"Retreat, now. Retreat!"
At the mountain gate of Kogaku Temple.
The monks stationed before the two guardian statues, Front Demon and Rear Demon, were thrown into utter panic. As they fled into the temple, Inoichi and his shadow clones dragged Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chōza along with them, hauling them inside at full speed. Behind them surged a tide of vegetation, vines and branches flooding in like demons and monsters unleashed.
One step slower, and they would be swallowed whole by the crazily proliferating plants, reduced to nothing more than nourishment for their continued growth.
And yet, even retreating into the temple amounted to little more than clinging to life.
Those towering courtyard walls and the ironwood temple gates posed no real obstacle to the rampant vegetation. The only reason Kogaku temple had not already been erased was that it was not the primary target of Wood Release: Deep Forest Bloom; it had merely been caught in the aftermath.
Otherwise,
it would have taken no more than a dozen seconds for Kogaku Temple be annihilated by the overwhelming force of nature, leaving scarcely a trace that humans had ever lived here.
Even so, being merely "caught in the aftermath" was already a catastrophic calamity for everyone at Kogaku temple.
The monks watched as the mountain gate was engulfed and torn apart by greenery, their cries of despair echoing through the chaos.
The abbot of Kogaku, who had earlier chosen to stay behind, now regretted that decision bitterly.
If only he had known that both Konoha and the Kiri shinobi were nothing but showy incompetents, he would have ordered an evacuation immediately. Now… it was far too late. The spread of the vegetation was simply too fast. Some monks who had hesitated were already being consumed by the plants.
And if no one could stop this rampant growth,
then aside from shinobi famed for extreme speed, like the Yellow Flash, scarcely anyone would escape the hunt of these living woods.
Just moments earlier,
the administrative personnel from Kirigakure's various departments had crowded around Anjō Oniyuzu, all talking over one another. Though each spoke differently, the core of their plea was always the same. Retreat. They urged him relentlessly to issue the order.
However, before they could persuade Anjō Oniyuzu,
the situation took a sudden turn for the worse.
As they stared at the vegetation exploding into growth, every one of them fell silent.
Even as administrative staff, they were not truly powerless civilians. They were all shinobi, and all of them were chūnin. They had simply transferred to desk work for various reasons, stepping away from the battlefield. Their experience, however, had not vanished, nor had their ability to read the situation deteriorated to blindness.
They could see it clearly.
At this point, escape was no longer an option.
The only choice left was to stand their ground and try to hold back the plants.
"Water Release: Water Fang Bullet!"
Biwa Jūzō formed seals and unleashed an offensive Water Release technique.
At this moment, he could not afford to conserve chakra. From terrain with no natural water source to draw upon, he generated a massive surge of water, spinning at high speed like multiple drills as it slammed head-on into the onrushing vegetation.
The destructive power of this high-level Water Release was formidable. The rapidly rotating water possessed tremendous cutting force, shredding the incoming vines and branches into pieces.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Momochi Zabuza was no slower to respond.
He unleashed his own signature high-level Water Release. A thick, roaring water dragon charged forward, flattening a swath of vegetation in its path.
The rest of the group, including the monks of Kogaku temple, followed their lead and joined in. Those who could use ninjutsu cast whatever techniques they had; those without suitable jutsu pulled out explosive tags, kunai, and shuriken, hurling every last ninja tool they had.
This barrage was not entirely ineffective. It did manage to slow the rampant growth of the vines.
Even so, Anjō Oniyuzu's expression remained dark.
His heart was heavy.
This could only hold them temporarily. Once Biwa Jūzō and Zabuza exhausted their chakra, and once the others ran out of explosive tags, they would still be unable to escape this sudden disaster. To truly break free from it…
His gaze swept over Nara Shikaku and the other Konoha shinobi.
This was the Land of Fire, Konoha's territory.
By all rights, Konoha should be the ones to shoulder this burden. Unfortunately, this crisis was simply too great. The Konoha shinobi could not handle it.
Anjō turned his eyes once more toward the distance, to the stone giant that was nearly being swallowed by the vegetation.
At this point, everything depended on whether Kyoichi of the Koeda Clan could repel the enemy.
And yet, watching the vegetation almost completely engulf the stone giant, he could not help but feel uncertain.
However, at that very moment, the tide turned.
---
Atop the stone giant, as the vegetation surged up to his feet, Kyoichi raised his hand and pressed his palm downward toward the vine that slithered upward like a snake. The instant his palm made contact, the vine about to coil around his hand suddenly took on a grayish-white hue.
"Sage Art: Fossil Palm."
Kyoichi murmured softly, speaking the name of this original Sage Art.
This technique was born from his memories of Mount Myōboku's Sage Training, where absorbing too much natural energy led to petrification. Using that phenomenon as a foundation, and combining it with Kirigakure's inherited technique, Ninja Art: Coral Palm, he devoted himself to extensive research and ultimately created Sage Art: Fossil Palm.
Its effect, as the name suggested,
was to turn whatever it struck into stone.
Just like now.
Following the vines, every plant clinging to the stone giant was dyed gray-white, transformed into solid stone. The spread was terrifyingly fast. In the span of just a few breaths, the forest of trees created with Uchiha Hatoha's full strength was entirely petrified into a gray-white stone forest.
In the blink of an eye, the situation reversed in a way no one had expected.
"Tch."
Hatoha immediately reactivated his Susanoo, creating distance between himself and the vegetation beneath his feet, narrowly avoiding petrification. Even so, he could feel that power gnawing at Susanoo itself. Fortunately, Susanoo was a manifestation of condensed chakra, and thus possessed extremely high resistance to such effects.
Even if the outer layer were petrified, a mere circulation of chakra was enough to shed that stony shell.
Still, Hatoha sucked in a sharp breath.
He had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and even Wood Release along with it. His perspective had broadened immensely.
He stared at the fossilized forest for several seconds, then lifted his gaze to the figure standing atop the stone giant. The composure he had worn until now slowly vanished from his face.
Kyoichi of the Koeda Clan.
This rising star who had emerged at the tail end of the Third Great Shinobi War was proving to be an unexpectedly troublesome opponent indeed.