Chapter Summaries

Baishi branded Orochimaru’s soul with a mark that let him control and reach him, then allowed Kabuto Yakushi to escape with him. Beyond Konoha’s Barrier, Orochimaru stopped screaming and began laughing with a fanatic expression.

• Baishi refused Kushina’s request to kill Orochimaru and used a black shock wave to brand his soul with a silver waning-moon mark.
• Kabuto Yakushi watched Orochimaru writhe in agony as the mark made him Baishi’s property.
• Hyuga Hiashi lost his golden aura and was caught by members of the Hyuga clan as Kabuto carried Orochimaru toward the Land of Fire’s border.
• Baishi ended his connection to the Forest of Death and told Kushina the warm-up was over.
• After Kabuto carried Orochimaru beyond Konoha’s Barrier, Orochimaru stopped screaming, then laughed with growing fanaticism.

Orochimaru escaped the Forest of Death by shedding his tortured body, while the Hyuga survivors witnessed the destruction of the skeletal monster and gathered around the unconscious Hyuga Hiashi in awe.

• Kabuto Yakushi dragged Orochimaru deeper into the forest as Orochimaru raved about the Fifth Hokage and eternal life.
• The Crescent Mark tormented Orochimaru again, and he ordered Kabuto Yakushi to come closer.
• Orochimaru used his shedding technique to crawl out of his old body, leaving it behind to suffer the mark's effects.
• Kabuto Yakushi helped the weakened Orochimaru flee into the snowy woods.
• The dark golden chains drained the skeletal monster's energy and returned it to the forest before the monster shattered into dust.
• The surviving Hyuga clansmen knelt and fixed their gaze on the unconscious Hyuga Hiashi.

After Baishi defeated Orochimaru’s threat through the Byakugan, Hiashi and the surviving Hyuga pledged fanatical loyalty to him. Back in the Hokage’s Office, Baishi concealed his strength, then suspected the Fire Daimyo’s Residence was backing Orochimaru’s experiments and turned his attention toward it.

• Hiashi awoke, faced the Hokage Building, and bowed before Baishi as a god.
• The surviving Hyuga clansmen knelt with Hiashi and swore absolute loyalty to Fifth Hokage Baishi.
• Baishi returned to the Hokage’s Office and let Kushina transfer Chakra to him while Mikoto served him tea.
• Baishi noticed black residue from Orochimaru’s Cursed Seal and recognized it as a crude imitation of natural energy.
• Baishi suspected the Daimyo Residence supported Orochimaru’s forbidden experiments and decided to confront the nobles.

After discovering that Diamond Ink in Orochimaru’s Cursed Seal linked his experiments to Hojo Tokugawa and the Daimyo Residence in Kyoto, Baishi resolved to confront the nobles backing him. He ordered Shikaku Nara to cut off trade between Konoha and Kyoto, leaving Shikaku stunned by the scale of the Hokage’s plan.

• Baishi analyzed ash from Orochimaru’s Cursed Seal and identified Diamond Ink as evidence of a powerful patron in Kyoto.
• Baishi concluded that Hojo Tokugawa and the Daimyo Residence had financed Orochimaru’s experiments.
• Baishi ended Kushina’s Chakra transfer and sent her and Mikoto away before summoning Shikaku Nara.
• Baishi ordered Shikaku to sever all trade routes between Konoha and Kyoto, including shipments of Explosive Tags and medicinal herbs.
• Shikaku realized Baishi was preparing to pressure the Daimyo Residence and feared the consequences of the order.

After returning from a bloody battle, Hyuga Hiashi and the surviving Hyuga clansmen displayed fanatical devotion to Fifth Hokage Baishi, alarming Konoha’s clan leaders. They marched toward the Hokage Building, leaving Shikaku Nara to wonder what place the old clans had in the village’s new order.

• Shikaku Nara, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Choza Akimichi waited at Konoha’s gates for the returning Hyuga force.
• Hyuga Hiashi and over a hundred wounded survivors arrived in disciplined silence, their minds and expressions seemingly united by absolute faith.
• Yamanaka Inoichi sensed that the Hyuga clansmen’s mental fluctuations were nearly synchronized, while Shikaku realized Baishi’s “tempering” had transformed them into his loyal blade.
• Hyuga Hiashi ignored the clan leaders and led the survivors toward the Hokage Building, prompting Shikaku to conclude that they had found a new God.
• Hyuga Hiashi climbed the Hokage Building’s steps to offer Baishi the loyalty of himself and the Hyuga Clan.

Baishi ordered Hyuga Hiashi to lead a hundred clan members to Kyoto and use their Byakugan to keep the Daimyo Residence under constant surveillance, terrifying its residents into suspicion. In Kyoto, Hojo Tokugawa felt a sudden chill, unaware that Konoha’s gaze had reached him.

• Hyuga Hiashi prostrated himself before Baishi and offered the Hyuga Clan’s loyalty.
• Baishi ordered Hiashi to choose a hundred lightly injured, strong-willed Hyuga members and head to Kyoto.
• Baishi instructed the Hyuga to watch every person in the Daimyo Residence around the clock without attacking, using fear to make the nobles turn against one another.
• Hiashi accepted the order as the Hyuga Clan’s second token of allegiance and left to carry it out.
• Hojo Tokugawa, relaxing in the Daimyo Residence after hearing that the bounty on Baishi had risen to five billion ryo, felt a chill but dismissed it.

Hojo Tokugawa discovered that Konoha had cut off Kyoto’s trade and supplies, while the Underground Black Market refused to act against the Fifth Hokage and Orochimaru could not be reached. Cornered, he called an emergency meeting of the Elders to invoke the Daimyo’s authority against Konoha.

• Hojo Tokugawa learned that no bounty hunter or S-Rank Missing-nin would accept the five-billion-ryo contract against Konoha’s Fifth Hokage.
• A terrified attendant reported that Konoha had halted Kyoto’s trade routes and cut off its medical supplies and ninja tools.
• Hojo Tokugawa tried to contact Orochimaru, but the Scroll received no response.
• Hojo Tokugawa realized he was isolated and decided to use the Daimyo’s authority as his last resort.
• Hojo Tokugawa ordered an emergency meeting of the Elders to threaten Konoha with cuts to its military funding.

Hojo Tokugawa tried to unite the elders against Konoha, but Watanabe Jun revealed evidence linking him to Root and Orochimaru’s forbidden experiments. His allies abandoned him, and he secretly prepared his last desperate trump card.

• Hojo Tokugawa called for the elders to petition the Daimyo to slash Konoha’s Military Funds by at least seventy percent.
• Watanabe Jun presented an encrypted Scroll and said Konoha had found Hojo Tokugawa’s name in Root’s experimental records.
• Watanabe Jun read details tying Hojo Tokugawa to forbidden experiments and the transfer of noble families’ children to Orochimaru.
• The elders turned against Hojo Tokugawa and vowed to report his crimes to the Daimyo.
• Hojo Tokugawa realized his alliance had collapsed and secretly clenched his fist around his last trump card.

Baishi analyzed the Cursed Seal powder in his laboratory and discovered it could draw energy from the leylines beneath the Land of Fire. He traced the energy to an ancient formation beneath the Daimyo Residence in Kyoto and decided to seize it for himself.

• Baishi sent Kushina to the border under the pretext of hunting down Orochimaru's remaining followers.
• Baishi used Yang Release to examine the Cursed Seal powder and found traces of Orochimaru's Senjutsu Chakra, Ice Release, and Hashirama Cells.
• Baishi discovered an ancient pulse of Leyline Energy at the core of the Cursed Seal, suggesting it could act as a key to draw power from the leylines.
• Baishi studied Konoha's secret leyline map and located a powerful energy vortex beneath the Daimyo Residence in Kyoto.
• Baishi concluded Hojo Tokugawa and Orochimaru had tested the formation with the Skeleton Monster, and decided to claim its energy rather than destroy it.

Hyuga Hiashi and the Hyuga branch-family shinobi used their Byakugan to torment Kyoto’s nobles with an invisible, inescapable gaze under the Fifth Hokage’s orders. Driven to the brink, Hojo Tokugawa opened the entrance to the underground palace and fled inside, where the fate of his final trump card remained unknown.

• Watanabe Jun felt watched in his residence and cowered beneath his quilt as the unseen gaze followed him.
• Nobles and warriors throughout Kyoto panicked, while guards and sensory-type shinobi failed to detect an intruder or Chakra.
• Hyuga Hiashi led more than a hundred branch-family shinobi on the mountains outside Kyoto as they watched the city with their Byakugan.
• Hojo Tokugawa, cornered by his failed schemes, reached for the mechanism to the underground palace and the sleeping Twelve Warrior Spirits.
• The Byakugan gaze shattered Tokugawa’s resolve, and he opened the stone entrance and stumbled down into the underground darkness.

Hojo Tokugawa fled into the underground palace beneath the Daimyo Residence, convinced Baishi could still see him and hoping to unleash the First Hokage’s Twelve Warrior Spirits Guardian Array. When the array failed to respond to his blood, he discovered it required loyal retainers’ flesh and blood and the souls of the strong, and turned toward his guards as sacrifices.

• Hojo Tokugawa sealed himself and his guards inside the underground palace, but remained convinced Baishi’s eyes were watching him.
• Tokugawa led the guards to a vast chamber containing an altar and twelve statues, which he identified as the Twelve Warrior Spirits Guardian Array.
• Tokugawa cut his palm and pressed his blood to the altar, but the array did not awaken.
• Tokugawa read a dusty stone tablet and learned that the array required loyal retainers’ flesh and blood and the souls of the strong.
• Tokugawa looked at his guards and declared that they should become the foundation of his revenge.

Hojo Tokugawa activated a sacrificial formation in the Underground Palace, killing his guards to fuel the awakening of a Heroic Spirit. After sacrificing the captain as well, he left the altar drenched in blood and intent on bringing despair to Konoha.

• Hojo Tokugawa triggered a hidden formation that drained the Chakra from his guards, killing all but the captain.
• The captain escaped the formation and attacked Tokugawa, but a barrier around the altar hurled him back.
• Tokugawa explained that the Underground Palace was built for sacrifice and that the blood would nourish the awakening Heroic Spirit.
• Tokugawa cut open the dead guards and poured their blood and organs over the altar, then stabbed the captain to death.
• Tokugawa declared that Konoha would learn the despair he would bring and began dragging the captain's body.

Twelve monstrous Heroic Spirits erupted from beneath the Daimyo Residence and attacked Kyoto, while Hyuga Hiashi’s clan tried to contain them. The Hyuga defense collapsed against their overwhelming strength, leaving Hiashi unsure how to stop them.

• Hyuga Hiashi ordered more than a hundred Hyuga ninja to form a Byakugan surveillance net around the Daimyo Residence.
• Twelve monstrous Heroic Spirits burst from underground and began destroying buildings as Kyoto’s residents fled.
• Hiashi ordered the Hyuga squads to attack, but a Heroic Spirit killed Takeda after Gentle Fist failed to affect its body.
• The Heroic Spirits slaughtered more than a dozen Hyuga elites, overwhelming Gentle Fist, Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, and Rotation.
• Hiashi watched the defense break apart and realized the Hyuga Clan could not stop the monsters with its usual techniques.

Baishi watched the Hyuga Clan suffer devastating losses against twelve energy constructs while withholding tactics that could defeat them. As Hiashi prepared a desperate final attack, Baishi waited for the clan and Kyoto’s nobles to reach deeper despair before intervening.

• The Hyuga Clan discovered that the Heroic Spirits absorbed their Chakra, rendering Gentle Fist, Vacuum Palm, and Rotation ineffective as clansmen were killed.
• Hyuga Hiashi rallied the survivors to form the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms formation and trap the monsters, even at the cost of their lives.
• Baishi analyzed the Heroic Spirits with his Mangekyō Sharingan and identified their flaws and several ways to destroy them.
• Baishi chose not to help, intending to use the Hyuga Clan’s despair and the nobles’ reaction to strengthen his authority and reshape the Land of Fire.

Baishi ordered Hyuga Hiashi to withdraw, allowing Hojo Tokugawa’s twelve Heroic Spirits to enter Kyoto’s inner city and slaughter the nobles Tokugawa blamed for betraying him. As Tokugawa turned his bloodlust toward the Hyuga, the Heroic Spirits’ growing instability threatened to make his borrowed weapons turn on him.

• Baishi used their mental connection to order Hyuga Hiashi to contract the line and let the Heroic Spirits through.
• Hiashi overrode his doubts and led the surviving Hyuga ninjas back to the southern inner city wall, leaving the Heroic Spirits an open path into Kyoto.
• Hojo Tokugawa mistook the Hyuga retreat for defeat and directed a bull-headed Heroic Spirit to attack Watanabe Jun’s estate, where Watanabe was killed.
• Tokugawa commanded the Heroic Spirits to slaughter his political enemies, and they killed nobles including Yamada and Suzuki as Kyoto’s inner city descended into chaos.
• Baishi watched the massacre and reflected that Tokugawa’s rampage had purged most of the Daimyo Residence’s old forces.
• Tokugawa turned his attention to the Hyuga, unaware that the Heroic Spirits’ scarlet flames had grown unstable and their violent aura was nearing a loss of control.

Hojo Tokugawa’s summoned Heroic Spirits went out of control after consuming too much energy, and the Ox-headed Monster turned on him. As it battered its way toward his underground hiding place, Tokugawa realized his ultimate weapon had become his death warrant.

• Hojo Tokugawa tried to command the twelve Heroic Spirits to attack the Hyuga, but they ignored him.
• The Heroic Spirits began howling in pain and destroying their surroundings as their leyline energy ran wild.
• Hojo Tokugawa spilled more of his blood into the formation, and the Ox-headed Monster sensed his location.
• The Ox-headed Monster charged toward the Underground Secret Room and began smashing through the earth above Hojo Tokugawa.
• The surviving Elders and nobles watched in terror as the monsters turned on their master.

As Kyoto was devastated by the rampaging monsters, the Daimyo Residence begged Konoha for help. Baishi answered with conditions that would strip the Daimyo of control over the Land of Fire, and the chapter ended with the Daimyo ordering his Imperial Seal brought to him.

• The surviving clan elders begged the terrified Daimyo to ask Konoha for help, and he sent a Firebird message to Baishi.
• Baishi sent the ANBU a prepared Scroll of conditions instead of directly answering the Daimyo's plea.
• Watanabe Jun presented Baishi's terms, which would give Konoha control over military funding, strategic resources, and enforcement across the Land of Fire.
• After an explosion killed a clan elder who opposed signing, Watanabe Jun urged the Daimyo to accept the treaty to survive.
• The Daimyo looked at the approaching monster and ordered his attendants to bring the Imperial Seal.

Baishi received the daimyo’s sealed reply, ending the war and leaving the Land of Fire’s old order powerless. He let Kushina replenish his Chakra while secretly preparing to seize the Leyline Origin from the twelve rampaging weapons in Kyoto.

• An ANBU delivered the daimyo’s reply to Baishi, and Baishi dismissed him without opening the Scroll.
• Kushina rushed into the office worried by the Chakra disturbance, and Baishi told her the war was over and the Kyoto monsters were insignificant.
• Kushina checked Baishi for injuries and gave him her Nine-Tails Chakra when she thought he had exhausted his power.
• Baishi secretly absorbed and stored more Chakra than he needed to recover, strengthening his body for his next move.
• Baishi watched the twelve weapons rampage in Kyoto and prepared to claim the Leyline Origin.

Baishi used the Waning Moon mark to send Hyuga Hiashi and the surviving Hyuga precise visions of the monsters’ weak points and ordered them to form a Meridian-Locking Formation. The clan surrounded the twelve monsters and prepared to strike their fatal nodes, but the chapter ended before their attacks began.

• Baishi finished absorbing Kushina’s Nine-Tails Chakra and judged his body ready to contain the Land of Fire’s leyline power.
• The twelve monsters devastated Kyoto while Hyuga Hiashi and his clan’s defenses failed against them.
• Baishi activated the Waning Moon mark on Hyuga Hiashi and transmitted the monsters’ fatal energy nodes to the Hyuga through their Byakugan.
• Baishi ordered the Hyuga to abandon defense and form the Meridian-Locking Formation, with Hiashi relaying his commands across the battlefield.
• The surviving Hyuga synchronized their movements, surrounded the twelve monsters, and aimed at the marked weak points.

Baishi’s precisely planned Gentle Fist operation allowed the Hyuga Clan to dismantle all twelve Heroic Spirits, breaking their bodies and releasing their Leyline Energy. The monsters were defeated, but the uncontrolled energy surging from their wreckage threatened to destroy Kyoto.

• Baishi watched the battle through the Water Mirror and began his planned dissection of the Heroic Spirits.
• Hyuga Hiashi directed the Hyuga ninjas to evade the monsters’ attacks and strike the specific nodes Baishi had marked.
• The Hyuga ninjas’ coordinated Gentle Fist attacks cracked the Heroic Spirits and drained their Leyline Energy, while Hojo Tokugawa watched in despair.
• The final ram-headed Heroic Spirit exploded into fragments, leaving all twelve incapacitated and the battlefield silent.
• Hiashi sensed immense, unstable Primordial Leyline Energy escaping the monsters’ wreckage and realized Kyoto still faced imminent destruction.