Chapter Summaries

Kinkaku led twenty thousand Kumogakure troops toward the Valley of the End to annihilate Konoha’s three-thousand-man force, while Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered Orochimaru to delay the battle until Ōnoki reacted. Both armies marched toward the gorge, where Kinkaku prepared an ambush and Shinnosuke Sarutobi faced the danger of the coming battle.

• Kinkaku learned that Konoha had sent three thousand elites under Orochimaru and ordered twenty thousand Kumogakure troops to march on the Valley of the End.
• Kinkaku rallied his army, declaring that he would kill Konoha’s hope at the place where Hashirama Senju had slain Madara Uchiha.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi learned of Kinkaku’s advance and instructed Orochimaru to avoid winning or losing, prolonging the fight until Ōnoki reacted or Kumogakure ran short of supplies.
• Orochimaru led the Konoha expeditionary force out with Shinnosuke Sarutobi beside him, warning the boy to stay close when they reached the valley.
• Kinkaku positioned his twenty thousand troops at the Valley of the End as Orochimaru’s three thousand men approached under torchlight.

Orochimaru led three thousand Konoha shinobi against Kinkaku’s twenty-thousand-strong Kumogakure army in the Valley of the End, where neither side would retreat. As dawn approached, Kinkaku sent Ginkaku into the gorge to join the battle, while the exhausted forces continued fighting.

• Orochimaru told Shinnosuke that Konoha’s troops would stay in the gorge and fight instead of charging into Kinkaku’s trap.
• Kinkaku ordered his army to advance, and the two sides exchanged large-scale lightning and fire attacks.
• Kinkaku sent his twenty thousand soldiers charging into the gorge, where Orochimaru ordered Konoha’s shinobi to engage them.
• Orochimaru and Shinnosuke continued fighting as casualties mounted, and Orochimaru predicted that Kinkaku would enter the gorge before dark.
• Kinkaku sent Ginkaku into the gorge and vowed not to retreat as the battle continued toward dawn.

Orochimaru and Shinnosuke led Konoha’s exhausted survivors against Kinkaku and Ginkaku in the Valley of the End, using a sealing barrier to force Kumogakure to retreat. The survivors remained trapped inside the gorge, and both sides vowed to settle the fight next time.

• Orochimaru ordered the surviving Konoha ninja to gather around him as Kinkaku formed his forces for another attack.
• Kinkaku and Orochimaru exchanged Lightning Release and Fire Release attacks, but neither side could break the other’s exhausted defense.
• Orochimaru activated sealing arrays that trapped the armies inside the gorge, then contracted the barrier and forced Kinkaku to withdraw with Ginkaku and the surviving Kumogakure soldiers.
• Orochimaru told Shinnosuke that Konoha had survived, though fewer than a thousand of its three thousand ninja remained standing.
• Kinkaku and Orochimaru each vowed not to let the other leave the gorge alive when they fought again.

Orochimaru and Shinnosuke waited with the battered survivors at the Valley of the End as the barrier weakened and Kinkaku remained poised to attack. Hiruzen Sarutobi secured Ōnoki’s neutrality, while the rain brought the exhausted defenders a brief reprieve and left Orochimaru hoping they could go home when it stopped.

• Orochimaru and Shinnosuke prepared for Kinkaku’s return as fewer than eight hundred wounded Konoha fighters remained behind the failing barrier.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi learned that Kumogakure had withdrawn after losing about four thousand men, while Konoha had lost more than twenty-two hundred.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi decided Konoha could not send reinforcements and arranged to meet Ōnoki in the Land of Grass.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi warned Ōnoki that Kinkaku would target the Land of Earth after the Land of Fire, and Ōnoki agreed to remain neutral.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi told Mitokado Homura that Shinnosuke would return as the carriage headed back toward the Valley of the End.
• Rain fell over the canyon, and Orochimaru told Shinnosuke that they would go home when it stopped.

After Konoha and Kumogakure both suffered heavy losses at the Valley of the End, Ōnoki chose to support Konoha so Kumogakure would weaken, while Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru kept Iwagakure’s troops away from the front lines. With supplies and reinforcements arriving, Orochimaru prepared to wait for Kinkaku’s next move, and the chapter ended with him and Shinnosuke planning to visit their fallen comrades.

• Ōnoki ordered Iwagakure to support Konoha with supplies and personnel so Kumogakure would lose, while keeping the troops out of direct combat.
• Orochimaru ordered the Konoha forces to gather their wounded and prepare to retreat because they lacked food, medicine, and manpower.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi accepted Ōnoki’s support on the condition that Iwagakure’s men remain in the rear, and he said Shinnosuke would return.
• Orochimaru told the wounded that Iwagakure’s troops would help Konoha endure the war, and Shinnosuke learned they would arrive in three days.
• Iwagakure’s units and supplies arrived at the rear camp, while Kinkaku learned of the support and decided to wait for Konoha to tire.
• Orochimaru told Shinnosuke that Kinkaku would eventually make a mistake, then planned to visit their fallen comrades with him after dark.

After the battle at the Valley of the End, Hiruzen and Orochimaru mourned Konoha's fallen and discussed how to reward the survivors. Hiruzen ordered Konoha's dead brought home and the enemy dead burned, but Orochimaru secretly had Kumogakure's bodies collected for Death Grain Technology.

• Orochimaru and Shinnosuke reviewed the names of the 2,200 fallen, and Orochimaru called both the living and the dead heroes.
• Hiruzen arrived, remembered Sarutobi Seisen, Uchiha Reifu, and Hyuga Hakuto, and agreed to Orochimaru's plan for a special supply mall for those who had served Konoha.
• Hiruzen ordered Konoha's dead brought home and Kumogakure's bodies burned, but Orochimaru said the enemy bodies could supply Death Grain Technology.
• Orochimaru sent the Vine Division to wrap and carry Konoha's bodies back to camp while taking Kumogakure's bodies away in sacks.
• Orochimaru told Shinnosuke the bodies were being taken to be burned, then left him unaware of their true purpose.

Kinkaku formed an alliance with Kirigakure and Amegakure to pressure Konoha and Iwagakure, while Orochimaru identified the new coalition as the Core Nations. The allied forces prepared for war as Orochimaru planned to stall until their competing interests divided them.

• Kinkaku ordered Kumogakure to seek support from Kirigakure and Amegakure, and raised the village to combat readiness.
• The Third Mizukage agreed to join Kinkaku’s campaign against Iwagakure but set conditions and delayed an attack.
• Hanzō agreed to cooperate with Kinkaku while keeping Amegakure uncommitted and waiting for an opportunity.
• Kinkaku learned both villages had agreed and ordered Kumogakure to muster for war.
• Orochimaru learned of the three-nation alliance, named it the Core Nations, and planned to stall until its leaders’ separate agendas turned them against each other.

Kinkaku, the Third Mizukage, and Hanzō divided their forces to conquer the small countries, while Konoha chose not to intervene. As the Land of Whirlpools and Land of Waterfalls still resisted, Orochimaru warned that their fall would bring the great nations into direct conflict and leave the Shinobi World engulfed in war.

• Kinkaku ordered Kumogakure to attack the Land of the Moon, Land of Hot Water, Land of Waves, and Land of Sound, dismissing the risk of Konoha intervening.
• The Third Mizukage accepted Kinkaku's offer and ordered Kirigakure to attack the Land of Rainbows, Land of Tea, and Land of Whirlpools.
• Hanzō agreed to attack the Land of Grass and Land of Waterfalls, ordering Amegakure to seize them by force.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi learned that the small countries were falling but refused to send Konoha into a war on three fronts, predicting the Shinobi World's darkest hour.
• Orochimaru told Shinnosuke that the great nations would wage an endless cycle of wars once the small countries were gone, while the Land of Whirlpools and Land of Waterfalls continued to resist.

Kumogakure’s fifty-thousand-strong army invaded the Land of Fire along three routes, overwhelming its militia-held border castles. Hiruzen Sarutobi sent Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya north with sixty thousand soldiers, while Kinkaku’s lightning signal warned his army they were coming.

• Kumogakure’s forces crossed the Land of Fire’s borders and captured Yuze Castle and Binhai Castle, while five thousand attackers surrounded Inari Castle.
• Mitokado Homura reported that Kinkaku had armed and mobilized civilians from the Land of Lightning, bringing his army to fifty thousand.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya to lead sixty thousand soldiers north to meet the invasion.
• Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya marched with the army, reflecting on the young civilians sent to fight and agreeing to return to farming after the war.
• Kinkaku sent a lightning signal from the northern sky to alert his army that Konoha’s forces had arrived.

In the Main World’s Rōran, Ryukōshi explained why he and his three brothers could appear there as Toyotomi Yinglang’s children, while Shining Sand returned to his quarters to be cared for by Pakura and Karura. Ryukōshi, Jin Zhiyin, and Chengkong trained together as Shining Sand slept, dreaming of Rōran becoming an empire.

• Ryukōshi explained that he, Jin Zhiyin, Shining Sand, and Chengkong had roots in the Main World through their mothers, while Jilan could not appear there as Toyotomi Yinglang’s child because his Kushina came from another world.
• Jin Zhiyin learned that Pakura and Karura served as Shining Sand’s guards in Rōran, and Ryukōshi said they took turns feeding him.
• Shining Sand asked Pakura whether she hated him for his father destroying Sunagakure, and Pakura said she hated war rather than Toyotomi Yinglang.
• Pakura and Karura tucked Shining Sand into bed for his nap, and Pakura said he had them to protect him.
• Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin fought at the Training Ground while Chengkong used his Time-Stop Devil Fruit to sneak-attack Jin Zhiyin.
• Ryukōshi praised the brothers’ coordination, and the three continued training as Shining Sand slept and dreamed of Rōran becoming an empire.

Hanzō led three thousand Amegakure shinobi into the Golden Forest to confront four Toyotomi children, who unleashed their Sharingan powers and fought back with Susanoo, gold dust, and time ninjutsu. The children were exhausted and badly injured, but Hanzō halted his finishing blow and the standoff remained unresolved.

• Hanzō ordered his shinobi to surround the four children while he stayed outside the Golden Forest.
• Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin awakened their Mangekyō Sharingan and summoned golden angel and emerald treant Susanoo, while Yōsa raised a gold-dust tornado and Chengkong watched for Hanzō.
• Hanzō attacked the Susanoo with water and fire techniques, and Yōsa repelled the advancing Amegakure shinobi with neurotoxic gold dust.
• Hanzō tried to strike Ryukōshi, but Chengkong stopped time and punched him, making Hanzō bleed before he countered with a water curtain that could sense the time ninjutsu.
• Hanzō’s water attacks broke through the children’s defenses and left them exhausted, but Ryukōshi and the others refused to surrender.
• Hanzō prepared a final blow, then stopped with his hand raised while the water curtain remained around the battered children.

Ryukōshi, Jin Zhiyin, Yōsa, and Chengkong continued fighting Hanzō in the ruined Golden Forest, using their powerful abilities to withstand his attacks and land a strike. Hanzō unleashed chakra of all five natures, but the children stood again as Sasha and Pakura watched from the royal palace, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Hanzō intensified his aura and attacked Ryukōshi with Water Fang Cannon, but Ryukōshi used Heavenly Absolution to block it and Heavenly Wrath to detonate Hanzō’s chakra from within.
• Jin Zhiyin used Divine Tree Eternal Life to regenerate and Divine Tree Creation to form a towering tree that absorbed Hanzō’s ninjutsu.
• Chengkong stopped time for three seconds and struck Hanzō three times, knocking him down before time resumed.
• Hanzō unleashed attacks of all five chakra natures, but Ryukōshi, Jin Zhiyin, Yōsa, and Chengkong defended themselves and were thrown back by the shockwave.
• Sasha told Pakura that the children would not lose and Hanzō would not win, while the four children stood again and Hanzō prepared another attack.

Ryukōshi, Jin Zhiyin, Yōsa, and Chengkong kept Hanzō under relentless pressure with their complementary abilities, while Hanzō adapted and fought on despite his dwindling chakra. After his Great Waterfall Technique briefly scattered the four, Hanzō charged again, determined to continue the battle rather than retreat.

• Ryukōshi evaded Hanzō’s Fire Dragon Flame Bullet and used Heavenly Wrath, while Heavenly Absolution nullified Hanzō’s Water Fang Cannon.
• Jin Zhiyin’s vines pursued Hanzō as Yōsa’s gold dust restricted his movements and Chengkong remained poised to use Time Stop.
• Hanzō compressed his Water Curtain into a thin perception-enhancing film, then attacked Jin Zhiyin, whose healing ability repaired a wound almost instantly.
• Jin Zhiyin summoned the Immortal Divine Tree, whose barriers absorbed Hanzō’s chakra and neutralized his ninjutsu.
• Hanzō anticipated Chengkong’s Time Stop and adjusted his posture to avoid a damaging strike, then used the Great Waterfall Technique to scatter the four briefly.
• After the four regained their formation, Hanzō admitted they were strong but charged again, resolved to fight until they forced him to his limit.

Hanzō withdrew from the Golden Forest after naming the four children the “Four Toyotomi Heroes.” In the aftermath, Jin Zhiyin discovered he could no longer remember Chengkong, while Ryukōshi suspected their powers carried dangerous side effects.

• Hanzō asked the four children for their names, named them the “Four Toyotomi Heroes,” and left the Golden Forest without claiming victory or defeat.
• Ryukōshi, Toyotomi Jinsyokuin, Toyotomi Shining Sand, and Chengkong gathered among the ruins and assessed their injuries and exhaustion.
• Jin Zhiyin failed to recognize Chengkong, though he remembered Toyotomi Shining Sand and the battle they had just fought.
• Toyotomi Shining Sand told Jin Zhiyin that Chengkong had fought beside him, but Jin Zhiyin insisted he did not know Chengkong.
• Ryukōshi said the memory loss and his own urge to go berserk might be side effects of their Mangekyō dōjutsu and Devil Fruit powers.
• Jin Zhiyin acknowledged that gaps had appeared in his memory and said they should wait for Father, while Chengkong stood silently beside him.

After defeating Hanzō, Ryukōshi, Jin Zhiyin, Yōsa, and Chengkong returned with Toyotomi Yinglang to the Great British Empire for examinations. Jin Zhiyin’s Mangekyō granted eternal life at the cost of his memories, and he still did not remember Chengkong as the chapter ended.

• Toyotomi Yinglang met the four children at the ruins and took them to the Great British Empire to have their bodies examined.
• Toyotomi Yinglang summoned his family to the Imperial Palace’s main hall.
• Toyotomi Yinglang explained that Jin Zhiyin’s right Mangekyō eye granted eternal life but erased some of his memories whenever he used it.
• Tsunade asked Jin Zhiyin whether he remembered her, and he did, though he did not remember Chengkong.
• Toyotomi Yinglang postponed the examinations until the next day and told everyone not to inform outsiders.
• Senju Tsubaki reassured Jin Zhiyin that she would ask Toyotomi Yinglang to find a way to help him remember Chengkong.

Toyotomi Yinglang examined Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin’s Mangekyō and determined their abilities were divine jutsu created by Devil Fruits fused with the Sharingan. He explained that their side effects signaled an incomplete fusion, while Chengkong remained silent and was warned not to use his technique until a solution was found.

• Toyotomi Yinglang examined Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin’s dōjutsu and identified their abilities as divine jutsu.
• Toyotomi Yinglang explained that Ryukōshi’s black rage and Jin Zhiyin’s bodily transformation and memory loss came from imperfect Devil Fruit and Sharingan fusion.
• Tsunade confirmed that the side effects indicated where the fusion remained incomplete, and Toyotomi Yinglang described them as error reports rather than curses.
• Chengkong stayed silent and did not explain his identity to Jin Zhiyin.
• Toyotomi Yinglang told Chengkong not to use his technique until they found a solution, and Chengkong remained alone in the examination room with his swollen, numb right hand.

After the battle in the Golden Forest, Yōsa returned to Pakura and quietly reviewed his fight before falling asleep in her arms. The Four Toyotomi Heroes’ names reached the wider Shinobi World, while the children recovered and waited until they were ready to meet again.

• Yōsa returned through the Dragon Vein passage to Golden Sand Paradise, where Pakura comforted him and he fell asleep after reviewing the battle.
• Sakura Haruno showed Chengkong Tsunade’s manuscript on the Strength of a Hundred Technique, and Chengkong planned to begin practicing after his hand healed.
• Toyotomi Yinglang studied an unexplored area marked for a suspected atmospheric density anomaly before leaving the Side Hall.
• Reports about the Golden Forest battle spread the name Four Toyotomi Heroes through regional intelligence networks and major Shinobi Villages.
• Jin Zhiyin read an old notebook while Chengkong watched his swollen hand heal, and both waited until they were ready to meet again.

Toyotomi Yinglang explained how Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin could develop their Mangekyō Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. Meanwhile, news of the Four Toyotomi Heroes reaching Rōran and repelling Hanzo of the Salamander reached Konoha, where Hiruzen Sarutobi ordered the intelligence kept secret.

• Toyotomi Yinglang outlined a three-stage path to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan: daily Soul Yin Stones, training in the Soul-Searching Illusionary Realm, and Devil Fruit Awakening.
• Ryukōshi and Jin Zhiyin listened as Toyotomi Yinglang explained that the process could not be rushed and that they should keep honing their abilities if they could not awaken.
• Intelligence reported that four children had repelled Hanzo of the Salamander at the Rōran border and that Hanzō had named them the Four Toyotomi Heroes.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mitokado Homura, and Orochimaru discussed the two brothers with Mangekyō Sharingan and the possibility that one might gain the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi filed the report and told Mitokado Homura not to let the news get out.

News that Toyotomi Yinglang’s young sons had driven back Hanzō, including a nine-year-old Mangekyō user and a Wood Release user, reached the front and Konoha. Jiraiya wondered whether Toyotomi Jinsyokuin was the Child of Prophecy, while the Uchiha leadership confronted the comparison with Fugaku’s progress.

• Jiraiya read the report at the northern front and asked Hatake Sakumo whether Toyotomi Jinsyokuin could be the Child of Prophecy; Sakumo questioned how the boy had awakened his Mangekyō.
• Sarutobi Shinnosuke overheard Jiraiya and Sakumo discussing the Mangekyō and immortality from inside the command tent.
• Fushan read the report in the Uchiha Clan Compound and compared the Toyotomi brothers’ abilities with Fugaku’s two-tomoe Sharingan.
• Uchiha Bali asked whether Fugaku should be told about the news, and Fushan ordered him to keep it from Fugaku for now while the clan continued monitoring the Toyotomi House.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi wrote down the report’s key details and recalled Tobirama Senju’s warning about the Uchiha bloodline.
• Jiraiya remained awake at the front, thinking that he might have to return to Mount Myōboku to ask about the Child of Prophecy.

Uchiha Fushan reviewed a report showing that the Toyotomi Clan had prospered in Konoha and Rōran while the Uchiha were depleted by war. He was left alone in the Meeting Hall, unable to admit that his decision twenty years earlier had helped cause the reversal.

• Uchiha Yangwei reported that about eight hundred Toyotomi clan members in Konoha lived comfortably, took no missions, and worked as teachers and doctors.
• Yangwei reported that another eight hundred Toyotomi clan members lived in Rōran with their needs provided for, and that adult men had more than five spouses on average.
• Fushan dismissed the Toyotomi as cowards and said those in Rōran had sunk into depravity, but the elders and Yangwei offered no response.
• Fushan recalled that Toyotomi Yinglang had left twenty years earlier with five hundred people, and recognized that their numbers had since grown while the Uchiha were being depleted on the front lines.
• Fushan dismissed the elders and Yangwei, then remained alone in the dark Meeting Hall, unable to face the possibility that his choice had been wrong.