Chapter Summaries

Yanbai listened to birds report on Shukaku’s brutal, experimental battlefield tactics against Kumogakure and Iwagakure. He then learned that Kirigakure was attacking the Land of Whirlpools, but decided not to intervene after Black Zetsu warned him to stay out of it.

• Kima Senju finished his report and withdrew from the Princess Mausoleum, where Cherry Ink cared for Muye and Silver Moon.
• Yanbai heard that Shukaku had turned the border battles into experiments, combining chakra natures and combustible materials to devastate enemy troops.
• A bird told Yanbai that Kirigakure had begun attacking the Land of Whirlpools and that Black Zetsu had asked him not to interfere.
• Yanbai agreed to leave the Uzumaki Clan to its fate, reasoning that the Land of Fire was already fighting on two fronts.

Yanbai used the war and attacks on the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning to build public support for the Land of Fire and prepare a postwar compensation claim. After sending Kima Senju a thick policy proposal, he left the Hokage and his advisers stunned by the scale of his plans.

• Yanbai reasoned that Tobirama Senju had kept him away from the battlefield with two children, allowing other nations to mistake his absence for old age.
• Yanbai’s giant hogweed attacks on nobles in the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning deepened their hatred of him while leaving them unable to prove his role.
• Yanbai planned to use the war’s suffering and public anger to rally the people of the Land of Fire and lay the groundwork for demanding compensation after the war.
• Yanbai sent a large stack of documents to Kima Senju during a Hokage meeting, prompting Kima to call on the advisers to read them.
• The Nara clan head, the Hyuga clan leader, and Uchiha Akira realized Yanbai’s proposal involved the princess’s return and a plan that would leave Konoha and the Land of Fire taking the blame.
• Kima Senju warned the advisers that Konoha and the Land of Fire would implement Yanbai’s policy and would need to prepare to take responsibility.

Yanbai’s giant hogweed and battlefield tactics devastated the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, pushing their daimyo to seek peace with Konoha. Kima Senju revealed that Konoha had rejected their proposals and would accept only surrender.

• Yanbai’s giant hogweed spread across the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, poisoning people and ruining farmland.
• Ōnoki and the Third Raikage tried using giant hogweed sap against the Land of Fire, but its people were less vulnerable to it.
• The daimyo of the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning ordered Ōnoki and the Third Raikage to seek peace with Konoha as their countries faced mounting losses.
• Kima Senju told Yanbai that Konoha had rejected the peace proposals and would accept only surrender.
• Yanbai smiled and praised Kima for the decision.

Kima Senju rejected peace talks and demanded the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning surrender, then announced that shinobi responsible for massacres would be taken as prisoners and forced into labor in the Land of Fire. When the surrender terms reached Iwagakure and Kumogakure, the Third Raikage learned that their captured shinobi would be spared but barred from returning home.

• Yanbai’s dossier persuaded Kima Senju and the Hokage Advisors to reject peace talks and insist on surrender from the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning.
• Kima Senju delivered a speech at the Land of Fire’s border, promising that shinobi who committed massacres would be imprisoned and forced into hard labor.
• Kima Senju traveled to accept the surrender after explaining the coming decrees to the people of the Land of Fire.
• The Daimyo’s Palaces of the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning agreed to the prisoner-of-war arrangement after negotiating with the Land of Fire directly.
• The Third Raikage read Konoha’s surrender terms and learned that captured Iwagakure and Kumogakure shinobi would be spared but could never return home.

At the surrender ceremony on the Land of Fire’s border, Kima Senju warned Ōnoki and the Third Raikage that invading Konoha meant making enemies of the Land of Fire’s tens of millions of people. His speech left the Iwagakure and Kumogakure shinobi terrified as the surrender proceedings began.

• Kima Senju met Ōnoki and the Third Raikage on the Land of Fire’s border before shinobi from all three nations.
• Ōnoki questioned why the meeting was not being held in the neutral Land of Iron, and Kima said they could refuse to surrender and keep fighting.
• Kima explained that the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning had slaughtered civilians and warned that the Land of Fire would repay such attacks twofold.
• Kima declared that anyone who invaded Konoha would face the entire Land of Fire and that the conflict would last until one nation was destroyed.
• The shinobi of Iwagakure and Kumogakure remembered that civilians in the Land of Fire also fought back and were left terrified by Kima’s warning.

At the surrender ceremony, Kima Senju announced that Yanbai Senju would become the next Hokage and that nearly ten thousand prisoners would be assigned to labor reform. Shikaku Nara justified Konoha’s demands by citing documented casualties and arguing that Land of Fire civilians had fought with ordinary household supplies, leaving Ōnoki and A with little room to object.

• A challenged Kima Senju’s warnings and boasted that the Land of Lightning would endure, but Kima predicted that the villages would face Konoha’s next Hokage in two years.
• Kima Senju opened the surrender ceremony and told Ōnoki that the nearly ten thousand prisoners would be assigned by the next Hokage, Yanbai Senju.
• Shikaku Nara presented Yanbai’s labor-reform plan and claimed the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning had caused over five hundred thousand deaths in the Land of Fire.
• When Ōnoki questioned the figure, Shikaku explained that annual censuses and household records supported the casualty count.
• Shikaku said nearly four hundred thousand victims were unarmed elderly people, women, and children, then explained that civilians had used household supplies and ceramic knives rather than restricted weapons.

Shikaku Nara explained Konoha’s plan to make prisoners of war from the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning repay four trillion ryō in reparations through labor and a strict “good and evil points” system. Ōnoki and the Third Raikage realized the rules would force the prisoners into exhausting work, with execution for failing to meet daily quotas.

• Shikaku Nara said the two nations owed four trillion ryō for the Land of Fire’s wartime losses, but their prisoners of war would repay it through labor instead of money.
• Ōnoki questioned how the damages had been calculated, and Shikaku said Konoha had verifiable evidence but would keep its records secret.
• Shikaku described how prisoners would earn points for assigned work, with inspectors deciding whether they had met their quotas.
• Shikaku announced that prisoners had to earn and surrender ten points each day, would lose points for delays or disobedience, and would be executed if they failed to meet the daily minimum.
• Ōnoki and the gathered Iwagakure and Kumogakure shinobi realized prisoners would have to work long hours for necessities until the reparations were paid.

Yanbai appeared during the surrender negotiations and ordered Ōnoki and A to listen as he repeated Konoha's terms. The Third Raikage A challenged the four-trillion-ryō compensation demand, and Yanbai killed him in front of everyone.

• Yanbai arrived beside Kima Senju and told Shikaku Nara that Ōnoki and A should follow the surrender terms or die.
• Yanbai introduced himself to Ōnoki and A and ordered them to stay silent and listen.
• Yanbai said prisoners of war from the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning would be sent to the Land of Fire for labor and held responsible for four trillion ryō in compensation.
• A objected that the compensation was excessive, and thorny vines seized him.
• Yanbai drained A into a flower-covered skeleton and warned the gathered shinobi not to let battlefield victories over tailed beasts go to their heads.

Yanbai forced Iwagakure and Kumogakure to accept his authority, then explained how their nearly ten thousand prisoners of war would work off reparations under harsh labor reform. He left Ōnoki responsible for replacing every prisoner who died and warned the prisoners that their families and villages would bear the cost of their deaths.

• Yanbai told Ōnoki that he had once restrained his cruelty to preserve his kind image, but no longer cared what others thought of him.
• Kumogakure and Iwagakure shinobi lowered their heads rather than provoke Yanbai, and Ōnoki urged his people to listen to him.
• Yanbai explained that prisoners of war would earn good and evil points through assigned labor to repay reparations, despite the risk of death or suicide.
• Yanbai said Konoha would record prisoners’ identities and casualties quarterly, while their villages would have to replace every prisoner who died.
• Yanbai warned the prisoners to work for their families’ sake and said they would be repatriated only after the reparations were paid in full.

Yanbai forced Ōnoki and Blue B to accept a surrender plan that subjected their captured shinobi to a brutal morality-coin system designed to make them compete and rob one another. Both leaders signed under threat of death, while Fourth Raikage A watched with hatred.

• Yanbai had Shikaku Nara give Ōnoki and Blue B the surrender document and prisoner-of-war disposition plan to review and sign.
• Ōnoki and Blue B discovered that prisoners would have to work long hours, earn morality coins, surrender ten coins each day, and face execution or hunger if they failed.
• Ōnoki realized prisoners could steal and exchange coins, making the system a trap that would turn prisoners from Iwagakure and Kumogakure against one another.
• Fearing Yanbai would kill him and his village if he refused, Ōnoki signed the documents despite the damage it would do to his reputation.
• Blue B signed as well, while Fourth Raikage A suppressed his urge to attack Yanbai and glared at her with hatred.

Yanbai arranged for the prisoners of war from Kumogakure and Iwagakure to be registered and assigned production work, revealing armored transport vehicles designed by Orochimaru to move them and supplies. As the vehicles impressed the defeated nations, Yanbai explained that their technology was difficult to reproduce and made clear he viewed every living person as labor to harvest.

• Shikaku Nara delivered the agreements signed by Ōnoki and Blue B, and Yanbai ordered the prisoners registered in groups and assigned suitable production work.
• Konoha Shinobi began relaying Shikaku Nara's instructions through hand signals as more than a hundred armored transport vehicles emerged from the city gates.
• Yanbai introduced the vehicles as Orochimaru's military equipment for safely transporting prisoners and supplies, and said the blueprints would not be enough for other nations to reproduce them.
• Fourth Raikage A challenged Yanbai's claim, but Blue B stepped in front of him and Yanbai chose not to punish him.
• Yanbai explained that Orochimaru's technology depended on precision components they could not manufacture, and recalled Orochimaru's frustration at failing to build a smartphone.

Yanbai explained why the shinobi world needed a stronger industrial foundation, then used Wood Release: Rose Bud Control and meticulous procedures to secure nearly ten thousand prisoners of war for transport. Fourth Raikage A asked to take the Third Raikage’s body home, but Yanbai’s reply left him unable to press the request.

• Yanbai told the assembled officers that building industrial capacity required time, skilled craftsmen, and competition between nations.
• Yanbai revealed that he had implanted Kumogakure and Iwagakure shinobi with chakra- and vitality-fed rose seeds called Wood Release: Rose Bud Control.
• Shikaku Nara’s plan guided the Land of Fire’s personnel as they counted, supplied, grouped, and loaded the prisoners into transport vehicles.
• The vehicles released ether to anesthetize the prisoners, and nearly ten thousand captives were secured for transfer.
• Fourth Raikage A asked Yanbai whether he could take the Third Raikage’s body to the Land of Lightning, but fell silent after Yanbai challenged him to take it by force.

Yanbai returned from the surrender ceremony and met Tobirama Senju and a mysterious silver-haired child. Tobirama introduced the boy as Junrin Senju, who called him Mother and was struck by Tobirama for it.

• Yanbai intimidated Ōnoki, Blue B, and the Kumogakure shinobi before leaving them to discuss prisoner arrangements with Shikaku Nara.
• Yanbai returned to Konoha using the Flying Thunder God Technique and found Tobirama with a silver-haired child.
• Yanbai urged Tobirama to treat the children well, and Tobirama hinted that he had followed Yanbai’s old advice and taken in another child.
• Tobirama told Yanbai the child was named Junrin Senju, and Yanbai departed.
• Junrin asked why he could not call Yanbai Mother, so Tobirama slapped him and ordered him to call Yanbai his aunt before offering to apply medicine.

Yanbai returned to the Princess Mausoleum, where he drove off the ghosts who attacked him and kept them occupied with work around his haunted estate. He spent time with Satsuki and learned about the ghosts’ plans for a coastal city before Cherry Ink returned with Muye and Silver Moon.

• Yanbai arrived at the Princess Mausoleum and slapped a group of attacking ghosts into the walls, then left them to resume their assigned work.
• Yanbai talked with Satsuki, who showed him ghost-drawn coastal city plans and discussed her favorite architectural styles.
• The narration explained that Satsuki and Yumemizuki had reincarnated into their own clones to stay with Yanbai, while the other original cats had died naturally.
• Cherry Ink returned from taking Muye and Silver Moon out, and Yanbai recalled how she had scolded him for trying to make the children call him Daddy.

Yanbai learned that Junlin, the silver-haired child living with Tobirama, was Tobirama’s biological son, despite Tobirama believing he had created a child from Yanbai’s genes. The revelation left Yanbai wondering whose genes Cherry Ink had used, and Cherry Ink fell silent.

• Yanbai told Cherry Ink he had seen Tobirama with a distressed silver-haired child named Junlin.
• Cherry Ink revealed that he knew Junlin and explained that he and Orochimaru had obtained genetic material from Tobirama’s laboratory.
• Cherry Ink said he had secretly replaced Tobirama’s embryo, destroying the original and arranging for Tobirama’s biological child to be born instead.
• Cherry Ink explained that Tobirama believed Junlin was Yanbai’s child and raised him as a boyish version of Yanbai, while telling him to call Yanbai Auntie.
• Yanbai asked whether Junlin was truly Tobirama’s son, and Cherry Ink confirmed it with a paternity test.
• Yanbai asked whose genes Cherry Ink had used, but Cherry Ink’s gaze flickered and he fell silent.

Yanbai let Mito help the Uzumaki Clan in her own name, and her arrival with the tailed beasts forced Kirigakure to withdraw from the Land of Whirlpools. Back in Konoha, Yanbai pressed ahead with his reforms while the Hokage Building became an animal-filled gathering place.

• Cherry Ink told Yanbai that Kirigakure had attacked the Land of Whirlpools while Konoha was occupied with other wars, and Yanbai chose not to send official reinforcements.
• Mito returned to the Uzumaki Clan to help personally, accompanied by the Nine-Tails and Shukaku, with Yanbai's tacit approval.
• Mito and the tailed beasts appeared on the battlefield and announced her identity, causing Kirigakure to withdraw rather than risk provoking Konoha.
• The Uzumaki Clan lost many people, and some surviving orphans followed Mito to seek refuge in Konoha.
• Yanbai met with the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Nara clan leaders in the Hokage conference room and presented documents on prisoners of war, construction, immigration, and public welfare.

Yanbai persuaded Konoha’s advisors to approve his plans for prisoner-of-war labor and construction, then proposed demanding emotional distress damages from nations that had failed to support the Land of Fire during the war. The advisors recognized that Yanbai could use disasters and economic pressure to enforce his demands, and the chapter ended with the Nara Clan Head realizing Yanbai’s ambitions reached across the entire shinobi world.

• Yanbai convinced the three Hokage Advisors that prisoners of war could safely manufacture separate weapon components under strict controls.
• Yanbai’s detailed construction, production, and livelihood plans left the advisors with little to discuss.
• Yanbai proposed collecting fifty percent of each nation’s annual revenue as emotional distress damages from countries that had remained silent during the invasion.
• Yanbai argued that nations refusing to pay would no longer be friends, and Konoha could leave them to future disasters.
• The Nara Clan Head recalled that Princess Senju had long aimed beyond rival shinobi villages and had set her sights on every nation in the shinobi world.

Yanbai used the Land of Fire’s overwhelming power to demand compensation from other nations, then Konoha’s Academy students began installing artificial bird nests as a community service project. The nests were meant to attract birds that Konoha could use for reconnaissance and aerial attacks.

• Yanbai persuaded Konoha’s leaders to pressure nations that had stayed neutral during the war into paying the Land of Fire compensation, while sparing the devastated Land of Whirlpools.
• The Land of Wind and several small nations agreed to pay under pressure from Yanbai’s power.
• Months later, a teacher led Konoha Academy students in attaching artificial bird nests to trees throughout Konoha Shinobi Village.
• The Uchiha teacher smiled awkwardly as the children praised the nests and called the current Lord Hokage gentle.
• Konoha’s shinobi understood that Yanbai intended the nests to attract birds for intelligence gathering and attacks on enemy troops.

Yanbai relied on the Heavenly Eye Technique and a disciplined administration to oversee Konoha Shinobi Village. After Shikaku Nara reported that Takigakure shinobi were earning money by performing at the Konoha Hot Spring Baths, Yanbai ordered them to pay a hefty fee.

• The enhanced Telescope Technique became the Heavenly Eye Technique, powered by natural energy and installed throughout Konoha to monitor and record activity.
• Yanbai had Konoha establish a three-shift monitoring team from the Konoha Military Police Force, while Shikaku Nara reported on village policies and activities.
• Shikaku Nara told Yanbai that the Land of Waterfalls had cut ties with the Land of Fire, and that locusts had ravaged its crops, leaving its people in need.
• Shikaku Nara revealed that Takigakure shinobi were performing acrobatics for money at the Konoha Hot Spring Baths.
• Yanbai ordered the performers to pay a stall fee and surrender fifty percent of their earnings, threatening surveillance and compensation demands if they performed secretly.

Muye and Silver Moon visited Madara in his private cave-heaven world while Yanbai worked as Hokage. Silver Moon sang a lullaby he claimed Yanbai had composed for Madara, then went to find the missing Muye.

• Satsuki and Yumemizuki took Muye and Silver Moon on mountain outings, and the children entered Madara's world whenever they slept.
• Muye and Silver Moon appeared before Madara and called him Dad, and Silver Moon explained that Yanbai was busy working as Hokage.
• Madara took the children through the island's forests and meadows, though Muye wandered away from them.
• Silver Moon sang a gentle song that eased Madara's troubled feelings and drew birds and butterflies closer.
• Silver Moon told Madara that Yanbai had taught him the song and suggested that Yanbai had composed it for him.
• Silver Moon said he would go find Muye because Muye got lost easily.