- Having lost Orochimaru's trail completely, Naruto organizes 3 groups of a couple of shinobi each to scout out Orochimaru's hideouts and hopefully find some clues at least.
- The 3 groups spread out into different countries and eventually each find a single hideout, but upon inspection they're attacked by strangers with unique abilities. Akumu and Yatai face off against the one later known as Armand and his ability to copy elements. Hizashi faces off against Rikaku and Kensei, easily managing to overpower them with his "plasma" abilities which mimic the sun. Monuku and Arashi are fought off my Sesshou and his glass element abilities and is eventually joined by a mechanical coffin with a decrepit old man inside - Fuzuya. Each of the strangers seem to be after Orochimaru's scrolls and are surprisingly powerful which allows them to escape from the Konoha shinobi.
- Naruto assumes they must be working together and are collecting Orochimaru's old resources so he relays orders for the group to track the 4 strangers.
- They're tracked to yet another of Orochimaru's old hideouts, the one used when Kaien was taken.
- They have a full out battle and a little bit more is revealed about Fuzuya; He used to work under Orochimaru when he was Yokaikage of Otogakure, but Orochimaru dissapeared after he was seemingly killed without fulfilling his promise to make Fuzuya immortal. Fuzuya then decided to work towards surpassing Orochimaru.
- The Fuzuya group fight the Konoha Shinobi off and retreat with even more of Orochimaru's scrolls.


- Sunagakure sends reports of the enemies being sighted near the borders of the country, making their way to the village.
- Naruto sends the group out again with a little extra help from ANBU Captain Anki and shinobi Ryuhei.
- Sesshou and Armand fight the group off, revealing their newly acquired cursed seals.
- Fuzuya and Hizashi eventually show up from within the village, carrying a large coffin with them.
- The Konoha shinobi are bypassed and the Fuzuya group make another escape with their new prize.
- Sunagakure later explains that the coffin belonged to an old legendary hero from the village.

- The very next day the group is deployed again with orders to head to Iwagakure with even more help from Hideo.
- They make it to the swamp where they locate the enemies. Hideo tries to snipe the targets but fails, which causes another fight to break out.
- Fuzuya, Hizashi and Armand battle the group and stop them from getting any further.
- Sesshou shows up with another coffin strapped to his back and the group make an easy escape using one of Armand's strange jutsu.
- Using Anki's tracking abilities they follow the group all the way to Kumogakure where they assume another body is going to be taken.
- They're stopped at the mountain plateu by Sesshou, Armand and Hizashi. The trio pass their CS1 mark and reveal their CS2 forms for the first time; Sesshou sprouting a huge tail equipped with glass shard plates along his back much like a stegosaurus. Armand grows a pair of wings and a beak, which was supposedly that of a pterodactyl. Hizashi grew into the form of a spinosaurus.
- Instead of attacking the group directly, the trio each break off part of their CS2 forms and threw them to the middle. The combined flesh took on a life of it's own, morphing, fusing and contorting into a new shape.
- The atrocious chimera attacks the group with incredible strength. The shinobi struggle against the beast but eventually manage to slay it.
- Fuzuya appears from within the village carrying a third coffin with him. The Konoha group manage to hold them off a bit but Fuzuya further displays his mastery of Orochimaru's jutu by using the mind control aspect of Edo Tensei on a living person, that person being Kensei.
- The Fuzuya group, now with the addition of Kensei, break through and make another escape with Konoha trailing right behind.

- The Konoha shinobi trail them all the way to Takigakure and get there just after they do. Sesshou and Hizashi are already guarding the entrance to the tomb of the last required body. Dozends of Taki shinobi were trying to make their way in but were quickly dealt with.
- Gazami, the leader of the village, shows up and tells the Konoha shinobi he knows another entrance into the tomb and leads them there.
- After passing the traps of the tomb they finally make it to the coffin where Fuzuya and Armand are taking the last coffin.
- The Konoha group attacks, breaking part of Fuzuya's armored shell and critically wounding him. This forces Fuzuya and Armand to retreat but take Kensei with them, Fuzuya leaves a message instructing them to bring the coffin to him in return for Kensei's life.
- Gazami didn't want the corpse to be taken from the tomb so he sealed the shinobi inside, but they managed to break out.
- Hizashi and Armand break off to hold back the approaching Konoha shinobi but only keep back a portion of them.
- Sesshou and Fuzuya return to one of Orochimaru's old hideouts which they were using as a base of operations.
- The remaining Konoha shinobi make it to the base to find just Fuzuya, who explains to them his plan to give himself and his group immortality using Orochimaru's old research. Sesshou then emerges from a large machine with a new body. He had merged with one of the bodies stolen from the various villages obtaining it's powers and mixing their looks.
- The upgraded Sesshou and Kensei under mind control fight the entire Konoha group as Armand and Hizashi take their turn in the fusion machine. Kensei reveals his Cursed Seal that was given to him by Fuzuya.
- Armand and Hizashi eventually emerge from the machine with new bodies and abilities of their own. Sesshou, Armand, Hizashi and Kensei battle the Konoha group with their powerful upgrades while Fuzuya himself takes his turn in the fusion machine.
- Despite their enhanced abilities, Hizashi and Armand are eventually killed, but Fuzuya completes his fusion with his new body and steps out of the machine to balance the odds again. Fuzuya, in his younger and more powerful body, displays even greater strength than all of his subordinates combined.
- Fuzuya explains his plan a bit further; to create a world where the strong absorb the weak in order to weed them out completely, and create a race of people constantly absorbing one another to become even greater beings, with him being at the very top of the food chain. Fuzuya begins to assimilate with Hizashi, Armand and the still living Sesshou amongst other things around him. He's driven mad by the surge of information flowing through his brain and becomes a massive creature, absorbing everything in it's path to survive and grow.
- The Konoha shinobi struggle to fight against him but have no realistic way of winning and are eventually devoured and absorbed by the ever-growing monster.
- With their 'will of fire' they all manage to keep their consciousnesses seperate from Fuzuya's and battle against him with sheer willpower and manage to defeat his consciousness.
- Fuzuya becomes brain dead and his body began to rapidly regurgitate everything he had devoured and absorbed, all of it being in it's original condition.
- All of the Konoha shinobi are spat out, along with Sesshou in his original form. Kensei's mind control had also worn off.
- Sesshou asks the Konoha shinobi to help him as he puts Fuzuya to rest in the pond.
- Sesshou thanks them and gives them a scroll Fuzuya had him hold which would lead them to Orochimaru if they could decipher it and then left.
- The group return to Konoha and hand the scroll to Orochimaru. A week passes before the scroll could be completely deciphered but the message left was Orochimaru's next location: A secret hidden village previously unknown that is only reachable during an eclipse, which would happen in almost a year.
- Naruto tells them to be prepared, a year from now they'll be going after Orochimaru and dealing with him once and for all...