Recaps

Senju Chen trained Mei Terumi by day and won her over with lavish meals, then learned that Genji had died and told her the news. Mei was left alone in shock and grief, while Chen saw Genji’s death as an opportunity to begin the next stage of his plan.

• Senju Chen arranged a safe place for Mei Terumi to stay and began putting her through punishing training in its courtyard.
• Mei Terumi grew wary of the extravagant meals at first, but their quality soon softened her suspicion of Gonbei.
• Yukimura Shigure informed Senju Chen that Genji had died and Karatachi Yagura’s forces were purging Genji’s supporters in Kirigakure.
• Senju Chen recognized Genji’s death as the end of Kirigakure’s old era and decided to advance his plans for Mei Terumi.
• Senju Chen told Mei Terumi that Genji had died, then left her alone as she stumbled and called after him in grief.

After Genji's death left Mei Terumi overwhelmed by grief and hunted by her village, Senju Chen forced her to confront her loss and begin brutal training. She chose revenge and ran weighted laps through the night, while Aying described her as becoming Chen's blade.

• Mei Terumi grieved Genji's death alone until Senju Chen entered her room with a weighted training suit.
• Senju Chen told Mei that Karatachi Yagura and his followers had driven Genji to his death, then demanded that she stop crying and train for revenge.
• Mei Terumi embraced her hatred of Karatachi Yagura and Kirigakure and asked Senju Chen what she had to do.
• Senju Chen ordered Mei to change into the weighted suit and run around the courtyard until dawn or death.
• Mei Terumi began running despite exhaustion, drawing strength from thoughts of Genji's death.
• Aying told Yukimura Shigure that Senju Chen was pulling Mei from despair and shaping her into his sharpest blade.

After Mei Terumi fled to Kirigakure to pay respects to Genji, Senju Chen raced after her and discovered that Kirigakure’s forces had encircled her. He prepared a contingency plan as Mei Terumi moved deeper into the trap.

• Senju Chen ordered Aying and Yukimura Shigure to take the exhausted Mei Terumi back to recover.
• Senju Chen found Mei Terumi’s note saying she had returned to Kirigakure to pay respects to Genji.
• Senju Chen ordered Aying to ready Kirigakure’s covert lookouts and activate the “Against the Bloody Mist” contingency plan if needed.
• Senju Chen used the Mayfly Technique to travel toward Kirigakure and evade detection.
• Senju Chen sensed Mei Terumi near Genji’s clan cemetery, surrounded by at least twenty Kirigakure forces led by a powerful operative.

Mei Terumi infiltrated Kirigakure to pay her respects at Genji’s grave and vowed to avenge him by killing Karatachi Yagura. As she grieved, Kirigakure’s masked Special Assassination and Tactical Squad surrounded the cemetery and confronted her.

• Mei Terumi used the stealth and climbing techniques Gonbei had taught her to evade patrols and scale a cliff into the Genji Clan’s cemetery.
• Mei reached Genji’s gravestone, kowtowed three times, and vowed to avenge him by killing Karatachi Yagura.
• Mei failed to notice the mist thickening and masked figures encircling the cemetery.
• A masked squad member appeared behind Mei and called her a remnant of Genji as the squad closed off her escape.

Mei Terumi was ambushed by the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad while trying to avenge Genji, and Gonbei’s training helped her survive their attacks. Just as she was about to be overwhelmed, Senju Chen (Gonbei) arrived, cut through the enemy’s water technique, and sent her over the cliff to escape while he faced the squad.

• Mei Terumi was surrounded in the cemetery by the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad and realized the enemy had laid a trap for her.
• Mei Terumi fought back with Boil Release and Lava Release, but the Masked Man and his squad countered her techniques and trapped her under sustained ranged attacks.
• Mei Terumi used the movement and chakra-control skills Gonbei had drilled into her to evade the squad’s attacks, but the Masked Man unleashed a Great Waterfall Technique when she was nearly exhausted.
• Senju Chen (Gonbei) appeared and slashed open the enormous wave, then scolded Mei Terumi for ignoring his orders and infiltrating carelessly.
• Senju Chen (Gonbei) flung Mei Terumi toward the cliff and ordered her to return to Food Is Heaven while he turned to face the pursuing squad.

Senju Chen used Flying Thunder God and Mayfly Technique to slaughter the Kirigakure squad that had attacked Mei Terumi. He killed the masked captain last, leaving no survivors in the cemetery.

• Senju Chen vanished with Flying Thunder God and killed a Kirigakure Anbu, then killed another with a Rasengan.
• Senju Chen used Mayfly Technique to disappear underground and reappear beyond the squad’s encirclement.
• Senju Chen used Flying Thunder God to kill Kirigakure ninja one by one as the squad’s formation collapsed.
• The masked captain fled while Senju Chen killed the remaining Kirigakure ninja.
• Senju Chen caught the captain, called himself a helpful villager, and snapped his neck.

After escaping into the river, Mei Terumi tried to return to help Uncle Gonbei but realized she was too exhausted to climb back to him. She resolved to obey his orders, return to Food Is Heaven, and become strong enough to stand beside him.

• Mei Terumi surfaced in the river and searched the cliff for Uncle Gonbei, then struggled unsuccessfully to climb back up because her chakra and stamina were depleted.
• Mei Terumi remembered Uncle Gonbei protecting her from the Anbu and recognized how badly her recklessness had put him in danger.
• Mei Terumi broke down in shame and fear, realizing that Uncle Gonbei had become her only support after Grandpa Genji's death.
• Mei Terumi recalled Uncle Gonbei's order to return to Food Is Heaven and decided that obeying him was the only way she could help.
• Mei Terumi swore to stop being willful, complete his training, and grow strong enough to stand beside him, then limped toward the Capital of Water.

After Senju Chen abandoned his exposed “Gonbei” identity, he said goodbye to his young students and secretly directed Chōjūrō to Food Is Heaven. He then set his sights on poaching talent from Kirigakure’s Ninja Academy, beginning a plan to recruit the village’s future generations.

• Senju Chen erased the traces of his fight, gathered supplies from the fallen Anbu, and used the Mayfly Technique to return toward Kirigakure.
• Senju Chen met Chōjūrō and the other children, told them he could no longer teach them, and warned them to stay away while the village was in chaos.
• Chōjūrō declared that he wanted to become strong, so Senju Chen gave him a token and instructed him to find Food Is Heaven in the Capital of Water.
• Senju Chen considered Mei Terumi and Chōjūrō dispatched to his “starter village” and decided to recruit more talent from Kirigakure’s Ninja Academy.

Senju Chen chose Kirisame Ryo, a Chunin instructor at Kirigakure’s brutal ninja academy, as his next identity. After observing Ryo’s habits, Senju Chen killed and consumed him, then took his appearance and memories, leaving the story with him ready to operate inside the academy.

• Senju Chen slipped into Kirigakure’s ninja academy and searched for an instructor whose position and habits would make him easy to replace.
• Senju Chen watched Kirisame Ryo oversee children fighting to the death and studied his routines and mannerisms over several days.
• Senju Chen ambushed Kirisame Ryo on the rooftop and killed him before he could call for help.
• Senju Chen’s White Zetsu Clone consumed Ryo, gaining chakra, combat experience, and his memories.
• Senju Chen transformed into Ryo and replicated his distinctive limp and gestures before heading downstairs.

Senju Chen took control of Kirisame Ryo’s training group and replaced its brutal fighting with lessons in betrayal and concealment. Meanwhile, Mei Terumi learned Gonbei was alive after Chōjūrō arrived with his message, and she made the boy her junior brother and began training him harshly.

• Senju Chen assessed the children at the training ground and announced lessons in sneak attacks, betrayal, and hiding evidence.
• Mei Terumi trained relentlessly for three days while worrying that Gonbei might be dead.
• Chōjūrō arrived at Food Is Heaven carrying Gonbei’s room token and told Mei Terumi that Gonbei had sent him.
• Mei Terumi learned Gonbei was alive and understood that he had sent Chōjūrō to her as a message.
• Mei Terumi made Chōjūrō her junior brother and warned that she would break his legs if he failed to keep up with her training.

After twenty-one Kirigakure Anbu were killed at Genji’s cemetery, Obito, controlling Karatachi Yagura, suspected the attacker might be Senju Chen and ordered a massive search. He remained unsettled by the possible use of Space-Time Ninjutsu, which disrupted his plans to go to the Land of Rain.

• An Anbu reported that twenty-one members of the assassination squads, including Izumi Masa, had been killed at Genji’s cemetery, each by a single fatal blow.
• Obito grew furious that the attack had exposed the survival of Genji’s faction and suspected the assailant had used Space-Time Ninjutsu.
• Yagura summoned Hozuki Anyue and ordered him to seal off the Land of Water and find the attacker.
• Yagura also ordered an investigation into people recently connected to Konoha, especially anyone around fifteen years old.
• Obito watched over Kirigakure and worried that the unknown attacker had disrupted his plans to travel to the Land of Rain.

Senju Chen taught his brutal class that ninja survived by using deception and strategy, ordering two weak students to defeat the stronger Wild Bull. The children witnessed a new way to stay alive as Chen declared that those who failed to think would die.

• Senju Chen stopped the children fighting and condemned their reckless, strength-based approach.
• Senju Chen ordered Skinny Monkey and Slug to kill Wild Bull, then secretly instructed them to distract him and throw sand into his eyes.
• Slug charged Wild Bull while Skinny Monkey blinded him with sand, and Slug slashed Wild Bull's supporting leg.
• Skinny Monkey held a kunai to the wounded Wild Bull's throat but could not deliver the killing blow.
• Senju Chen pinned Wild Bull's head to the dirt and told the class that ninja won through cunning, underhanded tactics, and clear thinking.

Mei Terumi drove Chōjūrō through a punishing training regimen, revealing that her cruelty came from grief over Gonbei’s absence. Meanwhile, Kirisame Ryo’s ruthless training had changed the Academy’s fights into schemes of deception and alliances, and furious instructors confronted him.

• Mei Terumi ordered Chōjūrō to keep swinging his sword despite his exhaustion and threatened to break his legs if he complained or fell behind.
• Chōjūrō realized Mei Terumi was using the training to cling to her grief over Gonbei, then forced himself to stand and resume swinging.
• At Kirigakure Ninja Academy, students used feigned injuries, traps, teamwork, poison, and surrender to survive their fights, lowering the casualty rate.
• Kirisame Ryo watched the students’ new tactics with approval as several angry instructors approached him.

Senju Chen defended Kirisame Ryo’s survival-focused teaching to Director Aoki with data showing his students had fewer casualties and stronger mission results. The Mizukage’s order for an early graduation exam turned the dispute into a dangerous live-combat exercise called “Purification.”

• Mitsue Ringo and the other instructors confronted Senju Chen over his students’ tactics, but he argued that survival mattered more than glory.
• Mitsue Ringo reported Kirisame Ryo to Director Aoki, who summoned him to the director’s office.
• Senju Chen presented casualty and mission statistics showing his students outperformed the other classes.
• An assistant delivered the Mizukage’s directive ordering an early graduation exam and a live-combat exercise called “Purification.”
• Director Aoki ordered the instructors to notify all graduating students and tell them to prepare.

Senju Chen welcomed Kirigakure’s deadly graduation exam, while Hozuki Anyue investigated a massacre and found evidence that pointed to Chen as the suspect. Anyue ordered his forces to avoid engaging anyone matching Chen’s profile and report sightings immediately.

• Mitsue Ringo and the instructors celebrated the “Purification” exam, while Senju Chen guessed Obito had arranged the battle royale and saw it as an opportunity.
• At Genji’s cemetery, Hozuki Anyue’s Anbu found twenty-one people killed with precise, unfamiliar attacks.
• Kirigakure’s intelligence analysts first matched the combat evidence to Minato Namikaze, then identified Senju Chen as another possible match.
• The analysts were stunned by Chen’s age and combat record, and Hozuki Anyue realized he might be the fifteen-year-old target Lord Yagura had hinted at.
• Hozuki Anyue ordered his subordinates to watch for a young Konoha suspect skilled in high-speed combat, possibly space-time ninjutsu and Wood Release, and to report without engaging.

Senju Chen taught the Kirigakure children to observe others and disguise themselves, using a terrifying punishment to make the lesson stick. He began considering Zabuza Momochi as a recruit and left the boy questioning why he wanted to kill.

• Senju Chen introduced a lesson in intelligence and disguise, ordering the children to study one another’s habits and switch identities using the Transformation Technique.
• Senju Chen threatened to confine any child exposed during the identity swap overnight with a corpse, and the children began observing and imitating each other.
• Senju Chen dismissed Kirigakure’s search for him and decided Zabuza Momochi could become a valuable blade under his direction.
• The children identified a boy who avoided fish, and Senju Chen had assistant instructors drag him to the confinement cell as the others watched in terror.
• Senju Chen asked Zabuza why he wanted to kill and told him to understand his reasons; after Chen left, Zabuza began wondering whether killing was only about survival.

Mei Terumi pushed Chōjūrō through a lethal survival test to sharpen his strength, while Aying and Yukimura Shigure watched anxiously. Chōjūrō survived the three-minute ordeal but collapsed, badly burned.

• Mei Terumi ended Chōjūrō’s basic training and challenged him to remain inside a compound Boil Release and Lava Release mist cage for three minutes.
• Mei Terumi called Chōjūrō useless, and he entered the dangerous cage to prove himself and honor his promise to Gonbei.
• Aying and Yukimura Shigure watched from the restaurant and worried that Mei Terumi’s training was hurting Chōjūrō.
• The mist cage began to destabilize as Mei Terumi struggled to combine the two nature transformations, but she stabilized it and urged Chōjūrō to hold on.
• Chōjūrō deflected the acid arrows with his sword until Mei Terumi released the technique, and he collapsed charred and injured.

Mei Terumi’s training left Chōjūrō badly burned but alive, while Senju Chen’s brutal exercises taught the children to scrutinize and imitate one another. Zabuza Momochi questioned whether cunning could make him truly strong, and Senju Chen hinted that the lost Ninja Blades awaited worthy new masters.

• Mei Terumi gave the injured Chōjūrō burn ointment, and Aying arranged for staff to carry him upstairs for treatment.
• The children in the tower training ground watched and imitated one another to avoid being accused of impersonation and punished.
• Zabuza Momochi used traps, deception, and alliances to eliminate rivals during Senju Chen’s lesson.
• Zabuza Momochi challenged the value of Senju Chen’s tactics and said that strength meant controlling his own life and restoring the village’s honor.
• Senju Chen told Zabuza Momochi that cunning was only a foundation for strength and claimed the lost Ninja Blades were waiting for worthy masters.

Senju Chen urged Zabuza Momochi to aspire to wield power rather than serve as a weapon, then promised him the Seven Ninja Blades if he proved himself. A month later, the Purification graduation exam began on Blood Tears Island, where Zabuza’s class disappeared into the coastal jungle as their instructors watched.

• Senju Chen challenged Zabuza Momochi to win the graduation mission and promised to obtain all seven Ninja Blades for him, but Zabuza left doubtful.
• A month later, over a hundred students began the three-day Purification exam on Blood Tears Island, competing for ten flags while their collars served as their lives.
• Chief Aoki and the instructors watched the exam unfold through a crystal ball as they mocked Kirisame Ryo’s class.
• Mitsue Ringo praised his elite class as they advanced toward the island’s center and defeated rival squads.
• Zabuza Momochi led his classmates into the thick coastal jungle, where they vanished from the observation screens.

Senju Chen’s students used traps and coordinated attacks to wipe out Mitsue Ringo’s elite class during the island battle. Director Aoki praised Kirisame Ryo for training the children as the instructors watched in stunned silence.

• Mitsue Ringo’s elite squad advanced through a swamp, where hidden traps killed and injured nearly half its members.
• The remaining students panicked and tried to flee, but Zabuza Momochi and the others emerged from hiding and attacked them.
• Senju Chen’s students wiped out Mitsue Ringo’s elite class, then withdrew separately while remaining wary of one another.
• Mitsue Ringo accused Senju Chen of training the attackers, and Senju Chen mocked him for underestimating his students.
• Director Aoki praised Kirisame Ryo’s batch of children for their performance.

Kirisame Ryo’s students turned the graduation exam on Blood Tears Island into a coordinated campaign of deception, then revealed they had collected all ten flags. Senju Chen’s system detected an unknown target named Inoshita Yamano with Earth Release abilities, leaving him suspicious that an Iwagakure spy was among the crowd.

• Mitsue Ringo blamed the students’ success on luck, but Senju Chen said their strategy came from professionalism.
• Kirisame Ryo’s students spread false information across Blood Tears Island, provoking clashes and picking off exhausted squads.
• After three days, fewer than thirty examinees remained, and no one initially stepped forward with a flag.
• Zabuza Momochi and his classmates emerged from the jungle and presented all ten Blood Mist Flags.
• Senju Chen saw system alerts for Inoshita Yamano’s Earth Release abilities and suspected the person was an Iwagakure spy.

Karatachi Yagura announced the results of the deadly exam and promoted Senju Chen to director of the High Tower, granting him authority over Kirigakure's student training and assessments. Senju Chen accepted the appointment, privately stunned that his false identity had risen so quickly.

• Karatachi Yagura arrived at the beach and promoted the ten students who held flags to Chunin and the other survivors to Genin.
• Karatachi Yagura praised Kirisame Ryo's teaching and appointed Director Aoki deputy captain of the Special Assassination and Tactical Squad.
• Karatachi Yagura named Kirisame Ryo director of the High Tower and gave him authority over training and assessments for every student in Kirigakure.
• Mitsue Ringo and the other instructors reeled at the promotion and regretted mocking Kirisame Ryo.
• Senju Chen accepted the appointment and promised to cultivate more talent for Kirigakure.

Senju Chen told Zabuza Momochi that his talent alone would not let him surpass his limits, then hinted that he knew a costly way to make him stronger. After leaving Zabuza waiting for seven days, Senju Chen received him in the dark and asked what kind of person he wanted to become.

• Senju Chen told Zabuza Momochi that he would never reach the top through hard work alone and offered him a path to surpass the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
• Senju Chen became tower director, introduced his training method, and sent Mitsue Ringo to guard the northern lighthouse.
• Senju Chen left Zabuza Momochi without a squad or missions for seven days, prompting Zabuza to seek him out at night.
• Zabuza Momochi demanded to know whether Senju Chen would still help him break his limits, and Senju Chen asked what kind of person he wanted to become.

Senju Chen recruited Zabuza Momochi as a future weapon by promising to help him become the strongest. Back at his base, Chen arranged a mission in Kirigakure and identified Tsukiki as a likely Iwagakure mole, preparing to investigate him.

• Senju Chen told Zabuza Momochi that his prospects as a village ninja were limited and offered to invest in his growth.
• Zabuza Momochi knelt and pledged to become Senju Chen's blade, and Chen sent him back to continue training.
• Senju Chen ordered Foreman White Zetsu to send five clever White Zetsu to Kirigakure for a performance.
• Senju Chen reviewed the student and instructor records and matched the suspicious name Inoshita Yamano to the instructor Tsukiki.
• Senju Chen burned the scrolls after identifying Tsukiki as a likely Iwagakure operative and prepared to investigate him.

Senju Chen arranged for Zabuza Momochi to disappear and sent a White Zetsu clone to impersonate him, then used the fake Zabuza to expose undercover spy Tsukiki as Inoshita Yamano. After Tsukiki killed the clone and fled, Senju Chen pursued him, but Kirigakure instructors intervened; Senju Chen declared he was purging the village’s traitors.

• Senju Chen introduced Zabuza Momochi to a White Zetsu clone that could perfectly imitate him and arranged for the real Zabuza to leave Kirigakure under an assumed death.
• Senju Chen sent the fake Zabuza to confront Instructor Tsukiki and reveal that he was actually Inoshita Yamano.
• Tsukiki attacked and killed the fake Zabuza, then tried to eliminate students who witnessed the killing.
• Senju Chen arrived, pursued the fleeing Tsukiki, and was blocked by instructors who accused him of abusing his authority.
• Tsukiki claimed Senju Chen had killed Zabuza and was trying to silence him, prompting the instructors to surround Senju Chen.
• Senju Chen regained his composure and declared that he was purging Kirigakure’s traitors.