Chapter Summaries

After six months of brutal training, Lin Chuan reviewed his progress as the remaining trainees were assigned their first practical missions. He teamed up with Terai, and they received a mission to hunt a Chunin-level rogue ninja in Tanzaku Town.

• At the end of the sixth month, sixteen trainees gathered, and no death match was held.
• Lin Chuan checked his panel and saw that his Water chakra nature, kunai throwing, and Body Flicker Technique had reached Chunin level, while his other skills remained mostly Genin level.
• Ryūma Aburame ordered the trainees to choose partners, form two-person squads, select captains, and collect mission scrolls.
• Terai asked Lin Chuan to team up, and Lin Chuan accepted because Terai was one of the strongest trainees.
• Terai chose a mission scroll that tasked them with hunting a Chunin-level Konoha rogue ninja hiding in a Tanzaku Town casino.

Lin Chuan and Terai disguised themselves as beggars to investigate the rogue ninja working at a Tanzaku Town casino. After Tsunade gave them money, they spotted the casino thugs heading to the pleasure district and prepared to follow them.

• Ryūma Aburame warned the trainees to complete their missions within a week and reminded them that Root would hunt down any who defected.
• Lin Chuan and Terai collected supplies, traveled to Tanzaku Town, and disguised themselves as beggars to get close to the casino target.
• Tsunade gave Lin Chuan and Terai a ten-thousand-ryō note as alms while leaving the casino with Shizune.
• The casino thugs discussed robbing the beggars and said they planned to go drinking in the pleasure district that night.
• Terai nudged Lin Chuan and urged him to act after the thugs revealed their plans.

Lin Chuan and Terai tracked their mission target after casino thugs stole the money Tsunade had given them. Disguised as ANBU, they killed the thugs in the red-light district and attacked the rogue ninja, who woke and threw a smoke bomb at Lin Chuan.

• Lin Chuan and Terai left the casino to buy food, but a casino thug stole their money and drove them away.
• Lin Chuan and Terai waited outside the casino until the thugs left, then changed into ANBU uniforms and followed them to the red-light district.
• Lin Chuan secretly wrote a letter, tied it to a kunai, and returned to Terai on the rooftop above the thugs' private room.
• Lin Chuan and Terai entered the room and stabbed more than ten casino thugs through the heart, including the one who had stolen their money.
• Lin Chuan moved to kill the rogue ninja, but the target woke and threw a smoke bomb, which Lin Chuan cut open and filled the room with smoke.

Lin Chuan and Terai captured a rogue ninja in a casino, where they encountered Tsunade and Shizune. Lin Chuan killed the captive during their escape, and Tsunade realized the two children belonged to Danzo’s Root.

• Lin Chuan and Terai cornered the drunken rogue ninja, who begged Tsunade to protect him.
• The rogue ninja took Shizune hostage, but Shizune disarmed him and threw him to the floor.
• Tsunade questioned Lin Chuan and Terai about their identities, and Terai revealed they were ANBU trainees.
• Lin Chuan stabbed the rogue ninja through the heart, triggering Tsunade’s hemophobia, and he and Terai fled after destroying the body.
• Shizune found the signal kunai and helped Tsunade recover by the lakeside, where Tsunade identified the children as Danzo’s Root ninjas.

Tsunade learned that Lin Chuan had joined Danzo's Root and considered passing his plea for help to his teacher, Maruboshi Kosuke. A year later, Lin Chuan joined a Root mission to purge infiltrators and bandits along the Land of Fire's northern border, where his team prepared to attack samurai raiding a village.

• Shizune found Lin Chuan's letter hidden in a kunai, and Tsunade identified Maruboshi Kosuke as his teacher but left delivering the message to chance.
• Lin Chuan and Terai returned to Root after their mission, reported meeting Tsunade, and received no reward.
• Six months later, Ryūma Aburame assigned Root's trainees a border mission against infiltrating ninja, samurai, and Jashin Cult members, with Leopard leading them.
• Lin Chuan traveled north with the team and saw villages devastated by refugees and bandits before they found samurai slaughtering and looting a village.
• Leopard ordered the sixteen ANBU to kill every armed samurai, and the teams split up to infiltrate the burning village.

Lin Chuan and the ANBU purged samurai and bandits from the northern Land of Fire, restoring order and slowing the refugee exodus. After months of patrols, Lin Chuan reflected on his improving ninjutsu while expecting the unrest beyond the border to continue.

• The sixteen ANBU killed the wandering samurai attacking a village, then continued north and eliminated plunderers along the way.
• Leopard handed the mission over at a border outpost, where the ANBU received orders to purge criminals across assigned patrol sectors.
• Lin Chuan and Terai killed five samurai threatening refugees at the docks, and Lin Chuan told the ship manager that passage could continue as long as nobody caused trouble.
• The ANBU's campaign and the border ninja's propaganda calmed the north, halted much of the migration, and made people afraid to carry samurai swords.
• After months of patrols, Terai complained that the mission was dull, while Lin Chuan considered the continuing unrest in the Land of Hot Water and reviewed his ninjutsu progress.

Lin Chuan and Terai entered the Land of Hot Water for an assassination test, seeking bandit samurai they could kill without exposing their identities. After observing a bandit camp, they waited until its occupants got drunk and prepared to attack.

• Leopard ordered the trainees to infiltrate the Land of Hot Water in civilian clothes and return with ten pairs of samurai hands each.
• Lin Chuan and Terai chose to hunt bandit samurai rather than risk confronting warriors hired by nobles or wealthy merchants.
• They found a fortified bandit camp and watched its samurai rob refugees while accepting supplies from a merchant caravan.
• Lin Chuan suspected the bandits were private soldiers tied to a noble, but agreed to strike after they got drunk.
• The bandits drank late into the night, and Lin Chuan and Terai prepared to attack under cover of darkness.

Lin Chuan and Terai cleared a bandit stronghold, where they discovered and captured an immortal Jashin Cult follower. After returning to the border outpost, they were sent with Fū Yamanaka and Torune Aburame to find two missing ANBU squads, and the group located them at a noble’s estate.

• Lin Chuan and Terai killed the drunken bandits and defeated their leader, a Jashin Cult follower who survived being stabbed through the heart.
• Lin Chuan and Terai severed the follower’s limbs and head, then brought him and the bandits’ hands to Leopard, who approved their mission.
• Leopard sent Lin Chuan’s team and Fū Yamanaka’s team to search for two missing ANBU squads using an Aburame tracking insect.
• The four shinobi followed the insect to a noble’s estate, where Fū Yamanaka chose Lin Chuan to infiltrate with him while Terai and Torune Aburame provided support.

Lin Chuan and Fū Yamanaka infiltrated a noble's estate, discovered a Jashin Cult ritual that drained the life from four missing ninjas, and killed the old man behind it. After returning to Root, Lin Chuan considered which ninjutsu to learn next as the remaining ANBU trainees headed back to the village.

• Lin Chuan and Fū Yamanaka sneaked into the estate, killed the two basement guards, and found the four missing ninjas being sacrificed by a Jashin Cult devotee.
• The old man's ritual briefly restored his youth before it stopped, and Fū Yamanaka killed him while Lin Chuan checked the four sacrifices for Life Points.
• Lin Chuan found a bound young girl in a hidden bedroom and left her a kunai before he and Fū Yamanaka escaped with the bodies and weapons.
• The girl freed herself and fled the estate, while Lin Chuan's personal panel remained unchanged after the rescue.
• After returning to the border outpost, Lin Chuan joined Leopard and the surviving trainees on their journey back to the village and weighed which ninjutsu to learn at Root.

Lin Chuan chose and learned the C-rank Water Prison Technique, experimenting with its uses and limitations before reaching Usable proficiency. A week later, he demonstrated the technique to Leopard and passed the assessment.

• Lin Chuan selected Water Release: Water Prison Technique because it was practical and suited his chakra reserves.
• Lin Chuan practiced shaping and compressing the water prison, testing its ability to immobilize and kill with Shadow Clones.
• Lin Chuan considered using the air-filled prison for diving and concluded that trapped enemies could instead be drowned.
• Lin Chuan checked his Ninjutsu Grind Panel and found Water Prison at Usable proficiency.
• Lin Chuan demonstrated Water Release: Water Prison Technique to Leopard, who passed him and called the next trainee.

Lin Chuan continued training in Root while Maruboshi Kosuke returned to Konoha and learned that Lin Chuan had joined Danzo’s ANBU. Kosuke explained to Lin Chuan’s father that the boy may have accepted to protect his family, leaving his parents fearful of Danzo’s power.

• Lin Chuan reached Genin level with Water Prison and developed several combinations using it with Water Clone.
• Lin Chuan planned to train Shadow Clone and Heavenly Weeping toward Chunin level.
• Maruboshi Kosuke returned to Konoha after a year away and encountered Lin Chuan’s father at the Mission Department.
• Lin Chuan’s father told Maruboshi Kosuke that Danzo had taken Lin Chuan into the ANBU more than a year earlier.
• Maruboshi Kosuke realized Lin Chuan had joined to protect his family and warned Lin Chuan’s father that refusing Danzo could have endangered them all.
• Lin Chuan’s father compared his family’s vulnerability to the Uchiha and feared Danzo could have erased them to claim Lin Chuan.

Maruboshi Kosuke asked Hiruzen Sarutobi to rescue Lin Chuan from Danzo’s Root, and Hiruzen agreed while promoting Kosuke to Jonin. Hiruzen learned Lin Chuan was already on an undercover mission in the Land of Grass and decided to wait until he returned.

• Lin Chuan's father told Maruboshi Kosuke that Danzo had taken Lin Chuan, and Kosuke resolved to ask Hiruzen Sarutobi for help.
• Kosuke went to the Hokage Tower and pleaded with Hiruzen to get his student, Chiba Lin Chuan, out of Danzo's ANBU.
• Hiruzen agreed to retrieve Lin Chuan from Root and promoted Kosuke to Konoha Jonin, assigning him the mission of teaching the boy.
• After Kosuke left, Hiruzen ordered the ANBU to obtain Root's records and learned Lin Chuan had reached Chunin strength in two years.
• Hiruzen discovered Danzo had sent Lin Chuan on an undercover mission in the Land of Grass and decided to discuss the matter when he returned.

Lin Chuan traveled toward Kusagakure on an undercover mission while reviewing his ninjutsu progress and planning ways to turn compressed Water Release into weapons and attacks. He remained determined to harvest life points from Grass Ninja targets without exposing his cover.

• Lin Chuan recalled that Root had assigned him to infiltrate Kusagakure and investigate the small village alone.
• Lin Chuan reviewed his ninjutsu progress, including Shadow Clone and Water Release: Heavenly Weeping nearing a breakthrough, and chose not to train further before reaching Kusagakure.
• Lin Chuan considered Karin and decided not to approach or kill her because either action could expose his undercover identity; instead, he planned to target other Grass Ninja for life points.
• Lin Chuan traveled west with a Konoha merchant caravan, carrying only his Chakra Blade.
• Lin Chuan developed ideas for compressing Water Release into weapons, armor, Ice Release weapons, and water-droplet attacks.

Lin Chuan arrived in Kusagakure under a false identity and discovered that his teammates and captain were familiar Grass Ninja characters with life points. He abandoned his Root investigation assignment and decided to assassinate them and other Grass Ninja he considered targets.

• Lin Chuan experimented with compressed Water Release, creating Water Drop, Water Kunai and Shuriken, Water Armor, and Water Weapon techniques, though the weapons lacked durability.
• Lin Chuan crossed into the Land of Grass hidden in a crate and met his contact, the retired white-haired elder Xiu, who gave him identity papers and team information.
• Lin Chuan reached his assigned home in Kusagakure and reviewed the records of the orphan Genin whose identity he would assume.
• Lin Chuan recognized Bulemi and Kazami as his teammates and Preta Path as his captain, and resolved to kill them and other Grass Ninja targets instead of carrying out Root's investigation assignment.

Undercover as Amu, Lin Chuan worked low-level missions with a Kusagakure team while waiting for a chance to kill one of his teammates. He murdered Kazami during a hunting mission, gained Life Points, and returned to the village; the team discovered Kazami was missing the next morning.

• Lin Chuan posed as Amu and joined Captain Bulemi, Kazami, and their team on a week of farmwork followed by a month of minor missions.
• The team accepted a deer-hunting mission outside Kusagakure, and Bulemi suggested they split up after two days without finding any deer.
• Lin Chuan followed Kazami, poisoned a fruit he offered him, and stabbed him with Senbon when the poison took effect.
• Lin Chuan carried Kazami into a tiger's territory, killed him, and left his body for the tiger to eat.
• Lin Chuan concealed evidence, returned to Kusagakure, and the team discovered Kazami was missing the next morning.

Lin Chuan killed Kazami, Bulemi, and the Preta Path captain, then disguised the deaths as wild animal attacks and posed as the lone survivor. While recovering in Kusagakure’s hospital, he encountered Karin and experienced her healing ability.

• The Preta Path captain found Kazami’s remains in the tiger’s territory and continued the deer-search mission with Lin Chuan and Bulemi.
• Lin Chuan poisoned Bulemi with fruit, stabbed him, and left him for the wolves to kill.
• Lin Chuan lured the Preta Path captain to a bear, stabbed him with poisoned Senbon, and arranged for the bear to devour his body.
• Lin Chuan reached Kusagakure’s gates and claimed the captain had sacrificed himself while he escaped a bear attack.
• At the hospital, Lin Chuan bit Karin’s arm to heal his injuries, while investigators recorded the captain’s and Bulemi’s deaths as animal attacks.

Lin Chuan continued secretly killing Kusagakure Genin to collect life points, then stopped when an investigation made further killings too risky. He focused on training and finally advanced his Ninjutsu and strength to Chunin, leaving his talent rated decent.

• Lin Chuan convinced a police officer that he would continue his mission, then saw that his life points had risen to six.
• Lin Chuan followed Wuan's squad, drugged Wuan in a latrine, suffocated him, and staged his death as an accidental drowning.
• Lin Chuan killed more than ten Kusagakure Genin and gained five life points, but the deaths prompted an Anbu investigation that briefly focused on him.
• After being cleared of suspicion, Lin Chuan stopped killing, completed the wild deer mission, and trained his Ninjutsu at the training ground.
• Lin Chuan raised Shadow Clone and Water Release: Heavenly Weeping to Chunin level, advancing his strength to Chunin and his talent to decent.

Lin Chuan reviewed his growing abilities and prepared to kill two Grass Ninja at Kusagakure's hospital before defecting and returning to Konoha. He began his plan by sneaking into the hospital at midnight to target the weaker male nurse first.

• Lin Chuan checked his improved talents and techniques, including his Chunin-level Shadow Clone and Water Release: Heavenly Weeping.
• Lin Chuan decided to kill the male nurse and the Medical Unit Captain, whom he blamed for Karin's mother's death, then defect from Kusagakure.
• Lin Chuan spent a week resting and preparing supplies for his journey back to Konoha.
• Lin Chuan slashed his Grass Ninja Forehead Protector, put on night gear, and slipped into Kusagakure's hospital.
• Lin Chuan found the male nurse asleep at the nurses' station and chose him as his first target.

Lin Chuan assassinated a male nurse and Kusagakure’s medical unit captain, then escaped the village. At Tenchi Bridge, he found the route into the Land of Fire blocked and turned toward the Land of Rain as Kusagakure’s forces began searching for him.

• Lin Chuan poisoned the sleeping male nurse, then disguised himself as the nurse to approach and kill the medical unit captain, gaining two life points.
• Lin Chuan concealed the captain’s body, left the hospital, changed back into his black night gear, and escaped Kusagakure over the wall.
• After running through the night, Lin Chuan reached Tenchi Bridge and saw Grass Ninja guarding the gorge with a portrait of him.
• Lin Chuan hid from the checkpoint and chose to detour toward the Land of Rain rather than risk fighting the Grass Ninja.
• A coworker discovered the bodies, and Kusagakure’s investigation identified Lin Chuan as the killer and sent his portrait to the borders.
• Kusagakure’s ANBU and tracking teams pursued Lin Chuan’s scent trail while the Grass Ninja Jonin ordered a search of the woods.

Lin Chuan crossed into the Land of Rain and used two Water Dragon Bullets to slaughter the Grass Ninja pursuing him. After gaining three life points from the kills, he spent five to raise his Essence talent, restoring his chakra as he heard Ninja Dogs approaching.

• The Grass Ninja tracking squad followed Lin Chuan toward the Land of Rain and sent a warning to the border defenses, while two ANBU trailed behind them.
• Lin Chuan reached the coast, replenished himself with a Soldier Pill, and used the Body Flicker Technique to break through the Grass Ninja defensive line and run across the sea.
• Nagato's Rain Tiger at Will Technique began falling over the area, allowing Nagato to sense Lin Chuan and his pursuers.
• The Grass Ninja caught up and surrounded Lin Chuan, but he used a Shadow Clone and his real body to unleash two Water Dragon Bullets, killing the Jonin and routing the others.
• Lin Chuan finished off the surviving unconscious Grass Ninja and gained three life points, then spent five points to raise his Essence talent and restore his chakra.