Chapter Summaries

Black Zetsu launched coordinated attacks against the four witnesses to the stone tablet, but Konoha and the Land of Rivers protected them and traced the attacks to a shared transmission network. Shisui’s deception let the Sealing Squad intercept Black Zetsu’s command, which ordered the witnesses eliminated by the one who inherited Madara’s name and was backed by a Heart Restriction Trigger Seal.

• The clan elder rejected an impostor’s request to recite the tablet and helped capture a White Zetsu using a stolen clan member’s identity.
• The Land of Rivers recorder exposed a false official seal and trapped the attacker in a Water Prison.
• Itachi’s team caught a shadow-borne attack linked to old White Zetsu tissue hidden in a wooden beam, prompting Gen to inspect Konoha’s records facilities for dormant plant remnants.
• Shisui used Genjutsu to make an attacker believe he had killed a double, revealing the black transmission line that connected the attacks.
• The Sealing Squad intercepted Black Zetsu’s command to eliminate the witness chain and force the one who inherited Madara’s name to carry it out with a Heart Restriction Trigger Seal.

Obito tested the White Zetsu’s memories and challenged Black Zetsu’s authority over Madara’s plan and orders. He refused to kill the witnesses, leaving his Heart Restriction in a sustained backlash state as he vowed to investigate Madara again.

• Obito compared three versions of the stone tablet and found that the White Zetsu’s memories and interpretations had been manipulated.
• Obito tested an order written by Madara and discovered that Black Zetsu had turned an instruction to observe into a command to eliminate dissenters.
• Obito used evidence from Konoha to trace the heart-trigger order to Black Zetsu and questioned Black Zetsu’s claims to speak for Madara.
• Black Zetsu activated Obito’s Heart Restriction and projected Rin’s death to pressure him into killing the four witnesses.
• Obito used Kamui to destroy the witnesses’ outlines instead of harming the witnesses, openly refusing Black Zetsu’s order.
• Obito stood through the sustained backlash and vowed to investigate Madara again.

Konoha’s investigation established that Black Zetsu altered Madara’s plan during a three-day coma and deceived him with a tampered translation. Meanwhile, the Medical Squad found that Black Zetsu could remotely trigger the core of the restriction in the Masked Man’s heart, leaving its removal dependent on severing that connection first.

• The Records Team found that Black Zetsu had filled in Madara’s three-day coma and changed the plan from preserving reality to replacing it, while Madara later accepted the conclusion and remained responsible for his choices.
• The Cross-Verification Squad confirmed that Madara’s life support had failed, and Shikaku kept open whether Black Zetsu caused the break or exploited it.
• White Zetsu revealed that a black figure delivered the altered translation before Madara awoke, and Madara checked its genuine chakra traces rather than verifying its wording.
• The Masked Man found the same altered translation in the Other Dimension, bearing Madara’s handprint but Black Zetsu’s handwriting.
• The Medical Squad linked the heart restriction’s black core to Black Zetsu and determined that it could trigger the lock remotely, so treatment had to sever synchronization before dismantling Madara’s nodes.

Obito endured the Heart Restriction’s worsening backlash while Konoha mapped its four layers and devised a cautious treatment plan. The chapter ended with the choice of whether Obito would open his dimension and let Konoha’s medical team approach his heart.

• Black Zetsu urged the Masked Man to complete the command against the four Witnesses, but he burned their locations and refused to obey.
• Konoha’s Sealing Squad identified the restriction’s four layers and sent a Stabilization Slip that briefly stopped the tissue’s tightening.
• The Masked Man tested the slip, then sent Konoha one complete pulse to permit further analysis without consenting to surgery.
• Kakashi and the Sealing Squad determined that Resonance could stabilize three layers, while Obito would have to open the innermost layer himself.
• The Third Hokage approved a neutral treatment plan at an abandoned stone warehouse in the Land of Rivers, with safeguards and boundaries for both sides.
• Obito read the plan’s requirements and faced the choice of opening his other dimension so Konoha could treat the restriction.

Kakashi abandoned his plan to remove Obito’s Heart Restriction with Kamui after simulations showed it could kill him, and Konoha and the Masked Man negotiated safeguards for neutral treatment. The Masked Man had not approved the terms when Danzo proposed using Kotoamatsukami to make him consent.

• The Sealing Squad’s simulations showed that Kamui removal could collapse the heart, allow the core to regrow, or split the tissue, so Kakashi rejected his proposal and sent the failure records to the Masked Man.
• The Masked Man verified that the core could regrow and questioned who would protect his eyes if he became unable to act.
• Shikaku established safeguards for treatment in the Land of Rivers, including fixed participants, shared chakra records, and a witness empowered to terminate the passages.
• Fugaku added an Uchiha witness, and the Masked Man rejected complete disarmament but accepted Kakashi’s position at the rear flank and a verbal command requirement for Kamui.
• The Masked Man proposed that Konoha destroy the Night of the Nine-Tails Investigation, but Shikaku refused, and the Masked Man withdrew the condition.
• Danzo proposed using Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami to make the Masked Man believe he had consented to treatment and capture.

Shisui and the village rejected using Kotoamatsukami to manufacture Obito’s consent and established safeguards for treatment. Obito sent back a limited permission seal, leaving open the possibility of meeting while retaining control over whether treatment proceeded.

• Shisui recorded Danzo’s proposal to use Kotoamatsukami as coercion, and Fugaku insisted that any such operation follow capture procedures rather than be hidden in medical provisions.
• Shisui ruled out using Kotoamatsukami to rewrite Obito’s consent or allegiance, and the Third Hokage barred it from the Medical District while setting limits on genjutsu.
• Shisui designed Continuous Consciousness Verification with Memory Markers, voluntary release, and safeguards inspected by Itachi, a Hyuga jonin, and a Land of Rivers Sealing Master.
• Black Zetsu tried to burn the transmitted plan, but the sentence forbidding anyone from rewriting Obito’s consent reached him intact.
• Obito sent a Limited Permission Seal and asked whether Konoha would still open the passage if he withdrew permission; the Land of Rivers confirmed he could withdraw before entering and restricted what the seal authorized.

Gen developed a three-stage plan to sever Black Zetsu’s control over Obito, with treatment subject to negotiated safeguards rather than forgiveness or surrender. After Obito authorized the first stage and revealed the warehouse location, Black Zetsu mobilized the White Zetsu Network toward the surgical site.

• Gen proposed disrupting Black Zetsu’s synchronization, stabilizing Obito’s restriction nodes, and leaving Obito to revoke the heart-chakra authorization himself.
• Danzo questioned relying on Obito’s choice, but Gen insisted the procedure could not succeed unless Obito rejected the binding; Konoha also set terms that excluded forgiveness and forced surrender.
• The Masked Man revised the plan, and Konoha and the Land of Rivers agreed to staged diagrams, independent records, abort conditions, and strict isolation and testing of White Zetsu tissue.
• Konoha detected black specks in the first tissue sample and sealed it, confirming that Black Zetsu’s influence could remain hidden even in White Zetsu who obeyed the Masked Man.
• The Masked Man sent his authorization seal and the first restriction-layer diagram, allowing the Land of Rivers to reveal the stone warehouse; the Black Samples identified it as the seal’s location.
• The White Zetsu Network detected the warehouse and began converging on it as Black Zetsu mobilized those still controlled by the old authorization.

Obito entered the Stone Warehouse for a staged procedure to isolate Black Zetsu’s core, with Konoha and the Land of Rivers enforcing strict safeguards. After Obito turned his back to the medical team, Black Zetsu’s core fully awakened inside his heart.

• The Land of Rivers exposed two disguised White Zetsu at the perimeter and trapped them in separate stone cages.
• Shisui and Itachi verified Obito’s consciousness and chakra, after which he removed his mask and authorized the first treatment stage.
• The medical team activated three False Heartbeat Sources, loosening the lines around Obito’s heart, and used White Zetsu tissue to form three Hollow Rings around the outer nodes.
• Kakashi activated his left Sharingan and pinned the three Hollow Rings to matching spatial coordinates while the restraints limited both his and Obito’s eyes.
• After hearing his right to halt the procedure, Obito turned his back to the medical ninja and exposed the black line on his spine.
• When a medical ninja touched an outer node, four seals opened and Black Zetsu’s core awakened inside Obito’s heart.

Black Zetsu emerged from Obito’s heart and tried to seize its core, but the coordinated team isolated him while preserving Obito’s consent and consciousness. After the core’s four tendrils were exposed, Obito insisted on severing the final link himself, leaving the operation at a critical decision.

• Black Zetsu revealed himself inside Obito’s heart, and the Sealing Squad trapped his tendrils while Itachi, Shisui, Gen, Kakashi, and the others contained the external attack.
• Gen lured an external Black Zetsu shadow into a stone casket, while the Guard Squad severed the White Zetsu Network’s connections to the warehouse.
• Obito confirmed his authorization to continue the risky procedure, and the Medical Squad began stripping the black core’s shell as Kakashi and the Masked Man stabilized the space around his heart.
• Black Zetsu attacked Obito’s memories, but Obito rejected its prescribed answers and chose to investigate Rin’s death himself.
• The Medical Squad exposed the core’s four tendrils, and Obito rejected Kakashi’s and the Medical Ninjas’ proposed methods, demanding to remain conscious and sever the final tendril himself.

Obito severed Black Zetsu’s control line from his heart with Kakashi’s help and reclaimed control of his body. Black Zetsu escaped in a remnant through the White Zetsu Network, while Obito’s reckoning remained unfinished.

• Obito authorized the attempt to remove Black Zetsu’s control line, and Kakashi anchored the line with his left eye as Obito exposed it with Kamui.
• Black Zetsu forced Obito to relive Rin’s death, but Obito rejected Black Zetsu’s interpretation of his past and identified the control line as foreign.
• Obito and Kakashi tore the control line away from Obito’s heart, and Obito’s heartbeat eventually returned without Black Zetsu’s control.
• Gen sealed most of Black Zetsu inside the Stone Casket, but a nearly invisible remnant escaped through the White Zetsu Network.
• Obito checked his heartbeat and found that his right half no longer answered Black Zetsu’s commands.

After completing neutral treatment, Obito rejected surrender but agreed to a limited ceasefire and shared evidence and intelligence about Black Zetsu. He left freely, revealing a possible Black Zetsu outpost in the Land of Rain that Konoha planned to verify before acting.

• The Land of Rivers Witness declared the Third Stage complete after Obito remained lucid and his heart and right side showed no renewed synchronization with Black Zetsu.
• The Root observer challenged the medical boundary, but the Third Hokage ordered the contingency plan to continue, and the Medical Squad completed its tests and ended protection.
• Obito refused to sign his old name or surrender, then agreed not to attack the four witnesses, the authorized zone, or the neutral-treatment medical personnel while the investigation continued.
• Obito gave the Witness the original order from Black Zetsu and its hidden deployment details, then shared a route to a possible outpost beneath an abandoned Drainage Tower in the Land of Rain.
• Obito departed through Kamui, and Shikaku held off on sending anyone to the site until Konoha could independently verify the coordinates and route.

Black Zetsu attacked the Stone Warehouse to destroy its records and recover the Broken Core, but the personnel, core, and copies of the records survived. The Broken Core pointed toward Black Zetsu’s network in the Land of Rain, which appeared connected to an Akatsuki supply route.

• Black Zetsu seized control of most White Zetsu and sent them to destroy the Stone Warehouse, while seven escaped by severing their roots.
• Obito’s guards evacuated the personnel and preserved the records; Itachi cut off a White Zetsu root, and Shisui helped the witnesses escape before the warehouse collapsed.
• The Land of Rivers disclosed the destruction of the Authorization Pillars and confirmed that synchronized copies of their records had already been made.
• Shikaku’s tests showed that the Broken Core pointed toward Black Zetsu’s authority network rather than Obito, and later readings directed the investigation west toward the Land of Rain.
• Obito found that Black Zetsu had severed most of his White Zetsu contacts, so he isolated the two remaining responders and began verifying their intelligence.
• The Broken Core’s direction matched an Akatsuki drug route and freight codes associated with a relay outpost in the Land of Rain.

Konoha’s limited investigation in the Land of Rain verified Obito’s information and exposed Black Zetsu’s use of the Akatsuki’s command network to issue conflicting orders. The Land of Rain denied permission for a deeper search, while Konan hesitated over the conflicting instructions she found.

• Shikaku arranged a border-compliant pollution investigation, and two craftspeople from the Land of Rain verified Obito’s diagram without entering beyond their permit.
• The craftspeople recovered White Zetsu residue, Red Clouds cloth, and a message cylinder linking the Drainage Tower to the Akatsuki’s transport network.
• A Recorder from the Land of Rivers opened the cylinder and found two simultaneously valid sets of contradictory orders, one bearing Obito’s spatial signature and the other Black Zetsu’s black-thread authority.
• The Land of Rain refused Konoha’s request to search deeper, and Shikaku accepted the limits on what Konoha could take from the investigation.
• Obito refused to hand over the Akatsuki’s membership list, and Konoha agreed not to treat unknown members as guilty without evidence of specific operations.
• Konan retrieved the underlying orders after a White Zetsu took the surface copy, and she hesitated before acting on Madara’s signature.

Konan and Nagato investigated two conflicting Akatsuki orders and suspended both while preserving evidence and halting tailed beast operations. Nagato kept Konoha’s account as an unverified external source, leaving the Akatsuki to seek a way to verify the competing claims independently.

• Konan compared the orders’ delivery traces and found that the underlying order matched the Masked Man’s spatial chakra, while Black Zetsu demanded that it be destroyed without producing authorization.
• Nagato rejected Black Zetsu’s demand and suspended both orders, directing Akatsuki contacts to preserve records and halt tailed beast supplies, White Zetsu deployments, and destination changes.
• Konan sealed the orders and divided their chakra impressions among separate contact points so no one person could retrieve all the evidence.
• A message from Konoha and the Land of Rivers arrived with testable claims about the stone tablet, and Nagato kept it outside the Akatsuki’s official order archive as an unverified source.
• Nagato placed the Konoha message between the two orders and called for verification that did not rely on assurances from Konoha, the Masked Man, or Black Zetsu.

Nagato independently confirmed that a third chakra source had altered the conflicting orders, but refused to accept Konoha’s conclusions or let its evidence erase the great nations’ responsibility for the Land of Rain. He suspended tailed beast operations for three days, while Black Zetsu targeted Konan and the original orders in her custody.

• Nagato and Konan ran separate tests on the conflicting orders, confirming that a third chakra source had passed through Madara’s seal and enclosed Obito’s spatial countersignature.
• Nagato weighed the Land of Rivers witness records against Konoha’s past conduct and insisted that investigating Black Zetsu could not absolve the great nations of responsibility for the Land of Rain’s wartime losses.
• Nagato extended the suspension of tailed beast operations for three days, defined its limits, and barred Konoha and Obito from entering the Land of Rain or approaching the core bases.
• Black Zetsu issued an order to eliminate Konan and forged a message meant to trick her into bringing both original orders to the statue’s space.
• Konan recognized that Nagato’s supposed order was forged, and when a warning sheet turned black, she scattered every sheet in the room into the rain instead of retrieving the originals.

Konan preserved layered copies of the two conflicting commands despite Black Zetsu's attack, then sent a tightly controlled sample to the Land of Rivers for joint testing. The residue pointed toward the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, revealing Black Zetsu's deeper foothold.

• Konan scattered the command sheets through separate waterways, trapped White Zetsu in wet paper, and redirected the genuine fragments when he tried to block the tower's drains.
• A second White Zetsu destroyed the rain tower's upper levels, but the spatial sign-off had already entered the drainage system and was later reconstructed with the black overlay from surviving fragments.
• Konan recorded which originals were destroyed or damaged, preserved the reconstructed copies, and concluded that Black Zetsu had attacked to prevent independent verification of the conflicting commands.
• Nagato examined the reconstructed sheets and authorized Konan to send a small, restricted sample to the Land of Rivers for testing.
• The Sealing Squad tested the sample and found that its black residue pointed toward the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, where Black Zetsu had retreated to an earlier foothold.

Nagato, Konan, Konoha, and Obito confirmed an ancient Black Zetsu anchor inside the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and severed two of its command routes. Black Zetsu retaliated by issuing a tailed beast capture order through an unregistered route, leaving the Akatsuki racing to stop its Peripheral Team.

• Nagato found an ancient pulsing node inside the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and evidence in the Land of Rivers and Konoha resonated with it.
• Nagato, Konan, Konoha, and Obito rejected proposals to seize or seal the node, then agreed to record its commands and sever two routes to the Drainage Tower.
• Black Zetsu spoke through the statue, tried to retrieve the samples, and sent new orders through an unregistered node after the pull failed.
• Nagato and Konan intercepted parts of Black Zetsu's order to activate the Peripheral Team and awaken the statue with tailed beast chakra.
• Obito identified three receiving points, including a team carrying a Sealing Container through the Northern Land of Grass, while Nagato sent an abort order.
• Black Zetsu bypassed Nagato and activated an earlier capture operation.

Obito stopped Black Zetsu’s unauthorized attempt to seize Takigakure’s Seven-Tails chakra sample, while Konoha and Takigakure secured separate evacuation and evidence routes. After learning Black Zetsu had defied his suspension order, Nagato called for a controlled meeting to question who was acting for Akatsuki.

• Black Zetsu sent mercenaries and White Zetsu to intercept Takigakure’s transport and draw chakra from its Seven-Tails sample.
• Obito disrupted the sealing array and exposed that the capture order’s authorization contained Black Zetsu’s threads.
• Shisui, Gen, and Itachi helped open an evacuation route and preserve the message tube as evidence while Takigakure’s guards carried the sample out.
• Obito absorbed the array’s chakra backflow and collapsed the remaining pillars, stopping the capture without demanding the transport team’s trust.
• Nagato confirmed that Black Zetsu had bypassed his suspension order and summoned Obito, Konoha’s records representative, and the preserved order to a controlled liaison session.

Nagato, Obito, and Gen held a controlled dialogue about the Akatsuki’s Tailed Beast plan, responsibility, and who could decide peace. Nagato rejected Konoha’s authority but agreed to personally inspect the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path before deciding whether the contaminated route could be used.

• Nagato challenged Konoha’s right to demand that the Akatsuki stop its Tailed Beast plan, and Gen admitted Konoha had no such authority.
• Gen argued that Nagato’s suffering did not give him the right to impose Infinite Tsukuyomi or make others bear the cost of his deterrent.
• Obito showed records of the Moon’s Eye Plan’s alterations and acknowledged his own responsibility for passing on the plan and arranging operations.
• Konan presented a black paper corner that pointed toward the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
• Nagato proposed that he inspect the statue’s deep nodes using his Rinnegan, with Konoha and Obito providing separate evidence and no outcome predetermined.
• Nagato ruled that a failed review would require a new investigation, while a successful one would keep the statue and Tailed Beast route shut down without giving Konoha control over the statue.

Nagato verified that Black Zetsu had tampered with the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to present the Infinite Tsukuyomi as the only path to peace, then halted Akatsuki’s Tailed Beast operations. Black Zetsu escaped through an ancient underground route to a dormant white vessel as Gen received a warning that an Otsutsuki revival prerequisite had appeared early.

• Nagato used three separate reading entrances to distinguish the statue’s oldest structure, Madara’s Moon’s Eye Plan, and Black Zetsu’s overlay, confirming that the overlay manipulated readers toward a single answer.
• Konan matched the statue, Uchiha Stone Tablet, and Obito’s records, and an independent recorder found the same outward-pushing pattern of tampering in all three sources.
• Nagato ordered Akatsuki to halt all Tailed Beast operations and barred the statue from serving as the cornerstone of peace until the source review was complete.
• Obito provided his Kamui baseline, while Konoha recorded Nagato’s suspension without treating it as a surrender or acceptance of Konoha’s interpretation.
• Black Zetsu failed to reach Obito’s heart or Nagato’s Rinnegan, tore away most of his body, and escaped through an unrecorded seam in the statue.
• Black Zetsu reached a dormant white vessel beyond the Five Great Nations, and Gen’s System Screen warned that an Otsutsuki revival prerequisite had emerged ahead of schedule.