Chapter Summaries

Hoshino led Sunagakure’s assault on Falling Rain Town, using adaptive Kikaichū and advanced weapons to trap the rival ninja and black-market forces. As the town burned, Darui prepared to use Kumogakure’s Heavenly Transfer Technique to send the stolen missile scroll away, while Asuma, Kitsuchi, and others joined forces against Hoshino.

• Hoshino ordered the town burned and directed his squads to contain the Rain Ninja and find the ninja carrying the stolen scroll.
• The Kikaichū overwhelmed the defenders, resisted their Ninjutsu, and forced Aburame Ryoma, Kitsuchi, Asuma Sarutobi, Konan, and Kakuzu to fight for survival.
• Hoshino pursued the scroll thief and discovered that Darui had stolen it; their fight continued as Darui prepared a Heavenly Transfer Technique scroll.
• Sunagakure’s forces set Falling Rain Town ablaze, while Ryoma sent a report to Shimura Danzō and the trapped ninja agreed to cooperate against Hoshino.
• Kakuzu cleared a path through the swarm with a combined fire-and-wind attack, and Darui began activating the transfer scroll as Hoshino fought off Asuma, Kitsuchi, and their allies.

Jiraiya, Ōnoki, and Raikage A reacted to their forces being trapped in Falling Rain Town by Sunagakure, as the crisis threatened to ignite a wider war. Kumogakure received Darui’s bloodstained missile schematics and prepared for war while awaiting news of his fate.

• Jiraiya received orders to rescue Asuma and other trapped shinobi in Falling Rain Town, learned Sunagakure had sealed the town with modified Kikaichū, and decided to go despite the risk of war.
• Ōnoki learned that Kitsuchi and the Explosion Corps were trapped, but refused to send Iwagakure forces and warned that killing Kitsuchi would start the Fourth Shinobi World War.
• Raikage A learned that Darui was trapped in Falling Rain Town, then received a bloodstained scroll containing the missile technology Darui had sought.
• Raikage A ordered Kumogakure to enter war readiness, activate the 'Thunder' plan, and prepare B and Yugito while its forces gathered without crossing the border.

Deva Path Pain attacked Sunagakure’s forces in Falling Rain Town, while Hoshino captured several survivors and tried to escape with the recovered goods. Hoshino fled from Deva Path Pain’s overwhelming power, only to find the other five Paths of Pain waiting ahead.

• Deva Path Pain destroyed Hoshino’s Kikaichū swarm and killed three Sunagakure Inspection Department ninja who confronted him.
• Hoshino declared victory after the battle, ordered his forces to collect intelligence and goods, and had the Kikaichū carry Kakuzu, Konan, and Kitsuchi away as prisoners.
• Hoshino refused Deva Path Pain’s demand to return the black market goods and his comrades, then attacked him with the Kikaichū.
• Deva Path Pain’s Shinra Tensei crushed the swarm and blasted Hoshino into a collapsing wall, but Hoshino escaped using Swift Release: Overclocking Mode while the Kikaichū delayed Pain.
• Hoshino spotted Asura Path, Animal Path, Preta Path, Human Path, and Naraka Path waiting in his path.

Hoshino was cornered by the Six Paths of Pain in the ruins of Falling Rain Town, but the arrival of Jiraiya stopped the battle from escalating. Jiraiya recognized Deva Path Pain as Yahiko and asked what had happened to Nagato and his Rinnegan.

• The Six Paths of Pain attacked Hoshino, whose weapons and Kikaichū failed to overcome their summons, absorption, and repulsion techniques.
• Hoshino tried to disrupt Pain by mentioning Konan and Kakuzu, then saw Kakuzu and Kisame Hoshigaki return with a weakened Konan.
• Deva Path Pain declared that Amegakure would use Sunagakure to establish its rules in the Land of Rain, while Hoshino remarked that he was only a puppet.
• Jiraiya arrived at the battlefield, and Hoshino relaxed as he expected the confrontation to shift toward Pain and Asuma.
• Jiraiya recognized Deva Path Pain as Yahiko and asked where Nagato was and how Yahiko had obtained his Rinnegan.

Jiraiya confronted Deva Path Pain about Nagato and their opposing visions of peace, while Hoshino was drawn into the debate and challenged both men’s ideals. The argument ended with Hoshino dismissing Jiraiya’s belief in love and understanding as pure wishful thinking.

• Deva Path Pain told Jiraiya that Nagato was gone and explained that he sought peace by making the world experience pain.
• Jiraiya challenged Deva Path Pain’s beliefs and grieved over how far Yahiko had strayed from his old dream.
• Deva Path Pain asked Hoshino to explain the Reform Society and his ideal of peace, and Hoshino said Sunagakure needed reform and strength to secure its people’s lives.
• Deva Path Pain accused Hoshino of using villagers and causing suffering in Falling Rain Town, while Hoshino defended his actions and criticized peace built on fear.
• Hoshino argued that conflicts arose from unequal resources and clashing interests, then told Jiraiya that his ideals of love and understanding were pure wishful thinking.

Hoshino defended coercive surveillance and mutual destruction as ways to enforce peace, then used his Kikaichū threat to deter Pain and announce a Four Kage Summit in the Land of Rain. As Hoshino departed, Kumogakure prepared to invade Sunagakure over Darui’s apparent death.

• Hoshino argued to Jiraiya and Deva Path Pain that brain chips could enforce behavioral conformity, while acknowledging that such control would amount to tyranny.
• Hoshino revealed his modified Kikaichū swarm and warned that it could consume the Shinobi World if he died or released its restraints.
• Deva Path Pain tried to attack Hoshino, but Jiraiya protected him and persuaded Pain to stand down by warning of the consequences for the Land of Rain.
• Hoshino asked Jiraiya to tell Hiruzen Sarutobi that Sunagakure would convene a Four Kage Summit in the Land of Rain in half a month, and said he would release Asuma afterward without payment.
• Jiraiya left to report to Hiruzen Sarutobi, while Deva Path Pain stayed behind pondering Hoshino’s proposal and the summit.
• Raikage A, Killer B, and Yugito Nii prepared Kumogakure’s ninja to attack Sunagakure by way of the Land of Waterfalls, the Land of Grass, and the Land of Rain in response to Darui’s apparent death.

Kumogakure received Sunagakure’s proposal for a Four Kage Summit and accelerated work on its unfinished Chakra Cannon. In Kirigakure, Obito kept Sasuke from attending the summit and urged him to grow stronger before seeking revenge.

• Raikage A learned that Sunagakure had proposed a Four Kage Summit, sent Yugito Nii’s vanguard to wait at sea, and ordered intelligence teams to verify the news with Konoha and Iwagakure.
• Raikage A demanded that Kumogakure’s researchers make the Chakra Cannon combat-ready within half a month and assigned Killer B to stabilize its core with Tailed Beast Chakra.
• Obito visited Karatachi Yagura in Kirigakure and mocked the village’s decline under his control.
• Sasuke demanded to return to the Land of Rain after learning Hoshino would lead the Four Kage Summit, but Obito told him he was too weak to seek revenge.
• Obito forbade Sasuke from attending the summit, warned him that Konoha’s leaders had also been involved in his family’s deaths, and left Sasuke to resolve to become stronger.

Hoshino and the Reform Society tightened their control over Sunagakure while preparing to eliminate the Council of Elders before the Four Kage Summit. In his laboratory, Hoshino confronted his weakness and began modifying his body with Kikaichū to pursue mechanical ascension.

• The Reform Society Network tied villagers’ work records and rations to prosthetics, deepening hardship and mistrust across Sunagakure.
• Hoshino, Rasa, Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara agreed to deal with the Council of Elders before the Four Kage Summit, and Hoshino outlined plans to increase labor demands and reduce relief grain.
• Hoshino reflected on his limited natural combat ability and rejected relying on Chakra and equipment alone, deciding to modify his body instead.
• Hoshino injected Kikaichū into himself to establish a symbiotic system, enduring severe pain as they formed a nest in his chest cavity and a clone began altering his blood vessels and nervous system.

Hoshino underwent Shikotsumyaku bone modification and began a dangerous full-body prosthetic conversion as his vital signs deteriorated. Meanwhile, Sunagakure’s Council of Elders discussed the Reform Society’s growing influence and the nobles’ uncertain loyalties.

• Hoshino completed the Kikaichū modification and insisted on proceeding with Shikotsumyaku bone replacement without resting.
• Hoshino’s clones injected Shikotsumyaku cells into his bones, leaving him exhausted as the cells began fusing with his body.
• A clone began Hoshino’s full-body prosthetic conversion, but his vital signs worsened as alarms sounded and the Kikaichū ran rampant.
• The second elder criticized the Reform Society’s prosthetics and network surveillance, claiming its reforms were corrupting villagers and threatening the Council of Elders.
• An elder warned that the Reform Society’s influence was growing, while the nobles might abandon the Council if circumstances changed.

The Second Elder abandoned hopes of cooperation with the Reform Society and went to seek Ebizo’s support. Meanwhile, Hino and Shayan stole scrapped prosthetic parts and sold them on the black market, but a raid forced them to flee, leaving them lost on an unfamiliar path.

• The Second Elder decided to approach Ebizo for help after acknowledging that the Council of Elders and the Reform Society could not coexist.
• Shayan persuaded Hino to steal scrapped prosthetic parts from the mining district and sell them to a black-market buyer.
• Hino and Shayan broke into the warehouse at night, narrowly avoided overseers, and escaped with a bag of parts.
• The pair met a masked buyer in a remote valley and sold the parts for eighty thousand ryo.
• As footsteps and shouts closed in, the buyer used a smoke bomb to help them flee with him.
• After running through the night, Hino and Shayan realized they had reached an unfamiliar place.

After escaping the Inspection Department in the desert, Hino and Shayan returned to Sunagakure and were arrested for trading scrap prosthetic parts. They denied being part of a wider black-market operation as they faced interrogation.

• Hino and Shayan got lost in the desert with the black-market merchant, who blamed them and left alone at a fork in the road.
• Hino and Shayan crossed the eastern mining area, where they saw miners suffering under extensive prosthetic modifications, and followed directions back to Sunagakure.
• Hino returned home to his relieved family and vowed not to take such risks again.
• That afternoon, the Inspection Department arrested Hino and brought Shayan in under escort for suspected black-market transactions.
• During interrogation, Hino and Shayan admitted taking scrap prosthetic parts to sell once, but denied any further trades or accomplices.

Hino was recruited by Uchiha Inabi to expose conditions in the southern mining district after receiving extensive prosthetic upgrades. Meanwhile, the Reform Society’s leaders struggled without Hoshino, who was undergoing a life-threatening experiment as his body rejected the Kikaichū and Shikotsumyaku modifications.

• Hino was kept behind while Shayan was released with his illegal gains confiscated and dismissed from the mining district.
• Uchiha Inabi offered Hino a place for his family in one of the five major departments if he livestreamed the Council of Elders’ oppression in the southern mining district, and Hino accepted.
• Inabi’s team replaced and augmented Hino’s prosthetics, then trained him to use his new abilities and conceal himself.
• Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, and Rasa discussed Hoshino’s disappearance and decided to continue the plan while monitoring his sealed laboratory.
• Hoshino’s clones struggled to stabilize him as Kikaichū agitation, Chakra disruption, and rejection of the Shikotsumyaku modifications left him in critical condition.

Hoshino’s clones struggled to stop a dangerous mutation during the fusion of his Shikotsumyaku and body, which began developing into power resembling All-Killing Ash Bones. They stabilized his condition with experimental medicine and electrical stimulation, but left him unconscious in a fragile balance between his bone cells, the Kikaichū, and the unknown power.

• The clones discovered that Hoshino’s bone cells were mutating and that a neutralizing agent failed to stop the dangerous reaction.
• The lead clone used Kikaichū to consume the abnormal energy, but the insects evolved uncontrollably until the clones adjusted an inhibitor.
• The bone cells turned grayish-black and began developing a corrosive power resembling Otsutsuki Kaguya’s All-Killing Ash Bones; the Kikaichū died when they tried to consume it.
• The clones injected experimental cell-repair medicine and used a gentle electrical current to help Hoshino’s bone cells resist the power, halting its spread.
• The clones decided not to add more Kekkei Genkai and kept watch as Hoshino’s vital signs stabilized, leaving him unconscious in a precarious three-way balance.

Hino infiltrated the southern mining district and livestreamed evidence of the Council of Elders’ brutal treatment of miners, hoarded supplies, and forbidden experiments. After discovering that his missing younger brother had been turned into part of a monster, Hino called on Sunagakure’s villagers to rise against the Council as the laboratory detected the fly puppet.

• Hino entered the southern mining district through an abandoned escape tunnel and used his prosthetic eye to evade surveillance.
• Hino began livestreaming the miners’ abuse, prompting anger and protests among villagers across Sunagakure.
• Hino used a fly puppet to show viewers hoarded supplies, piles of dead miners, and a laboratory where captives were subjected to experiments.
• Hino discovered his missing younger brother’s face embedded in a monster in the laboratory and revealed the scene to the livestream audience.
• The laboratory raised an alarm after the monster attacked the fly puppet, and Inabi told Hino to begin the final part of the plan.
• Hino urged the villagers to join him and overthrow the Council of Elders as a ninja pinned the fly puppet and the feed switched to Hino.

Shayan joined the Reform Society’s uprising against the Council of Elders as fighting erupted across Sunagakure. The chapter left the village locked in a bloody war, with both sides suffering heavy losses and the battle still raging.

• Shayan saw the weapons authorization message, collected prosthetic-compatible weapons and armor, and led volunteers toward the southern mining district to rescue Hino.
• Rasa rallied insurgents in the central square, and the crowd charged the Council of Elders’ residences as Reform Society Anbu attacked the guards.
• Shayan’s squad fought patrol ninja while he spotted Hino fleeing through the mining district with a white-robed ninja pursuing him.
• Satō Gen defended his residence with advanced puppets and a hidden chain weapon, but Reform Society ninja arrived and destroyed five of his puppets.
• The Council of Elders’ forces and the Reform Society fought across Sunagakure, while the Second Elder’s puppet army attacked the Reform Society building and the battle map recorded mounting casualties.

Hoshino returned to the Reform Society conference room and authorized the Armed Forces Department to mobilize against the Council of Elders and the approaching ninja force. He joined Gaara and Rasa on the battlefield, where they prepared to capture the Second Elder alive.

• A report warned that nearly two thousand ninja had left the border and were heading for Sunagakure, while the Reform Society struggled to deploy its forces without Hoshino.
• Hoshino arrived at the conference room, confirmed he was the real one, and secured authorization from Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, and Rasa to deploy the Armed Forces Department.
• Two thousand prosthetic ninja emerged from underground passages and split into groups to attack the Council of Elders' strongholds, intercept the incoming ninja, and reinforce the border.
• Hoshino, Gaara, and Rasa set out to clear the Council of Elders' forces, while Temari and Kankuro took charge of monitoring the battle from the command console.
• Hoshino, Gaara, and Rasa joined the fighting in front of the building, where their attacks destroyed at least two hundred of the Second Elder's puppets.
• Hoshino told Gaara and Rasa to finish the fight quickly and try to capture the Second Elder alive, and they formed a gigantic hand of sand over the battlefield.

Hoshino, Rasa, and Gaara defeated the Second Elder’s puppet army, but his revelation of a powerful Senjutsu-using beast sent Hoshino racing toward the southern mining district. The ground was shaking as the beast’s power rose, while fighting spread through Sunagakure and Shayan’s rebels neared defeat.

• Rasa, Hoshino, Gaara, and their mechanized forces cornered the Second Elder and destroyed his puppet army.
• The Second Elder revealed that the Council of Elders had empowered a loyal beast capable of using Senjutsu, and a massive Chakra signature emerged from the southern mining district.
• Hoshino flew toward the southern mining district while Gaara and Rasa stayed behind to interrogate the Second Elder.
• Rasa suspected the beast might be the Third Kazekage’s former summon from Ryūchi Cave, but the Second Elder refused to clarify.
• Hoshino passed through chaotic streets where villagers fought the Council’s remnants and saw Shayan’s rebels badly outnumbered near the southern mining district.

Hizuki led five hundred cyborg shinobi in a devastating assault against Iwasaki’s nearly three thousand troops outside Sunagakure. Their coordinated weapons and Annihilation Mode overwhelmed the defenders, leaving Iwasaki dead and his force massacred.

• Iwasaki led his troops toward Sunagakure but ordered them to slow down when the desert’s unnatural silence made him suspicious.
• Hizuki ordered the attack, and the cyborg shinobi opened fire with Chakra beams before storming the troops’ ranks.
• Iwasaki’s forces tried defensive walls, Genjutsu, melee attacks, and a compound Ninjutsu, but the cyborg units countered each tactic through coordination and advanced equipment.
• Hizuki activated Annihilation Mode, and the cyborg shinobi’s increased strength and firepower turned the battle into a one-sided slaughter.
• Hizuki pierced Iwasaki’s chest, killing him as the surviving troops were overwhelmed.

Arashi, Gaara, and Rasa led their forces against the Council of Elders as Sunagakure’s civil war intensified. At the southern mining district, Hoshino confronted Garaga and a grotesque creature bearing Hino’s face, then sent his Kikaichū to attack them.

• An old woman hid with her grandson as fighting spread through Sunagakure.
• Arashi ordered his five hundred cybernetic ninja to attack an approaching force of Council of Elders ninja, and the battle erupted into a clash of Ninjutsu, firearms, and puppets.
• Gaara used his sand to crush Council of Elders ninja in the residential district.
• Rasa led the cybernetic ninja and rebel army against the Council of Elders’ main force on the main road.
• Hoshino arrived above the southern mining district and found Garaga carrying a monstrous creature with Hino’s face.
• Garaga roared, the creature’s tendrils reached for Hoshino, and Hoshino unleashed his Kikaichū against them.

Hoshino’s Kikaichū and puppets failed to stop Garaga after the monster fused with him and unleashed powerful Five Elements Senjutsu. As Hoshino and Garaga prepared to unleash their ultimate attacks, Temari warned Gaara and Rasa to evacuate everyone.

• Garaga healed from the Kikaichū’s bites and petrified them with Sage Art: White Rage Technique, while Hoshino barely escaped the blast and repaired his damaged prosthetic body.
• Hoshino summoned his Kekkei puppets to attack Garaga, but Garaga fused with the monster and overwhelmed them with Senjutsu of multiple elements.
• Hoshino realized the monster redirected and amplified Garaga’s Senjutsu through a runic matrix, then watched his last puppet melt under Garaga’s attacks.
• Hoshino transformed his prosthetic body into its final form as Garaga gathered Five Elements Senjutsu for a devastating attack.
• Gaara and Rasa finished the fighting in the Council of Elders’ residential district, while Temari warned them that the energy in the southern mining district exceeded detection limits.
• Temari screamed for everyone to run as Hoshino and Garaga charged their ultimate attacks.