Chapter Summaries

Uchiha Shinichi’s apparent defeat of Konoha’s defenses forced Minato Namikaze to rethink his Jonin assessment and search for Kushina. Minato found her in his own apartment, and Shinichi’s clone declared that he had passed.

• Uchiha Shinichi’s clone vanished from the Hokage Office after warning that the game had only just begun, leaving Minato to recognize the scale of his defeat.
• Minato realized Shinichi wanted him to find Kushina rather than stop him, and reasoned that his teacher would choose the simplest hiding place.
• Minato guessed that Kushina was hidden in his own apartment and used the Flying Thunder God Formula to go there.
• Minato found Kushina playing cards with a clone of Shinichi, and she rushed into his arms when she saw him.
• Shinichi’s clone praised Minato for figuring it out, offered him advice, and confirmed that he had passed his Jonin assessment before disappearing.

At Ichiraku Ramen, Uchiha Shinichi celebrated Minato Namikaze’s Jonin assessment and heard him explain the lesson behind Shinichi’s unconventional test. Shinichi then visited Orochimaru’s laboratory, where Orochimaru revealed he had extracted rudimentary law code from Shibai Ōtsutsuki’s corpse and was developing new Divine Arts.

• Kushina Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze, Nawaki, and Uchiha Shinichi celebrated Minato’s assessment over ramen, while Kushina ate most of the food and Shinichi worried about the bill.
• Minato explained that Shinichi’s test had taught him to understand an enemy’s logic rather than cling to rules, and Shinichi accepted his answer.
• Tsunade joined the group, asked Shinichi about the Bloodline Enhancement Plan, and Shinichi left to inspect its progress while putting the meal on the Hokage’s tab.
• Orochimaru told Shinichi that Divine Arts altered the universe’s fundamental laws and showed him a rudimentary law code of existence and nonexistence extracted from Shibai Ōtsutsuki’s corpse.
• Shinichi urged Orochimaru to work faster so they could visit Takama-ga-hara, and Orochimaru said Shinichi’s Divine Arts seemed to surpass the Ōtsutsuki Clan’s powers.

Uchiha Shinichi stopped Orochimaru from attempting to create divine arts and directed him to develop a bloodline enhancement serum using Ōtsutsuki Shibai’s corpse. Orochimaru agreed to produce a first batch within three months, while Shinichi returned to rest.

• Orochimaru showed Shinichi a strand of extracted law code, but Shinichi halted him and questioned whether he had the skills to use it safely.
• Shinichi explained that he needed stronger allies to handle lesser threats from Takama-ga-hara, rather than having Orochimaru focus on creating divine arts.
• Shinichi ordered Orochimaru to use Shibai’s biological data to improve the Hyuga Byakugan, the Uchiha Sharingan, the Senju sage body, and ordinary ninja’s physical abilities and chakra reserves.
• Orochimaru accepted the bloodline enhancement serum project and promised Shinichi that the first batch would be ready within three months.
• Shinichi left the laboratory to rest and told Orochimaru to seek funding from Tsunade under the name of Konoha’s Village-Wide Fitness Program.

After three months of work, Orochimaru completed the first batch of Bloodline Enhancement Serum, and Shinichi gathered trusted Konoha ninja to undergo the dangerous trial. The chapter ended as Senju Nawaki convulsed and screamed after receiving the injection.

• Tsunade confronted Shinichi over a costly funding request, but they both responded to a secret signal from Orochimaru.
• Orochimaru presented the serum, explaining that it could grant transcendent power but carried a five percent chance of fatal cellular collapse.
• Shinichi warned Minato Namikaze, Senju Nawaki, and the assembled jonin that the serum would bind survivors to future battles, but none withdrew.
• Orochimaru injected Nawaki with the serum, and Nawaki began convulsing as an immense surge of chakra erupted from him.

Nawaki endured a violent transformation after Orochimaru awakened Ōtsutsuki gene fragments in his body, then mastered the power and manifested Wood Release. Shinichi declared him the first successful case and asked which of the other test subjects would go next.

• Nawaki's chakra erupted as his body underwent painful cellular restructuring, and Orochimaru celebrated the transformation as evolution.
• Minato and the other jonin prepared for danger while Shinichi calmly told Nawaki to master the power rather than resist it.
• Nawaki regained control, summoned Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence, and transformed the underground laboratory into a forest.
• Shinichi called Nawaki the first successful case, charged him for the laboratory damage, and asked who would be the next test subject.

Senju Nawaki and Minato Namikaze successfully underwent transformations with Orochimaru’s reagent, prompting the other Jonin to volunteer for the same procedure. After the transformations granted them powerful abilities, one Jonin became dangerously arrogant, revealing a flaw in the reagent that Shinichi told Orochimaru to fix.

• Senju Nawaki awakened Wood Release, and Minato Namikaze volunteered to test the reagent next.
• Minato’s mind analyzed and absorbed a conceptual code, allowing him to move through space without using a jutsu.
• Encouraged by the two successes, the Jonin lined up for transformations that gave them varied new abilities while Shinichi stabilized those in danger of losing control.
• A Jonin who gained lightning affinity became arrogant and attacked a companion, so Shinichi knocked him unconscious.
• Shinichi warned Orochimaru that version 1.0 of the reagent had a bug that needed fixing.

Shinichi explained that the Ōtsutsuki genes’ arrogance could overwhelm people whose wills and emotional bonds were weak, and Orochimaru resolved to strengthen their mental defenses. Orochimaru began planning a second phase of training to help the Jonin reconnect with mortal emotions.

• Tsunade confronted Shinichi over the dangerous side effects of the power-enhancement program, while Orochimaru identified the arrogance as an instinct embedded in Ōtsutsuki genes.
• Shinichi compared the genes to a virus and a person’s will, emotions, and bonds to a firewall, explaining why Minato and Nawaki had resisted the arrogance.
• Orochimaru realized the solution was a mental patch to strengthen the host rather than a change to the genetic mixture.
• Shinichi left the laboratory and told Tsunade to pay his Ichiraku Ramen bill as his counseling fee.
• Orochimaru announced that the Jonin would begin a second phase of adaptation training focused on experiencing mortal emotions.

Orochimaru put Minato Namikaze, Senju Nawaki, and the other recipients of the Divine Baptism through a takoyaki stall assignment as emotional adaptation training. After Minato helped a lost child find his mother, Orochimaru recorded a small improvement and declared the counseling had only begun.

• Orochimaru gave the elite ninja lucky-cat aprons and assigned them to sell takoyaki at Konoha's Summer Festival under strict requirements.
• Tsunade questioned Shinichi about the training, and he explained that ordinary frustrations and emotions made the stall an immersive form of therapy.
• At the festival, Nawaki, a Lightning Release ninja, and a taijutsu specialist caused chaos while Minato worked to keep the stall running.
• When a child reported that his mother was missing, Minato stopped the others from using ninjutsu and patiently searched the crowd with him.
• The child reunited with his mother, and Orochimaru recorded the group's progress at five percent before saying the psychological counseling had only begun.

Orochimaru assigned Minato Namikaze and the other elite jonin to teach at Konoha Kindergarten as social reintegration training. Minato comforted an injured Hyuga girl with a puppy bandage, advancing the installation of his “Firewall Patch.”

• Orochimaru gave the exhausted jonin animal-print bibs and assigned them to substitute at Konoha Kindergarten.
• Minato Namikaze, Nawaki, and the other jonin struggled to manage the youngest class as the children climbed on them, asked questions, and started a fight.
• A Hyuga girl scraped her knee during a struggle over a toy, and Minato stopped the others from rushing to solve the problem with ninjutsu.
• Minato gently comforted the girl and placed a puppy bandage on her knee, calming her tears.
• Orochimaru recorded Minato’s shift toward empathy and reassurance, noting that the Firewall Patch had reached 20 percent.

Orochimaru sent the exhausted jonin to help families of fallen shinobi and retired villagers as an exercise in understanding what their power protected. After hearing an elderly widow remember her husband, two jonin revised their sense of purpose toward protecting ordinary daily life, while Orochimaru recorded the progress of his plan.

• Orochimaru gave the jonin a list of households to visit for repairs, chores, and companionship, calling the work after-sales service.
• A taijutsu jonin and a Lightning Release ninja visited an elderly widow and brought down a chest containing her late husband's uniform, forehead protector, and diary.
• The widow recalled how her husband had been an ordinary genin who protected her peace through everyday acts such as repairing the house and making soil ready for planting.
• The two jonin repaired her roof, chopped firewood, and learned to make the miso soup her husband had loved.
• The Lightning Release ninja wept while preparing the soup, and Orochimaru recorded that the jonin had begun to see their power as a way to protect ordinary daily life.

After completing their training, Minato Namikaze and the other elite jonin graduated and received their first mission: investigate a village erased from existence. They formed Konoha’s new Levee unit and departed to confront the unknown threat.

• The elite jonin reflected on their ordinary struggles during training, while Nawaki connected protecting small comforts with protecting Konoha.
• Orochimaru declared the team’s firewall training nearly complete and formally graduated them.
• Uchiha Shinichi told the team that Lian, a village on the Land of Rain’s border, had been erased, and its existence and its residents’ memories were fading.
• Minato read Hokage Tsunade’s order establishing the Konoha Special Disaster Response and Strategic Countermeasures Unit, codenamed Levee.
• Minato led the unit out to investigate, while Orochimaru watched them depart and praised Shinichi’s after-sales service.

Minato and the Levee unit encountered what seemed to be a village erased by an overwhelming force, but the scene was a test staged by Uchiha Shinichi and Orochimaru in Konoha’s underground training ground. Shinichi praised Minato for ordering a retreat, while Orochimaru confirmed that the squad’s Firewalls had protected them from the simulated threat.

• Minato halted the Levee unit at the edge of a rainless circular zone where the village of Lian appeared to have been erased.
• Minato perceived the zone’s code as NULL and directed the squad to focus on a flickering point within it.
• The Jonin sensed an incomprehensible presence, and one of them collapsed before Minato ordered everyone to retreat and report their failure.
• The apparent Land of Rain vanished, revealing the unit was inside Konoha’s underground training ground.
• Orochimaru told Uchiha Shinichi that the squad’s Firewalls had worked, and Shinichi gave Minato full marks for choosing to retreat.

Shinichi revealed that the unit’s seemingly impossible graduation exam had been a genjutsu designed to teach them that retreating to protect civilians could be the right choice. He sent Minato and the Levee unit on their first real mission to the former Land of Whirlpools, where they were to rescue Uzumaki survivors and investigate those experimenting on them.

• Shinichi explained that the unbeatable enemy had been an illusion and told the unit that choosing to retreat had earned them full marks.
• Shinichi taught Nawaki and the others that their duty was to preserve their strength and evacuate civilians when they could not hold the line.
• Tsunade confronted Shinichi over the danger of the exam, but relented when she saw the unit’s resolve.
• Shinichi gave Minato a mission to clear a lawless enclave near the former Land of Whirlpools and save the Uzumaki survivors being captured for experiments.
• Minato led the Levee unit toward the battlefield, while Shinichi hinted that something more dangerous than rogue ninja might be involved.

Minato Namikaze and the Levee unit infiltrated an underground base in the former Land of Whirlpools and rescued imprisoned Uzumaki survivors while eliminating the rogue ninjas draining their chakra. After the battle, Minato discovered an ancient black stone on the altar, which began to tremble.

• Nawaki sensed imprisoned Uzumaki survivors underground, and the team discovered that their chakra powered the base’s defensive barrier.
• Minato led the Levee unit into the underground base, where they found Uzumaki elders and children being drained to fuel a ritual.
• Nawaki shielded the prisoners as the Levee unit swiftly killed the rogue ninjas.
• Minato approached the altar and recognized its black stone as an ancient object related to the NULL region Shinichi had created.
• The black stone trembled faintly.

Minato and the Levee unit fought to contain the black stone as it began warping reality and contaminating their minds. Minato tricked it into mistaking them for its kind, then used a spatial link to redirect its power into his own mental world.

• Minato ordered Nawaki to raise the survivors and their cages while the Levee unit formed a defensive line and conserved its strength.
• The black stone distorted nearby matter and spread a cold influence through the unit, but the ninja resisted by clinging to warm human memories.
• Minato told the unit to release their divinity, making the black stone mistake them for its kind and halting its expansion.
• Minato reached the altar, pressed a specially made three-pronged kunai against the stone, and used Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder to direct its reality-warping energy toward his mental world.

Minato Namikaze contained the reality-corrupting null inside his mind by building a quarantine zone around his memories of Kushina, then led the Levee unit home with the surviving Uzumaki and the recovered meteoric iron. At Konoha's gate, Uchiha Shinichi welcomed the unit back and announced a victory feast.

• Minato Namikaze protected the book of Kushina's smile and used the Flying Thunder God Formula to isolate the null in a quarantine zone inside his mind.
• Orochimaru saw Minato's mental contamination stabilize, while Uchiha Shinichi acknowledged that Minato had passed his test.
• Minato Namikaze woke, ordered the Levee unit to finish cleaning up, and led the survivors out of the underground base.
• Nawaki carried the surviving Uzumaki on Wood Release stretchers, and the Taijutsu ninja sealed the inert meteoric iron for Konoha.
• Minato Namikaze reported the mission complete to Uchiha Shinichi at Konoha's gate, and Shinichi welcomed the cleaners home and announced a victory feast.

The Levee unit celebrated their victory at Ichiraku Ramen, where Shinichi explained that ordinary pleasures helped Minato resist the hungry prisoner in his mind. Orochimaru revealed that the mysterious stone broadcast a signal announcing food, and Minato returned home resolved to face whatever followed it.

• The Taijutsu shinobi and the Lightning Release shinobi teased each other over their disastrous attempts at cooking while Nawaki and Minato reflected on life and the prisoner in Minato's mental quarantine zone.
• Shinichi told Minato that small pleasures like ramen helped people feel alive and resist the prisoner's influence.
• Tsunade reported Orochimaru's analysis that the stone acted as a beacon transmitting the message, "There is food here."
• Shinichi warned that the Ōtsutsuki might return and urged the group to prepare more top-tier fighters before leaving Tsunade with the bill.
• Minato walked home, sensed the prisoner's enticing signal, and resolved to face those drawn to it as long as the light of home remained.

Twenty years of peace passed as Konoha prospered and its people built families, while Minato continued suppressing the threat inside his mind. When Tsunade asked Shinichi to have a child, he asked to wait, afraid he might not survive the coming battle against the God of Ōtsutsuki.

• Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy fought at the Third Training Ground while Orochimaru recorded their combat data.
• Minato Namikaze welcomed Naruto Uzumaki into his office as Kushina Uzumaki reminded their son to knock.
• Shinichi watched Tsunade care for their garden and reflected on the peaceful life they had built.
• Tsunade asked Shinichi to have a child, but he asked her to wait because he feared he would die before defeating the God of Ōtsutsuki.
• Tsunade agreed to wait, and Shinichi reached to embrace her before lowering his hand, worried his aura would disturb her peace.

Shinichi struggled to explain his refusal to Tsunade, then learned from Orochimaru that the Beacon and Minato’s mental-world “trash can” had begun responding in unison. Tsunade realized Shinichi had been trying to protect her and their child from an approaching threat, and chose to face it with him.

• Shinichi avoided explaining his refusal to Tsunade while they sat in tense silence over breakfast.
• Shinichi went to the garden, where Orochimaru confronted him about his guilt and delivered an urgent report.
• Orochimaru showed Shinichi that the Beacon and Minato’s mental-world “trash can” had begun pulsing in sync after twenty years of silence.
• Shinichi concluded that the threat was nearly upon them, while Tsunade recognized the fear behind his refusal.
• Tsunade embraced Shinichi and told him they would repair the sky together.

Shinichi persuaded Konoha’s leaders that releasing Kaguya could provide intelligence and power against the Ōtsutsuki threat, then freed her from her lunar seal. After Kaguya’s attack failed, she recognized Shinichi as a superior being and asked what she should do.

• Tsunade embraced Shinichi and agreed to help him mend the sky, but he said he would seek help from an elder who hated those above.
• At the Hokage Office, Shinichi told Minato, Tsunade, and Orochimaru that he planned to release Kaguya to gain intelligence and achieve a breakthrough.
• Minato accepted Shinichi’s plan, and Shinichi vanished after promising Tsunade he would cook her an egg when he returned.
• On the moon, Shinichi used Rinne Tenseigan: Release to shatter the seal holding Kaguya.
• Kaguya attacked Shinichi with All-Killing Ash Bones, but he erased the bone spike and offered her a chance to live differently.
• Kaguya withdrew her hostility, bowed to Shinichi, and asked what she should do.