Chapter Summaries

After Mito’s inauguration, Hōkaku’s drunken antics with Shingetsu amused the gathered guests while Hashirama and Tobirama reflected on family. Later, merchants revealed Kirigakure’s proposed child-killing academy policy, prompting Hashirama, Madara, Tobirama, and Shingetsu to consider stopping it.

• At the celebratory banquet, Hōkaku drunkenly scooped up Shingetsu and demanded kisses, and Tōka joined him in teasing her while Tobirama watched in dismay.
• Hashirama asked Tobirama whether their family’s playful happiness was what a truly happy family looked like, and Tobirama urged him to become a responsible grandfather to Tatsuki’s child.
• Madara approached Shingetsu and carried her away, provoking Hōkaku’s renewed sulking.
• Merchants discussed how Kirigakure’s restrictive policies endangered trade and said they had heard its academy forced children to kill one another.
• Tobirama explained that Kirigakure’s proposed academy system had not yet been fully implemented, and Hashirama and Madara reacted with anger toward Mizukage Byakuren.
• Shingetsu suggested that the villages pressure Kirigakure at the next Five Kage Summit to abandon the policy.

After Konoha’s shogunates stabilized, Shingetsu helped Minazuki Rin discover a possible use for the Yuki Clan’s Ice Release and inspired Tobirama to stage a play about Konoha’s history. The play won over its audience despite its awkward acting and relentless advertisements, and Shingetsu suggested adding Konoha Cards as another sponsor.

• After returning from the Land of Whirlpools, the Konoha group feasted, while Uchiha Yan was sent to the Land of Grass and Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju sent people to develop their shogunates.
• On a hot day at the Ninja Academy, Shingetsu asked Minazuki Rin to chill her milk tea with Ice Release and suggested the Yuki Clan could make money selling cold drinks.
• Minazuki Rin made ice for the overheated students and created a huge block of ice to cool the classroom, surprising Madara Uchiha.
• Tobirama took the students to watch a play about Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha’s childhood and battles, staged by a makeshift troupe to teach Konoha’s history.
• Kakuzu arranged for clan businesses to advertise during the play, and Shingetsu urged Tobirama to add Konoha Cards as a sponsor.

Tobirama’s badly rewritten play became a wildly popular, advertisement-filled hit, while Shingetsu completed Konoha’s first draft of a legal code. When Shingetsu suggested explaining why the village needed laws, Tobirama arranged for her to give a public speech, prompting her to attack him in fury.

• Madara and Hashirama forced Tobirama to cut the play’s sentimental scenes, but its fight-heavy performances drew packed audiences and spread across the Land of Fire and the Four Great Nations.
• Shingetsu finished a rough first edition of Konoha’s laws, and Tobirama praised her work after reading it.
• Shingetsu suggested explaining to the villagers why Konoha needed laws, and Tobirama agreed to let her try.
• Three days later, Shingetsu discovered that Tobirama’s plan was for her to give a speech in the square, so she angrily choked him.

Tobirama forced Shingetsu to address Konoha about its new laws, and she turned her speech into a challenge to shinobi traditions of death, obedience, and dependence on nobles. Her words left the audience reflecting and cheering, while the speech was still underway.

• Tobirama soothed Shingetsu, then carried her onto the stage and teleported away when she resisted giving a speech.
• Shingetsu nervously faced the crowd until her classmates, clan members, and Hashirama encouraged her.
• Shingetsu asked why Konoha had been founded and explained that laws were meant to help people live better.
• Shingetsu questioned why shinobi glorified death and sent even young children to battle, prompting the audience to reflect.
• Shingetsu condemned shinobi for accepting control by nobles and called on them to use their power responsibly, inspiring cheers from the crowd.

Shingetsu persuaded Konoha’s residents to accept the new laws as protection for their hard-won peace, prompting widespread interest in the Konoha Code and public input on its revision. As Tobirama planned a play about Shingetsu, she hid from embarrassment and cursed him aloud.

• Shingetsu gave a speech arguing that Konoha’s laws would restrain violence and preserve peace, and the crowd agreed to accept them.
• Konoha’s residents eagerly studied the Code and offered scenarios for its revision, while Tobirama sent Nara Clan members to gather opinions.
• Complaints about the Nara Clan’s unhelpful public consultations filled the Hokage Building.
• Shingetsu withdrew in embarrassment, and Uchiha Miki and Inari teased her by imitating her speech.
• Tobirama planned a play about Shingetsu’s achievements and speech, and she cursed him aloud.

Shingetsu confronted Tobirama over casting a brute to impersonate her, while Minazuki Rin, Hōzuki Oborozuki, and Kaguya Utsusemi worried about their clans in Kirigakure. After learning that Byakuren had begun purging their clans, the three considered seeking help from their Konoha teachers.

• Shingetsu discovered Tobirama had cast a bearded brute as her in the play and demanded that he cancel it, while Tobirama tried to appease her with insect-repelling incense and food.
• Minazuki Rin began selling ice in Konoha, but she and her teammates worried that her business would anger Mizukage Byakuren and noticed that messages from their clans were growing scarce.
• Hōzuki Oborozuki, Minazuki Rin, and Kaguya Utsusemi condemned Byakuren's rule and worried about Hozuki Gengetsu's political position.
• The three received news that Hozuki Gengetsu had lost the political struggle and Byakuren had begun secretly purging their clans.
• Hōzuki Oborozuki refused to accept their clans' fate, and Minazuki Rin and Kaguya Utsusemi wondered whether Teacher Madara and Teacher Hashirama would help them.

Hōzuki Oborozuki, Minazuki Rin, and their companion sought Madara Uchiha’s help against Byakuren, and Madara agreed to bring them to the Five Kage Summit. Meanwhile, Kaguya Utsusemi visited the Hyuga Clan Compound for support and witnessed Hinata Kotoma being tormented by the Main Family.

• Hōzuki Oborozuki and his companions told Madara Uchiha about Kirigakure, and Minazuki Rin asked him to help protect its children.
• Madara threatened the trio for openly betraying their village, but Hōzuki Oborozuki defended their actions with Shingetsu’s words.
• Madara withdrew his killing intent and said the three would accompany him to the Five Kage Summit.
• Kaguya Utsusemi sought the Hyuga Clan’s aid and saw Hinata Kotoma enduring a brutal sparring session with a Main Family member.
• Hyuga Hikomasa continued tormenting Kotoma, whose Caged Bird Seal left her trapped under the Main Family’s control.

Kaguya Utsusemi sought the Hyuga Clan’s help, but Hyuga Toki refused to intervene in a conflict between villages. That night, Hyuga Yu decided to join the Branch Family’s secret effort to report the Main Family to Lord Hokage, while his wife feared the consequences for their family.

• Hyuga Toki welcomed Kaguya Utsusemi with praise and talk of their clans’ history, then refused to send troops to help the Kaguya Clan and offered only a scroll of assistance in Konoha.
• Hinata Kotoma returned home after a day of abuse, and Hyuga Yu told her she must obey the Main Family.
• Kotoma tore up her hidden pages from the Code after despairing over its promise that no one could enslave another person.
• Hyuga Yu told Hyuga Rong he had decided to join the Branch Family’s secret plan to report the Main Family to Lord Hokage.
• Hyuga Yu urged Rong to report him if he failed to return, and apologized to her and Kotoma as the family wept together.

The Hyuga Main Family crushed the Branch Family’s planned rebellion, killing its members with the Caged Bird Seal and keeping Hyuga Yu alive to control his daughter, Qin Zhen. At the Ninja Academy, Qin Zhen began to hope Shingetsu might help her, but a Main Family messenger’s arrival reminded her that she remained under surveillance.

• Hyuga Toki and the Main Family elder uncovered the Branch Family rebellion and secretly executed its members with the Caged Bird Seal.
• Hyuga Toki stopped the elder from killing Hyuga Yu, intending to use him to intimidate Qin Zhen, whose place in Madara Uchiha’s class protected her from harsher punishment.
• The elder forced Qin Zhen to watch Hyuga Yu suffer, then spared his life in exchange for her obedience and warned her to follow Lord Madara’s teachings.
• Qin Zhen returned to the Ninja Academy with her injuries healed and her spirits broken, while Uchiha Inari noticed her distress and invited her to join Shingetsu for cake.
• Qin Zhen recalled Shingetsu’s offer to help remove her mark and began to reveal the Hyuga’s treatment of her, but Yan Hyuga arrived with a package from the elder and renewed her fear of Main Family surveillance.

After the Hyuga Main Family executed rebellious Branch Family members, Uchiha officers uncovered the disappearances and brought the evidence to Shingetsu and the Senju brothers. Konoha mobilized to arrest Hyuga Toki, while Toki gathered the Branch Family as hostages and realized the Hyuga were trapped inside the village.

• Qin Zhen refused Shingetsu and Inari's invitation under Hyuga Hikomasa's watch, and Shingetsu left after telling her not to refuse next time.
• Konoha villagers searched for the missing Hyuga Branch Family members, and Uchiha Military Police officers found that more than twenty had disappeared.
• Shingetsu showed the missing-person list to Hashirama and Tobirama, who realized the Hyuga Main Family had likely killed their own Branch Family members.
• Hashirama ordered punishment, and Anbu and Konoha's combat shinobi mobilized to investigate and arrest Hyuga Toki and the Main Family.
• Tobirama deduced the Caged Bird Seal's limited range, while Madara set out to find Toki and Shingetsu went to find Qin Zhen.
• Hyuga Toki gathered the Main Family in a concealed dungeon and ordered the Branch Family assembled as hostages, then recognized that Konoha's barrier left them trapped.

Hashirama and Madara confronted the Hyuga Main Family but could not attack freely while Hyuga Toki held the Branch Family hostage with the Caged Bird Seal. Shingetsu removed Qin Zhen’s seal, proving the curse could be severed and leaving the Hyuga watching in shock.

• Hashirama captured the Branch Family defenders with Wood Release, but a Main Family elder invoked the hostages and Hyuga Toki’s power to stop him and Madara from advancing.
• Uchiha Ran demanded to know where Hyuga Peng was, and the Branch Family grieved when they learned he was dead.
• Shingetsu brought Qin Zhen to the compound, where Qin urged her clanspeople to trust the village and help free them.
• Shingetsu told Qin that the Caged Bird Seal could be removed, and Qin agreed to let her try.
• Shingetsu used Futsunomitama and her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception to cut the seal’s death lines from Qin’s forehead, leaving no wound or curse behind.

Tobirama Senju arrested Hyuga Toki and the Hyuga Main Family while the Branch Family escaped, and he put Hyuga Toki on trial for their abuses. Hashirama Senju rejected clan immunity and declared that everyone who remained in Konoha after three days would accept the village’s new order.

• Tobirama Senju took Hyuga Toki to Konoha’s underground prison as Hashirama Senju and the others subdued the Main Family and helped the Branch Family escape.
• Konoha arrested Hyuga Toki and the Main Family, and Tobirama Senju began the village’s first public trial.
• Hyuga witnesses described the Branch Family’s enslavement, and Tobirama Senju sentenced Hyuga Toki to death.
• Hyuga Toki accused Hashirama Senju of breaking his promise not to interfere in clan rules and warned other clans they could be targeted next.
• Hashirama Senju admitted he had broken that promise, declared the village would protect its people from abuse, and gave anyone who rejected Konoha’s new order three days to leave.

After the Hyuga Main Family’s trial, Hashirama apologized to the Branch Family and vowed to prevent another tragedy, while Tobirama executed Hyuga Toki and several elders using a version of their own Caged Bird Seal. The village’s clans and police changed in the aftermath, and Shingetsu, troubled by her increasingly uncontrollable mystic eyes of death perception, decided to ask Tobirama for an examination.

• Hashirama apologized at the memorial ceremony, and the Hyuga Branch Family members insisted that the village had helped them escape the Caged Bird Seal.
• Tobirama killed Hyuga Toki and several Main Family elders with a cursed seal like the Caged Bird Seal and took their Byakugan and clan techniques for study.
• The clans stayed in Konoha, and villagers began bringing their problems to the Konoha Military Police Force, leaving its officers—especially the Nara Clan members—overworked.
• The released Hyuga Main Family members faced contempt and hardship, while Qin Zhen, also called Hinata Kotoma, became happier after escaping the seal and the Branch Family formed a loyal alliance with the Uchiha Clan.
• Shingetsu remained indoors as the death lines in her eyes grew harder to control, then decided to seek Tobirama’s help.

Tobirama examined Shingetsu, secretly drew her blood, and discovered that her cells had powerful but fleeting regenerative properties. Shingetsu demonstrated that her Sharingan let her see and cut death lines, then fell asleep after Hashirama gave her chakra while Tobirama questioned Madara about her eyes.

• Shingetsu hid in the Uchiha Clan Compound, but Tobirama came to fetch her for an examination, and Madara accompanied her to the laboratory.
• Tobirama examined Shingetsu and used candy to distract her while drawing her blood, prompting Madara to beat him.
• Tobirama explained that Shingetsu's cells briefly granted powerful regenerative abilities, and Madara and Hashirama confronted him about taking her blood.
• Shingetsu demonstrated how she saw death lines and cut through a chakra-metal operating table along one of them.
• Tobirama noticed Shingetsu's chakra imbalance, and Hashirama gave her chakra until she fell asleep.
• Tobirama asked Madara and Hashirama what they knew about Shingetsu's eyes.

Tobirama and Hashirama tried to understand Shingetsu’s strange eyes, but Madara could offer no clear explanation for how she awakened them. Madara’s drawings revealed that Shingetsu saw death lines covering everything when her eyes activated, leaving the others worried about what she endured.

• Tobirama questioned Madara about how Shingetsu awakened her Sharingan, and Madara said it happened during a nightmare.
• Madara suggested Hashirama might have triggered the Senju power in Shingetsu when they first met, but the Uchiha clan tablet that might explain her abilities had been destroyed.
• Tobirama deduced Madara had broken the tablet, and the account revealed that Madara had smashed it in anger after Shingetsu was born weak and sickly.
• Madara showed Tobirama drawings of Shingetsu’s room, people, and streets covered in death lines that she saw whenever her eyes activated.
• Hashirama, Tobirama, and Madara watched the sleeping Shingetsu with concern as they realized the disturbing nature of her vision.

Shingetsu recovered under Tobirama’s care while Konoha prepared to host the second Chunin Ninja Exams and Five Kage Summit. As village leaders and contestants arrived, Uchiha Yan returned from the Land of Grass so transformed by feasting that even his granddaughters failed to recognize him.

• Tobirama woke Shingetsu, fed her breakfast, and warned her to use her cursed eyes less while he sought a way to protect her.
• Ishikawa questioned Ōnoki about the Hyuga Clan affair and considered taking advantage of the Caged Bird Seal’s removal to acquire Byakugan.
• Reto asked Sandstorm and Ebizo about their progress with Shingetsu, and Ebizo explained that surviving Madara’s beatings was their main achievement.
• The Kirigakure Trio feared Byakuren’s deputy after he arrived in Konoha in place of Hozuki Gengetsu.
• Uchiha Yan returned to the Uchiha Clan Compound with Grass Ninja followers, but his granddaughters Miki and Inari mistook him for a stranger after he had grown enormously fat.

Uchiha Yan returned to the Uchiha Compound, where his extravagant feast drew the clan into a street-wide banquet. Meanwhile, Hashirama and Madara destroyed the stone tablet fragments, driving Black Zetsu to despair, before Madara mistook Yan for an outsider and beat him.

• Uchiha Yan revealed himself to Miki and Inari, then ordered his Grass Ninja underlings to prepare a lavish feast for the clan.
• Miki, Inari, and the Uchiha clansmen joined the feast, which spread across the compound's main street.
• Shingetsu and Tobirama arrived and wondered why the Uchiha were holding a banquet.
• Hashirama and Madara emerged after destroying the stone tablet fragments, while Black Zetsu mourned the loss of his thousand-year effort to preserve them.
• Hashirama and Madara returned to the compound and found Uchiha Yan boasting on a temporary platform amid the feast.
• Madara saw the Uchiha Gunbai crest on Yan's coat, mistook him for an Akimichi, and beat him as Yan pleaded for mercy.

Madara Uchiha confronted the badly overweight Uchiha Yan before joining Shingetsu and the others for a feast, while Ishikawa and A weighed the difficulties of copying Konoha’s influence. At the second Chunin Ninja Exams, Konoha’s Genin dominated their matches as Shingetsu’s thoughts turned to the upcoming Five Kage Summit.

• Madara Uchiha recognized Uchiha Yan, scolded him for getting fat, and let him go after Shingetsu called him over.
• Hashirama Senju joined Madara, Shingetsu, and Tobirama for the meal, while Miki and Inari eagerly accepted Shingetsu’s leftovers.
• Ishikawa and A discussed Konoha’s fiefs and concluded that their villages lacked the resources to imitate Konoha’s methods.
• At the second Chunin Ninja Exams, Konoha’s Genin gained the upper hand, while Shingetsu ignored the matches and thought about the Five Kage Summit.

Shingetsu watched the Chunin Ninja Exams before falling asleep in the stands, wondering where Hōzuki Oborozuki, Kaguya Utsusemi, and Minazuki Rin had gone. After the exams, Hashirama toured Konoha with the other villages’ leaders, whose visit ended with a market tasting and a promotional show about Shingetsu.

• Shingetsu observed the Kage’s uneasy alliance and the exams’ surviving competitors, then fell asleep while cheering classmates filled the stands.
• Shingetsu wondered where Hōzuki Oborozuki, Kaguya Utsusemi, and Minazuki Rin were.
• Hashirama led the Four Villages’ officials around Konoha, where villagers dressed the Kage in Pointed Hats and comical masks and offered them snacks.
• The sightseeing party visited Uchiha Yan’s tasting event and bought Uchiha-brand beef and mutton after sampling free skewers.
• Hashirama took the officials to watch a promotional episode starring Shingetsu, whose advertisements left the Kage astonished by her supposed appetite and hobbies.
• Hashirama explained that the show’s depictions were advertisements, while the officials came away impressed by Shingetsu’s childhood prodigy status.

The Five Kage Summit resumed with the leaders flattering Hashirama before turning to requests for Konoha’s help. It ended with Hashirama demanding that Byakuren abolish Kirigakure’s Blood Mist Policy, but Byakuren defended the brutal practice.

• Ishikawa, Reto, and A showered Hashirama, Madara, Shingetsu, and Tobirama with praise until Byakuren raised the question of Shingetsu’s marriage, provoking Madara’s fury.
• Hashirama stopped Madara from attacking Byakuren, and Tobirama urged the Kage to move from gossip to business.
• A, Ishikawa, and Reto competed for Konoha personnel to help run their villages, and Hashirama agreed to send support after Tobirama and Shingetsu prompted him.
• Reto asked Shingetsu to create forests in the Land of Wind, but Madara’s threatening gaze silenced him.
• Hashirama demanded that Byakuren end Kirigakure’s Blood Mist Policy, but Byakuren dismissed the request and called modern shinobi weak.