Beside them.
Following the principle of leniency for confessing first, Shinju stepped forward.
"Sorry, Hokage-sama… I really was trying to hold back, but I didn't expect…"
The Third still refused to believe it, his sharp gaze turning to Yamato.
"Yamato, you even taught this kid to take the blame for you?!"
Yamato: So no matter what, it's all my fault, huh?!
The real culprit has already stepped forward, and you still don't believe it, old man.
Do you really not know my limits?
Even if I trained for another thirty years, I couldn't create even one-fifth of this forest!
"It really was me, Hokage-sama…"
Shinju quickly spoke up in Yamato's defense.
"At the time, Yamato-sensei told me to test my understanding of Wood Release and go all out. I just… lost control for a moment."
By now, the Third had finally begun to realize.
Such a massive forest… Yamato, apparently, maybe, probably, didn't actually have that kind of ability…
ヽ( ຶ▮ ຶ)ﾉ!!!
Could it be
It really was Shinju!
At this point, the Third was already seventy to eighty percent convinced by Shinju's words.
The shock was so great that the man who had ruled over Konoha for decades felt his very breath pause.
Just now, what did Shinju say again…
He had already been holding back his power, yet still caused damage on this scale!
Which meant—
This forest, large enough to lift the entire Konoha, wasn't even Shinju's full strength!
The brat had been holding back!
No—wait—the most important point wasn't even that!
From the moment he'd told Yamato to teach Shinju Wood Release until now… it had only been two days!
Two days, and this kid had learned the First Hokage's Nativity of a World of Trees?!!
And not just learned it—its power was this overwhelming!!
The Third sucked in a cold breath.
This child… was terrifying beyond belief.
Thinking this, for some reason, the Third suddenly didn't feel so angry anymore.
In fact, he even felt a little… pleased?!
After all, if Yamato and Shinju's testimonies were true…
Then Konoha might very well be about to give birth to the next God of Shinobi.
One who could stand alongside—or even surpass—the First Hokage!
Still, as a wily veteran who had led the village for so many years, the Third hid his shock and excitement well, keeping a serious expression before Shinju.
"Shinju, do you understand how much trouble you've caused?"
Shinju lowered his head, too afraid to speak.
He could already picture himself suffering miserably in prison for decades to come.
The Third continued his reprimand.
"Last time, I already told you—never use large-scale, destructive jutsu in the middle of the village."
"And now? You went and flipped the entire village upside down!"
"You should be grateful that only a few people suffered scrapes from the trees and no one died this time."
"Otherwise, you'd be spending the rest of your life in Konoha's prison!"
At those last words, Shinju's heart lifted a little.
From the Hokage's tone, it sounded like he wouldn't be locked up for too long.
He quickly replied, "Yes, Hokage-sama. I'll be more careful from now on. Ծ ̮Ծ"
The Third's eyes rolled.
"Oh? You still think there will be a 'next time'?"
Shinju's neck shrank.
"No, no! I'll never use ninjutsu inside the village again!"
"Good. Now think—can you come up with any way to fix this mess?"
The Third's face remained dark.
Shinju put on a thoughtful expression.
In his mind, the best option was to just blow up the entire village and then rebuild it all with Wood Release.
But if he suggested that out loud, he'd probably get smacked by the Hokage on the spot...
Yamato reminded him from the side, "Once Wood Release creates real trees, you can't just take them back."
"Right now, the only option is to mobilize the villagers to cut down the excess trees and then organize reconstruction..."
"For now, that's all we can do."
The Third's eyes held a trace of helplessness.
When he finished, his heavy gaze fell on Shinju again.
"You. Don't think you're getting away that easily—copy the Shinobi Rules ten thousand times!"
Shinju almost laughed in relief.
He'd thought this disaster guaranteed him a prison sentence, but instead, the Hokage had gone easy on him—just making him copy a book.
And for someone with Shadow Clone Jutsu, copying was child's play.
The Third clearly anticipated that Shinju might try to slack off and added, "No clones allowed. If I catch you once, I'll add another hundred thousand times! (눈益눈)"
"Got it!"
Shinju nodded seriously.
The Third let out a long sigh, waved his hand, and told Shinju to go home and get some sleep.
He would've liked to lock the boy up for a while—after all, in just two days Shinju had already caused him plenty of headaches.
But in the end, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Once Shinju left, Yamato wasn't so lucky.
The Third chewed him out for incompetence well into the middle of the night.
...
Meanwhile—
When Shinju returned to Naruto's place, he realized that Naruto's home had also been lifted by his Nativity of a World of Trees.
The little house now sat atop a tree canopy, and Naruto was nowhere to be found.
Only now did Shinju truly grasp the scale of the mess he'd made.
He did have a bit of a sense of responsibility.
Seeing how the village had suffered because of his mistake, he decided he had to do something to make up for it.
With a determined look, he formed hand seals.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"Shhhhhh—"
Over a thousand shadow clones split off from Shinju, spreading throughout Konoha to help with the post-disaster reconstruction.
Elsewhere—
In the middle of berating Yamato, the Third saw Shinju's clones passing by and couldn't help but feel a wave of relief.
It seemed he had been right about this boy.
Shinju was definitely worth cultivating.
All his attention on him wasn't in vain.
"This kid has such a promising future," Yamato said sincerely.
"Cut the crap and get to work helping with the rebuilding!"
The Third gave Yamato a sharp kick.
Yamato took the hint and slipped away.
...
The next day—
All of Konoha was busily engaged in post-disaster reconstruction.
Since the Ninja Academy had been destroyed by the massive trees and it was almost time for final exams, classes couldn't be stopped.
The teachers moved lessons to an open space somewhere in the village.
The students on the grass chattered among themselves.
"I still don't get it. Where did all these trees in Konoha come from?" Sakura asked.
"My guess is, it was a Wood Release jutsu from some shinobi with Kage-level strength," Shikamaru said.
"Don't be ridiculous. Ever since the First Hokage died, Konoha hasn't had anyone inherit the Wood Release bloodline, let alone someone with Kage-level power," Kiba said.
(Normal students didn't know about Yamato in the ANBU.)
A random shinobi passing by said,
"No Wood Release users? You think that because you're not high enough to access that kind of information."
"Wood Release is far too valuable for the village to abandon."
"I heard that back when Orochimaru hadn't defected yet, he secretly conducted experiments on the First Hokage's cells... This Wood Release user might very well be one of his creations!"
Hearing their classmates' wild theories, Shinju felt a strange unease.
Wood Release was the exclusive bloodline of the First Hokage—so why could he use it?
He searched through every memory of his body's original owner, but found nothing related. Doubt about his own identity began to creep in.
He had thought he'd just transmigrated into a weak, ordinary shinobi, but it turned out this body might actually have some remarkable bloodline?
As the class grew more animated in discussion, Iruka-sensei walked over with a stack of papers.
"Alright, everyone, settle down. We're doing a test today."
"Another test?!"
The students instantly wilted like frostbitten eggplants.
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