Recaps

After awakening in the body of Komushi, Mukai tried to prevent Sasori from amputating his bleeding arm and dying as Sasori’s first Human Puppet. He left Sasori facing questions about Mukai’s newfound control over wind and lightning Chakra after Mukai stopped the bleeding with a heated Kunai.

• Mukai awoke in Komushi’s body and realized Sasori planned to amputate his badly wounded arm.
• Mukai persuaded Sasori to take shelter in a ruined village, where they encountered Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan.
• Sasori prepared to attack the three, but Mukai convinced him they meant no harm and asked for medical help.
• Mukai discovered he could precisely control wind and lightning Chakra, then used a heated Kunai to cauterize five wounds and stop his bleeding.
• Sasori saw that Mukai had stopped the bleeding and wondered how he had heated the Kunai using his wind and lightning Chakra.

After Mukai collapsed from treating his own wound, Sasori asked Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato for help getting him to a doctor. Yakushi Nonō began treating Mukai while Sasori waited, and Mukai drifted through merging memories before a blue-violet light appeared and someone asked if he was awake.

• Mukai passed out after stopping the bleeding and urged Sasori to trust Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato.
• Sasori asked Yahiko for help, and Yahiko led the group to Yakushi Nonō’s hidden clinic.
• Yakushi Nonō examined Mukai, ordered Sasori not to interfere, and prepared to clean his wound with Konan’s help.
• As Nonō began treating Mukai, he dreamed of his memories, Komushi’s past, and his growing connection to Sasori.
• A blue-violet light appeared in Mukai’s dream, and a voice asked whether he was awake.

After recovering in Amegakure, Mukai thanked Konan and Yakushi Nonō, then built Konan a small Chakra-powered weapon before setting out for Sunagakure with Sasori. As they left, Sasori asked Mukai whether he liked Konan.

• Konan gave Mukai a paper crane, and he noticed that the Chakra paper did not quickly dissipate.
• Yakushi Nonō said she had saved Mukai’s arm, and Mukai paid her fifty thousand ryō borrowed from Sasori and offered to help her in the future.
• Mukai questioned whether one person could save all the victims of war, while Yahiko passionately spoke about achieving peace through negotiation.
• Mukai used Chakra Metal and Konan’s Chakra paper to make a device that stored electricity, then gave Konan a nonlethal Lightning Release weapon.
• Mukai and Sasori left Amegakure for Sunagakure, and Sasori asked Mukai whether he liked Konan.

After returning to Sunagakure, Mukai used his friendship with Sasori to help him reconnect with Granny Chiyo, then stayed overnight at her home. The chapter ended with Mukai asking whether Sasori would turn him into a Human Puppet if he died.

• While practicing precise Chakra control, Mukai told Sasori that he had not decided whether he liked Konan and urged them to focus on becoming stronger.
• Granny Chiyo rushed to greet Sasori when he and Mukai returned to the Land of Wind, and Mukai persuaded Sasori to accept her invitation to dinner.
• Mukai kept the conversation lively at Granny Chiyo’s home, and Sasori gradually became less resistant to his grandmother’s attention.
• Mukai asked to stay overnight because of his injured arm, and Granny Chiyo agreed to notify his family that he was training with Sasori.
• Unable to sleep, Mukai asked Sasori whether he would make him a puppet prosthetic if his arm were amputated and turn him into a Human Puppet if he died.

Mukai challenged Sasori’s belief that turning loved ones into Human Puppets could grant them eternity, and persuaded him that living and advancing might lead to a truer way to overcome death. Sasori softened toward Mukai, while Mukai’s electrical device proved useful when Konan used it to incapacitate a wandering ninja.

• Mukai confronted Sasori about turning him into a Human Puppet if he died, and Sasori admitted he wanted to preserve Mukai forever.
• Mukai argued that a Human Puppet would be a lifeless, unchanging copy and suggested that Ninjutsu and technology could one day overcome the boundary between life and death.
• Mukai reminded Sasori that Granny Chiyo had lied about his parents’ deaths and reassured him that a puppet could not continue learning or growing.
• Mukai redirected Sasori’s attention to his experimental device for making water, and their teasing ended with Sasori thanking him.
• Granny Chiyo listened outside the room and felt relieved that Sasori had become more cheerful after the mission.
• Konan used a blue-white electric arc to knock a wandering ninja unconscious, impressing Yahiko.

Mukai demonstrated a crude generator that produced Lightning Release-like electricity without Chakra, then used direct current to separate impurities from underground brine. The brine began turning clear as crystals formed, leaving Sasori to see the potential of Mukai’s experiment.

• Yahiko searched the defeated wandering ninja and left the ruins with Konan and Nagato, while Nagato warned them that Konan’s Chakra Metal cylinder was precious.
• Konan hid the cylinder Mukai had given her and wondered what he was doing.
• Mukai showed Sasori a Van de Graaff generator that charged a Chakra Metal capacitor and sent an electric arc into a metal post without using Chakra.
• Mukai explained that Sunagakure needed useful applications for electricity and brought Sasori a bucket of bitter underground brine.
• Sasori poured the brine into Mukai’s electrode-filled trough as Mukai applied direct current, causing bubbles and crystals to form while the liquid turned clear.

Mukai and Sasori demonstrated a chakra-powered device that purified brine, and Granny Chiyo arranged for the village to receive its manufacturing technology. Mukai gave Sasori the supercapacitor for self-defense and left ahead of their mission in two days.

• Mukai stopped Sasori from drinking the newly purified water until its chlorine gas was removed, then boiled it and shared it with him.
• Sasori praised the water, but worried that the Chakra Metal needed for the device made it too expensive for village-wide use.
• Granny Chiyo examined and tasted the purified water, then proposed selling the devices to the daimyō and nobles and supplying desert and coastal fortress teams.
• Mukai offered Sunagakure the manufacturing technology, explaining that Chakra Metal and special insulating paper prevented them from producing the devices in quantity themselves.
• Mukai gave Sasori the supercapacitor for self-defense, asked him to write down the manufacturing process, and left to go home before their mission in two days.

Mukai returned to Komushi’s family tavern and confronted two Chunin who were harassing his parents, suspecting they were targeting Sasori’s faction. He used improvised electrical attacks to turn the fight against them, ending the chapter surrounded by powerful electric arcs.

• Mukai arrived at Komushi’s parents’ tavern and found Aramura Taku and Hanyū Hiko making trouble and shoving his mother down.
• Mukai attacked Aramura Taku with Gale Wave, but Aramura blocked it and challenged him to a duel.
• Mukai tricked Hanyū Hiko into blocking two Shuriken joined by paper, discharging electricity through Hiko’s Ninja Blade and briefly paralyzing him.
• Mukai attacked both Chunin with wire-tethered Shuriken as Hiko used Body Flicker to get behind him and Aramura prepared Great Breakthrough.
• Mukai released intense electric arcs from his body and wires, catching Aramura and Hanyū Hiko in the attack.

Mukai used a high-voltage Lightning Release to paralyze two Chunin who had attacked him, then beat them until Pakura intervened. After she forced the men to apologize and pay for the damage, Pakura recruited Mukai onto her team and ordered him to join her on a mission.

• Mukai's Lightning Release paralyzed Aramura Taku and Hanyū Hiko, while Pakura blocked Special Jōnin Yabuki Tetsuya with her Scorch Release.
• Mukai beat the two Chunin as his parents watched, and his mother eventually pulled him away.
• Pakura warned Yabuki to stop interfering and protect Mukai, then Yabuki made Aramura Taku and Hanyū Hiko apologize and pay for their damage.
• Pakura gave Mukai a scroll containing two Ninjutsu and told him to meet her at the village entrance the day after tomorrow for a mission.

Mukai returned home with the scroll Pakura gave him and introduced liangpi to his parents, who decided to add it to their tavern’s menu. He then sensed a familiar, fading electric field that thanked him, and wondered if it belonged to the original Mukai, nicknamed Komushi.

• Mukai returned to his family’s tavern after Pakura departed and received a warm welcome from his parents.
• Mukai studied the scroll Pakura had given him and found instructions for Wind Blade Slash and Earth Flow.
• Mukai made liangpi with ingredients from home, and his parents enjoyed it and agreed to sell it at the tavern.
• Mukai taught his father how to make liangpi, and his father successfully prepared a batch.
• Mukai sensed a weak, familiar electric field that thanked him and wondered if it was the original Mukai, Komushi.

Mukai went to a training ground to practice his newly learned Ninjutsu and met Shisō, Shira’s father, who trained Taijutsu despite being unable to become a ninja. As Shisō resumed his training, Mukai’s Chakra practice produced a striking display of wind and electricity, and he gained a new insight into Chakra.

• Mukai visited an isolated training ground and met Shisō, who was punching a boulder.
• Mukai recognized Shisō as Shira’s father, encouraged him to keep training, and praised his hopes for Shira.
• Shisō resumed striking the boulder while Mukai practiced extracting and controlling Chakra.
• Mukai gathered wind and electricity into a wall of swirling sand, astonishing Shisō.
• Mukai observed wind and electricity in his hands and realized something new about the nature of Chakra.

Mukai used wind and lightning Chakra to create an infrared laser, then concluded that Chakra could turn wishes into reality and resolved to build mecha and change people’s fates. Meanwhile, the Great Toad Sage foresaw a world-changing upheaval involving a red moon and warned Jiraiya to beware of insects.

• Mukai created a carbon dioxide laser with wind and lightning Chakra, drilling a tiny, smooth hole through a massive boulder as Shisō watched.
• Mukai theorized that Chakra responded to wishes and resolved to use his engineering knowledge to build equipment and alter more people’s fates.
• Shisō discovered the laser’s hole through the boulder and was astonished by Mukai’s power.
• The Great Toad Sage foresaw Chakra gaining a will, a red moon, and a variable that could threaten even the Ōtsutsuki Clan, then warned that Jiraiya should beware of insects.
• Jiraiya received a scroll from a messenger frog warning him of a great upheaval in the Shinobi World and telling him to beware of insects.

Mukai and Sasori completed and tested a prototype exoskeleton puppet mecha designed to protect Sasori and let him fight from inside it. Sasori embraced the machine, which Mukai named the Mountain God Mecha, and the story left them hopeful about building better versions.

• Jiraiya heard Mount Myōboku's warning about insects, wondered if the Child of Prophecy might come from the Aburame Clan, and hurried out into the night.
• Sasori asked Mukai how to drill holes in the mecha's armor, and Mukai used a carbon dioxide laser to cut through the steel.
• Mukai and Sasori assembled two unpowered exoskeletons, then Sasori climbed into the customized puppet mecha and overcame his fear of being enclosed in darkness with Mukai's reassurance.
• Sasori tested the mecha's armor, weapons, flexible limbs, spring-powered jumps and charge, and ability to eject him while he continued controlling it with Chakra Threads.
• Sasori praised the prototype, and Mukai named it the Mountain God Mecha and promised they would make better mecha in the future.

Mukai tested his Zealot Prototype exoskeleton mecha, which he and Sasori had built for their mission under Pakura. After checking on his family and helping them find a potential tavern employee, Mukai reached the meeting point with Sasori, where Pakura questioned them about their unusual equipment.

• Mukai donned his Zealot Prototype and demonstrated its mobility, vibrating arm blades, and folding shield to Sasori.
• Mukai and Sasori painted their mecha to resemble wood and insect shells while bickering about their mission.
• Mukai urged his parents to hire Shisō to help at their busy liangpi tavern before he left for the mission.
• Mukai arrived at the meeting point, where Pakura inspected his and Sasori's equipment and asked whether Mukai was a puppet master.

Pakura led Mukai and Sasori on a mission to investigate an outpost that had stopped reporting, and the boys impressed her by keeping up with her across the desert. As they reached the outpost, Mukai sensed twice the expected number of people inside.

• Pakura explained that she was leading Mukai and Sasori on a mission to investigate an outpost near the borders of the Land of Wind, Land of Rain, and Land of Rivers.
• Mukai and Sasori used their auxiliary equipment and techniques to keep pace with Pakura as they raced across the desert.
• The three reached the outpost by evening, and its flag appeared to signal that all was well.
• While resting and recovering his Chakra, Mukai used Bioelectric Sensing and detected eight people inside the outpost, although only four were supposed to be stationed there.

Pakura, Mukai, and Sasori discovered that the Sand Ninja at the outpost was a corpse puppet and recognized the meeting as an ambush. Mukai exposed Yamanaka Fū and stopped his attack, but the Rain and Root ninja moved to separate the teams and kill the three Sunagakure ninja.

• Mukai sensed eight enemies inside the outpost, and Sasori noticed that the Sand Ninja waving from it looked like a puppet.
• Pakura challenged the false Haibara ninja, then attacked the outpost with Scorch Release as the hidden enemies emerged and blocked the valley with falling rocks.
• Mukai stopped the corpse puppet from touching Pakura and identified its controller as Yamanaka Fū of Konoha's Root.
• Yamanaka Fū realized the ambush had been exposed, while Amegakure Jonin Mugy led his team to confront Pakura.
• Yamanaka Fū ordered the Root ninja to use Explosive Tags to split the battlefield and kill Mukai and Sasori.

Pakura fought Yamanaka Fū and his allies while trying to protect Mukai and Sasori, but the boys climbed into their new mecha and joined the battle. The chapter ended as Mukai and Sasori charged into the Root ninja’s formation.

• Yamanaka Fū ordered an attack on Pakura, who recognized the trap and told Mukai and Sasori to flee and warn Elder Chiyo about an enemy informant.
• Pakura fought off the Rain Ninja and Root swordsmen, taking a slash to her waist as she tried to buy the boys time to escape.
• Mukai and Sasori refused to run, climbed into the Zealot Mecha and Mountain God Prototype, and prepared to fight.
• Yamanaka Fū ordered the Rain Ninja to pin down Pakura and sent the others to kill Mukai and Sasori.
• Mukai and Sasori launched their mecha forward and crashed into the Root ninja’s formation.

Mukai and Sasori turned the battle against Yamanaka Fū and the Root ninja with their mecha, giving Pakura a chance to fight back against the Amegakure ninja. The chapter left Pakura unleashing her Scorch Release-Fox Fire Technique against the remaining Rain Ninja.

• Sasori and Mukai charged the Root ninja in their mecha, killing one and forcing the others to defend themselves.
• Yamanaka Fū tried to control Sasori’s Mountain God Prototype Mecha with the Mind Body Switch Puppet, but the technique failed and he fled.
• Sasori smashed a Root swordsmanship ninja with the Mountain God Mecha, while Mukai paralyzed another with a Wind Blade Slash and an electric discharge before killing him.
• Mukai threw up after his first kill, and Sasori mocked him before Mukai told him to help Pakura.
• With the Root ninja no longer interfering, Pakura drove the four Rain Ninja back with her Extremely Steaming Murder fireballs and began the Scorch Release-Fox Fire Technique.

Pakura, Mukai, and Sasori completed their reconnaissance mission after Pakura destroyed the Amegakure squad, and Mukai discovered four unexplained orbs in his consciousness. On the journey home, Mukai requested Iron Sand as his mission reward, and Pakura offered to teach him Ninjutsu.

• Pakura wiped out the Amegakure position with her Extremely Steaming Murder fireballs, and the team found their slain outpost ninja.
• Mukai sensed four small orbs in his consciousness, then set the discovery aside when they showed no apparent effects.
• Sasori gave Mukai a mission scroll about investigating Akatsuki and a sheet of paper made from Konan's Chakra.
• Pakura explained that the Haibara ninja's wife and daughter had died in the Second Shinobi World War and discussed the mission's upgraded rank and reduced reward.
• Mukai asked to exchange his mission reward for Iron Sand from the Third Kazekage, and Pakura agreed to submit the request.
• Pakura asked Mukai whether he wanted to learn Ninjutsu from her.

Mukai accepted Pakura as his master and reviewed the weaknesses he needed to address to survive in the Shinobi World. The next day, Sasori brought him Chakra Metal as a deposit for a village mecha design, and Pakura arrived with news of a reward.

• Pakura demonstrated her Wind Release and agreed to teach Mukai, who bowed and accepted her as his master.
• Mukai returned to the izakaya, then reviewed his outpost mission and identified weaknesses in reconnaissance, Taijutsu, and his mecha’s defenses and weapons.
• Mukai arrived at the training ground the next day and received a chunk of Chakra Metal from Sasori as a deposit for designing a defensive mecha for the village’s puppet force.
• Pakura appeared and told Mukai that she had secured a great reward for him.

Pakura rewarded Mukai with Iron Sand and access to an abandoned puppet repair workshop, then joined Mukai and Sasori for a meal at his family’s izakaya. Mukai connected Chakra Metal to Rōran’s Dragon Vein and revealed that he and Sasori might have found a way to make money from it.

• Pakura told Mukai that the Third Kazekage had awarded him the Iron Sand left near a Land of Rain outpost and use of its underground puppet repair workshop.
• Mukai invited Pakura and Sasori to his family’s izakaya, where they ate liangpi and discussed the village’s reduced funding and lack of missions.
• Mukai proposed visiting the abandoned workshop and asked Sasori about their money-making plan, while Pakura explained that battlefield Iron Sand was low-quality and rarely sold.
• Mukai asked whether Chakra Metal came mainly from the Land of Iron, and Pakura described how the rare metal formed and why it made the Land of Iron powerful.
• Mukai suggested that Rōran’s Dragon Vein could make the Land of Wind rich in Chakra Metal, prompting Sasori to question his discovery.
• Mukai showed Pakura the piece of Chakra Metal Sasori had given him and invited her to join their plan to make a fortune.

Mukai brought Pakura and Sasori to the northern border of the Land of Wind and demonstrated molten-salt electrolysis to extract fine iron from a large cache of Iron Sand. After producing valuable iron in half an hour, he revealed that the residue in the crucible was his real target.

• Mukai, Pakura, and Sasori traveled to an abandoned village near the northern border, where they found a mound of Iron Sand left from the war.
• Mukai mixed the Iron Sand with salt crystals in a graphite crucible and had Pakura heat and dry the mixture with Extremely Steaming Murder.
• Mukai used his hands as electrodes to electrolyze the molten mixture, while Sasori operated the crucible’s discharge gate.
• Pakura scraped and weighed the cooled iron, marveling that Mukai had produced over a hundred jin of fine iron in half an hour.
• Mukai told Pakura that the fine iron was only the beginning and that the residue left in the crucible was the real treasure.

Mukai extracted high-grade Chakra Metal from Iron Sand, alarming Pakura about the danger of his rare ability. He proposed seeking protection from Elder Chiyo, who arrived at the hidden workshop a day after Sasori sent her a message.

• Mukai adjusted his Lightning Release and extracted silvery-gray Chakra Metal particles and a gray spongy substance from the leftover salts.
• Pakura recognized the metal as exceptionally pure Chakra Metal, checked the area, and led Mukai and Sasori into an abandoned underground puppet repair workshop.
• Pakura warned Mukai that his refining ability was too valuable and dangerous for her to protect on her own.
• Mukai explained that the village's internal conflicts made it unsafe to keep the Chakra Metal between the three of them and proposed relying on a powerful protector.
• Sasori sent an urgent message to Elder Chiyo using a puppet, and she arrived at the workshop a day later.

Mukai demonstrated his ability to refine Chakra Metal to Granny Chiyo, who agreed to protect him and manage his trade with Sunagakure. He asked her to secure a trial at Shukaku’s sealing site despite lacking Earth Release, and the chapter ended with him requesting a mission into Amegakure.

• Sasori recounted the group’s story to Granny Chiyo, and Mukai refined iron and Chakra Metal in front of her.
• Granny Chiyo appointed Pakura as team leader for Sasori and Mukai, offered to trade Mukai’s Chakra Metal, and promised to protect them.
• Mukai asked for a Shukaku trial to pursue Magnet Release and the Ten Fingers Technique for Sasori, but Granny Chiyo warned that his lack of Earth Release could prevent him from qualifying.
• Mukai demonstrated his precise control of Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water chakra, and argued that he could develop new attributes over time.
• Granny Chiyo promised to supply their workshop and pursue benefits for them, while Mukai asked her to assign them a mission into Amegakure.

Mukai arranged a mission to the Land of Rain with Pakura and Sasori, while Shisō’s fortunes improved through Mukai’s support. Rasa worried about Sunagakure’s worsening finances and military readiness before the Third Kazekage urgently summoned him.

• Mukai explained his plans to visit the Land of Rain, and Chiyo assigned Pakura’s squad a herb-gathering mission and gave them antidotes to Ibuse’s poison.
• Pakura agreed to lead the mission, then scolded Mukai for making her take responsibility again; the group planned to leave in three days while they prepared their base and armor.
• Shisō told Shira that Mukai had offered him work, a place to live, and a chance for Shira to become his disciple at age six.
• Rasa returned home and complained to Karura about Sunagakure’s declining income, disputes over military spending, and the shortage of a candidate to become the next Jinchūriki.
• An Anbu appeared and urgently summoned Rasa to meet the Third Kazekage.