Chapter Summaries

Hoshino persuaded Rasa to support his investigation into the puppet clans, though Rasa expected him to work within the Anbu and follow his lead. Rasa then appointed Hoshino captain of newly formed Anbu Team Eleven, and Hoshino wondered what Grandma Chiyo had been doing.

• Hoshino defended his crackdown on the puppet clans, arguing that their shoddy low-end puppets endangered Sunagakure’s ninja and villagers.
• Rasa offered Hoshino authority to investigate puppet quality through the Anbu, provided he restrained himself and avoided destabilizing the village.
• Hoshino returned to Team Six and planned to use Rasa’s support to weaken the clans while building his own resources.
• A transfer order named Hoshino captain of Anbu Team Eleven, with Temari, Maki, Yashamaru, and two recruits to join him.
• Fox Shadow and Faceless congratulated Hoshino on his appointment, and he promised to share future benefits with them.
• Hoshino went home and found Grandma Chiyo absent again, wondering where she had been going.

Hoshino takes Temari to Sunagakure’s neglected district, showing her the people the village has forgotten and explaining that he wants to change things. Temari agrees to help him, and they visit Arashi, a former Special Jōnin left injured and forgotten by the village.

• Temari visits Hoshino with camel milk cake, and they joke while discussing his plans to confront the puppet-master families.
• Hoshino takes Temari through a desolate district where impoverished residents live among discarded puppet parts.
• Temari realizes how thoroughly the village has neglected the people there and promises to change things with Hoshino.
• Hoshino and Temari visit Arashi, a former Special Jōnin who has lost an arm and now lives in poverty.
• Hoshino tells Arashi that he is not a cripple but someone the village has forgotten.

Hoshino recruited Arashi, a disabled former ninja cast aside by Sunagakure, into Anbu Team Eleven and gave him a puppet prosthetic. The next day, the team gathered at its new office, where Hoshino introduced its members and said their final teammate would arrive that afternoon.

• Arashi told Temari how losing his arm in the Third Shinobi World War had left him unable to work as a ninja and without compensation.
• Hoshino invited Arashi to join Anbu Team Eleven, and Arashi accepted and signed the recruitment scroll.
• Hoshino gave Arashi a specially made puppet prosthetic, and Arashi offered to contact other former ninjas who had been cast aside.
• Hoshino and Temari arrived at Team Eleven's bare new office, where Maki joined them.
• Yashamaru and Arashi arrived, and Hoshino introduced the assembled teammates before explaining that one more member would report that afternoon.

Hoshino’s newly formed Anbu Team Eleven investigated an attack on Sunagakure’s puppet factory and gathered clues pointing to a disabled barrier and possible foreign involvement. The team compared their findings and focused on a recent caravan from the Land of Lightning and unfamiliar insects found near the factory.

• Hoshino assigned Maki and Arashi to investigate the puppet factory while Yashamaru and Temari checked patrol records, then headed out to provide support.
• Maki and Arashi questioned Kankuro, who said more than ten strong wandering ninja had attacked the factory and likely approached from the west.
• At the western barrier, Maki found no sign it had been triggered and concluded someone may have disabled it to let the intruders in.
• Arashi found unfamiliar dead insects near the barrier, and Maki identified them as a species not native to the Land of Wind.
• The team regrouped with Hizuki, and Temari reported that a caravan from the Land of Lightning had entered the village seven days earlier before heading into the desert to gather a medicinal herb.

Hoshino took Maki and Hizuki into the desert to investigate suspicious caravans from the Land of Lightning, while Temari, Yashamaru, and Arashi searched for other clues in Sunagakure. After sheltering from a sandstorm, the team found an abandoned camel-drawn cart and a concealed pit.

• Hoshino ordered Maki and Hizuki to investigate the caravans in the desert and assigned Temari, Yashamaru, and Arashi to search Sunagakure for clues about the insects.
• Hoshino and his team traveled into the desert, but seven days of wind and sand had erased the caravans' tracks.
• Hoshino explained that the caravans likely had another purpose and decided they would search nearby oases for their base.
• Hoshino, Maki, and Hizuki sheltered beside a dune as a sandstorm swept through, and Hizuki urged Maki to stay calm.
• After the storm passed, Hoshino sensed something with the Rat Bead and led the team to an abandoned camel-drawn cart and a concealed pit.

Hoshino, Maki, and Hizuki interrogated Satō, a black-market lookout, and used his radio call to track the people he served. They followed the trail through the desert and confronted three masked Konoha Anbu.

• Hoshino forced Satō out of his hiding hole, and Maki and Hizuki questioned him about why he was watching the area.
• Satō revealed that he had been paid through the black market to report anyone who came by, and Maki identified his communication device as a radio.
• Hoshino forced Satō to radio his handlers, then smashed the device and used Magnet Release to pursue their approximate location.
• Hoshino led Maki and Hizuki deeper into the desert, while Hizuki killed Satō before following them.
• Hoshino, Maki, and Hizuki encountered three masked Konoha Anbu, and both teams prepared for a confrontation.

Hoshino and Sunagakure's Anbu fought three Konoha Anbu who refused to leave a mission site in the Land of Wind. Hoshino's puppets struck down the fox-masked Konoha ninja, while the other battle remained unresolved.

• The fox-masked Konoha Anbu refused Hoshino's demand to leave, so Hoshino ordered Hizuki and Maki to attack.
• Hoshino blocked the Konoha Anbu's Fire Release with sand and wounded the fox-masked ninja with sand blades.
• Hoshino protected Maki from a lightning attack and sent her to a safe area while Hizuki fought the other two Konoha Anbu.
• Hoshino used an Iron Sand Shower to draw the fox-masked ninja behind an Earth-Style Wall, then sent three concealed puppets to unleash multiple Wind Release attacks.
• The Wind Release attacks struck the fox-masked ninja's head, heart, and limbs, leaving him bleeding heavily.

Hoshino and his team discovered that the Konoha Anbu pursuing them were Root operatives and confronted another Root group at a mine. After the Root ninjas escaped with most of their supplies, Hoshino’s team found corpses and evidence of forbidden experiments.

• Hoshino killed a fox ninja, then joined Hizuki and Maki to defeat two Konoha Anbu ninjas, whose tongues bore the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
• Hoshino recognized the dead ninjas as Root operatives and led Hizuki and Maki to a mine, where another group of Konoha Anbu was preparing to leave.
• Hoshino attacked the group, but Aburame Ryoma blocked him with insects and escaped with the others; Maki recovered a dropped sealing scroll.
• Hoshino sent Hizuki and Maki to search the mine, where they found recently killed bodies inside an iron cage and gathered tools and corpses.
• Hoshino unsealed the scroll and found experimental files and two corpses bearing runes and mechanical organ replacements.

Hoshino uncovered evidence that the Red Sand Clan and other powers had conducted forbidden experiments to create Kekkei Tōta puppets, then brought the evidence to Rasa. Rasa decided to punish the Black Scorpion Clan and the Night Sand Clan but spare the Red Sand Clan, leaving Hoshino’s promise to Hizuki in doubt.

• Hoshino examined the mine’s files and learned that the Red Sand Clan had led a project with Root and other factions to fuse Kekkei Genkai into Kekkei Tōta puppets.
• Maki and Hizuki brought corpses and equipment from the mine, and Hoshino told Hizuki the evidence implicated the Red Sand Clan.
• Hoshino calmed Hizuki and promised to help bring the clan down as they headed back to Sunagakure with the evidence.
• Hoshino reported the experiments and related crimes to Rasa, who resolved to punish the Black Scorpion Clan and the Night Sand Clan.
• Hoshino asked Rasa to deal with the Red Sand Clan, but Rasa cited its importance to Sunagakure and chose to spare it.

Hoshino told Team Eleven that the Kazekage would attack the Black Scorpion and Night Sand Clans that night but leave the Red Sand Clan untouched. He then planned with Temari and Kankuro to seize businesses and technology after the operation, warning them that their new faction would face pressure from every side.

• Hoshino told Team Eleven that the Kazekage would strike the Black Scorpion Clan and the Night Sand Clan that night but would not move against the Red Sand Clan.
• Hoshino dismissed the team until nine that evening and took Temari to the puppet factory.
• Hoshino told Kankuro that they could use the puppet factory to acquire the clans' puppet technology, equipment, craftsmen, and mineral-development rights.
• Kankuro and Temari agreed to prepare for the takeover, and Hoshino urged them to act quickly after the operation.
• Hoshino warned Temari and Kankuro that their faction would face opposition, including from the Kazekage's faction, and said they could still back out.

Hoshino secured Temari and Kankuro’s support for a political operation that would put them against Rasa’s faction, then gained Gaara’s backing and Shukaku’s chakra. He left with the Spirit Control Beads replenished and promised Shukaku custom magical artifacts.

• Hoshino warned Temari and Kankuro that their operation would draw them fully into Sunagakure’s power struggle and make Rasa their enemy, and both pledged to stand with him.
• Hoshino went to Gaara’s home and asked for his opinion; Gaara promised to support and protect him.
• Hoshino asked Shukaku to replenish his chakra for the night’s operation, and Shukaku agreed after Gaara’s request.
• Shukaku poured chakra into Hoshino’s Spirit Control Beads, then Hoshino promised to make him magical artifacts that would make him stronger than the other Tailed Beasts.

Hoshino joined Rasa and the Anbu in a nighttime assault on the Night Sand Clan after Rasa accused the clan of betrayal and forbidden human experiments. Rasa overwhelmed the compound’s defenders, then confronted the patriarch and declared that the Kazekage’s will was the village’s will.

• Shukaku agreed to let Hoshino use him as a suitable weapon and settled down to rest on Gaara’s shoulder.
• Rasa assembled the Anbu, killed Dark Mist and Nine Nights, and ordered the Black Scorpion and Night Sand Clans eliminated for betraying the village and conducting human experiments.
• Rasa led Hoshino’s group to the Night Sand Clan compound and blasted open its gates with gold dust spears.
• Rasa used Gold Dust: Sand Shower to kill many Night Sand ninjas as Hoshino, Maki, and Temari watched his power.
• The Night Sand patriarch denied Rasa’s accusations and demanded to know why the clan had been attacked, but Rasa gathered gold dust and said the Kazekage’s will was the village’s will.

Rasa ordered the destruction of the Night Sand Clan and the Black Scorpion Clan, while Hoshino helped search the ruins and carry out the killings. After the mission, Hoshino stayed with Hizuki, who had removed her mask to reveal a badly damaged face.

• The Night Sand Clan leader rallied his ninja against Rasa, but Rasa bound them with Gold Dust and killed them.
• Rasa crushed the Night Sand Clan leader and elders, then ordered Hoshino to retrieve the clan’s experimental records and puppet techniques and leave no survivors.
• Hoshino and the Anbu searched the Night Sand Clan compound, recovered scrolls and damaged puppets, and began clearing the ruins.
• Anbu squads attacked the Black Scorpion Clan compound, killed its leader, and wiped out its resistance under orders to spare no one.
• After the mission, Hoshino stayed behind with Hizuki, who removed her half mask and told him he did not have to come with her.

Hoshino and Hizuki attacked the Red Sand Clan to punish it and announce Hoshino as Sunagakure’s third Kage Level fighter. Hoshino overwhelmed the clan’s defenses with Iron Sand, while Hizuki began her attempt to kill its patriarch, Akasuna Retsu.

• Hoshino revealed his face and explained that the assault would establish his faction and display his strength to Sunagakure.
• Hoshino and Hizuki rode a wave of sand toward the Red Sand Clan, drawing the attention of villagers and Rasa.
• Rasa decided to go to the clan himself, while Akasuna Retsu ordered his clan to prepare for battle.
• Hoshino gave Hizuki one minute to kill Akasuna Retsu and unleashed Iron Sand across the clan compound.
• Akasuna Retsu attacked Hoshino with Wind Release, but Hoshino blocked it with an Iron Sand wall.
• Akasuna Retsu ordered the clan members to attack Hoshino with all their strength.

Hoshino and Hizuki attacked the Red Sand Clan, with Hoshino slaughtering its ninja while Hizuki fought Akasuna Retsu inside a sandstorm. As the storm cleared, Akasuna Retsu’s taunting stopped when he saw what had changed around him.

• Hoshino’s Iron Sand attack killed numerous Red Sand Clan ninja and separated Akasuna Retsu from the others.
• Hizuki fought Akasuna Retsu with Blaze Release, destroying his first five puppets as he countered with Wind Release and more puppets.
• Hoshino charged into the clan’s attackers and killed several Jonin and Special Jōnin, while Iron Sand shattered the puppets sent against him.
• Akasuna Retsu recognized Hizuki as Hotaru and offered her a place in the clan, but she rejected his offer and vowed to make him pay.
• Hizuki unleashed Flame Dragon Explosion, and the clash with Akasuna Retsu’s Wind Wall shook the compound before puppets closed in on her.
• The sandstorm dissipated, and Akasuna Retsu stopped speaking as the obscured surroundings came into view.

Hoshino and Hizuki killed Akasuna Retsu and the Red Sand Clan ninja at the compound, prompting Rasa to confront them. Rasa warned Hoshino that the Red Sand Clan’s influence ran throughout the village, while Hoshino waited for him to explain what came next.

• Hoshino took over the fight from the injured Hizuki and overwhelmed Akasuna Retsu, while Iron Sand spears killed the ninja who rushed to help their clan leader.
• Hoshino severed Akasuna Retsu’s left arm, then let Hizuki finish him with her violet-red flames despite Rasa’s call to stop.
• Hoshino supported the exhausted Hizuki as Rasa arrived and questioned the destruction at the compound.
• Hoshino dismissed his Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak, and Rasa explained that the Red Sand Clan held deep influence throughout the village because of its history and ties to its founding.

Hoshino argued that the Red Sand Clan’s power threatened Sunagakure and pressed Rasa to join him in dismantling its influence. Rasa warned that the clan could mobilize enough forces to start a civil war, but Hoshino remained convinced they could overcome it.

• Rasa warned Hoshino that destroying a Red Sand Clan faction could trigger unrest across Sunagakure, while Hoshino argued the clan’s influence already endangered the village.
• Hoshino proposed working with Rasa and keeping Grandma Chiyo neutral to eliminate the Red Sand Clan’s influence and reorganize the village.
• Rasa revealed that the clan and its allies controlled nearly thirty Jonin and more than a thousand ninja out of the village’s seven thousand.
• Hoshino acknowledged the clan’s strength but argued that most of its forces were civilian ninja and its Jonin were not united.
• Rasa considered Hoshino’s argument but warned that the clan’s members were spread across the village and would retaliate if alerted.

Hoshino persuaded Rasa to publicly declare the Red Sand Clan missing-nin and authorize him to deal with them, while Rasa maintained room to intervene. Hoshino admitted he wanted the clan’s resources and influence to lead reforms in Sunagakure, and Rasa granted him everything in the clan’s compound.

• Hoshino argued that Sunagakure could act against the Red Sand Clan while Konoha and Iwagakure were distracted.
• Hoshino proposed that Rasa publicly expose the clan, declare them missing-nin, and give him full authority to handle the matter.
• Rasa asked what Hoshino wanted, and Hoshino said he hoped to gain resources and power to lead reforms in Sunagakure.
• Rasa agreed to issue the order, warned Hoshino not to threaten the village’s stability, and gave him everything in the Red Sand Clan’s compound.
• After Rasa left, Hoshino and Hizuki went deeper into the compound to claim its scrolls, techniques, and resources.

Hoshino recovered the Red Sand Clan’s complete Human Puppet Technique records and resources, while Rasa publicly branded the clan traitors and ordered a purge. Hoshino then led four Anbu teams toward the Land of Rivers border to confront Akasuna Arashi and the clan’s forces.

• Hoshino found the hidden chamber in the Red Sand Clan warehouse and recovered the complete records of the Human Puppet Technique.
• Team Eleven arrived and began sealing the clan’s resources for transport.
• Rasa posted a notice accusing the Red Sand, Night Sand, and Black Scorpion clans of crimes, declaring the Night Sand and Black Scorpion clans wiped out and the Red Sand Clan missing-nin.
• Hoshino replenished his Tailed Beast Chakra from Gaara and received orders to lead Anbu Teams Eleven, Six, Three, and One in purging the Red Sand Clan.
• Hoshino assigned Team Six to seal off the western swamp, Team Three to reconnaissance, Team One to a frontal feint, and Team Eleven to attack Akasuna Arashi and his clan’s ninja.

Akasuna Arashi decided to lead the Red Sand Clan’s forces into the Land of Rivers after the village declared them missing-nin. With the other commanders willing to look the other way, he led the assembled group out of the camp before the Anbu arrived.

• Akasuna Arashi told his Jonin that the clan had to flee to the Land of Rivers to survive and seek help from clan members and nobles in the oasis city.
• The Jonin asked the civilian ninjas who would follow, and fewer than two hundred of Akasuna Arashi’s nearly three hundred direct subordinates agreed to go.
• Akasuna Arashi met the three other Elite Jonin commanders, who agreed to let his group leave and stage a token pursuit before noon.
• Akasuna Arashi concluded that the Anbu would be unable to stop the group once it crossed the border and that the commanders would not pursue them into the Land of Rivers.
• Akasuna Arashi took one final look at the camp and quietly led the assembled Red Sand Clan ninjas out.