Recaps

Itachi traveled with Tobi toward Akatsuki’s base and met Uchiha Kuro, a former Uchiha genius who had joined the organization. After Kuro vanished, he watched the boat from a distant mountaintop and realized he had survived the night of the massacre.

• Tobi told Itachi that he was called Tobi and that Akatsuki’s leader knew his true identity as Uchiha Madara.
• Uchiha Kuro suddenly appeared on the boat and revealed himself as another surviving Uchiha and an Akatsuki member.
• Kuro teased Itachi about his bloody sword and made jokes about the Uchiha clan until Itachi warned that he would kill him if he continued.
• Kuro used the Body Flicker Technique to disappear, and Tobi warned Itachi not to pursue him because he was strong.
• Kuro watched the boat from a mountaintop and murmured that he had made it past the night of the massacre.

Uchiha Kuro reflected on his difficult life as a transmigrator and how his strength and foreknowledge had failed to let him change the tragedies around him. As he stood beneath the moon with his Sharingan awakened, Obito appeared and asked why he was there.

• Kuro recalled being born into the Uchiha Clan without a system or exceptional talent and fearing the clan’s eventual massacre.
• Kuro remembered training relentlessly, becoming a promising young Uchiha, and surviving the Third Ninja World War after his teammates and classmates died.
• Kuro admitted that his foreknowledge had been too limited to help him stop the tragedies or pursue dangerous ways to gain strength.
• Kuro sensed someone behind him, activated his Sharingan, and slashed at the figure with his sword.
• Obito appeared in his Spiral Mask, let Kuro’s blade pass through him, and asked Kuro what he was doing there.

Kuro reflected on his long history with Obito and his failure to prevent the Nine-Tails Incident, while Obito tried to reassure him that the Uchiha would be happy in the Dream World. The chapter ended with Obito asking Kuro to become Itachi's partner.

• Kuro recalled growing up beside Obito, losing his parents, and failing to change Obito's fate.
• Kuro remembered that the Nine-Tails Incident had unfolded despite his vague warnings to Namikaze Minato, leaving the Fourth Hokage and Kushina dead.
• Kuro complained that he was cleaning up Obito's mess in the Mist Village and resented being drawn into Itachi's induction ceremony.
• Obito told Kuro not to worry about the Uchiha because they would live happily in the Dream World, like Rin.
• Obito asked Kuro to become Itachi's partner, and Kuro reacted with shock.

Obito asked Kuro to watch Uchiha Itachi, but Kuro chose to return to the Mist Village after recalling how he had tried and failed to change Shisui and Itachi’s paths. Obito gave Kuro the swordsmanship of Uchiha Izuna, then reaffirmed his resolve to create a dream world where Kuro, Rin, and Kakashi could smile genuinely.

• Obito asked Kuro to partner with Uchiha Itachi and monitor him as a suspected Konoha spy, but Kuro hesitated over the danger of Itachi’s Mangekyo.
• Kuro remembered his failed efforts to guide Shisui and Itachi, his defection, and how he had survived by revealing his identity to Obito.
• Obito told Kuro he could refuse the assignment, and Kuro said he would return to the Mist Village.
• Obito stopped Kuro to tell him he had found Uchiha Izuna’s swordsmanship in Madara’s legacy and left it with Yagura; Kuro thanked him and departed.
• Black Zetsu warned Obito not to trust Kuro, but Obito ordered it to stay in its place and vanished.
• In the Kamui Dimension, Obito looked at the bodies he had preserved and vowed to create a dream world where Rin, Kakashi, and Kuro could live happily.

Obito recalled how Kuro and Rin had become his friends and reaffirmed his plan to create a world where they could be happy, even if they hated him. Meanwhile, Kuro arrived at Mist Village disguised as Shiina Sora, its Mizukage Aide.

• Obito remembered first keeping his distance from Kuro and how Kuro beat him when he tried to comfort him after his aunt and uncle died.
• Obito recalled Rin confronting Kuro over the beating, an encounter that brought the three of them closer as friends.
• Obito reflected on Kuro recognizing him beneath his Uchiha Madara disguise and accepting his ideal, then resolved to continue with Infinite Tsukuyomi despite Kuro's anger over the Uchiha Clan's massacre.
• Obito promised to create a world where Rin and Kuro could find happiness, then disappeared from the Kamui Dimension.
• Kuro cursed his failure to change the future, transformed into Shiina Sora, and entered Mist Village as its Mizukage Aide.

Shiina Sora returned to a transformed Kirigakure and reflected on his years of reforms and growing suspicions about Obito. He encountered Zabuza and Haku on the street, leaving them startled by his arrival.

• Shiina Sora walked through Kirigakure, where villagers welcomed him as the leader who had driven the village's reforms.
• Sora recalled that Obito had readily agreed to his plan to manage Kirigakure, and he resolved to prepare countermeasures and make plans for Kakashi's left Mangekyo.
• Sora noticed Haku admiring a rabbit in a shop cage while Zabuza urged him not to neglect their training.
• Zabuza began to answer Haku, then recognized Sora and exclaimed in surprise as Sora greeted him and Haku.

Kuro reunited with Haku and Zabuza, whose awkward affection for his young student showed as Haku left with a rabbit Zabuza had promised him. After Haku departed, Zabuza discussed Haku’s unsuitability for life as a shinobi, and Kuro urged him to keep guiding the boy; Zabuza then revealed that Mei Terumi wanted to speak with Kuro.

• Kuro greeted Haku and Zabuza while they were out shopping, and Haku told him Zabuza treated him well.
• Zabuza explained that he had taken Haku shopping because the boy had earned a request through his training, then handed Haku the rabbit he had forgotten.
• After Haku left, Kuro reflected on how he had helped unite Kirigakure’s opposition and protect its clans from Obito’s plans.
• Zabuza told Kuro that Haku was talented but too kind and trusting to survive as a shinobi, and Kuro said Zabuza should continue guiding him.
• Zabuza told Kuro he had encountered Mei Terumi, who was heading to Kuro’s place to discuss something with him.

Mei Terumi vented to Kuro about her clan pressuring her to marry before presenting confidential information about the previous Three-Tails Jinchuriki plan. Kuro stopped her from investigating who was behind it, and Mei revealed she had found an Uzumaki ruin that might help them deal with Yagura.

• Mei Terumi complained to Kuro that her clan wanted her to marry and pass on her Kekkei Genkai while Kirigakure's reforms were under threat.
• Mei Terumi gave Kuro the records she had gathered about the Mist Anbu's plan to seal the Three-Tails inside a Konoha ninja after the Third Ninja World War.
• Mei Terumi began to speculate about who had devised the plan, but Kuro abruptly stopped her and told her to leave the matter to him.
• Mei Terumi chose to trust Kuro, then showed him a map to a Warring States-era Uzumaki Clan ruin containing Sealing Jutsu that could help them deal with Yagura.

Mei Terumi showed Kuro a map to Uzumaki Clan ruins, hoping their lost Sealing Jutsu could help Mist Village defeat Yagura and suppress the Three-Tails. After learning that previous expeditions had vanished, Kuro concluded that Ao's Byakugan was the key to exploring the ruins.

• Mei Terumi explained that she had found a map to the Uzumaki Clan's Warring States Period ruins in Mist Village's intelligence room.
• Mei argued that recovering the Uzumaki Clan's Sealing Jutsu could help them defeat Yagura, the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, and carry out reforms in Mist Village.
• Kuro questioned whether the map was reliable, and Mei explained that Mist Village had obtained it from Uzushio Village during the Second Ninja World War.
• Mei told Kuro that several elite Anbu teams sent to investigate the ruins under the Third Mizukage had never returned.
• Mei began to mention Ao, and Kuro realized that Ao's Byakugan was the key to breaking through the ruins.

Kuro persuaded Mei Terumi not to investigate the Uzumaki Clan’s ruins, warning that her death could doom the Reformist Faction. He kept the map for himself, concealing his own plans, while Mei trusted him and agreed to wait.

• Mei Terumi urged Kuro to let her search the ruins for the Uzumaki Clan’s lost Sealing Jutsu to help defeat Yagura’s supporters.
• Kuro argued that Mei’s absence would leave the Reformist Faction vulnerable because she and he were its only Kage Level fighters besides Yagura.
• Kuro privately reflected that he had engineered the village’s political deadlock and wanted reforms to advance only as far as suited his interests.
• Kuro told Mei to rest and put the investigation on hold, then rolled up and kept the map.
• Mei accepted Kuro’s decision, thanked him, and called him her comrade.

Mei Terumi told Sora she considered him a friend and hoped he would become the next Mizukage, while Sora struggled with painful memories and doubts after she left. He then studied a map to the Uzumaki Clan's ruins and vanished to retrieve Prisoner Madara's inheritance.

• Mei Terumi asked Sora if they were friends, and he reminded her they had known each other for four years.
• Mei Terumi said she hoped Sora would become the next Mizukage and credited him with making change in the Mist Village possible.
• After Mei Terumi left, Sora sank beside the door and questioned whether he could save anyone when he could not save himself.
• Sora examined a map of the Uzumaki Clan's ruins and said he would first retrieve Prisoner Madara's inheritance.
• Sora vanished without a sound, leaving the window open as mist drifted into the room.

Uchiha Kuro appeared before Yagura and Kisame after Kisame killed an elder who challenged the Mizukage. Kuro revealed his true identity as he asked Kisame about the item Madara had entrusted to him.

• Conservative elders urged Yagura to crush the Reformist Faction and restore the Blood Mist Policy.
• Yagura dismissed the elders’ demands, and Kisame killed one who persisted.
• Yagura ordered the remaining elders out, and they fled the bloodied conference room.
• Kuro appeared from the shadows, revealing his true appearance instead of his Shiina Sora disguise.
• Kisame recognized Kuro as Sora, bowed to him, and apologized for the scene.
• Kuro asked Kisame whether he had the item Madara wanted to give him.

Kuro received Uchiha Izuna’s swordsmanship scroll from Kisame and reflected on his distrust of Obito and his respect for Kisame. He returned to his hidden cave, where Karin welcomed him home.

• Kisame drew Uchiha Izuna’s swordsmanship scroll from Samehada and gave it to Kuro.
• Kuro privately condemned Obito for his crimes, then told Kisame that he considered him worthy of trust.
• Kuro read the scroll, tucked it away, and vanished from the conference room, leaving Kisame to guard the vacant Mizukage.
• Kuro brought food to his secret cave outside Mist Village and entered after dispelling its Genjutsu and seal.
• Karin rushed to greet Kuro, who called the hidden cave his only home.

Kuro celebrated Karin’s progress with a meal, then visited a hidden underground chamber and stood before Shisui’s gravestone. The chapter left the reason for Kuro’s sorrow unexplained.

• Kuro gave Karin a basket of food and announced they would celebrate her training progress with a feast.
• Kuro recalled how he had rescued Karin from Kusagakure after her mother died and taken her in as his student.
• Kuro and Karin prepared and ate dinner together, while Kuro remembered happier days with Obito, Rin, and Kakashi in Konoha.
• Karin noticed Kuro’s sadness and worried that he had barely eaten.
• Kuro entered a hidden underground chamber and approached a gravestone bearing the name Uchiha Shisui.

Kuro recalled Shisui’s attempt to prevent the Uchiha coup and read the letter Shisui had left before his death. Overwhelmed by grief and anger at the clan’s destruction, Kuro awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan.

• Kuro remembered infiltrating Konoha and warning Shisui about Danzo and the danger facing the Uchiha.
• Shisui’s letter explained that Danzo had attacked him, that the Uchiha coup seemed unavoidable, and that Shisui had chosen to die to delay it.
• Kuro held the Mangekyō from Shisui’s right eye and condemned Shisui for leaving the Uchiha and Itachi to deal with the crisis.
• Kuro grieved for the ordinary Uchiha who had wanted peaceful lives and screamed out his anger and helplessness.
• Kuro’s Three Tomoe Sharingan transformed into the Mangekyō as he felt both agony and ecstatic power.

Kuro awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan and discovered its two abilities, Magatsuhi God and Inari God. After realizing Inari God could absorb ocular power and potentially strengthen his dōjutsu, he prepared to test whether it could let him gain traits from a Byakugan.

• Kuro awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, then slapped himself to calm the dangerous confidence brought on by its power.
• Kuro discovered that his left eye, Magatsuhi God, could collapse space around anything in his field of vision, at the cost of ocular power.
• Kuro learned that his right eye, Inari God, could absorb ninjutsu, chakra, and ocular power from targets he could see.
• Kuro summoned a black Crow carrying a Byakugan recovered from the Hyuga Main Family and considered using Inari God to absorb its ocular power.
• Kuro decided he needed to experiment to determine whether Inari God could give his Mangekyō Sharingan traits of the Byakugan.

Kuro tested whether the Byakugan's ocular power could replenish his Mangekyō Sharingan and found that it slightly expanded his field of vision. A summons from Pain brought him to an Akatsuki meeting, where he wondered why Nagato had called everyone together.

• Kuro used Inari God to draw a small amount of ocular power from the crow's Byakugan and feed it into his Mangekyō Sharingan.
• Kuro noticed that the Byakugan's ocular power replenished his Mangekyō's power and slightly expanded his field of vision.
• Kuro received a summons through his Akatsuki ring and used the Illusionary Body Technique to join the meeting.
• Kuro found Pain, Konan, Scorpion, Kakuzu, Orochimaru, Itachi, and Tobi gathered on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
• Kuro saw that Tobi also seemed unaware of the meeting's purpose and wondered what Nagato was planning.

Pain gathered Akatsuki for a meeting and announced an expansion plan, leaving the members to consider what it would mean. Itachi also learned that Kuro had defeated Orochimaru, while Kuro and Tobi argued over a game.

• Orochimaru offered to help Itachi, and Sasori warned him that Orochimaru had once harassed another Uchiha and lost to Kuro.
• Itachi reflected on Kuro's growth and was shocked that he had reached Kage Level and defeated Orochimaru.
• Kuro celebrated beating Tobi at rock-paper-scissors, while Tobi demanded another round.
• Pain silenced the gathering and announced that he had called everyone together to discuss Akatsuki's expansion plan.

Pain announced that Akatsuki needed three more members before its fighters would be paired into teams, then ordered Kuro to remain after the meeting. Pain confronted Tobi, calling him Madara, while Kuro watched the tense standoff in confusion.

• Pain told Akatsuki that it needed three more powerful fighters and would later assign its members to two-person teams.
• Kakuzu and Scorpion warned that they would kill any partner who interfered, while Orochimaru eagerly asked Itachi to team up with him.
• Itachi gave Orochimaru a noncommittal answer, then left as Pain ended the meeting.
• After the others departed, Pain stopped Kuro and told everyone except him to leave, including Madara.
• Tobi silently faced Pain as their pressure filled the void, while Kuro looked to Konan for help and wondered if this was an Asura's Arena.

Pain assigned Kuro a suspicious, highly lucrative mission and asked him to become an Akatsuki member. The chapter ended with Kuro stunned by Pain’s unexpected offer.

• Obito dismissed his phantom after addressing Pain as the organization’s leader and glancing at Kuro.
• Pain told Kuro to meet a client at Mist Harbor in the Land of Water three days later for a mission offering eight million ryō.
• Kuro eagerly accepted the mission after Pain offered to give it to Itachi instead.
• Pain stopped Kuro as he was leaving and asked him to join the Akatsuki as a member.

Pain and Konan tested Kuro’s loyalty and confirmed that he was closely aligned with Madara, leaving Nagato wary of both men. Pain planned to send the Animal Path to observe Kuro near Mist Village and use an old acquaintance to test his strength.

• Kuro concealed his suspicion of Pain’s attempt to probe his relationship with Madara and ended the meeting without revealing his thoughts.
• Pain and Konan discussed how Kuro’s closeness to Madara made him a potential threat, despite their sense that he was a good person.
• Pain told Konan that he would send the Animal Path to Mist Harbor in three days to observe Kuro, not attack him.
• Pain revealed that an old acquaintance gathering intelligence near Mist Village would be used to test Kuro’s strength, and Konan realized whom he meant.

Kuro sealed the cave where Karin slept, then raced toward the Mist Village with his self-developed Lightning Release: Swift Thunder. As memories of the Third Raikage’s massacre resurfaced, Kuro confronted the fear and insecurity he had carried since witnessing the battlefield.

• Kuro dispelled the crow carrying the Byakugan and checked that Karin was asleep before leaving the cave.
• Kuro resealed and concealed the cave entrance, then used Lightning Release: Swift Thunder to speed toward the Mist Village.
• While racing through the night, Kuro recalled watching the Third Raikage slaughter Iwagakure Ninja during the Third Ninja World War.
• Kuro remembered how the massacre had made him imagine himself dying like the helpless ninja and had driven him to want to run away.

Kuro returned to the Mist Village after testing his self-created A-rank Lightning Release: Swift Thunder, then found himself caught with a magazine when Obito arrived. The magazine belonged to Mei Terumi, and Kuro was left facing an embarrassing misunderstanding.

• Kuro recalled awakening his Three Tomoe Sharingan on the battlefield and developing Swift Thunder from what he had observed of the Third Raikage’s Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
• Kuro raced fifty kilometers back to the Mist Village in seven seconds and calculated that his speed was still slightly below the Fourth Raikage’s full-power charge.
• Obito arrived at Kuro’s home through a space-time distortion and saw the magazine Kuro was pretending to read.
• Kuro discovered the cover showed a collection featuring girls aged twelve to sixteen and protested that he had not bought it.
• Mei Terumi realized one of her magazines was missing and guessed she had left it at Sora’s home.
• Kuro met Obito’s knowing gaze and silently feared the magazine had caused him social ruin.

Kuro and Obito recalled their childhood friendship before Obito left without saying what he had wanted to say. The next day, Mei Terumi handed Kuro a leave request, threatening to disrupt his plans for the Mist Village.

• Kuro and Obito traded teasing remarks until Kuro accidentally brought up Obito's old feelings for Rin, silencing them both.
• Obito remembered his childhood with Kuro in Konoha and quietly accepted that Kuro had remained the same while he had changed.
• Obito dismissed Nagato as a puppet of Madara and left after Kuro asked him to help watch over the Mist Village.
• Kuro planned to keep Mei Terumi busy while he arranged his mission and investigated the Uzumaki ruins.
• The next day, Mei Terumi gave Kuro a leave request, and he worried that it was no coincidence.

Kuro confronted Mei Terumi after learning she had secretly hired Akatsuki to explore the Uzumaki Clan ruins. Mei explained why she trusted the rogue shinobi Uchiha Kuro, and Kuro then pressed her about paying for the mission herself.

• Kuro questioned Mei Terumi about hiring Akatsuki before reporting the Uzumaki Clan ruins mission to him.
• Mei said Kirigakure's intelligence division knew of Akatsuki and that her past encounter with Uchiha Kuro had first left her with a deeply negative impression of him.
• Mei recalled that Uchiha Kuro had recovered the remains and belongings of fallen comrades and completed rogue missions without harming civilians, leading her to trust him with the mission.
• Kuro accepted Mei's reasoning and observed that Akatsuki was seeking high-paying work and was unlikely to harm a client.
• Kuro asked whether Mei Terumi had paid for the mission with her own money, and she silently nodded.