Chapter Summaries

Black Zetsu awakened an ancient White Vessel in the ruins beyond the Five Great Nations, and its first actions disrupted the surrounding tides. Gen and the Land of Rivers Maritime Guild investigated the anomaly without claiming the ruins, while the chapter ended with the vessel opening an unknown eye pattern under the moonlight.

• Black Zetsu used ancient authorization to awaken the White Vessel in a submerged temple among the Seven Stone Islands, and it spoke of the moon, becoming one, and awaiting a return.
• The White Vessel stepped toward sailors stranded on a reef, breaking the temple’s sealing salt and throwing the tides out of sync across the sea.
• Gen compared the offshore fluctuations with shipping records and lighthouse logs, then rejected a Konoha plan to seize the ruins before other nations.
• Obito sensed overlapping spatial folds around the islands and warned that opening a Kamui passage could let Black Zetsu enter the other dimension.
• The Land of Rivers Maritime Guild sent a rescue ship, and the White Vessel held an overturned boat so two sailors would not be swept into the reef.
• The White Vessel raised its head under the moonlight and opened an unknown eye pattern, triggering a system warning about its resonance with Black Zetsu’s ancient authorization.

Gen’s team investigated the white vessel’s artificial body and found it might be a living being, a tool, or a resurrection vessel. Black Zetsu tried to command it through an ancient connection, but the vessel resisted and revealed a clue to an unaltered version of the Sage of Six Paths’ final words.

• The recorder documented the sailors’ conflicting accounts, including the vessel’s question, “Who wrote the name into me?”
• Three Medical Ninja examined a fragment from the vessel and found mixed, artificially assembled tissues that could support several possible identities.
• Black Zetsu used repeated commands and an ancient authority to activate a spatial technique and try to lead the vessel away.
• Gen had the buoys replay the vessel’s question, causing it to halt and resist Black Zetsu’s command.
• Black Zetsu severed his connection, and the vessel spoke about separate lives before ancient writing appeared with the phrases “Six Paths” and “left behind.”

Fugaku, Nagato, and Gen compared three records of the Sage of Six Paths’ last words and found that Black Zetsu had altered connecting marks to make separate traditions point toward the same conclusion. The sea temple’s inscription identified the Tailed Beasts as witnesses to the Sage’s final choice, leaving the investigators with a new source to question and a warning not to take answers by force.

• Fugaku and Nagato documented the origins and limits of the Uchiha copy and the Demonic Statue’s version instead of treating either as definitive.
• Gen’s team compared the three texts and found black residue at six of seven connecting points, where altered pauses had changed possibility into inevitability.
• Fugaku kept the Uchiha’s altered record as part of the clan’s history, while Nagato retained the Land of Rain’s experience despite the statue’s contamination.
• Obito provided the sequence Madara used to read the inscription, showing how Black Zetsu had made Madara’s interpretation more vulnerable to altered connections.
• The rescue ship photographed the final surviving section, which said the nine lives had witnessed the Sage’s choice and warned later generations to ask them rather than search their bodies by force.

Gen established a limited, dual-consent process for questioning tailed beasts, and Konoha tested it with the Nine-Tails. The Nine-Tails confirmed it had seen the Sage of Six Paths and independently recognized the Black Will, but ended the questioning before answering the remaining questions.

• The Five Great Shinobi Villages disputed how tailed beasts should be questioned, while Gen proposed four limited questions and ruled out forced memory access.
• Nagato and Konan opposed involving the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path or Rinnegan, and the proposal required separate consent from both the tailed beast and its jinchūriki.
• Konoha set up a one-way voice channel at the edge of the Nine-Tails' seal, with safeguards to protect the host and prevent memory or chakra extraction.
• The Nine-Tails demanded that a sealed black chakra sample be removed, then agreed to answer only what it chose.
• The Nine-Tails confirmed it had seen the Sage of Six Paths in his later years and recognized the sample's aura as belonging to the Black Will, saying, "He's still alive."
• The Nine-Tails refused a follow-up question and cut off the channel, leaving its testimony recorded as the first valid result of the dual-consent process.

The Nine-Tails gave limited testimony that a black presence had existed since the Sage of Six Paths and repeatedly appeared around efforts to reunite the tailed beasts, while Konoha carefully restricted what it disclosed. Obito reconsidered Black Zetsu’s connection to Madara, but Black Zetsu spread rumors to undermine the testimony and prevent further questioning.

• The Nine-Tails called Konoha’s questioning line and described seeing a black shadow when the Sage of Six Paths divided the Ten-Tails’ power, later sensing it around attempts to reunite the tailed beasts.
• The Nine-Tails permitted Konoha to disclose only three conclusions and refused to share its full memories or unanswered details.
• Konoha independently verified and released a limited notice, while Obito concluded that Black Zetsu had manipulated Madara into believing the shadow was his own will.
• False rumors about Konoha manipulating the Nine-Tails’ testimony spread through black markets, mixing details from summaries sent to different recipients.
• Gen traced the mixed wording to information gathered across multiple channels, and Konoha identified Black Zetsu as the likely source of the leak through White Zetsu nodes.

After doubts blocked Konoha from convening a jinchūriki meeting, Gen helped establish a neutral, temporary agreement for voluntary questioning. As representatives prepared to sign, an unauthorized containment team entered the Offshore Ruins to seize the vessel.

• Takigakure and the other great villages rejected Konoha's proposed meeting, so Gen persuaded the Third Hokage to withdraw as convener.
• The Land of Rivers Maritime Guild and Takigakure organized a neutral authority meeting with coded questions, protected records, and separate consent from each jinchūriki and tailed beast.
• Nagato applied to attend as an observer and accepted restrictions barring him from contacting tailed beast chakra, asking about jinchūriki identities, or obtaining original answers.
• Gen set out rules for dual consent, and the parties provisionally agreed to question whether the black will predated Madara Uchiha.
• An offshore report revealed that an unflagged sealing ship with a Land of Earth supply-system key was carrying containment boxes toward the White Vessel.
• Gen ordered the report to distinguish use of a Land of Earth key from an official Iwagakure order as the containment operation began without permission.

Five Great Nations forces converged on the White Vessel, and Black Zetsu manipulated their intelligence to spark a clash at the Old Temple. The vessel defied Black Zetsu’s command to protect the rescue ship’s crew, then refused Shisui’s offer to leave with them.

• Five Great Nations teams approached the ruins, each believing the others might seize the White Vessel first, while Black Zetsu altered their intelligence with false timestamps.
• Gen identified the seven-and-a-half-minute gaps using the Land of Rivers’ tide records, but the teams continued toward the vessel despite seeing the evidence.
• The White Vessel opened its Eye Pattern, prompting the teams to attack one another’s techniques as Gen and Shisui protected the rescue ship and its sailors.
• Obito deflected the falling Positioning Scroll, and Konan exposed the matching timestamp alterations in the teams’ intelligence, but Black Zetsu used threads to intensify their suspicions.
• The White Vessel defied Black Zetsu’s command, shielded the crew from falling stone, and helped stabilize the rescue ship, causing the teams’ containment techniques to falter.
• Shisui asked the White Vessel to leave with them, but it refused and showed that it had a will of its own.

The White Vessel rejected every faction’s claim over it, while Black Zetsu activated the awakening array inside its body. With Gen and the others cutting off external chakra rather than overriding its will, the vessel resisted Black Zetsu’s commands and warned against waking whoever lay beneath the Old Temple.

• The factions agreed to stop targeting or forcibly moving the White Vessel while the Land of Rivers recorded its provisional status and proposed noncontact tests.
• Black Zetsu used ancient authority to activate the vessel’s awakening array, drawing chakra from the ships’ techniques and shifting the Seven Stone Islands.
• The Land of Rivers shared recordings showing that targeting and restraint fueled the array, prompting several teams to withdraw their techniques.
• Gen refused to override the vessel’s authority, and Obito used Kamui to sever the array’s external anchor points.
• The White Vessel resisted Black Zetsu’s commands in the blank space of its missing memories and said, “Do not wake up.”
• The System reported that the White Vessel had rejected the ancient authority override and that Black Zetsu’s target was not Madara Uchiha.

Gen and the allied nations discovered that Black Zetsu had linked the old temple to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to revive the woman sealed beneath the temple, not to fulfill Infinite Tsukuyomi’s promise of peace. Black Zetsu’s forces tried to seize the White Vessel, and the chapter ended with the System identifying Kaguya Ōtsutsuki as the revival target while the path to her return remained active.

• The White Vessel pointed to the moon and themself, leading Gen and Obito to conclude that the sealed woman beneath the old temple was linked to the statue.
• Nagato and the Recorder confirmed that the statue and temple shared a fixed spatial interface, revealing that Infinite Tsukuyomi would channel the shinobi world’s chakra toward a revival.
• Black Zetsu sent White Zetsu to seize the Vessel, but Konan, Obito, Gen, and the five nations’ teams disrupted the passages and coordinated their efforts to protect them.
• The Vessel used their forehead’s power to push back the White Zetsu, then withdrew when they saw the sealed outline grow clearer.
• Black Zetsu sent white tissue toward an unopened stone door, and Gen’s System identified Kaguya Ōtsutsuki as the revival target.

Gen and the others verified that the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and the Old Temple were parts of a revival plan, then agreed to seal their known chakra-aggregating nodes. The revival risk fell but remained, and Black Zetsu forced ancient authority into another Stone Cocoon, releasing the first trace of Ōtsutsuki chakra.

• Gen compared the Old Temple's heartbeat, scattered inscriptions, and the Nine-Tails' testimony, then recorded Kaguya Ōtsutsuki as a name to investigate rather than a proven conclusion.
• Obito and Nagato accepted responsibility for their parts in advancing the Moon's Eye Plan and the Tailed Beast collection while maintaining their objections and demands.
• The Land of Rivers proposed a limited joint effort, and Konoha, the Land of Rain, Obito, and the nations sealed or halted their respective revival-linked nodes.
• The Old Temple's heartbeat reached its lowest level and the system's revival probability dropped from seventeen percent to twelve percent, but a second Stone Cocoon remained beneath the sea.
• Black Zetsu forced ancient authority into the damaged Stone Cocoon, and a pale chakra eye appeared above the sea as the Tailed Beast seals shuddered.

Gen and the allied teams determined that the solitary eye was an incomplete chakra projection that learned from chakra and lacked the White Vessel’s independent consciousness. As they began carefully severing its link to the Stone Cocoon, the projection reached toward all nine tailed beasts.

• The solitary eye copied Earth and water techniques, so Gen persuaded the teams to stop testing it with ninjutsu.
• The Recorder’s experiments showed that the eye reacted to chakra changes and sensory seals, while the White Vessel responded independently and made choices about where to go.
• Gen separated confirmed evidence about Ōtsutsuki chakra, the unconfirmed projection, and the independently responsive white life-form in the public record.
• Obito and Nagato ruled out direct spatial transfer and absorption, and the teams agreed to limit chakra and let Konan’s Paper Seals approach the stone gate.
• The solitary eye sent nine pale beams toward the Shinobi World, stirring the Nine-Tails’ seal and the other tailed beasts as it began tracking their chakra.

Black Zetsu used the nine beams to make a projection copy the nations’ ninjutsu, but Fugaku’s low-chakra evacuation plan helped the teams escape without completing its form. The projection collapsed and redirected its beams toward the deepest connections between the nine tailed beasts and their Jinchūriki.

• Black Zetsu used stored transmission traces to guide the beams toward the tailed beast records and provoke the teams at sea into attacking the projection.
• The projection copied the teams’ ninjutsu as it formed a body, and Gen realized it was gathering materials rather than choosing enemies.
• Fugaku proposed separating people from chakra, and the nations independently used low-chakra methods and ordinary sailing skills to evacuate their crews.
• Shisui, Gen, and the White Vessel helped repel White Zetsu without unleashing powerful techniques, leaving the projection unable to complete its attributes.
• The projection collapsed and sent its nine beams toward the deepest sealing connections between the tailed beasts and their Jinchūriki.

The nine Tailed Beasts and their Jinchūriki independently refused or withheld consent to reunification, preventing Black Zetsu from using their shared origins to force it. The projection weakened, but Black Zetsu targeted an unidentified seal, whose occupants refused reunification while asking for a way to request aid without revealing their location.

• Black Zetsu forged a consent seal with only a Tailed Beast's authorization, but the temporary protocol rejected it without separate Jinchūriki verification.
• Konoha's Nine-Tails refused, and the first several anonymous codes also ended in refusals, silence, interrupted channels, or incomplete verification.
• The remaining codes likewise failed to authorize reunification; White Zetsu intercepted the eighth question scroll, leaving that seal's occupants' positions unknown.
• As the connections closed, cracks spread through the projection's eye and the system's resurrection probability fell from twelve percent to nine percent.
• Black Zetsu forged a request for aid to obtain the unidentified seal's location, but the Recorder blocked it because the protocol allowed no location-reporting channel.
• The occupants of the attacked anonymous seal sent a message refusing reunification and asking for a way to request aid without surrendering their location.

Nagato and the Five Great Nations set limits on using the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to pull Black Zetsu’s attack away from the anonymous sealing site. After the rescue succeeded, a hidden access privilege connected the statue to the Kamui Dimension and struck Obito’s right eye.

• Nagato proposed using the statue to draw the pale light away, while the Five Great Nations objected to leaving it under the Akatsuki’s control.
• Konan divided control of the operation among the Land of Rain, the Land of Rivers, the anonymous sealing site, and two representatives of the Five Nations, with Nagato agreeing to limits on his Rinnegan.
• The Land of Rivers tested the interruption measures, and the anonymous sealing site connected without revealing its location.
• Nagato opened a narrow passage, and the pale light withdrew from the Old Post Road as White Zetsu tried to anchor himself.
• The Land of Earth's representative interrupted the pull when the statue’s fluctuations increased, and the operation resumed after the records showed two White Zetsu bodies had been drawn in.
• Konan sealed the light outside the statue, but it activated a hidden fourth access privilege that connected the statue to the Kamui Dimension and caused pain in Obito’s right eye.

Obito entered the Kamui Layer and severed eleven stable return coordinates to stop Black Zetsu’s projection from reaching the real world. The projection lost its stable passage, but Obito remained trapped in the collapsing dimension, while traces of it appeared in Konoha.

• Black Zetsu used the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path’s fourth authorization to link Kamui’s landing points, while Gen ordered the nations to seal the external exits.
• Black Zetsu tested Kakashi’s transplanted Sharingan as a possible entrance, and Kakashi chose temporary safeguards and shared reports rather than surgery.
• Obito severed eleven of Kamui’s twelve stable return points and fought the projection with an iron chain as his familiar spatial escapes failed.
• Obito found that the last coordinate led to an abandoned Konoha neighborhood where he had opened a passage on the Night of the Nine-Tails, and he sealed it despite losing his own route back.
• The final passage collapsed with Obito and the projection still inside the Kamui Layer, while Kakashi felt the pain stop and sensory ninja detected a pale fissure at the old landing point.

Fugaku contained a spatial fissure near the Uchiha's old security zone without using the Nine-Tails' power, preserving the right of jinchūriki and tailed beasts to refuse. The crisis escalated when the Five Nations Liaison received a forged unanimous order for an all-out assault, and only Shisui could reach the verification nodes in time.

• Fugaku organized evacuations and a recorded response, requiring Uchiha observers to monitor the fissure without attacking it or using unregistered techniques.
• Fugaku rejected the proposal to use the Nine-Tails without its consent, and the Nine-Tails chose to deny the projection access to its power.
• Fugaku's teams used chakra-free iron barriers to contain the pale finger while Itachi identified that it was waiting for them to use a stronger technique.
• The Hokage Building ruled that deploying the Nine-Tails required dual authorization, and the decision was sent to the Five Nations Liaison.
• The Five Nations Liaison received an apparently unanimous order for an all-out assault, and Fugaku recognized that the simultaneous seals had been forged by Black Zetsu.
• Shisui became the only person able to reach all five verification nodes before the techniques struck.

Shisui stopped the forged Five Nations assault by helping each verification node examine its own evidence rather than using Kotoamatsukami to force agreement. After the Joint Formation failed to activate, Itachi connected Black Zetsu’s manipulation to the Uchiha clan’s Ritual Inscription concerning the Progenitor Mother.

• Shisui showed the first representative that the original order was blank, and the node withdrew its approval.
• Shisui reached the Coastal Mountain Tower despite White Zetsu’s interference, where the second representative found that the seal’s angle did not match his own and withdrew.
• Shisui presented corroborated records to the Land of Fire squad, which withdrew its approval and paused the countdown.
• A fourth representative continued his independent attack, so Shisui severed the Formation Disk’s amplification without altering the representative’s mind.
• The Land of Rivers recorder independently shut down the final Joint Interface, and the countdown expired without the Joint Formation activating.
• Itachi identified the same wording inversion in the forged orders and the Uchiha Ritual Inscription concerning the Progenitor Mother.

Itachi and the other investigators confirmed that Black Zetsu had altered the Uchiha memorial text and related records across the nations, changing warnings about Kaguya’s sealing into a ritual for her return. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki became a high-risk target backed by evidence from multiple regions, while the System Screen offered a plan to stop her revival by erasing the White Vessel’s newly formed consciousness.

• Itachi found that Black chakra had changed the memorial text’s order of events, turning a warning against welcoming Kaguya back into a promise of her return.
• A paper craftsman independently confirmed that the original words had been scraped away before the replacement words were written.
• Fugaku agreed to disclose only the altered passages and original fragments, and the nations shared their local records about the Moon, God Tree, and ancient sealing.
• Three translation teams independently determined that the earliest regional records placed Kaguya’s sealing before warnings not to reverse it, while later additions changed the causality.
• Itachi recorded his objection that Gen had named Kaguya before external evidence supported the candidate, and Gen signed the verification record.
• The System Screen identified a plan to end the backup host’s revival by sacrificing the White Vessel’s consciousness.

Gen rejected the system’s optimal plan to destroy the White Vessel without its consent, and the Vessel voluntarily offered a portion of its Ancient Authority to help seal a lunar doorway. Black Zetsu’s preparations nevertheless opened a spatial fissure on the moon as Kaguya’s consciousness drew near.

• Gen verified that overlaying the White Vessel with the Backup Stone Cocoon would erase the Vessel’s consciousness, while the Five Nations debated whether to proceed.
• The White Vessel refused to be combined with the Backup Stone Cocoon, and Nagato and Fugaku supported honoring its choice.
• Gen rejected the system’s optimal plan and recorded that the containment teams would accept responsibility for the risks of an alternative.
• The White Vessel detached a controllable segment of its Ancient Authority and offered it to seal a doorway, and Konan secured it for the containment operation.
• Black Zetsu used ancient chakra absorbed by the Backup Stone Cocoon to open a spatial fissure on the moon, where Kaguya’s second eye appeared.

Gen and the allied parties used separate refusals to block Kaguya’s return, severing Black Zetsu’s routes until the forced revival was reversed. The lunar fissure remained open, and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki spoke to the present world for the first time.

• Gen divided the revival blockade into independent barriers, and a false signal from Black Zetsu failed to reopen the tailed beast links.
• Nagato permanently severed the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path’s main inlet, while the first White Vessel used its own authority to close the stone door beneath the sea.
• Fugaku and the Uchiha maintained Konoha’s blockade, and Obito sent a signal confirming that he had severed his Kamui coordinates from within.
• The Land of Rivers confirmed that the separate routes remained closed, and Fugaku ordered the Uchiha to stop using their Sharingan to observe the cracks.
• The stone door shut, the pale projection crumbled, and the revival probability fell to six percent, but the lunar fissure stayed open.
• Kaguya Ōtsutsuki asked why the present world refused to return her chakra.