Chapter Summaries

Gekko Taiwa and Kushimaru Kuriarare fought a brutal Item Match that ended in a three-minute draw, leaving both injured. After Gekko Taiwa received treatment, they began the Spell Match, where both held back and waited for the other to make the first move.

• Gekko Taiwa and Kushimaru Kuriarare exchanged sword and needle strikes, both sustaining serious wounds before the Item Match time limit ended.
• Tsunade treated Gekko Taiwa, while his clan urged him to conserve strength and be careful in the remaining matches.
• After the fifteen-minute interval, Gekko Taiwa and Kushimaru Kuriarare returned to the arena for the Spell Match, with Kushimaru's injured arm still impaired.
• Gekko Taiwa and Kushimaru Kuriarare each decided to stall, and neither attacked after the referee started the match.
• Wang Yiping and Tang Shiqi tried to explain the contestants' standoff as a contest of patience and strategy.

Sun Keiyun watched Kushimaru Kuriarare defeat Gekko Taiwa, then approached the disillusioned swordsman with claims about hidden Gekko Clan techniques. He left Gekko Taiwa to investigate and told Tsunade about the Cloud Leaf Society’s growing alliances, including the Nine-Tails.

• Sun Keiyun and Orochimaru discussed a new cultivation method, the Chunin Exams, and possible changes to the tournament format.
• Kushimaru Kuriarare trapped Gekko Taiwa in mist with Nuibari’s threads and defeated him, while Sun Keiyun secretly healed and carried him beyond the arena.
• Sun Keiyun told Gekko Taiwa that the Gekko Clan withheld three powerful sword techniques and urged him to investigate after returning to the village.
• Sun Keiyun explained to Tsunade that he had planted the techniques through Uzuki and revealed that Uzumaki Kushina and the Nine-Tails had joined the Cloud Leaf Society.

Sun Keiyun explained to Tsunade that people would join Cloud Leaf Society for its ideals of equality, not merely for benefits, and gave her The People are Precious to help spread those ideas. Meanwhile, Konoha took a 3–1 lead over Kirigakure, whose leaders argued over their losses before Ao advised them to limit the damage and prepare to defend the Lava Golem.

• Sun Keiyun told Tsunade that branch-house members needed to recognize their equal dignity and showed her The People are Precious as a tool for recruiting people who believed in Cloud Leaf Society’s ideals.
• Tsunade studied the book while Dosatojin defeated Biwa Jūzō, giving Konoha its first victory over Kirigakure.
• Sarutobi Naoki defeated Hōzuki Mangetsu in the Spell Match, then Uchiha Hikari knocked Yuki Kei unconscious and gave Konoha a 3–1 lead.
• Karatachi Yagura convened Kirigakure’s leaders, but Yuki Hyōga and the Hozuki Clan Head argued with him about the losses and his authority.
• Ao advised Kirigakure to send Kushimaru Kuriarare against Uchiha Hikari to drain her Chakra, then prepare to defend the Lava Golem rather than risk a disastrous defeat.
• Karatachi Yagura accepted Ao’s plan, and Kushimaru Kuriarare agreed to do his best.

Uchiha Hikari defeated Kushimaru Kuriarare and basked in the crowd’s adoration, while Mei Terumi inspired Kirigakure with a speech about rebuilding the Mist’s glory. Hikari and Mei began their final match, with Kirigakure’s hopes and Hikari’s jealousy riding on the outcome.

• Uchiha Hikari defeated Kushimaru Kuriarare and told the crowd he would keep fighting, drawing cheers and earning growing popularity.
• Mei Terumi addressed the crowd, invoking Kirigakure’s fallen contestants and vowing to rebuild the Mist’s glory.
• Kirigakure’s ninja were moved by Mei’s words and began to see her as a potential banner for civilian ninja and the village.
• Tsunade recognized Mei’s speech as a powerful moment, while Sun Keiyun hinted at her connection to the Cloud Leaf Society.
• Uchiha Hikari returned to the ring jealous of Mei’s sudden attention and resolved to defeat her.
• Mei Terumi and Uchiha Hikari took their opening stances with swords, and the final match began.

Mei Terumi used the Mist Rain Sword Style to defeat Uchiha Hikari in the first mini-match, winning Kirigakure’s admiration. As Uchiha Mine prepared to face her next, he dismissed Fugaku’s warning and planned to copy her swordsmanship with his Sharingan.

• Mei Terumi’s flowing sword technique wounded Uchiha Hikari and kept him from mounting an effective counterattack.
• Uchiha Hikari retreated to run out the clock, but Mei Terumi used the Mist Rain Body Technique to close the distance and overwhelm him.
• Sun Keiyun identified Mei Terumi’s footwork as the Mist Rain Body Technique, and Tsunade arranged to obtain it through the Cloud Leaf Society’s skill exchange.
• Uchiha Hikari collapsed with twenty seconds left, and Ren Pingxia counted him out as Uchiha Fugaku prepared Uchiha Mine for the next mini-match.
• Uchiha Mine claimed he had copied Mei Terumi’s sword technique with his Sharingan and insisted on challenging her directly.
• Ren Pingxia declared Mei Terumi the winner, and Kirigakure’s crowd celebrated her as its hope while Karatachi Yagura wondered how quickly she had become its center.

Uchiha Fugaku investigated the suspicious Kochi Cup and learned that the Ninja Cats had been fighting a huge colony of Ninja Rats for years. He suspected Root was raising the rats for intelligence work and sent a letter to Cat Granny while deciding to let the cats and rats continue their feud.

• A medical ninja said Uchiha Hikari had suffered mostly minor injuries, though a serious arm wound had left him unconscious and required a transfusion.
• Uchiha Fugaku summoned A Liang, who told him the Ninja Cats had been battling more than a thousand Ninja Rats in Konoha for years.
• Fugaku realized the rats likely belonged to a major clan or organization and reasoned that they were being used to carry intelligence rather than spy directly.
• Fugaku suspected Danzo's Root had raised the Ninja Rats, but chose not to alert Cat Granny because the fighting provided useful training for the cats.
• Fugaku gave A Liang a letter for Cat Granny, who was still supplying materials and intelligence despite the conflict.

Sun Keiyun learned that Fugaku had noticed the Ninja Mice while Mei Terumi faced Uchiha Mine in the tournament. Mei defeated Mine after his copied Mist Rain Sword style failed him, then collapsed as the spectators hailed her courage.

• Sun Keiyun reflected on the spies he had placed among Cat Granny’s cats and hoped Fugaku would not become too curious about the Ninja Mice.
• Uchiha Mine copied Mei Terumi’s Mist Rain Sword style with his Sharingan and used it against her, while the commentators and crowd rallied behind Mei.
• Mei exploited Mine’s inability to use the copied sword style properly, and he injured her before she struck his shoulder and weakened his right arm.
• Mei endured the fight until Mine fell and failed to rise before the countdown ended, earning a victory amid the crowd’s cheers.
• Ren Pingxia caught Mei when she collapsed and praised the effort she had made for Kirigakure.

After Mei Terumi defeated two Uchiha, Fugaku inferred that Orochimaru had arranged the match to undermine Sarutobi Hiruzen by setting Sarutobi Naoki up to lose. Naoki chose to face Mei Terumi instead of Dosatojin, while Fugaku decided not to interfere and recognized that the Uchiha Clan could benefit from connections to both Minato and Orochimaru.

• A medical ninja said Uchiha Mine could not be awakened safely because of his blood loss, and Fugaku concealed that Mei Terumi had not been injured.
• Fugaku concluded that Orochimaru had arranged for Naoki to face an uninjured Mei Terumi and damage Sarutobi Hiruzen's reputation.
• Dosatojin offered to fight Mei Terumi, but Naoki took the match after deciding he wanted the credit for defeating her.
• After Naoki left, Fugaku realized that neither the truth about Mei Terumi's condition nor his own actions would change Naoki's decision.
• Fugaku chose not to question or interfere with his clansman's connection to Orochimaru, seeing value in the Uchiha Clan having ties to both Minato and Orochimaru.

Mei Terumi defeated Sarutobi Naoki with her Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique, but collapsed from exhaustion afterward. Karatachi Yagura forfeited Kirigakure’s final match, giving Konoha the Kochi Cup, while Sun Keiyun reflected on helping Mei rise toward becoming Mizukage.

• Fugaku suspected Orochimaru and Tsunade were coordinating, but decided to wait rather than interfere with their plans.
• Despite her severe weakness, Mei Terumi refused to withdraw and faced Sarutobi Naoki in the arena.
• Mei Terumi unleashed her Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique, killing Sarutobi Naoki with a single strike and winning the match.
• Tsunade caught Mei Terumi as she collapsed and confirmed that she was too weak to fight again.
• Karatachi Yagura forfeited Kirigakure’s final match, and Ren Pingxia declared Konoha the winner of the first Kochi Cup.
• Sun Keiyun told Snake Uncle that Mei Terumi’s rise and future as Mizukage were the result of his support.

Sun Keiyun and Orochimaru discussed Mei Terumi’s sword technique and the Chunin Exams while traveling back to the village, and Sun Keiyun continued refining his Spirit Gathering Divine Mark. Meanwhile, students from Arima Elementary School set out to spread education and practical knowledge, protected from predatory outsiders by Root ninjas.

• Sun Keiyun and Orochimaru revealed that Mei Terumi’s Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique used magnesium powder to create a blinding flash before she attacked.
• Orochimaru explained the written and combat portions of the Chunin Exams and warned that newly promoted Chunin would lead their own teams, possibly on the Sunagakure battlefield.
• Sun Keiyun continued studying and refining his Spirit Gathering Divine Mark after testing thousands of combinations.
• Nearly seven hundred students left Arima Elementary School with maps to travel to nearby villages, where teachers would provide lessons and basic medical care.
• Root ninjas killed men who tried to prey on the students as they departed.

Konoha welcomed Orochimaru home after his victory at Weishan and the death of Kirigakure’s Mizukage, while Sarutobi Hiruzen worried about the prestige Orochimaru and Tsunade carried. At a meeting with Konoha’s elders, Orochimaru met Cloud Fox, the new director of Root, and felt the divide between his ideals and Hiruzen’s widen.

• Konoha’s villagers greeted Orochimaru as he returned from the Mist Hidden Battlefield, and Sarutobi Hiruzen hurried to meet him.
• Tsunade joined Orochimaru, surprising Hiruzen and intensifying his concern about their combined influence.
• Orochimaru sent his three disciples home and told them to keep training for the Chunin Exams; Hiruzen reconsidered Sun Keiyun’s importance to Orochimaru.
• Hiruzen brought Orochimaru and Tsunade to a meeting with Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Cloud Fox, whom he introduced as Root’s new director.
• Hiruzen claimed Danzo had retired, and Orochimaru accepted the explanation while recognizing that he and his teacher belonged to different eras.

Cloud Fox persuaded Orochimaru and Tsunade to take leadership roles in a Ninja Academy reform modeled on Root’s successful use of civilian orphans for intelligence work. The chapter ended with Orochimaru named principal and Tsunade appointed vice principal and head teacher.

• Cloud Fox explained to Orochimaru that Root’s education program trained orphans to handle routine intelligence work, improving accuracy and freeing more ninjas for field duties.
• Cloud Fox proposed extending the reform to the Ninja Academy so civilians and ninja children could study together and help ease Konoha’s wartime manpower shortage.
• Cloud Fox and Sarutobi Hiruzen offered Orochimaru the principal position, arguing that his leadership could withstand resistance from ninja clans and Civilian Ninjas.
• Tsunade interrupted and asked to become principal, but Cloud Fox explained that her fame would draw too many clan children and undermine the reform’s purpose.
• Cloud Fox proposed making Tsunade head teacher, and Sarutobi Hiruzen appointed her vice principal as well; Orochimaru accepted the principal role.

Tsunade discovered records showing that Orochimaru had led secret experiments using Hashirama’s cells, and she confronted him before deciding to vent her anger by sparring with Kushina. The chapter left Tsunade and Kushina heading to the training ground as newly acknowledged comrades in the Cloud Leaf Society.

• Snow Fox explained to Sarutobi Hiruzen that she had improvised her proposal to reform Orochimaru, and Hiruzen accepted that the outcome had met his expectations.
• Orochimaru and Tsunade discussed preparing for the village school, and Tsunade received a file slip from a child on the street.
• Tsunade summoned the archive file and read records revealing that Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo had arranged Wood Release experiments using Hashirama Cells, with Orochimaru in charge.
• Tsunade broke a table, then confronted Orochimaru, who promised to give her an explanation; she restrained herself because the Cloud Leaf Society still needed him.
• Tsunade recognized that Kushina had joined the Cloud Leaf Society and invited her to spar, then revealed her new surname, Wu.

Sun Keiyun learned that Hanzo had asked Danzo to destroy the rising Akatsuki Organization, and he decided to meet its leaders instead. Zhao Changjiang introduced the meeting to Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan, who agreed to meet Sun Keiyun at Moon Viewing Mountain.

• Yakushi Nonō told Sun Keiyun that Hanzo had requested Danzo's help against the Akatsuki Organization, and Sun Keiyun decided to meet its leaders and send them books on his organization's ideals.
• Sun Keiyun ordered Yakushi Nonō to invite the Akatsuki Organization's leaders and let them choose the meeting place.
• Zhao Changjiang, a Cloud Leaf Society member embedded in the Akatsuki Organization, received the books and invitation from headquarters.
• Zhao Changjiang told Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan that the organization behind him wanted to meet them, and Yahiko accepted the invitation.
• Yahiko chose Moon Viewing Mountain as the meeting place, and Zhao Changjiang gave the leaders two books outlining his organization's ideals.

Sun Keiyun asked Orochimaru about Nagato’s unusual eyes and learned they were the legendary Rinnegan, then refined his Spirit Gathering Divine Mark research using a stable tetrahedral structure. He successfully created a Spirit Gathering Seal that absorbed spiritual power and planned to complete an array for gathering Natural Chakra.

• Sun Keiyun visited Orochimaru, who recognized Nagato’s eyes as the Rinnegan and recalled that Jiraiya had taught Nagato and his two companions for three years.
• Sun Keiyun returned home, meditated in his sea of consciousness, and compared several possible structures for divine marks.
• Sun Keiyun recognized that a tetrahedral divine mark resembled diamond’s stable atomic structure and redesigned his Spirit Gathering Array around connected units.
• Sun Keiyun created a tiny Spirit Gathering Seal that successfully pulled in his spiritual power.
• Sun Keiyun realized he could use molecular structures as models for divine marks and decided to finish the Spirit Gathering Array, though he also considered adapting the seal to disrupt ninjutsu.

Sun Keiyun built an underground Spirit Gathering Array beneath Konoha, discovered that Natural Chakra carried a strange will, and found that refining it with the Heavenly Cycle Star Scripture produced Star Power. He fused the purified energy with mana into Earthly Fiend Qi and began cultivating a realm he named Dragon Tiger.

• Sun Keiyun dug twenty kilometers beneath The Hive and built layers of Spirit Gathering Seals that drew Natural Chakra from a vast underground region into a small apartment.
• Sun Keiyun sensed Natural Chakra gathering and found that combining it with his bodily and spiritual energy made a strange roar, suggesting another will existed within it.
• Sun Keiyun circulated Natural Chakra through the Heavenly Cycle Star Scripture, refining most of it into pale yellow energy that the Ancient Star Tree absorbed and purified into Star Power.
• Sun Keiyun merged the returned Star Power with mana, creating pale golden energy, and named his new cultivation realm Dragon Tiger.
• Sun Keiyun absorbed Natural Chakra at high speed, transformed it into Star Power, and fused it into Earthly Fiend Qi as golden rain fell in his Dantian.

Sun Keiyun tested the true essence formed by combining mana with Natural Chakra from different environments and found that earth- and sky-derived essences absorbed those from water, fire, and lightning. He concluded that the path before the Golden Core was the Dragon Tiger Realm and identified his golden and sky-blue true essences as Yang Release and Yin Release, respectively.

• Sun Keiyun discovered that his mana had become golden true essence, which greatly strengthened his body and enhanced his ninjutsu, especially Rock Style and Wood Style.
• Sun Keiyun flew high above Muzeng County, found Natural Chakra far denser in the sky than underground, and formed sky-blue true essence with strong Wind Style affinity.
• Sun Keiyun gathered water-based Natural Chakra near the Mist Hidden Battlefield and watched the resulting Water Style true essence disappear as the earth- and sky-derived essences absorbed it.
• Sun Keiyun collected Lightning Style Natural Chakra in the Land of Lightning and Fire Style Natural Chakra in the mantle, then saw the water, fire, and lightning essences absorbed by the remaining two.
• Sun Keiyun concluded that the Dragon Tiger Realm preceded the Golden Core and identified golden true essence as Yang Release and sky-blue true essence as Yin Release, proposing the Purple Mansion Acupoint as a place to cultivate Yin Release.

Sun Keiyun signed up for the Chunin Exams and used his Spiritual Sense to help Anko and Yamashiro Aoba through the written test. As the exam ended, he was still searching for the Purple Mansion Acupoint and had found two unusual points in his brain.

• Sun Keiyun returned home, filled out the Chunin Exam application form, and discussed his humble attitude with Kamiya Sanyō.
• Sun Keiyun, Anko, and Yamashiro Aoba gathered at the exam venue and entered the written test.
• Tanimura Yū explained the exam rules, and Anko and Yamashiro Aoba struggled with the difficult questions.
• Sun Keiyun finished the test quickly and used Spiritual Sense to send answers to Anko and Yamashiro Aoba without being detected by the proctors.
• Sun Keiyun continued searching for the Purple Mansion Acupoint and discovered two unusual acupoints before Tanimura Yū ended the exam.

Sun Keiyun’s team topped the written test and advanced to the second round, where teams would battle for a place in the third test. As Anko drew their lot, Sun Keiyun learned why Yamashiro Aoba wanted to become Hokage and invited him to talk after the exam.

• Tanimura Yū explained that teams were scored together, and Sun Keiyun revealed that Yuumon Kai had posed as a Genin to prompt a lesson about teamwork.
• Tanimura Yū announced Sun Keiyun, Mitaraishi Anko, and Yamashiro Aoba had placed first with 300 points, while six teams advanced.
• Sarutobi Kumo announced that the second test would pair the six teams in battles, and Anko volunteered to draw her team’s lot.
• Yamashiro Aoba told Sun Keiyun that he saw him as the team’s future captain, and Sun Keiyun reflected on Aoba’s diligence and background.
• Yamashiro Aoba revealed that his family’s losses in the war had inspired his dream of becoming Hokage, and Sun Keiyun questioned whether becoming Hokage could end the war.
• Sun Keiyun invited Yamashiro Aoba to his home for a further talk, and Anko returned with lot number one.

Sun Keiyun's team easily defeated their first opponents in the Chunin Exams, drawing Sarutobi Kumo's attention to the power of Sun Keiyun's support abilities. The individual matches were then arranged, and Sun Keiyun drew No. 5, setting him up to face Sarutobi Kumo.

• Sun Keiyun, Anko, and Yamashiro Aoba defeated the older civilian Genin team with a coordinated wind-and-fire attack, and the opponents surrendered.
• Sarutobi Kumo recognized the value of Sun Keiyun's Blessing Wind and suspected it could greatly enhance Uchiha fighters.
• Teams No. 2 and No. 4 won their matches, leaving nine contestants for the individual round.
• Sarutobi Kumo explained that the contestant drawing No. 5 would face him, and Anko drew No. 7 while Yamashiro Aoba drew No. 1.
• Sun Keiyun noticed the lottery box was rigged to make him draw No. 5, then took the slip and confirmed he would face Sarutobi Kumo.