and argued that Lin Qing would not detonate it because civilians would die.
• Minato sensed the situation had changed and told his team it was their turn to act.

Minato returned to the sealing ground and persuaded Sara to try sealing the Dragon Vein while Lin Qing fought Itachi Uchiha. Sara slowed the Dragon Vein but could not fully stop it, and Minato prepared a second line of defense as the Queen of Roran began vomiting white threads.

• Minato threatened the Queen of Roran and urged her to seal the Dragon Vein, but she refused, trusting Mr. Crow to save her.
• Sara invoked her royal bloodline and activated the sealing formation, slowing the Dragon Vein before Itachi Uchiha's formation began restoring its flow.
• Lin Qing knocked Susanoo into the forest and praised Sara, then continued battling Itachi Uchiha as both fighters regenerated from severe wounds.
• Minato warned Choza Akimichi and Shibi Aburame that Itachi might become dangerous when cornered and ordered them to prepare as a second line of defense.
• The Queen of Roran insisted that Crow would never harm her people, then began retching thin white threads.

Lin Qing stopped Itachi Uchiha from draining the people of Roran and cornered him after destroying his defenses. With Minato’s help, Lin Qing shattered the Yata Mirror and killed Itachi, leaving a blazing scar across the night sky.

• Queen of Roran and the people of Roran were drained as Itachi drew their life force through Moon Power, but Lin Qing sealed the flow with Ripple-charged rain.
• Weather Report, Catch the Rainbow, and Star Platinum combined their powers to destroy Itachi’s Dragon Vein Armor and badly damage Susanoo and his modified body.
• Itachi tried to flee, but Minato used a Flying Thunder God kunai to bring him back into Lin Qing’s reach.
• Itachi blocked Lin Qing’s Blade of Ruin with the Yata Mirror, but the mirror cracked and shattered under the strike.
• Lin Qing cut through Itachi and pierced the night sky with the Blade of Ruin.

Lin Qing stopped Itachi Uchiha’s Dragon Vein explosion, but the two were swept through time and landed on the night of the Uchiha clan massacre. Itachi died at the hands of his younger self, and Lin Qing remained in the past as Obito appeared.

• Itachi Uchiha detonated himself, the Moon Power threads, and the Dragon Vein, threatening to destroy the Country of Roran.
• Lin Qing absorbed the Dragon Vein’s power and halted the explosion, while Itachi used the unstable energy to begin another spacetime traversal.
• Lin Qing caught Itachi with Hermit Purple, and the two drifted through the river of time before landing in the past.
• Itachi reached the Uchiha Compound on the night of the massacre, transformed into Danzō, and was recognized and killed by his younger self.
• Lin Qing took Itachi’s Mangekyo, received 2200 Soul Shards after Itachi died, and refused to alter the past by killing Obito or the younger Itachi.
• Lin Qing discovered that a barrier had cut off further time travel, then saw Obito emerge from the Kamui Dimension.

Lin Qing returned from the past after helping Minato and Sara stabilize Rōran’s altered timeline, but his body remained dangerously unstable and he set out for Konoha to seek Tsunade. As the black box opened and memories returned, Obito realized the glowing stranger who had lifted his mask was Lin Qing.

• Lin Qing stopped time to inspect Obito’s unmasked face, then returned to Rōran as Obito wondered whether his mask had been touched.
• Sara and Minato had resealed the Dragon Vein, and Minato gave Lin Qing a Flying Thunder God kunai for Naruto Uzumaki before sealing everyone else’s memories of Lin Qing and Itachi.
• More than ten years passed for Sara while Lin Qing experienced only a moment; their memories were restored, revealing that Rōran had become a thriving town and Sara’s illness had been cured.
• Lin Qing and Sara said farewell, and Lin Qing used Catch the Rainbow to travel through the rain toward Konoha while his powers maintained a fragile balance.
• Obito’s memories updated as the timeline changed, and he recognized the glowing stranger from the night of the clan massacre as Lin Qing.

Lin Qing sought Tsunade’s help after his body began cracking apart, and learned the Katsuyu Sage could treat him once she returned from the Projection of the Past. As they drank together, Tsunade asked him whether he wanted to become Hokage.

• Lin Qing showed Tsunade a portrait of Obito, whom they planned to circulate among Konoha’s ninjas for identification.
• Lin Qing explained that his body was breaking apart, and a summoned slug said the Katsuyu Sage could help but would not return until dawn.
• Lin Qing decided to wait at Tsunade’s home rather than risk traveling to Mount Myoboku while the Dragon Vein affected him.
• Lin Qing and Tsunade drank, talked about the Ninja World, and joked about his injuries.
• Tsunade leaned against Lin Qing and asked whether he wanted to become Hokage.

Lin Qing considered candidates for Konoha’s next Hokage, upgraded Weather Report and Aero Smith, and decided against implanting Fugaku Uchiha’s Mangekyō eye for now. After learning the Katsuyu Sage had returned, he left for Shikkotsu Forest while Tsunade slept.

• Tsunade told Lin Qing she wanted to retire, and he casually suggested Kakashi, Asuma, Shikaku Nara, and Jiraiya as possible Hokage candidates before discovering she had fallen asleep drunk.
• Lin Qing used 6,000 Soul Shards to max out Weather Report, then spent his remaining shards to upgrade Aero Smith to Level 3.
• Lin Qing considered implanting Fugaku Uchiha’s Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto but put it back in the thermos, deciding to have the Research Institute examine it first.
• The little slug told Lin Qing that the Katsuyu Sage had returned, so he left Tsunade a note and breakfast before departing for Shikkotsu Forest.
• Tsunade woke, ate breakfast while reading work documents, and noticed that her pen was missing.

Lin Qing visited Shikkotsu Forest to seek a solution to his unstable, constantly splitting body, and the Katsuyu Sage explained the Way of the Past and its energy-storing projections. The Sage warned that the method could help him but carried grave dangers as Lin Qing learned that creating more projections meant taking greater risks.

• Lin Qing and a little slug arrived at Shikkotsu Forest, where he observed slugs cultivating by splitting and returning their growth to the main body.
• The little slug led Lin Qing to the shrine, where the Katsuyu Sage greeted him after returning from the Projection of the Past.
• Lin Qing asked the Katsuyu Sage for a way to control his splitting body, explaining that he feared losing control even while asleep.
• The Katsuyu Sage warned that its proposed path was extremely dangerous and explained that it differed from the Toad Sage's foresight and the White Snake Sage's knowledge.
• The Katsuyu Sage described the Way of the Past: it stored excess cultivated energy in projections anchored in one's past, which could later supply that energy on demand.
• Lin Qing inferred that the projections had to exist within the river of time, and the Katsuyu Sage confirmed that each projection had limited capacity and that making more increased the danger.

Lin Qing learned that the Katsuyu Sage’s path through the past could trap cultivators indefinitely, and he postponed choosing whether to learn it until he consulted the Great Toad Sage. The Great Toad Sage confirmed that Absolute Darkness remained and explained that using Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto to obtain information increased the danger of unknown consequences.

• The Katsuyu Sage explained that it survived mistakes in its past projections by merging with its slug selves, a method Lin Qing could not imitate, and warned that Tsunade’s safer technique could not hold his power.
• Lin Qing asked to visit the Great Toad Sage before deciding whether to cultivate the past, and the Katsuyu Sage sent a small slug to help balance his energies.
• At Mount Myoboku, Lin Qing asked the Great Toad Sage whether opening the Spacetime Black Box had removed Absolute Darkness, and the Great Toad Sage said it had not.
• Lin Qing offered Fugaku’s eye and asked whether Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto could pierce the darkness, but the Great Toad Sage said the eye’s ability became dangerous when used for crucial decisions.
• The Great Toad Sage compared the eye’s information-gathering to breaking ice in the dark, explaining that the resulting currents created unseen hazards through probability rather than mysticism.

Lin Qing learned that the unknown still threatened the future and decided to cultivate the Path of the Past and continue the lunar exploration. Meanwhile, Obito planned to gather the Tailed Beast chakra needed to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki, then reacted in shock to Kabuto Yakushi's words.

• The Great Toad Sage warned Lin Qing not to try to fool the unknown, and Lin Qing considered using Ame-no-Futodama-no-Mikoto for offline deductions.
• Lin Qing decided to cultivate the Path of the Past and continue the lunar exploration, then left the sages with a coin tossed into the White Snake Sage's mouth for good luck.
• Kabuto Yakushi told Obito that Hidan's first-stage restoration was complete and that the White Snake Sage had found Kinkaku and Ginkaku's bodies.
• Obito agreed to help recover Kinkaku and Ginkaku, hoping to obtain the Nine-Tails' chakra and become the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki.
• Obito abruptly stopped Kabuto Yakushi and asked what he had just called him.

Obito learned that Kakashi had exposed his identity and ordered Kabuto Yakushi to evacuate the Kamui Dimension, fearing Lin Qing and Kakashi would target him. Meanwhile, Lin Qing began training with the Katsuyu Sage to find an important memory in the river of time, and his thoughts settled on Mei Terumi.

• Kabuto Yakushi told Obito that Kakashi had identified him and revealed his name across the Ninja World.
• Obito feared Lin Qing could locate him and Kakashi could counter his intangibility, so he ordered Kabuto Yakushi to pack their important equipment and leave the Kamui Dimension.
• Obito blamed Itachi Uchiha for the chain of events and regretted leaving his Sharingan with Kakashi.
• The Katsuyu Sage connected Lin Qing to the sensation of its Projection of the Past and instructed him to search his memories for a vital fragment.
• Lin Qing's memories led him to a promise about keeping happiness's light burning until there was peace, and Mei Terumi's face appeared in his mind.

Lin Qing used his experience drawing Stands to find a resonance with a cherished memory of Mei Terumi in under ten minutes, completing the first step of the Path of the Past. After the Katsuyu Sage explained the danger of Driving the Stake, Lin Qing began the next step by sending a fragment of his soul into the River of Time.

• Lin Qing recalled the victory banquet after Mei Terumi took over Kirigakure and used Hermit Purple to protect his soul as it entered the River of Time.
• Lin Qing quickly found the past corresponding to his memory, surprising the Katsuyu Sage, who said even Hashirama Senju had taken a week to complete the first step.
• The Katsuyu Sage explained that Driving the Stake required Lin Qing to hammer a separated piece of his soul into the past, risking damage and loss in the River of Time.
• Lin Qing refused to stop and pulled a strand from his soul, which transformed into a massive beam and plunged into the River of Time.

Lin Qing trained in the River of Time to create a Projection of the Past that could contain the excess Dragon Vein energy in his body. After the Katsuyu Sage recovered from the ordeal, Lin Qing prepared to leave Shikkotsu Forest, and Katsuyu Sage offered him breakfast.

• Lin Qing seized a beam of light in the River of Time and repeatedly struck it with a hammer, causing the Katsuyu Sage to lose consciousness.
• The Katsuyu Sage woke at dawn and asked Lin Qing how his soul had grown so powerful; Lin Qing reflected on the stars and strange cosmic phenomena he had encountered.
• Lin Qing explained that he had established a Projection of the Past to store energy, though he would need to cultivate further and create more projections before he could fight safely.
• The Katsuyu Sage said Lin Qing's first projection was unusually large and expected a second one to hold all his excess energy.
• Lin Qing said he was leaving, and the Katsuyu Sage offered him breakfast.

After recovering in Shikkotsu Forest, Lin Qing returned to Konoha and joined Tsunade, Kakashi, and Naruto in discussing a plan to kill Uchiha Obito. They postponed testing whether Kakashi’s Kamui could reach Obito until Lin Qing recovered enough to fight, and Lin Qing gave Naruto his Flying Thunder God kunai and forehead protector.

• The Katsuyu Sage served Lin Qing a lavish breakfast and explained that she cherished people because they would eventually remain only in her memories.
• Lin Qing returned to Konoha, read Uchiha Obito’s sparse records, and learned that Kakashi suspected their Kamui dimensions might be connected.
• Kakashi proposed absorbing a Tailed Beast Bomb into the Kamui Dimension while Lin Qing investigated Obito’s location with Hermit Purple.
• Tsunade, Lin Qing, and Kakashi formed a plan to force Obito out of the Kamui Dimension and kill him, but agreed to wait until Lin Qing recovered in one to three months.
• Lin Qing gave Naruto the Flying Thunder God kunai and his forehead protector outside the Hokage Building.

Naruto received Minato's Flying Thunder God kunai and reflected on the family and friends who supported him. Tsunade told Lin Qing she had abolished the Hyuga branch-family system and gave him modified slugs to remotely control Hidan for the upcoming moon mission.

• Naruto received his first forehead protector and learned that the Flying Thunder God kunai was a graduation gift from his father, Minato Namikaze.
• Naruto introduced Hinata Hyuga as his best friend, and Tsunade explained that she had abolished the Hyuga Clan's branch-family system.
• Lin Qing offered to form a research team with Neji to break the Caged Bird Cursed Seal.
• Tsunade gave Lin Qing modified remote-control slugs that could control Hidan's body across the distance between the Ninja World and the moon.
• Tsunade asked Lin Qing to give back her pen.

Otsutsuki Toneri infiltrated the Hyuga Clan compound and attacked Hyuga Hiashi, revealing that he intended to take Hinata Hyuga and obtain pure-blooded Byakugan. Toneri’s hatred of the main house and jealousy over Hinata’s closeness with Naruto Uzumaki drove him to act sooner than planned.

• Otsutsuki Toneri left the moon, declaring that human history would end.
• Hyuga Hiashi brooded over the loss of the main and branch family system and blamed Lin Qing for his troubles.
• Toneri confronted Hyuga Hiashi and revealed that he had killed the compound’s guards and sentries.
• Toneri declared that he would kill Lin Qing and Tsunade, take Hinata Hyuga as his wife, and obtain Byakugan from the Hyuga family.
• Toneri’s black-robed puppets surrounded and attacked Hyuga Hiashi as Toneri recalled his hatred of the main house and his jealousy of Naruto Uzumaki.

Toneri attacked Konoha, captured Hinata and members of the Hyuga clan, and overwhelmed Naruto before Kakashi and the reinforcements drove him away. Tsunade recognized the Otsutsuki threat and ordered the village to contact Lin Qing.

• Toneri defeated Hyuga Hiashi, captured him and Hanabi Hyuga, and set out to take Hinata.
• Toneri destroyed Ichiraku Ramen and attacked Naruto, Iruka, Teuchi, and Hinata, but Naruto fought back with the Nine-Tails' chakra.
• Toneri's puppets overwhelmed Naruto, and Toneri seized Hinata while preparing to kill Naruto.
• Kakashi used Kamui to stop Toneri's attacks as Tsunade, Konoha ninja, and the Extermination Army arrived, forcing Toneri to retreat with Hinata.
• Shizune reported the Hyuga clan's losses, and Naruto identified the attacker as an Otsutsuki.
• Tsunade ordered the village to contact Lin Qing after realizing aliens had arrived.