Chapter Summaries

Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi prepared to capture the Five-Tails Jinchuriki as Konan announced that Akatsuki’s informants would throw Iwagakure into chaos. Mizuki intervened by setting off a fire technique, while Han discovered that his Anbu escorts were Akatsuki spies and seized them.

• Kisame Hoshigaki planned to handle the Five-Tails Jinchuriki while Itachi covered him, but the two worried about Iwagakure’s interference.
• Konan arrived and told Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi that Akatsuki’s informants would cause chaos in Iwagakure, creating a chance to capture the Jinchuriki.
• Mizuki noticed signs of an operation beginning and brought six figures with him to disrupt it without revealing their identities.
• Mizuki and his clones infiltrated Iwagakure, then Mizuki fired a Great Dragon Fire Technique into the sky to alert the village and unsettle the conspirators.
• Han’s two Anbu escorts revealed themselves as Akatsuki spies and told him to retreat, but Han grabbed them by the necks.

Han escaped Iwagakure after killing two men, while Ōnoki mobilized the village to deal with the explosions and pursue the missing Jinchuriki. Akatsuki’s Six Paths of Pain confronted Iwagakure’s forces, and the chapter ended as the Ninja launched a counterattack.

• Han snapped two men's necks and fled into the night after sensing the disturbance in Iwagakure.
• Ōnoki arrived at the scene, learned that Han was missing, and ordered Kitsuchi and the others to capture the enemies while he pursued Han.
• Rockets struck Ōnoki, but he survived by using an Earth Substitute, and Bunga raised Asura Path from the ground with Moving Earth Core.
• Ōnoki recognized Asura Path's Rinnegan, and the Akatsuki member rebounded Iwagakure's attacks with an unseen force.
• Two more of the Six Paths of Pain appeared, summoned a rhinoceros, and charged at Ōnoki.
• Iwagakure's Ninja trapped the rhinoceros with Swamp of the Underworld and attacked the Six Paths of Pain with Earth Dragon Bullet.

Mizuki ambushed the Human Path, Preta Path, and Naraka Path while Ōnoki fought the Deva Path, and managed to capture the Preta Path after sealing the Human Path. Far away, Nagato suddenly coughed up blood and looked toward Iwagakure.

• Mizuki watched Ōnoki's battle with the Deva Path and targeted the Preta Path because its absorption ability threatened ninjutsu.
• Mizuki and four clones confronted the Human Path, Preta Path, and Naraka Path, then tested the Preta Path by attacking it with sage-enhanced Fire Style.
• The Preta Path suddenly pierced the Human Path and Naraka Path with black rods, disrupting their attack on Mizuki.
• Mizuki used Contract Seal on the Human Path before the three Paths could escape, while his clones restrained and captured the Preta Path.
• Nagato spat out blood in a distant stone pillar and looked toward Iwagakure.

Nagato’s Six Paths of Pain lost the Human Path and Asura Path during a clash with Ōnoki’s Iwagakure forces, but the Naraka Path restored the Preta Path, which absorbed Ōnoki’s next Dust Release attack. Elsewhere, Kisame Hoshigaki and his partner confronted Han, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, who realized Akatsuki wanted the beast inside him.

• Nagato explained that excessive senjutsu chakra had caused the Preta Path to go out of control and that someone had taken the Human Path during the chaos.
• The Animal Path’s attempt to summon the endangered Paths failed, and the Deva Path, Animal Path, and Asura Path destroyed the unstable Preta Path before the Naraka Path restored it.
• Ōnoki struck the Six Paths of Pain with Dust Release, destroying the Asura Path, while the remaining Paths escaped the blast.
• The Naraka Path repaired the Preta Path, which then absorbed Ōnoki’s second Dust Release attack as the Iwagakure ninja resumed their assault.
• Kisame Hoshigaki confronted Han, who realized Akatsuki wanted his tailed beast, and Kisame drew Samehada.

Kisame Hoshigaki trapped Han in a water prison while Pain’s group escaped Iwagakure. Just as Kisame seemed close to capturing the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, someone used earth spikes to pull Han out, leaving Kisame unable to find the attacker.

• Kisame Hoshigaki wounded Han with Samehada, which absorbed Han’s chakra, and Han recognized Kisame and Itachi Uchiha.
• Han partially transformed as Kisame trapped him in the Water Prison Shark Dance Technique and attacked with Samehada fused to his body.
• Mizuki and four clones sensed the chakra eruption and headed toward Han’s battlefield.
• Pain sent out summoned beasts to disrupt Iwagakure’s forces, then escaped with the remaining Paths inside an invisible chameleon.
• Earth spikes pierced Kisame’s water prison and dragged Han out, while Kisame failed to locate whoever had intervened.

Mizuki tried to rescue Han while fighting Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha, but Itachi’s genjutsu and a sudden invisible attack knocked Mizuki and his clones back. Suspecting the Rinnegan had arrived, Mizuki flew higher to assess the danger as Han began to stir.

• Mizuki used the Inorganic Reincarnation Technique to lift Han away, but Kisame Hoshigaki shattered the stone pillar with a Water Shark Bullet Technique.
• Mizuki attacked Kisame Hoshigaki with Sage Art, Lightning Style—Ground Walk, striking him through the water prison.
• Itachi Uchiha’s genjutsu distracted Mizuki, and a Crow Clone knocked him from the sky before Mizuki smashed it with a chakra hand.
• Mizuki and his clones raised a Chakra Shield against an invisible attack, but the force shattered it and sent them flying.
• Mizuki suspected the Animal Path and Deva Path had arrived, then flew higher to observe while Han began to move.

Mizuki tried to rescue the downed Han while fighting Akatsuki, but Five-Tails Kokuō broke free and revealed its full form. After smashing Kisame’s water prison, Kokuō fled instead of joining the fight, leaving Mizuki to face Pain and the others.

• Mizuki dove toward Han, caught the invisible chameleon with its tongue, and crushed most of its body with a crimson fist.
• Kisame and Itachi attacked Mizuki with water and fire techniques, obscuring his vision as Pain emerged from the chameleon.
• Han rose as Five-Tails Kokuō’s chakra surged, and the tailed beast transformed into its complete form.
• Kokuō shattered Kisame’s water prison, forcing Kisame to retreat and defend himself with Samehada.
• Kokuō fled at full speed, and Mizuki condemned Han for lacking the courage to fight.

Mizuki tried to help the Five-Tails escape Akatsuki, but its reckless charge let the Deva Path defeat and capture it. After collecting a broken horn from the beast, Mizuki followed a clone’s discovery to investigate a place hidden from his sensing, hoping to find a chance to destroy the Rinnegan.

• Mizuki attacked the Deva Path with Majestic Destroyer Flame to free the fleeing Five-Tails, while Akatsuki continued draining and disrupting the beast.
• Mizuki used Inorganic Reincarnation to strike the summoned beasts, giving the Five-Tails a chance to escape its encirclement.
• The Five-Tails charged the Deva Path, but its gravitational barrier held, and Akatsuki restrained it and began sealing it.
• Mizuki retrieved a broken horn from the Five-Tails and sealed it in a Storage Scroll.
• A Mizuki clone reported finding the only place where Mizuki’s sensing failed, and Mizuki went there with his clones to investigate and pursue a chance to destroy the Rinnegan.

Mizuki launched a coordinated attack on Nagato and Konan, using the Four Violet Flames Formation and several sage techniques to trap them. Nagato and Konan escaped the barrier, and Mizuki vanished before Nagato could pull him in.

• Mizuki’s four clones raised the Four Violet Flames Formation around Nagato’s disguised hiding place as Mizuki attacked with the Sage Art Great Dragon Fire Technique.
• Mizuki’s flames transformed the paper disguise into a sea of fire, and his Inorganic Reincarnation Technique struck at Nagato through the smoke.
• Nagato rose on a giant paper bird while Konan, disguised as a paper clone, fought Mizuki and used explosive paper shuriken to halt his advance.
• Mizuki burned Konan’s clone and continued attacking, but Nagato absorbed the chakra sustaining the barrier and broke through it.
• Nagato repelled Mizuki’s final fire attack with Shinra Tensei, then pulled Mizuki toward him as he taunted him about the Rinnegan.
• Mizuki and his four clones suddenly vanished before Nagato could seize him.

Nagato and Konan withdrew after Akatsuki subdued Han, while Mizuki collected bloodstained soil from the battlefield and returned to Konoha. Reflecting on how his senjutsu chakra affected Pain, Mizuki realized his own method of using natural energy carried dangerous risks.

• Nagato and Konan decided to lie low after the successful capture of Han, while Kisame Hoshigaki prepared to take Han back for sealing.
• Deva Path Pain left the battlefield to protect Nagato’s unguarded real body.
• Mizuki’s clone found bloodstained soil where Nagato had stood, collected it as a possible sample for Impure World Reincarnation, and disappeared.
• Ōnoki arrived too late, ordered Iwagakure to contact Deidara, increase surveillance of Akatsuki, and suspend mercenary commissions.
• Mizuki returned home and concluded that his senjutsu chakra had made the Preta Path attack the Naraka Path and Human Path, revealing the dangers of his own senjutsu.

Mizuki realized that his crude Sage Mode had been affecting his judgment and might have led him to suppress the Shinobi World's power, so he resolved to seek safer techniques and find Orochimaru. After considering his next steps, he delegated leadership of First Squad to Tekuno while preparing to leave on an errand.

• Mizuki reflected on his Sage Mode's risks and recognized that frequent use might have contaminated his mind.
• Mizuki reviewed how his actions had obstructed the Hyuga Clan's path to the Tenseigan, Akatsuki's plans, Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan, and Naruto's growth.
• Mizuki decided to seek a technique for condensing spiritual power, find a safer Sage Mode method, and locate Orochimaru in the Land of Fields.
• Mizuki told Tekuno to lead First Squad and help Neji and future recruits settle in while he was away.

Mizuki and his clones debated the dangers of Sage Mode and assessed what they had gained from the battle in Iwagakure. Three days later, Konoha learned of Iwagakure's attack by Akatsuki, and Tsunade regarded the reports of the Rinnegan as a serious threat.

• Mizuki decided to use Sage Mode more cautiously, improve it, and search for Orochimaru to investigate the risks to the mind and soul.
• Mizuki's clones reported that the Human Path's Rinnegan was only a chakra projection and that its black receiver was difficult to use, leaving Kokuō's horn and another portion of tailed beast chakra as their main gains.
• Mizuki and his clones remembered that Kabuto Yakushi had been exposed to the Sage Mode cultivation method.
• Three days later, news of Akatsuki's attack on Iwagakure reached Konoha, where its upper ranks considered the threat and Tsunade took the Rinnegan reports seriously.

Tsunade weighed the threat posed by Amegakure and the Rinnegan while considering Jiraiya’s former students and the difficulty of finding Orochimaru. In Konoha’s Cipher Division, Kurenai Yuhi investigated the mind- and soul-targeting genjutsu Mizuki had taught Sakura and suspected it was part of a much larger plan.

• Tsunade worried that Jiraiya might pursue the Rinnegan after learning it could belong to his former students, but knew he could not leave Naruto before his training was complete.
• Tsunade reviewed a report showing that Might Guy and his students had found little useful information about Orochimaru in the Land of Earth, then left her office to get a drink.
• Kurenai Yuhi continued adjusting to her work as a Cipher Division director while using Sakura Haruno to investigate the genjutsu Mizuki had taught her.
• Kurenai examined secret records and concluded that the technique’s ability to affect the mind and soul approached the realm of forbidden techniques.
• Kurenai suspected Mizuki had passed the genjutsu to Sakura as one part of a larger plan and decided she could only learn more by continuing to observe.

Sakura struggled with Team 7’s separation and worried that her village-bound studies were neglecting her combat skills. Mizuki gave her a fragment of the Five-Tails Kokuō’s horn as a dangerous training tool, and she began practicing how to control its chakra.

• Sakura mourned the loss of her regular time with Sasuke after Team 7’s separation and worried that she would never achieve her goal as Mizuki’s disciple.
• Mizuki praised Sakura’s progress in the Cipher Department, and she asked whether her combat ability was being neglected.
• Mizuki took out a sealed fragment of the Five-Tails Kokuō’s broken horn and snapped off a smaller piece for Sakura.
• Mizuki used the fragment to form a giant crimson chakra hand that struck a long trench into the ground.
• Sakura tried the fragment herself, producing a much weaker chakra covering and a small pit before Mizuki told her to keep the tool secret and continue training.

Mizuki gave Sakura sealed tailed beast chakra to practice controlling and a scroll of summoning techniques, while warning her against using the dangerous chakra in combat. After Sakura left, Mizuki and his clone discussed his hope that studying tailed beast chakra would help him improve Sage Mode.

• Mizuki warned Sakura that tailed beast chakra could harm her if she overused it and told her to stop when she felt tired.
• Mizuki gave Sakura a scroll containing his notes on Summoning Technique, including Summoning: Rashomon, and advised her to seek a large flying or medical summoned beast.
• Sakura asked whether Mizuki had given Shino a promotion gift, and Mizuki said he had not seen him since he went to the northern border garrison.
• Mizuki's clone questioned his decision to let Sakura train with tailed beast chakra and warned that others might recognize it.
• Mizuki said he hoped studying tailed beast chakra would help him understand Sage Mode and the Sage of Six Paths' methods.

Mizuki reasoned that the Sage of Six Paths had created the tailed beasts to help humanity use natural energy and practice senjutsu, and he wanted to test that theory on Sakura. After exchanging memories with his clone, Mizuki learned that the clone had completed lightning nature transformation and chose to develop wind nature next.

• Mizuki concluded that the Sage of Six Paths had restricted powerful abilities and created the nine tailed beasts to help humans use natural energy.
• Mizuki reflected that Naruto Uzumaki had shown how humans and tailed beasts could fight together, while his own Sage Mode suffered drawbacks because of his unusual soul and method.
• Mizuki decided to experiment on Sakura to discover how humans could safely use natural energy with a tailed beast.
• Mizuki exchanged memories with his clone and learned that it had completed lightning nature transformation after nearly half a year.
• Mizuki told the clone to develop wind nature transformation next because water nature was too unfamiliar.

Mizuki decided to keep searching for Roshi and pursue Lava Release through a possible exchange with Iwagakure, while prioritizing finding Orochimaru and obtaining the Eight Branches Technique. Meanwhile, Team Guy neared the end of its reconnaissance mission in the Land of Fields, and Neji recalled a far more dangerous S-rank mission.

• Mizuki's original body admitted he had made no progress learning Lava Release and said finding Roshi was essential.
• Mizuki's clone suggested seeking Kurotsuchi's knowledge through an exchange of benefits rather than provoking Ōnoki.
• Mizuki decided to prioritize finding Orochimaru and obtaining the Eight Branches Technique while continuing his search for Roshi and investigating Kurotsuchi's cells.
• Might Guy told Team Guy that they would investigate the final two sites in the Land of Fields the next day and return if they found nothing.
• Might Guy asked Neji Hyuga to share his experience with S-rank missions, and Neji described how he and Shino Aburame had barely supported the fighting during a previous mission escorting Gaara and the other Sand Shinobi.

Neji reflected on the power he had witnessed and talked with his former teammates about his new work in Konoha’s Security Department. Meanwhile, Mizuki found Orochimaru’s old base abandoned, then learned that his companion had rescued Isaribi from a cruel human-animal experiment in the Land of Sea.

• Neji recalled how Mizuki had driven back two powerful opponents, and Might Guy encouraged his students while warning Neji to keep the Security Department on good terms with villagers.
• Tenten and Rock Lee asked Neji about his chunin duties, and Neji said he had learned more than combat from his work.
• Mizuki searched the abandoned underground facility in the Land of Fields and found no clues to Orochimaru’s whereabouts.
• Mizuki returned to his base and met Isaribi, a purple-haired girl his companion had brought back from the Land of Sea.
• Mizuki’s companion explained that he had killed Amachi for using ordinary people in human-animal experiments, and Mizuki said Isaribi was the only victim who could still be saved.

Mizuki decided to seek a way to treat Isaribi after learning about her origins and the laboratory’s research, while debating the ethics of using its discoveries. In the Land of Wind, Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi confronted Mizuki, who prepared to flee with Yukimura but was persuaded to hear Orochimaru out.

• Mizuki learned that Isaribi was an accidental product of Konoha’s wartime biological weapons research and agreed that they should try to help her.
• Mizuki and his counterpart discussed treating Isaribi with cells engineered from her genes, but chose to consider safer options and leave the decision to the main body.
• Mizuki gathered the laboratory’s research results, believing the knowledge could improve his experiments despite its origins.
• In a Land of Wind town, Mizuki was startled when Kabuto Yakushi arrived with Orochimaru, while Yukimura watched from behind him.
• Mizuki prepared to escape with Yukimura using the Flying Raijin Jutsu, but Orochimaru said he wanted to speak and warned that a fight would destroy the town.

Mizuki met with Orochimaru, who wanted the life-extending technology derived from White Zetsu cells. They discussed an exchange involving Orochimaru’s techniques, and Mizuki left to consider the offer.

• Orochimaru revealed that Danzō had given him Hayate Gekko’s blood sample and demanded Mizuki’s life-extending technology.
• Mizuki pressed Orochimaru for an exchange, and Orochimaru offered information on Living Corpse Reincarnation and the Eight Branches Technique.
• Orochimaru suggested that Mizuki faced the same dangers and questions about the world that he had once faced.
• Orochimaru and Kabuto Yakushi departed, and Mizuki told Yukimura they would return and discuss the encounter with his true body.