Chapter Summaries

Leaf Village’s leaders raged over the failed attempt to retrieve the Uchiha, Minato, and the Nine-Tails, while Hiruzen ordered lower-ranking ninja into dangerous missions to hide the village’s weakness. In Hidden Stone, the Uchiha celebrated their new home, and Yoru proposed taking Leaf’s mission contracts to deepen its crisis.

• Three Leaf Anbu fled the desert carrying a mentally broken Kakashi after Hidden Stone troops stopped their mission to retrieve the Uchiha and the others.
• Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu, and Danzō argued over the disaster as rumors blaming the higher-ups damaged their standing with Leaf’s clans.
• Hiruzen ordered B-rank and A-rank missions released and pushed civilian genin and small clans to take them to make Leaf appear strong.
• The Uchiha celebrated their new clan grounds in Hidden Stone, where Fugaku and Kitsuchi toasted their clans’ new friendship.
• Yoru predicted that Leaf’s leaders would burden lower-ranking ninja with dangerous work, then suggested that he and Minato undercut Leaf’s major clients to take its commissions.

The Uchiha Clan received generous settlement money, homes, and opportunities from the Hidden Stone Village after moving there. Fugaku yielded the clan’s overall direction to Yoru, who ordered the Uchiha to prepare for the work their new patrons expected.

• The Hidden Stone Village delivered gold, supplies, and a 100,000-ryō allowance for every Uchiha, along with deeds to 300 homes on Third Avenue.
• The Uchiha clansmen celebrated their new homes and wealth, while Fugaku recognized that Yoru’s strength had secured their welcome.
• Fugaku gave Yoru the asset inventory and reported Ōnoki’s offers of tax-exempt business licenses, interest-free loans, and positions in the Anbu or Demolition Corps.
• Fugaku knelt and offered to relinquish his position as clan head, pledging that the Uchiha would follow Yoru.
• Yoru told Fugaku to continue handling clan affairs while leaving major decisions to him, then ordered the Uchiha to train and awaken their Sharingan in return for the Hidden Stone Village’s support.

Uchiha Yoru secured the title of Supreme Elder and broad access to Hidden Stone Village’s resources by persuading Ōnoki to fund his military technology revolution. After inspecting the underground laboratory being built, Yoru prepared to recruit Orochimaru as its technical director.

• Akatsuchi summoned Yoru to meet Ōnoki, and Yoru left Fugaku and the clan to continue settling in.
• Ōnoki appointed Yoru Supreme Elder of Hidden Stone Village and gave him authority over nearly every department.
• Yoru presented a costly list of requested materials and equipment, then described his plans to revolutionize warfare with technology.
• Ōnoki signed the list and granted Yoru access to all village resources for the Uchiha.
• Yoru inspected the underground laboratory and ordered Akatsuchi to prepare to leave for the Land of Fire’s border to recruit Orochimaru.

Three-year-old Naruto and Sasuke enjoyed a happy childhood in Hidden Stone Village, while Uchiha Yoru decided it was time to intensify their training. After hearing about a young demolition prodigy, Yoru went to meet him.

• Naruto chased Sasuke through Hidden Stone Village, where the villagers warmly welcomed and spoiled him.
• Mikoto called Naruto and Sasuke home and served them a meal, while Kurama wondered how it could corrupt a child surrounded by so much affection.
• Uchiha Yoru observed Naruto and Sasuke’s powerful chakra and decided to find sparring partners to draw out their potential.
• An Anbu told Yoru that a blond Demolition Corps genius kept proclaiming that explosions were art and had repeatedly destroyed the training grounds.
• Yoru headed to meet the young prodigy, intending to test whether his explosions or Yoru’s fists were stronger.

At the Hidden Stone Village training ground, Supreme Elder Uchiha Yoru challenged young Deidara to prove the power of his Explosive Clay. The chapter ended with Deidara enraged and preparing to attack, while Yoru wagered that Deidara would have to follow him and call him Big Brother if he lost.

• Young Deidara demolished the academy training ground with his Explosive Clay and dismissed the chunin who scolded him.
• Uchiha Yoru arrived, and Deidara mocked his genjutsu while praising his own explosive art.
• Yoru challenged Deidara to attack him with his strongest bomb and said he would lose only if he made Yoru take half a step back.
• Yoru said Deidara would have to follow him and call him Big Brother if he lost.
• Deidara flew into a rage and began chewing Explosive Clay to prepare his attack.

Uchiha Yoru answered Deidara’s clay-bird attack with a senjutsu-enhanced Wind Style: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken, which erased the Stone Village Ninja Academy’s back mountain and left Deidara shaken. Yoru stood unharmed and asked Deidara whether he still thought his explosions were art.

• Deidara launched a giant C2 clay bird at Yoru, who watched without moving.
• Yoru formed a Rasengan, added wind chakra, and infused it with natural energy to create a massive Sage Art: Wind Style: Ultra-Big Ball Rasenshuriken.
• Deidara detonated the clay bird, but Yoru’s Rasenshuriken silently annihilated its blast and swept across the surrounding terrain.
• The attack left a crater over five hundred meters wide, while Yoru remained unharmed at its center.
• Deidara stared in shock as Yoru asked whether he still considered his explosions art.

Uchiha Yoru defeated Deidara with a devastating attack, prompting Deidara to abandon his defiance and beg to become Yoru’s disciple. Yoru accepted him as a recruit for Orochimaru’s research department, while Ōnoki began considering how to deal with another troublesome challenger to the Uchiha genin.

• Yoru’s attack flattened half the back mountain, and Deidara fell at his feet, awestruck by what he called true art.
• Deidara clung to Yoru and pleaded to become his disciple, offering to serve him in exchange for learning the silent explosion.
• Yoru agreed to take Deidara on under three conditions: stop calling explosions art, report to Orochimaru’s research department, and cut his hair.
• Yoru sent Deidara to pack for his new post, while Ōnoki secretly watched and marveled at how easily Yoru had subdued him.
• Ōnoki told a passing Anbu he was inspecting redevelopment work, then noted that his daughter had been challenging an Uchiha genin.

Kurotsuchi tried to ambush Yoru at the training ground, but he effortlessly countered her technique and recognized her potential for Lava Release. She began training under him and grew devoted to him, while Yoru prepared to visit Orochimaru’s laboratory to collect a delivery that could break through his body’s limits.

• Kurotsuchi sneaked into the training ground and tried to trap Yoru with Earth Style, but he dispelled her chakra with a tap and criticized her technique.
• Yoru demonstrated his control of earth, identified Kurotsuchi’s water-and-earth chakra potential, and advised her on the path to Lava Release.
• Kurotsuchi was astonished by Yoru’s insight and began visiting his training ground before dawn to serve and train with him.
• Yoru told Kurotsuchi not to rush her chakra fusion and said he would be busy the next day.
• Yoru turned toward the underground research department and planned to collect a delivery from Orochimaru’s laboratory that would help him break through his body’s limits.

Uchiha Yoru underwent a dangerous fusion of Hashirama Cells, Uchiha power, and sage chakra, emerging with a Perfect Sage Body. He tested his new strength and concluded that he could tear apart a tailed beast without Susanoo.

• Uchiha Yoru entered Hidden Stone Village's highest-security laboratory after sending away Deidara and Kurotsuchi.
• Orochimaru reported that the Perfect Gene Fusion Serum had a 99.9% success rate.
• Uchiha Yoru injected the serum and used his Mangekyo Sharingan and Sage Mode to overcome the cells' violent reaction.
• Uchiha Yoru survived the fusion and gained a Perfect Sage Body, greatly increased chakra, and rapid healing.
• Uchiha Yoru clenched his fist and declared that he could tear apart a tailed beast without Susanoo.

Leaf Village’s manpower crisis worsened as the village forced the Hyuga Clan to take on most of its dangerous reconnaissance and escort missions. Hiashi Hyuga, seeing how the Uchiha were treated in Hidden Stone Village, began to wonder whether the Hyuga should have left with them.

• Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado warned Hiruzen Sarutobi that the village was losing missions and lacked combat strength.
• Shimura Danzo proposed shifting the burden to the Hyuga Clan, and Hiruzen Sarutobi tacitly agreed.
• Hizashi Hyuga told Hiashi Hyuga that seventeen branch-family members had died and more than fifty were seriously wounded after the clan received most of the village’s dangerous missions.
• Hizashi accused the village of using the branch family as cannon fodder, but Hiashi ordered him to stay silent and called their service the Hyuga Clan’s fate.
• Hiashi recalled the Uchiha Clan’s welcome in Hidden Stone Village and wondered whether the Hyuga would have fared better if they had left with them.

The Hidden Cloud Village accused the Hyuga Clan of killing its envoy and demanded the murderer, while Hiruzen Sarutobi pressured the clan to accept blame to preserve peace. Hizashi Hyuga accepted the sacrifice in place of his brother Hiashi and left the Hokage Building, resigned to the branch family's fate.

• Hiashi Hyuga was summoned to a meeting where Hidden Cloud envoy Headman accused the Hyuga Clan of killing an envoy who had sought a meeting with Hinata Hyuga.
• Hiashi accused the Hidden Cloud Village of attempting to kidnap Hinata and refused to accept its demands, but Hiruzen Sarutobi insisted the matter had to be settled to avoid another conflict.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi and the elders proposed handing over Hizashi Hyuga, Hiashi's twin, as the supposed killer because he looked like his brother.
• Hizashi bowed to Hiashi, accepted the branch family's fate, and walked out of the Hokage Building as Hiashi tearfully called after him.
• Hizashi touched the Caged Bird curse mark on his forehead and told Hiashi not to mourn, saying the branch family had always been treated as a sacrifice.

Uchiha Yoru stopped Hizashi Hyuga from killing himself and freed him from the Caged Bird curse mark. Hizashi pledged his life to Yoru, while a White Zetsu clone stood ready to take his place.

• Hizashi prepared to die for the Hyuga Clan and left a note for his brother.
• Uchiha Yoru appeared through a spatial vortex, stopped Hizashi, and broke his kunai.
• Yoru challenged Hizashi’s belief that his death would protect his family or the village.
• Yoru unsealed a White Zetsu clone of Hizashi to serve as his stand-in.
• Yoru used his Mangekyō Sharingan and chakra to dismantle Hizashi’s Caged Bird curse mark.
• Hizashi knelt before Yoru and pledged his life to him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi handed a corpse he claimed was Hizashi Hyuga to the Hidden Cloud delegation, but the Hidden Stone Village soon exposed the sacrifice and mocked the Leaf’s leadership in a mass-distributed proclamation. The Leaf Village erupted in anger, and Hiruzen collapsed after reading the flyer signed by Ōnoki and Uchiha Yoru.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi handed the Hidden Cloud delegation a body resembling Hiashi Hyuga and asked to restore peace between the villages.
• A giant ninja eagle scattered thousands of flyers across the Leaf Village, carrying the Hidden Stone Village’s proclamation.
• Leaf villagers read the proclamation accusing their leaders of sacrificing Hizashi Hyuga and inviting oppressed clans to defect to the Hidden Stone Village.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi read the flyer in his office, recognized that its accusations were true, and spat blood before collapsing unconscious.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi blamed Uchiha Yoru as he lost consciousness.

Minato awakened in Hidden Stone Village after Orochimaru's Hashirama Cell treatment and learned from Yoru's newspapers that Leaf Village's leaders had sacrificed Hizashi, oppressed civilian shinobi, and endangered Naruto. He rejected the village he had once protected and declared that it should be destroyed.

• Minato woke in the medical pod, reunited with Kushina, and recalled that Yoru had saved and brought their family to Hidden Stone Village.
• Yoru showed Minato newspapers reporting Hizashi Hyuga's death, civilian shinobi protests, and Naruto's suspected imprisonment by Leaf Village's higher-ups.
• Kushina condemned Leaf Village's leaders, while Minato questioned the village's past abuses and his own role as Hokage.
• Minato crushed the newspapers, unleashed his enhanced power, and told Yoru that Leaf Village no longer deserved to exist.

Minato reunited with Kushina and Naruto in the Hidden Stone Village and formally left the Leaf Village with his family to serve Ōnoki. Yoru then revealed that Kakashi was leading a Leaf delegation to the border to beg for food.

• Yoru brought Minato, newly awakened and wearing a plain white cloak, to meet Ōnoki in the Tsuchikage Building.
• Naruto rushed into the office, and Kushina and Minato recognized their healthy, cheerful son and embraced him.
• Seeing Naruto safe and happy in the Hidden Stone Village, Minato abandoned his remaining attachment to the Leaf Village.
• Minato and Kushina formally declared that they were leaving the Leaf Village and would serve the Hidden Stone Village.
• Yoru told Minato and Ōnoki that Kakashi was leading Leaf villagers to the border to beg for food.

Over four years, Uchiha Yoru and Minato helped transform Hidden Stone’s academy into a brutal, high-tech training system that produced exceptionally capable young ninja. After deciding the regular students had reached their limits, Yoru prepared to personally train two talented boys from Minato and Fugaku’s families.

• Ōnoki praised Yoru’s modern education reforms as young students trained under double gravity, while Yoru complained about the equipment’s enormous power costs.
• Minato put the students through punishing high-speed reaction drills, striking them with paint-filled tennis balls and ordering extra push-ups.
• Fugaku and Uchiha elites tested the students’ resistance to genjutsu, and the children broke through the mental interference without collapsing.
• Young Hidden Stone students demonstrated their strength by using C-rank ninjutsu, frightening foreign spies who fled to report what they had seen.
• Yoru told Minato and Fugaku to prepare their families’ talented boys for special tutoring that he would begin the next day.

Yoru began brutal private training for Naruto and Sasuke in the Hidden Stone Village, pushing their rivalrous growth with Minato’s help. During a spar, Naruto awakened the Nine-Tails’ chakra, and Yoru stopped Minato from intervening because he sensed no killing intent.

• Yoru assigned Naruto to real combat training with Minato and made Sasuke practice under a Fivefold Gravity Seal.
• Naruto and Sasuke trained relentlessly for half a month, sharpening their Wind Style and Lightning-nature chakra while competing with each other.
• Yoru held a sparring match in which Sasuke trapped Naruto with fireballs and wire.
• Naruto’s Nine-Tails’ chakra erupted, forming a dark-red cloak and fox tail that blasted apart the flames and melted the wires.
• Minato moved to suppress Naruto, but Yoru stopped him and said Naruto’s chakra showed competitiveness rather than killing intent.

Naruto entered his inner world and met Kurama, whose attempt to overwhelm him with hatred failed against Naruto’s cheerful curiosity and kindness. Back at the training grounds, Kurama’s chakra withdrew, and Yoru urged Sasuke to attack Naruto while he was exhausted.

• Kurama tried to seize control of Naruto by unleashing his malice, but Naruto showed no fear and called him a huge red fox.
• Naruto offered Kurama dried meat and promised they would be friends, leaving Kurama stunned by his kindness.
• Kurama’s crimson chakra vanished, and Naruto dropped to his knees, panting on the scorched training ground.
• Minato asked Yoru why Kurama’s chakra had retreated, and Yoru said Naruto had friend-zoned the fox.
• Yoru told Sasuke that Naruto’s chakra was running low and urged him to attack.

Yoru entered Naruto’s sealing space and persuaded the Nine-Tails to lend Naruto chakra in exchange for games, movies, and food. Back at the training field, Naruto awakened Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, leaving Sasuke and Minato stunned as Yoru urged him to fight.

• Yoru suppressed the Nine-Tails with the Gate of the Great God after it threatened Naruto.
• Yoru offered the Nine-Tails entertainment and food in exchange for providing Naruto with chakra, and the Nine-Tails agreed.
• Naruto erupted in golden chakra with black magatama patterns as Sasuke approached him with a kunai.
• Sasuke was blasted backward, and Minato recognized Naruto’s power as Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
• Yoru told Naruto to attack Sasuke while Minato demanded to know what Yoru had done.

Jiraiya returned to Leaf Village after four years away and found Minato and Kushina’s home sealed and abandoned. An Anbu told him that the Uchiha Clan had taken Naruto to Stone Village and that Minato was reportedly alive, leaving Jiraiya determined to confront the Third Hokage.

• Jiraiya returned to Leaf Village, eager to visit his four-year-old godson Naruto before reporting to the Hokage.
• Jiraiya found Minato and Kushina’s home dusty, empty, and sealed with Anbu tags.
• Jiraiya seized a patrolling Anbu and demanded to know where Naruto was.
• The Anbu revealed that the Uchiha Clan had defected during the Nine-Tails’ Attack and taken Naruto with them, and that Stone Village had announced Minato was alive and with them.
• Jiraiya suspected the Third Hokage had concealed wrongdoing and headed toward the Hokage Building demanding an explanation.