Chapter Summaries

Hoshino and Orochimaru successfully extracted Shukaku from Gaara, who woke three days later to find Shukaku alive and miniature. Hoshino set out with a delegation for the Land of Demons, where masked guards stopped them at the border to inspect their documents.

• Hoshino and Orochimaru stabilized Gaara's life-support system and completed Shukaku's extraction.
• Gaara woke in the hospital three days later, and Shukaku appeared as a tiny figure at his bedside.
• Hoshino persuaded Shukaku to try becoming the Reform Society's mascot and the boss of a new department.
• Hoshino told Gaara that Shadow Clones would manage the department while he traveled to the Land of Demons.
• Hoshino and twenty prosthetic ninjas entered the Land of Demons, where masked guards demanded to see their documents.

Hoshino arrived in the Land of Demons and met its young shrine maiden, Shion, at her residence. As they shared tea and discussed Sunagakure’s prosthetic technology, Hoshino began to connect it with the Land of Demons’ Sealing Jutsu.

• Hoshino’s party passed the border inspection and traveled to the capital of the Land of Demons.
• Hoshino entered the shrine maiden’s residence and met Shion, who welcomed him as Lord Hoshino of Sunagakure.
• Shion dropped her formal manner and invited Hoshino to share refreshments while they talked about the outside world.
• Hoshino learned that Shion knew about Sunagakure’s Reform Society, prosthetics, and the Shinobi Alliance.
• Shion asked whether Sunagakure’s prosthetics could regenerate lost limbs, and Hoshino explained that the technology relied on compatible Chakra pathways and had been inspired by Sealing Jutsu.

Hoshino learned from Shion that Moryo and the priestess were two sides of the same being, and that Moryo could awaken within three years. Shion also revealed that she had foreseen Hoshino’s death, though its details remained obscured.

• Shion explained that the first priestess split Moryo’s body and soul and that generations of priestesses had maintained the seal with their lives.
• Hoshino told Shion he wanted to find a way to balance the priestess and Moryo rather than destroy Moryo.
• Shion showed Hoshino the Sphere of Prophecy, which revealed Moryo’s seal was weakening and could fail within three years.
• Shion told Hoshino she had seen him die with her standing unharmed behind him, but she could not discern when or how it would happen.
• Hoshino said a prophecy showed only a possible future, and Shion warned that his death still had a high probability of occurring.

Hoshino left Shion to prepare for a nightly ritual at the shrine, reflecting on the burden she carried. In Deliberation City, the Shinobi Alliance accused Kusagakure of secretly developing the Box of Ultimate Bliss and called for a vote to seize it.

• Shion ended her conversation with Hoshino and had a guest room prepared for him as she prepared to begin a ritual.
• Hoshino followed a priestess from the hall and saw Shion readying herself under an older priestess’s guidance.
• At the Shinobi Alliance meeting, Maki accused the Land of Grass of developing a weapon of mass destruction at Hozuki Castle.
• Mitokado Homura and Maki cited Chakra-drained prisoners and a recording of Kusagakure shinobi near the Box of Ultimate Bliss as evidence.
• Mitokado Homura invoked the treaty and called for a vote on whether the Land of Grass must surrender the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

The Shinobi Alliance voted to seize the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and Maki used Aoki’s withdrawal threat to justify an invasion of Kusagakure. After announcing Operation Dawn, the alliance turned to plans to challenge the Land of Iron’s neutrality and gain access to its mineral resources.

• Kurotsuchi, Mabui, and Sunagakure voted to place the Box of Ultimate Bliss under the Shinobi Alliance’s control, and the proposal passed despite Aoki’s protests.
• Aoki tore off his representative badge and declared that Kusagakure could withdraw from the alliance, so Maki cited the charter’s rule that unilateral withdrawal counted as a declaration of war.
• Maki announced accusations against Kusagakure and Operation Dawn, while Mabui, Kabuto Yakushi, and Mitokado Homura outlined the invasion plan and Aoki was detained.
• After a break, Mabui proposed reassessing the Land of Iron’s neutral status, and Kurotsuchi argued that its mineral reserves were being wasted.
• The great nations’ arms race and resource shortages made the Land of Iron’s Chakra Metal deposits a target, putting its neutrality at risk.

Mifune accepted the Shinobi Alliance’s resource-sharing resolution to protect the Land of Iron, then departed to prepare for its consequences. Meanwhile, Alliance forces launched a coordinated assault on Kusagakure, with its fall appearing imminent.

• Kurotsuchi, Mabui, Kabuto Yakushi, and Shikaku Nara voted in favor of the resolution, while Sunagakure abstained, and Mifune accepted it on behalf of the Land of Iron.
• Mifune left the conference hall and headed home to prepare the Land of Iron for the changes ahead.
• Maki ordered Sunagakure’s Prosthetic Corps to surround Kusagakure and block every escape route.
• Kurotsuchi’s Iwagakure Explosion Corps breached Kusagakure’s defenses from the north while Shikaku Nara’s forces watched the eastern approach.
• Kabuto Yakushi led the Sound Ninja toward Kusagakure, anticipating that the Alliance’s campaign would target other smaller nations next.

The Shinobi Alliance overwhelmed Kusagakure, while Mui tried to power the Box of Ultimate Bliss with prisoners at Hozuki Castle. Kumogakure destroyed the castle with its Chakra Cannon, demonstrating the Alliance’s power to deter other challengers.

• Sunagakure and Iwagakure forces breached Kusagakure’s defenses, and the surviving Grass Ninja fled toward Hozuki Castle for reinforcements.
• Mui ordered the Heavenly Prison Barrier activated and the prisoners fed to the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
• The Sheep Elder and the centipede-faced elder sacrificed prisoners, including Grass Ninja, to charge the box.
• Raikage A fired Kumogakure’s Chakra Cannon at Hozuki Castle, vaporizing the castle, its occupants, and the fleeing Grass Ninja nearby.
• Shikaku Nara and the Shinobi Alliance representatives watched the ruins, using the strike as a warning to any force that might challenge the Alliance.

Hoshino spent a peaceful half-month with Shion in the Land of Demons while studying Moryo and Priestess Power. As the Shinobi Alliance tightened its grip on smaller nations, Hoshino tested Moryo’s sealed soul and considered using its corrosive Chakra to develop a new energy system.

• Hoshino received Maki’s message that Karin had been found and ordered her taken secretly to Sunagakure’s Scientific Research Department.
• Shion showed Hoshino a manuscript stating that Moryo’s power came from the same source as Priestess Power but had been distorted, and Hoshino hoped to find a way to solve the problem.
• Hoshino and Shion spent more than half a month studying together in the Land of Demons as news arrived that the Shinobi Alliance had divided the Land of Grass and taken control of the Land of Iron’s resources.
• Hoshino touched the seal around Moryo’s soul fragment, severed its attempt to invade his mind, and considered studying its corrosive Chakra to develop an energy system beyond Ninjutsu.

Hoshino studied the ancient priestess scroll and concluded that Priestess Power and Moryo’s Chakra came from fundamentally different energy systems, making direct fusion impossible. He began searching for a conversion medium and prepared to analyze Shion’s Priestess Power using Sunagakure’s Chakra sensing devices.

• Shion brought Hoshino an ancient scroll describing the First Priestess’s research into Moryo and her pursuit of an Eternal Jutsu.
• Hoshino inferred that Priestess Power was natural energy while Moryo’s Chakra was corrupted energy, and their union might produce a form beyond Sage Mode.
• Hoshino’s first fusion experiment caused an energy burst that shattered the sealing formulas, and he realized the two powers could not be directly balanced.
• Hoshino found a hidden passage indicating that only a priestess’s body could bear heaven’s power, and he theorized that the priestess and ninja systems converted energy differently.
• Inspired by Orochimaru’s Cursed Seal research, Hoshino proposed using a third variable as a conversion medium and began investigating Priestess Power’s essence.
• Hoshino placed Shion inside an observation array in the shrine courtyard and equipped it with sensing devices requisitioned from Sunagakure.

Hoshino studied Shion’s Priestess Power and found that its natural energy could be analyzed and partly replicated, but his mechanical body violently rejected it. He resolved to redesign his theories of machinery and planned to contact Pain and investigate shrines and Uzumaki sites for clues.

• Hoshino observed Shion perform the Purification Jutsu and learned that Priestess Power drew in Natural Energy and grew stronger with use.
• Shion explained that ancient priestesses could influence the flow of energy between heaven and earth, while Hoshino theorized that their bodies naturally guided Natural Energy.
• After a month of experiments, Hoshino built a device that channeled a small amount of Priestess Power into his mechanical body, though Shion noted that it lacked resonance with nature.
• Shion trained Hoshino to sense Natural Energy, but his mechanical systems and Chakra circuits repeatedly rejected it, nearly causing the Kikaichū and Shikotsumyaku to lose balance.
• Hoshino reconsidered his assumptions about machinery and decided to make it capable of understanding nature, then planned to contact Pain and visit sites connected to the Uzumaki Clan.

Hoshino searched the ruined Uzumaki shrine in the Land of Whirlpools for clan relics but found nothing and left for the Land of Rain. Meanwhile, Pain agreed to arrange an identity for Sasuke as Obito announced that Sasuke and Madara would return to the Akatsuki.

• Hoshino promised Shion he would return and free her from her fate as a priestess, then left the shrine with her protective charm.
• Hoshino asked Pain to lend him Hidan and told the Scientific Research Department to analyze Karin’s body and the Uzumaki Clan’s Kekkei Genkai.
• Hoshino flew to the Land of Whirlpools, searched the ruined Uzumaki shrine, and found only broken pottery and indistinct runes before heading toward the Land of Rain.
• Pain told Konan that Hoshino’s goals did not currently conflict with theirs and that he was curious about Hoshino’s aims.
• Obito told Pain that Sasuke was returning to the Akatsuki and that he would soon leave the Land of Rain to avoid interfering in Kirigakure’s coming civil war.
• Pain agreed to arrange an identity for Sasuke, while considering the manpower the Land of Rain needed.

Hoshino met Pain in Amegakure and explained that he wanted to study Hidan’s immortality to investigate the Jashin behind it and its possible connection to ancient powers. Pain agreed to give him Hidan, provided Hoshino shared everything he discovered.

• Hoshino arrived at Amegakure’s tower and asked Pain where Hidan was.
• Hoshino told Pain he wanted to research Hidan’s immortal body and the possible existence of Jashin.
• Hoshino questioned whether Pain’s Rinnegan and his fate were gifts from heaven or part of someone’s manipulation.
• Konan asked whether Hoshino wanted Hidan to verify that the immortality technique came from an ancient power.
• Pain agreed to let Hoshino have Hidan on the condition that Hoshino revealed all his findings, then sent Konan to lead him to the secret room.

Hoshino began examining Hidan in the Akatsuki’s underground laboratory while Sasori monitored the research. The first scan revealed that Hidan’s Chakra system was unusually weak and ordinary despite his immortal body, leaving Hoshino puzzled.

• Konan led Hoshino through the corridor, where Sasori joined them to supervise the research on Hidan.
• Hoshino asked what else Hidan was involved in, but Konan said it had nothing to do with his research and led them to the underground laboratory.
• Hidan eagerly volunteered for the examination, and Hoshino used a Chakra scanner to map his internal Chakra flow.
• Hoshino found that Hidan’s Chakra meridians were thin, weak, and otherwise ordinary, with no special energy traits to explain his immortality.
• Sasori mocked Hidan’s poor aptitude, but Hidan proudly credited his immortal body to Lord Jashin’s grace.

Hoshino investigated Hidan’s supposed immortality and found that it appeared to be an external, rule-based ability rather than a property of his body or Chakra. After testing Hidan’s wound, he discovered that recovery required outside intervention and began observing how the severed tissue reattached.

• Hoshino examined Hidan’s cells while Sasori provided a scroll describing the conditions and effects of Hidan’s Death Controlling Possessed Blood technique.
• Hoshino questioned whether Jashin existed and whether Hidan had ever seen or heard him, while Sasori recalled Hidan mentioning Jashin’s whispers.
• Hoshino cut Hidan’s arm and found that the wound did not heal on its own.
• Sasori told Hoshino that Hidan’s body needed outside intervention to recover, prompting Hoshino to place severed tissue against the wound.
• Hoshino observed fine black lines reconnecting the tissue and concluded that recovery speed depended on the size of the tissue.

Hoshino and Sasori tested the limits of Hidan’s regeneration, then observed the Death Controlling Possessed Blood ritual and found signs that an unknown force transferred Chakra and vitality between Hidan and his victim. Hoshino touched a mark on the victim’s corpse and received a blurry vision of worshippers gathered before an inverted triangle altar.

• Hoshino cut off Hidan’s arm and found that the severed limb stayed alive but could only be restored within a limited range, with rough reattachment slowing the process.
• Hoshino questioned Hidan about his ability, and Hidan could not remember who had taught him to reattach his limbs.
• Sasori brought a wandering ninja to the laboratory, and Hidan performed the Death Controlling Possessed Blood ritual by drinking the man’s blood and drawing a circular formation.
• Hidan stabbed himself with a spear, causing matching wounds to appear on the wandering ninja as Hoshino’s scanner detected Chakra disappearing from Hidan and reappearing in the victim.
• Hidan killed the wandering ninja with a final stab to his own heart, and Hoshino found a smaller Jashin mark on the corpse that absorbed its remaining energy.
• Hoshino touched the mark and received a blurry vision of figures kneeling before a massive inverted triangle altar and a shadowy presence.

Hoshino’s experiment with Hidan’s Jashin ritual triggered a terrifying transformation, as gray-white bone spikes erupted from his body and erased everything they touched. Sasori and Pain retreated from the collapsing facility, leaving Hoshino sealed inside a vast bone cocoon amid the ruins.

• As Hoshino prepared to record the ritual, a shadow in the image noticed him, and strange markings spread across his body as the Kikaichū inside him went berserk.
• Gray-white bone spikes burst from Hoshino, absorbed the laboratory’s remaining Chakra, and disintegrated Sasori’s Iron Sand needles and the surrounding equipment.
• Sasori fled with Hidan, whose supposedly immortal body lost an arm to the spikes, while the pursuing growth erased the passage and Sasori’s spare puppets.
• Sasori used Shinra Tensei to shield their escape, but the bone spikes erased the repulsive force and consumed the underground tower.
• Pain confronted Sasori and Hidan in the ruins, and Sasori began explaining that the disaster had started while they studied Hidan’s ritual.

Pain, Sasori, and Konan assumed Hoshino had died in the decay caused by All-Killing Ash Bones, while Hoshino’s body and consciousness were caught between the bone technique, Jashin’s power, and his Mutant Insects. As Jashin neared control, Shion’s protective charm began radiating Priestess Power, giving Hoshino a possible chance to resist.

• Pain identified the destruction as accelerated decay and concluded that Hoshino and Hidan could not survive it.
• Pain ordered Konan to notify the Shinobi Alliance and Reform Society that an experimental accident had killed everyone.
• Sasori left the ruins, thinking of Hoshino’s connection to Grandma Chiyo, while Pain reflected on the power behind the decay.
• Inside the bone cocoon, Hoshino’s body and mind deteriorated as All-Killing Ash Bones, Jashin’s power, and the Mutant Insects fought for control.
• As Jashin neared its final takeover, Shion’s protective charm glowed with Priestess Power, and Hoshino struggled toward it.

Shion sensed Hoshino’s faint presence inside a bone cocoon and struggled against the prophecy that warned her not to intervene. Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara reached Amegakure to investigate Hoshino’s rampage, where Grandma Chiyo appeared as they confronted the cocoon’s deadly power.

• Shion sensed Hoshino inside a giant bone cocoon and feared something had happened to him, but the prophecy restrained her from going to help.
• Kankuro received word that Hoshino was in danger, and he, Temari, and Gaara prepared to travel to the Land of Rain with cybernetic ninjas.
• Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara arrived outside Amegakure and followed Konan to the plaza where the bone cocoon had caused widespread decay.
• Konan explained that Hoshino had triggered a forbidden power himself, and Gaara’s Sand Shield crumbled when it touched the cocoon.
• Grandma Chiyo approached the group through the rain, having come to the Land of Rain because of Hoshino.

Grandma Chiyo confronted Sasori over Hoshino’s fate, but the group set aside their conflict to find a way to free Hoshino from the bone cocoon. Shinnō and the Scientific Research Department arrived to investigate, but their instruments produced only chaotic, inconclusive results.

• Grandma Chiyo accused Sasori of getting Hoshino killed, and Kankuro stopped Hiruko’s tail when Sasori fought back.
• Konan urged everyone to focus on Hoshino, and Grandma Chiyo agreed to postpone settling her score with Sasori.
• Kankuro’s puppet was ruined by the cocoon’s decaying power, while Temari’s Wind Release failed and seemed to trigger a possible rampage.
• Shinnō arrived by airship with researchers from the Scientific Research Department, who began testing the bone cocoon.
• The researchers’ instruments returned chaotic data, and their tests failed to reveal useful information about the bone spikes.

Orochimaru summoned Tobirama Senju to help analyze the power encasing Hoshino after Shinnō’s instruments failed. Tobirama identified the cocoon as a mixture of Ash Bones, divinity, Natural Energy, and foreign Chakra, and the group began a joint investigation to find a way to save Hoshino.

• Shinnō told Kankuro, Temari, and the others that their technology could not analyze the bone spikes, and Orochimaru offered to help.
• Orochimaru revealed that an Otogakure emergency research authorization let him use Impure World Reincarnation, and the group agreed to proceed.
• Orochimaru summoned Tobirama Senju, who recognized Ash Bones in ancient Ninshu accounts and detected several other powers mixed into Hoshino’s cocoon.
• Tobirama chose to help investigate the cocoon despite worrying that Hoshino could become a threat to Konoha.
• Orochimaru prepared a concoction, Shinnō’s researchers set up a Chakra analyzer, and Tobirama drew a formula as the three sides began working together.