Recaps

Hyuga Xiao built trust with Hinata and Kurenai while uncovering the Main House’s control of the Branch House and pursuing a way to remove his Caged Bird Seal. After rescuing Hinata and finding evidence of the seal’s hidden history, he began drawing Anko into his plans as Orochimaru’s defection approached.

• Xiao learned that Hiashi planned to use Hinata as bait for the Hidden Cloud spies, then secretly helped her escape the scheme and rescued her from the kidnappers at the cost of serious injuries.
• After recovering, Xiao deepened Hinata’s trust, discovered her chakra pathways were blocked, and began secretly teaching her a breathing method to ease the restriction.
• Xiao protected a caravan from bandits, earned the Branch House’s respect, and drew Elder Ko Hyuga’s attention, while he also helped Kurenai control her chakra and pass an Academy exam.
• Xiao found that ANBU were watching him, uncovered Ko’s abnormal Heart-Binding Seal, and retrieved a forbidden manuscript revealing the Caged Bird Seal’s history and Konoha’s backup control formula.
• Tokuma warned Xiao that the Main House had placed him under a plan to control Branch House geniuses and told him of his father’s death, prompting Xiao to gather evidence and plant Byakugan Imprints near the elders.
• Xiao learned that Orochimaru would defect in a week and that Anko would later receive his Curse Mark, so he arranged to meet her and considered how her resistance to the mark could help weaken systems of control.
• Xiao let a Red-Chain Snake bite him near Anko, and after she treated him, she admitted Orochimaru regarded her as experimental material and invited Xiao to watch her Fire Release practice.

Hyuga Xiao infiltrated Orochimaru’s laboratory, rescued Shisui Uchiha and Kimimaro, and uncovered links between the God Tree and the Caged Bird Seal. Back in Konoha, he faced the Main House’s plans for his seal while working to free Anko from Orochimaru’s control.

• Hyuga Xiao secretly rescued Anko from ANBU, stabilized her Curse Mark, and learned about Orochimaru’s laboratory and his stolen Caged Bird Seal research.
• Hyuga Xiao joined a dangerous mission near the Land of Rice Paddies, where he discovered that the Main House had marked Branch House members with lethal Curse Marks and intended to use them as expendable fighters.
• Hyuga Xiao found the original Caged Bird Seal records beneath an abandoned shrine and discovered Orochimaru’s laboratory, where he recovered an Active Curse Mark Seed and found a captive connected to the Hyuga Clan.
• Hyuga Xiao infiltrated the laboratory during its destruction and rescued Shisui Uchiha, then took the weakened Kimimaro and escaped with stolen research data.
• Hyuga Xiao stabilized Shisui Uchiha and Kimimaro, persuaded Kimimaro to leave with him, and returned toward Konoha to pursue his plans despite Kakashi’s suspicions.
• Ko Hyuga activated Xiao’s Caged Bird Seal, forced him to bind Kimimaro, and announced the Main House’s plan to impose a Level-Two seal on Xiao.
• Hyuga Xiao temporarily suppressed Anko’s Curse Mark and learned that Orochimaru had directed her to Snakebone Gorge as part of his plan to make her a vessel.
• Hyuga Xiao drew Orochimaru’s consciousness fragment out of Anko and sealed it in a scroll, leaving her Curse Mark weakened but still present.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered the Main House’s extraction of Branch House eye power, destroyed the underground altar, and became a target after resisting his Caged Bird Seal. With the seal draining his life, he entered the White-Eyed Chamber to find a way to break it.

• Hyuga Xiao discovered Root, Orochimaru, and the Hyuga Main House were conducting Hashirama Cell experiments on Branch House members, and rescued Hyuga Rei from the collapsing laboratory.
• Xiao allied with Tsunade, helped save Withered Wood from the White Tissue, and learned that the Caged Bird Seal was tied to the Main House’s exploitation of Branch House members.
• Xiao entered the Forbidden Ground and found the Pupil-Gathering Array harvesting the eyes of dead Branch House members, then learned from Ōtsutsuki Zongqing that the seal’s origin runes were carved onto the moon.
• Hyuga Kaguya’s memories warned Xiao of an approaching Observer Envoy and a lunar Beacon, while the Branch House souls empowered him to destroy the altar and end its thousand-year plundering system.
• Hiashi activated Xiao’s Second-Level Curse Mark, but Xiao resisted its control and escaped with fragmentary information about the Observer Envoy and a Moon Passage.
• Xiao learned from Orochimaru that Hiashi’s right pupil held the seal’s control rune, and Tsunade slowed the Curse Mark while agreeing to distract Hiashi as Xiao searched for the seal’s original designs.
• Hiashi sealed the clan estate, branded Xiao an S-rank rogue ninja, and strengthened defenses as Xiao used a life-shortening ocular technique to enter the White-Eyed Chamber, where a voice welcomed him as a child of the Branch House.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered how the Main House used the Caged Bird Seal to harvest the Branch House’s eye power and pursued the Covenant Stone fragments to free himself from the seal. After the fragments fused and awakened his Giant Lunar Tenseigan, he exposed the truth to the Branch House and set out to investigate Danzo and the masked ANBU as Konoha faced a clan rebellion.

• Xiao broke into the White-Eyed Chamber, learned that Hiashi had drained his ocular power, and took Hiashi’s right eye and the seal’s control core before escaping Konoha’s pursuit.
• Xiao sought help from Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Kurenai while searching for a way to suppress the Caged Bird Seal, and he learned that Covenant Stone fragments could restore its original pact.
• Xiao found and freed Hyuga Sousuke, who gave him the Lunar Migration Map before dying, while the masked blue-eyed ninja pursued Xiao and revealed her connection to a Covenant Stone core.
• Xiao and Kurenai traveled to Glacier Shrine, overcame the shrine’s traps, and discovered murals and visions revealing the Main House’s exploitation of the Branch House and imprisoned Ōtsutsuki souls on the moon.
• Xiao fused the Covenant Stone fragments, gained access to the Giant Lunar Tenseigan, and projected his vision to Konoha, where he overheard Hiashi and the elders planning to make him a vessel for the Giant Tenseigan.
• Kurenai helped stabilize Xiao’s humanity, but Xiao then saw a vision of her dead with Asuma standing over her.
• Xiao used the Pact Stone to weaken the Branch House’s Caged Bird Seals and show its members memories of the Moon Main House’s sacrifices, prompting Koichi and others to rebel against Hiashi.
• Xiao sent Kurenai to contact Gekko Hayate and Kakashi Hatake, then headed for the Land of Hot Water to investigate Danzo’s evidence and the masked ANBU as Pain ordered Akatsuki to accelerate its Tailed Beasts capture plan.