Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Kimimaro”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Long Ye confronts Orochimaru and decides to test his Fighting Force Breathing Method against the legendary Triple Rashōmon.
• He destroys all three Rashōmon gates with successive punches:
  • The first is overwhelmed by the sheer force of his attack.
  • The second cannot weaken his power because his strikes shatter space itself.
  • The third cannot disperse an attack that transcends ordinary physical force.
• Orochimaru transforms into his White-Scaled Great Snake form. His scales become countless snakes capable of draining an opponent’s flesh, blood, and abilities.
• Because Long Ye’s greatest strength is close combat, he recognizes the danger of being surrounded and activates his Mangekyō Sharingan and fourth-stage Susanoo.
• Susanoo gathers the snakes and drags Orochimaru toward it, impaling his giant serpent form with the Spiral Sword.
• Long Ye attempts to finish Orochimaru by striking his head, but Orochimaru escapes by shedding a snakeskin and burrowing underground.
• After dawn, Mi Xiang returns. Long Ye reassures her that Orochimaru is dangerous but has been defeated.
• Long Ye then warns the young Kimimaro not to trust or approach Orochimaru again, explaining that Orochimaru would manipulate and ruin his future.
• Mi Xiang, sympathizing with Kimimaro as another survivor of a destroyed clan, gives him a wooden sparrow that can transform into a flying escape bird when infused with chakra.

Character Developments

• Long Ye: Demonstrates overwhelming offensive strength, destroying the Triple Rashōmon in seconds and seriously injuring Orochimaru. However, the battle exposes his weakness against large-scale or ranged attacks that prevent him from reaching his opponent. His frustration at Orochimaru’s escape motivates him to pursue further physical transformation and stronger techniques such as Shin Sūsenju and the Dragon God Breathing Method.
• Orochimaru: Reveals his terrifying White-Scaled Great Snake form and relies on deception, regeneration, and escape rather than continuing a losing battle. Despite his formidable abilities, he is decisively beaten and becomes wary of Long Ye’s power.
• Kimimaro: Witnesses Long Ye’s immense strength and is frightened by the battle. He begins viewing Long Ye as a safer and more honorable figure than Orochimaru, though he remains cautious.
• Mi Xiang: Shows empathy toward Kimimaro because of their shared experience of losing their clans. Her gift marks the beginning of a compassionate connection between them.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming power versus specialized defense: The destruction of the Triple Rashōmon emphasizes that Long Ye’s strength has surpassed conventional physical limits.
• The limits of invincibility: Long Ye’s close-combat dominance does not make him unbeatable; opponents who keep their distance or use overwhelming numbers can still threaten him.
• Survival and escape: Orochimaru survives not by overpowering Long Ye but through his regenerative body and deceptive escape techniques.
• Manipulation versus protection: Long Ye recognizes Orochimaru’s habit of exploiting vulnerable people and attempts to protect Kimimaro from becoming his victim.
• Shared suffering and compassion: Mi Xiang identifies with Kimimaro’s loneliness and responds by offering practical help and emotional kindness.

Character Interactions

• Long Ye and Orochimaru engage in a brief but highly destructive battle, with Long Ye breaking through Orochimaru’s defenses and nearly killing him.
• Long Ye reassures Mi Xiang after the fight and presents himself as capable of protecting her from Orochimaru.
• Long Ye advises Kimimaro to avoid Orochimaru and not allow himself to be manipulated.
• Mi Xiang approaches the frightened Kimimaro gently and gives him a wooden sparrow as a means of escaping future danger, establishing a bond of sympathy and trust.

Chapter Summary: “Shikotsumyaku and the Six Dances”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Long Ye and Mi Xiang prepare to leave the mist-shrouded area after Mi Xiang gives Kimimaro a hand-carved Talisman Tool.
• Long Ye rewards Kimimaro by giving him the tool, which helps the boy realize that Long Ye is not seeking to harm or exploit him.
• After initially remaining behind, Kimimaro decides to pursue Long Ye and asks to become his follower. He explains that his clan has been wiped out, leaving him with nowhere to go.
• Kimimaro offers his Shikotsumyaku—the Kaguya Clan’s bone-manipulation Kekkei Genkai—as proof of his potential and promises to become useful through training.
• Long Ye deliberately lets Kimimaro choose to follow him rather than openly persuading him. Mi Xiang helps by comparing Kimimaro’s situation to her own and asking Long Ye to take him in.
• Long Ye accepts Kimimaro, promising not to restrain or oppress him and allowing him to leave in the future if he becomes strong enough to pursue his own path.
• Long Ye asks about the Kaguya Clan’s six secret “dances.” Kimimaro reveals that, despite possessing the clan’s strongest Shikotsumyaku, he was treated as a dangerous weapon and was taught only three techniques: Willow Dance, Clematis Dance, and Larch Dance.
• Long Ye suspects that the strongest technique, Bracken Dance, may have been seized by Kirigakure’s leadership after the clan’s destruction.
• Before dawn, Long Ye returns to Kirigakure and infiltrates the Mizukage’s office to speak with Mei Terumi.
• He asks Mei for access to the Kaguya Clan’s secret techniques, initially claiming that he wants to study them. He then admits that he rescued Kimimaro and wants the techniques for the boy’s training.
• Mei reveals that she already knows about Kimimaro, implying that Kirigakure has closely monitored the Kaguya Clan and its exceptionally powerful survivor. The chapter ends as Long Ye realizes he has exposed an important detail.

Character Developments

• Kimimaro shifts from suspicion and isolation to trust and hope. His decision to follow Long Ye is based on both survival and his belief that only by following a powerful person can he become strong.
• Long Ye demonstrates strategic manipulation, carefully allowing Kimimaro to make the decision to join him so that the boy will see him as a chosen protector rather than another oppressive authority figure. He also takes responsibility for Kimimaro’s future training.
• Mi Xiang continues to act as a source of warmth and compassion. Her kindness toward Kimimaro helps him lower his guard, and her emotional appeal persuades Long Ye to accept him.
• Mei Terumi remains perceptive and suspicious but is noticeably relieved that Long Ye survived. Her knowledge of Kimimaro suggests that she is well informed about Kirigakure’s clans and political affairs.

Significant Themes

• Trust and chosen loyalty: Kimimaro willingly chooses Long Ye after witnessing his generosity and strength, contrasting voluntary loyalty with the coercion he experienced from his own clan.
• Power and exploitation: Kimimaro’s clan treated him as a weapon because of his exceptional abilities, raising questions about whether power brings protection or causes others to seek control.
• Found family and belonging: Both Mi Xiang and Kimimaro have lost or lack stable families, and Long Ye begins forming a new group around mutual protection and companionship.
• Mentorship and responsibility: Long Ye accepts not only Kimimaro’s allegiance but also responsibility for developing his abilities and preserving his future.
• Political control of knowledge: The Kaguya Clan’s secret techniques are valuable, restricted information. Their possession by Kirigakure’s authorities creates tension between village security and Kimimaro’s right to inherit his clan’s abilities.

Important Character Interactions

• Long Ye and Mi Xiang: Their affectionate, protective relationship is evident as Long Ye praises her craftsmanship and she confidently advocates for Kimimaro.
• Long Ye and Kimimaro: Their exchange transforms Kimimaro from a wary survivor into Long Ye’s prospective disciple and companion. Long Ye’s promise of freedom is especially meaningful to a boy who has been imprisoned and controlled.
• Long Ye and Mei Terumi: Their familiar but tense conversation mixes teasing, trust, and political negotiation. Mei recognizes Long Ye’s motives and immediately sees through his attempted explanation.
• Kimimaro and his former clan: Though the clan is already dead, their treatment of him as a weapon explains his guarded personality and his determination to gain strength under someone he considers powerful.

Plot points

• Long Ye negotiates with Mei Terumi for the Kaguya Clan’s six secret techniques, which Kimimaro needs. Mei initially refuses and attacks him, insisting that Kirigakure’s security must come first.
• Long Ye offers Mei a Snake Cypress Seed in exchange. She accepts the bargain, though she feels conflicted about trading away the techniques and is warned not to consume the seed: its immense Senjutsu Chakra could overwhelm an ordinary body.
• Long Ye gives the six technique scrolls to Kimimaro. He asks whether the boy hates Kirigakure and advises him to wait until age thirty before deciding whether to seek revenge, so he can better understand the clan’s rebellion and its consequences. Kimimaro agrees.
• Long Ye receives an urgent message from Pakura: she and Candle Tiger are holding one Akatsuki member to a draw, while another has defeated Scorpion and is trying to recruit them. Long Ye flies toward Takigakure with Mi Xiang and Kimimaro.
• The chapter ends as the confrontation is shown: Pakura’s group faces two Akatsuki members, a blue-haired woman and a grotesque, heavily stitched man.

Character developments and interactions

• Mei balances her personal bond with Long Ye against her responsibility to protect Kirigakure. Though the bargain benefits the village, she is saddened by their parting.
• Long Ye repays Mei’s past kindness with the seed, while also trying to guide Kimimaro toward patience rather than immediate vengeance.
• Kimimaro is deeply grateful to Long Ye, whom he now addresses as “Lord Divine Fiend.” Learning that Long Ye rescued Mi Xiang as well strengthens his respect for him. His feelings about his clan and Kirigakure remain unresolved.
• Mi Xiang and Kimimaro have grown closer while Long Ye was away, but their conversation stops when he returns. The group has now grown to six members, including them and the previously gathered allies.

Significant themes

• Duty versus personal loyalty: Mei’s choices show the cost of putting a village’s safety ahead of friendship.
• Revenge and understanding: Long Ye urges Kimimaro to delay judgment until he has a broader view of the conflict.
• Gratitude and mentorship: Long Ye’s care for the younger characters creates loyalty and a sense of belonging.
• The consequences of power: Both the Snake Cypress Seed and Kimimaro’s inherited techniques carry risks as well as potential benefits.

Chapter Summary — Angel of the Akatsuki

Key Plot Points and Events

• After a battle, Pakura, Scorpion, and Candle Tiger confront two Akatsuki members: Kakuzu and Konan.
• Kakuzu, carrying two masked monsters and possessing five hearts, boasts about his strength. However, he has already lost three lives during the earlier battle against Pakura and Candle Tiger.
• Konan attempts to recruit the three powerful fighters, but they wait for their own leader, Long Ye, to arrive.
• Long Ye descends from the sky on a giant bird. Kakuzu immediately attacks him with his strongest technique, Masked Blast, combining Wind and Fire Release into a massive sea of flames.
• Kakuzu assumes Long Ye has been killed, but Long Ye emerges from the flames completely unharmed. He then uses the newly revealed Dragon-Slaying Sword to cut Kakuzu in half with ease.
• Kakuzu survives by using the black threads connecting his body, revealing that he has lost a fourth life and now fears Long Ye.
• Konan realizes that Long Ye is the mysterious Divine Fiend. Rather than recruiting his subordinates, she invites Long Ye himself to join the Akatsuki, promising to help fulfill his ambitions.
• Long Ye rejects the offer contemptuously, calling Kakuzu nearly useless aside from his multiple lives. He declares that he will not negotiate with anyone weaker than himself.
• Konan accepts that a test of strength is necessary and prepares to fight Long Ye. Scorpion warns Long Ye that Konan can transform her body into paper, making ordinary physical attacks ineffective.

Character Developments

• Long Ye is established as overwhelmingly powerful and confident. He withstands Kakuzu’s strongest attack without injury and effortlessly cuts him apart with the Dragon-Slaying Sword. His contemptuous attitude shows that he considers strength the basis of all cooperation.
• Kakuzu shifts from arrogant confidence to fear and humiliation. After losing four of his five lives, he recognizes Long Ye as a serious threat and avoids provoking him further.
• Konan remains calm, polite, and analytical. She quickly recognizes Long Ye’s strength and changes her recruitment target, showing strategic flexibility. Her willingness to personally fight him suggests she is far stronger than she initially appears.
• Scorpion is badly damaged from his earlier battle with Konan, particularly after his Kazekage puppet is crippled. Despite this, he provides Long Ye with useful information about Konan’s ability.
• Pakura and Candle Tiger remain composed throughout Long Ye’s arrival, demonstrating their confidence in their leader and their loyalty to him.

Significant Themes

• Strength as the basis for respect: Long Ye refuses to negotiate until an opponent proves worthy, while Konan similarly believes cooperation requires understanding the other party’s abilities.
• Hidden power and deception: Kakuzu’s apparent defeat is temporary because of his multiple hearts, while Konan’s paper-body technique makes conventional attacks ineffective.
• Loyalty and hierarchy: Pakura, Scorpion, and Candle Tiger submit to Long Ye despite being powerful fighters themselves, emphasizing his authority.
• Recruitment versus rivalry: The Akatsuki initially seeks to recruit the three fighters, but Long Ye’s arrival changes the situation. His opposition to the organization’s interests makes conflict inevitable.
• Overconfidence and its consequences: Kakuzu’s certainty that his finishing move will kill Long Ye is immediately overturned, exposing the danger of underestimating an unknown opponent.

Character Interactions

• Kakuzu taunts Pakura and the others while demanding to meet their leader, but his confidence collapses after Long Ye defeats him.
• Konan speaks respectfully with Long Ye and attempts to recruit him, but Long Ye insults Kakuzu and challenges the Akatsuki’s strength.
• Scorpion warns Long Ye about Konan’s unusual defensive ability, creating a contrast between Long Ye’s direct confidence and Scorpion’s cautious analysis.
• Konan and Long Ye recognize that their interests are incompatible, turning a potential recruitment into an impending duel.

Chapter Summary: “An Impenetrable Defense”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Long Ye confronts Konan while the other fighters retreat to give them space.
• Konan activates her Shikigami Dance, creating enormous paper wings and launching razor-sharp paper at Long Ye.
• Long Ye ignores the attack and cuts Konan in half, but her body disperses into paper and reforms unharmed.
• Konan reveals that Long Ye and the others have been standing on a massive field of concealed Explosive Tags—approximately six hundred million of them.
• She explains that she could have detonated them earlier but intends to subdue and recruit Long Ye rather than kill him.
• Long Ye refuses to admit defeat, confident in his Indestructible Body.
• Konan detonates the entire field, trapping Long Ye inside a massive sphere of exploding paper. The blast devastates the area and injures the nearby observers.
• After the explosion, Long Ye emerges unharmed, protected by nine layers of powerful Ghost-Hand Snake Vines enhanced with Senjutsu Chakra.
• Impressed and shocked, Konan witnesses Long Ye activate his Mangekyō Sharingan and summon Susanoo.
• Long Ye launches Yasakani no Magatama, whose three projectile forms immobilize Konan. The chapter ends as she is left unable to move and seemingly defenseless.

Character Developments

• Long Ye demonstrates overwhelming confidence and resilience. He remains calm despite Konan’s trap and survives an attack designed to annihilate even powerful shinobi.
• He reveals an additional defensive technique: the reinforced Ghost-Hand Snake Vines, showing that his “Indestructible Body” is supported by multiple layers of protection.
• Long Ye also unveils the Mangekyō Sharingan and Susanoo, escalating his abilities from physical defense to decisive ocular offense.
• Konan is established as highly strategic and resourceful. Her camouflage, paper-body transformation, and enormous stockpile of Explosive Tags nearly give her complete control of the battlefield.
• Despite her confidence, Konan is visibly shocked when Long Ye survives her strongest attack and begins to lose control of the confrontation.
• Kakuzu, Pakura, Candle Tiger, Sasori, Kimimaro, and Mi Xiang serve as witnesses and react with fear or astonishment to the scale of Konan’s trap and Long Ye’s survival.

Significant Themes

• Defense versus overwhelming destruction: Konan relies on an enormous explosive attack, while Long Ye counters it through layered, seemingly impenetrable defenses.
• Hidden preparation and deception: Konan’s concealed Explosive Tags show the importance of strategy and battlefield control rather than raw strength alone.
• Confidence and defiance: Long Ye refuses to surrender even when trapped in what appears to be an unavoidable death situation.
• Escalation of power: The battle progresses from paper attacks to hundreds of millions of explosions, then to Susanoo and Mangekyō-level techniques.
• Subjugation versus annihilation: Konan wants to recruit or control Long Ye, not simply kill him, creating tension between her strategic objective and his refusal to submit.

Character Interactions

• Konan attempts to intimidate Long Ye by declaring that he has already lost and offering him a chance to surrender.
• Long Ye challenges her confidence, insisting that surviving the blast will determine the outcome.
• The surrounding allies react anxiously, especially Kimimaro and Mi Xiang, who fear Long Ye has been killed by the explosion.
• After Long Ye survives, the spectators are stunned by his defensive ability, while Konan’s own shock signals that she has underestimated him.
• The confrontation ends with Long Ye turning the battle decisively in his favor, immobilizing Konan with Yasakani no Magatama.

Chapter Summary: Eye of the Thunder God

Key Plot Points and Events

• Konan is nearly killed by Long Ye’s Senjutsu-enhanced Susanoo and its Yasakani no Magatama.
• Nagato suddenly appears and saves her using Shinra Tensei. Although the technique initially struggles against the divine weapon, Nagato eventually overpowers it with a massive repulsive force.
• Nagato then attacks Long Ye with Wind Release: Gale Palm, blasting him away without injuring him. Nagato, Konan, and Kakuzu retreat rather than continue the fight.
• Long Ye recognizes Nagato as the Akatsuki leader and realizes that the organization contains enemies powerful enough to challenge his group.
• Pakura, Candle Tiger, and Scorpion discuss the encounter and acknowledge that future battles with the Akatsuki are likely.
• Mi Xiang and Kimimaro arrive on the Wooden Kite. Kimimaro introduces himself as the last survivor of the Kaguya Clan. Long Ye explains that he took the boy in so Mi Xiang would have a companion.
• The group confirms that they obtained Hero Water from Takigakure. Long Ye examines it but refuses to drink it because it consumes the user’s lifespan.
• A messenger bird brings news from Candle Valley: the Thunderstorm Magnetic Field is expanding and may soon destroy the clan’s core territory.
• Candle Tiger reveals that the phenomenon is linked to a mysterious object called the Eye of the Thunder God, which granted the Candle Clan its Lightning Release constitution but now threatens its existence.

Character Developments

• Long Ye remains physically unharmed by Nagato’s attack, but the confrontation makes him more cautious and aware of the Akatsuki’s strength. He also takes responsibility for Kimimaro’s future and shows interest in the Eye of the Thunder God.
• Nagato demonstrates the overwhelming defensive power of the Rinnegan, though the large-scale use of Shinra Tensei severely drains his lifespan. His decision to retreat suggests he recognizes that a prolonged battle would be costly.
• Kimimaro develops intense admiration for Long Ye, viewing him almost as a god after witnessing him survive the explosive-tag attack.
• Pakura, Candle Tiger, and Scorpion gain a more serious understanding of the Akatsuki and prepare themselves for future encounters.
• Konan is rescued by Nagato, while Kakuzu witnesses both the danger of Long Ye’s attack and the power of Nagato’s intervention.
• Candle Tiger becomes the link between Long Ye and the Candle Clan’s crisis, conveying his brother’s request for help.

Significant Themes

• Power and escalation: Long Ye’s strongest attack is stopped by Nagato, establishing the Akatsuki as a formidable rival force.
• The cost of power: Shinra Tensei and Hero Water both demonstrate that great abilities come at the price of lifespan or physical vitality.
• Survival and responsibility: Kimimaro’s status as the last survivor of his clan contrasts with the Candle Clan’s struggle to preserve its homeland.
• Unstable gifts: Both the Kaguya bloodline and the Eye of the Thunder God represent powers that can be extraordinary but dangerous.
• Uncertain alliances: Nagato abandons the attempt to recruit or fight Long Ye’s group, while the Candle Clan seeks Long Ye’s assistance, suggesting that future relationships may be shaped by practical necessity rather than loyalty.

Important Character Interactions

• Nagato directly confronts Long Ye, blocking his attack and forcing him back before retreating with Konan and Kakuzu.
• Pakura, Candle Tiger, and Scorpion analyze the Akatsuki encounter and agree that the organization may become a recurring threat.
• Long Ye welcomes Kimimaro indirectly by explaining his circumstances and choosing to protect him.
• The group examines Hero Water, with Long Ye warning of its deadly effect.
• Candle Tiger delivers his brother’s plea for help, introducing the central mystery of the expanding Thunderstorm Magnetic Field and the Eye of the Thunder God.

Plot points and events

• Candle Tiger explains that his clan’s “Eye of the Thunder God” is a glowing orb hidden in a ruined shrine within the Thunder Domain. It creates an enormous electromagnetic storm and, according to an inscription, is Takemikazuchi’s right eye.
• The orb’s effects have transformed the Candle clan: their members gained Lightning Release affinity and greatly increased physical strength. Long Ye suspects it works like the meteorite that altered Hoshigakure’s ninja.
• Candle Tiger reveals that the clan chief asked Long Ye for help because Long Ye’s Indestructible Body may let him reach the shrine’s core. Long Ye agrees.
• The group flies to Candle Valley. The chief, now friendly toward Long Ye after hearing of his powerful artifact, welcomes them and gives them Lightning-Proof Cloaks.
• When the chief warns that the storm is far more dangerous deeper inside and hesitates to let the others come, Pakura objects and Long Ye insists they can protect themselves. The chief relents, and the group sets out for the hidden shrine.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye moves from skepticism about the legendary explanation to practical interest in the orb’s effects, and agrees to investigate. He also stands up for his companions’ right to join him.
• Candle Tiger shares his clan’s guarded secret because the uncontrolled lightning now threatens their home.
• The Candle clan chief shifts from hostility to gratitude and cooperation, though his concern for the others also reflects his desire to keep the shrine secret.
• Pakura and Sasori resent being treated as too fragile to enter. Pakura speaks up; Sasori stays quiet but clearly refuses to be deterred.
• Mi Xiang and Kimimaro are presented as capable of defending themselves: Mi Xiang can redirect harm through her puppet and escape, while Kimimaro can use his hardened bones as protection.

Significant themes

• Myth versus history: The characters doubt that the orb is truly a god’s eye, even while recognizing its real power.
• Power and transformation: The orb appears to have reshaped the Candle clan’s bodies and abilities.
• Trust, secrecy, and risk: The clan must reveal a closely guarded secret to seek help, while balancing gratitude against fear of exposing it.
• Agency and respect: Pakura and the others reject being excluded merely because the chief doubts their survivability.

Key plot points and events

• Long Ye’s group travels deeper into the storm toward the hidden site. A forest of enormous iron pillars channels lightning into the ground, creating a deadly Thunder Domain that conceals the Thunder God’s Eye.
• At the midpoint, Pakura stays behind with Mi Xiang and Kimimaro; Long Ye, Sasori, and the two Candle brothers continue.
• Their cloaks begin to fail, but they reach a tiny stone shrine protected by a pyramid-shaped barrier. Inside rests the glowing Thunder God’s Eye.
• The Candle leader explains that the Eye has intensified the surrounding lightning, whose reach has expanded dramatically over the last decade. Long Ye suspects the barrier is weakening.
• When Long Ye examines the Eye with his Mangekyō Sharingan, a flash of blood-red light injures his eye. Though the others see only a white glow, Long Ye presses on toward the shrine.
• The leader secretly plans to sacrifice Long Ye, believing his exceptional body will reinforce the seal. He has been deceiving his people and arranging repeated sacrifices to preserve the Eye and advance Candle’s ambition to become a great shinobi nation.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye remains observant and composed, correctly interpreting the iron pillars’ function and recognizing the danger of the failing barrier. His Sharingan’s injury reveals that the Eye is far more dangerous than it appears.
• Pakura chooses caution and stays behind rather than risk being hurt further.
• Sasori voices the group’s curiosity about the Eye, while Candle Tiger warns Long Ye that the area near the shrine has killed many powerful warriors.
• The Candle leader shifts from cordial guide to concealed antagonist: his friendliness toward Long Ye masks his intention to use him as a blood sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Deception and ambition: The leader sacrifices his own people and manipulates outsiders in pursuit of national power.
• Power at a human cost: Candle’s hopes for strength depend on bloodshed and the exploitation of its strongest warriors.
• Dangerous, incomprehensible power: The Eye’s true nature remains uncertain, and even looking at it can cause harm.
• Secrecy and containment: The storm and shrine barrier conceal the Eye, but the weakening seal threatens to turn the whole valley into a lightning-struck wasteland.

Key plot points and events

• The Candle clan leader promises Long Ye the Eye of the Thunder God if he can subdue it and save Candle Valley. Candle Tiger objects, since the artifact is central to the clan’s identity and strength.
• Long Ye recognizes how valuable the artifact is but continues toward the shrine. The leader secretly made the offer to tempt Long Ye into danger, believing that no mortal could claim the artifact.
• As Long Ye enters the lightning-free but far more perilous inner zone, he uses Sage Mode to summon and direct the Nine-Headed Snake Cypress’s vines, forming a nine-layer suit of armor.
• Azure lightning strikes and keeps attacking, but the vines absorb it. Silver lightning then cuts through three layers, while an explosive purple bolt destroys six. The vines regenerate enough to protect Long Ye.
• Five steps from the shrine, a massive golden bolt destroys all nine layers. Long Ye suspects an even deadlier final attack lies ahead and fears his Indestructible Body may not withstand it.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye remains determined despite the escalating danger. He adapts by using the Cypress vines in a new, controlled defensive technique.
• Candle Tiger is torn between loyalty to Long Ye and devotion to his clan’s sacred artifact, but he trusts Long Ye’s defenses and hopes he succeeds.
• The clan leader presents himself as grateful and generous, but privately hopes greed will lead Long Ye to his death. As Long Ye survives the lightning, the leader’s confidence gives way to alarm and regret.
• Sasori, concealed inside Hiruko, recognizes Long Ye’s vine armor from its earlier success against the Six Hundred Billion Explosive Tags and watches its performance closely.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and loyalty: The leader argues that the clan’s people matter more than its artifact, while Candle Tiger struggles to accept that choice.
• Greed and manipulation: The leader exploits the promise of the artifact to draw Long Ye into danger, though Long Ye is not shown acting out of greed.
• Adaptation and survival: Long Ye’s ability to direct the vines in Sage Mode gives him a new defense, but each new form of lightning tests its limits.
• Trust and uncertainty: The watchers disagree about Long Ye’s chances, and his survival becomes increasingly uncertain as he nears the shrine.

Plot points

• Long Ye approaches the shrine containing the Eye of the Thunder God, protected by Susanoo wrapped in devouring Snake Vines. The Candle leader believes the artifact is unattainable and expects Long Ye to die.
• As Long Ye gets within one step of the shrine, a blood-red lightning dragon descends. It destroys Susanoo and its vine armor, leaving Long Ye exposed.
• Long Ye activates all nine talismans on the Dragon-Slaying Sword, spending nearly all his chakra. The sword becomes a white dragon-shaped blade of aura that pierces the lightning dragon and disrupts its form.
• The resulting storm of stray lightning injures all three observers: Sasori’s Hiruko is destroyed, Candle Tiger loses an arm, and the Candle leader suffers a deep shoulder wound.
• The lightning fades to reveal Long Ye still standing, though his condition remains uncertain. The chapter ends on the others’ shocked realization that he may have survived.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye persists despite knowing his defenses may fail, relying on quick adaptation and ultimately risking everything by awakening all nine talismans. His survival challenges the others’ assumptions about his limits.
• The Candle leader shifts from tense disbelief to anticipation of Long Ye’s death, viewing him as a useful sacrifice to strengthen the barrier. His confidence collapses when the lightning injures him and Long Ye appears to survive.
• Candle Tiger recognizes the danger and voices concern for Long Ye, then reacts with astonishment when he sees him standing. He is badly injured while trying to escape the storm.
• Sasori admires Long Ye’s defensive strategy but is powerless to predict the outcome; Hiruko shields him from the stray lightning, though it is destroyed.
• The three witnesses react differently—Sasori analyzes, Candle Tiger warns, and the leader hopes for Long Ye’s death—but the storm forces them into a shared retreat.

Significant themes

• Persistence under overwhelming odds: Long Ye continues forward even when the cost of failure is likely death.
• Ingenuity and sacrifice: He combines Susanoo with the Snake Vines, then spends nearly all his chakra on the sword’s full power.
• Limits of control: The artifact’s lightning overwhelms elaborate defenses, and its backlash harms even distant observers.
• Defiance of expectation: Long Ye’s apparent survival undermines the Candle leader’s certainty that no mortal can withstand the divine artifact.

Key plot points and events

• Long Ye survives the five divine lightning strikes, though his body is badly wounded. His Hashirama Cells give him the ability to recover from injuries that would kill an ordinary person.
• He takes the supposed Eye of the Thunder God from the shrine. It proves to be an amber crystal sphere containing a drop of blood.
• Long Ye’s blood touches the crystal, awakening the drop. The sphere explodes, and the blood enters his body, consuming his chakra and then draining his blood and life force.
• The leader prevents Candle Tiger from intervening, believing the divine object is killing Long Ye. Sasori identifies the Hero Water Long Ye drinks; its life-force-for-chakra effect briefly helps him halt the blood loss.
• As the blood continues to consume his power and his hair turns white, Long Ye realizes he may not survive. He uses the Op-Op Fruit’s power to transplant the unknown blood into himself, hoping to control it as he once did Hashirama Cells.
• The blood does not consume the Devil Fruit power. A red emblem appears on Long Ye’s back, and a system message announces that Chaos God’s Monster Blood has been transplanted, deeply transforming his Devil Body and awakening Monster Blood Power.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye repeatedly survives apparent mortal danger through resilience and improvisation. His willingness to risk a profound transformation reflects both desperation and resourcefulness.
• Candle Tiger tries to help Long Ye, partly out of gratitude for the sword Long Ye gave him, but the leader stops him.
• The leader alternates between hope and fear as Long Ye survives each new threat; he interprets the blood’s attack as the divine object finishing what the lightning could not.
• Sasori of the Red Sands notices Long Ye drinking the Hero Water and explains what it means, prompting the others to fear that Long Ye may still die.

Significant themes

• Survival through ingenuity: Long Ye repeatedly finds unconventional ways to escape seemingly certain death.
• Power and its cost: The Hero Water and Monster Blood offer power while threatening Long Ye’s life and humanity.
• The unknown and the divine: The “Eye” is not what it seems, and the blood’s name and divinity raise new questions about its origin and nature.

Plot points and events

• Long Ye learns that Monster Blood Power is an ability that, in a near-god state, produces divine blood threads from the spine. These can construct living beings and reproduce their abilities, though he does not yet understand how it works.
• The Eye of the Thunder God vanishes, and the long-standing thunderstorm around the Candle Clan finally ends.
• Long Ye realizes that his chakra has increased six- or sevenfold after absorbing the blood and taking Hero Water. His hair has turned silver-white, and he believes he can now perform the powerful Wood Release technique Shin Sūsenju.
• He explains to Candle Tiger and Sasori that the “Eye” was a crystal containing a drop of blood, which entered his body and nearly drained him. He survived by using medical ninjutsu and cell transplantation to integrate it.
• Candle Yong thanks Long Ye for saving the clan and honors their agreement that the sacred object would be his if he ended the crisis. Candle Tiger mourns its loss, while Candle Yong insists his promise has been kept.
• Long Ye notices that Candle Tiger lost his left arm to the lightning. He uses the Op-Op Fruit’s power to reattach it without leaving a scar.
• Candle Yong and Candle Tiger, overwhelmed by gratitude, persuade Long Ye to return with them for a banquet. Though he would rather study his new ability, Long Ye agrees.

Character developments

• Long Ye gains immense chakra reserves and a potentially transformative new power, while showing generosity by restoring Candle Tiger’s arm. He remains curious about the blood’s capabilities.
• Candle Tiger is relieved by the end of the storm but saddened by the clan’s lost sacred object and his injury. Having his arm restored deepens his gratitude toward Long Ye.
• Candle Yong publicly honors his bargain and expresses gratitude, though his hearty reaction to losing the sacred object strikes Long Ye as suspiciously unusual.
• Sasori is present among those who question Long Ye but has little further involvement in the events.

Significant themes

• Power gained through peril: Long Ye’s new strength comes from surviving the dangerous absorption of the blood.
• Promises and reciprocity: The sacred object was promised as payment, and Long Ye’s service fulfills the agreement.
• Gratitude and obligation: Candle Yong frames Long Ye’s repeated kindnesses as debts that deserve a proper show of thanks.
• Loss and restoration: The clan loses its divine object, but Candle Tiger’s devastating injury is miraculously reversed.

Character interactions

• Long Ye answers Candle Tiger and Sasori’s questions by explaining what happened to the crystal and blood.
• Candle Yong bows to Long Ye and affirms that the agreed reward is his; Candle Tiger reacts with regret at the sacred object’s disappearance.
• Long Ye restores Candle Tiger’s arm, earning further admiration from both brothers.
• When Long Ye tries to leave, Candle Yong invokes Candle Tiger’s past encounters with him and his recent kindnesses to persuade him to accept the clan’s hospitality.

Chapter Summary: “Deadly Poison Ibuse”

Key Plot Points and Events

• During a banquet hosted by Candle Yong, Long Ye and his companions prepare to leave but suddenly discover that they cannot move. Their legs and bodies have become numb.
• Scorpion identifies the source: poison concealed in the incense burner rather than the food or wine. The poison spreads through the air and contaminates their chakra when they move.
• Candle Yong reveals that the poison was made from the poison sac of a Black Ibuse, a famously lethal and supposedly incurable toxin associated with the former Amegakure leader Hanzo.
• Candle Yong admits that the banquet was a trap. He originally intended to use Long Ye as a blood sacrifice to strengthen the seal on the Candle clan’s sacred relic.
• Because the relic fused with Long Ye instead of being sacrificed, Candle Yong now plans to kill him and recover the relic from his corpse.
• Candle Tiger is horrified to learn that his brother has previously deceived and sacrificed members of their own clan for the same purpose. Candle Yong justifies these deaths as necessary sacrifices for the clan’s dream of leaving the valley and establishing the Candle Country.
• As Candle Yong’s warriors surround the poisoned group and attack, Long Ye enters Sage Mode to counteract the poison.
• Instead of dispelling the toxin, Sage Mode triggers a reaction from the Monster Blood Power. Blood-red threads erupt from his spine like wings, and his vision changes, allowing him to see the bodies of the attackers as networks of blood vessels and internal structures.

Character Developments

• Long Ye remains calm despite being poisoned and facing certain death. His composure shows his confidence and mental strength. His attempt to use Sage Mode unexpectedly reveals the first major manifestation of the Monster Blood Power.
• Scorpion demonstrates his experience and modified nature by recognizing that ordinary poison could not affect him, while inhaled toxins capable of contaminating chakra still posed a threat.
• Candle Yong is exposed as ruthless, manipulative, and fanatical. He values the clan’s ambitions above family or individual lives and intends to kill Long Ye to reclaim the sacred relic.
• Candle Tiger undergoes a major moral shock. He learns that his brother has sacrificed their own people and begins openly opposing Candle Yong’s methods, despite sharing the clan’s broader dream.
• Pakura, Mi Xiang, Kimimaro, and Scorpion are temporarily incapacitated, placing them at the mercy of Candle Yong’s forces.

Significant Themes

• Fanaticism versus morality: Candle Yong’s devotion to the Candle clan’s future has corrupted his judgment, leading him to treat both outsiders and his own people as disposable sacrifices.
• Betrayal and manipulation: The banquet’s hospitality is revealed to be a carefully designed deception, and Candle Tiger realizes that his brother has repeatedly betrayed those who trusted him.
• The cost of ambition: The Candle clan’s dream of creating a nation is presented as an ideal pursued through increasingly horrifying sacrifices.
• Hidden power and transformation: The Monster Blood Power, previously mysterious to Long Ye, begins to awaken under extreme danger and may provide a means to survive the Ibuse poison.
• Knowledge versus false certainty: Candle Yong believes the Ibuse poison guarantees Long Ye’s death, but the emergence of the Monster Blood suggests that his confidence may be misplaced.

Character Interactions

• Candle Yong confronts Long Ye and openly explains the sacrifice plot, while Candle Tiger challenges his brother’s actions.
• Candle Tiger’s anger and disbelief create a direct moral conflict with Candle Yong’s ruthless ideology.
• Scorpion identifies the poisoned incense, helping expose the method of the betrayal.
• Long Ye calmly questions Candle Yong about the poison, earning the enemy’s reluctant respect.
• Candle Yong orders his warriors to kill the group but remains too cautious to fight Long Ye personally because of his previous defeat.

Summary of “Candle Valley’s Four Generals”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Long Ye realizes that the system’s “Near-God State” refers to Sage Mode, allowing him to understand and control the Blood Threads created by the Monster Blood in his body.
• Although poisoned and paralyzed by Ibuse’s venom, Long Ye controls the Blood Threads mentally. They pass through incoming warriors like intangible beams of light, piercing their bodies without causing physical wounds.
• The Monster Blood allows Long Ye to transfer harmful conditions from himself or others into different targets. He removes the poison from his allies, Pakura and the others, and transfers it into the attacking warriors. The warriors quickly die from the accumulated poison, while Long Ye recovers.
• Candle Yong is shocked that Ibuse’s supposedly incurable poison has been neutralized. Pakura, furious over the ambush, prepares to retaliate, but Long Ye restrains her.
• Long Ye offers Candle Tiger and the Candle Clan a chance to settle the conflict peacefully, partly because Candle Tiger has been useful to him. Candle Tiger feels guilty because his brother’s conspiracy caused the attack.
• Candle Yong refuses negotiation because he believes Long Ye possesses the clan’s sacred relic. He blows the Soul-Calling Whistle, summoning every combat-capable warrior in Candle Valley.
• Candle Tiger fears that a battle will destroy the clan, but Candle Yong reveals that the clan possesses a hidden elite force.
• Two devastating sword arcs tear through the building. Long Ye blocks the second attack directly, suffering only a white mark, demonstrating his extraordinary durability.
• Four powerful elderly warriors appear around the ruined house, positioned in the east, south, west, and north. They are revealed to be the Candle Clan’s Four Generals, a secret force known only to the clan leader.
• The chapter ends with one of the generals questioning Candle Yong about whether he has fully considered the consequences of summoning them.

Character Developments

• Long Ye: Gains a deeper understanding of his Monster Blood and Blood Threads, discovering that they provide not only poison transfer but also the ability to absorb chakra, stamina, and recovery power. His near-invincible defensive and draining capabilities are further established.
• Pakura: Survives the poison attack and reacts with intense anger toward the Candle Clan. Her readiness to unleash Scorch Release highlights her loyalty to Long Ye and her willingness to retaliate.
• Candle Tiger: Shows remorse for his brother’s actions and remains concerned for both Long Ye’s group and his own clansmen. His conflict with Candle Yong becomes more pronounced.
• Candle Yong: Shifts from confidence to shock after Long Ye neutralizes the poison, but becomes more determined and ruthless once he believes the sacred relic is at stake.
• The Four Generals: Are introduced as the Candle Clan’s concealed ultimate weapons, powerful enough to alter the balance of the confrontation.

Significant Themes

• Hidden power and revelation: Long Ye uncovers the true nature of his abilities, while the Candle Clan reveals its secret Four Generals.
• Power concealed for strategic advantage: Both Long Ye and the Candle Clan have withheld major abilities until a crisis forces them into the open.
• Loyalty versus family: Candle Tiger is torn between loyalty to his clan and his recognition that Candle Yong’s actions are unjustified.
• Escalation caused by mistrust and greed: Long Ye offers a peaceful solution, but Candle Yong’s fixation on the sacred relic turns a possible negotiation into an impending battle.
• The cost of retaliation: Candle Tiger fears that violence will destroy decades of the Candle Clan’s work, emphasizing the destructive consequences of unchecked conflict.

Important Character Interactions

• Long Ye uses the Blood Threads to save Pakura and the others, reinforcing their dependence on and trust in him.
• Pakura wants to attack Candle Yong, but Long Ye intervenes and prevents immediate bloodshed.
• Long Ye offers Candle Tiger a peaceful resolution, while Candle Yong rejects it and insists on capturing Long Ye.
• Candle Tiger pleads with Candle Yong not to escalate the conflict, but Candle Yong dismisses his concerns.
• Candle Yong summons the Four Generals, whose leader immediately challenges his decision, suggesting that even the clan’s hidden protectors may not blindly support his actions.

Summary of “The Candle Tiger’s Choice”

Key Plot Points and Events

Candle Yong, leader of the Candle Clan, explains to four powerful elders that the clan’s sacred artifact, the Eye of the Thunder God, has been stolen and that Long Ye is responsible. The elders criticize Yong for allowing the theft, revealing that they possess strength comparable to his and could potentially remove him from leadership.
Their discussion is interrupted when a building collapses during the battle. Long Ye, Pakura, Candle Tiger, and Scorpion’s Kazekage Puppet emerge unharmed. Long Ye realizes that the Candle Clan secretly possesses four additional Kage-level fighters, giving the clan an unexpectedly formidable force.
Long Ye orders Mi Xiang to escape with Kimimaro, since the two children cannot yet participate in the battle. Using the Wooden Kite, Mi Xiang and Kimimaro transform the device into a giant flying bird and escape into the sky, shocking the Candle Clan warriors and frustrating the elders, who had believed their opponents were completely surrounded.
Long Ye then reminds Candle Yong that he had previously offered a peaceful solution at a small cost, but Yong rejected it, apparently relying on the four elders to win. Long Ye warns the elders that their age and overconfidence may lead to their destruction. When one elder prepares to attack, Candle Tiger intervenes to prevent immediate violence.
Long Ye gives Candle Tiger a final choice: continue honoring their ten-year agreement and protect the Candle Clan from total destruction, or side with his clansmen and fight Long Ye. In the latter case, Long Ye promises to show no mercy and potentially annihilate the entire clan.
Contrary to Candle Yong’s expectations, Candle Tiger chooses to stand with Long Ye, Pakura, and the puppet. He explains that this is not betrayal but an attempt to save the clan, since he understands that the Candle Clan cannot defeat Long Ye. Candle Yong refuses to accept his brother’s judgment, accuses him of treason, and orders the clan to kill him.

Character Developments

• Long Ye remains calm, confident, and strategically minded. He recognizes the Candle Clan’s hidden strength but is not intimidated. His offer to Candle Tiger demonstrates both tactical foresight and a willingness to preserve the clan if it submits.
• Candle Tiger undergoes the chapter’s central development. He chooses reason and the clan’s survival over blind loyalty to his brother and family. His decision shows courage, clear judgment, and genuine concern for the Candle Clan.
• Candle Yong becomes increasingly emotional and authoritarian. His pride prevents him from acknowledging Long Ye’s superior strength, and he interprets his brother’s attempt to prevent disaster as betrayal.
• The four elders are introduced as powerful but arrogant hidden forces within the clan. Their confidence in their numbers and abilities makes them underestimate Long Ye and his allies.
• Mi Xiang and Kimimaro are removed from the immediate danger through the Wooden Kite, emphasizing that they are not yet ready to participate in the main battle.
• Pakura welcomes Candle Tiger’s decision and recognizes the significance of his choice.

Significant Themes

• Reason versus pride: Candle Tiger understands that refusing battle is the only way to preserve the clan, while Candle Yong allows pride and anger to dictate his actions.
• Loyalty and betrayal: The chapter questions whether true loyalty means obeying one’s leader or making difficult choices to protect one’s people. Candle Tiger views siding with Long Ye as an act of loyalty to the clan rather than treason.
• The consequences of leadership: Candle Yong’s failure to assess the situation realistically places the entire clan at risk.
• Power and intimidation: Long Ye’s confidence and knowledge of his own strength allow him to challenge a clan that believes its hidden elders guarantee victory.
• Choice under pressure: Long Ye deliberately forces Candle Tiger to choose between two opposing loyalties, making the decision a decisive turning point in the conflict.

Character Interactions

• Candle Yong and the four elders criticize each other and discuss the theft of the sacred artifact, establishing tension within the clan’s leadership.
• Long Ye exchanges insults and warnings with the elders, refusing to be intimidated by their numbers or age.
• Long Ye gives Candle Tiger a direct ultimatum, recognizing that his decision could determine the Candle Clan’s survival.
• Candle Tiger confronts Candle Yong respectfully but firmly, warning him that the clan cannot win.
• Candle Yong responds with rage, rejecting his brother’s reasoning and ordering the clan to attack him, ending the chapter with the Candle Clan divided against itself.

Plot points and events

• Candle Yong’s four Admirals attack Long Ye, Pakura, and Scorpion. Long Ye easily withstands two opponents, while Pakura and Scorpion hold their own; Scorpion’s damaged puppet still puts his adversary under pressure.
• Candle Tiger, reluctant to harm his brother, urges Candle Yong to stop the fight and make peace. Candle Yong refuses, confident he has a way to kill Long Ye.
• In a hidden stone forest, Hidan performs his Death Controlling Blood ritual using Long Ye’s blood. By stabbing his own heart, he inflicts the same wound on Long Ye from afar.
• Long Ye recognizes Hidan’s technique and deduces that Candle Yong has allied with the Akatsuki. As Hidan attacks again, Long Ye’s heart is wounded a second time.
• Long Ye releases Blood Threads that pass through his two attackers. He redirects the curse’s damage to one Admiral, who dies when Hidan pierces his own heart again, and drains the other’s chakra, leaving him weakened.

Character developments and interactions

• Candle Tiger shows compassion and concern for his clan, pleading with Candle Yong and trying to prevent needless deaths. He is shocked when Long Ye is mysteriously injured.
• Candle Yong reveals that his confidence comes from a concealed plan: an alliance with Hidan. He uses the betrayal and the curse as leverage to try to force Candle Tiger’s surrender.
• Long Ye shifts from calmly dominating the battle to recognizing the threat and adapting quickly. Though his Indestructible Body can heal the curse’s wounds, it cannot prevent them, so he turns the technique against his attackers.
• Hidan attacks from concealment, exploiting Long Ye’s blood and his own immortality to inflict repeated heart wounds.
• Pakura and Scorpion continue fighting their assigned opponents, while Long Ye handles the two Admirals attacking him.

Significant themes

• Hidden threats and betrayal: Candle Yong’s apparent confidence masks his secret partnership with the Akatsuki.
• Limits of strength: Long Ye’s exceptional body and healing cannot simply overcome a supernatural curse.
• Loyalty versus ambition: Candle Tiger seeks peace and his brother’s safety, while Candle Yong prioritizes victory and control.
• Adaptation and reversal: Long Ye survives by redirecting the curse’s effects rather than trying to withstand them indefinitely.

Key plot points and events

• Long Ye drains one of the Candle clan’s two Admirals, replenishing the chakra he spent in battle. The other Admiral is left near death, while Candle Yong realizes the clan’s apparent advantage has collapsed.
• The wounded elder reveals a transplanted Ketsuryūgan from the Chinoike Clan. He traps Long Ye in a powerful blood-red genjutsu, but Long Ye breaks it almost instantly with his Mangekyō Sharingan.
• Unable to harm Long Ye with his sword or genjutsu, the elder turns himself into a Blood Dragon, using the Ketsuryūgan to control his blood. He feeds on the samurai crowd, draining and killing Candle clan members to grow stronger.
• Long Ye recognizes this as a suicidal attack, then discovers a new application of his Monster Blood: the Extracorporeal Construction Method. His Blood Threads reproduce the Ketsuryūgan’s meridian network, creating a copy of its powers without the original eye or its physical risks.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye remains composed and cautious in the face of an unfamiliar ability. After countering the elder’s genjutsu, he turns the crisis into an opportunity to understand and replicate the Ketsuryūgan.
• The elder escalates from a last-resort genjutsu to a self-sacrificial attack, showing his desperation to kill Long Ye—even at the cost of his own clan.
• Candle Yong reveals ruthless self-interest: he considers the deaths of clan members acceptable if the Blood Dragon can defeat Long Ye.
• Candle Tiger reacts with grief and fury as he watches fellow clansmen being slaughtered.
• The elder’s clash with Long Ye shifts from a direct duel to a threat against everyone nearby, forcing Long Ye to confront the danger of the attack while uncovering his own new power.

Significant themes

• Power and adaptability: Long Ye’s caution and ability to learn let him overcome an unfamiliar Kekkei Genkai.
• Sacrifice and cruelty: The elder’s willingness to consume his own people—and Candle Yong’s approval—exposes the clan’s internal disregard for its members.
• Power beyond the body: The chapter introduces the idea that abilities reside in meridian networks, which Long Ye can copy and construct outside himself.

Key plot points and events

• Long Ye realizes the elder’s Blood Haze technique turns blood into a growing Blood Dragon, but using it consumes the user’s entire blood supply and causes death. Its touch can dissolve any living creature, even one protected by Long Ye’s Vajra Body.
• Long Ye sends his own Blood-Thread Ketsuryūgan into the dragon. Rather than trying to overpower the elder’s powerful, hate-driven will, he uses Monster Blood Power to drain the ocular power sustaining the dragon.
• The Blood Dragon collapses into a massive rain of blood. Long Ye absorbs the elder’s ocular power, doubling the strength of his constructed Ketsuryūgan and causing it to assume a complete eye-like form.
• The battlefield’s apparent victory is interrupted by another defeat: Sasori’s Kazekage Puppet, using Magnet Release and poisoned weapons, fatally wounds one of the Admirals. Three of the four Admirals are now dead. The last, frightened and outmatched by Pakura, retreats.
• Candle Yong despairs at the clan’s losses and the loss of its sacred relic. His hopes rise when Hidan arrives, expecting Long Ye to be dead from his curse. Long Ye reveals that he knows Hidan was the one who cursed him, leaving Hidan shocked that the attack failed.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye demonstrates both resourcefulness and growing power: he recognizes the Blood Dragon’s danger, exploits the connection between their ocular powers, and turns the elder’s technique against itself.
• Candle Yong shifts from confidence in his clan’s victory to shock and despair, then clings to Hidan as a possible solution.
• Hidan arrives carefree and sure his curse worked, but is bewildered when he sees Long Ye alive. He blames Candle Yong for making him curse Long Ye from hiding rather than face-to-face, then insists he can simply kill Long Ye again.
• The elder’s dying will continues to drive the Blood Dragon through hatred, but Long Ye ultimately overcomes it by removing the power that sustains it.
• The final exchange sets up a confrontation between Long Ye and Hidan, while Candle Yong’s anger and Hidan’s self-assurance expose the failing alliance between them.

Significant themes

• Power at a cost: Blood Haze is immensely destructive but demands the user’s life.
• Adaptation over brute force: Long Ye wins by understanding and exploiting the technique’s mechanics rather than meeting its raw power head-on.
• The consequences of hatred and ambition: The elder’s hatred fuels the dragon, while Candle Yong’s bid for clan dominance leaves his people devastated.
• False confidence and reversals: Candle Yong and Hidan both assume Long Ye is finished, only to discover that their plans have failed.

Key plot points and events

• Hidan arrives to aid Candle Yong, threatening to sacrifice Long Ye to his god, Jashin. He attacks with his scythe, but Long Ye knocks him away with a single kick.
• Hidan performs his blood-based ritual and stabs himself, intending to transfer the damage to Long Ye. Long Ye’s Blood Threads redirect the curse to a Candle Clan warrior instead.
• Hidan realizes his usual technique is ineffective and considers targeting the surrounding warriors. Long Ye warns that he can redirect the curse back onto Hidan.
• Long Ye wounds Hidan with his sword, but Hidan’s immortality lets him shrug off the injury. Long Ye then uses the Ketsuryūgan to make Hidan’s body explode. Hidan severs his own head just beforehand, surviving as a living head.
• Hidan begs Long Ye for mercy while secretly communicating through his Akatsuki ring. Four red-cloud-cloaked figures appear beside him.

Character developments

• Long Ye remains composed and demonstrates that he can counter Hidan’s curse, withstand the explosion, and exploit Hidan’s immortality.
• Hidan shifts from gleeful confidence to shock and fear when his ritual fails and Long Ye threatens a more decisive attack. Despite his bravado, he pleads for his life and secretly calls for help.
• Candle Yong briefly regains hope when Hidan arrives, but becomes alarmed by Long Ye’s dominance and enraged by Hidan’s apparent cowardice.
• Scorpion watches Hidan’s apparent immortality with concern, questioning whether the man can be defeated at all.

Significant themes

• Adaptability and countermeasures: Long Ye repeatedly turns Hidan’s unusual abilities against him.
• The limits of immortality: Hidan can survive severe injuries, but his body can still be destroyed, leaving him dependent on keeping his head intact.
• Bravado versus vulnerability: Hidan’s cruel confidence gives way to panic and pleading when he loses control of the fight.
• Power and spectacle: The confrontation unsettles both the Candle Clan and observers who recognize Akatsuki as a group of dangerous, unconventional fighters.

Character interactions

• Hidan threatens and attacks Long Ye, but Long Ye calmly defeats his curse and counters his physical resilience.
• Long Ye’s actions kill a Candle Clan warrior when Hidan’s curse is redirected, then devastate Hidan’s body in an explosion that also kills nearby warriors.
• Hidan begs Long Ye to stop while covertly summoning his allies.
• Scorpion observes Hidan’s resilience, while Candle Yong reacts with fear and frustration. The chapter ends as four Akatsuki members arrive beside Hidan’s head.

Key plot points and events

• Kakuzu, Orochimaru, Konan, and Nagato arrive after Hidan is badly injured by Long Ye. Hidan asks Kakuzu for help, and Kakuzu attaches his head to a new body, restoring him through his immortality.
• Candle Yong urges Akatsuki to kill Long Ye, claiming he stole the clan’s sacred treasure and gained the power called “Divine Descent Wings.” His account is speculative: he does not know what caused Long Ye’s blood-like threads.
• Long Ye studies Nagato’s Rinnegan and realizes its internal network is vastly more complex than the Ketsuryūgan’s. Reconstructing it would require a full day and night of uninterrupted observation.
• Long Ye reveals that he once helped implant Nagato’s eyes and says he has severed ties with the mysterious man behind Nagato. He claims he now wants that man’s corpse.
• Nagato and Konan are shaken by Long Ye’s knowledge. Long Ye rejects the possibility of joining Akatsuki unless Nagato can prove he is stronger than him, leaving the group awaiting Nagato’s response.

Character developments and interactions

• Long Ye remains confident and provocative. He is eager to understand the Rinnegan but also openly challenges Nagato and needles him about his origins.
• Nagato responds cautiously. Long Ye’s claim forces him to reconsider how much the masked stranger knows, and he stays silent rather than immediately accepting or rejecting the challenge.
• Konan is alarmed by Long Ye’s revelation, especially because the Rinnegan’s transplantation is known to very few.
• Kakuzu and Hidan reprise their uneasy dynamic: Kakuzu mocks Hidan, then repairs his body when asked.
• Orochimaru joins the group but still resents Long Ye for repeatedly defeating and humiliating him. He relies on the strength of his allies rather than confronting Long Ye alone.
• Candle Yong tries to turn Akatsuki against Long Ye, presenting the clan’s interests as a bargain.

Significant themes

• Power and trust: Long Ye’s knowledge of Nagato’s past unsettles Akatsuki and complicates any attempt to recruit or oppose him.
• Immortality and bodily identity: Hidan’s recovery shows how little permanent damage can mean for him, even after his body is destroyed.
• Pride and strength: Long Ye frames alliance as a matter of strength, while the other characters weigh whether they can afford to challenge him.
• Secrets and misinformation: Candle Yong’s vague story about the clan’s treasure contrasts with Long Ye’s precise knowledge of the Rinnegan’s history.