The earth began to crack apart. Thick tree trunks burst from the ground, and lush, leafy trees sprang up in clusters, spreading into groves. At an overwhelmingly forceful pace of growth, they drastically altered the surrounding terrain.
In a short time, a small forest had appeared out of nowhere before Kaisan I and the others.
"This is... the First Hokage's Wood Release?" Kaisan I watched the scene unfold in shock.
To the ninja world, Senju Hashirama—the man who had founded the ninja village system and forcibly ended the thousand-year age of ninja warfare with his incomparably powerful Wood Release—was, like that Uchiha Asura, a legendary and renowned figure.
Compared to the Uchiha, whose Sharingan remained active in the ninja world, the Senju Clan, once equally famous, had nearly vanished without a trace. Their fabled and immensely powerful Wood Release had naturally become a lost art as well.
To Kaisan I, the sight before him was almost like an illusion!
The trees' branches began to blanket the area covered by the forest. Thick limbs continuously grew from the trunks and lashed toward Kaisan I and his companions.
Bang!
The branches whipped down from above like heavy lashes. Limbs as thick as the bodies of giant snakes attacked the Cloud Shinobi one after another.
Above and below, left and right, from every direction—unexpected attacks came from everywhere, like venomous snakes lurking in the shadows, poised to hunt the prey they had spotted.
Kaisan I and the other five constantly dodged the branches, repeatedly changing direction within an ever-shrinking space, forced to leap and evade through increasingly limited gaps.
During their evasions, a companion would occasionally be caught by a branch extending from nowhere. Then, the surrounding branches would swarm over him, binding and imprisoning him within the wood.
In only a few