Chapter Summaries

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.

Xiao forced Orochimaru to submit, bound him with the Star-Track Wedge, and entered Ryūchi Cave with Orochimaru and Kabuto. Inside the White Snake Sage’s flesh-like feeding organ, they found countless Byakugan staring at Xiao.

• Xiao crushed Orochimaru beneath intensified gravity and demanded a reason to spare him.
• Orochimaru revealed the White Snake Sage was shedding its skin and offered his knowledge and loyalty to survive.
• Xiao implanted the Star-Track Wedge in Orochimaru’s soul and warned that he could destroy Orochimaru and his backup Curse Marks.
• Xiao rejected Kabuto’s offer of loyalty and ordered him to help Orochimaru lead the way into Ryūchi Cave.
• The group entered a passage made of living flesh, where thousands of pupil-less Byakugan opened in the walls and fixed their gaze on Xiao.

Hyuga Xiao destroyed the White Snake Sage’s Eye-Power Marsh and absorbed the power of its stolen Byakugan. In the cavern beyond, he found Tennin Hyuga’s remains and discovered that an Ōtsutsuki Main House member had killed him with a black rod.

• Orochimaru explained that the Eye-Power Marsh held Byakugan taken from Hyuga Clan members and warned Xiao about their attacks.
• Xiao withstood the Byakugan’s mental assault, then used Universal Pull: Plunder to drain their eye power and wither the flesh walls.
• Orochimaru revived the unconscious Kabuto, and the three continued deeper into Ryuchi Cave.
• Orochimaru identified the cavern as the White Snake Sage’s Shedding Grounds, where a human skeleton lay inside a giant shed skin.
• Xiao recognized the skeleton as Tennin Hyuga and found a Yin–Yang Release Black Rod embedded in its skull, bearing the chakra of the Ōtsutsuki Main House.

Hyuga Xiao broke the Black Rod that had pinned Tennin Hyuga, and memories revealed that an Ōtsutsuki Main House member had imprisoned Tennin and left the White Snake as a watchdog. Destroying the rod freed a corrupted ancient serpent beneath Ryūchi Cave, which confronted Xiao as it emerged from the abyss.

• Orochimaru warned Hyuga Xiao that the Black Rod drew in natural energy and would destroy anyone who touched it.
• Hyuga Xiao cut through the White Snake's shed skin and pulled the Black Rod from Tennin Hyuga's brow despite its violent backlash.
• The rod's memories showed an Ōtsutsuki Main House member attacking the White Snake and imprisoning Tennin to punish his clansmen.
• Hyuga Xiao crushed the Black Rod, and Tennin's remains turned to dust as residual Byakugan Chakra entered Xiao.
• The cavern shook as the destroyed rod released the ancient serpent, and Orochimaru warned that God Tree Root poison had driven it mad.
• The enormous serpent rose from the abyss and spoke of insects coming to die, while Hyuga Xiao prepared to face it.

Hyuga Xiao confronted the White Snake Sage in Ryūchi Cave and discovered that the God Tree Core inside her had turned her into a host. The Sage awakened a mass of tomoe-marked Rinnegan, and Xiao prepared to seize its power for his eyes.

• The White Snake Sage mistook Xiao for an Ōtsutsuki and attacked him with God Tree-tainted poison, but he deflected it with Almighty Push: Star Vortex.
• Xiao demanded the God Tree Root inside the Sage, and she revealed her body had been parasitized by God Tree Roots and a flesh tumor.
• Orochimaru identified the tumor as the God Tree Core the Sage had swallowed, while Xiao said it was draining her life force.
• Xiao taunted the Sage about being a half-digested host, driving her into a frenzy.
• The tumor opened hundreds of tomoe-marked Rinnegan and unleashed a massive surge of chakra that overwhelmed Orochimaru.
• Xiao suppressed the warped space with his Tenseigan and prepared to use the Sage’s defective Rinnegan as fertilizer for his eyes.

Hyuga Xiao blocked the White Snake Sage’s attack with Shinra Tensei and began crushing its Defective Rinnegan with Banshō Ten'in. As Xiao moved to tear the God Tree Remnants from its body, the White Snake Sage drew a far greater power from beneath Ryūchi Cave.

• The White Snake Sage opened its thousand Defective Rinnegan and attacked Hyuga Xiao with a beam of destructive ocular power.
• Hyuga Xiao countered with Shinra Tensei, and his azure barrier held against the White Snake Sage’s beam as Ryūchi Cave began collapsing.
• Hyuga Xiao used Banshō Ten'in to crush the beam and damage the White Snake Sage’s eyes, forcing it to abandon its dōjutsu defense.
• The White Snake Sage anchored itself to the rock wall and drove its God Tree Roots into the golden lava veins beneath it.
• The roots drew a vastly more violent, primordial energy from deep beneath the planet.

White Snake Sage transformed the underground cavern into a God Tree Domain that drained chakra and weakened everyone inside, trapping Hyuga Xiao and Orochimaru. As Hyuga Xiao's barrier neared collapse, he identified the main roots feeding the domain and prepared to devour it and the old snake.

• The God Tree Roots drew energy from the ley lines and transformed the cavern into a living domain.
• White Snake Sage fused with the domain and sent thousands of vines to drain Hyuga Xiao's Repulsion barrier.
• Orochimaru was pinned under rubble as the domain drained his chakra and life force.
• Hyuga Xiao calmly studied the domain's attacks and suppression while his chakra steadily ran low.
• White Snake Sage's massive tentacle cracked Hyuga Xiao's barrier, but Hyuga Xiao found the main roots and resolved to devour the domain and its master.

Hyuga Xiao used his Tenseigan to evade White Snake Sage’s vines and identify the energy source sustaining her domain. He severed its main root vein, leaving White Snake Sage facing a lethal threat as her Defective Rinnegan began to unleash a destructive aura.

• As the God Tree vines drained chakra and cracked his barrier, Hyuga Xiao stayed calm and studied the domain’s energy flows.
• Hyuga Xiao dropped the barrier, compressed his chakra into his fingertip, and used gravity control to dart through the vines as they chased him.
• Hyuga Xiao followed the domain’s energy pathways to a massive root vein embedded in the ley line lava.
• Hyuga Xiao formed a Gravity Lightblade and cleanly severed the root vein, causing the vines to freeze and the domain to shudder.
• White Snake Sage convulsed as a lethal threat engulfed her, and the Defective Rinnegan on her abdomen began releasing a more ominous aura of destruction.

After Hyuga Xiao severed the God Tree’s root vein, the dying White Snake Sage sacrificed its Defective Rinnegan to unleash a Spatial Collapse. Hyuga Xiao charged straight at the void with a Golden Wheel Lightblade, leaving their collision unresolved.

• Hyuga Xiao severed the main root vein, causing the God’s Realm to wither and its chakra drain on Orochimaru to vanish.
• The White Snake Sage abandoned hope of survival and made its remaining Defective Rinnegan self-destruct, creating a Spatial Collapse.
• Orochimaru found himself unable to move as the Spatial Collapse advanced toward Hyuga Xiao.
• Hyuga Xiao condensed his chakra into a Golden Wheel Lightblade and charged at the Spatial Collapse.

Hyuga Xiao split the White Snake Sage with his golden lightsaber and tore the God Tree Mutated Tumor from its body. As he prepared to refine it, an ancient will inside the tumor invaded his mind and claimed his body.

• Hyuga Xiao used his golden lightsaber to split the Spatial Collapse and slash the White Snake Sage in two.
• Hyuga Xiao reached into the White Snake Sage's corpse and forcibly ripped out the God Tree Mutated Tumor, killing the Sage.
• Orochimaru watched Hyuga Xiao's victory from the rubble in terror and awe.
• Hyuga Xiao prepared to refine the tumor, but an ancient will erupted from it and called him an inferior descendant before claiming his body.

Hyuga Xiao resisted an ancient Ōtsutsuki will that tried to overwrite his mind and claim his body. Anchored by his bonds with Hinata and Hong, he drove the will back into the flesh tumor and prepared to consume it.

• An ancient will inside the dark-red flesh tumor invaded Hyuga Xiao's mind and tried to erase his identity and take his body.
• The invasion ignited Hyuga Xiao's suppressed Divine Erosion, and he struggled against memories and emotions being overwritten.
• Hinata and Hong's Humanity Anchors flared within Hyuga Xiao, restoring his memories and strengthening his resistance.
• Hyuga Xiao attacked the mental storm directly and tore apart the ancient will until it retreated into the tumor.
• Hyuga Xiao returned to the collapsing lava cave with the tumor in hand and contemplated how to eat it.