Chapter Summaries

Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure chose not to attack Konoha after learning of its turmoil, preferring to rebuild or wait for an opening. In Amegakure, Pain and Konan concluded that the man claiming to be Madara Uchiha was an impostor, but decided to keep using him.

• Genji ordered Kirigakure to withdraw its defensive lines and stop provoking Konoha, then began drafting a document for Mei Terumi to shoulder more responsibility.
• Ōnoki rejected an attack on Konoha because Iwagakure had lost its Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchūriki, and ordered stronger border defenses instead.
• Rasa refused Chiyo's suggestion to attack Konoha and chose to wait, while briefly wondering whether Shukaku's power had weakened.
• Pain read Konan's report about the Uchiha Clan Massacre and Hyuga Hiashi's rise to acting Hokage.
• Pain and Konan agreed that the man calling himself Madara Uchiha was not the real Madara, but Pain decided to keep him useful to the Akatsuki.

Pain decided to master the Rinnegan sooner because of the threat posed by Azure Dragon Lin Ze and Hyuga Hiashi. Lin Ze left his surveillance of the Five-Tails to meet Uchiha Itachi, who had arrived at Dragon Release Village seeking to join him.

• Pain said he needed to master the Rinnegan quickly and ordered Konan to recruit missing-nin at least as strong as Kage, while dismissing Madara Uchiha as a clown.
• Lin Ze’s Genbu Shadow Clone watched the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, training near a hot spring in the Land of Earth.
• Tagitsuhime arrived and told Lin Ze that Uchiha Itachi and three other Uchiha had come to Dragon Release Village, and that Itachi appeared to have awakened the Mangekyō.
• Lin Ze left Tagitsuhime to guard his shadow clone and traveled to Dragon Release Village in his original body.
• Lin Ze entered the reception room, where Uchiha Itachi recognized the oppressive presence of the God of Shinobi.

Uchiha Itachi joined Dragon Release Village and agreed to fuse his Mangekyō Sharingan with his father's eyes while recovering from his injuries. At the hospital, Lin Ze reflected on Sasuke's changed life and wondered what would happen when Sasuke reunited with Naruto.

• Lin Ze welcomed Uchiha Itachi and told him that Mikoto, Sasuke, and Izumi were receiving treatment at the hospital.
• Itachi asked to join Dragon Release Village to protect his family and offered his Mangekyō Sharingan as proof of sincerity.
• Lin Ze told Itachi that Ryota Uchiha was fusing his eternal eyes and that Crescent Moon had already completed the process.
• Itachi chose to fuse the eternal eyes, and Lin Ze took him to the hospital and promised to care for his family.
• Lin Ze and Itachi visited the unconscious Sasuke, who murmured about his father and Naruto in his sleep.

Lin Ze returned to the hospital and saw that Sasuke remained unconscious and deeply traumatized, while Itachi prepared for treatment. He then visited Kimimaro, Haku, and Jūgo at the training ground and took Kimimaro aside, leaving Haku and Jūgo to begin learning something new the next day.

• Lin Ze reassured Itachi that Sasuke’s nightmares were a normal response to his trauma.
• Ayumi and Yumi greeted Lin Ze warmly, then escorted Itachi to the treatment room at Nonō’s request.
• Lin Ze considered whether Itachi might eventually pass his eyes to Sasuke, then left the hospital room.
• Lin Ze watched Kimimaro, Haku, and Jūgo train and noticed Kimimaro’s pale, unsteady condition.
• Lin Ze took Kimimaro with him and told Haku and Jūgo that he would arrange for them to learn something new starting the next day.

Lin Ze and Kabuto transferred Kimimaro’s soul into a powerful new body made from Kaguya Clan and Hyuga Clan genes. Kimimaro tested its enhanced Shikotsumyaku and Byakugan, then struggled to coordinate with the unfamiliar eyes.

• Lin Ze and Kimimaro visited Kabuto’s laboratory, where Kabuto showed them Kimimaro’s completed clone with bone horns and stronger bodily traits.
• Kimimaro agreed to undergo Living Corpse Reincarnation and successfully transferred his soul into the clone without rejection.
• Kimimaro emerged from the cultivation tank and began adjusting to his healthy, powerful new body.
• At the training ground, Kimimaro tested his Shikotsumyaku and found that his attacks were much faster and stronger than before.
• Kimimaro activated the Byakugan and gained a 360-degree view, but found it difficult to coordinate with the unfamiliar ability.

Lin Ze arranged senjutsu training for Kimimaro, Haku, and Jūgo, checked on Ryōta Uchiha’s eye fusion, and began pursuing Roshi to obtain the Four-Tails’ chakra. As Lin Ze approached Roshi at a volcano, Son Gokū sensed the dangerous natural energy and warned him.

• Lin Ze told Kimimaro to bring Haku and Jūgo to Ryūchi Cave for senjutsu training and ordered Kimimaro to focus on adjusting to his new body first.
• Lin Ze and Kabuto checked Ryōta Uchiha’s stable eye fusion, which had reached thirty-eight percent, and Lin Ze instructed Kabuto to keep monitoring him.
• Uchiha Itachi began fusing the Mangekyō Sharingan his father, Uchiha Fugaku, had given him to pursue the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
• After searching several locations, Lin Ze’s Genbu Shadow Clone found Roshi near a volcano and charged toward him using the Five Cycles True Dragon Sage Art.
• Son Gokū sensed powerful natural energy approaching Roshi and warned him that it was dangerous.

Lin Ze confronted Roshi to obtain the Four-Tails’ chakra, countering Roshi’s Lava Release with senjutsu Ice Release. Roshi fully transformed into Son Gokū and fired a Tailed Beast Bomb, which Lin Ze’s hundredth ice wall finally stopped.

• Roshi sensed Lin Ze approaching and raised a granite wall, but Lin Ze landed nearby and revealed his senjutsu Ice Release.
• Roshi attacked with lava fireballs, and Lin Ze blocked them with an ice wall before wounding Roshi with ice spikes and a punch.
• Roshi used Lava Release: Flower-Fruit Mountain to flood the ground with magma, but Lin Ze froze the lava pool.
• The Four-Tails urged Roshi to fully transform, and Roshi became Son Gokū and launched a Tailed Beast Bomb.
• Lin Ze raised a hundred layers of ice walls; the Tailed Beast Bomb shattered ninety-nine, and the hundredth stopped it.

Lin Ze defeated the Four-Tails Son Gokū and took a third of its chakra, while Roshi and the weakened beast escaped. Lin Ze headed toward Takigakure, planning to pursue the Seven-Tails next and gather more chakra from the Eight-Tails before returning to Ascension Island.

• Lin Ze used Dragon Might Domain to suppress the Four-Tails, then froze it and Roshi with Absolute Zero.
• Lin Ze extracted a third of the Four-Tails' chakra into the Sea Dragon Jade shell and left before they broke free.
• Roshi and the Four-Tails escaped the shattered ice, realized Lin Ze had held back, and left the volcano.
• Lin Ze traveled toward Takigakure and planned to capture the Seven-Tails, pursue the Six-Tails later, and seek more of the Eight-Tails' chakra.

Lin Ze found Fū, the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki, in Takigakure and decided to leave her capture to Uchiha Itachi and Ryōta. At the Konoha-Kumogakure front, Hyuga Hiashi ordered Konoha to fight, while Fourth Raikage A celebrated his advance and Yugito Nii urged caution.

• Lin Ze sensed Fū and found that the Seven-Tails seal inside her was intact, so he decided Uchiha Itachi and Ryōta would handle taking the beast's chakra.
• Hyuga Hiashi told Konoha's clan leaders that Kumogakure had advanced within thirty li with five thousand ninja, including Fourth Raikage A, Killer B, and Yugito Nii.
• Torifu Akimichi and the other clan leaders voiced concern over Konoha's weaker forces and its lack of top-level fighters.
• Hyuga Hiashi vowed to fight, and the clan leaders pledged their support; he ordered Konoha's army to move out at noon and drive Kumogakure from the Land of Fire.
• Fourth Raikage A mocked Konoha's retreat, while Yugito Nii warned him not to underestimate the power Hyuga Hiashi had shown.

The Fourth Raikage led Kumogakure against Konoha, confident that Hyuga Hiashi and the weakened village could not resist. Hiashi summoned the Giant Tenseigan and entered Pseudo-Tenseigan Chakra Mode as the battle began, leaving the two armies’ strongest fighters locked in combat.

• The Fourth Raikage dismissed Dodai’s concerns and ordered his army to attack after learning that Hyuga Hiashi had arrived at the Konoha frontline camp.
• The Fourth Raikage, Killer B, and Yugito Nii confronted Hiashi’s force of 3,500 Konoha ninja with 5,000 Kumogakure ninja, and both sides refused to yield.
• Hiashi summoned the Giant Tenseigan and absorbed its chakra, rising into the air in Pseudo-Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
• The Fourth Raikage attacked Hiashi while Killer B and Yugito Nii joined the assault, but Torifu Akimichi intercepted the Raikage.
• Might Duy and Might Guy opened the Sixth Gate and engaged Killer B and Yugito Nii, while Torifu and the Fourth Raikage clashed.

Hyuga Hiashi used the Tenseigan’s power to badly injure the Fourth Raikage, while Might Guy and Might Duy held off Killer B and Yugito Nii. As the Raikage and Killer B launched their combined attack, Hiashi began a more powerful Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

• Hyuga Hiashi’s Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion shredded the Fourth Raikage’s lightning armor and left him badly wounded, but Hiashi offered him a chance to retreat.
• The Fourth Raikage refused to withdraw and called for Killer B and Yugito Nii to help him.
• Might Guy used the Sixth Gate and Morning Peacock to keep Killer B occupied, while Might Duy fought Yugito Nii to a stalemate.
• Dodai sent twenty Kumogakure ANBU to tie down Might Guy, allowing Killer B to break free and attack Hyuga Hiashi with his tentacles.
• Hyuga Hiashi’s Truth-Seeking Orbs blocked Killer B’s tentacles, and the Fourth Raikage and Killer B then attacked Hiashi together with Lightning Release: Lariat.
• Hyuga Hiashi summoned a silver storm with a golden core and began Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion.

Hyuga Hiashi defeated the Fourth Raikage and helped Konoha rout Kumogakure, leaving Dodai dead as the retreating Raikage, Killer B, and Yugito escaped. After the battle, Hiashi reflected on how much he had enjoyed wielding the power to decide who lived and died.

• Hyuga Hiashi used the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion to annihilate the Fourth Raikage's left shoulder and force him from the fight.
• Might Duy and Might Guy opened the Seventh Gate and struck Kumogakure's forces with their Daytime Tigers, gravely wounding Yugito Nii and killing many ninja.
• Dodai ordered Kumogakure to retreat, and Hyuga Hiashi commanded Konoha to pursue and leave no one alive.
• Killer B carried the Fourth Raikage and Yugito away while Dodai stayed behind and raised a Lava Release: Rubber Wall to cover the retreat.
• Hyuga Hiashi broke through Dodai's wall and killed him with Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms.
• Konoha routed the remaining Kumogakure forces, and Hiashi let the escaped leaders go before recognizing his growing enjoyment of deciding life and death.

After Konoha defeated Kumogakure, Mei Terumi was appointed Kirigakure’s Fifth Mizukage. Obito Uchiha watched the change from the shadows and renewed his resolve to settle his debt with Kirigakure over Rin Nohara’s death.

• Hyuga Hiashi ordered Konoha to stop pursuing the retreating Kumogakure forces after winning a costly battle and severely wounding the Fourth Raikage.
• Three days later, Genji and Kirigakure’s leaders discussed Konoha’s victory and recognized that Hiashi’s power came from an extraordinary source.
• Genji proposed Mei Terumi as the next Mizukage, and the gathered leaders supported her appointment while Utakata remained silent.
• Genji placed the Mizukage’s hat on Mei Terumi, making her the Fifth Mizukage, and she vowed to lead Kirigakure toward a new future.
• Obito Uchiha observed Genji and Mei Terumi from the shadows, then vanished while vowing to settle his debt with Kirigakure over Rin Nohara’s death.

Sunagakure abandoned its plan to invade the Land of Fire after learning of Konoha’s victory over Kumogakure, then reframed its troop movement as support for an ally. Pain assessed Hyuga Hiashi as a threat and ordered Akatsuki’s recruitment accelerated, while Ōnoki welcomed Roshi and Han back to Iwagakure because it needed powerful fighters.

• Rasa learned that Hyuga Hiashi had crippled the Fourth Raikage and Konoha had decisively defeated Kumogakure, so he ordered Sunagakure’s army to retreat.
• Chiyo suggested presenting the army’s movement as a relief mission, and Rasa redirected it toward Konoha’s border camp in the name of supporting an ally.
• Konan told Pain that Hiashi’s power had reached the level Pain called godhood, but Pain said he could still handle the threat and ordered Akatsuki to accelerate recruitment.
• Pain planned to begin capturing the Tailed Beasts in a few years and build Akatsuki’s strength before then.
• Ōnoki welcomed Roshi and Han back to Iwagakure without holding them accountable because the village lacked high-level combat power.

Ōnoki ordered Iwagakure to exploit Kumogakure’s losses by advancing toward the Land of Lightning. In Kumogakure, the wounded Fourth Raikage learned the scale of the defeat and heard Yugito Nii warn that Azure Dragon Lin Ze was stronger than Hyuga Hiashi.

• Ōnoki decided Konoha could not intervene after its own battle and ordered Iwagakure’s army toward the Land of Lightning’s border.
• Roshi and Han admitted that the mysterious man who had defeated them had also taken some of their Tailed Beast Chakra, and Roshi said the Shinobi World was about to change.
• Mabui reported that Kumogakure had suffered 2,137 deaths, 845 severe injuries, and the death of Dodai, while Killer B had yet to return.
• Yugito Nii told the Fourth Raikage that Azure Dragon Lin Ze had displayed even more terrifying power than Hyuga Hiashi when the Third Raikage’s forces fought him.
• The Fourth Raikage recalled his desire to avenge his father and wondered whether revenge was still possible as storm clouds gathered over Kumogakure.

On the moon, the last elder of the Moon Ōtsutsuki Clan sensed Hyuga Hiashi using a small Tenseigan and taught young Toneri that their clan would one day cleanse the ninja world. Three days after Kumogakure’s defeat, Killer B encountered Lin Ze’s Genbu Shadow Clone on the road home and prepared to fight.

• The Moon Ōtsutsuki elder used the Giant Tenseigan to observe Hiashi’s Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion and sensed the small Tenseigan and its chakra.
• The elder told Toneri that the Ōtsutsuki Clan would cleanse the surface and create a peaceful world, then led him away while coughing blood.
• Three days after the battle, Killer B ran toward Kumogakure, remembering Hiashi’s attack and the greater power he had sensed from Azure Dragon.
• Lin Ze’s Genbu Shadow Clone blocked Killer B’s route, and Killer B drew his seven swords to challenge him.

Lin Ze used Sage Mode and powerful Ice Release techniques to overwhelm Killer B, who escalated to a complete Tailed Beast Transformation. Lin Ze severed one of the Eight-Tails’ tails, leaving the beast roaring in pain.

• Killer B attacked Lin Ze with seven swords, but Lin Ze blocked them with a wall of ice.
• Killer B entered a three-tailed transformation and charged Lin Ze, who defended himself with an Ice Rock Dome and countered with an ice dragon and Water Severing Wave.
• Lin Ze trapped Killer B with Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals and slowed him with the Dragon Might Domain.
• Killer B fired a Tailed Beast Bomb against Lin Ze’s Thousand Killing Ice Soaring, but the ice blades battered his tailed beast cloak.
• Killer B fully transformed into the Eight-Tails, and Lin Ze struck with a giant ice saber, severing one of its right-side tails.

Lin Ze hid in Kumogakure while the Fourth Raikage and most of the village’s forces went to face Iwagakure, then targeted Darui to obtain his Storm Release. He ambushed Darui at the training ground, leaving C to react as Darui was hurled backward.

• Killer B fled after Lin Ze severed two of the Eight-Tails’ tails, and Lin Ze sealed both tails in the Sea Dragon Jade shell.
• Lin Ze hid in Kumogakure for three days while the Fourth Raikage and Killer B went to the border and Yugito Nii stayed behind to guard the village.
• Lin Ze observed Darui and C and decided to attack Darui before the Fourth Raikage returned.
• C sensed an intruder at the training ground and tried to warn Darui.
• Lin Ze evaded Darui’s Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder and struck his arm, sending him flying backward.

Lin Ze incapacitated Darui and took samples of his cells and blood, but Kumogakure forces surrounded him before he could escape. He activated Sage Art and prepared a powerful Ice Release technique against Yugito and the gathered ninja.

• C tried to disrupt Lin Ze with genjutsu, but Lin Ze dispelled it and blocked Darui's Storm Release with an ice mirror.
• Lin Ze knocked Darui unconscious, repelled C, and collected Darui's cells and blood samples.
• Yugito arrived with Kumogakure forces, and the Barrier Team trapped Lin Ze inside a Lightning Prison.
• Lin Ze entered Sage Mode and withstood the ninja's combined lightning attacks inside an ice fortress.
• Yugito transformed and attacked with a barrage of Tailed Beast Bombs, but Lin Ze deliberately shattered his fortress and completed the hand seals for Sage Art: Ice Release: Thousand Killing Ice Soaring.

Lin Ze devastated Kumogakure’s forces, froze and sealed Yugito in her Two-Tails form, then escaped the training ground’s barrier. He attacked a weak point in the village-wide Hexagram Barrier, leaving it covered in cracks.

• Lin Ze unleashed Sage Art: Ice Blades, killing or injuring most of the Kumogakure ninja and leaving Yugito badly wounded.
• Lin Ze forced Yugito to transform fully into the Two-Tails, froze Matatabi with Absolute Zero, and sealed her with the Four Symbols Seal.
• A village-wide Hexagram Barrier activated, and Kumogakure fired a Chakra Cannon at Lin Ze; he deflected its blast with an Ice Dragon Bullet.
• Lin Ze found a weak point in the Hexagram Barrier and struck it with Sage Art: Ice Pillar, spreading cracks across the barrier.