diff --git a/circuits/chacha20/nivc/chacha20_nivc.circom b/circuits/chacha20/nivc/chacha20_nivc.circom
index bbd2f0a..2daba75 100644
--- a/circuits/chacha20/nivc/chacha20_nivc.circom
+++ b/circuits/chacha20/nivc/chacha20_nivc.circom
@@ -33,23 +33,13 @@ template ChaCha20_NIVC(N) {
 
   // the below can be both ciphertext or plaintext depending on the direction
   // in => N 32-bit words => N 4 byte words
-  signal input plainText[N*4];
+  signal input plainText[N][32];
   // out => N 32-bit words => N 4 byte words
   signal input cipherText[N*4];
 
   signal input step_in[1];
   signal output step_out[1];
 
-  signal plaintextBits[N][32];
-  component toBits[N];
-  for (var i = 0 ; i < N ; i++) {
-    toBits[i] = fromWords32ToLittleEndian();
-    for (var j = 0 ; j < 4 ; j++) {
-      toBits[i].words[j] <== plainText[i*4 + j];
-    }
-    plaintextBits[i] <== toBits[i].data;
-  }
-
   var tmp[16][32] = [
     [
       // constant 0x61707865
@@ -110,7 +100,7 @@ template ChaCha20_NIVC(N) {
     // XOR block with input
     for(j = 0; j < 16; j++) {
       xors[i*16 + j] = XorBits(32);
-      xors[i*16 + j].a <== plaintextBits[i*16 + j];
+      xors[i*16 + j].a <== plainText[i*16 + j];
       xors[i*16 + j].b <== rounds[i].out[j];
       computedCipherText[i*16 + j] <== xors[i*16 + j].out;
     }
@@ -140,17 +130,17 @@ template ChaCha20_NIVC(N) {
   signal paddedCiphertextCheck <== IsEqualArrayPaddedLHS(N*4)([cipherText, bigEndianCiphertext]);
   paddedCiphertextCheck === 1;
 
-  // component toBytes[N];
-  // signal bigEndianPlaintext[N*4];
-  // for(var i = 0 ; i < N; i++) {
-  //   toBytes[i] = fromLittleEndianToWords32();
-  //   for(var j = 0 ; j < 32 ; j++) {
-  //     toBytes[i].data[j] <== plainText[i][j];
-  //   }
-  //   for(var j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
-  //     bigEndianPlaintext[i*4 + j] <== toBytes[i].words[j];
-  //   }
-  // }
-  signal data_hash <== DataHasher(N*4)(plainText);
+  component toBytes[N];
+  signal bigEndianPlaintext[N*4];
+  for(var i = 0 ; i < N; i++) {
+    toBytes[i] = fromLittleEndianToWords32();
+    for(var j = 0 ; j < 32 ; j++) {
+      toBytes[i].data[j] <== plainText[i][j];
+    }
+    for(var j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
+      bigEndianPlaintext[i*4 + j] <== toBytes[i].words[j];
+    }
+  }
+  signal data_hash <== DataHasher(N*4)(bigEndianPlaintext);
   step_out[0] <== data_hash;
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/circuits/test/chacha20/chacha20-nivc.test.ts b/circuits/test/chacha20/chacha20-nivc.test.ts
index d6f6358..49c7279 100644
--- a/circuits/test/chacha20/chacha20-nivc.test.ts
+++ b/circuits/test/chacha20/chacha20-nivc.test.ts
@@ -49,14 +49,13 @@ describe("chacha20-nivc", () => {
                     0xf9, 0x1b, 0x65, 0xc5, 0x52, 0x47, 0x33, 0xab, 0x8f, 0x59, 0x3d, 0xab, 0xcd, 0x62, 0xb3, 0x57,
                     0x16, 0x39, 0xd6, 0x24, 0xe6, 0x51, 0x52, 0xab, 0x8f, 0x53, 0x0c, 0x35, 0x9f, 0x08, 0x61, 0xd8
                 ];
-            const ciphertextBits = toInput(Buffer.from(ciphertextBytes))
             const plaintextBits = toInput(Buffer.from(plaintextBytes))
             const counterBits = uintArray32ToBits([1])[0]
             let w = await circuit.compute({
                 key: toInput(Buffer.from(keyBytes)),
                 nonce: toInput(Buffer.from(nonceBytes)),
                 counter: counterBits,
-                cipherText: ciphertextBits,
+                cipherText: ciphertextBytes,
                 plainText: plaintextBits,
                 step_in: 0
             }, (["step_out"]));
diff --git a/circuits/test/full/full.test.ts b/circuits/test/full/full.test.ts
index a7f34dd..825728a 100644
--- a/circuits/test/full/full.test.ts
+++ b/circuits/test/full/full.test.ts
@@ -392,10 +392,9 @@ describe("NIVC_FULL_CHACHA", async () => {
         // Run ChaCha20
         const counterBits = uintArray32ToBits([1])[0]
         const ptIn = toInput(Buffer.from(http_response_plaintext));
-        const ctIn = toInput(Buffer.from(chacha20_http_response_ciphertext));
         const keyIn = toInput(Buffer.from(Array(32).fill(0)));
         const nonceIn = toInput(Buffer.from([0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x4a, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00]));
-        let chacha20 = await chacha20Circuit.compute({ key: keyIn, nonce: nonceIn, counter: counterBits, plainText: ptIn, cipherText: ctIn, length: http_response_plaintext.length, step_in: init_nivc_input }, ["step_out"]);
+        let chacha20 = await chacha20Circuit.compute({ key: keyIn, nonce: nonceIn, counter: counterBits, plainText: ptIn, cipherText: chacha20_http_response_ciphertext, length: http_response_plaintext.length, step_in: init_nivc_input }, ["step_out"]);
         console.log("ChaCha20 `step_out`:", chacha20.step_out);
         assert.deepEqual(http_response_hash, chacha20.step_out);