Wood Release Exposed

In the dozen or so days after the clan massacre, Sasuke did not appear at the Ninja Academy. A heavy, eerie silence hung over the class. Even Naruto, usually the loudest of them all, often stared blankly at Sasuke's empty seat.

Finally, under Iruka's arrangement, several classmates who knew Sasuke well decided to visit him at the hospital together.

The hospital room smelled of disinfectant and loneliness. Sasuke reclined against the headboard, gazing vacantly out the window, barely reacting to the group that entered. Sunlight streamed through the glass and fell across him, yet it seemed unable to reach his eyes at all.

"Sasuke! We came to see you!" Naruto was the first to rush in, awkwardly clutching a slightly wilted bouquet. "Look! Ino picked these. She said they'd cheer you up... Hurry up and get better, okay? I'm still waiting for you to take back the dead-last title!"

Sasuke's eyes seemed to shift slightly, but that was all. He did not look at the flowers or at Naruto. His gaze remained fixed on some distant point beyond the window.

Ino gently tugged on Naruto, signaling for him not to be so loud.

There was no response. Sasuke did not even change the rhythm of his breathing.

Sakura stood at the back, her eyes already red. Her hands were tightly twisted together, but she did not dare step forward to speak.

Iruka felt a pang in his heart. He stepped forward, intending to pat Sasuke's shoulder, but his raised hand fell again. In the end, he merely said gently, "Sasuke, get some rest. Don't worry about school. Everyone... everyone cares about you."

The silence remained as deathly as ever. Sasuke was like an exquisite doll stripped of its soul. All warmth, concern, and noise were shut outside by an invisible barrier. The visit became a one-sided monologue, and the room grew increasingly thick with awkwardness and helplessness.

After staying for a while and seeing that Sasuke had no intention of communicating, everyone could only leave one after another, carrying worry and disappointment with them. Even at the door, Naruto turned back unwillingly and called out, "Hey! Sasuke! I'll come again tomorrow!"

Qianyu was the last to leave. He reached the door and placed his hand on the handle, pausing briefly before gently closing it, cutting off the corridor outside.

Only two people remained in the hospital room, along with a suffocating silence.

Qianyu turned around. He did not approach, merely standing in the middle of the room as he looked at the figure that seemed isolated from the entire world.

"Your brother is a beast."

Sasuke's vacant gaze shifted, focusing on Qianyu's face.

"He didn't even spare the children." Qianyu continued, each word striking the dead-silent air. "Yes, Clan Head Fugaku hid children away—twenty of them. In an underground secret chamber somewhere within the clan compound. But your brother found it. By the time my people discovered it, it was already too late."

Sasuke's breath abruptly stopped, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. He only stared at Qianyu with all his might.

"I advise you to stay calm." Qianyu met his gaze, his tone flat. "Itachi alone could not have killed that many people, much less precisely located a hidden place that even ordinary clan members did not know about. He had help. And the force behind him is far stronger than what you can see right now."

"What do you know?!" Sasuke finally roared, his body trembling slightly with agitation. The single tomoe Sharingan in his eyes awakened beneath the crushing impact of ultimate hatred and the truth. "You're Uchiha too, aren't you?! Why do you know these things?!"

Qianyu did not deny it with his eyes. He only shook his head. "There's no point dwelling on that now. You only need to remember this: your enemies, and mine, are far more than just Itachi."

He took a step forward, lowering his voice, though it became even clearer. "Do you remember the conversation I had with your father at the barbecue restaurant? He may have already sensed this ending.

Konoha needs the Uchiha's strength, but not an Uchiha that could explode at any moment. You, the 'sapling' deliberately left behind, are the newborn Uchiha in their calculations."

The tomoe in Sasuke's eyes spun madly. Confusion, hatred, and a trace of coldness forcefully awakened within him intertwined.

"Grow well, Sasuke." Qianyu spoke one final time, turning toward the door. "Train hard. Become strong—strong enough to see through every shadow, strong enough to... keep yourself alive before deciding who to take revenge on."

The door closed softly.

The hospital room sank back into absolute silence. Pale moonlight filtered through the window and fell upon Sasuke's pale, twisted face.

The single tomoe in his eyes slowly turned, reflecting hollow darkness. And deep within that darkness, something colder, larger, and more despairing than mere hatred for his brother was quietly beginning to grow.

He clenched the bedsheet tightly, his nails digging into his palms until blood seeped out.

That evening, Qianyu returned to the wooden cabin on the outskirts.

The instant the door opened, Qianyu knew something was wrong. It was too quiet. Abin did not come to greet him as usual. He merely hid in the shadows by the entrance, his expression taut as he swiftly made two hand signs.

Two people. Inner room.

Qianyu's heart sank. He nodded lightly, lowering his voice to barely a whisper. "If I don't reveal my Sharingan, don't come out. Retreat."

Abin's figure silently sank into the floor.

Qianyu turned to face the seemingly empty cabin, his fingers tightening around a kunai. "Come out."

There was no reply. Only two black shadows pounced down from the beams like a torn night sky! Their animal masks were cold and expressionless. Root.

"Lord Danzo requests your presence." The leader's voice was flat, utterly devoid of emotion. "Do not resist."

Qianyu answered by throwing his kunai first! Clang! It was easily knocked aside. But that strike broke the stalemate.

The battle erupted in the small courtyard in an instant.

Root's ninja did not care about rules. They sought only efficiency. One launched a frontal assault, his kunai carving a deadly arc straight for a vital point; the other moved like a ghost, sealing off every angle of escape.

Qianyu could only barely hold on through instinct and the taijutsu he had painstakingly trained for years. He dodged a blow aimed at his heart, but the other man's blade sliced open his arm. The pain burned fiercely.

Beneath the floor, Abin scurried around in panic. He could see every one of Qianyu's perilous dodges, see blood spreading through his clothes. But he could not come out to help.

An opening appeared at the thirty-seventh second.

Qianyu blocked a heavy frontal strike, but lacked the strength to withstand it and staggered from the impact. The ninja on his flank had already slipped in like a venomous snake, driving a vicious kick into the side of his abdomen. A burst of agony! Qianyu grunted and crashed into the wall, the air crushed from his lungs. His vision blurred for an instant.

When his eyes refocused, a glint of cold steel was already expanding before him—aimed at his throat. The aura of death was icy and bone-deep.

Was this the end?

No.

Something colder and more primal erupted from deep within his body, from the very end of his bloodline! It was not driven by will, but by the instinctive roar of a creature cornered to death!

The floor exploded!

Not thick trees, but countless wooden spikes shooting out wildly, interwoven vines forming a crude yet tenacious barrier before him!

"Wood Release?!" The attacker's voice cracked for the first time, filled with absolute shock.

But orders took precedence over everything. "Kill!" The brief pause was replaced by an even fiercer assault. The wooden barrier rapidly crumbled beneath the precise cuts of kunai.

Qianyu watched splinters scatter through the air, watched that glint of cold steel pierce through the obstruction once more and stab toward him.

This time, he had truly reached his limit. Had he lost the gamble? Abin...

Just before the tip of the kunai touched his skin—

Time seemed to freeze.

A figure appeared between him and death without warning. The hem of a dark crimson Hokage robe brushed across his cheek.

Clang!

A standard short blade steadily blocked the kunai. Two ANBU who had appeared at some unknown point stood guard at either side of that figure like shadows.

Qianyu coughed violently and raised eyes blurred by sweat and blood to look at that person's back.

The broad Hokage hat, the familiar robe.

He slumped weakly against the wall. His lungs burned with pain, yet a cold clarity spread through his heart.

He had won the gamble.

Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Lawless!" An ANBU shouted coldly and moved in an instant. The joints of the two Root ninjas were cleanly dislocated, and they were pinned to the ground. Yet they continued to struggle, their eyes behind their masks fixed on Qianyu as though their mission had not been called off.

The Third Hokage slowly turned around. He did not look at the Root members on the ground first. Instead, his gaze fell upon Qianyu—or, more precisely, upon the wooden remnants beside Qianyu that were gradually losing their vitality and withering away.

Under the dim yellow light, Hiruzen Sarutobi's face revealed no expression. Only within those eyes that had seen the vicissitudes of life surged an extraordinarily complex mixture of shock and doubt. His silence lasted so long that the air itself seemed to freeze.

"Hokage... sir?" Qianyu spoke first, his voice hoarse, trembling with the aftermath of survival and carrying just the right amount of confusion. "Who... are they? Why were they trying to kill me?"

Only then did Hiruzen Sarutobi shift his gaze away from the traces of Wood Release and onto Qianyu's young face, covered in exhaustion and blood. His voice was steady, yet carried an unquestionable conclusion. "Spies from an enemy nation who infiltrated the village, intending to abduct or kill a child with potential. They have now been subdued."

He paused, taking a small step forward. His gaze enveloped Qianyu with tangible pressure. "Child, the power you used just now... do you know what it was?"

Qianyu was still breathing heavily. He lowered his head to look at his slightly trembling hands, which had unconsciously unleashed the technique. His face showed a mixture of lingering fear and confusion. "I... I don't know. I just... I just felt like I was about to die, and then my body just... it was like something burst out of me... That was...?"

He raised his head, his eyes filled entirely with confusion, even carrying a trace of a student's unease before an unknown power.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at him for several seconds, then slowly nodded. No emotion could be heard in his voice. "That was Wood Release. The bloodline limit that the First Hokage, Lord Hashirama Senju, used to pacify the warring era."

"The First Hokage?!" Qianyu's display of shock was flawless. His pupils contracted, and his voice rose slightly with agitation. "How could I possibly..."

"This matter requires a thorough investigation." Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted him, his tone turning reassuring while retaining unquestionable authority. He tilted his head and signaled to the ANBU beside him. "Take this child to the medical unit for proper treatment. Afterward, make a detailed record of what happened during tonight's attack." Looking at Qianyu, his voice softened somewhat. "There is no need to be afraid. You are a ninja of Konoha. The village will protect you, and it will uncover the truth."

"Yes... Thank you, Lord Hokage!" Qianyu lowered his head and allowed the ANBU to help him up. He let them inject chakra into his body to examine his injuries, appearing obedient and reliant.

Hiruzen Sarutobi said nothing more. He cast one final deep look at the subdued Root ninjas on the ground, his gaze dark and unreadable. Then, with a soft poof, the Hokage's figure dissolved into a cloud of white smoke.

Hokage's Office

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood before the window with his back to the door. The light of the pipe in his hand flickered uncertainly, while thick smoke nearly enveloped him.

The office was so quiet that the faint crackling of burning tobacco could be heard.

There was a knock at the door, steady and measured.

"Come in." Hiruzen Sarutobi did not turn around.

The door opened, and Danzo Shimura entered with his cane. His single eye appeared especially deep in the office lighting. Behind him, the two advisers, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, entered in turn, puzzled expressions on their faces.

"At this late hour, Hiruzen, why have you urgently summoned us?" Koharu Utatane asked.

Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly turned around. His usual gentleness was absent from his face, replaced only by grave solemnity. Rather than answering directly, he fixed his gaze firmly on Danzo. His voice was not loud, but it made the air grow heavy.

"Danzo, I need an explanation for the attempted assault and assassination of an Academy student in the forest east of the village tonight."

Danzo's single eye narrowed slightly, colliding soundlessly with Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze in midair.

The atmosphere in the office suddenly tightened.