[Rumble—!]
Accompanied by a roar that seemed to come from deep within the earth's crust, the entire ground of Kirigakure began to tremble violently.
The shaking did not spread evenly, but rose and fell like waves, radiating outward from a central point.
It made the internal organs of those standing upon it churn as well.
Exaggerated, deep, pitch-black fissures wildly spread across the earth, like giant maws choosing people to devour, greedily swallowing the faint light of the night.
Immediately after, an even more terrifying scene occurred—
[Crack!]
[Boom!]
Thick tree trunks burst upward from beneath their feet, breaking through rock layers and tearing apart the soil as they suddenly grew with unstoppable brute force and speed.
These trunks twisted and extended, intertwining with one another as if a wooden dragon that had been sleeping underground had awakened.
In merely an instant, their violent growth and the completely altered terrain caused all Kirigakure shinobi to instantly lose their balance.
Some stepped into empty space and fell into fissures; some were flung into the air by heaving roots; their formation collapsed in the blink of an eye.
The thick trunks, which suddenly grew and twisted in succession, expanded at a speed beyond imagination, reaching over ten or twenty meters in height in the blink of an eye, forming a moving, living wooden bulwark.
The reactions of the Kirigakure shinobi were by no means slow—countless glows of ninjutsu instantly lit up.
Giant dragons of water roared forth, surging torrents attempting to tear apart the obstacles, dense water bullets pouring down like a torrential rain…
A sequence of Water Release techniques collided violently with the thick tree trunks rising from the ground, producing thunderous booms as heavy as rolling thunder.
However, the result chilled their hearts—the powerful impact of the Water Release techniques could only leave shallow dents upon those tree trunks that brimmed with a peculiar life force.
The water flowed down the bark, as if merely watering them.
Meanwhile—
[Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—]
Countless Explosive Tags were precisely hurled onto the trunks.
[Boom!]
[Boom!]
[Boom!]
The continuous explosions were deafening, with flames and thick smoke instantly swallowing part of the trunks.
Yet these Explosive Tags, powerful enough to blast apart solid stone walls, could only blow off scraps and chips of wood the moment they detonated upon the trunks.
They could only leave a patch of pitch-black scorch marks and a small shallow dent on the trunks.
Compared to the enormous size of the trunks, it was simply negligible.
One Kirigakure shinobi after another hurriedly steadied their feet, chakra gathering under their soles as they tried to maintain their balance amid this earth-shaking commotion.
They then relied on the superb taijutsu of shinobi, constantly dodging left and right, their figures turning into afterimages among the wildly growing trees as they tried to avoid the mass of trunks bursting up from the ground.
However, the density and growth speed of the grove exceeded their limits.
"Ah—!"
"My leg!"
Some Kirigakure shinobi who failed to dodge in time were violently struck and injured by the irresistible power of the trunks that burst from the ground.
The dull impact was accompanied by the crisp snap of bones; in an instant, their feet were directly fractured.
Worse still, some had both feet smashed and broken by that massive impact, twisted into bizarre angles as they fell to the ground screaming.
They were then entangled and swallowed up by the branches and vines surging in afterward.
Even more shocking was that these gigantic trunks were not lifeless objects.
A great number of trunks began, at a speed visible to the naked eye, to branch out into countless tough boughs and to sprout tender green leaves.
In less than a dozen seconds, the area that had originally been filled with ninjutsu explosions and shouts of killing had turned into a lush yet dense forest with killing intent lurking everywhere.
Numerous houses were also toppled by the trunks that rose from the ground.
The sound of wooden beams and pillars breaking rang out without pause; the stone slabs on the roads were also squeezed apart and heaved up, becoming completely unrecognizable.
One thick tree after another had even grown to heights of several tens of meters.
Their crowns connected with one another, blocking out the sky.
Casting down vast, suffocating shadows.
If one looked from afar... it would be as if one-tenth of Kirigakure's area had turned into a primeval forest that had never been developed, filled with a savage, primordial aura.
Forming a strange and intense contrast with the man-made village scenery around it.
This scene...
Also left those Kirigakure shinobi who had previously chosen to bow their heads and not join the battle, and who had tactfully and quickly retreated backward in an attempt to keep a certain safe distance from the battle up front, dumbfounded.
A chill rushed straight from their tailbones to the tops of their skulls.
"Wood Release... it's Wood Release!!!"
A jōnin of Kirigakure narrowed his pupils, his face full of shock as he looked at the primeval forest that had replaced the buildings and streets ahead.
The horror in his heart made him drenched in sweat, and the hand holding his kunai trembled slightly without him realizing it.
If not for the fact that, deep in his heart, he no longer wished to follow those blood-soaked policies and thus chose not to join the battle…
He might have already been trapped in that Wood Release forest that devoured life!
That kind of power…
Was simply not something human strength could contend with!
…
On the other side.
Terumi Mei, Ao, and Genji were also filled with shock.
The scene before their eyes nearly overturned their understanding of "power".
Ao stared in disbelief at the forest ahead that was still faintly writhing, and even the Byakugan under his eyepatch seemed to ache faintly.
He murmured, his voice carrying a hint of dryness: "If I remember correctly, the intel said Uchiha Keizumi was merely a shinobi with two kekkei genkai… and they were the Uchiha clan's Sharingan and the Lava Release related to magma. He… he actually knows the First Hokage's Wood Release as well—doesn't that make it three kekkei genkai?"
This completely violated Ao's common sense; he could not understand how one person's body could withstand and fuse three entirely different kekkei powers.
Terumi Mei was likewise shocked by the sight before her that surpassed understanding.
She looked at those thick giant trees that continuously twisted, coiled, and intertwined like enormous serpents, feeling the suffocating pressure rushing toward her.
Terumi Mei could not help but secretly swallow, her throat moving slightly: "The Fourth Mizukage being defeated so easily by him… seems rather reasonable…"
Before such power, the so-called title of "Kage" appeared utterly pale and powerless.
Genji simply stared blankly ahead, and within his clouded eyes, a trace of reminiscence seemed to flicker as distant memories were forcibly stirred awake.
He seemed to recall several decades ago, the splendor of the First Hokage Senju Hashirama, whose name resounded throughout the shinobi world and who pacified an age of chaos by his strength alone.
That was a shinobi once called the God of the Shinobi World!
His Wood Release was the legendary might capable of instantly creating forests and suppressing Tailed Beasts.
And now, upon a young man from Konohagakure, he actually saw the silhouette of the former God of the Shinobi World!
"Konohagakure…"
Genji murmured, his voice old and hoarse, carrying a faint, indescribably complex emotion: "Could it be that another child of destiny whose power surpasses the entire shinobi world is about to be born?"
…
Meanwhile.
The Kirigakure shinobi trapped inside the "Nativity of a World of Trees" were already drenched in sweat.
Sweat mixed with dust and blood clung to their bodies, cold and sticky.
They despairingly realized that the ninja tools in their hands—tempered countless times, soaked in the blood of enemies—were as laughable as children's toys before Wood Release on this scale.
The kunai in their hands might easily slice open an enemy's throat on the battlefield.
But if they tried to stab a kunai whose blade was only about 0.1 m long into those thick tree trunks, each with an estimated diameter of more than ten meters and still continuously writhing and growing…
They did not even know whether they could pierce through the thick bark!
This was simply ants trying to shake a giant tree.
Moreover...
The Kirigakure shinobi were shocked to find that these giant trees seemed as if they were giant serpents with life, sensing their chakra and positions.
From all directions, from above their heads and beneath their feet, they continuously coiled and squeezed inward toward the living beings within!
As if they intended to completely strangle and crush them here!
The shadow of death, like an icy tide, rapidly flooded every corner.
In desperation, the instinct to survive forced them to squeeze out every bit of remaining chakra, forming seals recklessly and unleashing one Water Release technique after another.
They roared, trying within this ever-shrinking "Nativity of a World of Trees" technique to join forces and blast open a breakthrough.
Even if it was only a small opening that would let them escape.
But a scene that drove despair deep into their bones occurred… When they exhausted their strength and combined the power of several people to use Water Release techniques to blast apart several thick tree trunks and open a temporary gap—
They were shocked to discover that countless newly grown, even thicker trunks had spread in from who-knew-where, filling the shattered gap at an even faster speed.
As though possessing unlimited regenerative ability, they completely sealed up the "breakthrough" they had managed to open with such difficulty.
Even more tightly than before.