Chapter Summaries

Ye and Obito stopped the Land of Snow’s fleet from attacking North Harbor by freezing three warships and everyone aboard. After celebrating their victory, the Konoha team departed for home with the people of the Land of Snow honoring them.

• Ye took Obito through a space-time vortex to North Harbor while Kakashi and Kushina stayed behind to deal with the rebels.
• Ye froze the sea, trapping Nadare Rōga, his soldiers, and all three warships inside a massive iceberg before they could fire.
• Sōsetsu and the people of the Land of Snow learned the fleet had been stopped, and Ye gained a large number of points from their shock and relief.
• Kushina, Rin, Ye, Obito, and Kakashi shared a seafood banquet at the Daimyō Mansion.
• The Konoha team sailed from North Harbor as Sōsetsu, officials, and citizens knelt to see them off, and Ye told Obito to write the mission report.

Ye presented the Land of Snow’s Chakra Armor and geothermal generator blueprints to Minato, who approved the armor as a major military asset. Ye then showed how geothermal heating could enable winter crops in the Land of Fire, and Minato realized it could transform Konoha’s wartime food supply.

• Kakashi brought Ye, Obito, Rin, and Kushina back to Minato’s office, where Obito submitted his report on their mission in the Land of Snow.
• Minato praised the team’s capture of the rebels and destruction of their Chakra Armor, then assigned the mission an S-Rank rating and a large bonus.
• Ye gave Minato plans for the Chakra Armor and the Geothermal Generator; Minato ordered the armor designs studied for military use but initially dismissed the generator blueprints.
• Ye suggested installing the geothermal system beneath the Land of Fire’s farmland, and Kakashi realized it could keep crops’ roots from freezing during winter.
• Minato concluded that winter farming could double harvests and keep Konoha’s frontline forces supplied with food through the cold season.

Ye proposed using grain exports to cripple rival nations, and Minato appointed Orochimaru chief scientist to lead Konoha’s research projects. Orochimaru prepared to flee Konoha, but Minato’s ANBU surrounded his laboratory before he could escape.

• Ye explained how Konoha could use grain sales to drain the treasuries of the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth and leave them unable to wage war.
• Minato appointed Orochimaru chief scientist of an Independent Research Institute and ordered ANBU to bring him in.
• Minato secured Ye’s schematics and ordered two elite ANBU squads to seal off Orochimaru’s laboratory.
• Orochimaru packed his research, forbidden-technique records, and First Hokage Cell samples, then prepared to escape through an abandoned drainage channel.
• Orochimaru sensed ANBU surrounding the laboratory and saw Minato’s agents closing in before he could leave.

Orochimaru abandoned his escape plans after Minato appointed him chief scientist with unlimited research funding. At the Hokage Building, Orochimaru examined a set of blueprints and recognized a design that could let a Genin withstand a Jonin’s ordinary ninjutsu.

• Orochimaru prepared to attack the ANBU, but the captain knelt outside and delivered Minato’s appointment and research-funding order.
• Orochimaru hid his escape bundle, accepted the appointment scroll, and went with the ANBU to the Hokage Building.
• Orochimaru met Minato, mocked the first page of a blueprint, then became absorbed by its advanced Chakra circuits.
• Orochimaru concluded that the design could protect a Genin from a Jonin’s ordinary ninjutsu and demanded to know who had created it.

Minato recruited Orochimaru as Konoha’s Chief Scientist by showing him plans for Bio-Armor and a nationwide geothermal farming network. Orochimaru accepted the post and began his work with White Zetsu as a research subject.

• Minato showed Orochimaru plans to equip elites with Bio-Armor and heat the Land of Fire’s agricultural districts with geothermal energy.
• Orochimaru accepted the S-Rank appointment and demanded unlimited funding, materials, and authority to transfer personnel.
• Orochimaru identified Hashirama Cells as the solution to the projects’ energy demands and warned that safe vessels were needed for experiments.
• Minato revealed White Zetsu, which Orochimaru recognized as a stable Hashirama Cell vessel, and approved ten for his research under ANBU supervision.
• Orochimaru sealed away the blueprints, took White Zetsu to the institute, and ordered the Finance Department to transfer his first funding before dawn.

Six years after the geothermal project began, Minato, Fugaku, and their team inspected Orochimaru’s successful ninth-generation network, which could grow crops through winter with little chakra. When an ore alliance tried to exploit Konoha’s need for Marrowstone Sand, Ye proposed a financial scheme to crash the ore market and acquire the alliance’s mines through shell companies.

• Minato and Fugaku visited Orochimaru’s test site and saw the geothermal network sustaining crops in the frozen season.
• Orochimaru explained that the ninth-generation unit used underground heat and required almost no chakra for routine operation.
• A quartermaster reported that the Ore Merchants Alliance had raised Marrowstone Sand prices tenfold and threatened to withhold supplies unless Konoha surrendered three years of Ninja Tools orders.
• Ye rejected Obito’s suggestion to steal the ore and proposed using forward contracts to encourage merchants to borrow heavily and distrust one another.
• Ye planned for Orochimaru to demonstrate a substitute Chakra gel while shell companies borrowed and sold ore, driving down its price and leaving merchants unable to repay their debts.
• Ye proposed buying the bankrupt Money Houses’ bad debts and mining rights cheaply, which would ultimately put the alliance’s border deposits under Konoha’s shell companies.

Ye received Minato’s authorization to lead a secret financial operation targeting the Wind-Earth Border, then assembled an undercover merchant team in Konoha. He left Obito and Kakashi bruised after their argument nearly derailed the preparations.

• Minato approved Ye’s Zetsu-level plan and gave him command of the financial operation, with Fugaku overseeing the funds.
• Ye took the appointment letter and ordered his team to change into civilian clothes and bring ledgers and abacuses.
• Ye established the Konoha Battle Strategic Investment Department and assigned Obito to manage accounts and Kakashi to pose as a cultured merchant.
• Obito and Kakashi traded insults until their argument escalated into a fight, alarming the ANBU present.
• Ye smashed Obito and Kakashi’s heads onto the table and told them to focus on the mission.

Ye committed Konoha to breaking its economic dependence on the Daimyō Mansion and launched a financial operation targeting the Gray Hub in the Land of Birds. As the daimyō remained confident that his funding controlled Konoha, Ye’s disguised caravan headed for the Black Market transit station.

• Ye revealed two million ryō and medical-equipment allotments, then announced plans to refill Konoha’s treasury and end its dependence on the Daimyō Mansion.
• The Daimyō of the Land of Fire dismissed concerns about Konoha and insisted that its military funding kept Minato under his control.
• Ye chose the Gray Hub in the Land of Birds as the operation’s battleground and planned to use medical supplies, grain-production vouchers, short selling, and forward contracts.
• Ye ordered Kakashi to establish a shell company near the Land of Wind border and spread a rumor about buying Marrowstone Sand, while Obito and the ANBU prepared to travel as merchants.
• Minato watched the teams leave Konoha as Ye and his core team led a heavily funded caravan toward the Land of Birds.

Ye and Obito brought a Land of Fire trading caravan into the Land of Birds to buy Marrowstone Sand despite an economic blockade. Ye used a lavish cash offer to draw Dahe Long into a private deal, and Dahe Long considered the profits he could make.

• Ye and Obito led the caravan into the Gray Hub, where the Land of Fire banner scared off local thugs and rogue ninja.
• Ye presented the caravan's documents at the underground bank and waited with Obito and disguised ANBU as merchants watched them.
• Dahe Long arrived with armed guards and demanded passage fees and a security deposit from Ye.
• Ye produced two million taels, paid the demanded fee, and asked to discuss business.
• Dahe Long offered to sell Marrowstone Sand at four times the market price privately, explaining that the trading alliance's warehouses were overflowing and its finances were failing.
• Dahe Long considered falsifying the books and pocketing part of the proceeds from the deal.

Ye used a contract offering five times the market price to buy the Wind-Earth Trading Alliance’s mining output for three months, relying on a clause that let him cancel if a substitute material emerged. That night, Kuroda arrived secretly to offer even more goods and future output, and asked to renegotiate the price.

• Ye offered Dahe Long five times the market price for the alliance’s next three months of production and secured the contract with a unilateral cancellation clause.
• Dahe Long signed the contract, and news of the offer drew merchants to the Underground Money House with mine records and land deeds.
• Obito questioned how Ye would escape the deals, and Ye explained that the merchants’ greed and investments would trap them in the Money House’s dead end.
• Ye and Obito reviewed the forward contracts late into the night until a visitor knocked at their door.
• Kuroda revealed himself and offered to supply more goods and future output than Dahe Long while keeping the deal secret, then asked Ye to discuss the price.

Ye exploited Kuroda’s fear that Dahe Long’s contract would ruin his position in the Alliance, drawing him into offering his mines as collateral for a rival supply deal. Kuroda signed and sealed the contract, putting his core assets in Ye’s hands.

• Kuroda tried to convince Ye to cancel Dahe Long’s contract and buy Marrowstone Sand from him instead.
• Ye showed Kuroda Dahe Long’s sealed contract, and Kuroda panicked over the scale of the deal.
• Kuroda offered to undercut Dahe Long and sabotage the Alliance’s supply if Ye gave him the deposit.
• Ye demanded hard collateral, so Kuroda pledged deeds to three mines, two mining rights, and proof of funds.
• Ye presented a futures contract with a technical substitution exemption clause, which Kuroda overlooked and signed before stamping it with his private seal.

Ye and Obito’s scheme to split the Alliance succeeded when Kuroda accepted a deposit and wagered his assets on fulfilling the mining order. As Ye listened to reports the next morning, both Kuroda and Dahe Long pushed their mines toward brutal overproduction, while Kuroda’s butler worried the powerful would learn of the abuses.

• Kuroda took the two chests of banknotes and left through the rear window after signing the deed.
• Obito realized the deposit would drive Kuroda into debt, allowing Ye to terminate the contract and claim his mines if he failed to repay it.
• Ye declared the first phase of the mission complete and predicted that the Alliance’s members would compete to secure the deal.
• Dahe Long ordered nonstop mining shifts and sought ruthless overseers, blaming Kuroda for taking a private order.
• Kuroda hired wandering samurai and rogue ninja at several times the market rate and ordered them to force miners to meet production targets.
• Kuroda’s butler warned that the escalating abuses could draw the attention of higher-ups.

Kuroda and Dahe Long drove the Mining District into brutal exploitation and a bloody fight over a rich ore vein. As they faced each other at a merchant association meeting, both secretly trusted forged or private deposit contracts to let them seize the other's assets, while Obito watched and relayed their conversation to Ye.

• Kuroda rejected his butler's warning and ordered more ruthless measures against the miners to protect his profits.
• Wandering ninjas doubled the miners' quotas, whipped an elderly miner, and killed a young miner who tried to resist.
• Dahe Long and Kuroda's teams fought over a top-grade Marrowstone Sand vein, leaving more than a dozen people dead or injured and shattering the Mining District's commercial rules.
• Dahe Long and Kuroda exchanged accusations at the merchant association meeting while each concealed a contract pouch and planned to claim the other's assets after three months.
• Obito watched the meeting while disguised as a guard, and the White Zetsu Clone relayed what he saw to Ye.

Ye’s scheme drove the Land of Birds’ mine owners into a debt-fueled production frenzy while Konoha quietly prepared to take over their pledged mines. Three days into the blizzard, Dahe Long and Kuroda were nearly out of cash, but neither dared stop mining as they feared losing everything to the other.

• Obito reported deadly clashes in the Mining District, and Ye explained that the mine owners were trapping themselves in loans and contracts while Konoha spent almost nothing.
• Ye ordered ANBU to secretly take injured civilians to South City Clinic and provide survival supplies, then welcomed twelve more mine owners seeking contracts.
• Over three days, mining supplies and food became scarce and sharply more expensive, leaving miners and poor civilians struggling to feed their families despite occasional aid.
• Dahe Long’s expenses and compensation payments drained his funds, and his accounting manager warned that the treasury would last only two more days.
• Kuroda burned through his cash reserves as mining costs surged, but he kept working because the pledged mines would transfer to the Gold Source Trading Company if he failed to deliver the Ore Sand.

Ye and Obito drove the Land of Birds Black Market into a debt-fueled mining bubble, while Dahe Long, Kuroda, smaller traders, and money houses mortgaged assets and drained cash. With Kakashi's forged bills completing the scheme, the bubble stood ready to burst when news of Orochimaru's report reached the market the next day.

• Dahe Long and Kuroda mortgaged their last mining rights and land deeds to secure high-interest loans from the Underground Money House.
• Obito calculated that the scheme had magnified Ye's initial bait tenfold and drained more than half the Black Market's circulating cash.
• Ye ordered an ANBU agent to spread a forged rumor that Konoha had doubled its military budget and would triple its ore orders.
• Small and medium mine owners rushed to mortgage their property as the money houses emptied their vaults to fund more loans.
• Kakashi arrived with forged bills from the Land of Wind Shell Trading Company, completing the scheme as only one night remained before Orochimaru's report went public.

Ye and his allies completed a fraud that drained the Land of Birds’ Money Houses into mining loans, secured valid claims on the mines, and withdrew before the market collapsed. At dawn, Dahe Long and Kuroda arrived with competing ore convoys, still expecting to profit from the buyers who had vanished.

• Kakashi, Ye, and Obito discussed how rising Marrowstone Sand prices had drawn ordinary people and businesses into debt, while White Zetsu reported that Money House vaults held mostly mining rights and loan notes.
• White Zetsu delivered records of cross-border loans and valid mining-right transfers, and Ye secured the evidence needed for Konoha to claim the mines after Orochimaru’s report became public.
• Ye burned the forged ledgers, declared the Land of Birds operation finished, and ordered the group to withdraw with the evidence and creditor rights.
• ANBU and Ye’s allies dismantled their operation and escaped through the snow, leaving the city’s buyers unaware that the supposed trading company had disappeared.
• Tobi showed Ye that Dahe Long and Kuroda arrived before dawn with ore convoys, and Dahe Long claimed his mines would soon take ownership of Kuroda’s mortgaged mines.

Dahe Long and Kuroda waited for payment on their Marrowstone Sand shipments, only to learn that Konoha had halted procurement and that the Gold Source Trading Company had vanished. Kuroda found a newspaper announcing a cheap, powerful substitute for Marrowstone Sand, leaving both merchants and their creditors facing ruin.

• Dahe Long and Kuroda argued over their ore shipments while waiting outside the sealed inn for the Gold Source Trading Company’s payment.
• A scout arrived with Konoha’s order suspending all Marrowstone Sand procurement indefinitely, and creditors drew their swords as the merchants tried to insist that Konoha had to honor their contracts.
• Dahe Long kicked open the inn doors and charged upstairs, followed by Kuroda and the creditors.
• Dahe Long and Kuroda found the suite emptied, with burned scraps of ledgers and fake documents left behind.
• Kuroda discovered a newspaper reporting that Orochimaru had developed Bio-Chakra Gel that was ten times as energy-efficient and cost one-tenth as much as Marrowstone Sand.

Ye’s short on Marrowstone Sand succeeded after a substitute was announced, bankrupting the Wind-Earth Trading Alliance and sparking panic in the Land of Birds. As Ye ordered Konoha to buy the Alliance’s debts and mines cheaply, Dahe Long and Kuroda escaped their creditors by sacrificing attendants and fleeing into an alley.

• Dahe Long and Kuroda discovered that a newly announced substitute let the buyer cancel their contract and reclaim the deposit, leaving their mines and Marrowstone Sand worthless.
• Creditors demanded repayment as Dahe Long vomited blood and Kuroda collapsed, while Ye watched their despair earn him a surge of points.
• A creditor announced the substitute to the street, triggering a citywide panic as mining certificates were discarded and the crowd turned on the Money House.
• Ye ordered the ANBU to acquire the Alliance’s bad debts and mines at ten percent of their value and ensure civilians in the south had grain and medicine.
• Dahe Long and Kuroda shoved attendants into the creditors’ blades, broke through a window, and fled into a narrow alley.

After Orochimaru’s substitute caused Marrowstone Sand prices to collapse, miners and former enemies joined forces to reclaim their losses from the Land of Birds black market. The black market lords fled as the crowd attacked, leaving Konoha poised to buy up the wreckage.

• A one-eyed rogue ninja announced that Konoha had halted Marrowstone Sand purchases because Orochimaru had developed a substitute, rendering the miners’ ore worthless.
• The miners, rogue ninjas, and samurai united to attack the black market and the Underground Money House after learning that the merchants had fled with their money.
• A crowd of thousands surged toward the Land of Birds, while former overseers freed the miners and joined the uprising.
• The Underground Money House boss watched the mob batter the vault and realized his assets had become worthless debts.
• Dahe Long and Kuroda escaped into the wilderness as fires consumed the black market, and Konoha’s ANBU prepared to arrive and buy the ruined assets at a low price.

Ye took control of the mines by buying out the Money Houses and destroying the workers’ abusive contracts, then won over the miners with food, medicine, fair wages, and rest. The miners agreed to help him map the tunnels and guard routes, and Ye planned to bring their families from the city the next day.

• The ANBU leader bought the Land of Birds Money Houses’ mining rights, promissory notes, and mortgage contracts from the fat boss.
• Kakashi reported that all three Money Houses had signed, and Ye destroyed the Land of Wind Shell Company seal to end the old accounts trail.
• Ye’s convoy reached No. 3 Mining District, where Zhou Fu and the severed-ear warrior initially threatened the newcomers, suspecting them of being more creditors.
• Ye burned the miners’ abusive contracts and Kakashi announced paid daily wages, rotating shifts, free medical care, and compensation for disabled workers.
• Ye and the ANBU distributed rice porridge, medicine, and warm clothes, persuading Zhou Fu and the severed-ear warrior to cooperate and reveal tunnels and guard rotations.
• The miners marked black-market dens and border routes on a map, and Ye ordered the camp to keep food and medicine available before bringing the miners’ families from the city.