Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: Slave to Power

Key Plot Points and Events

• Three months pass as Toji divides his time between Gospel Hospital and the Zenin Clan’s underground laboratory, researching Sealing Jutsu, Curse Marks, Earth Grudge Fear, and Uchiha experiments.
• He continues teaching the Medical Corps at the Ninja Academy and maintains regular dinners and medical checkups with Uchiha Chiri, the Uchiha Clan’s acting head.
• Toji deliberately avoids involvement in Konoha’s broader political and military projects, such as the Anbu and Military Police, because his priority is personal power and avoiding exposure for his illegal experiments.
• Toji finally masters the Five Elements Seal. He applies it to Uchiha Yan’s face and eyes, creating a restriction that will disrupt her chakra and prevent her from activating Izanagi.
• After releasing Yan’s chakra pathways, Toji triggers her suppressed emotions, causing her Sharingan to evolve from Two-Tomoe to Three-Tomoe.
• Yan becomes exhilarated and obsessed with obtaining even greater power. Toji realizes that her desire for advancement has made her psychologically dependent on him.
• Toji promises to help Yan reach power comparable to, or greater than, Uchiha Chiri’s, while warning that excessive stimulation could damage her brain.
• In exchange for future power increases, Toji orders Yan to secretly capture living but incapacitated ninjas and deliver them to him once a month—no more than two at a time—to serve as subjects for his experiments.

Character Developments

• Toji: Becomes more skilled in Sealing Jutsu and further establishes himself as a calculating researcher and manipulator. He remains focused entirely on self-interest, treating relationships and alliances as useful tools rather than emotional bonds.
• Uchiha Yan: Evolves from a captive resisting Toji into a willing accomplice. Her awakening to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan intensifies her hunger for power, allowing Toji to control her through the promise of further advancement.
• Uchiha Chiri: Though she does not appear directly in the main confrontation, her ongoing relationship with Toji provides him with valuable data about the Sharingan and possible Bloodline Disease. Chiri also develops a warmer view of their relationship than Toji does.
• Matsumoto Kazuka: Continues interacting with Toji through his weekend teaching duties, though her role remains secondary in this chapter.

Significant Themes

• Power as enslavement: Toji observes that people become slaves to whatever they desire most. Yan’s craving for strength makes her accept captivity and criminal work.
• Manipulation and false freedom: Toji appears to free Yan by restoring her chakra circulation, but he has already placed a seal that secretly limits her abilities. Her “freedom” exists only within boundaries he controls.
• Morality versus self-interest: Toji rejects efforts to strengthen Konoha and instead pursues personal advancement through kidnappings, experimentation, and coercion.
• The cost of power: The Sharingan’s evolution is presented as the product of trauma and emotional extremity, while repeated stimulation risks causing severe brain damage.
• Scientific exploitation: Toji treats people, bloodlines, and forbidden techniques as research material, methodically testing hypotheses through human experimentation.

Character Interactions

• Toji and Uchiha Chiri: Their regular dinners and checkups create increasing emotional closeness from Chiri’s perspective, while Toji remains detached and values the relationship mainly for medical data and political advantage.
• Toji and Uchiha Yan: Their relationship shifts from captor and prisoner toward a mutually exploitative arrangement. Toji supplies the possibility of power, while Yan agrees to procure test subjects for him.
• Toji and Yan’s Sharingan: Toji deliberately provokes Yan’s accumulated emotions to force her Sharingan’s evolution, demonstrating his control over both her body and psychological state.
• Yan and Toji’s promise: Yan recognizes that Toji may be her only path to surpassing her natural limits, causing her to accept his demands despite knowing he is manipulating her.

Chapter Summary: “Danger! The Experiment Exposed!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Toji’s double life becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. Although he has successfully integrated into Konoha under a respected identity as a surgeon at Gospel Hospital, his growing importance to the hospital limits his freedom to leave the village.
• Because Konoha’s surrounding bandits have already been eliminated and the village will soon establish a defensive barrier, Toji decides he must secure a reliable supply of human test subjects before escape becomes impossible.
• Toji assigns Uchiha Yan to abduct shinobi from outside Konoha using genjutsu and deliver them to a designated location near the Forest of Death. He plans to use his Earth Grudge Fear Clone as an intermediary, preserving his own secrecy.
• Yan realizes that Toji’s laboratory is likely near the Forest of Death, the same region where she was originally captured, but Toji refuses to answer her questions. He sedates her and sends her away under cover of darkness.
• Toji has prepared multiple safeguards on Yan, including the Five Elements Seal, an Earth Grudge Fear Curse Mark, and the Mangekyō Sharingan as bait. He views her as the first piece of a larger underground network that will supply him with test subjects.
• The following morning, Takayuki Senju summons Toji to the Hokage Building. Hashirama reveals that prisoners have been disappearing from Konoha Prison, while the guards deny knowing anything.
• Fearing that his own activities may have been discovered, Toji quickly realizes that he has not yet taken prisoners or patients from Konoha. He instead suspects that someone else is abducting people.
• Toji directs suspicion toward Tobirama, arguing that only someone with a powerful identity and authority could force the prison guards to remain silent without using genjutsu.

Character Developments

• Toji: Becomes more calculating and cautious. He recognizes the logistical problems created by his public reputation and develops a covert system to continue his experiments. His ability to manipulate situations is highlighted when he redirects Hashirama’s investigation toward Tobirama.
• Uchiha Yan: Fully commits herself to Toji because she believes assisting him will lead to greater power. She remains suspicious and curious about her surroundings, but ultimately obeys him because she is dependent on his methods and promises.
• Hashirama: Shows concern over the unexplained disappearance of prisoners and demonstrates his continued belief in rehabilitation by keeping criminals alive rather than ordering their execution. He is also visibly troubled when Toji implicates Tobirama.
• Takayuki Senju: Acts as the messenger who brings Toji to Hashirama, reinforcing his role as Toji’s student and a connection between Toji and the Senju family.
• Tobirama: Does not appear directly, but becomes the central figure of suspicion. His secretive activities and absence from the meeting make Toji’s accusation plausible.

Significant Themes

• The cost of maintaining a public identity: Toji’s success as a respected doctor gives him protection but also restricts his movements and creates obligations he cannot easily abandon.
• Secrecy and compartmentalization: Toji builds a primitive covert organization based on intermediaries, strict obedience, hidden identities, and the elimination of trails.
• Manipulation and misdirection: Rather than defend himself openly, Toji exploits existing uncertainty to shift suspicion toward Tobirama.
• Power through exploitation: Uchiha Yan accepts Toji’s cruelty because she believes it will increase her own strength, showing how ambition can override morality.
• Peace built on hidden violence: Konoha appears peaceful and civilized, yet prisons, covert abductions, human experimentation, and political suspicion continue beneath the surface.

Important Character Interactions

• Toji and Uchiha Yan: Toji gives Yan her first mission and establishes strict rules for their secret operation. Yan questions him about the laboratory’s location, but Toji asserts dominance by refusing to explain and sedating her.
• Toji and Hashirama: Hashirama seeks Toji’s expertise regarding the missing prisoners. Toji responds calmly while concealing his own crimes and presenting an accusation against Tobirama.
• Toji and Takayuki: Takayuki respectfully summons his teacher to the Hokage Building, demonstrating the trust and official standing Toji has earned within Konoha.
• Hashirama and Toji regarding Tobirama: Toji’s claim that Tobirama is responsible changes the direction of the investigation and plants suspicion in Hashirama’s mind, setting up a possible conflict between the brothers.

Chapter Summary: “Bruised and battered, open and aboveboard”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tobirama Senju remains haunted by the loss of Touka’s hands and becomes increasingly obsessed with overcoming death.
• Although he and Toji have developed the powerful Reverse Cursed Technique, Tobirama recognizes that it cannot save someone who dies instantly. This motivates him to search for a method of resurrecting the dead.
• Without Hashirama’s knowledge, Tobirama establishes a secret laboratory outside Konoha. He abducts prisoners from the village prison and uses them as experimental subjects.
• Tobirama begins developing the forbidden technique that will eventually become Impure World Reincarnation.
• During an experiment, Tobirama kills a restrained prisoner and attempts to summon the dead body back to life. The technique fails.
• Hashirama discovers the laboratory and confronts Tobirama. He is especially enraged that Tobirama has crossed from forbidden research into human experimentation.
• Hashirama’s Wood Clone remains with Toji and Chiri while the real Hashirama drags Tobirama back to the Senju Compound, leaving Tobirama bruised and battered.
• Hashirama sentences Tobirama to three months of confinement and reflection.
• Toji reveals that he deliberately exposed Tobirama’s activities. His motives are both practical—earning Tobirama’s trust by helping him later—and investigative, since he wants to study Hashirama’s response and inspect Tobirama’s research.

Character Developments

• Tobirama: His grief, fear of death, and anxiety about aging drive him toward increasingly unethical methods. Though he believes his research is meant to protect those close to him and the village, he knowingly sacrifices morality and secrecy to pursue resurrection.
• Hashirama: He demonstrates his willingness to discipline even his beloved younger brother. His compassion has limits when human experimentation threatens Konoha’s moral standards and future safety.
• Toji: He emerges as calculating and strategic. Rather than exposing Tobirama out of simple outrage, he uses the situation to manipulate future relations, assess Hashirama’s judgment, and search for useful discoveries.
• Chiri: She acts as an observer and commentator, recognizing the seriousness of Hashirama’s anger and clarifying the use of the Wood Clone.

Significant Themes

• The boundary between life and death: Tobirama’s research challenges the natural limits of mortality and foreshadows the creation of Impure World Reincarnation.
• Grief turning into obsession: His trauma over Touka’s injury and his fear of losing loved ones push him toward dangerous experimentation.
• Scientific progress versus ethics: The chapter questions whether noble intentions can justify human experimentation and forbidden techniques.
• Authority and family: Hashirama must balance his role as Hokage with his position as Tobirama’s older brother, choosing punishment rather than indulgence.
• Morality and political privilege: Toji compares Tobirama’s treatment to that of a privileged heir, suggesting that powerful figures may receive more lenient punishment than ordinary offenders.
• Secrecy versus openness: The title contrasts Tobirama’s hidden experiments with Hashirama’s belief that Konoha’s ninja should act “open and aboveboard.”

Important Character Interactions

• Tobirama and Hashirama: Their confrontation reveals a serious ideological divide. Tobirama prioritizes results and survival, while Hashirama insists that Konoha cannot be protected by abandoning its ethical principles.
• Hashirama and Toji: Hashirama remains respectful toward Toji despite being angry at Tobirama, showing that his anger is targeted rather than indiscriminate.
• Toji and Chiri: They discuss Tobirama’s punishment and the danger of human experimentation, while Toji privately reveals that he engineered the situation for personal advantage.
• Hashirama and Tobirama’s family dynamic: Hashirama treats Tobirama like a wayward child, physically dragging him home and punishing him while still acting from concern and responsibility.

Chapter Summary: Impure World Reincarnation

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hashirama orders Toji and Chiri to inventory Tobirama’s underground laboratory. Useful equipment is to be transferred to Gospel Hospital and the Ninja Academy, while the rest will be destroyed.
• Inside the laboratory, Toji recognizes the remnants of a prototype summoning technique on a corpse. He correctly deduces that Tobirama had been experimenting with Impure World Reincarnation.
• Using his enhanced memory, Toji secretly memorizes the technique’s summoning markings before Hashirama destroys the laboratory. He realizes that he now possesses the foundation of a forbidden technique that would later require three generations of shinobi—Tobirama, Orochimaru, and Kabuto—to perfect.
• Toji begins considering how the technique might be developed further, particularly its connection to the Pure Land and the possibility of using an incantation rather than hand seals.
• After the equipment is removed, Hashirama annihilates the laboratory with Wood Release, transforming the site into a forest and ensuring that Tobirama’s research leaves no physical trace.
• Hashirama asks Toji and Chiri to keep the incident secret, promising to discipline Tobirama himself.
• The characters return to their respective duties: Hashirama goes to confront Tobirama, Chiri distributes equipment to the Academy, and Toji installs the advanced instruments in the Zenin basement.
• That evening, Tobirama reflects on the incident while sitting with his wife, Senju Touka. Although he understands Hashirama’s concerns, he concludes that his methods are necessary and resolves to continue developing Impure World Reincarnation.

Character Development

• Toji demonstrates his opportunistic, calculating nature by secretly copying the prototype technique instead of allowing it to be completely lost. His fascination with forbidden research grows, and he begins imagining how he might surpass Tobirama’s work.
• Hashirama is shown as powerful, sincere, and emotionally motivated. He destroys the laboratory to protect Konoha, but his straightforwardness and lack of political subtlety are also apparent. He trusts Toji and Chiri enough to involve them and openly asks for their silence.
• Chiri remains obedient and emotionally responsive to Hashirama’s honesty. She helps salvage the equipment and accepts his request without suspicion.
• Tobirama regains his composure through quiet reflection and Touka’s companionship. Rather than abandoning his research, he reaffirms his belief that morally questionable methods are justified if they protect Konoha.

Significant Themes

• Ends versus means: Hashirama and Tobirama both want to protect Konoha, but Hashirama rejects human experimentation while Tobirama believes sacrificing criminals can be justified for the village’s security.
• The influence of environment: The oppressive laboratory is portrayed as a place capable of driving people toward depravity, though Toji notes that he was already morally corrupted before entering it.
• Forbidden knowledge and inheritance: Even though Hashirama destroys Tobirama’s research, Toji secretly preserves part of its foundation, allowing the technique’s legacy to continue through an unexpected successor.
• Trust and secrecy: Hashirama’s request for silence highlights the need to conceal Tobirama’s wrongdoing for the sake of family and village stability.
• Light and darkness: Tobirama views himself as someone who must work in the shadows while Hashirama operates openly. Their disagreement is presented not as a conflict between good and evil, but as two incompatible approaches to the same protective goal.

Character Interactions

• Toji and Chiri work together to salvage equipment, with Toji focusing on valuable advanced instruments and Chiri choosing more basic devices.
• Toji and Hashirama interact through mutual trust, though Toji privately exploits Hashirama’s confidence by memorizing the forbidden technique.
• Hashirama and Tobirama remain divided as brothers: Hashirama sees Tobirama’s experiments as a dangerous moral failure, while Tobirama believes they are necessary sacrifices.
• Tobirama and Touka share a quiet, supportive moment. Her presence helps Tobirama recover emotionally and return to his convictions.

Chapter Summary: “Lend Me Your Strength”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tobirama worries that his brother Hashirama will discover his continued experiments with Impure World Reincarnation. Since he is confined to the Senju compound and lacks access to materials and facilities, he realizes he needs outside help.
• He decides to recruit Toji, who is trusted by Hashirama and directs Gospel Hospital, making him well-positioned to obtain experimental subjects and resources.
• Tobirama feels guilty about manipulating Toji, a compassionate doctor devoted to saving lives. He plans to convince Toji that forbidden techniques and killing may ultimately be necessary to protect Konoha.
• His wife, Senju Touka, notices his distraction and advises him to apologize to Hashirama and spend his three-month confinement peacefully. Tobirama agrees outwardly, though he continues planning in secret.
• During his confinement, Tobirama’s students Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō visit him. He tests their training by fighting them and easily defeats them with the Flying Thunder God Slash.
• Hiruzen realizes Tobirama is not ill and may even be stronger than before. Danzō instead assumes Tobirama is carrying a heavy burden and becomes more determined to grow stronger and support him. The two students resume fighting Tobirama together.
• Meanwhile, Toji prepares to fulfill his monthly “delivery” to Uchiha Yan. He creates an Earth Grudge Fear Clone and sends it into the Forest of Death.
• Toji senses through the Curse Mark placed on Yan’s heart that she is still alive. He is prepared to detonate the mark if she dies, preventing her capture from exposing him.
• The clone reaches a hidden tree hollow but finds Yan gone. She has left behind two unconscious criminals and a note describing their crimes, suggesting she views her actions as a form of justice.
• Toji takes the two men to his underground laboratory. After judging them to be only Genin-level and therefore poor experimental subjects, he revives one and begins probing his body with black threads.

Character Developments

• Tobirama becomes increasingly secretive and morally conflicted. His devotion to Konoha drives him toward using Toji, despite recognizing the betrayal involved.
• Senju Touka serves as a grounding influence, encouraging Tobirama to prioritize relationships and peace, though she does not understand the darker plans occupying his mind.
• Hiruzen remains energetic and competitive, responding to Tobirama’s strength with admiration and determination.
• Danzō interprets Tobirama’s condition more seriously than Hiruzen does. His desire to shoulder his teacher’s burden hints at the beginnings of his characteristic ambition and grim sense of duty.
• Toji remains outwardly composed and pragmatic. He treats Yan’s delivery as part of his experimental routine, showing little concern for the morality of using criminals as subjects.
• Uchiha Yan demonstrates caution by leaving the meeting place immediately and appears to possess her own rough moral code, targeting people she considers evil.

Significant Themes

• Duty versus morality: Tobirama justifies unethical experimentation as necessary for Konoha’s survival, while Toji’s medical ideals create a sharp contrast with Tobirama’s proposed path.
• Manipulation and trust: Tobirama intends to exploit Toji’s friendship and influence, turning a trusted ally into a participant in forbidden research.
• The burden of leadership: Both Tobirama and Danzō believe protecting the village requires personal sacrifice and morally troubling choices.
• Justice and vigilantism: Yan’s decision to capture criminals and leave a record of their deeds raises questions about whether justice can be pursued outside official systems.
• Scientific experimentation and dehumanization: Toji evaluates the captives primarily through their chakra and physical data before beginning invasive experimentation.

Character Interactions

• Tobirama and Touka have a quiet domestic conversation that exposes the gap between his public obedience and private intentions.
• Tobirama’s sparring session with Hiruzen and Danzō reinforces his superiority while revealing the students’ differing responses to his condition.
• Tobirama mentally positions Toji as both a friend and a resource, creating an important future conflict between personal trust and political necessity.
• Toji interacts indirectly with Yan through the delivery arrangement and Curse Mark, then begins experimenting on the two men she captured, setting up the chapter’s darker closing development.

Chapter Summary: “Reckless Longing”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Toji continues experimenting with the Earth Grudge Fear technique in his underground laboratory. He activates the parasite implanted in a scar-faced test subject’s heart, successfully controlling the man’s body for a brief period.
• The experiment suddenly fails: the subject convulses and dies after only thirty seconds. Toji records the result and begins analyzing what went wrong, recognizing that developing the technique requires repeated trial and error.
• Toji informs the surviving one-eyed test subject that only two prisoners are supplied each month. Until more arrive, the man must stay alive, and Toji warns him that survival will depend on enduring further experiments. Toji implants a Curse Mark and a Five Elements Seal before leaving.
• Half a month later, at Gospel Hospital, Matsumoto Kazuka submits her assignment while studying Toji’s Curse Mark research notes. She admires Toji deeply and longs to become as “gentle” as she believes he is.
• Kazuka is secretly far more talented in Curse Mark studies than she appears. She deliberately hides her ability so she can later surprise Toji.
• To advance Toji’s research, Kazuka befriends two Academy students from the Yamanaka and Hyuga clans. She hopes to study the Mind Body Transformation Curse Mark and the Caged Bird Curse Mark through them, despite knowing that manipulating their friendship for information is morally questionable.
• At the Ninja Academy, Toji encounters young Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō. Danzō views Toji as an outsider who has not earned the respect he receives, though he keeps these opinions hidden.
• After classes, Danzō approaches Toji with a message: Tobirama Senju wishes to meet Toji at a teahouse.

Character Development

• Toji is shown as pragmatic, emotionally hardened, and willing to perform ethically disturbing experiments on criminals. He has abandoned conventional morality as a survival luxury, though he still avoids indiscriminate killing and tries to preserve useful lives. His scientific mindset is emphasized by his calm response to failure.
• Matsumoto Kazuka becomes increasingly devoted to Toji. Her admiration develops into an intense longing for his approval and recognition. She willingly compromises her own ethics and exploits friendships to support his goals, framing this manipulation as her personal “ninja way.”
• Danzō is introduced as ambitious and suspicious. He already distinguishes between “true” members of Konoha and outsiders, revealing the nationalist and exclusionary beliefs that will shape him later. His desire to hold authority is also apparent.
• Hiruzen appears more open and socially conventional than Danzō, accompanying him but not sharing his openly implied hostility toward Toji.

Significant Themes

• Scientific ambition and experimentation: Toji’s research advances through dangerous human experimentation, with failure treated as useful data.
• Morality versus survival: Toji believes morality is a luxury of peaceful times and justifies his actions through necessity and the criminal backgrounds of his subjects.
• Obsession and reckless devotion: Kazuka’s desire for Toji’s recognition drives her to manipulate innocent friendships and risk violating clan secrets.
• Outsider identity and belonging: Danzō’s resentment toward Toji highlights tensions between established Konoha clans and outsiders who gain influence.
• Power and secrecy: Curse Marks, clan techniques, and Toji’s experiments are treated as closely guarded sources of power, making knowledge itself a political and personal weapon.

Important Character Interactions

• Toji and the test subjects: Toji treats them as experimental resources but gives the survivor a blunt warning that continued survival depends on cooperation and endurance.
• Toji and Kazuka: Their teacher-student relationship is central. Toji remains stern and emotionally restrained, while Kazuka interprets his guidance as extraordinary gentleness and becomes deeply attached to him.
• Kazuka and her new friends: Kazuka forms friendships primarily to gain access to their clans’ Curse Mark knowledge, creating a conflict between genuine companionship and calculated manipulation.
• Toji and Danzō: Their first meaningful interaction occurs when Danzō delivers Tobirama’s summons, setting up a likely political or strategic confrontation.

Chapter Summary: Don’t Let Your Darkness Taint Me

Key Plot Points and Events

• Toji encounters the young Shimura Danzō, who has become the Fifth Acting Hokage’s aide. Recognizing Danzō as Tobirama’s second disciple, Toji asks to visit Tobirama.
• Danzō leads Toji to the tea room where Tobirama has been confined for more than a month after the Hokage banned his research into the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu.
• Tobirama explains that his forbidden technique could revive dead shinobi and potentially prevent comrades from dying. However, its development requires human experimentation and sacrifices.
• Tobirama argues that the Shinobi World will eventually return to war once Hashirama grows old, making forbidden techniques necessary to protect Konoha and preserve peace.
• He asks Toji to join his research, emphasizing Toji’s talent for ninjutsu development and his position as director of Gospel Hospital, which would give him access to human “materials.”
• Toji acknowledges the possible power of the technique but firmly refuses. He insists that his medical abilities and hospital exist to save people, not to provide victims for experimentation.
• Toji declares that he will not report Tobirama, but condemns his ideology and warns him not to corrupt the Hokage’s ideals or Toji’s own principles with his “darkness.”
• Tobirama warns that idealists will not improve the Shinobi World and predicts that Toji will eventually regret rejecting him. Toji leaves angrily, slamming the door.
• Danzō witnesses Tobirama’s exhaustion afterward and becomes more devoted to inheriting his teacher’s will and shouldering his burdens.

Character Developments

• Toji: Demonstrates moral firmness and independence. Although he understands Tobirama’s logic and recognizes the potential of Impure World Reincarnation, he refuses to sacrifice innocent lives or compromise the purpose of his hospital. His philosophy centers on healing, mutual understanding, and remaining true to his own ninja way.
• Tobirama: Appears more restrained and calculating after his confinement. He openly reveals the darker side of his pragmatism, believing that human sacrifices and forbidden techniques are justified if they secure Konoha’s survival and future peace. His desperation and exhaustion become increasingly visible.
• Danzō: Admiration for Tobirama deepens into near-total loyalty. Although he does not know the details of the conversation, he interprets Tobirama’s visible strain as proof that he must one day inherit his teacher’s responsibilities and protect his legacy.

Significant Themes

• Idealism versus pragmatism: Toji believes peace must come through understanding, while Tobirama believes peace requires overwhelming power and morally questionable preparation.
• The cost of peace: The chapter questions whether sacrificing a few people can ever be justified to protect many others.
• Healing versus weaponization: Toji’s medical work represents preservation of life, whereas Tobirama seeks to transform knowledge and human bodies into tools of war.
• Legacy and ideology: Danzō begins internalizing Tobirama’s worldview, suggesting how Tobirama’s darker principles may continue through his disciples.
• Moral boundaries: Toji refuses to let necessity or fear redefine his principles, even while acknowledging the validity of Tobirama’s concerns.

Important Character Interactions

• Toji and Danzō: Their brief meeting establishes Toji’s recognition of Danzō’s potential and Danzō’s disciplined loyalty to Tobirama.
• Toji and Tobirama: Their tea-room discussion becomes an ideological confrontation. Tobirama attempts to recruit Toji through appeals to peace and survival, while Toji rejects the use of hospitals and human lives for forbidden research.
• Tobirama and Danzō: Though they do not directly discuss the conversation, Danzō’s reaction shows his emotional attachment to Tobirama and his willingness to adopt his teacher’s burdens and beliefs.

Chapter Summary: “Those Who Press On Along the Path of Death”

Plot Points and Events

• Toji leaves the tea room in falling snow and meets Uchiha Chiri, as planned. They go to Ichiraku Ramen together.
• Chiri notices that Toji is unusually cheerful, but he refuses to explain the reason, keeping his conversation with Tobirama and his plans secret.
• Toji reflects on Tobirama’s emphasis on peace. Rather than immediately assisting Tobirama with forbidden techniques, Toji decides to wait until he has personally experienced greater “pain,” believing this will make his false image as a once-idealistic, soft-hearted man more convincing.
• He also plans to maintain a technical advantage in developing Impure World Reincarnation, leaving Tobirama only the most difficult stages before using his own research to complete the technique.
• Toji asks Chiri about Uchiha Yan, the rogue ninja he has secretly employed. Chiri explains that the Uchiha have organized a tracking mission and last located Yan near the Land of Rice Fields.
• Toji is relieved that Yan has not yet been captured. He recognizes the region as dangerous but useful for ambitious figures because its lawlessness makes acquiring resources and human test subjects easier.
• He warns Chiri to tell the pursuing Uchiha squad to retreat if they encounter a powerful enemy, promising to heal them if they return alive. Chiri rejects this advice, insisting that the mission concerns Uchiha dignity and bloodline, and must be completed.
• The conversation ends with Chiri declaring that her ninja way is to protect peace and happiness, while Toji’s medical abilities represent the possibility of preserving happiness alongside peace.

Character Developments

• Toji reveals his increasingly elaborate manipulation. He is willing to delay cooperation with Tobirama, exploit Tobirama’s research, and manufacture personal “pain” to make his false persona more believable. Despite his hidden schemes, he shows genuine concern for Yan’s safety and the Uchiha tracking team.
• Uchiha Chiri demonstrates strong emotional insight into Toji, sensing that he is hiding something. She also shows the hardened mindset of a veteran ninja: survival and mission completion matter less than clan honor and duty.
• Chiri’s view of Toji becomes more affectionate and idealistic. She believes fate brought him to Konoha and sees his healing abilities as a force that allows peace to coexist with happiness.
• Uchiha Yan remains offstage, but the chapter emphasizes her competence and value to Toji. Her location in the Land of Rice Fields makes her difficult to find but also places her in a dangerous environment.

Significant Themes

• The cost and meaning of peace: Toji and Chiri view peace differently. Toji treats it as a political and psychological tool, while Chiri sees it as something protected through sacrifice.
• Pain as a path to understanding: Toji believes genuine understanding of peace requires experiencing suffering, though he intends to use this idea cynically to perfect his disguise.
• Ninja as tools versus people: Chiri describes ninja as people forced along a one-way “path of death,” bound to missions even when retreat would be safer.
• Duty versus compassion: Toji prioritizes survival and medical recovery, whereas Chiri places clan dignity and mission success above individual safety.
• Appearance and deception: Toji’s gentle doctor persona conceals ruthless ambitions, illustrating the contrast between outward kindness and inner manipulation.

Character Interactions

• Chiri playfully accuses Toji of plotting mischief, while Toji responds with evasive humor and changes the subject.
• Toji carefully raises the sensitive topic of Uchiha Yan because of his special relationship with Chiri; Chiri accepts the question without hostility.
• Their disagreement over whether the Uchiha squad should retreat highlights the contrast between Toji’s practical compassion and Chiri’s uncompromising warrior code.
• Chiri’s final remarks express trust and emotional attachment to Toji, while Toji remains internally calculating, preserving the gap between her perception of him and his true intentions.

Chapter Summary: The Origin of the Sage Curse Mark

Key Plot Points and Events

• Toji reflects on recent conversations with Tobirama Senju and Uchiha Chiri, both of whom treated him as someone capable of guiding them toward peace. He remains cynical, believing lasting peace is impossible because conflict will continue and future threats will arise from beyond the shinobi world.
• His personal goal is not peace but surpassing the limits of the human body through his own power.
• After speaking with Uchiha Chiri, Toji remembers the Land of Rice Fields and its connection to Sound Release techniques. More importantly, he suspects that the ancestors of Jugo’s clan may have lived there.
• Toji orders Uchiha Yan to establish a permanent base in the Land of Rice Fields, transport human materials, and search for the clan he temporarily names the “Libra Clan.” He hopes this will eventually lead to the source of Jugo’s Sage Transformation Curse Mark.
• Toji postpones direct Curse Mark research until either Matsumoto Kazuka makes a breakthrough or Yan finds information about the suspected clan. Meanwhile, he continues working on Earth Grudge Fear and Impure World Reincarnation.
• In a new laboratory experiment, Toji uses the one-eyed man as a test subject. He plans to first parasitize him with Earth Grudge Fear, then sacrifice him to activate Impure World Reincarnation using the previously deceased scar-faced man as the vessel.
• To avoid repeating his earlier failure, Toji prepares emergency treatment with the Mystical Palm Technique while implanting Earth Grudge Fear threads into the subject’s vital points.
• The parasite successfully takes control of the man’s body. Toji can make him move, refine chakra, and perform techniques such as Fire Release: Fire Bullet.
• However, the subject begins convulsing and dies despite Toji’s medical efforts. Toji determines that Earth Grudge Fear can currently control physical energy but cannot forcefully obtain the spiritual energy needed to sustain chakra production.
• Rather than viewing the experiment as a complete failure, Toji identifies a new research direction: controlling the target’s spiritual energy through the heart and turning the host into a fully obedient combat puppet.
• He imagines using parasitized hosts to attack stronger enemies, possibly enhancing them with Hero’s Water, then resurrecting them through Impure World Reincarnation for repeated battles.

Character Developments

• Toji: Becomes more openly pragmatic, manipulative, and strategically ambitious. He dismisses idealistic visions of peace and focuses on creating techniques that can overcome stronger opponents through preparation, experimentation, and exploitation of others.
• His scientific mindset develops as he learns from failure. Instead of abandoning Earth Grudge Fear, he identifies its limitations and envisions an advanced form of body control combining physical domination, chakra sharing, and resurrection.
• Uchiha Yan: Receives a long-term mission to establish a base and investigate Jugo’s ancestral clan, expanding Toji’s influence into the Land of Rice Fields.
• Matsumoto Kazuka: Remains indirectly important because her potential breakthrough may help Toji resume Curse Mark research.
• The one-eyed test subject: Is reduced to an experimental tool. Though briefly controlled successfully and made to use ninjutsu, he ultimately dies when his body cannot sustain chakra production.

Significant Themes

• The impossibility of lasting peace: Toji believes peace is temporary and that conflict is an unavoidable part of the shinobi world, even after major enemies are defeated.
• Power through experimentation: Progress comes from sacrificing subjects, analyzing failure, and refining techniques rather than relying on ideals or inherited systems.
• Control versus free will: Earth Grudge Fear is contrasted with mental-control techniques because it dominates the body directly and leaves the victim little chance of resistance.
• Using everything as a resource: Toji’s plan to use one subject for both parasitization and resurrection reflects his ruthless efficiency and disregard for human life.
• The body and chakra: The experiment explores the relationship between physical energy, spiritual energy, the heart, and chakra, laying the groundwork for a new form of living puppet or resurrected combatant.
• Foreshadowing the Curse Mark: Toji’s search for Jugo’s ancestors and his experiments with forced bodily transformation establish the likely origin and development of the Sage Transformation Curse Mark.

Character Interactions

• Toji and Tobirama: Tobirama has previously confided his ideas about the ninja way and peace in Toji, though Toji views this trust with skepticism.
• Toji and Uchiha Chiri: Chiri’s discussion indirectly reminds Toji of the Land of Rice Fields and prompts him to investigate the possible origins of Jugo’s clan.
• Toji and Uchiha Yan: Toji gives Yan a covert, long-term assignment involving espionage, logistics, and biological research.
• Toji and the one-eyed man: Their interaction is entirely exploitative. Toji uses the man as a puppet and experimental subject, testing whether Earth Grudge Fear can control his body and make him perform ninjutsu.
• Toji and his wider organization: Toji remains the strategist behind the scenes, delegating dangerous tasks to subordinates while managing the larger plan for secret-technique development.

Chapter Summary: “Space-Time Talent”

Plot Points and Events

• Toji attempts to use Impure World Reincarnation on a dying one-eyed man, hoping to summon a soul from the Pure Land and revive it in the man’s body.
• The technique nearly overwhelms him because the Pure Land exists beyond the known world, making the summoning extraordinarily chakra-intensive.
• Toji successfully senses the Pure Land and summons a single Pure Land talisman, proving that he possesses unusual talent in space-time ninjutsu and may be capable of developing the technique further.
• However, the vessel disintegrates before the summoned soul can take control. Toji concludes that the experiment failed and records that Test Subject Number Two survived for thirty-one minutes.
• After cleaning the laboratory, Toji creates an Earth Grudge Fear Clone and sends it toward the Forest of Death.
• Meanwhile, Uchiha Yan seeks more valuable experimental subjects to prove her usefulness to Toji. She targets a rogue ninja group near the Land of Rice Fields.
• Yan attacks the group alone, using her Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Fire Release, swordsmanship, and taijutsu rather than genjutsu, so that Konoha will not easily identify her involvement.
• She kills the entire group, captures the two Chunin leaders through genjutsu, and seals the remaining bodies for bounty money.
• Yan discovers a supposed merchant hostage, frees him, and learns that he is actually another member of the rogue group. After killing him, she burns the cave to erase evidence.
• She transports the two controlled Chunin toward the Forest of Death. Shortly afterward, members of the Sky Ninja Group arrive, discover their people and hostage dead, and vow to investigate.

Character Developments

• Toji is shown as an obsessive but highly capable experimenter. His willingness to exhaust himself and destroy human vessels demonstrates his ruthless dedication to scientific advancement.
• His successful contact with the Pure Land reveals a previously unknown aptitude for space-time techniques and suggests that he may eventually perfect Impure World Reincarnation.
• Toji’s theatrical incantations and private comments reveal his loneliness and the role-play he uses to cope with isolation and the cruelty of his experiments.
• Uchiha Yan becomes more proactive and ambitious. Feeling that her previous offerings were inadequate, she deliberately selects stronger and more useful subjects.
• Her actions show both ruthlessness and a personal code: she kills criminals and enemies but avoids harming innocent people when possible.
• Yan also demonstrates strategic caution by avoiding genjutsu during the main battle and burning the scene afterward to conceal her Uchiha identity.

Significant Themes

• Scientific ambition and moral sacrifice: Toji treats human beings as disposable materials, emphasizing the ethical cost of pursuing forbidden power.
• Isolation and performance: Toji hides his loneliness behind dramatic behavior and a false persona, using humor and theatricality to endure his experiments.
• Power versus concealment: Yan’s Sharingan gives her overwhelming combat ability, but she must carefully hide its distinctive techniques to avoid attracting Konoha’s attention.
• Personal codes within criminal worlds: Both Toji and Yan operate outside conventional morality, yet Yan maintains boundaries about whom she considers acceptable to kill.
• Consequences and escalating conflict: Yan’s attack disrupts the Sky Ninja Group, creating a new threat that may expose her activities or bring attention to Toji’s experiments.

Character Interactions

• Toji’s primary interaction is with the dying one-eyed man, whom he uses as a vessel in an experimental revival attempt.
• His interaction with the unseen summoned soul is indirect; the soul fails to possess the body and presumably returns to the Pure Land.
• Yan interacts with the rogue ninja group through combat, overwhelming them with her Sharingan-enhanced abilities.
• She briefly treats the disguised rogue ninja posing as a hostage as someone to rescue, but kills him immediately once his deception is revealed.
• The chapter ends with the Sky Ninja Group discovering the aftermath, establishing a future confrontation connected to Yan’s actions.

Summary: “New Year at Naka Shrine”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Uchiha Yan completes another specimen handover to Toji, delivering two higher-quality Chunin subjects to his underground laboratory.
• In the tree hollow, she discovers Toji’s payment: one million ryo and instructions to establish a permanent base in the Land of Rice Fields.
• Although irritated by Toji’s controlling orders, Yan happily accepts the money and reflects on her eventual return to Naka Shrine. She vows to surpass Uchiha Chiri, defeat her publicly, and prove that Chiri’s willingness to cooperate with the Senju was wrong.
• On New Year’s Day, Toji enjoys a rare day away from hospital duties. He tends the Zenin garden and secretly uses pulverized remains from his experiments as fertilizer.
• Uchiha Chiri and Uchiha Ayano visit Toji and invite him to the Uchiha clan’s New Year gathering. Toji agrees after finishing his gardening.
• While helping him, Chiri notices that her ocular power has strengthened. Toji warns her that possessing the Sharingan still leaves her vulnerable to Bloodline Disease and encourages her to undergo regular checkups.
• Toji accompanies the women to Naka Shrine, where the Uchiha celebrate peacefully. The hostility surrounding the previous year’s battle has faded, as the clan has come to accept that the Ninja Academy is not a Senju plot against them.
• Chiri reveals that she officially became clan leader at midnight. A young Uchiha named Kagami jokingly asks when she will marry Toji, creating an awkward but playful moment.
• Chiri introduces Kagami as the most talented youth of his generation, especially gifted in genjutsu, and announces her intention to make him her disciple. Toji praises him and predicts that he has the potential to become Hokage.

Character Developments

• Uchiha Yan: Becomes increasingly ambitious and resentful toward Chiri. She remains loyal and useful to Toji, successfully acquiring stronger test subjects, but privately dreams of returning to the Uchiha with overwhelming power and vindicating her ideology.
• Toji: Reveals a more relaxed and domestic side while caring for the garden. He continues manipulating situations to support his research, using medical checkups as an excuse to study Chiri’s Sharingan. He also begins forming a more comfortable social connection with the Uchiha.
• Uchiha Chiri: Officially rises to clan leadership and appears satisfied with the position. Her ocular power has improved, and she continues trusting Toji’s medical expertise despite the hidden motives behind his interest. Her relationship with him is friendly and increasingly familiar.
• Uchiha Ayano: Acts as a considerate assistant, giving Toji and Chiri privacy while helping facilitate the New Year visit.
• Kagami Uchiha: Is introduced as a cheerful, unusually talented young Uchiha with exceptional genjutsu ability and potential to become Hokage.

Significant Themes

• Ambition and ideological conflict: Yan’s hatred of Chiri reflects the larger conflict between Uchiha pride and cooperation with the Senju-led village.
• Bloodline and talent: Chiri’s effortless improvement contrasts with Toji’s painstaking research and Yan’s engineered growth, emphasizing the overwhelming advantages of natural bloodline talent.
• Reconciliation and changing perceptions: The peaceful New Year gathering shows that the Uchiha’s suspicion of the Ninja Academy and the Senju is gradually weakening.
• Hidden motives beneath ordinary life: Gardening, medical checkups, and New Year visits appear harmless, but Toji uses them to conceal corpse-based experiments and pursue the secrets of the Sharingan.
• New beginnings and succession: Chiri’s formal appointment as clan leader and Kagami’s introduction suggest a new generation and a possible future shaped by cooperation rather than old hostility.

Character Interactions

• Yan’s internal conflict centers on Toji: she resents his commands but depends on his resources and rewards.
• Toji and Chiri share a relaxed, increasingly trusting relationship while working together in the garden. Chiri openly relies on his medical judgment, unaware of his deeper interest in her eyes.
• Ayano respectfully supports both leaders and deliberately withdraws to give Toji and Chiri personal space.
• The Uchiha clansmen greet Toji warmly, indicating that his former assistance has earned their respect.
• Kagami’s marriage joke creates a humorous, informal interaction between him, Chiri, and Toji, while Chiri’s praise and Toji’s prediction establish Kagami as an important promising figure.

Chapter Summary: Senju’s Generous Gift: Yin Seal

Key Plot Points and Events

• Toji reflects on his belief in Bloodline Theory and applies it to Kagami Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha’s ancestor. Because of Kagami’s talent, character, and connection to the gifted Uchiha teacher Chiri, Toji predicts that Kagami has the potential to become Hokage.
• The Uchiha clansmen enthusiastically embrace Toji’s praise, seeing it as proof that the clan may one day reclaim the Hokage position and restore its former glory.
• Toji spends New Year’s Day visiting the Uchiha Compound with Chiri. He imagines a future in which the Uchiha possess multiple Mangekyō Sharingan users, strengthening the clan considerably.
• Before Toji leaves, the one-eyed Uchiha Bing asks Chiri to assign him to the mission pursuing Uchiha Yan, his younger sister, who defected from the clan.
• Bing declares that he will either bring Yan back or kill her himself, believing that her actions threaten the clan’s bloodline. Chiri agrees to let him undertake the mission after six months if Yan has not been captured, instructing him to bring her back alive. She emphasizes that both she and the Hokage are willing to forgive Yan once—but only once.
• The following day, Toji visits the Senju Clan. Because his Reverse Cursed Technique has saved many Senju lives, he receives an especially warm welcome.
• Hashirama teases Toji about his relationship with Chiri and suggests marriage, treating it as a possible alliance between their clans. Toji deflects the subject, claiming that his ambition to become the greatest doctor and establish true peace leaves no room for romance.
• Mito interrupts Hashirama’s matchmaking attempts and redirects the conversation toward business.
• Hashirama reveals that, after consulting Mito, the Senju Clan has decided to teach Toji the Yin Seal as a New Year’s gift, recognizing both his talent for Sealing Jutsu and the Zenin Clan’s unusual longevity and physical constitution. Mito is about to explain the technique’s effects.

Character Developments

• Toji: Continues viewing gifted individuals as potential investments in the future of the Shinobi World. He becomes increasingly involved with both the Uchiha and Senju, while remaining focused on medicine, peace, and strengthening his own abilities. His interactions also show discomfort with romantic pressure and a tendency to avoid personal commitments.
• Kagami Uchiha: Though still only ten, he is presented as exceptionally talented and morally promising. Toji sees him as a possible future Hokage and as part of a potential revival of Uchiha power.
• Uchiha Chiri: Her survival from Bloodline Disease has allowed her to become Kagami’s mentor and the effective leader of the Uchiha. She demonstrates authority and pragmatism by handling the painful issue of Uchiha Yan’s defection.
• Uchiha Bing: His personality has changed dramatically after Izanami’s influence. Once a supporter of defection, he now rigidly prioritizes the clan and is prepared to kill his own sister to preserve its bloodline.
• Hashirama: Despite aging, Hashirama remains cheerful and intrusive in a good-natured way. He views Toji and Chiri’s relationship as both romantic potential and a possible political alliance.
• Mito: Acts as the more practical and responsible counterpart to Hashirama, stopping his matchmaking and helping arrange Toji’s instruction in the Yin Seal.

Significant Themes

• Bloodline versus individual achievement: Toji’s belief that inherited talent shapes destiny is reinforced through Kagami, though the chapter also presents the possibility that careful mentorship and intervention can redirect a clan’s future.
• Clan loyalty and extremism: Bing’s willingness to hunt his sister shows how the Uchiha’s obsession with bloodline purity can override familial bonds.
• Political balance between clans: Toji’s position between the Senju and Uchiha turns him into the focus of their quiet rivalry, with each clan seeking his loyalty and respect.
• Healing and preservation: Toji’s medical achievements and the Senju’s interest in his abilities emphasize the value of saving lives, contrasting sharply with the Uchiha’s violent pursuit of Yan.
• Aging and legacy: Hashirama’s visible aging and Kagami’s promise highlight the passing of generations and the question of who will shape the future of the village.
• Personal duty versus private life: Toji rejects romance in favor of his larger mission, while Hashirama suggests that personal relationships and political goals need not conflict.

Important Character Interactions

• Toji and Chiri: Their cooperation reflects mutual trust and growing political importance, though their relationship becomes the subject of outside speculation.
• Chiri and Bing: Chiri balances compassion for Yan with loyalty to the clan, granting Bing permission to pursue her but ordering him to seek a living capture first.
• Toji and Hashirama: Hashirama treats Toji familiarly, teasing him about Chiri before presenting the Senju’s gift.
• Toji and Mito: Mito recognizes Toji’s aptitude for Sealing Jutsu and helps arrange his training.
• Toji and the Senju Clan: The clan’s gratitude for his Reverse Cursed Technique strengthens their bond and makes the Yin Seal a meaningful gesture of trust and appreciation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Mito Uzumaki explains the Yin Seal, a technique that requires extremely precise chakra control to accumulate, compress, and store chakra in a forehead mark. By releasing chakra gradually, it can preserve youth and maintain the body’s peak condition.
• Although the Yin Seal was designed for female shinobi, Toji believes he can modify it for male users because of his expertise in Medical Ninjutsu.
• Hashirama and Mito reveal that they are giving Toji the Yin Seal because his longevity may become a burden. Mito also suggests that he pass the technique to a future wife so she can remain with him throughout his long life.
• Hashirama explicitly gives Toji permission to use and teach the Yin Seal as he wishes, including to an Uchiha or to disciples. Toji is delighted because this grants him unusual ownership over a powerful secret technique.
• Mito’s aging is explained: she deliberately stopped using the Yin Seal’s youth-preserving function so she could grow old alongside Hashirama, despite possessing the ability to remain young.
• Toji spends the rest of the New Year holiday studying the Yin Seal, Impure World Reincarnation, and the Earth Grudge Parasite, refusing invitations from various clans because he is too focused on his research.
• At Ichiraku Ramen, Toji briefly notices his normally solitary disciple, Matsumoto Kazuka, walking with two girls.
• The chapter ends with Kazuka privately meeting Kotone Hyuga and another girl. She persuades Kotone to reveal the Caged Bird Curse Mark on her forehead. Kazuka recognizes it as the technique Toji has long desired and appears to be taking the first step toward acquiring or studying it.

Character Developments

• Toji remains practical, ambitious, and research-driven. He views the Yin Seal primarily as a way to overcome his chakra limitations rather than as a romantic or emotional gift. His scientific confidence leads him to believe he can adapt a technique traditionally unsuitable for men.
• Mito Uzumaki is shown as self-sacrificing and deeply devoted to Hashirama. Her decision to abandon the Yin Seal’s youth-preserving benefits demonstrates that she values sharing Hashirama’s natural lifespan over maintaining her own youth.
• Hashirama Senju displays both generosity and responsibility. He recognizes Toji’s contributions to Konoha, grants him unrestricted authority over the Yin Seal, and encourages him to pursue personal happiness rather than work himself to exhaustion.
• Matsumoto Kazuka begins acting independently and deceptively. Despite her scholarly and reclusive nature, she has formed relationships—or at least cultivated access to people—for the purpose of investigating the Caged Bird Curse Mark.
• Kotone Hyuga is portrayed as insecure and vulnerable about her curse mark, making her susceptible to Kazuka’s gentle but manipulative persuasion.

Significant Themes

• Longevity as a burden: Immortality or extended life is not presented as an uncomplicated blessing. It creates the possibility of outliving loved ones, making companionship and shared aging especially meaningful.
• Love and sacrifice: Mito’s choice to age with Hashirama contrasts sharply with Toji’s detached attitude toward romance, while Hashirama encourages Toji to find someone who can share his long life.
• Knowledge, ownership, and power: The Yin Seal represents not just a medical technique but an inheritance of authority. Toji’s freedom to teach it distinguishes him from ordinary shinobi, who are restricted from sharing powerful techniques.
• Scientific adaptation: Toji approaches forbidden or specialized techniques as systems to be analyzed, modified, and improved, emphasizing his role as an innovator in Medical Ninjutsu.
• Manipulation beneath friendship: Kazuka’s interaction with Kotone shows how trust and friendship can be used to obtain sensitive information, foreshadowing conflict involving the Hyuga clan’s curse mark.

Character Interactions

• Toji, Hashirama, and Mito: They discuss the Yin Seal, longevity, marriage, and the responsibilities attached to powerful techniques. Hashirama and Mito treat Toji almost like a valued family member or subordinate whose well-being matters to them.
• Hashirama and Mito: Their playful argument over Madara reveals their familiar marital dynamic, while Mito’s sacrifice highlights the depth of their bond.
• Toji and the wider clans: Several clans invite him to their New Year celebrations because of his status as Konoha’s “living saint,” but he rejects them in favor of research.
• Kazuka and Kotone: Kazuka uses the language of friendship to convince Kotone to reveal her Caged Bird Curse Mark, marking the beginning of a potentially dangerous investigation.

Chapter Summary: Entering the Tattoo Era Ahead of Schedule

Plot Points and Events

• After six months of experimentation, Toji successfully perfects Earth Grudge Parasite enough to implant a parasite mark in a living host’s heart and extract the host’s chakra.
• He tests the technique on Experiment Subjects No. 13 and No. 14, successfully draining their physical and spiritual energy without causing obvious external abnormalities.
• Toji discovers that parasitized hosts can now be used for more than simple movement: they can potentially fight under his direct control.
• He evaluates the technique’s limitations:
  • He can implant parasite marks in up to five targets, corresponding to his five hearts.
  • He can directly control only one host at near-full combat strength while maintaining his own consciousness.
  • Multiple hosts can function independently, but their intelligence and combat ability are significantly reduced.
• Toji names the two successful Chunin hosts Type Zero and Type One, gives them organizational uniforms and masks, and sends them to the Land of Rice Fields.
• Their mission is to secretly support Uchiha Yan, whose activities have already made Chunin-level ninja unusually prominent in the region.
• Toji names the new organization “Passion.”
• The next day, Toji conducts his routine self-review and assesses his other projects:
  • Earth Grudge Parasite: major breakthrough.
  • Impure World Reincarnation: can now summon ten sheets of talisman paper at once, progressing toward the hundred-sheet requirement.
  • Yin Seal: still far from functional, but Toji has redesigned its markings for male compatibility and visual intimidation.
• Toji activates the incomplete Yin Seal, revealing black markings across his body and optional facial markings modeled after Sukuna’s tattoos. The seal currently has no storage function and is purely decorative.

Character Development

• Toji becomes increasingly methodical, calculating, and research-focused. He treats both human subjects and parasitized puppets as experimental tools, showing no emotional response to their suffering.
• His growing mastery of Earth Grudge Fear allows him to expand from personal combat into remote control, reconnaissance, and organization-building.
• He recognizes his own limitations realistically, choosing to maximize the effectiveness of one controlled host rather than overextend himself.
• Toji’s personality also shows a theatrical and aesthetic side: he deliberately designs his Yin Seal markings to resemble Sukuna’s and plans when their facial version should appear for dramatic effect.
• Type Zero and Type One lose their individual identities and become obedient, emotionally blank extensions of Toji’s will.
• Uchiha Yan remains off-screen, but her influence is emphasized through her steady supply of Chunin and her growing power in the Land of Rice Fields.

Significant Themes

• Control and dehumanization: Toji’s experiments reduce living ninja to numbered subjects, puppets, and tools.
• Power through refinement: His progress comes not from a sudden increase in strength but from improving technique, efficiency, and multitasking.
• Scientific experimentation and limitation: Toji carefully analyzes the “processing capacity” of his mind and chakra, treating abilities like technological systems that can be optimized.
• Identity and transformation: The hosts are renamed and uniformed as members of “Passion,” while Toji visually transforms himself through the New Yin Seal.
• Performance and intimidation: The decorative markings demonstrate that appearance, symbolism, and psychological impact are becoming part of Toji’s combat strategy.

Character Interactions

• Toji interacts with the experimental subjects only as a controller and researcher, issuing commands and observing their responses without sympathy.
• He mentally analyzes Earth Grudge Fear as an intelligent but limited partner, distinguishing between its instinctive behavior and his own conscious control.
• Type Zero and Type One respond to Toji’s orders in stiff, emotionless unison, reinforcing their status as controlled agents.
• Toji indirectly engages with Uchiha Yan by deploying his new puppets to assist and observe her operations.
• His interaction with his reflection reveals his self-satisfaction and vanity as he evaluates the visual effect of his redesigned Yin Seal markings.

Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• At Gospel Hospital, medical ninjas and trainees formally greet Director Toji, whose medical system has greatly improved Konoha’s healthcare, combat readiness, and social integration.
• Yakushi Yashi, a civilian-born medical ninja whom Toji promoted to chief physician, informs him that one of his surgeries is an S-rank operation involving Heizō Shimura, a Jōnin severely injured in the Land of Water.
• Heizō, Danzō Shimura’s third uncle, has a damaged heart and is near death. His file also reveals that he signed an organ-donation form.
• During surgery, Toji uses his technique, Heavenly Mercy Thread, to open Heizō’s chest and repair his heart. Rather than simply treating him or allowing him to die and harvesting the heart, Toji secretly implants an Earth Grudge Fear Parasite Mark inside the injured organ.
• The heart’s existing damage conceals the parasite from possible Byakugan inspection. Toji confirms that the mark can eventually control Heizō completely, even forcing him to betray Konoha or act as Toji’s puppet.
• Toji successfully stabilizes Heizō, briefly activates the parasite to verify its function, and then allows him to regain normal unconsciousness.
• Afterward, Toji tells the waiting Shimura clan members that the operation succeeded and Heizō will need a month to recover.
• Yakushi Yashi then informs Toji that the Hokage has summoned him to an urgent meeting, suggesting that an important development has occurred.

Character Developments

• Toji is shown as an exceptionally skilled and respected medical leader, but also as calculating, secretive, and morally ruthless. He uses his authority and medical access to turn patients into potential assets.
• His long-term goal becomes clearer: he intends to build a hidden “heart bank” through implanted parasites and eventually expand his power within Konoha once Hashirama and Tobirama are gone.
• Yakushi Yashi continues to rise within the hospital hierarchy. His promotion reflects his competence and loyalty, while Toji views him as a possible future manager who can preserve the hospital’s reputation when Toji shifts his attention elsewhere.
• Heizō Shimura, though unconscious and unaware, becomes Toji’s unwilling subordinate. His Wind Release–aligned heart is especially valuable because Toji seeks powerful hearts to fill the remaining slots in his body.
• The Shimura clan’s gratitude toward Toji contrasts sharply with the hidden control he has imposed on one of their important members.

Significant Themes

• Medical authority as political power: Toji’s hospital is not only a place of healing but also a source of influence, prestige, and access to powerful ninja.
• Benevolence masking manipulation: Toji’s public image as a lifesaving doctor hides his use of surgery to implant control mechanisms.
• Body autonomy and exploitation: Heizō’s injured body and organ-donation status allow Toji to treat him as both a patient and a resource.
• Long-term strategic planning: Toji carefully avoids detection by the Byakugan and waits for a future when stronger political protections will enable him to act more openly.
• Integration versus control: Gospel Hospital helps unite Konoha’s clans and civilians, yet Toji simultaneously builds a secret system of domination beneath that outward unity.

Character Interactions

• The hospital staff and trainees show Toji formal respect, emphasizing his dominant status within the medical system.
• Toji and Yakushi Yashi interact as director and trusted subordinate; Yashi handles hospital operations while Toji performs the most dangerous and prestigious procedures.
• Toji’s relationship with Heizō is entirely one-sided: he appears to save Heizō’s life while secretly transforming him into a controllable weapon.
• The Shimura clan members openly thank Toji for the successful surgery, unaware of his betrayal.
• Yashi’s announcement of the Hokage’s summons interrupts Toji’s plans and creates suspense about the political or military crisis awaiting him.

Chapter Summary: “Hashirama Leaves the Village, the Source of Tragedy”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hashirama summons Toji, Tobirama, Uchiha Chiri, and the heads of Konoha’s major departments to an emergency meeting.
• He announces that he will leave the village to train in Senjutsu. His absence may last anywhere from ten days to a year, depending on how successful or dangerous the training becomes.
• Tobirama is appointed acting Hokage, while the village departments—including Gospel Hospital and the Ninja Academy—are ordered to continue operating normally.
• After the meeting, Hashirama privately asks Toji to monitor Tobirama. He fears that Tobirama may resume human experimentation or other morally dangerous research once Hashirama is gone.
• Hashirama instructs Toji to report any suspicious behavior to Mito. If Tobirama refuses to listen to her, Mito and Uchiha Chiri are authorized to restrain him until Hashirama returns.
• Hashirama admits that he considered appointing Toji acting Hokage, but Toji’s responsibilities at Gospel Hospital and his lack of seniority prevented it.
• Toji leaves the meeting outwardly grateful but privately reflects on how Hashirama’s leniency toward Tobirama may contribute to future disasters in Konoha and the wider shinobi world.
• Toji decides to act as both Tobirama’s ally and adversary: he will obstruct certain experiments, manipulate Tobirama into believing he is making progress, and gradually prepare the groundwork for Tobirama’s future “corruption.”

Character Developments

• Hashirama: Reveals that he has not yet mastered Senjutsu and is still seeking greater strength despite already being regarded as the God of Shinobi. His idealism and trust in Tobirama remain strong, though he is willing to punish his brother if Tobirama truly threatens the village.
• Tobirama: Is placed in a position of great authority as acting Hokage, but Hashirama still views him as impulsive, secretive, and morally unreliable. His interest in human experimentation remains an unresolved threat.
• Toji: Demonstrates caution by abandoning the idea of implanting a Parasite Mark into Hashirama, recognizing the risk of discovery. He accepts the role of monitoring Tobirama and begins planning a long-term strategy to manipulate and control him.
• Uchiha Chiri: Supports the village leadership and is identified by Hashirama as one of the people capable of helping restrain Tobirama if necessary.
• Mito: Is presented as one of the few people Tobirama respects enough to obey, making her an important safeguard during Hashirama’s absence.

Significant Themes

• The roots of future tragedy: Toji recognizes that many later disasters—weak leadership, Danzo’s rise, Root, and Konoha’s political decline—may originate from decisions being made in the present.
• Idealism versus practicality: Hashirama’s faith in Tobirama reflects his idealistic belief that his brother’s talents can be guided toward good, while Toji sees the dangers of allowing family loyalty to soften political judgment.
• Power and responsibility: Hashirama’s departure tests whether Konoha’s institutions can function without him and whether Tobirama can wield authority responsibly.
• Manipulation and hidden agendas: Toji outwardly agrees to protect Tobirama while secretly planning to influence his actions and create the impression that Tobirama is succeeding.
• The limits of trust: Hashirama trusts Toji to watch Tobirama, while Toji himself remains emotionally detached and pursues his own long-term objectives.

Important Character Interactions

• Hashirama and Toji: Hashirama treats Toji as a trusted subordinate and potential future Hokage. Their private conversation establishes Toji’s responsibility for supervising Tobirama.
• Hashirama and Tobirama: Although Tobirama is absent from the private discussion, Hashirama’s concerns reveal a complicated relationship: he loves and trusts his brother but knows he must be restrained.
• Toji and Tobirama: Their relationship is positioned to become a strategic contest. Toji will cooperate with Tobirama publicly while secretly obstructing and manipulating him.
• Hashirama, Mito, and Chiri: Hashirama establishes them as the emergency authority capable of stopping Tobirama if he crosses the line.
• Toji and Konoha’s future: Toji understands that his actions may influence the village’s entire political future, but he chooses not to challenge Hashirama’s decision directly and instead prepares to shape events from behind the scenes.

Summary: “Shikkotsu Forest and a New Prophecy”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hashirama Senju leaves Tobirama as acting Hokage, instructing him to prioritize peace, remain cautious, and wait for his return.
• He travels to Shikkotsu Forest through Reverse Summoning after receiving an urgent summons from Sage Katsuyu.
• Hashirama is impressed by the forest’s enormous scale, its natural energy, and its potential as a place to cultivate Senjutsu. He even considers whether it could be transplanted to Konoha.
• Katsuyu reveals that Sage Katsuyu has called Hashirama because of a new prophecy.
• The Sage instructs Hashirama to begin cultivating Senjutsu, warning that he will soon face an extraordinarily powerful enemy and will need Sage techniques in battle.
• Hashirama assumes the enemy will be Madara, believing Madara has grown stronger since leaving Konoha.
• Sage Katsuyu reveals having foreseen Hashirama’s death and the eventual disappearance of the bond between them. Hashirama accepts death calmly but assumes he will likely die of old age rather than be defeated by Madara.
• A second prophecy reveals that someone besides Hashirama will one day possess Wood Release.
• Hashirama joyfully concludes that the future Wood Release user may be one of his descendants, interpreting the prophecy as evidence that the Senju Clan will continue to prosper.
• He begins Senjutsu training, allowing slugs to cover him in corrosive fluid while his extraordinary healing ability repairs the damage.
• Sage Katsuyu remains silent about the ominous aura surrounding the future Wood Release user, choosing not to interfere in Senju family matters.

Character Developments

• Hashirama: Demonstrates his enduring devotion to Konoha, his confidence in his own strength, and his willingness to accept death. The prophecy renews his determination to grow stronger and secure the Senju Clan’s future.
• Tobirama: Is entrusted with leadership of Konoha, marking a greater responsibility and emphasizing Hashirama’s confidence in him.
• Sage Katsuyu: Is established as ancient, prophetic, and powerful, but also deliberately restrained. The Sage knows more about the future than is revealed and chooses to withhold certain information.
• Madara: Though absent, he is portrayed as Hashirama’s only likely equal and as someone who may have become even more powerful after leaving Konoha.
• The Senju descendants: Their future importance is foreshadowed through the prediction of another Wood Release user.

Significant Themes

• The burden of leadership: Hashirama’s final instructions to Tobirama emphasize peace, patience, and caution.
• Legacy and succession: Hashirama worries about whether the Senju Clan can survive and thrive after his death.
• Fate versus personal effort: Prophecy suggests Hashirama’s death and the rise of another Wood Release user, but Hashirama responds by choosing to train harder and prepare for the future.
• Peace and conflict: Hashirama’s desire to establish lasting peace contrasts with the inevitable future battle against a powerful enemy.
• The limits of knowledge: Sage Katsuyu can perceive possible future events but cannot see every detail, creating uncertainty around Hashirama’s death and the identity of the future Wood Release user.

Character Interactions

• Hashirama gives Tobirama guidance before departing, reinforcing their relationship as brothers and leaders.
• Hashirama reunites with Katsuyu after eleven years, speaking casually despite the urgency of the summons.
• Sage Katsuyu warns Hashirama about his future battle and death, prompting a serious but composed response.
• Hashirama reacts enthusiastically to the prophecy of another Wood Release user, interpreting it as a hopeful sign for his family.
• The slugs assist Hashirama’s training by exposing him to their corrosive secretions, while Sage Katsuyu supervises in silence.

Chapter Summary: “Tobirama’s Generous Gift”

Key Plot Points and Events

• About two weeks after Tobirama becomes acting Hokage, Toji is summoned to the Hokage Office.
• Tobirama asks whether Toji gave Uchiha Chiri the Yin Seal, but Toji refuses to discuss private matters in the office.
• Tobirama then asks what Hashirama instructed Toji to do before leaving. Toji explains that Hashirama ordered him to monitor Tobirama and prevent him from continuing dangerous mistakes.
• Tobirama tries to persuade Toji to support his forbidden research by appealing to his supposed desire to see his dead clansmen again. Toji rejects the offer, insisting that shinobi must not violate the boundary between life and death.
• Tobirama gives Toji the Shadow Clone Jutsu, claiming it will reduce his workload at Gospel Hospital and allow him more personal time. Toji accepts the scroll but makes clear that the gift will not change his opposition to human experimentation.
• After Toji leaves, Tobirama reflects that Toji’s momentary hesitation revealed a possible emotional weakness—his attachment to family and perhaps to Chiri.
• Toji takes leave from the hospital to master the technique. Due to his unusual constitution, including two souls and five hearts, he is able to overcome the technique’s usual physical and mental dangers.
• He learns Shadow Clone Jutsu in only three days and successfully creates clones that possess his abilities, including Earth Grudge Fear and his multiple hearts.
• Toji creates two clones: one is assigned to revise the Yin Seal, while the other is tasked with developing Impure World Reincarnation. The original continues his normal daily activities.

Character Developments

• Toji: Remains firmly opposed to human experimentation and soul-related techniques, despite Tobirama’s emotional manipulation and generous gift. He demonstrates unusual adaptability and quickly masters Shadow Clone Jutsu. His ability to divide his workload marks a significant increase in his potential productivity.
• Tobirama: Shows greater strategic subtlety, attempting to influence Toji through both emotional pressure and practical rewards. Although he claims the Shadow Clone scroll is simply a gift, his later thoughts reveal that he is actively searching for Toji’s weaknesses and hopes to eventually change his mind.
• Hashirama: Though absent, he continues to influence events through his order that Toji monitor Tobirama and prevent him from crossing ethical boundaries.
• Uchiha Chiri: Does not appear directly, but Tobirama identifies her as someone who may become part of Toji’s emotional “family” and potentially influence him.

Significant Themes

• Ethics versus scientific ambition: Toji’s refusal to permit human experimentation contrasts with Tobirama’s willingness to pursue forbidden research for what he sees as practical or beneficial goals.
• The boundary between life and death: Toji rejects resurrection and soul manipulation, arguing that such practices desecrate life and violate natural limits.
• Manipulation and hidden motives: Tobirama presents the Shadow Clone technique as a helpful gift, but privately views it as part of a long-term attempt to expose and exploit Toji’s vulnerabilities.
• Family and emotional attachment: Tobirama believes Toji’s supposed longing for dead clansmen and growing connection with Chiri could weaken his resolve, although Toji denies having such attachments.
• Power through efficiency: Shadow Clone Jutsu becomes a tool for multiplying Toji’s time and capabilities, allowing him to pursue several projects simultaneously.

Character Interactions

• Toji and Tobirama’s conversation is tense but controlled, with Toji maintaining loyalty to Hashirama’s restrictions while Tobirama tests his resolve.
• Tobirama attempts to emotionally provoke Toji by mentioning dead relatives, but Toji rejects the argument and reiterates his principles.
• Their exchange over the Shadow Clone scroll shows cautious mutual respect: Toji accepts Tobirama’s assistance without compromising his beliefs, while Tobirama recognizes that direct persuasion has failed and begins planning around Toji’s weaknesses.

Chapter Summary

• Shadow Clone management: Toji establishes midnight as the daily cutoff for dispelling his Shadow Clones, since—unlike the Parasite Seeds—they cannot transmit information or status until dispelled. He leaves two clones at home while attending to other matters.
• Uchiha Yan investigation: During Uchiha Chiri’s routine brain examination, she informs Toji that Uchiha Bing has organized another team to track down Uchiha Yan. The investigation reveals that Yan has likely been operating in the Land of Rice Fields for months, targeting rogue-ninja groups and sometimes killing both the criminals and their hostages. Toji realizes the Uchiha are close to locating her and internally decides to obstruct them, since Yan remains a valuable asset to him. He plans to have Type Zero and Type One relay the information.
• Toji begins learning Fire Release: Toji asks Chiri to teach him Fire Release after her work at the Ninja Academy. He explains that learning ninjutsu is a relaxing use of his newly expanded free time, made possible by his mastery of Shadow Clones and Earth Grudge Fear. Despite his poor natural talent, he intends to learn all five elemental transformations to broaden his combat capabilities.
• Training progress: Chiri begins with the Great Fireball Technique and adopts a strict but supportive teaching role. Toji progresses slowly: he produces weak flames after three days, extends them after a week, and only forms a small fireball after half a month. Eventually, he successfully launches a full Great Fireball that incinerates a wooden target.
• Assessment of Toji’s abilities: Chiri bluntly observes that Toji’s ninjutsu talent is poor, but she is surprised by the exceptionally high quality of his Fire Release. His chakra, refined through the heart of an Uchiha jōnin within his body, gives his technique jōnin-level power despite his weak technique-learning aptitude. She concludes that his chakra quality compensates for his lack of talent, making him effectively gifted in Fire Release.

Character Development and Interactions

• Toji shows his strategic and manipulative nature by concealing his interest in protecting Uchiha Yan while maintaining a friendly relationship with Chiri. He also demonstrates patience and pragmatism, accepting slow progress in ninjutsu training rather than abandoning it.
• Uchiha Chiri continues acting as Toji’s medical examiner but becomes his instructor as well. She is encouraging and willing to help, though her direct comments reveal her honest, serious personality. Her praise of Toji’s chakra quality strengthens their comfortable rapport.
• Their interaction becomes more personal and cooperative as Chiri readily agrees to teach him and takes pride in his eventual success.

Significant Themes

• Talent versus potential: The chapter contrasts natural ninjutsu talent with the quality of one’s chakra. Toji lacks aptitude but compensates through powerful, highly refined chakra.
• Pragmatic self-improvement: Even basic techniques can be valuable when applied against ordinary opponents, and Toji methodically expands his abilities for future strategic use.
• Hidden manipulation: Toji maintains an outwardly casual relationship with the Uchiha while secretly working to preserve his control over Uchiha Yan.
• Reevaluation of overlooked abilities: The Great Fireball Technique’s mediocre reputation comes from its use against exceptionally powerful opponents, not from inherent weakness. Toji recognizes its effectiveness against ordinary ninja.

Chapter Summary: Konoha’s Golden Immortal Ancestors

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chiri continues teaching Toji Fire Release, beginning with the C-rank Phoenix Flower Jutsu and explaining that mastering it will prepare him for the more advanced Phoenix Flower Claw Red.
• To save time, Chiri invites three gifted young Uchiha—Kagami, Kenji, and Sōsuke—to train alongside Toji.
• Toji is struck by their resemblance to important figures from the future:
  • Kenji resembles Fugaku Uchiha and is identified as Uchiha Bing’s son.
  • Sōsuke resembles Obito Uchiha.
  • Kagami is the future Uchiha leader associated with Konoha’s early history.
• Toji gives the children advice emphasizing clan loyalty and the importance of passing that loyalty to future generations. His words are sincere on the surface but carry dramatic irony, since their descendants will eventually become associated with betrayal and tragedy.
• News spreads that Toji possesses all five chakra natures and is studying Fire Release with the Uchiha. Several major clans attempt to teach him their specialties:
  • The Senju offer Water and Earth Release.
  • The Shimura and Hyuga offer Wind Release.
  • The Sarutobi offer Lightning Release.
• Toji accepts their offers but limits his time with each clan because his main priorities remain developing Impure World Reincarnation and rewriting the Yin Seal.
• The clans are not acting purely out of generosity. With Hashirama absent and Tobirama serving as acting Hokage, they hope Toji’s influence will help their own candidates gain power in the future.
• Toji successfully uses Phoenix Flower Jutsu through the five black tendrils of Earth Grudge Fear, effectively creating multiple casting points and greatly increasing his attack coverage.
• He considers using a Tailed Beast to supplement his chakra supply, but recognizes that he lacks the necessary sealing technique and cannot act while Hashirama and Madara remain alive and watchful.

Character Developments

• Toji continues rapidly expanding his abilities and becomes increasingly aware of the strategic value of his reputation. He also grows more ambitious, considering methods—such as a Tailed Beast vessel—to overcome his chakra limitations.
• His use of Earth Grudge Fear evolves beyond its original purpose: he can now cast ninjutsu through multiple tendrils, multiplying his offensive power at the cost of increased chakra consumption.
• Chiri is portrayed as supportive and pleased by Toji’s progress. She willingly shares Uchiha Fire Release techniques and organizes group training to improve efficiency.
• Kagami, Kenji, and Sōsuke regard Toji with deep respect, treating his instruction almost like the words of a sage. Their reactions show the influence he already possesses over the next generation.
• Tobirama gains temporary control of village affairs, creating political uncertainty and prompting the clans to court Toji’s favor.
• Hashirama’s continued absence from the village becomes increasingly significant, especially because his presence prevents Toji from pursuing the Tailed Beasts.

Significant Themes

• Legacy and generational influence: Toji reflects on how bloodlines preserve both talent and appearance, while also attempting to shape the beliefs of future generations.
• Clan loyalty versus village unity: His speech to the young Uchiha promotes loyalty to one’s clan, while the political maneuvering around him reveals the tension between clan interests and Konoha’s broader identity.
• Power and political influence: The clans’ willingness to share valuable techniques demonstrates that knowledge and allegiance are tools in the struggle for the Hokage’s succession.
• Resource abundance and opportunity: Toji recognizes Konoha as a uniquely rich environment, filled with clans possessing specialized techniques and bloodlines.
• The cost of strength: Toji’s multiple-point ninjutsu greatly increases destructive power but also doubles chakra consumption, reinforcing the limits he must overcome.
• Foreshadowing and historical irony: Toji knows the future fates of the young Uchiha and views them as ancestors of later tragedies, giving his seemingly noble advice an ominous undertone.

Character Interactions

• Toji and Chiri: Chiri acts as his instructor and collaborator, while Toji responds cooperatively and appreciates the chance to improve his Fire Release.
• Toji and the young Uchiha: He gives them a serious lesson on preserving clan traditions, and they respond with admiration and obedience.
• Toji and the major clans: Their representatives approach him with offers of instruction, but their real goal is to secure his political support in the emerging Hokage succession struggle.
• Toji and Hashirama/Madara: Though they do not interact directly in the chapter, their existence constrains Toji’s plans. Toji views them as the main obstacles preventing him from capturing a Tailed Beast.
• Toji and his own ambitions: His final thoughts reveal increasing impatience with the limits of his current power and a willingness to wait for—or quietly wish for—the deaths of Hashirama and Madara so he can act freely.