Chapter Summaries

Senju Chen exposed the elders’ role in Kirigakure’s atrocities and presented the evidence publicly, then accepted the crowd’s nomination to serve as acting Mizukage. He left Kirigakure with three reforms announced, including abolishing the Blood Mist Policy and reinstating the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

• Senju Chen revealed that Kuga was the planted mole and that the six elders had been left to bear responsibility for Kirigakure’s crimes, then ordered them held for public trials.
• Three days later, Hozuki Anyue read Yagura’s cause of death and the elders’ records to a crowd of more than seven thousand people in Kirigakure’s central square.
• Senju Chen confirmed the accusations and urged the villagers to rebuild Kirigakure while remembering Genji and the others who had died.
• Aying called for Kirisame Ryo to inherit the Mizukage position, and the crowd joined in demanding that he lead the village.
• Senju Chen accepted the post of acting Mizukage until the daimyo confirmed him and Kirigakure completed its reconstruction.
• Senju Chen abolished the Blood Mist Policy and the Ninja Academy’s death-match graduation system, and announced that the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist would be reestablished.

The great villages received news that Kirigakure had overthrown Karatachi Yagura, abolished the Blood Mist Policy, and installed Kirisame Ryo as acting Mizukage. Their leaders assessed Ryo’s rise and waited to see whether he could hold power.

• Rasa learned that Genji had secretly organized the forces behind Kirigakure’s upheaval and ordered an investigation into Kirisame Ryo.
• A concluded that Kirisame Ryo had shifted Kirigakure’s past crimes onto a hidden mastermind and ordered unofficial contact with him.
• Ōnoki said Kirigakure had shown that a Kage could be overthrown and replaced, potentially destabilizing the Shinobi World for decades.
• Ōnoki decided Iwagakure would watch whether Kirisame Ryo could control Kirigakure before recognizing him or acting against him.

Obito learned that Kirisame Ryo had overthrown Kirigakure’s regime, while Tsunade discussed Ryo’s rise and reforms with Senju Chen. Tsunade planned to propose that Konoha send a delegation to recognize the new Mizukage, leaving Chen embarrassed by her praise of him.

• Obito blamed Kuga’s false report for keeping him from discovering Kirisame Ryo’s takeover of Kirigakure and vowed to remember Ryo’s name.
• Black Zetsu wondered when Kirisame Ryo had joined Genji’s faction, since he had not seen Ryo beside Genji when the old man died.
• Tsunade told Senju Chen that Kirigakure’s records showed a long gap in Ryo’s history before his sudden rise to power.
• Tsunade explained that Ryo had carefully taken power, abolished the Blood Mist Policy and graduation death matches, and kept six elders alive for trial.
• Tsunade decided to propose that Konoha send a delegation to recognize Kirisame Ryo as acting Mizukage.
• Tsunade asked Senju Chen how Ryo had endured five years beside his enemy, and Chen said it was easy if he knew he would win.

Senju Chen reorganized Kirigakure’s security, education, weapons, and trade systems, then sent Yukimura Shigure to confront merchant Kiryu Xiu over his control of the ports. Kiryu learned that his influence was threatened by an investigation and an impending appointment to the daimyo’s finance office, and was warned to attend the council in three days.

• Senju Chen announced reforms, including appointing Yukimura Shigure to oversee external finance, making Mei Terumi principal and Chōjūrō academic director, and placing Dosu Kinata in charge of the Scientific Ninja Tool team.
• Senju Chen revealed the third-generation Chakra Cannon, cited Kirigakure’s dwindling ninja population, re-formed the Seven Ninja Blade Group under Zabuza Momochi, and assigned Food Is Heaven to manage trade at all thirty-seven ports.
• Kiryu Xiu initially made Yukimura Shigure wait, but changed his mind after learning that the daimyo had ordered an audit of six of his shipping firms and summoned the finance minister.
• Yukimura Shigure told Kiryu that Food Is Heaven would manage the ports, including eleven under Kiryu’s name, and showed him that his thirty-percent stake applied only to one restaurant.
• Yukimura Shigure warned Kiryu that the daimyo would announce a new finance minister in three days and that he needed to attend the council, or the new appointee would no longer have to negotiate with him.

Senju Chen forced Kiryu Xiu to surrender control of his ports and secured Food Is Heaven’s oversight of the Land of Water’s customs, while Mizuno became minister of finance. Back in Kirigakure, Chen learned that a formal Kumogakure delegation had arrived.

• At the daimyo’s council, Senju Chen and Mizuno witnessed Mizuno’s appointment as minister of finance after the former minister was dismissed and placed under investigation.
• Kiryu Xiu learned that five rival chambers of commerce had been shut down and that his old contract with Senju Chen gave him only a limited share of Food Is Heaven’s profits.
• Senju Chen presented Kiryu Xiu with two choices: surrender his eleven ports for a share of the wider chamber’s dividends, or keep them while losing access to the Land of Water’s wharves and markets.
• Kiryu Xiu signed the first contract, and Senju Chen told him that he and the new Mizukage, Lord Kirisame Ryo, were very close.
• Three days later, Mizuno reported that Food Is Heaven handled forty-three percent of the Land of Water’s annual revenue, and Senju Chen learned that Kumogakure’s delegation had arrived by ship.

Senju Chen negotiated with Darui for Kumogakure’s high-purity steel in exchange for information about who controlled Yagura. He assigned Rin Nohara to mentor Utakata, then began testing the young Jinchūriki’s patience with office work and teasing.

• Darui delivered the Raikage’s congratulations, recognition offer, and demands, but Senju Chen rejected the conditions and requested a thousand tons of Kumogakure’s steel annually at market price.
• Senju Chen offered to tell the Raikage who controlled Yagura and related details in exchange for Kumogakure’s cooperation.
• Senju Chen assigned Utakata to follow Rin Nohara, who demonstrated her control over the Three-Tails to reassure him.
• Senju Chen told Utakata to practice self-control by helping Rin sort and copy documents.
• Over the following days, Senju Chen inspected Utakata’s work and teased him about a matchmaking date until Utakata snapped his pen.

Konoha’s Experimental Class admissions drew a huge crowd, while instructor Iwaki Gonzo tore up his son Kazuma’s registration form and forbade him from applying. The written exam challenged students to reason through scientific questions, and Naruto and Sasuke began working them out in their own ways.

• Iruka struggled to manage the packed registration line as major clans, parents, and exam-question sellers gathered at the Academy.
• Iwaki Gonzo rejected the Experimental Class and tore up Kazuma’s registration form, but Iruka left a blank line in the book.
• Yamato, Shizune, and Amado began the exam, whose written questions tested reasoning rather than memorization.
• Sakura, Ino, and Choji struggled with the unfamiliar questions, while Shikamaru wrote briefly and went to sleep.
• Naruto reasoned that a sideways-thrown kunai would fall as fast as one dropped straight down, and Sasuke wrote answers about fire, water, and a dotted parabola.

Senju Chen brought the Tatekura Clan and other artisans to the Konoha Industrial Federation’s First Forge, where Hiraga introduced scientific steelmaking procedures and trained them to use arc-induction furnaces. Tatekura Gento’s traditional instincts failed repeatedly, and the chapter ended with him cracking a billet in half.

• Senju Chen led Tatekura Gento and 126 artisans into the First Forge and introduced Hiraga as their instructor.
• Hiraga explained the arc-induction furnaces and distributed precise alloy-steel procedures, including ratios derived from Sasori’s 317 experiments.
• Several artisans quit during the first week as Hiraga taught them about temperature, pyrometers, and the science of forging.
• On the eighth day, Hiraga began the first steel batch and invited the artisans to hammer the billet by hand.
• Gento struck the first two batches at the wrong temperatures, and Hiraga showed him their internal cracks and damage.
• Gento waited for his familiar instincts before striking the third billet, which snapped in two.

Tatekura Gento watched his son Kazuma succeed by following Hiraga’s written forging procedure, then learned to make standardized alloy plates himself. Senju Chen offered Gento the joint factory director position, and Gento agreed to bring the departing master craftsmen back.

• On the ninth day, Tatekura Kazuma forged the first standards-approved steel plate by following the procedure sheet, and Gento asked to see it.
• From the ninth through the thirteenth day, Gento practiced the written method and gradually flattened his ancestral hammer’s face until he could consistently produce passing plates.
• On the fourteenth day, Gento struck his alloy plate eighteen times with the heavy hammer and confirmed that it had only a shallow mark, then celebrated his success with the craftsmen.
• Senju Chen offered Gento the joint factory director position, and Gento accepted and promised to persuade the departing master craftsmen to return.

Senju Chen argued that Konoha should answer Iwagakure’s border buildup decisively without striking first, and presented intelligence on the five regiments to support his plan. Hiruzen Sarutobi invited him to continue explaining.

• Shizune reported that Iwagakure had expanded its border force to five regiments and moved into the buffer zone, while Senju Chen urged Tsunade not to fear an attack.
• Tsunade worried that war would halt the newly established Medical Department, Scientific Ninja Tools project, and experimental class, but Senju Chen argued that Konoha’s new institutions could support a conflict.
• At a meeting in the Hokage Building, Mitokado Homura proposed a formal protest, a small border deployment, and waiting for Iwagakure to withdraw; Senju Chen criticized the plan as costly and ineffective.
• Senju Chen said Konoha would not kill anyone unless Iwagakure crossed the line, and admitted to Hiruzen Sarutobi that he wanted both to hurt Iwagakure and to demonstrate Konoha’s strength.
• Senju Chen opened his briefcase and distributed intelligence reports detailing Iwagakure commanders’ routines, supply routes, and the weakness of three supposedly full regiments.

Senju Chen won approval for Frost's Descent, a plan to frighten Iwagakure without killing anyone and pressure it into a mineral trade deal. As the meeting ended, Shikaku Nara asked who Chen's real target was, and Chen answered with a cryptic question about chasing deer.

• Senju Chen explained how drone surveillance showed that Iwagakure's five regiments were observing Konoha rather than preparing to attack.
• Senju Chen presented Frost's Descent: illuminate the camps, overturn tents with airbursts, and collapse a supply route without causing casualties.
• Senju Chen revealed that he wanted Iwagakure's chromium, nickel, and tungsten for alloy steel, prompting Mitokado Homura to realize the plan was meant to open trade negotiations.
• Hiruzen Sarutobi set conditions against crossing the border, causing deaths, or admitting responsibility, and the council approved the plan.
• Tsunade ordered the Public Security Department and Anbu to prepare Frost's Descent, with Senju Chen choosing when to execute it.
• Shikaku Nara asked whom the plan was really meant for, and Senju Chen replied by asking whether he had ever chased deer.

Senju Chen explained his plan to control Iwagakure’s options, and Shikaku joined the preparatory group while warning that the flare plan could expose Konoha’s real camps. At an Anbu briefing, Chen demonstrated surveillance technology that had already uncovered signs of Konoha operatives, leaving the masked officers to confront the risks of the mission.

• Senju Chen described controlling the water source, supply route, and downhill path, and Shikaku identified the final step as being inside Iwagakure.
• Shikaku joined the preparatory group and warned that lighting all five camps would reveal which ones were empty; he recommended that Anbu carry out the plan with Public Security assisting.
• Anbu captain U rejected the condition that the operation leave no acknowledgment, warning that Iwagakure’s sensory unit could detect chakra-powered drones and recover their wreckage.
• Senju Chen showed the Anbu a terrain map and surveillance images that revealed a Konoha operative’s scroll exchanges, another’s cigarette lighting, and evidence of a recent Body Replacement Technique.
• Senju Chen told the Anbu that his machines had first seen them clearly.

Senju Chen and U agreed that the Anbu would clean up after the drone operation, while footage revealed that an unknown infiltrator had learned Konoha’s flight-path parameters. The twenty-seven aircraft exposed five Iwagakure camps at midnight, and Kitsuchi realized the Land of Earth had left three empty camps as bait.

• Senju Chen proposed that drones handle surveillance and the Anbu clear demolition sites and recover wreckage, and U agreed to take responsibility for the cleanup during [Frost's Descent].
• Hiraga showed footage of three unregistered ninjas at the Fifth Regiment’s camp, and Senju Chen identified that one had avoided all seven observation positions by using knowledge of the aircraft’s flight paths.
• Senju Chen ordered all twenty-seven aircraft to strike five camps simultaneously at midnight after U confirmed the area was clear and the self-destruct modules had passed inspection.
• The aircraft flooded all five camps with light, throwing the occupied camps into chaos while the Fourth Regiment’s camp remained mostly empty.
• Kitsuchi noticed the silent camp and realized the old man had placed three empty camps at the front as bait.

Senju Chen’s forces disrupted Iwagakure’s camps and grain route without causing casualties, while preventing an enemy attempt to frame Konoha. The recovery team found a fragment of unfamiliar technology, leading Chen to suspect someone inside Konoha was trying to prevent peace.

• Senju Chen ordered three pressure pulses over the Fourth Regiment’s camp, overturning it without injuring anyone and leaving Tsuchirai convinced Konoha was terrifying.
• Hiraga discovered that an enemy shinobi was diverting water toward the grain cart’s route, and Chen moved the demolition points farther back to spare the cart’s nine escorts.
• The cliffs collapsed at the new points, sealing the diversion channel and redirecting the water while leaving the grain escorts alive.
• Ōnoki found no evidence linking Konoha to the incidents and erupted in anger when Konoha denied involvement.
• Senju Chen concluded that the missing clifftop figure had tried to plant evidence against Konoha, and the recovery team found an unfamiliar copper-traced metal fragment.
• Senju Chen suspected someone within Konoha opposed resolving the conflict peacefully.

Senju Chen confronted Oda Hiba after discovering he had loaned Yamanaka Yū access to classified drone parameters, and learned Oda had acted for revenge over his son's death. After Oda surrendered himself, Senju Chen ordered a false intelligence leak to uncover the buyer behind Yamanaka Yū.

• Yamato found that Yamanaka Yū had accessed an A-level drone file using an emergency clearance loan issued by Oda Hiba.
• Senju Chen met Oda Hiba, who admitted he had helped the leak because he wanted the Land of Earth to suffer for killing his son, Oda Gin.
• Senju Chen told Oda that his false parameters had nearly endangered two medical students he had trained, and Oda decided to surrender to the Public Security Department.
• Senju Chen told Yamato that Oda and Yamanaka Yū were not the buyer, then ordered him to prepare intelligence containing thirty percent real parameters and seventy percent false ones.
• Senju Chen planned to let Yamanaka Yū obtain the false intelligence again so they could trace it to the hidden buyer.

Senju Chen traced stolen false parameters to a trail pointing toward Kirigakure, while he used negotiations with Iwagakure to pursue a deal for chromium ore. After the ship carrying the suspected agents was destroyed, Senju Chen ordered the investigation paused and waited for whoever took the data to reveal themselves.

• Yamato reported that the false parameters had passed through three hands and ended at a merchant ship linked to Kirigakure's intelligence network, and Senju Chen suspected someone was using Kirigakure to provoke a conflict.
• Hogari accused Konoha of attacking Iwagakure's camps, but Senju Chen demanded evidence and presented a purchase offer for chromium ore from the West Mountain Ore Vein.
• Hogari realized Konoha had used its display of strength to show it understood Iwagakure's forces while pursuing the ore deal, and he left unsettled by Konoha's capabilities.
• Yamato reported that the merchant ship had been scuttled with no survivors and gave Senju Chen its final intercepted message: “The reef is in the net. Forward immediately.”
• Senju Chen ordered Yamato to hand Yamanaka Yū to the Yamanaka clan head and pause the rest of the investigation, saying the person who took the fake data would eventually reveal themselves.

Konoha’s use of an unknown power alarmed the other great villages, prompting them to send spies to investigate. Senju Chen discovered that Kirigakure had sent an agent to Konoha without realizing its Mizukage was Chen himself, and he ordered the village to stop duplicating his intelligence efforts.

• Third Raikage A heard that Konoha had used an unknown power to incapacitate Iwagakure’s forces and ordered more agents sent to the Land of Fire.
• Rasa, Chiyo, and Ebizo discussed Konoha’s apparent power from a different system and agreed to increase their espionage efforts.
• Shisui reported that Public Security had caught spies from Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure, and Senju Chen ordered the Kirigakure agent kept in solitary confinement.
• Senju Chen learned that Yamanaka Yū had been handed over to the Yamanaka clan head for interrogation.
• Senju Chen confronted Hozuki Anyue about sending a spy to Konoha without approval and ordered him not to send anyone there again.

Senju Chen returned from the border and discussed Yakumo’s recovery with Anko and Kurenai before meeting Tsunade to report on negotiations with Iwagakure and propose a village research center. The chapter ended with Tsunade asking about the investigation into the mole.

• Senju Chen reassured Anko and Kurenai Yuhi that Yakumo’s condition was improving, and Kurenai thanked him for treating her.
• Shizune summoned Senju Chen to see Tsunade, while Anko teased Kurenai about Shizune’s apparent interest in him.
• Senju Chen told Tsunade that Iwagakure had agreed to sell Konoha the West Mountain Ore Vein’s mining rights after Operation Frost's Descent.
• Senju Chen proposed using the ore to improve ninja tools and armor, and Tsunade approved the plan pending a detailed budget report.
• Senju Chen proposed establishing a Scientific Ninja Tool Research and Development Center to develop equipment, train technical ninja, and prepare for Ninja Academy reform; Tsunade supported it but assigned him to work out the details.
• Tsunade asked Senju Chen how the investigation into the mole was progressing.

Senju Chen discussed the investigation into the false intelligence with Tsunade, who urged him to be honest with Shizune about his feelings. He later suggested Anko become a combat instructor for his Experimental Class, then shared a tender moment with Shizune before Tsunade interrupted; the chapter ended with Senju Chen enjoying a brief, peaceful evening.

• Senju Chen told Tsunade he would wait for the mastermind behind the false intelligence to reveal themselves by using it.
• Tsunade told Senju Chen to treat Shizune well if he liked her and not waste her time if he did not.
• Senju Chen suggested Anko transfer from Anbu to become a practical combat instructor for his Experimental Class, and Anko showed interest.
• Senju Chen thanked Shizune for all she had done, and the two shared a quiet moment until Tsunade interrupted them.
• Senju Chen followed Tsunade to dinner, reflecting on his many plans while appreciating the calm of the evening.

Might Guy’s first test of the Eight Gates puppet failed when its chakra network could not match his human meridians, while Kurama Yakumo lost control during a test of her mental limits and Senju Chen subdued her. After Yakumo woke, Sasori offered to take her as his apprentice and train her in puppet control.

• Might Guy linked his consciousness to Sasori’s prototype puppet and opened the First Gate, but the puppet’s right arm twisted under the strain.
• Senju Chen explained that the puppet’s chakra network was incompatible with Guy’s Eight Gates technique and told Sasori to adapt the puppet to Guy.
• Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan toured the training ground and watched team members use Puppet Clones in combat.
• Kurama Yakumo controlled ten puppets during a mental power test, but her power surged and the puppets attacked as Senju Chen suppressed Ido and put her to sleep.
• Orochimaru noted that Yakumo’s mental power had exceeded twenty thousand, and Senju Chen said she needed stricter control.
• Sasori visited Yakumo after she woke and offered to take her as his apprentice, promising to teach her precise puppet-control techniques.