Chapter 121: Capturing Sarutobi Hiruzen Alive
"Beautiful!"
Uchiha Teyaki clapped and cheered.
Not just him—many Konoha ninja who'd just arrived were captivated by this spectacular exchange. They simply weren't as blatant as Uchiha Teyaki in their applause, instead silently cheering in their hearts.
Such high-level combat was truly rare to witness!
After all, if they encountered combatants of this caliber on a battlefield, they wouldn't dare stand on the sidelines observing like this. One careless moment and they'd be swept up and lose their lives.
That's precisely why—
Everyone was in a difficult position.
They seemingly couldn't intervene in this excessively high-level battle. The bone forest Ritsu had created could easily skewer many of them. Forcibly entering would be throwing their lives away pointlessly.
However—
Sarutobi Hiruzen relieved them of this concern.
He also noticed the many ninja gathered around. Standing on the narrow surface of bones as tall as trees, he looked down from his elevated position and ordered in a booming voice, "Everyone listen! Use ninja tools and long-range jutsu to attack the traitor Hyuga Ritsu!"
Hearing his voice, everyone reflexively reached for the ninja tool pouches they carried.
But before anyone could act, Ritsu also summoned his strength and shouted back loudly, "Sarutobi Hiruzen! You're weak and incompetent against external enemies, selling out the village's interests! Internally, you're unjust in your dealings, showing favoritism and bias! You lack tolerance and shield Danzo as he harms village comrades! Where the hell do you get off calling me a traitor? You senile parasite—you're the village's greatest menace!"
"What I've done today isn't rebellion—it's setting things right, restoring clarity to the village!"
His voice was high, loud, his enunciation exceptionally clear.
Everyone around heard this devastating accusation clearly. It made them pause for a moment in their weapon-throwing motions.
But the Third Hokage was, after all, the legitimate Hokage with deep-rooted authority. Even if some among them resonated emotionally with Ritsu's accusations, after that momentary hesitation, they habitually chose to obey the Hokage's orders and launched attacks toward Ritsu.
Ritsu wasn't surprised by this.
It was impossible to make everyone turn their blades through verbal attacks alone, redirecting their weapons at Sarutobi Hiruzen. Because honestly speaking, Hiruzen's rule wasn't as terrible as Ritsu's accusations made it sound. Perhaps Hiruzen's performance these past years hadn't been great, but it wasn't so bad that everyone in the village found it unbearable.
The purpose of these words wasn't to convince anyone to switch sides, but to emphasize that while his actions might be illegal, they possessed righteousness.
If his operation failed, these words would naturally be meaningless. But once he defeated Sarutobi Hiruzen, this stance would become very important.
So what he needed to do now was defeat Sarutobi Hiruzen before all these witnesses, shattering the Third Hokage's powerful, invincible image in everyone's minds.
As for the shuriken and kunai being thrown from both sides—
Ritsu twisted his body slightly. Bones sprouting from his shoulders, arms, and other parts knocked down all these ninja tools. One or two tools grazed his skin, but before the wounds could bleed even a drop, they'd already healed.
"Slanderous dog!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen erupted in fury.
Ritsu's accusations were unbearable. Killing intent erupted from his heart like a volcano. His hands rapidly formed seals, releasing another high-level Earth Release technique.
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld.
In an instant, a large area of surrounding ground suddenly softened into a swamp. Bones as tall and thick as trees slowly sank. Of course, even burning with rage, Sarutobi Hiruzen still precisely controlled the jutsu's coverage area, limiting the Swamp of the Underworld's range perfectly to the edge of everyone's feet.
Ritsu's feet sank into the swamp.
But he remained composed, clapping his hands together.
Wood Release: Advent of a World of Trees.
Thick trees like pythons burst from the swamp, twisting and growing into towering giants. They lifted Ritsu to the treetop canopy while vines snaked up the bones like serpents, pursuing Sarutobi Hiruzen standing on the bone's broken surface.
"Damn it, why does it have to be Wood Release!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen had a massive headache.
As a student of the Second Hokage, he'd received guidance from the First Hokage and witnessed him wielding Wood Release to sweep away all opposition. He understood very clearly just how troublesome Wood Release Kekkei Genkai truly was.
Wood Release combined offense and defense, possessing sealing, suppression, and many other capabilities.
What made it more troublesome was that Ritsu had developed Wood Release to a very high degree. He also possessed massive chakra reserves sufficient to support this enormous consumption. He could easily use ultimate techniques like Advent of a World of Trees.
Hiruzen leaped rapidly to evade pursuing vines and branches, his mind desperately trying to figure out how to possibly defeat Ritsu. Even though relying solely on his current self to defeat Ritsu felt extremely difficult, that wasn't a reason to slack off and not try.
Given the current situation—the Uchiha clan couldn't be trusted, the Ino-Shika-Cho clans were watching the Hyuga, the Aburame, Inuzuka and other clans guarded their gates carefully, contributing minimal effort. The civilian ninja were generally weak in strength...
Of course, most importantly, to deal with Ritsu, relying on human wave tactics would definitely cause massive casualties. The optimal strategy was concentrating top-tier experts for a siege.
But the village currently had limited top-tier experts. Danzo had already been captured. Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu's strength was slightly insufficient. The Nine-Tails jinchuriki shouldn't be mobilized if possible—Uzumaki Kushina needed to watch over Nohara Rin, the immature Three-Tails jinchuriki.
Counting through everyone, the village temporarily couldn't count on any top-tier experts lending a hand. The only thing he could hope for was his shadow clone finding Uzumaki Kushina and contacting Minato at the Land of Hot Water frontline. Then Minato would return with Jiraiya to support the village, and capturing Ritsu would be straightforward.
But before then, he couldn't be complacent. As the saying goes, prolonged defense leads to mistakes—offense was the best defense.
Fire Release: Great Flame Technique.
Watching the relentlessly pursuing vines and branches, Sarutobi Hiruzen had no choice but to form hand seals and release this Fire Release technique passed down through generations of the Sarutobi clan, with concentrated and massive destructive power.
The vines and branches struck by this scorching flame stream instantly burned to ash. Though the flames weren't enough to spread and burn down the entire forest Ritsu had created in one go, they effectively repelled Ritsu's attack.
Standing atop the tree canopy, Ritsu was also thinking.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's difficulty was somewhat beyond Ritsu's expectations. Though the title "Strongest Hokage" was a joke, Hiruzen genuinely had real skill. At least the titles "Shinobi Hero" and "Professor of Ninjutsu" carried genuine weight.
Capturing Sarutobi Hiruzen alive really wasn't easy.
"I was planning to hold this back!"
Ritsu muttered to himself.
However, things had reached this point. Naturally, he needed to press forward in one breath and achieve victory. Trump cards were meant to be used. After using this one, he'd continue working hard to create new trump cards. Besides, using this move would effectively avoid harassment from the surroundings.
Following Sarutobi Hiruzen's orders, the surrounding ninja were either throwing shuriken or forming seals to release jutsu attacks. The jonin's jutsu attacks truly couldn't be completely ignored—it was getting annoying.
And Sensei Hiruko was still entangled with Enma.
It had to be said, Sarutobi Hiruzen was truly formidable. His summoning beast Enma was ridiculously strong. That indestructible adamantine body made it nearly immune to all physical attacks. Even though Ritsu had temporarily disabled one arm using Gentle Fist, Enma could still trade blows with Hiruko, preventing Hiruko from achieving victory.
But that couldn't be helped. Ritsu's innate Hyuga bloodline, after fusing with the Kaguya and Senju bloodlines, had walked the path of atavism. The three bloodlines could complement each other to some degree. This meant he didn't need to painstakingly research—he directly inherited many transmissions from the bloodline, naturally comprehending how to use these Kekkei Genkai. It was equivalent to ascending in one step.
But Hiruko hadn't enjoyed this benefit. He'd only gained power without inheriting the bloodline's transmissions. In other words, he had to research step by step. Unfortunately, time was too short—he didn't have many research results yet. Being able to fight the injured Enma to a standstill already showed impressive performance.
After all, relying on that indestructible adamantine body and battle-hardened taijutsu, ordinary jonin weren't Enma's match.
As for Uchiha Izumo and Uchiha Teyaki nearby, these two Uchiha jonin hadn't followed the crowd in attacking him, but obviously couldn't strike at Sarutobi Hiruzen in full view of everyone either.
In other words, he still had to rely on himself to capture Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Thinking this, he made his decision.
He slammed his hands together. In an instant, half the chakra in his body was consumed. But he successfully used the strongest Wood Release technique he'd comprehended after seizing Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.
Wood Release: Wood Human Technique.
The next second, from the forest beneath his feet emerged a fierce-faced, muscle-bound, thirty-meter-tall wooden giant resembling the wrathful guardian deities worshipped in temples—a massive wooden figure descended upon Konoha Village.
"How is this possible?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen cried out in shock.
"He's even mastered the Wood Human Technique? This—this is impossible!"
His expression twisted grotesquely.
He thought he'd already estimated Ritsu's abilities as highly as possible, but the Wood Human Technique truly wasn't in his considerations. The First Hokage had used the Wood Human Technique to counter Madara Uchiha's Susanoo. In other words, aside from Madara Uchiha, almost no one was qualified to make the First Hokage use this technique.
Looking up at the wooden giant as towering as a mountain—
An irrepressible sense of powerlessness welled up in Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart. How was he supposed to fight this colossal thing? Though he mastered a thousand jutsu and possessed means to deal with the equally colossal Nine-Tails...
But the problem was, this thing was definitely harder to deal with than the Nine-Tails. Because no Kage-level powerhouse stood atop the tailed beast's head assisting it in battle. In the past, when humans stood atop the Nine-Tails' head, only the First Hokage could handle it.
Despair involuntarily permeated his heart!
Had he known Ritsu had even mastered the Wood Human Technique, he definitely wouldn't have chosen to clash head-on with Ritsu. But unfortunately, the world had no "ifs," no "had I known."
Similarly, the Konoha ninja attacking Ritsu all stopped, staring at this colossal entity. For a moment, they were all at a loss. How were they supposed to fight something this big?
The ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu they mastered were all developed and researched to target humans—to more efficiently kill their own kind, not to hunt such colossal creatures.
While everyone stood bewildered or racked their brains seeking countermeasures, Ritsu had no intention of patiently waiting for them to figure out solutions. Standing atop the wooden giant's head, his gaze locked onto Sarutobi Hiruzen.
The next second, the wooden giant kicked out.
Everything along the path—bones, trees, walls, and houses—all shattered with resounding crashes. This single kick's destructive power rivaled high-level jutsu. Its attack range was considerable, its speed extreme.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had no way to evade in his haste. Substitution Technique was useless. Body Flicker had limited movement range. At this moment, the only option was defense. He formed hand seals and used Earth Release.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Rampart.
This was an advanced Earth Release technique, the superior version of Earth-Style Wall. Sarutobi Hiruzen expelled refined Earth Release chakra. Landing on the ground, it formed a line of earth that, in barely an instant, grew and proliferated madly. In less than the blink of an eye, it became a wall over ten meters tall, as imposing as a castle fortress.
A thunderous "boom!"
The wooden giant's kick struck the wall, creating thick cracks. Millstone-sized rubble flew everywhere. Billowing dust surged skyward.
Though teetering on collapse, it had indeed blocked the wooden giant's kick.
But the wooden giant's second strike followed immediately. Though massive in size, its movements weren't sluggish at all. The second kick followed up, directly toppling the wall. Giant stones rolled in all directions, crushing building after building—the civilians had all been evacuated, so there was no worry about harming innocents.
However, after delivering the second kick and completely shattering the earthen wall, the wooden giant stopped.
Because Sarutobi Hiruzen had used Earth Release Underground Projection Technique, burrowing underground to avoid the wooden giant's unmatched edge.
Though he clearly understood this behavior was drinking poison to quench thirst, he had no other options. Not one of the thousand jutsu he mastered could resolve the current crisis. He could only stall for as long as possible!
Once the wooden giant appeared, he'd clearly realized he couldn't possibly defeat Hyuga Ritsu. Delaying as long as possible was his only choice.
"Third Hokage, did you think burrowing underground would leave me helpless? Don't forget—I have these eyes!"
Standing atop the wooden giant's head, the corners of Ritsu's mouth lifted as he murmured softly. His Byakugan could clearly see Sarutobi Hiruzen's every move underground.
He formed hand seals and used another Wood Release technique.
Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall.
In the depths invisible to ordinary human eyes, tree roots madly grew and extended downward, reaching Sarutobi Hiruzen's side and directly binding him.
Deep underground, Sarutobi Hiruzen had no power to resist. While using Earth Release Underground Projection, he couldn't fight. The deep underground space was compact and enclosed—forget fighting, he couldn't even freely extend his limbs.
In short, Sarutobi Hiruzen was captured alive just like that!