Chapter Summaries

Chiba told Kakashi he wanted Orochimaru’s research to strengthen Konoha and decided to capture him personally. At Orochimaru’s base in the Land of Rice Fields, Orochimaru expected Chiba to come and looked forward to testing the new Hokage.

• Chiba explained that Orochimaru’s techniques and research could greatly increase Konoha’s power, and Kakashi pledged to bring Orochimaru back.
• Chiba rejected Kakashi’s offer to send an Anbu squad and used the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave the Hokage Office.
• Kakashi left to strengthen Anbu patrols while Chiba was away.
• At his hidden base, Orochimaru learned from Kabuto Yakushi that Konoha’s Anbu had watched the base for six days without approaching.
• Orochimaru told Kabuto he expected Chiba to come in person and said he wanted to test the Fifth Hokage’s power.

Fifth Hokage Senju Qianye confronted Orochimaru at his underground base in the Land of Rice Fields and demolished it with a single stomp. He descended into the ruins to face Orochimaru and Kabuto, while Orochimaru secretly prepared to fight back.

• Konoha Anbu reported that Orochimaru had remained inside his base for six days, and Qianye ended their surveillance mission and sent them back to the village.
• Qianye approached the base openly, and Orochimaru and Kabuto realized that the Fifth Hokage had arrived.
• Qianye stomped through the ground, crushing the base's defenses and collapsing its underground laboratory.
• Orochimaru escaped the falling rubble by transforming into white snakes, while Kabuto was struck by a rock and fell into the ruins.
• Qianye walked down into the ruins and dismissed Orochimaru's greeting, while Orochimaru secretly completed hand seals and threatened to trap him there forever.

Chiba overwhelmed Orochimaru and Kabuto, then offered Orochimaru a position leading Konoha’s Scientific Research Department with extraordinary funding and access to test subjects. Orochimaru accepted the appeal of the offer but said he could not return yet.

• Orochimaru and Kabuto attacked Chiba with venomous snakes and Senbon, but Chiba’s Chakra blast destroyed the snakes, wounded Kabuto, and suppressed Orochimaru.
• Chiba told Orochimaru to stop testing him and offered him the position of head of Konoha’s Scientific Research Department.
• Chiba promised Orochimaru one billion ryo annually, captured enemy shinobi as legal test subjects, and possible cooperation from the Uchiha and Hyuga clans.
• Chiba required Orochimaru to avoid experimenting on Konoha civilians and shinobi without permission, hand over all research, and obey him completely.
• Orochimaru admitted the terms were difficult to refuse but said he could not spare the attention to return right now.

Chiba ordered Orochimaru to return to Konoha as director of its new Scientific Research Department, then persuaded Fugaku Uchiha to support the appointment by offering research to stop Mangekyō Sharingan blindness. He turned to Hyuga Hiashi with a challenge to improve the Byakugan, leaving the Hyuga clan head to respond.

• Chiba dismissed Orochimaru's warning about Akatsuki and gave him three days to settle matters before reporting to Konoha's Scientific Research Department.
• Chiba announced to Konoha's clan heads that Orochimaru would return as the department's first director, prompting Fugaku Uchiha and Hyuga Hiashi to object over the safety of their clans' eyes.
• Chiba revealed that Mangekyō Sharingan use caused blindness and proposed that Orochimaru study Senju Wood Style cells to solve the problem.
• Fugaku Uchiha dropped to one knee and pledged the Uchiha Clan's support for Orochimaru's research.
• Chiba challenged Hyuga Hiashi by asking whether the Hyuga Clan would accept the Byakugan's lesser status, and Hiashi was left facing his turn to respond.

Chiba won the clan leaders’ support for Orochimaru’s return by promising oversight of his research and promising the Hyuga a chance to explore Byakugan evolution. He then ordered Konoha to publicly blame Orochimaru’s past experiments on Danzo, and the villagers accepted the story within two days.

• Chiba told Hyuga Hiashi that the Byakugan might evolve and urged the Hyuga Clan to support Orochimaru’s research, prompting Hiashi to pledge the clan’s help.
• Chiba promised the clan leaders that experiments would be supervised and would not use Konoha civilians or shinobi as test subjects.
• Chiba circulated a Truth Statement portraying Orochimaru as a wronged hero and Danzo as the culprit behind the human experiments.
• Fugaku Uchiha and Hyuga Hiashi endorsed the statement, and Chiba tasked Shikaku Nara with spreading it throughout Konoha within three days.
• Anbu shinobi spread the account through taverns and teahouses, and within two days Konoha’s villagers supported Orochimaru’s return.

Chiba publicly welcomed Orochimaru back to Konoha and installed him as chief scientist in a state-of-the-art research facility. The chapter ended with Fugaku Uchiha and Hyuga Hiashi arriving as Orochimaru’s patrons and suppliers of his first test subjects.

• Sarutobi Hiruzen told Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura that Chiba had made Danzo bear the blame for Orochimaru’s crimes, warning the Advisors to stay silent.
• Three days later, villagers cheered Orochimaru’s return to Konoha, while Chiba greeted him from the Hokage Building balcony.
• Chiba gave Orochimaru keys to the new Konoha Scientific Research Department and promised open support, unlimited funding, and modern equipment.
• Chiba forbade Orochimaru from using villagers in live experiments, and Orochimaru said cloned cells could replace many such tests.
• Chiba introduced Fugaku Uchiha and Hyuga Hiashi to Orochimaru as his patrons and suppliers of his first test subjects.

Chiba tasked Orochimaru with finding a way to prevent Mangekyō Sharingan blindness and to evolve the Byakugan, prompting Fugaku and Hiashi to offer full support. After a month of research, Orochimaru had developed a treatment that eased Fugaku’s eye pain and found a way to increase Hiashi’s Byakugan range, while both larger projects remained unfinished.

• Chiba asked Orochimaru to investigate Mangekyō blindness and the Byakugan’s path to the Tenseigan, and Fugaku and Hiashi offered clan resources and test subjects.
• Chiba supplied perfect Wood Style Cell samples, and Orochimaru began unrestricted research at Konoha’s Scientific Research Department.
• After a month, Orochimaru tested an eye nutrient solution on Fugaku and said it eased his pain, with a permanent cure potentially possible within three months.
• Orochimaru increased Hiashi’s Byakugan range through high-pressure Chakra stimulation and said reaching the Tenseigan would require further refinement of his Byakugan.
• Chiba praised Orochimaru’s progress and hinted that more research projects would follow.

Jiraiya returned to Konoha and found Orochimaru celebrated as a hero for his research, while Chiba defended the village’s new order. Confronted with the benefits Orochimaru’s work brought and the clan leaders’ support for him, Jiraiya left to reconsider his place in the changed Konoha.

• Jiraiya returned to Konoha and was astonished by its prosperity and the villagers’ praise for Orochimaru.
• Jiraiya entered the Scientific Research Department and found Orochimaru working alongside Fugaku Uchiha and Hyuga Hiashi.
• Jiraiya accused Orochimaru of his past experiments, but Chiba claimed Danzo had coerced him and defended Orochimaru’s value to Konoha.
• Orochimaru showed Jiraiya a Gene Repair Solution that could improve the success rate of regenerating severed limbs by thirty percent.
• Jiraiya recognized that Konoha had changed under Chiba and left the laboratory after Chiba urged him to look more closely at the village.
• Orochimaru asked Chiba whether he feared Jiraiya would spread rumors, and Chiba replied that few people would believe or care about them.

Jiraiya saw how Senju Qianye’s policies had changed Konoha and transformed Naruto’s life, leaving him shaken by the village’s support for Qianye. He confronted Sarutobi Hiruzen about Orochimaru’s experiments, but Hiruzen said no one in Konoha could stop Qianye.

• Jiraiya left the Scientific Research Department and heard two ninjas praise Qianye’s Merit Point system and the techniques they could obtain.
• Naruto told Jiraiya he loved the Konoha under Qianye because villagers now treated him kindly and recognized him as Minato Namikaze’s son and the village’s hero.
• Jiraiya bought Naruto ramen and listened as Naruto described how Qianye’s leadership had changed his life.
• Jiraiya visited Sarutobi Hiruzen and accused him of allowing Orochimaru to conduct dangerous human experiments with village resources.
• Hiruzen told Jiraiya that no one in Konoha could stop Qianye because he held overwhelming force and invaluable bargaining chips.

Sarutobi Hiruzen tried to persuade Jiraiya to accept Orochimaru’s work and Chiba’s leadership, arguing that their practical gains had helped Konoha more than his own ideals had. After Jiraiya left, a Messenger Toad urgently summoned him to Mount Myoboku, where the fully lucid Great Toad Sage awaited him.

• Sarutobi Hiruzen told Jiraiya that Orochimaru’s public research had saved injured shinobi and now benefited Konoha.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen admitted his own failures as Hokage and praised Chiba for bringing Konoha to an unprecedented peak.
• Jiraiya rejected Sarutobi Hiruzen’s argument, then left the Sarutobi Clan Compound and headed into a secluded alley.
• A Messenger Toad told Jiraiya that the Great Toad Sage had awakened fully lucid and demanded to see him.
• Jiraiya used the Reverse Summoning Technique to travel to Mount Myoboku, where Sage Fukasaku and Shima directed him to the temple.
• Jiraiya entered the temple and found the clear-eyed Great Toad Sage waiting on the Lotus Throne.

The Great Toad Sage told Jiraiya that Senju Qianye’s rule had brought peace to the Ninja World, but secretly feared Qianye’s power and hoped Mount Myoboku could survive by submitting to him. Later, Qianye announced that Konoha would host a joint Chunin Ninja Exam and invite every shinobi village, the other four nations’ Daimyo, and their Kage.

• The Great Toad Sage described a dream of a giant tree ruling the Ninja World and bringing an end to war, leaving Jiraiya shaken by the collapse of his beliefs about peace and the child of prophecy.
• Jiraiya returned to Konoha after the Great Toad Sage urged him to witness the new era.
• The Great Toad Sage revealed to Sage Fukasaku and Sage Shima that he feared Senju Qianye’s power and had sent Jiraiya to build a relationship with him so Mount Myoboku could submit and survive.
• At a Konoha leadership meeting, Qianye praised the village’s reforms and announced that Konoha would hold a joint Chunin Ninja Exam in one month.
• Qianye ordered invitations sent to all shinobi villages, the other four great nations’ Daimyo, and their Kage.

Chiba announced that Konoha would use the Chunin Ninja Exams to intimidate the other villages before demanding their surrender or conquering them. Sarutobi Hiruzen accepted the coming war and asked Chiba to let the Sarutobi Clan join, securing a place for them in Konoha’s Vanguard Battalion.

• Chiba ordered Shikaku Nara to prepare invitations for the other villages’ Kage and assigned the Uchiha and Hyuga to provide security for the Chunin Ninja Exams.
• After the meeting, Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Chiba whether he planned to attack the other ninja villages after the exams.
• Chiba confirmed that he would offer the villages a chance to surrender and would crush them by force if they resisted.
• Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Chiba to bring the Sarutobi Clan into the campaign so they could earn merit and secure their future.
• Chiba agreed to give the Sarutobi Clan a place in Konoha’s Vanguard Battalion and promised rewards for their contributions.

Konoha’s clan leaders interpreted Chiba’s Joint Chunin Exams as a trap to prepare for conquering the other villages and eagerly offered their clans for war. Jiraiya, troubled by the Great Toad Sage’s vision of peace through hegemony, decided to speak with Chiba.

• Konoha’s clan leaders met in secret, and Shikaku Nara argued that the Joint Chunin Exams would cover Chiba’s plan to make a move against the other villages.
• Fugaku Uchiha, Inuzuka Tsume, and Akimichi Choza volunteered their clans for the vanguard, while Shikaku urged everyone to train their fighters.
• Jiraiya drank alone and struggled to reconcile the Great Toad Sage’s prophecy with his ideals of peace through understanding.
• Jiraiya recalled Konoha’s improving conditions and resolved to go talk to Chiba.

Chiba told Jiraiya that he intended to unify the Ninja World under one rule, arguing that a final war could bring lasting peace and improve ordinary people's lives. Jiraiya was left shaken by Chiba's vision and the cost he was willing to pay for it.

• Jiraiya asked Chiba what peace meant, and Chiba described a Ninja World governed by a single will, without independent ninja villages or Daimyo.
• Chiba insulted Jiraiya's beliefs and accused him of ignoring ordinary people's hardships despite claiming to seek peace.
• Chiba challenged Jiraiya's faith in the Child of Prophecy, arguing that the future had to be seized through action rather than entrusted to a dream.
• Jiraiya questioned how Chiba could justify the deaths and suffering that unification would cause.
• Chiba said his war would be the final one and promised unified laws, disaster relief, security, and the use of ninjutsu to improve people's lives.

Jiraiya accepted that he could not change Qianye’s determination to unify the Ninja World and agreed to watch him, while Qianye sent him to bring Tsunade back. The Raikage and Ōnoki received Konoha’s summons to the Chunin Ninja Exams, and both decided to go despite suspecting Qianye’s ambitions.

• Jiraiya warned Qianye that crushing resistance would make him a hated tyrant, but Qianye said he would accept that reputation if it brought peace.
• Jiraiya vowed to stop Qianye if he became consumed by slaughter, and Qianye gave him a scroll with intelligence on Tsunade and ordered him to bring her back.
• Jiraiya left the Hokage Building and headed toward the border of the Land of Fire to find Tsunade.
• The Fourth Raikage A raged over Konoha’s summons, but Killer B reminded him that Qianye had defeated him and could threaten Kumogakure again.
• Ōnoki concluded that refusing Konoha’s summons could give Qianye an excuse to start a war, then decided to travel to Konoha and investigate his intentions.

The great ninja villages prepared to attend Konoha’s Chunin Exams, while Obito feared Chiba’s growing power could threaten his plans. Jiraiya found Tsunade and told her Chiba intended to unify the Ninja World by attacking the Four Great Ninja Villages after the exams.

• Mei Terumi decided Kirigakure would attend the exams with a generous gift to build ties with Konoha.
• Rasa ordered Sunagakure to send its finest newcomers, including Gaara, hoping to gain support from Konoha.
• Ninja villages across the world prepared to obey Chiba’s invitation, while Obito ordered Zetsu to watch Konoha closely.
• Jiraiya found Tsunade at an izakaya and said Chiba had sent him to bring her back to help reduce Konoha’s casualties in the coming war.
• Jiraiya told Tsunade that Chiba planned to move against the Four Great Ninja Villages after the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Tsunade returned to a prosperous Konoha and confronted Chiba about his plan to unify the Ninja World through war. After agreeing to help reduce casualties, she left as Orochimaru reported that his improved Impure World Reincarnation was ready for combat.

• Tsunade and Shizune arrived in Konoha and saw how much the village had prospered under Chiba.
• Tsunade confronted Chiba in his office, and he explained that he intended to unite the Ninja World by ending the division between the Five Great Ninja Villages.
• Tsunade asked how Chiba planned to deal with the nobles and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, and Chiba said he would spare those who willingly surrendered their power.
• Tsunade agreed to help Chiba and use her Medical Ninjutsu to reduce casualties in the coming war.
• Orochimaru told Chiba that his improved Impure World Reincarnation could restore the dead to eighty percent of their strength and was ready for combat.

Chiba ordered registration to begin for the joint Chunin Exams and limited Konoha’s crowded Genin pool to candidates selected by their instructors. As the village’s ninja grew eager to compete, Yamato approved Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura for Team 7’s entry.

• Chiba asked Shikaku Nara about exam preparations, then ordered him to announce registration and have instructors screen candidates.
• Shikaku announced that registration had begun, sparking excitement among Konoha’s Genin, including Neji Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha.
• Yamato told Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura that their instructor would recommend them for the joint Chunin Exams.
• Yamato judged all three Team 7 members qualified and handed them registration forms, which they signed.

Rasa arrived in Konoha with the Sunagakure delegation and was overwhelmed by the village’s prosperity and Qianye’s power. Gaara encountered Naruto and Konoha’s accepting view of Jinchuriki, leaving him questioning the lonely, violent world he had known.

• Rasa entered Konoha and saw its wealth, strong defenses, and Genin freely discussing C-Rank Ninjutsu.
• Qianye’s presence overwhelmed Rasa during their meeting, and Rasa reported that Sunagakure had brought five Jonin and thirty Genin.
• Gaara walked through Konoha with Temari and Kankuro while the Nine-Tails told Naruto that Gaara was a Jinchuriki.
• Naruto approached Gaara and openly identified them both as Jinchuriki, prompting Konoha villagers to call Gaara a hero and offer him apples.
• Gaara watched Naruto and remembered his name, sensing for the first time that the world might hold more than slaughter and loneliness.

The Five Great Nations and smaller villages gathered in Konoha for Senju Qianye’s Joint Chunin Assessment, while their leaders reckoned with Konoha’s growing power. The first round began with a punishing written test, and Naruto secretly cheated to avoid elimination as Morino Ibiki chose not to expose him.

• Mei Terumi, A, and Ōnoki arrived in Konoha with their village delegations and assessed its strength, while Ōnoki suspected Qianye wanted to demonstrate Konoha’s power to the Ninja World.
• The Joint Chunin Assessment began at the Konoha Ninja Academy, where Naruto proclaimed he would take first place and Sasuke silenced Genin who mocked him.
• Gaara singled out Naruto as someone he would be watching, and Sasuke recognized Gaara as a dangerous opponent.
• Morino Ibiki announced a ten-minute written test with strict penalties for cheating, prompting Sakura and the other examinees to seek answers by their own methods.
• Naruto used a tiny Shadow Clone to copy answers from an examinee ahead of him, and Ibiki let him continue because Qianye had ordered Naruto to reach the second stage.