Chapter Summaries

Ryuto visited the rebuilding Uzumaki Clan Grounds, where Mito warned him to stay independent despite joining the Senju. On his return, a mysterious figure who could merge with shadows continued watching him from the woods near the Senju camp.

• Ryuto left the Senju camp to check on Mito and Rena at the Uzumaki Clan Grounds, while an unseen figure secretly followed him.
• Ryuto found the grounds being rebuilt, reunited with Rena and Mito, and learned that the Uchiha had not attacked again.
• Ryuto told Mito he had joined the Senju, and she cautioned him that his unusual power might make him a target of their interest as well as the Uchiha's.
• Ryuto sensed someone watching him on the way back, but his Ki Sense and ki blades revealed no one; the shadowy figure later emerged from a tree and wondered whether his energy posed a threat.
• Hashirama assured Ryuto that the Senju considered him a partner rather than a tool, while the hidden watcher later opened its eyes near the camp and looked toward Ryuto's tent.

Hashirama explained his plan for an alliance that would share resources and establish noncombat zones, and Ryuto agreed to support his vision of peace. Black Zetsu overheard them and decided Ryuto threatened his plans, then began plotting to accelerate the conflict and eliminate him.

• Hashirama showed Ryuto how the Senju, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Sarutobi could share resources, defend one another, and expand peaceful territory through an alliance.
• Ryuto supported Hashirama’s plan and offered to help, while Hashirama described a future where clans remained independent under shared rules.
• Black Zetsu secretly listened from a tree’s shadow and recognized that Ryuto had sided with Hashirama’s peace efforts.
• Black Zetsu decided Ryuto must be eliminated and considered using Madara’s interest in Ryuto to provoke a deadly conflict.
• Hashirama allowed Ryuto to travel beyond camp, and Ryuto headed to his tent while sensing that trouble might lie ahead.
• Black Zetsu returned to his cave, marked a third figure beside Madara and Hashirama, and vowed to accelerate his plan.

Hashirama met Madara alone to propose an alliance, but Madara rejected it and insisted that peace could only come through absolute power. Back at camp, Ryuto proposed settling the conflict with a showdown between the strongest fighters, while Black Zetsu secretly considered how to turn the idea against them.

• Tobirama urged Hashirama to launch a decisive battle against the Uchiha, but Hashirama said he wanted to speak with Madara first.
• Hashirama met Madara at their childhood riverside spot and proposed an alliance between their clans and other willing clans.
• Madara burned Hashirama's alliance scroll and declared that only absolute power could bring peace, then left with a promise that their next meeting would be on the battlefield.
• Ryuto suggested that Hashirama and Madara settle the war's outcome through a showdown between their strongest fighters to reduce casualties.
• Black Zetsu secretly overheard Ryuto's plan and considered making Madara view Ryuto as another opponent to conquer.

Ryuto delivered Hashirama’s challenge to Madara, who accepted a decisive showdown and insisted Ryuto participate. After Ryuto returned to the Senju camp, Madara began writing his reply and looked forward to the fight.

• Hashirama proposed a contest between each clan’s strongest fighters, and Ryuto volunteered to deliver the challenge to Madara.
• Ryuto flew to the Uchiha compound, where Madara read Hashirama’s challenge and said Ryuto must take part in the showdown.
• Izuna attacked Ryuto, but Ryuto caught his punch and threw him to the ground before Madara ordered Izuna to stop.
• Ryuto agreed to join the showdown, and Madara accepted the challenge, promising to send the time and place later.
• Ryuto returned to the Senju camp and told Hashirama what had happened; that night, Madara began writing a reply and welcomed the coming fight.

Hashirama accepted Madara’s revised challenge: a two-on-two fight to the death in one month at the great canyon, with Ryuto and Hashirama facing Madara and Izuna. Both sides began planning intensive training, while Black Zetsu saw the duel as a chance to deepen the Senju-Uchiha hatred.

• Hashirama and Ryuto predicted Madara’s conditions, then read his challenge naming the fighters, date, location, and fight-to-the-death rules.
• Hashirama accepted the challenge after discussing with Ryuto whether Madara’s force-based path could create lasting peace.
• Madara told Izuna that Ryuto had grown stronger than him and ordered Izuna to train relentlessly so he could kill Ryuto or hold him off during the duel.
• Black Zetsu secretly listened to Madara and Izuna, concluding that the deadly match could intensify the Senju-Uchiha conflict and advance his plans.
• Hashirama and Ryuto planned to train together, using Hashirama’s battlefield control and Ryuto’s speed while aiming to separate the brothers and take out Izuna first.

Ryuto and Hashirama accepted Madara’s two-on-two deathmatch challenge and left to train together, while Black Zetsu began plotting to turn the coming fight into a multi-clan ambush. As Madara pushed Izuna through punishing preparations, rumors spread across the warring lands, setting the stage for Black Zetsu’s planned chaos.

• Ryuto and Hashirama planned to target Izuna and agreed to travel the next morning to practice teamwork near terrain like the Grand Canyon.
• Black Zetsu overheard their plans and devised a scheme to involve the Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki, Hyuga, and Kaguya clans, intending to kill Ryuto amid the resulting chaos.
• Hashirama and Ryuto departed for special training, while Hashirama told Tobirama to guard the Senju camp and not interfere in the deathmatch without urgent cause.
• Madara began training Izuna under simulated triple gravity, demanding relentless genjutsu practice and five hundred precise shuriken throws.
• False reports about the clans and Ryuto spread through the warring lands as Black Zetsu waited for his planned accident at the deathmatch.

Black Zetsu planted false intelligence about the Grand Canyon duel to draw the Uzumaki, Hyūga, and Kaguya clans into the conflict between the Senju and Uchiha. Rena uncovered signs that the Uzumaki evidence was forged, but Black Zetsu believed he had already sown enough suspicion to make the coming duel chaotic.

• Black Zetsu staged an apparent Uchiha skirmish near the Uzumaki Clan Grounds and left a forged scroll hinting at trouble at the Grand Canyon.
• Mito ordered stronger patrols and sent Rena to investigate, while a fabricated letter led Hyūga Tenshu to plan a secret surveillance mission for the duel.
• Black Zetsu tricked a Kaguya patrol into believing Madara and Hashirama would be badly injured at the Grand Canyon, prompting them to report the opportunity to their clan head.
• Rena identified uniform kunai marks and deliberately scorched scroll edges, concluding that someone had faked the Uzumaki scene to lure them toward the Grand Canyon.
• Black Zetsu observed Rena's discovery and decided that suspicion had already been planted well enough to help create a five-way clash.

Ryuto and Hashirama met Madara and Izuna at the Grand Canyon for their planned two-on-two deathmatch, while hidden clans gathered to watch. Black Zetsu revealed he had engineered the gathering to create an opportunity to kill Ryuto, and the four fighters began their battle.

• Ryuto sensed several groups encircling the canyon, and Madara dismissed them as opportunists who could watch the fight.
• Hashirama and Madara agreed to rest for fifteen minutes before a two-on-two deathmatch, while Izuna and Ryuto exchanged remarks about their training.
• Black Zetsu observed the Hyuga, Uzumaki, and Kaguya clans hiding nearby and anticipated that they would join the conflict after the fighters weakened.
• Black Zetsu planned to use the chaos to have Ryuto killed and push Hashirama and Madara further along their destined conflict.
• After resting, Hashirama and Madara renewed their argument over whether strength was the only path, then the four fighters moved into position and began preparing to fight.

Ryuto struggled against Izuna’s Sharingan genjutsu, then adapted by using ki to filter its effects and shutting off his hearing to counter sound-based interference. As Ryuto and Izuna and Hashirama and Madara prepared to fight in earnest, Black Zetsu waited for them to become exhausted so he could stage an “accident.”

• Madara and Hashirama charged into battle while Izuna attacked Ryuto with genjutsu and struck him when it disrupted his balance.
• Ryuto endured Izuna’s illusions and attacks, gradually learning to divide his attention and use ki to weaken the genjutsu.
• Izuna used sound-based genjutsu to disorient Ryuto, who blocked part of his auditory nerves with ki and charged again in silence.
• Ryuto used his heightened combat instincts to press Izuna back, forcing Madara to tell Izuna to stop playing around.
• Izuna’s Sharingan flared as he prepared a Mangekyō technique, while Hashirama and Madara paused their fight and Black Zetsu waited for the four men to exhaust themselves.

Hashirama and Madara escalated their fight with powerful Wood and Fire Release techniques while Ryuto and Izuna battled across the canyon. Ryuto wounded Izuna with repeated ki blasts, but Madara’s attack gave Izuna cover and left him poised to use a stronger move.

• Hashirama unleashed Deep Forest Emergence, and Madara countered with Majestic Destroyer Flame before Hashirama’s wooden figure and Wood Dragon drove Madara back.
• Izuna used sound-based Sharingan genjutsu and fire techniques against Ryuto, but Ryuto blocked the attacks and retaliated with Ki Blast Rapid Fire.
• Ryuto tracked Izuna’s shadow clones with Ki Sense and blasted through Izuna’s Uchiha Flame Formation, hurling him into the canyon wall and leaving him badly wounded.
• Madara fought off Hashirama’s wooden attacks, then redirected Majestic Destroyer Flame toward Ryuto to create an opening for Izuna to hide and recover.
• Madara called to Izuna and told him to stop holding back and use his move.

Madara and Izuna combined their Susanoo against Hashirama’s True Several Thousand Hands, but Ryuto’s Tri-Beam shattered the Susanoo and left all three fighters exhausted. As Hashirama declared the fight over, a battle among the Uzumaki, Hyūga, and Kaguya clans erupted around the canyon.

• Izuna and Madara joined their Susanoo into a thirty-meter Majestic Attire: Susanoo, while Hashirama summoned the True Several Thousand Hands wooden Buddha.
• Hashirama’s thousand wooden hands battered the armored Susanoo as Madara and Izuna struggled to hold it together and Hashirama’s sage chakra dwindled.
• Ryuto unleashed his Tri-Beam from the sky, destroying both Susanoo layers and leaving Madara and Izuna severely weakened before Hashirama caught the falling Ryuto.
• Hashirama approached Madara to declare his defeat, but explosions and fighting broke out around the canyon among the Uzumaki, Hyūga, and Kaguya clans.
• Hashirama prepared for another battle as Madara said they would deal with the factions, while Ryuto lay unable to move and Izuna remained unconscious.

After Hashirama defeated Ryuto and the exhausted fighters prepared to leave, Black Zetsu sparked a five-way battle in the canyon by planting false orders and drawing in the Hyuga, Kaguya, and Uzumaki clans. Hashirama and Mito held off the attackers while Rena carried Ryuto toward safety, as Black Zetsu vanished after furthering his plan to prolong the conflict.

• Black Zetsu disguised himself as Senju and Uchiha ninja and provoked the two ambush forces into fighting.
• Hyūga Tenshu sent the Hyuga Clan after Ryuto, while Kaguya Bone led his clan into the battle, attacking both Senju and Uchiha.
• Mito Uzumaki recognized that someone had leaked false intelligence and led her squad into the canyon to reach Hashirama and Ryuto.
• Hashirama rescued Ryuto and fled toward Mito as Hyūga Tenshu pursued; Madara helped the unconscious Izuna retreat while Black Zetsu secretly saved him from a Kaguya attacker.
• Rena carried Ryuto toward the western exit while Hashirama and Mito stayed behind to face the Hyuga and Kaguya forces.
• Black Zetsu watched the fighting intensify, then disappeared underground as the five-way melee continued.

Rena carried the helpless Ryuto toward the canyon exit while Black Zetsu possessed Izuna and sent him after them. Izuna’s attack killed Rena instead of Ryuto, leaving Ryuto holding her as rage and grief surged through him.

• Hashirama and Mito fought off the Hyūga and Kaguya clans while Rena carried Ryuto toward the canyon exit.
• Black Zetsu used the Spiritual Fusion Technique to take control of Izuna’s weakened body.
• Izuna broke away from Madara and raced toward Rena and Ryuto.
• Izuna killed Rena’s two Uzumaki guards, then thrust his kunai toward Ryuto.
• Rena shielded Ryuto and took the kunai through her back and chest.
• Ryuto caught Rena as she fell, while Black Zetsu withdrew and Ryuto’s rage and grief erupted.

After Rena died in Ryuto’s arms, his grief awakened a powerful golden transformation, and he struck down the attackers who had surrounded them. He then rose above the canyon battlefield and ordered everyone to stop fighting as he gathered a mass of golden energy.

• Rena died in Ryuto’s arms as three Hyuga ninja and two Kaguya ninja charged at him.
• Ryuto transformed, his hair turning gold and his eyes emerald, and blasted the five attackers away with a surge of power.
• Ryuto defeated the scar-faced Hyuga jonin and the Kaguya jonin, then disabled the three fleeing ninja with golden beams.
• Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki sensed Ryuto’s energy, but Hyūga Tenshu’s men kept them from reaching him; Madara Uchiha also noticed the transformation.
• Ryuto tended Rena’s wound, crushed the bloodied kunai, and rose above the canyon as the fighting stopped.
• Ryuto gathered golden energy in his raised palm and ordered everyone to stop fighting.

Ryuto transformed into a Super Saiyan and overwhelmed the fighters in the canyon, then moved to seize the unconscious Izuna. Hashirama convinced him to focus on saving Rena, but Madara still refused to let anyone take Izuna.

• Ryuto ordered the fighting to stop, then knocked seven or eight Hyūga and Kaguya attackers aside with a golden shock wave.
• Ryuto demanded that Madara hand over Izuna, but Madara stood between them and raised his Susanoo.
• Ryuto shattered Madara's Susanoo with one punch and prepared to attack Izuna before Hashirama restrained his wrist with wood vines.
• Hashirama shielded Izuna from Ryuto's blast and warned him that Izuna might have been controlled, then urged him to save Rena, whose life was fading.
• Ryuto's Super Saiyan aura faded, and he lifted Rena and told Hashirama to bring Izuna along for questioning.
• Madara again blocked Izuna and told Ryuto he would have to kill him before taking his brother.

Hashirama Senju persuaded Madara to let him take Izuna for treatment while Ryuto saved Rena. After healing both siblings, Hashirama led Ryuto and Madara away from the canyon, while Black Zetsu began plotting a covert way to deal with Ryuto.

• Hashirama Senju promised Madara he would stake his life on Izuna's safety and convinced him to let Ryuto save Rena while Hashirama treated Izuna.
• Hashirama used Sage Art: Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique to save Rena, though she remained in a deep coma.
• Hashirama treated Izuna and concluded that Izuna's weakened mind could have been invaded and controlled by an outside force.
• Black Zetsu sensed Ryuto's Super Saiyan power and decided to target his loved ones or exploit the Senju-Uchiha conflict instead of confronting him directly.
• After resting, Hashirama led Ryuto, Madara, Rena, and Izuna toward his temporary camp.

After Ryuto’s golden power ended the fighting, the Hyūga and Kaguya withdrew, and the surviving clans tended to their wounded. Hashirama secured one month to treat Izuna and investigate who controlled him, while Black Zetsu began preparing a new threat.

• Hyūga Tenshu ordered the surviving Hyūga to retreat, and the Kaguya leader led his remaining ninja out of the canyon.
• Hashirama and Madara arranged for their clans to count casualties and treat the wounded, while Mito confirmed that Rena would live.
• Hashirama promised Madara he would treat Izuna and return him safely within one month; Madara warned that he would come back for Izuna and seek a way to counter Ryuto’s golden power.
• Madara led the Uchiha away, and Ryuto told Hashirama he did not know how to control or summon the golden form again.
• Black Zetsu watched from underground and resolved to prepare a new gift during the month before Hashirama’s deadline.

After Rena was gravely wounded saving Ryuto from Izuna’s controlled attack, Tobirama and Mito investigated the mental technique used to control Izuna and concluded Ryuto had been the intended target. The culprit remained unknown as Ryuto kept watch beside the unconscious Rena and vowed to find them.

• Hashirama and Mito brought the exhausted Ryuto and injured Rena to the Senju Clan Compound, where medical ninja took Rena for treatment and Ryuto waited outside.
• Tobirama ordered a search of Senju and Uzumaki records, while Hashirama and Mito imposed an information blackout about the canyon battle.
• Tobirama and Mito questioned Izuna, who recalled being conscious but unable to control his body after a cold sensation invaded his mind while he was weakened from overusing his Mangekyo.
• Tobirama and Mito compared Izuna’s account with records of Soul Thread Guidance and the Yin Soul Possession Technique, but neither explanation was certain.
• Hashirama, Tobirama, and Mito concluded that someone had deliberately controlled Izuna to attack the exhausted Ryuto, and Hashirama ordered a discreet investigation.
• Ryuto continued waiting outside the medical room, learned that Rena remained unconscious, and vowed to find whoever had targeted him.

Hashirama, Tobirama, Mito, Izuna, and Madara compared ancient Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki records and discovered recurring incidents of clan members losing control across all three bloodlines. The chapter left the clans investigating a possible centuries-old conspiracy targeting their bloodlines.

• Tobirama and Mito found no clear explanation for Izuna's control in the Senju and Uzumaki texts, so Izuna urged them to obtain ancient Uchiha scrolls.
• Madara brought the Uchiha scrolls to the Senju compound, visited the recovering Izuna, and shared tofu-skin sushi with him.
• The group compared records and found repeated, similarly timed cases of Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki members losing control and attacking their kin.
• Tobirama, Mito, and Izuna noted that the incidents affected only those three clans and considered whether their distinctive bloodline traits were being targeted or collected.
• Hashirama assigned Tobirama to compile timelines, Mito to investigate Uzumaki bloodline records, and Izuna to work with Tobirama.

Tobirama, Izuna, Hashirama, Madara, and Mito pieced together evidence that the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki might descend from the Sage of Six Paths and have been targeted by a hidden mastermind. Madara agreed to temporary cooperation with the Senju while Hashirama and Mito remained determined to uncover the enemy’s identity and protect Rena and the others.

• Tobirama presented ancient records suggesting the Senju and Uzumaki inherited the Sage’s body, while the Uchiha inherited the Sage’s eye.
• Izuna and Tobirama argued that recurring cases of mental manipulation in the three clans pointed to a mastermind that was collecting or weakening their bloodline traits.
• Hashirama proposed that the Senju and Uchiha cooperate against the hidden threat, and Madara agreed to share information with the Senju while the Uzumaki cooperated separately.
• Hashirama assigned Tobirama and Izuna to organize clues, while Tobirama concluded that Ryuto had become an obstacle to the mastermind despite not being among its likely targets.
• Hashirama and Mito worried about the mastermind’s thousand-year history and hoped Rena would awaken as they resolved to discover its purpose.