Recaps

Xiao planned to use Hinata Hyuga as bait to draw Danzo out of Root headquarters and destroy him. He secretly compelled Hiashi to hand Hinata over, while preparing to make sure she could strike back.

• Qiye reported that Danzo had activated the Class-A Contingency Plan and targeted Hinata Hyuga for her Byakugan.
• Xiao rejected rescuing Hinata outright and instead planned to use her as bait to lure Danzo out of Root's underground headquarters.
• Xiao ordered Kurenai to stay behind and eliminate anyone who escaped, while Qiye arranged to send the Branch House children away.
• Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine and used Kotoamatsukami to compel Hiashi to resist Root's demand before ultimately handing Hinata over.
• Xiao spotted Hinata training beneath an icy waterfall and prepared to make her the fuse for his attack on Danzo.

Hyuga Xiao used Kotoamatsukami to make Hyuga Hiashi worship him and ordered him to stage a public confrontation when Root came to take Hinata. Hiashi warned that Hiruzen Sarutobi had secretly deployed ANBU around the clan grounds, while Xiao welcomed the chance for the village to witness Root’s actions.

• Hyuga Xiao humiliated the mind-controlled Hyuga Hiashi in the ancestral shrine and made him denounce the Main House’s traditions.
• Hiashi told Xiao that Root planned to take Hinata before sunset the next day under the pretext of investigating Huomen’s disappearance.
• Xiao instructed Hiashi to resist Root publicly, then appear forced to surrender Hinata and place chakra-restraining cuffs on her before the clan.
• Hiashi warned that Hiruzen Sarutobi had sealed off the Hyuga grounds with ANBU squads, including a shinobi whose chakra suggested Kakashi Hatake.
• Xiao decided to let Hiruzen witness the confrontation and vanished from the shrine using spatial distortion.

Hinata pushed herself to the brink under a waterfall, and Xiao rescued and healed her before learning why she wanted to become stronger. He revealed that Hiashi would hand her over to Danzo the next day, leaving Hinata to decide whether she would face the deadly trap alone.

• Hinata exhausted herself practicing the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms beneath a waterfall until her chakra ran out and she sank into the pool.
• Xiao rescued Hinata and used his gravity to hold back the waterfall, then carried her to the shore and healed her injuries with Yang Release chakra.
• Hinata confessed that she feared becoming a burden, and Xiao ordered her to become his sharpest blade and eventually take the Hyuga clan leadership from Hiashi.
• Xiao revealed that Hiashi would deliver Hinata to Root as living experimental material the next day and warned her about Danzo's underground lab, its Explosive Tag Formation, and two hundred elite fighters.
• Xiao asked Hinata whether she was afraid to face the danger alone.

In the woods, Xiao prepared Hinata for Danzo’s planned extraction by engraving a Pact Stone Mark into her back with Stellar Chakra. The mark would turn her into a bomb when Danzo tried to take her ocular power, and a starry azure gleam began appearing in her Byakugan.

• Hinata told Xiao she was not afraid and would follow his arrangement, even after he warned her about Danzo’s laboratory and the danger of being used as bait.
• Xiao ordered Hinata to remove her shirt and used Stellar Chakra to forcefully reshape her chakra pathways, engraving ancient patterns along her back.
• Xiao sealed the Pact Stone Mark, which healed Hinata’s injuries and would activate when Danzo attempted to extract her ocular power.
• Xiao promised to break through Root and rescue Hinata after the mark detonated, and Hinata accepted his words with renewed resolve.
• An azure gleam appeared briefly at the center of Hinata’s pupils, revealing that the Pact Stone Chakra had begun resonating with her Byakugan.

Hinata awakened the ancient power of the Byakugan and prepared to let Root take her so she could strike Danzo’s laboratory from within. At dawn, Root arrived at the Hyuga Estate with a secret order, while Xiao watched from afar as his plan began.

• Xiao confirmed Hinata had adapted to the Pact Stone’s power and gave her instructions for infiltrating Root’s laboratory.
• Hinata agreed to conceal her power, endure chakra-suppressing shackles, and wait until the eye-extraction device was near before detonating Xiao’s hidden power.
• Hinata returned to the Hyuga Estate disguised as her timid former self, while Xiao sensed Astral Aberrant Matter beneath Konoha and vowed to confront Danzo.
• At dawn, four Root ANBU arrived at the Hyuga Estate and demanded that Hiashi receive a secret order.
• Xiao watched from several thousand meters away as Root approached, certain the bait had been taken.

Hyuga Xiao arranged a staged confrontation in which Hiashi appeared to surrender Hinata to Root, while Hinata concealed her strength and Stellar Chakra. Root took her to its underground base, where Danzo awaited her as a test subject.

• Root ANBU demanded that Hiashi hand Hinata over for questioning, accusing her of contacting Hyuga Xiao.
• Hiashi angrily denounced the accusation, but the fox-masked ANBU threatened the Hyuga Clan with the Hokage's authority.
• Hinata appeared to be a frightened, helpless daughter, and Hiashi reluctantly told her to go with Root.
• Root ANBU restrained Hinata with chakra-sealing handcuffs and carried her away in a black carriage.
• Hyuga Xiao watched from Hokage Rock, knowing Hinata's Stellar Chakra remained unaffected and urging her to burn Danzo's base to ashes.

Hinata was taken to Danzo’s underground Root laboratory, where she concealed her composure while studying its defenses and the horrors inside. Bound to an operating table for an eye-extraction procedure, she recognized the monstrous mass of First Hokage cells and dark silver substance as Danzo’s trump card.

• Hinata rode in shackles through an underground passage, secretly recording the route and controlling her fear with the breathing method Hyuga Xiao had taught her.
• At a Root cell, Hinata saw a mutilated Hyuga Branch House man with a damaged Caged Bird Seal and pretended to recoil in terror while surveying the guards and defenses.
• Root guards dragged Hinata into a laboratory filled with grotesque bodies in culture tanks and strapped her to an operating table for an eye-extraction procedure.
• As a medical ninja prepared to inject her, Hinata fixed her gaze on a huge mass of flesh containing First Hokage cells and dark silver substance, which triggered the Stellar Chakra implanted in her by Hyuga Xiao.

Danzo prepared to remove Hinata’s Byakugan to stabilize the First Hokage’s cells and Astral Matter, believing the eyes would grant him godlike power. As the extraction probes neared her eyes, Hinata revealed a cold smile, poised to act with the Stellar Chakra Brother Xiao had left her.

• Danzo entered the laboratory and learned that Hiashi had accepted Hinata’s sacrifice for the village’s interests.
• Danzo inspected Hinata’s Byakugan and ordered her eyes extracted without anesthesia to preserve their purity.
• A medical shinobi warned that the unstable culture vessel containing First-Generation Cells and Astral Matter could explode without high-purity ocular power.
• Danzo declared his plan to combine Wood Release and Astral Matter, using Hinata’s eyes to become the true god of the Shinobi World.
• The medical shinobi sealed Hinata’s chakra and activated the eye-extraction machine as the probes approached her eyes.
• Hinata felt the Stellar Chakra at her Gate of Life acupoint and smiled coldly at Danzo as the probes nearly touched her.

Hinata escaped Danzo’s eye-extraction operation when the Stellar Force implanted by Hyuga Xiao awakened, killing several Root ninja and overwhelming the others. As Danzo prepared to fight back, the power triggered a mutated test subject to break out of its tank, leaving both Hinata and the monster loose in the underground laboratory.

• Hinata’s restraints and the eye-extraction machine were destroyed when her implanted Stellar Force erupted, killing the two medical ninja beside her.
• Hinata awakened with azure, star-filled eyes and killed the fox-masked ANBU with a single strike.
• Danzo ordered twelve Root elites to capture Hinata, but she deflected their attacks with a Stellar Force version of Revolving Heaven and killed four of them.
• Hinata’s Stellar Chakra drove the mutated test subject to devour the First-Generation Cells and smash through its containment tank.
• Danzo froze as the monster emerged and the underground base descended into chaos.

Hinata awakened a power that summoned Hyuga Xiao’s projection into Danzo’s underground laboratory. Xiao crushed the Root ninjas and the monster with his gravity, then confronted Danzo over his designs on Hinata.

• Danzo ordered the Root elites to kill Hinata and preserve her eyes while the malformed monster attacked her.
• Hinata’s Life Gate array flared, and an azure pillar of light pierced the laboratory ceiling as Hyuga Xiao’s projection appeared.
• Xiao’s presence terrified the monster and nullified the Root ninjas’ attacks.
• Xiao increased gravity around the projection, crushing the monster and forcing all fourteen Root elites to the ground.
• Xiao fixed his gaze on Danzo and demanded to know whether the old man had improper designs on what belonged to him.

Hyuga Xiao’s projection overwhelmed Danzo and Root in their underground laboratory, but Danzo briefly believed the fading projection meant Xiao was exhausted. Xiao revealed that he had come in person as the ceiling collapsed under his arrival.

• Hyuga Xiao’s projection crushed Root’s fighters and the mutated monster with gravity while Hinata watched beside him.
• Danzo accused Xiao of endangering Leaf Village, and Xiao condemned Danzo’s greed and hypocrisy.
• Danzo attacked with Wind Release: Vacuum Barrage, but Xiao reflected the blades and wounded Danzo, exposing part of his bandaged arm.
• As the projection faded, Danzo ordered the surviving fighters to seize Hinata, but Xiao stopped her and challenged Danzo’s assumption that he had sent only a projection.
• The underground laboratory’s ceiling cracked and collapsed as the real Hyuga Xiao descended through the barriers with overwhelming gravitational force.

Hyuga Xiao protected Hinata as Danzo revealed his Sharingan-studded arm and attacked with Wood Release. Xiao effortlessly crushed Danzo’s Sharingan Forest and confronted him, leaving Danzo’s trump card exposed as a failure.

• Hyuga Xiao shielded Hinata from falling debris and the laboratory’s hazards as Danzo crawled from the rubble.
• Danzo tore away the seal on his right arm, revealing ten Triple-Tomoe Sharingan and unstable First Hokage cells held in balance by Astral Matter.
• Danzo claimed the arm granted him Wood Release and Izanagi, then unleashed a forest of wooden spikes bearing Sharingan to attack Hyuga Xiao and Hinata.
• Hyuga Xiao stopped the spikes with gravity and crushed them, destroying Danzo’s attack without moving from his position.
• Hyuga Xiao approached Danzo and condemned his arm as stolen powers crudely held together with inferior Astral Matter.

Hyuga Xiao defeated Danzo’s attacks and used the Tenseigan to destroy three Sharingan, disabling Izanagi and triggering the Hashirama Cells in Danzo’s arm to run out of control. As the wood transformation spread, Danzo swallowed the unstable Astral Matter in a desperate bid for power.

• Danzo attacked Xiao and Hinata with Wind Release, then tried to stab Xiao with a kunai, but Xiao pierced his chest.
• Danzo revived with Izanagi and explained that the technique could turn death into a dream by sacrificing Sharingan.
• Xiao used the Tenseigan’s gravity to crush three of the Sharingan in Danzo’s right arm, preventing further Izanagi revivals.
• With Yin Release suppression gone, Danzo’s Hashirama Cells began transforming his body into wood, and he crawled toward the Astral Matter.
• Danzo ignored a Root researcher’s warning and swallowed the unstable Astral Matter.

Danzo swallowed Astral Matter and transformed into a monstrous, unstable being with immense power, then attacked Xiao and Hinata. Xiao effortlessly repelled him, but the battle collapsed the underground chamber, and Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived with ANBU as Danzo prepared another attack.

• Danzo swallowed the lump of Astral Matter, which battled the Wood Release inside him and transformed him into a towering monster.
• Monster Danzo demanded high-purity Byakugan and lunged at Xiao, who stopped and twisted his wooden spike with gravitational power.
• Danzo unleashed a storm of wind blades, but Xiao reversed the attack and hurled him through support pillars.
• Monster Danzo gathered a compressed energy cannon as the battle's shockwaves brought down the underground ceiling.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi and more than a dozen ANBU descended through the fissure into the ruined chamber.

Hyuga Xiao used his Tenseigan’s time-based power to stop Danzo’s attack and tear the Astral Matter from his body. As Hiruzen Sarutobi and the ANBU moved to intervene, Xiao remained in the ruins with Hinata beside him.

• Danzo lunged at Xiao, but Xiao slowed time around them and avoided the strike while protecting Hinata.
• Xiao pierced Danzo’s chest and began extracting the Astral Matter with the Tenseigan’s gravitational power.
• Danzo’s body weakened and began transforming into a tree as the Astral Matter was pulled free.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered Xiao to stop and attacked with the Golden Cudgel while ANBU prepared Fire and Wind Release techniques.

Hyuga Xiao repelled Hiruzen Sarutobi and the ANBU, then stripped Danzo of his stolen power and crippled him. As Hiruzen prepared another attack, dozens of armed ANBU stormed the underground laboratory and surrounded Xiao and Hinata.

• Hyuga Xiao used Almighty Push to tear apart the ANBU’s fire attack and knock Hiruzen Sarutobi back.
• Hyuga Xiao extracted the Astral Matter from Danzo and sealed it in a scroll.
• Hyuga Xiao painfully tore out Danzo’s meridians and Sharingan, then severed his chakra core and left him powerless.
• Hinata stayed beside Hyuga Xiao as Hiruzen accused him of betrayal and prepared his final trump card.
• Dozens of elite ANBU blasted open the laboratory gate and surrounded Hyuga Xiao and Hinata.

Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at Danzo's ruined underground laboratory and confronted Hyuga Xiao, who had defeated Danzo and exposed the experiments on Leaf Village ninja and children. Xiao overwhelmed the ANBU's barrier with his gravity and challenged Hiruzen to answer for the atrocities.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi entered the laboratory and found Danzo badly mutilated at Hyuga Xiao's feet.
• Hiruzen accused Xiao of harming a village elder, and the ANBU trapped Xiao, Hinata, and Danzo inside a Four Violet Flames Formation.
• Danzo begged Hiruzen to save him, but Xiao crushed Danzo's face beneath his boot.
• Xiao released a powerful gravitational storm that weakened the barrier and forced the ANBU and Hiruzen back.
• Xiao kicked out a barrel of human remains and accused Hiruzen and Leaf Village's leaders of harvesting eyes and turning children into test subjects.

Hyuga Xiao rejected Hiruzen Sarutobi’s attempt to arrest him and publicly tore off and crushed Danzo’s arm before the Hokage and ANBU. As Hiruzen prepared to fight back, Xiao produced bloodstained scrolls and urged him to inspect them first.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi promised to investigate Danzo but demanded that Xiao surrender for treason.
• Xiao declared that he was the law and used gravity to repel Hiruzen and the ANBU as they attacked.
• Xiao tore Danzo’s right arm from his shoulder and crushed it into pulp, leaving Danzo unconscious.
• Hiruzen vowed to fight Xiao, but Xiao dropped a stack of scrolls at his feet and told him to read them before deciding.

Hyuga Xiao used evidence of Danzo’s experiments and dealings with Hidden Cloud to confront Hiruzen Sarutobi and turn the ANBU against the Hokage’s attempt to brand him a rogue ninja. Hiruzen was left unable to attack or retreat without risking Konoha’s reputation and his own authority.

• Hiruzen Sarutobi read a bloodstained scroll documenting Danzo and Orochimaru’s experiments on Hyuga Branch House members and trades with Hidden Cloud.
• Hyuga Xiao warned that Qiye had sent copies of the evidence to powerful figures and underground bounty boards, stopping Hiruzen from destroying the original.
• Xiao condemned the experiments and the deaths of Hyuga clan members, arguing that he had rescued Hinata and removed a traitor threatening the village.
• Hiruzen denied knowing about Danzo’s actions and declared that Konoha would not tolerate them.
• Xiao challenged Hiruzen to explain why he had brought ANBU to kill the person who exposed the crimes, leaving the Hokage trapped between attacking and backing down.

Hyuga Xiao forced Hiruzen Sarutobi to choose between fighting him and exposing Danzo’s crimes, then secured Hinata’s freedom and a public declaration that Xiao had acted justly. Xiao and Hinata left the underground ruins unharmed, while Hiruzen remained with the evidence and the threat of Xiao’s scrutiny.

• Hyuga Xiao threatened to expose the evidence to powerful leaders across the Shinobi World and counted down as Hiruzen Sarutobi hesitated.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi abandoned Danzo, accused him of colluding with Orochimaru and conducting forbidden experiments, and ordered ANBU to seal and imprison him.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi declared Hyuga Xiao innocent and credited him with merit, accepting Xiao’s account that he had acted against Danzo’s rogue operation.
• Hyuga Xiao took Hinata by the hand and walked past the ANBU, who silently made way for them.
• Hyuga Xiao left the ruins with Hinata and cast a cold, scrutinizing look back at Hiruzen Sarutobi before disappearing into the night.

Hyuga Xiao emerged from Danzo’s underground laboratory after forcing Hiruzen Sarutobi to recognize his merit, and he claimed power over the Hyuga Clan’s rules alongside Hinata. When Hinata suddenly began freezing from a strange aura linked to a Silver Scale, Xiao carried her toward a safe house and suspected Ryūchi Cave’s White Snake was behind it.

• Hyuga Xiao led Hinata out of the underground passage while Konoha’s ANBU stood aside in fear.
• Xiao declared that neither Hiashi nor Hiruzen Sarutobi would dictate their rules, and Hinata agreed to follow his plans.
• Hinata collapsed, and Xiao discovered an extreme-cold aura coiling around her origin chakra and draining her life force.
• Xiao connected the aura to the Silver Scale he had found among the laboratory ruins and used Yang Release Chakra to suppress it.
• Xiao carried Hinata toward a hidden safe house and suspected the White Snake of Ryūchi Cave had sent the cold aura.

Hyuga Xiao saved Hinata from a deadly cold energy and healed her damaged meridians, while promising her authority as his chosen partner in the new order. He discovered that the surviving Astral Matter in her body had formed coordinates linked to a Silver Scale and Ryūchi Cave, drawing the attention of an ancient snake.

• Hyuga Xiao brought the freezing Hinata to a hidden safehouse and used the Tenseigan to extract and destroy the cold energy attacking her chakra sea.
• Xiao healed Hinata's meridians, and Hinata told him she had detonated the array diagram and killed Root shinobi without backing down.
• Xiao declared Hinata the mistress of his new order and gave her authority to command his followers; Hinata vowed to follow him and share in his battles.
• Xiao found a tiny star-map pattern beneath Hinata's shoulder blade and saw it glow in response to the Silver Scale.
• Xiao realized the coordinates pointed toward the danger associated with Ryūchi Cave, and an ancient snake sensed the Tenseigan's aura before Xiao crushed the scale and turned toward the northwest.

Hyuga Xiao used the Silver Scale to reveal a route to Ryuchi Cave through the Star Map Coordinates on Hinata’s back and prepared to hunt the White Snake there. As a vast presence sensed him through the scale, Xiao met its gaze and vowed to reach Ryuchi Cave and kill it.

• Hyuga Xiao placed the Silver Scale against Hinata’s Star Map Coordinates, which projected a chakra ley-line map pointing to Ryuchi Cave.
• Xiao explained that the scale and coordinates revealed a route to the forbidden land where the White Snake had hidden, then sealed the scale away.
• Xiao ordered Hinata to remain in Leaf Village, bring the Hyuga Clan under her control, and oversee the underground market while he was gone.
• The Silver Scale cracked inside its sealing scroll, and a colossal presence followed its connection to the coordinates and fixed its gaze on Xiao.
• Xiao resisted the presence with his Tenseigan and vowed to go to Ryuchi Cave and tear out the White Snake’s tendons.

After overpowering the Ancient White Serpent’s gaze through the Silver Scale, Xiao prepared to leave Leaf Village for Ryūchi Cave and put Hinata in charge of the village’s black market and Hyuga Clan affairs. Qiye reported that Orochimaru was also heading northwest, while Hinata began targeting the Main House elders.

• Xiao broke the Ancient White Serpent’s mental intrusion through the Silver Scale and healed the frostbite on his palm with Yang Release Chakra.
• Qiye reported that Danzo had been imprisoned, Hiruzen had covered up the Root Base’s destruction, and Hiashi had accepted the casualty report blaming Danzo.
• Xiao put Hinata in charge of the black market and ordered her to use her authority as Hiashi’s sole heir to dismantle the Hyuga Clan Elder Council, with Qiye carrying out her commands.
• Qiye reported finding an ANBU corpse drained of chakra and bearing Orochimaru’s Curse Mark of Heaven, with a chakra trail leading northwest toward Ryūchi Cave.
• Xiao left for Ryūchi Cave and told Qiye to protect Hinata, who ordered him to find the Main House’s Second Elder and ensure he did not survive the night.

Hyuga Xiao reached Frostwind Canyon and found Orochimaru using Sound Ninja sacrifices to break through an ice cliff. After a Mutated Giant Snake attacked Orochimaru, Xiao killed it and prepared to kill Orochimaru.

• Hyuga Xiao detected Orochimaru and Kabuto using the blood and chakra of sacrificed Sound Ninja to melt the Astral Matter ice cliff.
• Orochimaru opened the cliff and released a Mutated Giant Snake, which overwhelmed his defenses and badly injured him.
• Hyuga Xiao stopped the snake with a gravitational field and crushed its head beneath his foot.
• Hyuga Xiao called Orochimaru's work useful and gathered a gravitational sphere to kill him.