Chapter Summaries

Senju Chen let “Xing” take Anko out for dango while he absorbed Madara Uchiha’s combat memories. One memory revealed that Madara had killed a man using the Eight Gates, leading Senju Chen to suspect the victim was Might Duy, who died ten years earlier.

• Anko confronted Senju Chen for hiding that he had returned to the village and asked what had happened to Tsunade.
• Senju Chen sent “Xing” to reassure Anko with a story about his departure, then “Xing” took her to get dango.
• Senju Chen continued absorbing Madara Uchiha’s memories and found an account of Madara fighting a Konoha ninja who opened the Eight Gates.
• Senju Chen recognized the ninja’s appearance and the timing as clues that the man Madara killed was Might Duy.

Senju Chen pieced together how Might Duy likely died after encountering Madara Uchiha, though he could not determine why Madara targeted the squad. He turned to reorganizing Root and visited Kabuto Yakushi to recruit him as a trusted deputy.

• Senju Chen concluded that Madara Uchiha had likely killed Might Duy's squad and that Duy had died fighting him with the Eight Gates Released Formation.
• Senju Chen wondered what Madara had wanted from the squad, but abandoned the question because Madara's sealed corpse was the only source of the answer.
• Senju Chen decided to focus on dismantling Shimura Danzō's control over Root and chose Kabuto Yakushi as a potential helper.
• Senju Chen went to Orochimaru's secret research facility, where he found Kabuto washing laboratory glassware and asked what he had been doing.

Senju Chen recruited Kabuto Yakushi to help him reorganize Root after Shimura Danzō’s arrest. He then addressed Root’s members, telling them he had given them a chance to live again.

• Senju Chen told Kabuto Yakushi he planned to take over Root and invited him to serve as his deputy.
• Kabuto Yakushi accepted Senju Chen’s offer, calling him senior brother and pledging to serve him.
• Senju Chen and Kabuto Yakushi arrived at Root’s headquarters with an order signed by the Council of Elders.
• Senju Chen told Root’s assembled members that Shimura Danzō had been taken into custody and Root would otherwise have been disbanded.
• Senju Chen offered the Root members a chance to live again, having given them the benefit of the doubt that Danzo had deceived them.

Senju Chen abolished Root and formed the Konoha Public Security Department, offering its members names and recognized identities in exchange for serving Konoha. After most accepted, he discovered Kinoe’s Wood Release and took him under his wing as Yamato, leaving Kabuto Yakushi to organize the new department.

• Senju Chen announced Root’s end and gave its members the choice to join the Public Security Department or leave Konoha’s service.
• Shisui Uchiha removed his mask first and joined the new unit, prompting many others to follow.
• Senju Chen reviewed the members’ files and found Kinoe, whose file listed Wood Release.
• Senju Chen renamed Kinoe Yamato and ordered him to stay by his side.
• Senju Chen tasked Kabuto Yakushi with registering the members and establishing an intelligence network, with Shisui available to assist.

Senju Chen brought Kinoe to the Senju residence, assessed his weak Wood Release, and gave him the name Tenzo Yamato. Yamato began to accept his new life as Senju Chen prepared him for future projects.

• Senju Chen led Kinoe out of Root headquarters and into the bright courtyard of the Senju residence.
• Kinoe demonstrated his Wood Release, but his wooden wall collapsed when Senju Chen gently poked it.
• Senju Chen praised Kinoe’s foundation and asked about his name and past.
• Senju Chen named the boy Tenzo Yamato and told him he was a person, not a tool.
• Senju Chen led Yamato to bathe and change clothes, while Yamato felt his first anticipation for the future.

Senju Chen began reorganizing Root’s vast intelligence network after it became the Konoha Public Security Department, while Kabuto revealed that its contacts and informants numbered over thirty thousand. Chen planned to secure the headquarters and gradually bring the network under control, then took Yamato to deliver living White Zetsu to Orochimaru and Amado for research.

• Senju Chen welcomed Yamato into the Senju residence and eased him into ordinary routines before bringing him to work.
• Senju Chen and Yamato visited the former Root headquarters, now called the Konoha Public Security Department, where Kabuto briefed them on Root’s 3,714 safe houses and intelligence stations.
• Kabuto reported that Root’s wider network might include more than thirty thousand people, many of whom were difficult to identify or contact after Danzo’s fall.
• Senju Chen instructed Kabuto to establish the headquarters structure, screen personnel for loyalty, and begin integrating contacts within the Land of Fire.
• Senju Chen decided to take Yamato to Lord Madara’s underground cavern and deliver the living White Zetsu to Orochimaru and Amado for research.

Senju Chen brought Yamato to meet his White Zetsu followers and later introduced him to Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori as a new subordinate with the Wood Release Bloodline. Orochimaru recognized Yamato as the lone survivor of his Hashirama Cells experiments with Danzo.

• Senju Chen took Yamato to an underground cavern filled with White Zetsu and ordered half of them to follow him while the rest stayed behind.
• Three days later, Senju Chen and Yamato arrived at the laboratory, where Orochimaru greeted Chen and Amado and Sasori demanded the live specimens.
• Senju Chen introduced Yamato as his new subordinate and assigned him coordination work.
• Senju Chen revealed that Yamato possessed the Wood Release Bloodline, shocking Amado and Sasori and drawing Orochimaru's attention.
• Orochimaru recalled that Yamato was the only survivor of the Hashirama Cells transplant experiments he had conducted with Danzo.

Senju Chen showed Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori how versatile White Zetsu could be, demonstrating their stealth, spore-based surveillance, and ability to mimic Yamato. The researchers became eager to exploit them, while Senju Chen kept the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path’s role in mass-producing White Zetsu secret as a future surprise for Obito and Black Zetsu.

• Amado, Sasori, and Orochimaru became fascinated by Yamato’s Wood Release, but Senju Chen warned them not to experiment on him without certainty.
• Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori described White Zetsu’s potential for biological weapons, Human Puppets, clone vessels, and organ banks.
• Senju Chen summoned White Zetsu from the laboratory walls, floor, and ceiling to demonstrate their ability to conceal their presence and chakra.
• A White Zetsu used spores to secretly attach to Sasori’s puppet and relay gathered intelligence.
• Another White Zetsu transformed into Yamato and closely copied his appearance and chakra, impressing the researchers.
• Senju Chen decided to keep White Zetsu’s connection to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path secret so he could use it to surprise Obito and Black Zetsu later.

Senju Chen’s team studied White Zetsu and discovered it could assimilate spiritual energy as a seed for growing new forms of life. Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori began envisioning ways to use it to create new bodies and evolving puppets.

• Amado, Sasori, and Orochimaru tested White Zetsu’s cellular traits, observing its instability, rejection of foreign materials, rapid repair, and near-limitless proliferation.
• Senju Chen kept the source of the White Zetsu specimens secret while Yamato recorded the disturbing experiments.
• Orochimaru injected spiritual energy into an intact White Zetsu and found that it encapsulated the energy in a growing mass of tissue.
• Amado concluded that White Zetsu actively absorbed and assimilated seeds rather than being passively modified.
• Sasori considered implanting a puppet core in White Zetsu so it could grow a body around it, and Senju Chen described the result as an evolving Human Puppet.

Senju Chen’s research team experimented with using White Zetsu as a living foundation for creating new life and artificial abilities. Orochimaru’s first creation emerged as a crude, thrashing creature with Wood Release, leaving Senju Chen unimpressed by Yamato’s claim of success.

• Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori recognized White Zetsu as a basis for creating new life, and Senju Chen agreed to share more data and Xing as a reference.
• Amado used White Zetsu stem cells to grow tissue resembling a Sharingan, while Sasori guided White Zetsu cells into forming a body around the Third Kazekage puppet’s Magnet Release core.
• Orochimaru had Senju Chen implant his soul fragment and a Wood Release clone into a White Zetsu host.
• Yamato summoned Senju Chen to see Orochimaru’s result, and Senju Chen found a featureless, dough-like creature thrashing in its tank as branches and vines grew from its body.

Senju Chen learned that the scientists’ unstable creature proved White Zetsu Cells could support a Kekkei Genkai, though conflicting instincts and uncontrolled Wood Release energy kept it from developing properly. Amado proposed three ways to address the problem and recommended creating a simpler consciousness seed from scratch.

• Yamato panicked when Senju Chen saw the creature in the cultivation chamber, and Orochimaru explained that it was an experimental specimen created from Chen’s mental fragments and Wood Release Cells.
• Amado and Sasori described how the creature’s reactions and unstable growth proved that White Zetsu Cells could assimilate the Wood Release Bloodline.
• Orochimaru explained that the creature’s original plant instincts were fighting Chen’s implanted consciousness, while its newborn body could not control Wood Release energy.
• Amado proposed erasing the White Zetsu’s instincts, gradually guiding them into fusion, or optimizing the consciousness seed, and recommended starting with a simpler seed.

Senju Chen learned how Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori had created two Red Zetsu as adaptable combat bodies, combining White Zetsu cells with multiple chakra systems and weapons. With their construction and calibration complete, the three left the final step to Chen.

• Senju Chen recognized that Amado’s plan to raise a growing organism resembled Orochimaru’s later method for creating Mitsuki, but he followed Orochimaru deeper into the laboratory to see the combat-ready masterpieces.
• Senju Chen found two scarlet humanoid bodies on operating tables, each containing energy greater and purer than that of ordinary White Zetsu.
• Sasori explained that the Red Zetsu bodies combined White Zetsu cells with Kakuzu’s Earth Grudge Fear fibers to create a new chakra pathway network.
• Amado described how each Red Zetsu had five elemental hearts and an improved cursed seal that could amplify and store chakra while restraining the body if it lost control.
• Orochimaru explained that the Red Zetsu could use limited tailed-beast features, along with White Zetsu abilities, and could evolve through future modifications and equipment.
• Amado said the bodies had been built and calibrated using Xing’s data, then told Senju Chen that the remaining work was up to him.

Senju Chen implanted fragments of his soul into two Red Zetsu bodies, creating two clones that matched his appearance. The clones demonstrated their enhanced abilities in the laboratory, leaving Orochimaru, Amado, and Sasori eager to continue testing them.

• Senju Chen used Mental Implantation twice to place soul fragments in the two Red Zetsu bodies and experienced three viewpoints at once.
• The two Red Zetsu transformed into copies of Senju Chen and answered their first commands in unison.
• Number One unleashed a powerful Great Fireball, while Number Two rapidly switched between lightning, water, and wind transformations.
• Number One activated the Cursed Seal and fired dark purple lightning that pierced the layered alloy target.
• Number Two released tailed beast chakra, shattered the floor with a stomp, and struck the laboratory wall with enough force to shake the base.

Senju Chen tested his two clones’ abilities, including machinery compatibility, infiltration, chakra absorption, and regeneration. The clones then fused with his original body into powerful organic armor, which left Senju Chen feeling better than ever and Sasori inspired to use it as the vessel for his puppets.

• Senju Chen tested the cursed-seal clone’s compatibility with machinery by attaching Sasori’s bladed puppet arm to it.
• Senju Chen’s left clone demonstrated the Mayfly Technique by passing through the alloy floor and emerging from a distant wall.
• Senju Chen’s right clone used spores to drain chakra from a training dummy and transfer most of the absorbed energy back to itself.
• Senju Chen’s left clone severed its arm and reattached it using Earth Grudge Fear tendrils and White Zetsu cells.
• Senju Chen’s two clones fused with his original body to form dark red living armor, and Senju Chen declared that it felt better than ever.
• Sasori decided to use the fused clone’s body as the vessel for all his puppets.

Senju Chen tested his Red Zetsu clones and proposed using children with Kekkei Genkai to advance research while training them as his future team. After learning of Minato’s death and Chen’s takeover of Root, Orochimaru gave him Danzo’s contact codes for Root’s worldwide spy network.

• Senju Chen admired the clones’ abilities and proposed bringing the Kekkei Genkai children he had bought in the Land of Water to Orochimaru for research and training.
• Senju Chen suggested converting an ancient ruin into a new base because Orochimaru’s laboratory was too small and too close to Konoha.
• Senju Chen tested the clones at Orochimaru’s base over the following days.
• Orochimaru asked Senju Chen about Minato’s reported death, and Chen described the Nine-Tails attack, Danzo’s downfall, and his own takeover of Root while concealing his failed attempt to challenge the Death God.
• Orochimaru gave Senju Chen a scroll containing Danzo’s codes and procedures for contacting Root’s spies across the world, and Chen accepted it as a grand gift.

Senju Chen received Orochimaru’s intelligence scroll containing Danzo’s network codes, then learned that Danzo had defected and Shisui Uchiha had been gravely injured in the pursuit. Chen sent his clone to Konoha Hospital to check on Shisui and whether Danzo had taken his eye.

• Orochimaru gave Senju Chen a scroll containing the codes to Danzo’s intelligence network, and Chen gratefully accepted it.
• During Konoha’s funeral for the Nine-Tails attack victims, a Public Security Department member told Xing that Danzo had escaped the village.
• Chen learned that Danzo had defected after breaking through Anbu surveillance and injuring the guards.
• Chen received word that Shisui Uchiha had been severely injured while pursuing Danzo and was in Konoha Hospital.
• Chen explained the news to Orochimaru and ordered Xing to check Shisui’s condition, especially whether he had lost an eye.

After Shisui Uchiha survived a poisoning and reported how Shimura Danzō escaped with help from Root loyalists, Senju Chen went to confront Konoha’s leaders. The chapter ended as Mitokado Homura blamed Chen for the escape.

• Senju Chen visited Shisui Uchiha in the hospital and learned that his life was no longer in danger, though he had suffered severe injuries.
• Shisui told Chen that Root loyalists had helped Shimura Danzō break through the prison barrier, and that Danzō had defeated him with a poisoned blade.
• Chen reassured Shisui, praised his efforts, and left to meet Konoha’s leaders.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi, Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Shikaku Nara discussed Danzō’s escape and proposed tracking and killing him.
• Mitokado Homura accused Senju Chen of being responsible for Danzō escaping under his people’s watch.

Senju Chen’s clone Xing persuaded Hiruzen Sarutobi to give the Public Security Department full authority to hunt Shimura Danzō. The department was tasked with bringing Danzō back alive or dead, and Xing left to begin the pursuit.

• Xing corrected Mitokado Homura, saying the Anbu had imprisoned Danzō and Shisui Uchiha had raised the alarm about his escape.
• Xing argued that ordinary pursuit teams could not find Danzō and asked for authority and resources to let the Public Security Department hunt him.
• Mitokado Homura warned that granting Xing Root’s authority could create a second Danzō, while Shikaku Nara supported the proposal as the only effective option.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi accepted Xing’s request and ordered him to bring Danzō back alive or return his body.
• Xing agreed and left the meeting room.

"Xing" gave Kabuto Yakushi the codes needed to control Root's intelligence network and ordered him to track down Shimura Danzō. Kabuto accepted the scroll, believing Orochimaru had provided it, and began activating the network.

• "Xing" told Kabuto Yakushi that the village had ordered the highest-priority hunt for the S-rank missing-nin, Shimura Danzō.
• Kabuto Yakushi explained that he had decoded less than ten percent of Root's intelligence network and could not use it without the key.
• "Xing" wrote out detailed contact codes and liaison methods covering more than ninety percent of the former Root network.
• "Xing" claimed that Teacher Orochimaru had given him the codes, and Kabuto Yakushi accepted the explanation with excitement.
• "Xing" ordered Kabuto Yakushi to activate every channel and find Shimura Danzō at any cost.

Shimura Danzō escaped Konoha after a clash with Shisui Uchiha, who was poisoned and forced to retreat to alert the village. Senju Chen told the Public Security Department that Danzō was now an S-rank missing-nin and rallied its former Root members to hunt him down.

• Shimura Danzō fought Shisui Uchiha with Wind Release and Baku, poisoned him with a kunai, and escaped with his followers.
• Shisui Uchiha withdrew and sent word to Konoha after failing to stop Danzō.
• Senju Chen announced that Danzō had fled Konoha and had been designated an S-rank missing-nin.
• Senju Chen presented the Council of Elders' mission order assigning the Public Security Department to hunt Danzō.
• A veteran member and the assembled Public Security Department pledged to pursue Danzō.