Chapter Summaries

Yayoi demonstrated Puppet Technique to Chiyo and the nine other Hidden Sand exchange students in a sparring exercise. The students were mostly defeated, but Formless destroyed his puppet and Chiyo began to see the technique’s value.

• Oishi rebuked Chiyo for dismissing Puppet Technique, and Yayoi announced that he would teach the exchange students through a demonstration battle.
• The ten Hidden Sand youths introduced themselves, including Chiyo’s quiet brother Ebizo and the older Formless, whose tattoo resembled Shamon’s.
• Chiyo charged the puppets, prompting the other students to join her, while Yayoi matched each puppet’s speed and strength to its opponent.
• Three students were quickly pinned, and Chiyo struggled to get past the puppets as their unnatural movements and concealed weapons thwarted her attacks.
• Formless destroyed his puppet by turning the surrounding ground into yellow quicksand, while Ebizo was defeated by the two halves of his own puppet.
• Yayoi stopped the battle and called Chiyo’s contest a draw, leaving the Hidden Sand students impressed by the puppets’ resilience and surprise attacks.

Yayoi discovered that Formless had extraordinary talent for Puppet Technique and ordered Irori to raise his monitoring level to A-rank. He then traveled with Izayoi and Yaya to Spider Mountain, where Tsuchigumo showed them the Chakra Tree that had drained the Third-Generation Tsuchigumo’s life force for Yayoi’s third life embryo.

• Yayoi found that Formless had progressed faster than Chiyo and the other Hidden Sand Village exchange students, mastering combat with one puppet and beginning to control a second.
• Yayoi suspected Formless might be the legendary puppeteer Monzaemon and instructed Irori to monitor him at A-rank.
• Yayoi set out with Izayoi and Yaya for Spider Forest, the hidden territory of the Tsuchigumo Clan.
• Izayayo was astonished by Spider Forest’s Chakra Trees and natural genjutsu barrier before the group reached Spider Mountain’s isolated sanctuary.
• Tsuchigumo led Yayoi, Izayoi, and Yaya to the barren Chakra Tree whose life force had been drained while cultivating Yayoi’s third life embryo.

Yayoi checked Komurasaki’s developing Chakra Crystal Core and visited Tsuchigumo, who eagerly sparred with Yaya. After watching their destructive fight, Yayoi offered Izayoi a summoning contract with the Tsuchigumo Clan and flustered her with a teasing explanation.

• Yayoi retrieved Komurasaki’s Chakra Crystal Core and estimated that she would finish taking shape in less than a year.
• Tsuchigumo said its Senjutsu training had stalled at fusing natural energy with its Chakra, then invited Yayoi and Yaya to spar.
• Tsuchigumo asked whether it and Yayoi could challenge Hashirama Senju, and Yayoi told it to drink less alcohol.
• Yaya and Tsuchigumo fought hand-to-hand for nearly ten minutes, wrecking the ground around them as Yayoi and Izayoi watched.
• Yayoi offered Izayoi a contract with the Tsuchigumo Clan, and she blushed when he said it was because she was cute.

Yayoi brought Izayoi into the Tsuchigumo summoning contract, then studied the clan’s ancient records and uncovered accounts linking Kaguya Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, and Yin-Yang Release. The chapter ended with Yayoi resolving to transform himself into a being like the Tailed Beasts, returning all that he was to primordial chakra.

• Izayoi signed the Tsuchigumo summoning scroll using only her given name after Tsuchigumo urged her to grow stronger.
• Tsuchigumo told Yayoi that Yaya’s strength had barely changed, and Yayoi explained that he was trying to overcome the limits of Yaya and Irori’s Chakra Cores.
• Yayoi returned to Nightview City with Yaya and Izayoi after spending two days at Spider Mountain and borrowing the Tsuchigumo Clan’s historical records.
• Yayoi read accounts identifying the Sage of Six Paths as Otsutsuki Hagoromo, son of Kaguya Otsutsuki, and describing his defeat of a ten-tailed monster.
• Yayoi connected Yin-Yang Release to the Sage’s power to create life and concluded that it was a simplified form of a greater chakra ability.
• Yayoi decided to pursue the source of chakra and become a Tailed Beast or something beyond one.

Yayoi made the Hidden Sand Village exchange students practice Taijutsu despite their desire to focus on Puppet Technique, then used a match between Formless and Tuo Luo to demonstrate why puppeteers needed close-combat skills. Tuo Luo accepted the lesson after Formless defeated him with a sudden charge, though he protested that the fight had not been Puppet Technique at all.

• Yayoi criticized the students’ Taijutsu and assigned extra practice to those with poor fundamentals.
• When a student questioned the need for Taijutsu, Yayoi called Formless and Tuo Luo forward to demonstrate a match.
• Formless and Tuo Luo fought using their puppets, with their blades clashing in midair.
• Formless blocked Tuo Luo’s puppet and charged in, knocking him down and holding a kunai to his neck.
• Yayoi declared Formless the winner, and Tuo Luo admitted Taijutsu mattered while complaining that the fight was not Puppet Technique.

Yayoi explained why puppet masters needed Taijutsu and began sorting Konoha’s new teaching materials with Irori and Izayoi. After burning books he considered propaganda, he invited Izayoi to visit the Inner Court and hinted that her clan would expect her to accept.

• Yayoi taught the exchange students that puppet masters needed Taijutsu to survive and evade attacks, since their lives were more important than their puppets.
• Yayoi assigned Formless and Chiyo to begin learning how to dismantle, assemble, and modify puppets the next day.
• Yayoi, Irori, and Izayoi sorted Konoha’s new teaching materials and burned books about the Will of Fire and the Hokage that Yayoi considered unnecessary.
• After sorting books for half a day, Yayoi took Izayoi for a walk and said they would visit the Inner Court.
• Yayoi told Izayoi she could enter the Inner Court and asked whether she wanted to disappoint her clan, leaving her flustered.

Yayoi showed Izayoi around the Inner Court, revealing its hidden Puppet Samurai guards and puppet-run kitchen. Izayoi learned that Hisana’s unusually large appetite was behind the kitchen’s enormous food preparations.

• Yayoi led Izayoi through the Inner Court, where Izayoi admired its orderly buildings and gardens.
• Izayoi noticed there were no visible guards, and Yayoi showed her that Puppet Samurai patrolled the grounds and watched the skies.
• Izayoi realized the Inner Court held a large force of armed Puppet Samurai and asked Yayoi whether it was safe to show her them.
• Yayoi took Izayoi to the kitchen, where cooking puppets prepared a huge quantity of food.
• Yayoi explained that Hisana was probably urging the kitchen staff on because she ate more than an ordinary person, and Izayoi wondered if she belonged to the Akimichi Clan.

Yayoi took Izayoi to the Inner Court training ground and sparred with her, where she used Shuriken, Fire Release, and her Sharingan but could not land a decisive attack. The fight eased Izayoi’s tension, and she left the spar feeling more confident and touched by Yayoi’s consideration.

• Yayoi showed Izayoi the training ground, where she saw the Seven-Tails sleeping beside a glass of fruit drink.
• Yayoi invited Izayoi to spar, and she opened with Shuriken before following with two Great Fireballs.
• Izayoi charged through the steam and tried to use her Sharingan, but Yayoi avoided her gaze and countered her attacks.
• Yayoi matched Izayoi’s strength in close combat until she grew exhausted, then stopped the spar.
• Izayoi recovered her confidence and realized Yayoi had sparred with her to ease her tension.

Yayoi confronted Izayoi about her mission to approach him, and she admitted that her clan had sent her to become his concubine despite not being in love with him. After accepting their political arrangement, Izayoi revealed that the Uchiha Clan distrusted Hisana, prompting Yayoi to enlist her help against Hisana.

• Yayoi asked Izayoi whether she wanted to live with him, and she grew flustered as he questioned her motives.
• Izayoi admitted that the Uchiha Clan had assigned her to approach Yayoi and agreed to fulfill her duties as his concubine.
• Yayoi asked why Hokuto and the others wanted Izayoi in his household, and she revealed their suspicions about Hisana's ties to the Senju Clan.
• Yayoi recognized that Hisana had used advice he had given her to evade the Uchiha Clan's questions, then pretended she was dangerous and asked Izayoi to help suppress her.
• Izayoi agreed to show Hisana the strength of the Uchiha Clan.

Izayoi told Hokuto and the Uchiha clan that Yayoi planned to take her as a concubine and wanted her to help suppress a woman from the Uzumaki Clan, prompting the clan to prepare for danger. Later, Uzumaki Kano came to resign and asked to see Hisana, whose meeting was interrupted when Yayoi discovered she was wearing Oboro's ninja gear.

• Izayoi told Hokuto and the Uchiha clan that Yayoi had chosen her as a concubine and wanted her to help keep the Uzumaki woman in check.
• Hokuto and the others suspected Yayoi intended to use the Uchiha against the Uzumaki and Senju-linked forces, and he urged Izayoi and the clan to stay alert.
• Uzumaki Kano visited Yayoi to resign after helping establish the Land of Night's Medical Ninjutsu system, and Yayoi thanked him for his service.
• Yayoi asked Hisana to meet Kano, and she reluctantly agreed before setting out with Oboro.
• Yayoi saw Hisana wearing Oboro's ninja gear and reacted with disbelief as she collapsed onto the floor.

Hisana met with Elder Kano, who warned her about the Uchiha Clan and gave her three advanced Sealing Jutsu to master. Meanwhile, Sirius learned that Izayoi was to become the General’s concubine and hurried to secure favor with her.

• Hisana arrived late to meet Elder Kano and agreed to answer the clan’s questions in exchange for gifts.
• Kano warned Hisana to be cautious around Uchiha Clan members and told her to get pregnant soon because another Uchiha girl would join the General’s household next year.
• Kano gave Hisana three advanced Sealing Jutsu and warned her that Oboro would monitor her training.
• Sirius lamented Izayoi’s transfer from Base 3 and considered asking Kakuzu to learn how she was doing.
• Sirius learned that Izayoi was the General’s intended concubine and ordered Chakra Ore sent to her as a gift from the base.

Aoi and Rinko gave birth to healthy sons, whom Yayoi named Tadayuki and Hideyuki, and Nene discovered that the newborns had extraordinary physiques and powerful life force. Yayoi took Nene to his underground laboratory and showed her a growing chakra life-form, then offered her some of his chakra to study.

• Aoi and Rinko gave birth to boys less than a day apart, and Yayoi named Aoi's son Tadayuki and Rinko's son Hideyuki.
• Nene examined the babies and found them healthy, capable of refining chakra, and physically gifted enough to have Jonin potential.
• Nene noticed the boys shared an unusually powerful life force and asked Yayoi to let her study his body.
• Yayoi led Nene into the underground complex and showed her a Chakra Crystal Core growing into a living form inside a cultivation tank.
• Yayoi explained that the chakra life-form had emerged from his exploration of chakra and involved Yin-Yang Release, then offered Nene some of his chakra to analyze.

Hisana went out with Oboro to buy snacks despite a wave of assassinations targeting officials across smaller nations. A disguised Kusagakure envoy tried to kill Hisana, but Oboro blocked him and Hisana killed him, leaving the Security Forces to investigate his identity.

• Oboro warned Hisana that assassins had been targeting officials and ninja leaders in smaller countries, but Hisana dismissed the danger as they went shopping.
• At the dessert shop, the owner handed Hisana a package and suddenly stabbed at her with a kunai.
• Oboro blocked the attack, and Hisana struck the attacker with a chakra-powered punch that killed him and exposed his true appearance.
• Security Forces officers arrived, and a Hoshigaki Clan ninja recognized the dead man as a Kusagakure Special Jonin who had recently served as an envoy to Nightview City.
• Oboro arranged for Hisana to be escorted back to the General's Residence while the Security Forces took charge of the scene.

After Hisana killed a Kusagakure envoy who tried to assassinate her, Yayoi reassured her and sent Kicho to investigate the upheaval in Kusagakure and negotiate an apology, a break with the culprit, and compensation. Hisana thanked Oboro for protecting her, then invited her to join her and Yayoi that night, leaving Oboro flustered but thinking of her clan’s future.

• Yayoi and Kicho found Hisana unharmed but distressed after she accidentally killed the Kusagakure envoy who had tried to assassinate her.
• Yayoi and Kicho told Hisana she was the victim and agreed that the envoy had likely acted with accomplices who had surveilled her for months.
• Yayoi ordered Kicho to travel to Kusagakure, investigate what had changed there, and seek an apology, a break with the culprit, and appropriate compensation.
• Yayoi and Kicho left to handle the aftermath, while Oboro reassured Hisana that she had done nothing wrong.
• Hisana thanked Oboro for intercepting the attack and invited her to join her and Yayoi that night, leaving Oboro embarrassed as she considered the invitation a duty to her clan.

Kicho investigated the attack on the Land of Night by visiting war-torn Kusagakure and learned that its missing ninja, Black Fang, had acted as an assassin. After Kusagakure disavowed him, Yayoi suspected that a secret alliance of exiled, defeated ninja was targeting the established order, and expected the Five Kage to respond.

• Kicho arrived in devastated Kusagakure and met its new leader, Kyoukotsu, who explained that an attack had killed the previous leader and some officials had defected.
• Kicho discovered Mu and Iwagakure ninja searching Kusagakure's archives for Black Fang, a missing Jonin suspected of trying to assassinate the Tsuchikage.
• Kyoukotsu confirmed Black Fang's identity and learned from Kicho that he had attempted to assassinate Hisana in the Land of Night.
• Kicho searched Kusagakure's records for Black Fang's associates and movements, then returned to the Land of Night with information and Kyoukotsu's promise of a public apology.
• Kyoukotsu branded Black Fang a rogue ninja and severed Kusagakure's ties with him, while Yayoi concluded that multiple groups might be sowing discord across the Ninja World.
• Yayoi theorized that exiled losers from ninja villages had formed a secret alliance, and told Kicho to wait for the Five Kage to act.

Yayoi traveled secretly to Konoha to join representatives of the great ninja villages in planning an operation against a network of exiled ninja behind recent assassinations and attacks. The meeting ended with the revelation that Kumogakure’s Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Hirubi, had joined the group and was trying to overthrow Raikage A.

• Yayoi arrived in Konoha with Yaya and joined Tobirama, Mu, Shamon, and Hozuki Gengetsu for a secret meeting.
• Hashirama Senju and Raikage A joined the meeting, where A explained that exiled ninja from several villages had orchestrated recent attacks and killings.
• Tobirama said Konoha had located the group’s base and proposed a covert strike by small elite teams, which the representatives accepted.
• A revealed that his cousin Hirubi, Kumogakure’s Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, had joined the group and intended to defeat A and seize control of the village.
• The representatives exchanged intelligence on dangerous enemy ninja, and Yayoi reviewed Hirubi’s file before preparing for the operation.

Hirubi watched the exiled Shinobi quarrel over their failed plans to seize villages until Mu and the allied forces launched an assault on their island fortress. Irori sealed the island in ice as the joint operation exterminated the rebels, leaving Yayoi to observe the other fighters’ techniques.

• Hirubi concluded that the exiled Shinobi could not work together, but he still needed their support to return to Hidden Cloud Village and defeat A.
• Mu attacked the meeting hall with Dust Release, erasing Shinobi as the rebels recognized his technique and tried to flee.
• Gengetsu killed fleeing Hidden Mist Village Shinobi with explosive bubble spheres while other allied forces swept through the fortress.
• Irori froze the forest, fortress, and surrounding sea, trapping the rebels on the island and freezing those who escaped the main battle.
• Shamon, Gengetsu, Yayoi, and Yaya fought across the frozen island as the allied forces hunted down the remaining rebels.

Hirubi fled Kumogakure after Mu attacked the conference room, but Raikage A intercepted him and tried to bring him back. Hirubi joined with the Eight-Tails and transformed, but A overwhelmed the beast and left Hirubi battered.

• A confronted Hirubi on the frozen shore and urged him to return to Kumogakure, but Hirubi accused A of betraying him and refused.
• Hirubi released the Eight-Tails' chakra, and together they transformed into the Eight-Tails and attacked A.
• A blocked the Eight-Tails' strike and struck the beast repeatedly with lightning-fast attacks.
• The Eight-Tails began forming a Tailed-Beast Bomb, but A hit it before it could fire, causing the bomb to explode at point-blank range.
• The Eight-Tails crashed to the ground and withdrew its chakra, revealing Hirubi's battered body.

A defeated Hirubi was captured after the Eight-Tails withdrew its chakra, while A reflected on the dangerous factions still hidden within the villages. After the allied forces destroyed the conspirators, Tobirama and Yayoi discussed how their countries might handle future threats and succession.

• The Eight-Tails refused to lend Hirubi more chakra, and A knocked Hirubi unconscious when he tried to undo his seal.
• A had a Hidden Cloud Village Jonin bind Hirubi with a sealing technique and planned to take him back to Kumogakure.
• The elite joint squad of the Five Great Nations and the Land of Night wiped out more than six hundred enemy ninja and gathered the bodies for destruction.
• Tobirama told Yayoi he expected the Ninja Academy to help civilian ninja grow and bring new strength to Konoha.
• Tobirama warned Yayoi that the Land of Night depended on capable heirs, and Yayoi replied that Konoha should prepare its next-next Hokage.

Yayoi oversaw the Land of Night’s renewed ties with Kusagakure while Konoha established a Military Police Force dominated by the Uchiha Clan. After spending time with Nene in his laboratory’s lounge, he asked her to help with experiments.

• Yayoi noted that Kusagakure had apologized and paid compensation for the assassination, while the Land of Night and Hidden Rock Village let the matter pass.
• Hashirama announced Konoha’s new Military Police Force, naming Uchiha Clan head Kuto as captain and assigning the Uchiha three quarters of its members.
• Tobirama explained to Hashirama that involving other clans would restrain the Uchiha and help integrate the village.
• Yayoi and Nene extended their time together in the laboratory lounge by an hour.
• Yayoi asked Nene to join him in conducting experiments.