"Kakashi, time's up. I'm done playing with you!"
Uchiha Ao called out to Kakashi, then slipped into the dense forest and vanished.
"Trying to run? Not a chance—"
Kakashi tried to stop him, but a rampaging forest was all that greeted him. Endless vines burst forth as though the trees were alive, attacking him from every direction.
Uchiha Ao didn't look back.
Nor did he hold back for fear of harming his clansmen now that Uchiha Inabi and the others had arrived.
He hadn't even glanced at them once during the whole fight.
There was no need.
Those Uchiha who couldn't tell right from wrong...
weren't worth wasting his time and energy on.
Since they'd chosen to interfere, they could prepare to become his enemies.
He wasn't going to abandon his plans just because they were Uchiha.
Uchiha Inabi was about to join the fight, and the people behind him tried to give chase, but thick Wood Release vines quickly ensnared them, leaving them unable to escape.
"Captain... What is this!?"
"Living trees—no, this is... This is Wood Release!"
"Captain! Help me..."
"Ah!"
"Aaaaaah!"
"These roots are so fast..."
"It's over... I can't dodge!"
The Konoha Ninja who had rushed over, Uchiha included, were thrown into chaos. In moments, they had all been badly wounded amid the dense forest.
Kakashi took the brunt of the attack. Dozens of roots wove into a dense net, pinning him firmly in place.
Kakashi had excellent combat instincts and plenty of experience fighting enemies, but this was his first time facing a Wood Release technique.
He couldn't find a way out in time.
The rapidly growing forest of roots turned into a deadly pack of hunters. Under Uchiha Ao's control, they swarmed around every enemy, launching lethal attacks without pause.
The Konoha Ninja caught in Deep Forest Emergence were already scrambling just to dodge.
A casual move from the First was enough to put ordinary ninja in mortal danger.
Kakashi couldn't afford to waste any more time. Gritting his teeth, he rapidly formed Hand Seals. He gathered the little Chakra he had left, raised his fingers to his mouth, and cried, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A huge fireball burst from his mouth, draining what little Chakra he had left.
The fireball quickly carved out a clearing.
The scorching flames didn't stop the roots from attacking.
But they did slow the forest's spread.
The expansion of Deep Forest Emergence was held in check.
Fire Style worked.
But Kakashi was in a terrible state.
He had given everything to keep his comrades from being killed.
The price was several holes torn through his body by vines. All he could do was watch Uchiha Ao leave, powerless to stop him.
The Uchiha who had joined the fight partway through fared even worse. Several of them were only Chunin, not even strong enough to dodge the vines and roots.
They couldn't put up any effective resistance when the vines ambushed them. The roots pierced their bodies, leaving them hanging from the trees as they bled to death.
The roots drained the Chakra from their bodies, killing them.
This forest of Wood Release had become a battlefield of death, and the weak were slaughtered with ease.
At Orochimaru's residence, not far away,
everyone's attention was drawn to the commotion in the distance.
That was...
Wood Release!
Who was fighting over there!?
The Third had just quelled the unrest in Anbu. His eyes widened, his breath caught, and his pupils shrank as he stared at the forest that had suddenly appeared.
As time passed, the woods spread all the way to the Forest of Death, joining up with it.
"This is... Deep Forest Emergence! I haven't seen it in over forty years... At this scale, it has half the power of the First..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen got to his feet and pulled away from the two subordinates tending his wounds. His breathing grew ragged, and his whole body stiffened.
A scene he'd witnessed as a child rose unbidden in his mind.
How long had it been?
The First's unmatched power...
He was seeing it again at last!
Who was it!?
"Could it be Orochimaru...?"
He remembered some of the experiments Anko had once reported to him. They involved research into the First's cells.
Had Orochimaru held back just now?
What was his former student planning?
He hadn't seen it coming at all!
"Orochimaru, I can't believe you'd commit such a desecration of our forebears... This time, I won't let you get away!"
At that moment,
the Third stopped pretending. He picked up a bandage and tightly wrapped his injured left hand, then hurried toward the site of Deep Forest Emergence.
Meanwhile,
Shimura Danzō, who had just left the Hokage's office, was nearly at the battlefield.
Uchiha Ao was nowhere to be seen.
All that remained was a battlefield ravaged by Deep Forest Emergence, strewn with wreckage.
Kakashi was wrapping his wounds with white bandages. His face was deathly pale—a clear sign he'd lost too much blood.
Uchiha Ao...
He silently repeated the name, a flicker of apprehension in his eyes.
That brat who used to follow Obito around had grown so powerful.
Wood Release...
Could this be the result of Orochimaru's research?
He'd actually managed to bring the First's Kekkei Genkai back into the world.
What kind of experiment could have been worth Orochimaru abandoning his position in Konoha, and Uchiha Ao giving up his place among the Uchiha and fleeing the village?
Kakashi couldn't make sense of it.
"Kakashi! What happened here!?"
Shimura Danzō appeared in front of him, warily sizing up the few Uchiha nearby. Every one of them was wounded.
Good. They probably wouldn't put up much of a fight if he made a move.
"Lord Danzō, you're here!"
"I was pursuing Orochimaru when Uchiha Ao blocked me—"
Kakashi immediately got to his feet and bowed. He gritted his teeth as he answered through the pain.
Danzō was the leader of Anbu and his direct superior.
He could decide Kakashi's future with a single word.
Kakashi had to treat him with caution.
The Uchiha!
"So the Uchiha were behind this? In that case..."
Danzō picked up on the key detail, and a knowing smile flickered in his eyes.
Turning the situation to his advantage!
That was his specialty.
Danzō raised his cane high and slammed it hard against the ground. With a loud thud, he spoke in a chilling voice:
"Arrest every Uchiha here! They're suspected of helping the S-rank rogue ninja Orochimaru escape Konoha..."
"Don't let a single one get away!"
"If they resist, kill them!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Anbu members who had followed him immediately surrounded the surviving Uchiha.
Uchiha Inabi, who was nearby helping his subordinates bandage their wounds, noticed the hostile looks from the Anbu and went pale.
In their effort to support Anbu, the Uchiha had lost seven clansmen from their three squads. Only four of them had survived...
Yet when the village's Anbu arrived, they didn't even ask what had happened. Instead, they went straight for them without a hint of courtesy.
Uchiha Inabi rose to his feet, aggrieved and unwilling to accept it, and looked at Shimura Danzō.
"Lord Danzō! We're with the Police Force. We only came to take a look because we noticed a fight over here. We weren't trying to help Orochimaru escape..."
Uchiha Inabi still tried to reason with him.
But the Anbu answered with their fists. Surrounded by more than a dozen Anbu, they received no consideration from Shimura Danzō.
He wasn't even willing to hear a single word of explanation.
As he listened to Kakashi recount what had happened on the battlefield, Danzō was shaken to the core.
Orochimaru... That man had kept parts of his research hidden from him.
Even after the Third tried to capture him and Anbu hunted him down, he'd still had enough power to fight back. He'd even toyed with Kakashi.
And the Uchiha who had shown up to help Orochimaru... Was he another of Orochimaru's planted agents?
"So this Wood Release was Uchiha Ao's doing!? That name sounds familiar!"
Danzō murmured, unconsciously rubbing the handle of his cane as he sank into thought.
"Lord Danzō... He's the Uchiha who was with Orochimaru. He only joined him recently."
Yamanaka Fu stepped forward to answer.
"You had someone investigate him before. The report came in this morning."
He took a scroll from his pocket and handed it over.
The investigation had been completed some time ago, and he'd been carrying the report with him. But Lord Danzō hadn't asked about it, and Fu had been busy, so he'd forgotten to turn it in.
He'd thought Uchiha Ao was an unimportant nobody. When he sent people to seize the "Kinoe" test subject, he'd planned to have them take care of Ao along the way.
After that, he hadn't paid him any more attention.
Before you continue