Chapter Summaries

Aoki Tsuki watched Shinonome defeat the Iron Fang Group, then learned that Shinonome had taken credit for the mission and left Aoki Tsuki Squad on guard duty. After receiving a Ninjutsu scroll from Aburame Ryoma, Aoki Tsuki prepared to keep cooperating with Root while his squad settled into a year-long assignment.

• Shinonome killed Haibi and subdued the remaining Iron Fang Group members, then told the daimyo they had colluded with Iwagakure.
• Shinonome ordered Aoki Tsuki Squad to continue guarding the daimyo, while Shioame warned Shinonome that Aoki Tsuki would not speak out of turn.
• Ran'on arrived with a squad to relieve Shinonome Squad, but Aoki Tsuki learned that his own squad had not earned an early return because Shinonome had claimed the credit.
• Aburame Ryoma paid Aoki Tsuki for his intelligence and gave him a scroll containing the Water Dragon Bullet Technique and Lightning Release nature-transformation knowledge.
• Aoki Tsuki found out that guard assignments usually lasted about a year and allowed Mieko, Ryōta, and Shinichi to take turns resting while he trained on night watch.

After returning from a year of guard duty, Aoki Tsuki was appointed to Lord Hanzō’s guard unit and reunited with his family. He reported to his new unit, where captain Satō Ichirō began assessing the recruits’ combat abilities.

• Aoki Tsuki handed over his guard-duty notes to Mino Squad and returned to the village with his teammates.
• Takenaka Osamu told Aoki Tsuki that he had recommended him for Lord Hanzō’s guard unit, assigned Mieko to the medical department, and arranged new teams for Ryōta and Shinichi.
• Aoki Tsuki returned home, learned Eiko had renovated the shop after hearing of his expected promotion, and later succeeded in lighting a candle with his spiritual power.
• Takenaka Osamu officially welcomed Aoki Tsuki, Kurokawa, and Umatsu into Lord Hanzō’s guard unit and sent them to meet their captain, Satō Ichirō.
• Satō Ichirō took the three recruits underground, issued them equipment, and ordered them to attack him for an assessment.
• Aoki Tsuki struck Satō Ichirō with Breath of Showers: Countercurrent Fang, breaking his Kunai, before Kurokawa and Umatsu joined the fight.

Aoki Tsuki and his teammates were defeated in a training exercise by Satō Ichirō, who taught them about guard duty and let them choose techniques from the secret vault. After a farewell meal with his former squad, Aoki Tsuki prepared gifts for Satō Ichirō and Kikuno Momo.

• Satō Ichirō defeated Aoki Tsuki, Kurokawa, and Umatsu with a combination of Water Release, Hidden Mist, and poison, then explained the guard team's duties and benefits.
• Aoki Tsuki chose the Water Prison Technique, Kurokawa chose the Black Rain Technique, and Umatsu chose a perception-enhancing ninjutsu.
• Aoki Tsuki collected mission pay and awards, split the money with Mieko, Ryōta, and Shinichi, and shared a farewell meal with them.
• Aoki Tsuki told Kikuno Momo he had joined Lord Hanzō's guard team and asked about gifts for Satō Ichirō and her; she said Satō liked tea and she liked sweet pastries.
• Aoki Tsuki bought tea and a tea set for Satō Ichirō, purchased pastries for Kikuno Momo, and began wrapping the gifts at home.

Aoki Tsuki began guarding Hanzō’s residence and quietly collected information about its defenses while navigating office politics and reconnecting with Shioame. The chapter ended with Hanzō rejecting Iwagakure’s request for an alliance, as the war put growing pressure on Ōnoki.

• Aoki Tsuki started perimeter guard duty, gave Satō Ichirō a thank-you gift, and found an unsigned congratulatory note from Root at home.
• Aoki Tsuki began memorizing Hanzō’s security arrangements and learned from Shioame that the village planned an operation against the Iron Fang Group.
• Aoki Tsuki and Shioame put aside their resentment and agreed to look out for each other.
• Aoki Tsuki gathered details about Hanzō’s guards from Shioame and Umatsu while maintaining a show of loyalty to Hanzō.
• An Iwagakure representative delivered Ōnoki’s confidential letter and urged Hanzō to reconsider joining the war.
• Hanzō refused to enter the war and dismissed the Iwagakure representative, ending the alliance attempt in failure.

Aoki Tsuki and Kurokawa joined Hanzō's assault on the Iron Fang Group's mine, discovered the group had evacuated and set a trap, and escaped as the mine collapsed. Hanzō pursued the fleeing enemies and overwhelmed their leader, Tetsuga, while Aoki Tsuki watched their fight.

• Hanzō led Amegakure's vanguard squads into the Iron Fang Group's hideout at Sumida Mine.
• Aoki Tsuki and Kurokawa defeated several Iron Fang Group ninja and learned that the group had moved its supplies and intended to lure Rain Ninja into traps.
• Aoki Tsuki and Kurokawa retreated with their captives as explosives triggered a chain reaction that collapsed the mine, killing many of the vanguard.
• Hanzō ordered the captives killed and pursued the Iron Fang Group after an explosion revealed its escape route.
• Hanzō suppressed Tetsuga in battle, and Aoki Tsuki resolved to improve his Body Flicker Technique after seeing Hanzō fight.

Tetsuga’s attack failed to defeat Hanzō, who wiped out the Iron Fang Group while Aoki Tsuki and the surviving vanguard returned to the village and received their rewards. Two years later, Hanzō investigated the growing Akatsuki and summoned Aoki Tsuki after Shinonome connected the organization to an earlier incident, leaving Aoki Tsuki nervously admitting he had done wrong without knowing what he was accused of.

• Tetsuga used Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears, but Hanzō evaded the attack and defeated him with a sickle, Explosive Tags, and Fire Release: Exploding Flame Formation.
• Aoki Tsuki spoke with Shioame about his squad’s escape from the mine, then declined Tsunodahara’s offer to join his command out of loyalty to Satō Ichirō.
• Aoki Tsuki and Kurokawa received extra rewards for bringing back a prisoner, and Hanzō’s destruction of the Iron Fang Group left the Land of Rain quiet for a time.
• Over the next two years, Akatsuki grew under Yahiko by mediating conflicts and advocating peace through dialogue.
• Hanzō learned about Akatsuki from a report, and Shinonome recalled information linking the organization to an earlier incident in Kyoto.
• Hanzō summoned Aoki Tsuki, who admitted he had done wrong when Shinonome confronted him, but asked what his offense was.

Aoki Tsuki persuaded Hanzō to let the Akatsuki operate for now, arguing that it could help stabilize the Land of Rain. Later, Aoki delivered weapons and supplies to Yahiko, who learned that Hanzō had noticed the Akatsuki.

• Aoki Tsuki explained to Hanzō that the Akatsuki had gained support by offering people hope for peace, and that destroying it could worsen unrest.
• Aoki Tsuki argued that the Akatsuki could mediate disputes and help stabilize the country, and Hanzō decided to leave it alone for now despite Shinonome's objections.
• Aoki Tsuki returned to his post, then joined Shioame and a team transporting a shipment from a secret warehouse.
• Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan remembered their time with Jiraiya and reaffirmed their commitment to changing the country before Yahiko noticed the approaching shipment.
• Aoki Tsuki delivered weapons and supplies to Yahiko, then told him that Hanzō had taken notice of the Akatsuki.

Aoki Tsuki warned Yahiko that Hanzō had noticed Akatsuki, while Yahiko vowed to keep expanding the group. Months later, Aoki investigated a hidden Root spy and suspected that Umatsu’s wife, Asami, was delivering messages as a cat, but he could not confirm it.

• Aoki Tsuki told Yahiko that Hanzō had been urged to eliminate Akatsuki but had agreed to leave it alone for the time being.
• Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan resolved to continue Akatsuki’s work, and Yahiko pushed the group to expand quickly.
• Months later, Aoki Tsuki learned that Akatsuki had become famous for mediating disputes and suspected Danzo was moving against it.
• Aoki Tsuki found his note missing after Asami visited his family’s shop and glimpsed a black shape fleeing into a metal pipe.
• Aoki Tsuki questioned Umatsu and learned that Asami was buying a birthday gift for their daughter and that she disliked cats and dogs.
• Kurokawa admitted he liked Satō Ichirō’s wife before Satō arrived to lead the guards on shift.

Danzo and Hanzō formed an alliance to destroy Akatsuki, while Danzo placed Aoki Tsuki in a liaison role. Yahiko accepted Hanzō’s invitation to negotiate, but Konan was captured after finding the patrol squad dead.

• Danzo ordered Root to frame Akatsuki for killing Hanzō’s clansmen, then used the deaths to convince Hanzō to ally with him against Akatsuki.
• Hanzō appointed Aoki Tsuki as the liaison between himself and Danzo, giving Aoki access to both leaders.
• Yahiko considered passing Akatsuki’s leadership to Nagato, but Danzo arrived disguised as Kanzō and invited Yahiko to meet Hanzō about peace negotiations.
• Yahiko and Nagato decided to attend the meeting the next day while the rest of Akatsuki celebrated at headquarters.
• Konan found the Akatsuki patrol members dead, was knocked unconscious by poisonous mist, and woke imprisoned in a dungeon guarded by Amegakure ninja.

Aoki Tsuki told Konan that Hanzō and Danzō planned to trap Akatsuki during a meeting, leaving her afraid for Yahiko and Nagato. When Shinonome confronted Aoki Tsuki in the dungeon, their fight nearly killed Shinonome before Satō Ichirō intervened.

• Aoki Tsuki revealed to Konan that Hanzō intended to destroy Akatsuki and that Hanzō and Danzō had arranged a trap for the next morning.
• Shinonome arrived, accused Aoki Tsuki of helping Akatsuki, and attacked him with his sword.
• Aoki Tsuki and Shinonome exchanged sword strikes and clashed with Lightning Release and Water Release techniques.
• Shinonome launched Explosive Current Blade, but his sword broke against Aoki Tsuki's Cloud Piercer, sending a ball of lightning toward him.
• Satō Ichirō raised an Earth-Style Wall that absorbed the lightning blast and saved Shinonome.

Aoki Tsuki was forced to join Hanzō’s operation against Akatsuki, where Hanzō revealed his betrayal and demanded that Nagato kill Yahiko. After Yahiko sacrificed himself, Nagato awakened the Rinnegan’s power and devastated the attackers, while Aoki Tsuki and Danzo escaped.

• Hanzō ordered Shinonome to bring Aoki Tsuki to the operation after learning of his combat ability.
• At the meeting place, Hanzō revealed that he had trapped Akatsuki and threatened Konan to force Nagato to kill Yahiko.
• Yahiko lunged onto Nagato’s kunai and died, telling Nagato to live on with Konan.
• Nagato repelled the attackers, rescued Konan from Hanzō’s explosive trap, and summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
• The statue’s purple dragon killed dozens of Root ninja and Hanzō’s guards as Danzo and Aoki Tsuki fled.
• Nagato drove Hanzō away with the statue, then collapsed from exhaustion after releasing the summon.

After surviving the attack that devastated Hanzō’s forces, Aoki Tsuki was promoted to Jonin and took charge of perimeter guards as Amegakure adjusted to its losses. Six months later, he had advanced his spiritual power and focused on growing stronger while Akatsuki remained hidden and the postwar peace grew uneasy.

• Aoki Tsuki escaped the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, then convinced Hanzō he had fled from fear; Hanzō promoted him to Jonin and ordered him to keep the operation secret.
• Hanzō announced several Jonin promotions to fill posts left vacant by heavy losses, and Aoki Tsuki took over Satō Ichirō’s former position while Satō joined Hanzō’s core guards.
• Aoki Tsuki formed two perimeter-guard squads from familiar subordinates and arranged alternating shifts, while Hanzō withdrew from public view and began drinking more often.
• Aoki Tsuki kept in touch with Root, but his usefulness and contact with the hidden spy declined as Hanzō’s attention turned to Akatsuki, which had vanished after Yahiko’s death.
• Six months passed after the main fighting of the Shinobi World War ended; Aoki Tsuki strengthened his spiritual power, learned more shape transformation, and made progress toward understanding natural energy.
• Aoki Tsuki reassured Ryōta about guard duty and promised to promote him someday, encouraging his squad to follow his orders.

Aoki Tsuki continued adapting to Natural Energy and completed his progress toward the final form of Rain Breathing. Konan recruited him as an information source on Hanzō, while Nagato prepared Akatsuki’s next move against Hanzō.

• Aoki Tsuki recovered from absorbing Natural Energy, finished digesting what remained, and found that his sword techniques had grown stronger.
• Aoki Tsuki returned home and found Konan waiting in his room to question him about Hanzō’s alliance with Danzo.
• Aoki Tsuki told Konan that Hanzō had been drinking heavily since returning from his last mission, and Konan paid him with a scroll containing five nature-based Ninjutsu.
• Konan returned to Nagato and reported the information, and they agreed to keep gathering details on Hanzō while Nagato developed a technique for their attack.
• Nagato told Konan they would leave the next morning to pursue a target for Human Path.

Aoki Tsuki secretly prepared to help Konan and Pain seize Amegakure, lending Konan money as Akatsuki struggled to support Nagato. After learning that Pain could surveil the village through the rain, Aoki realized the coup was near, while Pain assembled the Six Paths and planned to take control soon.

• Aoki Tsuki reviewed Amegakure's personnel and prepared intelligence about Hanzō's loyalists as a token of allegiance to Konan.
• Konan asked Aoki Tsuki for money, and he lent her half the cash in his drawer to support Akatsuki and Nagato's medicine.
• Hanzō sent Aoki Tsuki to Konoha for Minato Namikaze's inauguration and ordered him to meet Danzo and gauge the new Hokage's attitude.
• Aoki Tsuki sensed chakra in the rain and realized Pain had developed the Rain Tiger at Will Technique to monitor Amegakure.
• Deva Path Pain and Konan assessed Amegakure's weakened forces, and Pain said the Six Paths were assembled and would soon take control of the village.

Aoki Tsuki investigated a dangerous rogue ninja and discovered that the target was Kakuzu, whom he knew he could not defeat. He arranged a covert bounty scheme and offered Konan a chance to capture Kakuzu for Akatsuki, leaving her to decide whether to accept.

• Takenaka Osamu assigned Aoki Tsuki to deal with a powerful rogue ninja threatening the Land of Rain.
• Aoki Tsuki identified the target as Kakuzu, withdrew from the encounter, and reported that Kakuzu was too difficult to kill.
• Aoki Tsuki persuaded Takenaka Osamu to fund a disguised bounty intended to drive Kakuzu out of the Land of Rain, and received three and a half million ryō.
• Aoki Tsuki posted a vague expulsion mission through an exchange station while tracking Kakuzu himself.
• Aoki Tsuki proposed that Konan help capture Kakuzu in exchange for half the startup funds and explained that Kakuzu's wealth could benefit Akatsuki.
• Konan said she would consider the offer and give Aoki Tsuki an answer the next day.

Konan and Aoki Tsuki joined forces to ambush Kakuzu at a bounty exchange in the northern Land of Rain. Aoki Tsuki destroyed one of Kakuzu’s hearts with a lightning-infused sword strike, but Kakuzu survived and threatened to take a heart from him.

• Nagato agreed to work with Aoki Tsuki to hunt Kakuzu, while deciding to follow Konan and observe Aoki Tsuki’s abilities.
• Aoki Tsuki met Konan outside Amegakure and explained that they could wait for Kakuzu at a bounty exchange he frequented.
• Konan attacked Kakuzu with paper shuriken and Explosive Tags, while Kakuzu countered with Earth Grudge Fear’s black threads.
• Aoki Tsuki sneaked behind Kakuzu and pierced his chest with a lightning-infused blade, destroying one of Kakuzu’s hearts.
• Konan realized Kakuzu had multiple hearts as he vowed to take Aoki Tsuki’s heart to replace the one he had lost.

Aoki Tsuki and Konan defeated Kakuzu’s masks and overwhelmed him, then persuaded him to join Akatsuki by offering him control of its finances and access to lucrative bounties. Aoki Tsuki left Kakuzu with Konan as Pain arrived to meet the new recruit.

• Kakuzu unleashed his masked monsters and combined their elemental attacks, but Aoki Tsuki used Water Release to counter the flames and destroyed the lightning mask.
• Aoki Tsuki and Kakuzu traded attacks while Kakuzu repeatedly repaired his damaged body with black threads; Konan struggled against the wind-and-fire monster.
• Aoki Tsuki and Konan destroyed the wind and fire masks, then Aoki Tsuki bound Kakuzu with his hair and slammed him into the ground.
• Konan invited Kakuzu to join Akatsuki, and Aoki Tsuki convinced him by promising financial authority and access to high-value bounty targets.
• Kakuzu accepted the offer, Aoki Tsuki departed, and Pain arrived as Konan identified him as Akatsuki’s leader.

Aoki Tsuki took his squad to Konoha to attend Minato Namikaze’s Hokage inauguration, while Obito learned Nagato had recruited Kakuzu without his help and began planning a gift for his former teacher. As the ceremony began, Kakashi realized Aoki had disappeared and suspected he had been tracking a clone.

• Obito learned Nagato had recruited Kakuzu through an Amegakure jonin, and decided to delay contacting Nagato while he prepared a personal gift for Minato.
• Aoki told Konan he was traveling to Konoha with Shioame, Ryōta, and Shinichi to represent Amegakure at Minato’s inauguration.
• After five days of travel, Aoki and his squad arrived in Konoha, explored the village, and spent tens of thousands of ryō on barbecue.
• Kakashi monitored the Amegakure squad through the night and followed them toward the Hokage building the next morning.
• Kakashi noticed Aoki was missing from the group, suspected the man he had watched was a Water Clone, and raced back toward the inn.

Aoki Tsuki delivered Hanzō's letter to Danzo, who ordered him to watch Akatsuki and keep him informed. Kakashi confronted Aoki Tsuki over the secret meeting, but after a fierce fight joined by Might Guy, the two let him go so they could attend the Fourth Hokage's inauguration.

• Aoki Tsuki delivered Hanzō's letter to Danzo, who reassured him that Konoha would honor their agreement and ordered him to monitor Akatsuki.
• Danzo asked Aoki Tsuki how he would respond if the Fourth Hokage questioned him, and Aburame Ryoma escorted him out of Root's hideout.
• Kakashi ambushed Aoki Tsuki in an alley and challenged him for secretly meeting Danzo, but Aoki Tsuki dodged Chidori and outmatched Kakashi in their fight.
• Kakashi and Aoki Tsuki traded Lightning Release attacks, and Aoki Tsuki pierced Kakashi's Earth-Style Wall with water bullets.
• Might Guy joined the fight and was knocked back by Aoki Tsuki, but Kakashi stopped him from opening the Eight Gates because the Hokage's inauguration was about to begin.
• Kakashi and Might Guy withdrew, and Aoki Tsuki left for the ceremony with his blade cracked where Kakashi's Chidori had struck it.

Aoki Tsuki attended Minato Namikaze’s inauguration as the Fourth Hokage, then negotiated with Konoha on behalf of Hanzō and Amegakure. After securing increased trade in exchange for passage through the Land of Rain, he returned home and was appointed to handle Amegakure’s dealings with outsiders.

• Aoki Tsuki reunited with his squad and watched Minato Namikaze receive the Hokage hat at the inauguration ceremony.
• Aoki Tsuki presented Hanzō’s letter to Minato and discussed peace, transparency, trade, and Konoha’s passage through the Land of Rain.
• Aoki Tsuki told Jiraiya that a nonviolent group in the Land of Rain had disappeared, leaving Jiraiya saddened about his former disciples.
• Aoki Tsuki and his squad received Konoha’s reply and returned to Amegakure after three days.
• Hanzō praised Aoki Tsuki for securing benefits and assigned him to handle the village’s dealings with outsiders.