Chapter Summaries

Xiao defeated Orochimaru's clone with his evolving Tenseigan Prototype, then escaped as the laboratory self-destructed and released dangerous Hashirama Cell tissue. He left with memorized experimental evidence and decided to investigate the secret beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.

• Xiao saw through and shattered Orochimaru's clone's Myriad Forest Realm illusion with his Half-Step Tenseigan Prototype.
• Xiao used Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms to destroy the clone and strip away the vitality of its Hashirama Cells and altered Byakugan.
• Before disintegrating, Orochimaru's clone told Xiao that something beneath the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine would explain his evolving eyes.
• Xiao escaped the laboratory as its self-destruct sequence released Hashirama Cell tissue and destroyed the facility.
• Xiao realized the Caged Bird Seal had reacted to his power, preserved experimental records on a scroll, and resolved to visit the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine.
• Konoha's ANBU arrived at the forest, sealed off the area, and ordered an investigation into what was buried there.

Hyuga Xiao rescued Hyuga Rei from Orochimaru’s exploding laboratory, where she had been subjected to Hashirama Cell experiments, and escaped with her and the stolen records. After accepting a mission to protect Rei as her mutated Byakugan developed, Xiao prepared to face unknown figures approaching their hiding place.

• Xiao rescued the unconscious Hyuga Rei, broke Root’s seal on the experimental records, and fled the laboratory before its self-destruction.
• Xiao killed three Root shinobi guarding the escape route and shielded Rei from the laboratory’s explosion with his Revolving Heaven.
• Xiao stabilized Rei’s Hashirama Cell fusion by guiding her chakra, and the two escaped as ANBU began investigating the ruins.
• Xiao read records revealing that Root, the Hyuga Main House, and Orochimaru had experimented on Branch House members, and learned Rei could develop a Wood Release: Byakugan Kekkei Genkai.
• Xiao accepted the system’s mission to protect Rei, then woke her when three unknown figures approached their cave; Rei chose to fight so she could survive.

Hyuga Xiao stabilized Hyuga Rei and helped Tsunade remove the White Tissue from Withered Wood, learning that it could imitate Hyuga chakra meridians. As Danzo began moving again, Xiao left the hospital determined to act while Withered Wood showed a fleeting sign of lingering White Tissue.

• Hyuga Xiao used the Star-Meridian Suppression Lock to temporarily stabilize Rei and found records linking Hashirama Cell symbiosis to Hyuga chakra.
• Tsunade brought Xiao a Hashirama Cell sample, and he realized Danzo had purified it before handing it over.
• Xiao used an external Mimetic Meridian Network to lure the White Tissue out of Withered Wood, and Tsunade sealed it in a scroll.
• Withered Wood survived but suffered permanent organ and chakra-meridian damage, then warned Xiao and Tsunade that the White Tissue could learn and imitate Hyuga chakra meridians.
• Xiao concealed his investigation from Tsunade and saw a Root-marked raven fly toward the Hokage Tower as he prepared to make his move.
• After Xiao left, Withered Wood opened his eyes briefly with a faint milky-white glimmer.

Tsunade confronted Hyuga Xiao about his knowledge and learned that he was investigating the Hyuga Main House’s exploitation of the Branch House and seeking a way to remove his Caged Bird Seal. She recruited him as her assistant to investigate the experiments and Nawaki’s death, while they planned to protect Xiao and force the Third to intervene.

• Tsunade questioned Hyuga Xiao about his abilities, and he revealed his Caged Bird Seal and his fear that the Main House was exploiting Branch House members.
• Xiao showed Tsunade a report alleging that the Caged Bird Seal siphoned Branch House ocular power to strengthen the Main House, and he described suspicious deaths and experiments involving Branch House members.
• Tsunade agreed to make Xiao her assistant and proposed using the stolen report’s original location to prompt the Third to intervene, while arranging Xiao’s official transfer to the Medical Division.
• Tsunade asked Xiao to investigate Nawaki’s death in exchange for her help, and Xiao agreed.
• Xiao told Tsunade he would take Ling somewhere safe, then left with his Medical Division pass and instructions to report the next morning.

Hyuga Xiao revealed that Orochimaru intended to use Anko’s Curse Mark as a signal relay to trigger chaos in Leaf Village, then implanted an improved Vitality Seed to help her resist and trace the control signal. Anko and Xiao exposed Gekko Hayate as one of Orochimaru’s informants, and Xiao captured him as the search for the wider spy network began.

• Xiao showed Anko Orochimaru’s records, which identified her as a relay node meant to activate Curse Mark users during the Chunin Ninja Exams.
• Anko accepted Xiao’s plan, and Xiao implanted the Vitality Seed, warning that he would kill her if Orochimaru’s control made her a puppet.
• Xiao sent Anko to meet Orochimaru’s contact beneath the third bridge pier by the Naka River, where he followed her in secret.
• Anko discovered that Gekko Hayate had betrayed Leaf Village because Orochimaru had promised to heal Uzuki Yugao.
• Xiao attacked Hayate, defeated him, sealed his chakra points, and said he would be handed over to the ANBU Interrogation Division.

Anko and Hyuga Xiao uncovered Hayate’s ties to Orochimaru and accelerated the Vitality Seed’s disguise inside Anko’s Curse Mark. After Anko recovered memories linking Hayate to a red moon, Xiao planned to capture him during the Forest of Death chaos and learn what Orochimaru knew about the Curse Mark and the Hyuga Clan.

• Hayate ordered Anko to cause chaos in the Forest of Death, while Xiao observed their meeting and detected a Curse Mark-like energy node in Hayate.
• Xiao found and sealed Hayate’s surveillance talisman, then told Anko he would accelerate the Vitality Seed’s assimilation despite the risks.
• Hayate reported Xiao’s interference to Orochimaru, who ordered him to continue the plan and let Xiao get involved.
• At Xiao’s safehouse, Xiao used his chakra to target the Curse Mark’s primary node, allowing the Vitality Seed to finish disguising itself.
• Anko recalled Orochimaru calling Hayate his most successful creation and mentioning a red moon, prompting Xiao to plan to capture Hayate during the coming Forest of Death chaos.
• Xiao gave Anko a sealing kunai and prepared experimental bone armor and blades for the coming confrontation.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered evidence that the Forbidden Ground beneath the Ancestral Shrine might be tied to the Caged Bird Seal and the stolen ocular power of Branch House members. After Rei helped him prepare to sense the hidden lifeform, Xiao set out to infiltrate the bamboo grove as it began to awaken.

• Hyuga Xiao studied the shrine’s guard schedule and old blueprint, then learned from Rei that a powerful lifeform lay beneath the bamboo grove.
• Rei revealed that her altered eyes could sense life and that the underground presence was overwhelmed by sorrow, anger, and despair.
• Hyuga Xiao searched the clan medical archives and found records linking the Forbidden Ground to a curse mark resembling the Caged Bird Seal and to a quarterly supply of ocular power.
• Hyuga Xiao mapped a brief barrier gap and prepared a Mimetic Barrier to enter the Forbidden Ground.
• Rei gave Hyuga Xiao pills that could help him detect emotional waves, and he set out for the bamboo grove as the hidden lifeform began to awaken.

Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Ancestral Shrine and discovered that the Main House had harvested the Branch House’s Byakugan for generations to strengthen its bloodline and sustain a mummified corpse with traces of Tenseigan power. After promising the dead Branch House members revenge, he left to learn more and planned to meet Hyuga Neji, a child who had survived an experiment.

• Xiao slipped past the shrine’s barrier and entered an underground chamber beneath the ancient well.
• Xiao found hundreds of Branch House Byakugan sealed in crystals and chakra conduits feeding their power to the Main House.
• Xiao saw a mummified corpse with traces of Tenseigan power beneath the altar and read records describing lethal experiments on Branch House children.
• The dead Branch House members’ lingering consciousnesses resonated with Xiao and demanded revenge, and he promised to make the Main House pay.
• Xiao returned to the surface and headed toward Hyuga Rei’s medical room, carrying records that identified Hyuga Neji as a child who had survived an experiment.

Hyuga Xiao received the dead Branch House members’ Byakugan power and learned that the Caged Bird Seal had enabled the Main House to plunder their bloodline for a thousand years. He met the altar’s ancient guardian, Ōtsutsuki Zongqing, who revealed that the Curse Mark’s origin was carved on the moon and that the altar’s core could only halt the extraction temporarily.

• Hyuga Xiao heard the dead Branch House members’ memories and discovered that the Main House had turned the Pupil-Gathering Array into a ritual for forcibly stealing their eye power.
• The dead entrusted their Byakugan origin power and unfinished struggle to Hyuga Xiao, raising his Byakugan purity to 65% and weakening his Caged Bird Seal by 30%.
• Hyuga Xiao approached the Pupil Essence Core to stop the altar, but chains beneath the platform broke and an ancient figure emerged.
• The figure told Hyuga Xiao that destroying the Pupil Essence Core would temporarily stop the extraction from living Branch House members.
• The guardian identified himself as Ōtsutsuki Zongqing and revealed that his elder brother, Ōtsutsuki Zongshou, had carved the Curse Mark’s origin runes onto the moon.

Hyuga Xiao learned from Hyuga Kaguya’s memories that the Hyuga Main House had plundered Branch House eye power for a thousand years to maintain contact with the moon, and that an Ōtsutsuki Observer Envoy could arrive within ten years. He destroyed the altar and freed the sacrificed souls, then discovered a hidden eye watching him from inside the Ancestral Shrine.

• Hyuga Xiao touched the remains and relived Hyuga Kaguya’s memories of the Branch House’s exploitation and the Main House’s sacrifices.
• Hyuga Kaguya warned Hyuga Xiao that the Ōtsutsuki Main House would send an Observer Envoy within ten years and that Hyuga Hiashi’s study held a Beacon connecting the clan to the moon.
• The Branch House souls infused Hyuga Xiao with eye power, raising his Byakugan purity from 65% to 70% and advancing his Caged Bird Seal analysis from 30% to 45%.
• Hyuga Kaguya’s remains yielded the Byakugan Origin Essence, which Hyuga Xiao used to destroy the altar and sever the thousand-year plundering system.
• Hyuga Xiao escaped as the underground altar collapsed and the souls of the sacrificed Branch House members faded away.
• Hyuga Xiao spotted a hidden crystal sphere containing a white eyeball that had been watching the underground passage from inside the Ancestral Shrine.

Hyuga Xiao discovered and concealed the altar’s Surveillance Eye, but Hyuga Hiashi detected his Tenseigan and activated his Second-Level Curse Mark. Xiao resisted, destroyed the altar, absorbed the remains’ information, and escaped as Hiashi declared him a traitor and ordered his death.

• Hyuga Xiao used Tenseigan Perception to find the Surveillance Eye and replaced the images it transmitted with an illusion.
• Hyuga Xiao gained control permissions from the Origin Essence while Hyuga Hiashi identified the tampered eye and activated Xiao’s Second-Level Curse Mark.
• Hyuga Xiao resisted the Curse Mark with Tenseigan Chakra and destroyed the Origin Essence, collapsing the altar and its plundering system.
• Hyuga Xiao absorbed the remains and received fragmentary information about an Observer Envoy, a Moon Passage, and coordinates, then fled through a hidden passage.
• Hyuga Hiashi found the altar destroyed and ordered the clan to kill Hyuga Xiao on sight.

Hyuga Xiao’s Second-Level Caged Bird Seal activated after his Byakugan power surged at the Ancestral Shrine, leaving him with less than two days to live. With Orochimaru’s help, Xiao learned that a counter-seal guide might be in the Forbidden Technique Archive and set out to steal it.

• Hyuga Xiao’s Curse Mark began draining his chakra and life force, and the Tenseigan only partially suppressed it.
• Xiao summoned Orochimaru’s consciousness from a sealed Curse Mark fragment and asked how to delay the Second-Level Caged Bird Seal.
• Orochimaru deduced that the altar’s boost to Xiao’s ocular power had triggered the seal and proposed using stronger Byakugan power with an operating guide to reverse-erode it.
• Orochimaru offered the location and layout of the Forbidden Technique Archive in exchange for a copy of the scroll and Xiao’s future help.
• Xiao accepted the deal, gathered supplies, and left for the Hokage Tower to steal the counter-seal scroll.

Hyuga Xiao bargained with Orochimaru’s fragment for a way to escape the Level-Two Caged Bird Seal and used the fragment’s help to buy time. After confirming that Hiashi’s right eye held the control rune, Xiao was discovered, leaving the hunt underway.

• Hyuga Xiao threatened Orochimaru’s fragment with his embryonic Tenseigan and agreed to provide a body with Hashirama Cells in exchange for a way to break the seal.
• The fragment revealed that Hiashi’s right pupil contained the control rune and that Xiao had to remove the eye while Hiashi was alive, then overwrite the rune within three minutes.
• Xiao gave the fragment 500 milliliters of blood, allowing it to divert some of the Curse Mark’s drain and give him seven days to prepare.
• Xiao activated a stolen Chakra Interference Array and used a crystal from the altar to borrow the perspectives of Branch House Byakugan and inspect Hiashi’s right eye.
• Hiashi detected Xiao through the borrowed viewpoint, shattering the crystal and ending the vision, but Xiao vowed to take Hiashi’s eye within seven days.

Hyuga Xiao learned that the Curse Mark would kill him within days, so Tsunade used her Yin Seal chakra to buy him time and agreed to distract Hiashi. Xiao prepared to infiltrate the White-Eyed Chamber for the Caged Bird Seal’s original designs, leaving the story hours before his planned operation.

• Hyuga Xiao contacted Tsunade, who examined his Curse Mark and determined he had at most forty-eight hours without intervention.
• Tsunade infused Xiao with Yin Seal chakra, slowing the Curse Mark and extending his survival time to three days.
• Xiao told Tsunade he intended to destroy the Caged Bird Seal, and she revealed that its original designs might be stored in the White-Eyed Chamber.
• Tsunade agreed to keep Hiashi occupied at the Hokage Tower while Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Clan Grounds, and she gave him medical supplies.
• Xiao recruited Hyuga Takashi to cause a diversion at nine ten the next morning and spread a message of rebellion among trusted Branch House members.
• Xiao returned to his hideout, prepared for the operation, and considered the secrets that might await him in the White-Eyed Chamber.

Hyuga Xiao infiltrated the Hyuga Main House's White-Eyed Chamber to seek a way to break his Caged Bird Seal, while Tsunade agreed to distract Hiashi and the elders. Xiao entered the forbidden chamber, where an unseen voice welcomed him as a child of the Branch House.

• Hyuga Xiao told Tsunade he had three days to break the Curse Mark or die, and they planned for Tsunade to confront the Hyuga Main House while he searched the White-Eyed Chamber.
• Xiao prepared a self-destructive reverse seal as a last resort, then gave Mitaraishi Anko Hyuga Rei's bell and heard Rei's message that she would grow strong enough to stand beside him.
• Hyuga Hiashi learned Tsunade had joined Xiao and ordered the estate sealed, Xiao branded an S-rank rogue ninja, and the Ancestral Shrine and White-Eyed Chamber defenses strengthened.
• Xiao used a forbidden ocular technique that cost him three years of life to see through the White-Eyed Chamber's seven barriers, then slipped past them and opened its stone door.
• Xiao entered the White-Eyed Chamber, where the Caged Bird Seal heated on his forehead and a voice from the darkness welcomed him as a child of the Branch House.

Hyuga Xiao uncovered the Caged Bird Seal’s origins and learned that breaking it required the current Main House clan head’s right eye and would draw the moon’s attention. After collapsing the White-Eyed Chamber’s illusion and escaping with the original seal design, he faced the Main House guards, intent on fighting through them and taking Hiashi’s eye.

• Hyuga Xiao entered the White-Eyed Chamber and saw visions revealing that the Main House had altered the Caged Bird Seal to harvest the Branch House’s Byakugan and bloodline power.
• The chamber revealed that Hiashi had used the Second-Level Curse Mark to drain Xiao’s ocular power and delay the moon’s prophesied cleansing.
• Xiao memorized the complete Curse Mark design while Hiashi confronted him and defended the Main House’s exploitation of the Branch House as a necessary sacrifice.
• Xiao shattered the Starry Sky Illusion Realm’s foundation, causing Hiashi’s image to disappear as he warned that the moon had detected Xiao.
• Xiao found a scroll explaining that the Caged Bird Seal could be broken by sacrificing the current Main House clan head’s right eye and using Tenseigan ocular power to overwrite its control runes.
• Xiao left the chamber and prepared to fight the approaching Main House guards so he could reach Hiashi and take his eye.

Xiao reversed the Caged Bird Seal’s control, absorbed the eye power of the Main House’s Byakugan, and defeated Hiashi. After removing the seal, he learned that the Hyuga Main House had been raising the Shinobi World’s people as livestock for the Lunar Main House, and left to face the threat himself.

• Hiashi revealed that the Branch House was cultivated as a sacrifice and that he had planned to harvest Xiao’s Tenseigan potential.
• Hiashi used Byakugan: Pressure to pin Xiao down and began activating the Caged Bird Seal’s harvesting mode.
• Xiao reversed the seal’s conduit, absorbed the power of the chamber’s 365 Byakugan, and awakened stronger Tenseigan abilities.
• Xiao shattered Hiashi’s Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, gouged out his right eye, and seized the Caged Bird Seal’s control core.
• The system reported that Xiao had removed the Second-Level Curse Mark and unlocked Truth-Seeking Orb Prototype and Eye-Power Devouring abilities.
• Xiao told Hiashi that the Lunar Main House was feeding eye power to something and left the ruins, saying he would face the Lunar Main House.

Hyuga Xiao escaped the Hyuga Main House after injuring Hiashi and destroying the clan’s barrier, but the Caged Bird Seal and his injuries left him near death. Hunted by the Hyuga, Hiruzen, and Danzō, he sought help at one of Orochimaru’s hidden Konoha outposts and came face to face with Orochimaru.

• Hyuga Xiao redirected the stored chakra in his seal into Hiashi’s right eye, then used the brief disruption to break free and escape the White-Eyed Chamber.
• Hyuga Xiao repelled six guards, fought through a thirty-seven-ninja encirclement, and shattered the clan’s barrier with his Tenseigan before escaping into Konoha.
• Hiashi ordered the Main House to hunt Hyuga Xiao and requested an S-Rank wanted order, while Hiruzen issued an A-Rank order and authorized lethal force.
• Hyuga Xiao, badly injured and with less than two days to live, chose to seek medicine and information at Orochimaru’s hidden outpost, the Serpent Den.
• Danzō secretly sent three Root squads to find Hyuga Xiao alive, hoping to obtain his eyes and learn the Hyuga Clan’s secrets.
• Hyuga Xiao entered the Serpent Den, where Orochimaru welcomed him from the darkness.

Hyuga Xiao fled the Hyuga Clan Grounds but was cornered until Tsunade intervened under orders to investigate the Caged Bird Seal. Tsunade secured his release as an investigation subject, then gave him a Flying Raijin Kunai so he could escape to the Forest of Death.

• Hyuga Xiao evaded the Main House pursuers through the Branch House district and training grounds, using decoys, traps, and smoke to escape their attacks.
• Ko Hyuga and the Main House forces cornered Xiao at the clan barrier, where Ko revealed that the Caged Bird Seal prevented him from crossing it.
• Tsunade arrived and invoked her investigation into forbidden human experimentation and the Caged Bird Seal to stop the Main House from executing Xiao.
• Xiao agreed to cooperate as a Leaf Village ninja and investigation subject, and Ko allowed Tsunade to take him away rather than risk attacking her.
• After leaving the clan grounds, Tsunade gave Xiao a Flying Raijin Kunai and directed him to a marked tree hollow in the Forest of Death.
• Xiao used the kunai to teleport away as Tsunade created a distraction for the pursuing Main House ninja.

Hyuga Xiao treated his poisoned wound in Tsunade’s hidden shelter and discovered that breaking the Caged Bird Seal required a control fragment from Hyuga Hiashi’s right eye. Gekko Hayate offered Orochimaru’s Sub-Seal and a deal involving the Chunin Ninja Exams, leaving Xiao with seven days to survive as Main House pursuers closed in.

• Hyuga Xiao entered Tsunade’s concealed tree shelter, treated his poisoned shoulder, and studied the Caged Bird Seal blueprint.
• Xiao realized he needed a control seal fragment from Hyuga Hiashi’s right eye and began searching for a way to delay the Curse Mark.
• Gekko Hayate found Xiao and offered Orochimaru’s Sub-Seal, which would suppress the Curse Mark for seven days.
• Xiao accepted the Sub-Seal and learned that Orochimaru wanted him to summon an incomplete Hashirama Senju at the Chunin Ninja Exams, then use the chaos to kill Hiashi and take his eye.
• Xiao returned to the shelter as Tokuma Hyuga and the Main House pursuers approached.