Chapter Summaries

Nagato tested the power of his Sharingan eye, Ofutone, against Orochimaru and discovered that it greatly enhanced his techniques and combat abilities. After Nagato seized Orochimaru in the steam-shrouded sea, he realized the eye’s original power belonged to Izuna’s right eye.

• Orochimaru shed his skin to ambush Nagato, but Nagato’s enhanced Water Dragon Bullet battered him into the sea.
• Nagato explained that Ofutone continuously strengthened taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu while his eye remained open.
• Orochimaru unleashed the Myriad Snake Formation, but Nagato’s Majestic Destroyer Flame overwhelmed it and forced Orochimaru to summon Rashomon.
• Orochimaru used steam, giant snakes, and a shuriken technique to attack Nagato, who evaded the assaults with precise movements.
• Nagato dodged Orochimaru’s surprise Kusanagi Sword strike, seized his throat, and identified the eye’s power as originally belonging to Izuna’s right eye.

Nagato tested the ocular techniques of Madara and Izuna’s Mangekyō Sharingan against Orochimaru, revealing powers that could confine space and magnify existing pain. After enduring both abilities and healing with the Shedding Skin Technique, Orochimaru asked whether the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan could produce entirely new ocular techniques.

• Nagato used Otonobe to read Orochimaru’s movements and explained how the right-eye technique had made Uchiha Izuna difficult to defeat.
• Nagato confined the space around Orochimaru with Michi-kaeshi Ōkami and pierced his shoulder with Black Rods, then explained that the technique could suppress space-time abilities.
• Nagato activated Izuna’s Amatsu Ukemikoto through eye contact, magnifying Orochimaru’s real shoulder pain ten thousandfold and forcing him to his knees.
• Orochimaru endured the pain and used the Shedding Skin Technique to restore his body.
• Orochimaru asked Nagato whether the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan could produce entirely new ocular techniques.

Nagato concealed the newly awakened Ayakashi technique while challenging Orochimaru to reveal his own power. Orochimaru transformed into the Eight Branches Technique, and Nagato answered with Susanoo before preparing to show its full strength.

• Nagato discovered that Ayakashi could sacrifice ten years of the caster’s life to doom a target to die within three years, and he speculated that Madara might have used it on Hashirama Senju.
• Nagato told Orochimaru he had not sensed the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan’s ocular technique, then demanded that Orochimaru reveal a trump card in exchange for seeing another power stirring in Nagato’s eyes.
• Orochimaru transformed into the massive eight-headed serpent form of the Eight Branches Technique while Konan watched from afar.
• Nagato summoned a basic Susanoo, and its twin blades severed two serpent heads before they regenerated.
• Orochimaru’s serpent heads battered Susanoo while Nagato’s blades cut into the serpent, and both fighters quickly regenerated their damage.
• Orochimaru asked to see Susanoo’s true power, and Nagato closed and reopened his eyes before agreeing to grant his wish.

Nagato tested Madara’s eye power and reached Susanoo’s Complete Body Critical Form, but learned he could not complete it because he was not the eyes’ original owner. Back at the base, Kabuto reported that Feng would be born three months early, while a red-haired figure arrived outside Amegakure.

• Nagato used his immense chakra to force Madara’s Susanoo into its Complete Body Critical Form, then stopped when the strain on his eyes became unbearable.
• Nagato concluded that he needed either to awaken his own Sharingan and Rinnegan through Feng or find a way to make Madara’s eyes function at their original owner’s level.
• Orochimaru argued that Complete Body Susanoo had limited practical use, and Nagato ended the test before returning with Orochimaru and Konan to the experimental base.
• Kabuto reported that Feng was developing rapidly and would be born three months early, while remaining healthy.
• Nagato realized Feng’s new due date fell in October of Konoha’s fifty-second year, the month of a major event in the former timeline.
• A red-haired figure arrived outside the village and said he had come as promised.

Nagato and Konan welcomed Sasori to Amegakure, where he challenged them to a contest of arts. Konan went to meet him and discovered he was hiding inside a massive Human Puppet, while Nagato recognized the puppet’s body as someone unexpected.

• Konan served abalone soup to Nagato and Pain Rin, who ate their fill.
• Nagato sensed Sasori arriving in Amegakure exactly six months after their previous meeting.
• Sasori learned that the villagers revered Lord Pain and then hid his chakra in the western district to invite a duel of arts.
• Nagato sent Konan to confront Sasori and had Pain A emerge from the tower’s morgue to assist.
• Konan found Sasori inside a huge, chakra-masking Human Puppet and criticized his lack of innovation.
• Nagato watched the encounter through a crystal ball and realized Sasori had found a dead man’s body.

Konan fought Sasori’s Suikazan Fuguki puppet in Amegakure’s West District, overcoming its defenses with a prepared trap and her new techniques. She unleashed Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, while Kakuzu focused on his plans for the district as explosions shook the village.

• Sasori’s Suikazan Fuguki puppet withstood Konan’s paper spears and used prepared water and fire attacks to keep her at a distance.
• Konan deduced how the puppet’s attacks and defenses worked, then collapsed the platform beneath it to bring it down.
• Konan used her Water Release: Amniotic Fluid Shield to protect herself from the flames and counter her paper body’s weakness to fire.
• Konan surrounded the puppet with paper bearing explosive-tag formulas and activated Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
• The explosions engulfed buildings in Amegakure’s West District as Kakuzu dismissed the disturbance and considered his plan for a major industrial park there.

Konan and Pain A fought Sasori’s Fugu Scorpion puppet in the West District, disabling its weapons and exposing Sasori’s escape mechanism. Sasori then unleashed a new technique that trapped Pain A in golden lightning tendrils as a greatsword struck at his neck.

• Konan’s explosive tags damaged Fugu Scorpion, but Sasori activated its Spiral Blades and suction vortex, dragging her paper body toward them.
• Pain A destroyed the suction mechanism with Asura Path: Lightning Snipe, and Konan severed the Spiral Blades’ shaft with her paper wheel.
• Suikazan Fuguki’s puppet attacked Pain A with Cloud-Cutting Slash, but Pain A blocked it and pierced its armor with Hell Stab: One-Finger Nukite.
• Sasori escaped through the puppet’s ejection mechanism, then activated Parasite Threads and blanketed the West District in thick fog.
• Golden lightning tendrils crawled up Pain A, and a greatsword struck across his neck with a clang.

Pain A confronted Sasori and his Human Puppets, but Sasori revealed his new Parasite Threads technique and joined Amegakure. Three months later, the story reached October of Konoha's fifty-second year.

• Pain A dispelled the mist and identified Raiga Kurosuki, Jūzō Biwa, and Suikazan Fuguki as Sasori's Human Puppets.
• Sasori made a dramatic entrance, then asked Pain A about the Third Kazekage and learned that he had retired after being irreparably damaged.
• Sasori explained that he had created Parasite Threads from fragments of his soul to control his Human Puppets without chakra threads.
• Pain A praised the technique, warned Sasori that separating his soul could eventually make it disappear, and welcomed him to Amegakure.
• Three months passed, bringing the Shinobi World to October of Konoha's fifty-second year.

Hiruzen reflected on Minato’s reforms to Root and met Iruka, who shared his wish to become a teacher and pass on the Will of Fire. Minato then told Hiruzen that Tsunade had returned to Konoha and gone to see the unconscious Kakashi.

• Minato reduced Root from eight battalions to four and arranged for its former members to return to clans, regain identities, or serve while atoning for crimes.
• Hiruzen remembered Nagato’s threat against Danzo and hoped Minato’s reforms would keep Danzo from provoking further conflict.
• Iruka visited Mizuki’s cenotaph with Hiruzen and explained that he wanted to become a teacher who inspired Konoha’s children.
• Hiruzen promised to attend Iruka’s Ninja Academy graduation ceremony, and Minato said he would attend too.
• Minato told Hiruzen that Tsunade had returned to Konoha and was at the hospital to examine the unconscious Kakashi.

Tsunade used medical ninjutsu to treat Kakashi, who had remained unconscious from psychological trauma, while Nagato and Orochimaru completed Feng’s cultivation and prepared to make him Nagato’s second body. Kakashi finally opened his eyes as Tsunade’s treatment continued.

• Inoichi explained that Kakashi’s injuries had healed but that trauma still kept him unconscious, and Tsunade revealed she could use medical ninjutsu again.
• Kabuto drained Feng’s cultivation tank, severed his umbilical cord, and delivered him while Konan wrapped him in robes.
• Nagato gave Kabuto a Black Rod crystal and entrusted him with the operation to synchronize Feng’s consciousness with Nagato’s as an Outer Path Pain.
• Tsunade treated Kakashi in Konoha Hospital, and Kakashi’s eyelids moved before he slowly opened his eyes.

Kakashi woke after more than half a year unconscious, but pain stopped him from recalling what he saw during the attack. Outside his room, Tsunade confronted Hiruzen about a serious injury he had concealed, and he began to reveal what happened.

• Kakashi woke in the hospital and learned from Hiruzen that more than half a year had passed since the attack.
• Tsunade arranged for Shizune to care for Kakashi while he recovered, and Inoichi asked him about the masked woman he had fought.
• Kakashi recalled using Chidori but suffered sharp pain when he tried to remember the woman's face, so Minato told him not to force himself.
• Kakashi learned that Kushina was due to give birth in ten days and that Jiraiya had returned to help Minato.
• Tsunade told Hiruzen she had returned to face the responsibility connected to Kushina, then confronted him about a serious injury and his mysterious trip three months earlier.
• Hiruzen sighed and slowly reached into his robes as Tsunade demanded the truth.

Nagato and his allies used the King of Hell to implant Feng with a Black Rod, but the procedure became a staged scare when Nagato pretended Uchiha Madara had taken control. After Konan joined Orochimaru and Kabuto in turning on Nagato, the story shifted to Tsunade, who was stunned by a green pendant Hiruzen showed her.

• Yakushi Kabuto implanted a Black Rod in Feng’s brain, and Konan placed the newborn inside the King of Hell’s mouth.
• Nagato pretended he could not dismiss the Naraka Path and claimed Uchiha Madara had taken control, while Feng cried from inside the King of Hell.
• Nagato revealed the crisis was an act, and Orochimaru and Kabuto moved to punish him after Konan said Nagato was no longer needed.
• Konan held Feng and teased her by asking whether she wanted milk, calling her Nagato.
• At Konoha Hospital, Hiruzen showed Tsunade a green pendant, leaving her visibly shocked.

Tsunade recovered her grandfather’s pendant and confronted Hiruzen about the plot that had brought it to him, then said she would leave Konoha after helping Kushina through childbirth. Meanwhile, Nagato weighed how to protect Minato’s family while securing the Nine-Tails and decided to travel to Sunagakure with Sasori.

• Tsunade realized Konan had used the pendant to draw Hiruzen out of Konoha, and she told him how she had lost it at the gambling den.
• Hiruzen denied being ambushed and asked Tsunade to respect what each of them chose not to reveal; Tsunade accepted his account for now and put the pendant back on.
• Tsunade told Hiruzen she would leave Konoha after helping Kushina through childbirth, and he directed her to work with Biwako at the birth.
• Nagato considered the approaching Nine-Tails Rebellion and concluded that he had to intervene personally to protect Minato’s family while pursuing his own goals.
• Nagato told Konan he was leaving immediately for Sunagakure and asked her to stay with Kaede while Sasori accompanied him.

Nagato explained to Sasori that he had come to the Land of Wind to ask Lady Chiyo for a technique, not to seize anything or fight Hidden Sand Village. Meanwhile, Obito revealed that Kakashi had awakened and that he had seen something interesting through his eye, leaving the sight unexplained.

• Nagato and Sasori sheltered from a sandstorm in a cave in the Land of Wind, where Sasori asked why Nagato had come to Hidden Sand Village.
• Nagato told Sasori he wanted to ask someone for a technique that was not recorded in Hidden Sand Village's secret scrolls.
• Nagato revealed that the person he wanted to meet was Sasori's grandmother, Lady Chiyo.
• Obito arrived at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path wearing a tiger-striped mask and said he planned to go to Konoha.
• Obito told the Zetsu that Kakashi had awakened and that his eye had shown him something interesting, but he did not reveal what it was.

Nagato and Sasori infiltrated Hidden Sand Village to seek Chiyo’s revival technique, but Rasa detected Pain-Mu and attacked him with Gold Dust. In Konoha, Kakashi visited the Memorial Stone and spoke to Rin about the past six months.

• Obito decided to investigate Tsunade’s return to Konoha, while White Zetsu privately mocked his interest in Kakashi.
• Nagato and Sasori reached Hidden Sand Village and sent Pain-Mu ahead with a Flying Thunder God Kunai to find Chiyo without alerting the guards.
• Pain-Mu noticed Gold Dust caught in his bandages and used his Sharingan to recognize that it might have been placed deliberately.
• Rasa told Baki he had detected an intruder with Gold Dust and unleashed a massive wave of it at Pain-Mu.
• Kakashi, newly discharged from the hospital, placed flowers at the Memorial Stone and began telling Rin about the events of the past six months.

Obito learned that Minato’s wife would give birth in three days, when the Nine-Tails’ seal would weaken, and decided to attack despite Konoha’s strong defenses. After considering Danzo as a possible ally, he chose to approach Nagato instead.

• Kakashi visited Rin’s grave and revealed that Minato’s child would be born in three days under heavy protection.
• Obito overheard Kakashi, abandoned his visit to Rin’s grave, and reported the delivery and Konoha’s defenses to Black and White Zetsu.
• White Zetsu warned that capturing the Nine-Tails would be pointless without the other Tailed Beasts sealed in the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
• Obito insisted that attacking Konoha could weaken its forces and destabilize the Shinobi World, then considered recruiting an insider to help.
• White Zetsu suggested Danzo as an ally, but Obito decided Nagato was a better choice and planned to approach him.

Pain-Mu infiltrated Sunagakure, but Rasa trapped the area and forced him to flee with Nagato and Sasori. Nagato and Sasori went to visit Granny Chiyo, while Obito arrived in Amegakure seeking Nagato and confronted the silent Pain Rin.

• Pain-Mu broke free of Rasa's Gold Dust Funeral, drained Rasa's Gold Dust clone of chakra, and entered Sunagakure using concealment.
• Rasa sealed Zone B with a Gold Dust barrier, then led the Sand shinobi in attacks intended to expose and trap the concealed enemy.
• Nagato protected Sasori with Susanoo and escaped the barrage using his Water Body Flicker Technique.
• Nagato and Sasori traveled to Granny Chiyo's home, and Sasori returned to the place he thought he would never see again.
• Obito arrived at the Amegakure tower and demanded that Pain Rin summon Nagato, then complained that she was mute.

Obito sought Nagato’s real body and proposed exploiting the weakened seal during Konoha’s Nine-Tails jinchuriki’s childbirth to destroy the village. Meanwhile, Nagato and Sasori visited Granny Chiyo in Sunagakure, where Nagato revealed that Hanzo was already dead.

• Pain Rin evaded Obito’s attempt to remove her mask and told Konan that he had come asking to speak with her real body.
• Nagato sent the Deva Path to meet Obito while Konan took Kaede to the underground base.
• Nagato and Sasori entered Granny Chiyo’s home during a diversion in Sunagakure, and Chiyo suspected they were Akatsuki and guessed they wanted an antidote for Salamander Poison.
• Chiyo refused to help the invaders and urged them to leave, but Nagato told her that Hanzo of the Salamander was already dead.
• Obito asked Nagato to attack Konoha during the Nine-Tails jinchuriki’s childbirth, and Deva Path Yahiko reacted in disbelief.

Nagato told Granny Chiyo that he had killed Hanzo and revealed that he wanted her forbidden Life Transference Reincarnation technique, though the chapter ended before he explained why. Meanwhile, Obito urged Nagato to abandon his moral objections and help attack Kushina Uzumaki and her unborn child.

• Nagato told Granny Chiyo that he had killed Hanzo, and she questioned him about his identity and the Rinnegan.
• Nagato asked Granny Chiyo to teach him Life Transference Reincarnation, and she demanded to know why he wanted the technique.
• Nagato claimed that Yakushi Kabuto had discovered the secret technique while spying in Sunagakure.
• Granny Chiyo explained that the technique sacrificed its user's life to save another and warned Nagato that threats would not make her teach it.
• Obito defended attacking the pregnant Kushina Uzumaki and her unborn child, then urged Nagato to prioritize what he called the greater good.

Nagato challenged Obito’s plan to target the Nine-Tails during Kushina’s childbirth, forcing Obito to defend his motives. Nagato then failed to persuade Grandmother Chiyo to use Life Transference Reincarnation, but introduced a mysterious woman whose identity stunned her.

• Nagato pointed out that Obito’s plan to seize the Nine-Tails first contradicted the Tailed Beast sealing order and risked provoking Konoha.
• Nagato suggested Obito was using the Eye of the Moon Plan as cover for personal resentment and framed the attack as a test of Nagato’s resolve.
• Obito refused to accept Nagato’s explanation and asked him what bearing a strong person should have.
• Nagato asked Grandmother Chiyo for Life Transference Reincarnation, but she refused because Kakashi’s father had caused the deaths of her son and daughter-in-law.
• Nagato accepted Chiyo’s refusal and asked her to meet someone; a black-robed woman revealed her face, leaving Chiyo visibly shaken.