Chapter Summaries

Hyuga Seisen devised a way to use Shadow Clones to maintain a village-wide Flying Thunder God barrier by giving them Yin Seals as chakra reserves. After his first attempt to inscribe a seal destroyed a clone, he used microscopic Byakugan control and Reishi to successfully engrave a Yin Seal on one, leaving the plan within reach.

• Hyuga Seisen proposed equipping Shadow Clones with Yin Seals so they could sustain the Flying Thunder God Formation, and Minato Namikaze agreed to prepare a barrier covering Konoha.
• Minato left to inspect hidden nodes across the village and gather materials for the formation while Seisen studied Tsunade's Yin Seal notes.
• Seisen's first attempt to inscribe the Yin Seal with chakra caused his Shadow Clone to burst.
• One month later, Seisen used the Byakugan and a finely controlled Reishi Light Needle to engrave the seal without disturbing the clone's chakra.
• A diamond-shaped purple Yin Seal appeared on the unharmed Shadow Clone, confirming Seisen's method had worked.

Aokawa realized the Nine-Tails could not recover chakra while sealed off from outside energy, so he confronted it and offered daily time outdoors in exchange for cooperation. The Nine-Tails sensed no malice in his offer, leaving their wary negotiation poised to continue.

• Aokawa confirmed that his Shadow Clone could charge the containers but recognized he needed a larger source of chakra to maintain a Flying Thunder God barrier over Konoha.
• Aokawa entered the sealing space and learned that the Nine-Tails had not recovered because it was cut off from outside energy after he drained much of its chakra.
• Aokawa called the Nine-Tails Kurama, startling it, then acknowledged how humans had taken its freedom and imprisoned it as a weapon.
• Aokawa offered to let the Nine-Tails go outside each day to breathe and recover if it controlled its temper and made itself smaller.
• The Nine-Tails doubted Aokawa's promise, but sensed no malice or greed from him and found his sincerity unexpected.

Qingchuan took the Nine-Tails outside Konoha and released it in a secluded canyon, keeping it restrained with Spirit Particle Chains. The Nine-Tails shrank into a tiny fox, began absorbing natural energy to restore its chakra, and asked Qingchuan whether he had figured out how it was recovering.

• Qingchuan flew to a hidden canyon outside Konoha and summoned the Nine-Tails, whose body remained bound by Spirit Particle Chains.
• The Nine-Tails shrank into a tiny orange-red fox and objected when Qingchuan rubbed its head.
• Qingchuan vanished the visible chains and said he might remove the restrictions completely if the Nine-Tails behaved.
• Qingchuan used his Byakugan to see natural energy flowing from the canyon and underground into the Nine-Tails.
• After a day and night of absorbing natural energy, the Nine-Tails explained that the energy needed time to transform into chakra and challenged Qingchuan to figure out how it was recovering.

Seisen forced the Nine-Tails to accept seals restricting its size and brought it back to the Hyuga compound. There, Ayane mistook the miniature beast for a pet fox and smothered it with affection before it could reveal itself.

• Seisen guessed that the Nine-Tails recovered by absorbing natural energy and converting it into chakra, astonishing the beast with his knowledge.
• The Nine-Tails begged to stay outside, and Seisen agreed only after adding three seals that restricted its size.
• Seisen flew back to Konoha with the Nine-Tails on his shoulder and landed in his courtyard.
• Ayane arrived with late-night snacks, spotted the Nine-Tails, and eagerly grabbed it to cuddle.
• The Nine-Tails tried to announce its identity, but Ayane squeezed it against her chest and cut off its words.

Ayane cuddled the sealed Nine-Tails, whose pride crumbled under her affection and the promise of food. As she offered it a grilled meat roll, the Nine-Tails struggled to resist its appetite.

• Ayane hugged the compressed Nine-Tails so tightly that Qingchuan warned her she might suffocate it, and she let it go.
• The Nine-Tails tried to scold Ayane, but she stroked its fur and scratched under its chin until it relaxed.
• Ayane named the Nine-Tails Little Orange, and Qingchuan told it to return if it could not adapt to life outside.
• Ayane brought out tricolor dango and grilled meat rolls, and the Nine-Tails secretly salivated at the smell.
• Ayane held a grilled meat roll to the Nine-Tails, which kept eyeing the food while insisting it had no interest.

Ayane fed the Nine-Tails grilled meat, and Aokawa named him Kurama. The next morning, Minato summoned Aokawa after a covert agent reported that a masked man had seized Shukaku from Sunagakure.

• Ayane fed the Nine-Tails grilled meat, and he eagerly ate despite insisting he was only trying it out of courtesy.
• Ayane counted the Nine-Tails' tails and asked Aokawa what his name was; Aokawa called him Kurama, and the fox quietly accepted it.
• The next morning, an ANBU summoned Aokawa to the Hokage Building on Minato's urgent orders.
• Minato gave Aokawa a top-secret scroll reporting that a masked man had appeared during Shukaku's rampage and forcibly taken the One-Tail from Sunagakure.

Minato and Aokawa discussed Sunagakure’s secret search for the One-Tail and prepared Konoha for the masked man’s next move. Later, Obito Uchiha visited Orochimaru, who demonstrated his progress on Impure World Reincarnation.

• Minato identified the Sharingan-wielding attacker in Sunagakure as the masked man who had attacked Konoha on the Night of the Nine-Tails, and Aokawa suspected Obito Uchiha.
• Minato concluded Sunagakure was hiding the One-Tail’s disappearance because it feared exposing its weakness, and he ordered Konoha to monitor the Land of Wind and Land of Rain borders while avoiding open conflict.
• Aokawa returned home and found Ayane feeding dango to the miniature Nine-Tails, while he worried that Obito and the Ōtsutsuki clan threatened their fragile peace.
• Obito Uchiha entered Orochimaru’s laboratory and asked about the item he had requested.
• Orochimaru showed Obito a body inscribed with curse markings and said he had made progress on the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju’s Impure World Reincarnation technique.

Obito threatened Orochimaru for questioning whether his methods matched Madara’s, then left him to continue developing the Impure World Reincarnation plan. In Amegakure, Obito brought Nagato the captured One-Tail Shukaku, and Nagato summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to begin extraction with the Akatsuki assembled.

• Obito confronted Orochimaru in the laboratory and used his Mangekyō Sharingan to intimidate him into continuing his work.
• Orochimaru called Obito “Lord Madara” and left for the depths of the laboratory.
• Obito traveled to Amegakure and told Nagato to prepare to receive the container.
• Obito showed Nagato the restrained One-Tail Shukaku and led him to an underground cavern.
• Nagato summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and used the Demonic Illusion: Light Body Technique to assemble the Akatsuki’s phantoms.

After helping Minato Namikaze complete Konoha’s Flying Thunder God defense network, Seisen learned from Kurama that it had been unable to sense Shukaku and revealed that Uchiha Madara had captured the One-Tail. Seisen suppressed Kurama’s panic and tried to win its cooperation against Madara, but Kurama resisted, leaving Seisen poised to explain the danger behind the tailed-beast hunt.

• Pain began extracting Shukaku with the Phantom Dragon Nine Seals while the other members of his group supplied chakra.
• Minato Namikaze and Hyuga Seisen activated the completed Flying Thunder God Formation covering Konoha’s core area, powered in part by chakra stored in Seisen’s four Shadow Clones.
• Seisen found Ayane feeding and petting Kurama, then sent her away and asked Kurama whether it could sense Shukaku’s chakra.
• Seisen told Kurama that Uchiha Madara had taken Shukaku and possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan and Wood Release, triggering Kurama’s terror and rage.
• Seisen used Tailed Beast True Meaning: Vajra Wrath to suppress Kurama, then urged it to cooperate and lend him its power against Madara.
• Kurama refused to hand over its chakra, and Seisen began to reveal why Madara was collecting the Tailed Beasts.

Qingchuan gained the Nine-Tails’ cooperation and formed the preliminary Perfect Tailed Beast Mode. He prepared Minato to oversee Konoha, sealed the Nine-Tails inside himself, and began arranging an isolated retreat for his bloodline transformation.

• Qingchuan warned the Nine-Tails that Madara Uchiha planned to revive the Ten-Tails and erase its consciousness, persuading it to lend him its power in exchange for Ayane’s special grilled meat.
• Qingchuan and the Nine-Tails bumped fists, merging their chakra and Reishi to create a golden cloak that marked the preliminary form of Perfect Tailed Beast Mode.
• Qingchuan told Minato Namikaze that he would enter unconscious seclusion for weeks or months and gave him a reserve energy key for the Flying Thunder God Formation in case Konoha faced a crisis.
• Qingchuan forcibly sealed the sleeping Nine-Tails inside his Eight Trigrams Seal, ignoring its protests about not having received its grilled meat.
• Qingchuan briefed Hyuga Ryosuke and his trusted subordinates, then entered an underground Reishi chamber isolated from chakra, physical detection, and the other Sternritter members to prepare for his transformation.

Seisen opened the Stone Gate with 300,000 Energy Crystals and fell into a mysterious consciousness while his body appeared to die, leaving the Nine-Tails terrified. Four months later, Rōshi had disappeared and Iwagakure accused Kumogakure of taking him, prompting Ōnoki to threaten war and A to refuse to accept the blame.

• Seisen spent 300,000 Energy Crystals to open the Stone Gate, and a Reishi storm swallowed his consciousness as his body’s vital signs stopped.
• The Nine-Tails panicked when Seisen seemed to die, but its chakra was consumed by the Outer Shell Blut Vene surrounding his body.
• Four months later, Ōnoki received a report that Rōshi had vanished near Kumogakure’s border and ordered Kumogakure to return him within three days or face war.
• A rejected Ōnoki’s ultimatum, denied that Kumogakure had captured Rōshi, and declared that the Land of Lightning would not take the blame.

After the Akatsuki sealed the Four-Tails, Obito considered attacking Konoha for the Nine-Tails chakra inside Uzumaki Kushina if Hyuga Seisen had truly left the village. Black Zetsu then reported that more than a thousand White Zetsu had vanished from a hidden base without a trace, leading him to suspect another unknown force was operating in the shadows.

• The Akatsuki completed extracting the Four-Tails from Rōshi, and the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path sealed it.
• Black Zetsu told Obito that White Zetsu scouts near Konoha had stopped being killed, suggesting Hyuga Seisen might have left the village.
• Obito proposed targeting Uzumaki Kushina for her Nine-Tails chakra, while Pain warned that attacking Konoha carried serious risks.
• Obito ordered Zetsu to confirm Seisen's whereabouts and said the Akatsuki would attack Kushina only if Seisen had left the Land of Fire.
• Black Zetsu revealed that two hidden White Zetsu bases had been destroyed, including one where more than a thousand White Zetsu had disappeared without signs of battle.
• Black Zetsu ruled out Hyuga Seisen and suspected that someone else was plotting in the shadows.

Obito realized the unknown force that had consumed two White Zetsu bases might be targeting their vitality and the Hashirama Cells. Black Zetsu confirmed that every Hashirama Cell at the cultivation base had vanished, leaving Obito without a clue to the thief.

• Orochimaru discussed his experiments with White Zetsu cells and said they shared traits with Hashirama Cells, though their DNA expression differed.
• Obito connected the vanished White Zetsu to the Hashirama Cells and ordered Black Zetsu to inspect the cultivation base.
• Black Zetsu traveled underground to the base while Orochimaru mocked Obito and offered to lend him some of his stored Hashirama Cells.
• Black Zetsu returned and reported that all the Hashirama Cells were gone, with no signs of chakra, battle, or the culprit.

Might Guy opened the first four Eight Gates to challenge Hyuga Seisen, whose Byakugan and Gentle Fist helped him keep pace and seal Guy’s chakra points. Guy’s surging chakra reopened the blocked points, and Seisen prepared to counter his renewed assault with Sage Art: Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

• Might Guy opened the Gate of Opening, then the Second Gate of Healing and Third Gate of Life, increasing his speed and strength against Hyuga Seisen.
• Hyuga Seisen activated his Byakugan to track Guy’s attacks and used Gentle Fist to seal many of Guy’s chakra points.
• Might Guy opened the Fourth Gate of Pain, blasting open the sealed points as his chakra surged and his body began to suffer damage.
• Might Guy attacked Seisen at greater speed, forcing Seisen to brace himself and prepare Sage Art: Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.

Hyuga Seisen and Might Guy’s spar ended with Guy badly injured after opening the Fifth Gate, while Seisen gained taijutsu skills and Energy Crystals. At Konoha Hospital, Seisen offered to pay for Guy’s treatment, and Might Duy arrived, apologized, and learned that Seisen had welcomed the spar.

• Might Guy unleashed the Fifth Gate’s Morning Peacock, and Hyuga Seisen countered with earth and water techniques after his senjutsu chakra ran out.
• Hyuga Seisen received taijutsu experience, upgraded skills, and Energy Crystals for helping Might Guy fulfill his wish, then carried the injured Guy to Konoha Hospital.
• Tian Lu diagnosed Guy with severe injuries and hidden damage from intense training, and Seisen agreed to pay for treatment.
• Might Duy arrived at the hospital and embraced his injured son, then apologized to Seisen after learning Guy had opened the Fifth Gate during their spar.
• Hyuga Seisen explained that he had proposed the spar and learned from Guy, and Might Duy praised him as a good friend to his son.

Ōnoki explained to Kitsuchi that he planned to provoke a conflict with Kumogakure to divert Iwagakure’s internal crises and secure resources, even if the Four-Tails had not disappeared. Six months later, fighting between the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning remained limited to the Land of Frost, while Kushina watched the nearly ten-month-old Hokage at home in Konoha.

• Ōnoki told Kitsuchi that Kumogakure was a safer target for an ultimatum than Konoha and that Iwagakure would fight if the Raikage refused to cooperate.
• Ōnoki revealed that the missing Four-Tails was only a pretext and that he needed war to redirect Iwagakure’s unrest, obtain daimyo funding, and address the village’s financial crisis.
• Kitsuchi recoiled from his father’s willingness to treat shinobi as expendable, and Ōnoki decided that Kurotsuchi needed to be trained as a future leader.
• Over the following six months, the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning clashed repeatedly in the Land of Frost without beginning an all-out war.
• In peaceful Konoha, Kushina prepared to cook and told her nearly ten-month-old son, Hokage, to play in the living room.

Kushina tried to send little Naruto to play while she cooked, but he cheekily declared that he wanted to nurse instead. Left alone, Naruto crawled into Minato Namikaze’s study, tore a page from the Will of Fire, and vanished after grabbing the Flying Thunder God Kunai.

• Kushina scolded Naruto for asking to nurse and went to cook, leaving him in the living room.
• Naruto crawled into Minato Namikaze’s study and climbed onto his desk chair.
• Naruto tore a page from Hiruzen Sarutobi’s Will of Fire manuscript and tossed it under the desk.
• Naruto grabbed the Flying Thunder God Kunai, and a flash of white light swallowed him.

Minato and Kushina searched for their missing ten-month-old son, Little Hokage, and discovered he had triggered a Flying Thunder God kunai. Minato concluded that Little Hokage had teleported to the underground formation base where Seisen's Shadow Clone was stationed, and went there with Kushina.

• Minato noticed a blue Reishi butterfly in his office and suspected Seisen had sent it.
• Kushina told Minato that Little Hokage had vanished from their house, so Minato returned with her and questioned the ANBU guarding it.
• Minato followed traces across the carpet to his study, where he found a displaced chair, torn manuscript, and a missing Flying Thunder God kunai.
• Minato recognized a fading spatial fluctuation and realized Little Hokage had likely triggered the kunai.
• Minato connected the Reishi butterfly to Seisen's reassurance and told Kushina that the kunai had transported Little Hokage to the underground Flying Thunder God Formation base.
• Kushina asked to go with Minato, and they vanished together.

Hyuga Seisen’s shadow clone caught Little Naruto after a spatial mishap and kept him entertained in the underground cavern. Minato Namikaze and Kushina arrived and found Naruto safe, leaving the family reunited and relieved.

• Little Naruto fell from a spatial distortion into Hyuga Seisen’s arms, and Seisen sent a blue butterfly to report his safety.
• Hyuga Seisen made a blue fox and a Reishi hammock with floating light spheres to entertain Naruto.
• Minato Namikaze and Kushina arrived in the cavern and found Naruto laughing safely with Seisen.
• Kushina rushed to embrace Naruto, and Minato joined her as the family recovered from their panic.

Hyuga Seisen's Shadow Clone rescued Hokage from a Flying Thunder God mishap and asked Minato Namikaze to replenish its chakra. Minato worried about Seisen's seclusion and joked that he could step down as Hokage, then admitted he had accepted the role out of duty and longed for a peaceful life with Kushina and Hokage.

• Hyuga Seisen explained that Hokage had accidentally activated a Flying Thunder God formula on a kunai and asked Minato Namikaze to send medical corps members to restore the chakra depleted from his Yin Seal.
• Kushina thanked Seisen for rescuing Hokage, and Minato apologized for his carelessness.
• Minato asked whether Seisen's original body had emerged from seclusion, and the Shadow Clone said he was undergoing Life Reconstruction and might surpass even the First Hokage.
• Minato joked that he could start preparing to step down as Fourth Hokage, and Seisen praised his leadership and accomplishments.
• Minato told Seisen that he had accepted the Hokage role as a duty during a crisis and wished he could spend more time with Kushina and Hokage.