Chapter Summaries

Orochimaru activated the first-generation Chakra Mecha and watched it pass its strength and defense tests. The machine remained operational and undamaged after smashing through Triple Rashomon and withstanding five Fire Style attacks.

• Orochimaru activated the Chakra Mecha, and a civilian Chunin climbed into its cockpit and connected the Chakra-draining probes.
• Shu Shiraishi ordered the mecha to break through Triple Rashomon, and its powered fist smashed through all three gates and a reinforced concrete wall.
• Shu Shiraishi ordered a defense test, and five Uchiha city guards struck the mecha with Great Fireball Techniques.
• The flames faded without damaging the mecha's armor, and the scientists, engineers, and guards stared at the machine in silence.

Orochimaru and the engineers celebrated as the first heavy mech smashed through Konoha’s defenses, and Orochimaru came to regard Shu Shiraishi as a god. Shu ordered the machine mass-produced and planned to unleash it against the other four shinobi villages.

• The mech survived Fire Style attacks and smashed through Triple Rashomon and a thick bronze gate, prompting the workshop crew to erupt in celebration.
• Orochimaru burned his hands on the mech’s armor as he felt its reactor vibrate, then watched the civilian Chunin pilot climb out and struggle to catch his breath.
• Orochimaru recalled the brutal months of development and concluded that the mech let ordinary civilians wield power beyond shinobi clans and ninjutsu.
• Orochimaru knelt before Shu Shiraishi and declared him a god who would lead them to ascension.
• Shu assessed the first-generation mech’s flaws, ordered it mass-produced, and said the other four shinobi villages would experience a dimensionality-reduction strike.

Half a month after Shu Shiraishi ordered a dimensionality reduction strike, Konoha’s No. 1 Arsenal was producing Maxim heavy machine guns and Chakra armor-piercing rounds on a massive scale. An air raid alarm suddenly sounded across Konoha, interrupting Shu Shiraishi’s inspection and leaving the source of the threat unknown.

• Orochimaru excitedly recorded the mecha’s hydraulic data as Shu Shiraishi left.
• At Konoha’s No. 1 Arsenal, Uchiha Jōkan rejected a gun barrel for being two millimeters out of tolerance.
• Shu Shiraishi learned that the arsenal had stored 320 Maxim heavy machine guns and two million Chakra armor-piercing rounds in half a month.
• Shu Shiraishi inspected a newly assembled Maxim heavy machine gun and tested its charging handle.
• An air raid alarm blared across Konoha, and Shu Shiraishi turned toward the factory entrance as the workers stopped in alarm.

Shu Shiraishi ordered Konoha to meet Kumogakure’s invading army with three hundred Maxim heavy machine guns and ten Chakra mechs instead of conventional troops. The Third Raikage reached a line of empty trenches and mocked Konoha’s defenses, unaware of the weapons waiting for him.

• Yamanaka Fūshin reported that the Third Raikage was leading five thousand Kumogakure elites into the Land of Fire.
• Shu rejected the Jonin’s plan for close combat and ordered Kagami Uchiha’s Heavy Machine Gun Battalion and Orochimaru’s ten mech prototypes to the first line of defense.
• Kagami mobilized more than three hundred Uchiha to load Maxim guns and Chakra crystal bullets onto carts.
• Orochimaru powered up ten Chakra mechs, which marched out through Konoha toward the border.
• The Third Raikage and Dodai found a few apparently empty trenches and the Raikage mocked Konoha’s defenses.

Kagami Uchiha and Orochimaru prepared Konoha’s trenches and Chakra mechs to face a 5,000-strong Kumogakure army. The Third Raikage dismissed the quiet defenses and ordered his forces to charge toward them.

• Konoha Genin manned 300 Chakra Maxim heavy machine guns in the trenches while Kagami Uchiha held the signal flag.
• Orochimaru led ten mass-produced Chakra mechs out from behind the windbreak trees, powered by civilian Chunin pilots.
• The Third Raikage felt the ground shake and Dodai warned him that Konoha’s silence might conceal an ambush.
• The Third Raikage activated Lightning Release Chakra Mode and ordered the Kumogakure army to charge.
• Five thousand Kumogakure ninja surged across the plain toward Konoha’s trenches.

Kagami Uchiha ordered Konoha’s gunners to fire their Chakra Maxim heavy machine guns at the charging Kumogakure army. The guns annihilated the thousand-ninja vanguard in one second, leaving the Third Raikage stunned as the remaining forces fell into chaos.

• Kagami Uchiha raised and swung the red flag, ordering the Konoha gunners to fire.
• More than a hundred Chakra Maxim heavy machine guns opened fire on the approaching Kumogakure vanguard.
• The machine-gun barrage killed the thousand-ninja vanguard, tearing through shields, Lightning Release Armor, and Earth-Style Walls.
• The remaining Kumogakure troops tried to stop but collided and trampled one another in confusion.
• The Third Raikage stared at the destroyed vanguard and struggled to understand the iron weapons facing his army.

The Third Raikage charged Konoha’s trench through machine-gun fire, intent on destroying the weapons with his One-Finger Nukite. As he leapt toward the defenders, ten Chakra Mechas emerged behind the trench and fixed their sights on him.

• The Third Raikage confronted Dodai about the fire-spitting iron tubes, then threw him into the mud and declared he would attack the Konoha position.
• The Third Raikage activated his Lightning Release Armor and charged toward the trench while Dodai failed to stop him.
• Kagami Uchiha spotted the charging Raikage and ordered Konoha’s machine gunners to concentrate their fire on him.
• The machine guns battered the Third Raikage’s armor as he pressed forward, then he leapt toward the trench with his One-Finger Nukite raised.
• Ten Chakra Mechas emerged from the forest behind the trench and locked their red eyes on the airborne Third Raikage.

The Third Raikage failed to pierce Orochimaru’s steel mechs and was hurled across the battlefield by one of them. As he prepared to attack again, a dark figure crashed into the battlefield from above.

• The Third Raikage struck a mech with One-Finger Nukite, denting its armor without piercing it.
• A civilian Chunin controlled the mech to punch the Third Raikage, sending him crashing into the plain and badly injuring his left arm.
• Orochimaru taunted the Third Raikage over a loudspeaker, declaring that industrial machinery had changed the times.
• The Third Raikage tried to disable the mechs with Lightning Release, but their insulation and grounding wires rendered it ineffective.
• The Third Raikage prepared to charge again, but a dark figure descended with a sonic boom and crashed into the battlefield.

Shu Shiraishi used his high-frequency vibration blade to cut through the Third Raikage’s Lightning Release Armor and incapacitated him. He ordered the medical team to keep the Raikage alive so he could be used as a power source for the newly installed No. 1 reactor.

• Shu Shiraishi entered the crater and told Orochimaru that he had come to capture the Raikage alive.
• The Third Raikage charged Shu Shiraishi with his One-Finger Nukite, but Shu activated his high-frequency vibration blade and severed the Raikage’s right arm and shoulder.
• Shu broke the Raikage’s left knee and pinned him in the mud beneath his boot.
• The Konoha Ninja watched in shock as the Kumogakure soldiers lost the will to fight, and Orochimaru rushed to inspect the Raikage as experimental material.
• Shu ordered the medical team to stop the Raikage’s bleeding and have him taken back, explaining that his Lightning Release physique could power the No. 1 reactor.

Shu Shiraishi led Konoha to victory over Kumogakure, capturing the Raikage and thousands of soldiers with no Konoha casualties. After proclaiming the power of industry, he rejected Shikahei Nara’s suggestion to kill the prisoners, leaving their fate unresolved.

• The Raikage lost an arm and was captured as the surviving Kumogakure troops watched their army collapse and flee.
• Shu Shiraishi ordered Kagami Uchiha to pursue the retreating soldiers and break their legs, and Konoha’s machine guns and mecha overwhelmed them.
• Konoha captured more than thirty-eight hundred Kumogakure soldiers, while its own forces suffered no casualties.
• Shu Shiraishi declared that industry had surpassed traditional ninja warfare, and Kagami Uchiha and the gunners hailed Konoha Heavy Industries as invincible.
• Shikahei Nara warned that Konoha lacked food for the prisoners and asked whether they should be killed, but Shu Shiraishi called that wasteful.

Shu Shiraishi turned 3,800 Kumogakure prisoners into forced laborers to build Konoha’s industrial bases and railway, using Orochimaru’s Chakra Suppression Collars to control them. At a construction site, former Kumogakure elite Jonin Toroi struggled under a heavy cement load and was shocked when he tried to use Chakra.

• Shu rejected killing or exchanging the prisoners and ordered Kagami Uchiha to bring them back hungry for three days before Orochimaru fitted them with collars.
• Orochimaru tested a collar on a Lightning Release Jonin, whose attempt to attack triggered an electric shock that drained his Chakra and left him unconscious.
• Shu announced the Prisoner of War Labor Reform Act and sent the collared Kumogakure prisoners to work in quarries, steel mills, sewers, and construction sites without wages.
• At Konoha’s second heavy industrial base, Toroi carried 200 jin of cement across a narrow bamboo plank above a deep foundation pit.
• When Toroi tried to use Magnet Release to steady himself, his collar shocked him, forcing him to cross the plank using only his exhausted body.

Kumogakure prisoner Toroi endured brutal forced labor at Konoha’s industrial construction site, where prisoners and even Konoha clansmen were worked under threat of violence. Elsewhere, Shu Shiraishi reviewed Konoha’s soaring electricity use and realized the Raikage and generator units could no longer meet demand.

• Toroi nearly fell while carrying cement, then was whipped by a Uchiha Genin and forced to continue working.
• Toroi tried to use Magnet Release to lighten his wheelbarrow, but the seal in his iron collar shocked him unconscious.
• Toroi watched Akimichi clan members carry a massive beam under an Uchiha Jonin’s whip and realized Konoha’s own people were also being driven like laborers.
• After eighteen hours of work, Toroi returned to the barracks, exhausted and hungry, and silently wept over his humiliation and despair.
• Shu Shiraishi reviewed Konoha’s electricity report and concluded that the Raikage and generator units could no longer keep up with the village’s expanding production.

Shu Shiraishi ordered Orochimaru to capture the One-Tail by weakening Sunagakure through cheap exports and a biochemical attack rather than invading with an army. The chapter ended with the Third Kazekage facing Sunagakure’s worsening poverty and dwindling supplies.

• Orochimaru warned Shu Shiraishi that electricity shortages were disrupting production and that the Raikage was nearly drained of Chakra.
• Shu Shiraishi proposed capturing Tailed Beasts to use as continuous power sources and chose the One-Tail Shukaku in Sunagakure as the target.
• Shu Shiraishi instructed Orochimaru to deploy rigid airships, flood Sunagakure with cheap goods, and release unfinished biochemical agents to force the village to hand over Shukaku.
• Orochimaru agreed to prepare the airship force.
• The Third Kazekage reviewed Sunagakure’s reduced military budget, dwindling grain reserves, and shortages of puppet-maintenance oil as a sandstorm battered the village.

The Third Kazekage learned that Konoha’s cheap food, refined weapons, and construction jobs were drawing Sunagakure’s merchants and ninja across the border. As he ordered the border sealed and defectors executed, Chiyo revealed a new poison she intended to use against Konoha.

• An Anbu reported that Konoha was selling cheap grain, meat, and refined steel kunai at the border, prompting Sunagakure’s merchants and smiths to abandon their businesses.
• The Anbu told the Third Kazekage that Sunagakure ninja were defecting for Konoha’s food, housing, and work opportunities.
• The Third Kazekage smashed his desk and ordered the border sealed, declaring that anyone trading with Konoha would be executed as a traitor.
• Chiyo arrived and warned the Third Kazekage that hunger would drive people to trade despite threats.
• Chiyo revealed a colorless, odorless, highly potent poison she had concocted during half a month in seclusion.

With Sunagakure nearly bankrupt and its people defecting to Konoha for better pay and food, the Third Kazekage ordered Chiyo to destroy Konoha No. 1 Industrial Town with poison. Chiyo led fifty Sunagakure poison-unit elites to the factory and released a deadly gas cloud toward it.

• The Third Kazekage approved Chiyo's plan to poison Konoha's trade routes and ordered her to attack the border factory with Sunagakure's remaining elites.
• The Third Kazekage saw that Sunagakure's streets and shops were deserted as workers and ninja defected to Konoha for better conditions.
• Five days later, Chiyo and fifty poison-unit elites watched Konoha No. 1 Industrial Town from a hillside near Kikyo Mountain.
• Chiyo confirmed that the wind was blowing toward the factory and ordered her team to open their poison-gas canisters.
• Chiyo and the Sunagakure ninja released a dense cloud of deadly purple poison that rolled toward the factory grounds.

Chiyo’s poison-mist attack on Konoha’s industrial town failed against the factory workers’ gas masks. When the Konoha Biochemical Brigade emerged and aimed flamethrowers at her hiding place, Chiyo was left facing capture.

• Chiyo released poison mist over Konoha’s southern factory complex, but the factories continued operating without disruption.
• Chiyo led fifty Sunagakure elites toward the factory fence to investigate why the poison had failed.
• Chiyo saw Uchiha city management officers wearing gas masks and realized they were breathing safely inside the poison mist.
• An officer mocked Chiyo and her attack through the fence, while she trembled and reached for her Kunai.
• The factory siren sounded, and the Konoha Biochemical Brigade charged out in chemical suits carrying flamethrowers.
• The squad captain aimed his flamethrower at Chiyo’s hiding place and ordered his men to capture her alive.

Chiyo and the surviving Sunagakure forces fled after a deadly attack, while Hiruzen Sarutobi escaped the Black Rock Coal Mine after half a month of forced labor. He vowed to seek help from the daimyō or Iwagakure and return with an army to overthrow Shu Shiraishi.

• Chiyo ordered the Sunagakure forces to retreat from the flamethrower attack, and two stragglers were burned alive.
• Hiruzen used a wire he had fashioned to unlock his ankle shackle during the overseers’ shift change.
• Hiruzen crawled through a ventilation duct, killed a rat that bit him, and kicked open an iron grille to escape into the forest.
• Hiruzen resolved to seek troops from the daimyō or Ōnoki and return to Konoha to overthrow Shu Shiraishi.

Hiruzen Sarutobi’s escape from Black Rock Mine was exposed by Shu Shiraishi’s surveillance system, and Hiruzen was surrounded by Kagami Uchiha and the Urban Management officers. He ended the chapter trapped in the clearing, facing mechanical war dogs and a ring of drawn blades.

• A hidden surveillance camera spotted Hiruzen as he emerged from the mine’s ventilation pipe.
• Shu Shiraishi watched Hiruzen on the monitoring screens and used the loudspeakers to taunt him.
• Hiruzen panicked and fell into the mud when he recognized Shu Shiraishi’s voice.
• Kagami Uchiha emerged from the woods and confronted Hiruzen.
• Searchlights, four mechanical war dogs, and dozens of Uchiha Urban Management officers surrounded Hiruzen.

Kagami Uchiha captured Hiruzen and brought him to Konoha, where Shu Shiraishi put him on public trial before the village. After Shu showed footage of Hiruzen promising to return with an army, the crowd turned on him, leaving him broken and weeping.

• Kagami Uchiha bound Hiruzen with steel cable and ordered city enforcers to take him to Konoha.
• Two Uchiha city enforcers brought Hiruzen to the central plaza and forced him to kneel before tens of thousands of workers.
• Shu Shiraishi praised the village’s new living conditions and accused Hiruzen of planning to destroy them with help from the daimyo and other ninja villages.
• Shu showed footage of Hiruzen promising to return with a great army to save Konoha.
• The crowd cursed Hiruzen and pelted him with rotten food and trash, and he broke down weeping on the platform.

After a public trial, Shu Shiraishi forced Hiruzen to look over an industrialized Konoha and told him the village had become the Shinobi World's strongest empire without him. Hiruzen's faith in his old world collapsed, and Shu ordered him sent to the sewers to live beside Danzo.

• Workers pelted Hiruzen with rotten food during his public trial, and Shu declared the trial over.
• Uchiha urban management officers dragged Hiruzen through the Hokage building and onto its rooftop.
• Shu forced Hiruzen to look down at Konoha's illuminated roads, factories, transmission towers, and new housing.
• Shu claimed Konoha had become the strongest and richest empire without Hiruzen, his father, or the elders.
• Hiruzen lost hope and collapsed as Shu ordered the officers to send him to the sewers to keep Danzo company.