Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep draw from his pipe as he looked at the photo of the two young men with delinquent hairstyles.
"If Kazamatsuri Masaki can awaken Wood Release, he may indeed become a powerful helper. But this Haruno Mebuki..."
He tapped the photo of the young man with the five-pointed-star hairstyle with his pipe. "Even if he awakens it, what use would it be?"
As the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen had personally encountered Senju Hashirama before. He was not blindly credulous like those who had only heard scraps of legends about the First Hokage.
Things like Wood Release being the greatest ninjutsu under heaven, or awakening Wood Release making one invincible...
Those claims might fool ignorant children, but they could not fool him, the Professor of Ninjutsu.
To the Third Hokage, who had mastered all the basic elemental styles, what was Wood Release?
It was merely a Kekkei Genkai formed by fusing Water Release and earth-nature chakra in a special ratio.
Fundamentally, it was not much more advanced than dual-element Kekkei Genkai techniques like Ice Release or Lava Release.
It was even less comparable to Dust Release, a three-element Kekkei Tōta.
Then why had the First Hokage's Wood Release been able to crush an entire era and render him invincible, while the Tsuchikage's theoretically superior Dust Release could not?
It could only be said that there truly were differences between people.
In other words, it was the First Hokage himself who was powerful, not this so-called Wood Release.
So what if an ordinary chunin like Haruno Mebuki gained Wood Release? His chakra might not even be enough to make a single ship!
Wouldn't that be a waste of effort?
However, Orochimaru did not agree with that view.
He stuck out his tongue and licked the corner of his