Deep Forest Emergence, Bloodline Supremacy

Nawaki slapped his palm onto the ground.

No hand seals.

Mikoto's Sharingan caught that detail—he had even skipped the basic twelve hand seals and simply slammed his palm onto the rubble.

Then the entire canyon exploded.

Not like an explosive tag. It was a tremor that ran from the soles of their feet to their scalps, as if the earth itself had gone into convulsions.

"Senjutsu: Wood Release—"

Nawaki's voice was half drowned out by the sound of the earth splitting apart.

The rock beneath Mikoto's feet cracked, and a tender branch as thick as an arm pushed out through the fissure. She stepped back. The branch swelled at a visible rate, turning in the blink of an eye into a giant tree that would take three people to encircle. It shot thirty meters into the air, its crown smashing directly into the canyon walls on either side.

Not one tree.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

"Deep Forest Emergence."

Mikoto read Nawaki's words through the roar with her Sharingan.

The entire canyon seemed to have been put on fast-forward—the barren field of gravel transformed into a primeval forest within three seconds. Thick trunks burst from underground, shattering the rock strata. Roots spread madly beneath the earth, churning the canyon's foundation into rubble.

The Hidden Stone shinobi who had been charging ran straight into a meat grinder made of living wood.

The six at the very front did not even have time to slow down. Branches burst from beneath their feet and pierced through their sides, skewering them in midair like candied hawthorns.

The people behind them stopped short.

It was useless.

The roots did not stop.

"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"

Four Hidden Stone shinobi formed hand seals at once, and four earthen walls rose from the ground—

The roots smashed them to pieces.

Mikoto crouched three meters behind Nawaki, her Sharingan spinning at full force. She tried to track the flow of chakra through the Wood Release, to see how these trees grew, where they grew, whether there was any pattern to follow.

She could not see it clearly.

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan—the ocular power the Uchiha Clan took such pride in.

Could not keep up.

The Wood Release chakra pathways were too vast. They were not rivers, but tsunamis. Her Sharingan tried to decipher the way that power moved, like using a teacup to measure the sea—it was not an issue of precision, but of scale.

Screams came from every direction.

One massive tree toppled over, crushing three Hidden Stone chunin who had been trying to form a joint defensive formation. The branches of another tree lashed out like whips, slamming a shinobi in the middle of forming hand seals into the rock wall. He was embedded in it, leaving only his legs outside. They twitched twice, then went still.

From beginning to end, Nawaki never moved a second time.

He remained half-crouched with one hand pressed to the ground, his other hand tucked into his pocket.

"Argh—!"

The bearded jonin embedded in the rock wall finally tore himself free. His face was covered in blood, and his left arm was bent at an unnatural angle. It had at least two fractures.

"Earth Style: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique!!"

He compressed all his chakra into a single strike and hurled it down at Nawaki. That blow was enough to flatten a three-story building into a sheet of metal.

A Wood Dragon poked its head out from the canopy.

It was not large. Its entire body was dark brown, layered with overlapping wooden scales, and its eyes were hollow tree knots.

It opened its mouth and bit down on that mass of ultra-heavy rock. Its wooden jaws closed, grinding the stone to pieces.

Then the Wood Dragon lowered its head and looked at the bearded man.

"No—"

The Wood Dragon's mouth pressed against his chest.

Mikoto saw it. The bearded man's skin shriveled at a visible rate, like fruit drained of all its moisture. Chakra, water, life force—all of it was sucked dry by the Wood Dragon.

Three seconds.

A dried corpse fell from the air, hit the gravel, and broke apart.

The canyon fell silent.

Mikoto counted.

Less than forty seconds had passed since Nawaki slapped the ground.

Fifty-three Hidden Stone shinobi. Two jonin. Completely wiped out.

The number of survivors was zero.

The canyon was filled with trees. Corpses hung from the branches, shattered armor lay buried beneath the roots. The night wind swept through the canopy with a rustling sound, like a funeral dirge.

Most absurd of all—the trees were blooming.

White flowers the size of thumbs emerged from the branches in clusters, glaringly bright beneath the moonlight.

The scent of blood mixed with floral fragrance, and Mikoto felt her stomach turn.

Nawaki stood up.

He dusted the dirt from his hands and turned around.

His killing intent vanished faster than a blade being sheathed. One second ago, he had been a monster crushing fifty people into pulp. The next, he walked over to Mikoto with the expression of someone picking her up at the school gate.

"Let me see the injury on your leg."

Mikoto did not move. Not because she did not want to, but because her legs had gone weak. Not from fear—she had already passed that stage.

It was because she suddenly realized something.

The Sharingan could not keep up with Wood Release.

Fugaku's Three-Tomoe Sharingan could not keep up. Even the clan head's Mangekyō Sharingan probably could not keep up. The pride passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan was worthless before this twelve-year-old Senju Clan boy.

And this person, who had been slaughtering people on the battlefield thirty seconds ago, was now crouching before her, pulling bandages from his ninja tool pouch. His movements were gentle, as though he were wrapping up a porcelain doll.

"Tell me if it hurts."

"...It doesn't."

"Your left leg is shaking."

Mikoto shut her mouth.

Nawaki finished wrapping the bandage, then raised his head and looked at her face.

Moonlight spilled through a crack in the canyon, falling across her cheek and illuminating a streak of blood she had not wiped away.

He reached out and wiped the blood away with his thumb.

"Mikoto."

"...Mm."

"Fugaku doesn't want you."

Mikoto's eyelashes trembled.

"I do."

Two words.

Mikoto bit her lower lip. She used all her strength to keep from making a sound, but her shoulders began to shake, trembling harder and harder until she could no longer suppress it.

Nawaki said nothing else. He stood where he was without moving.

Mikoto threw herself at him.

Her forehead struck Nawaki's chest. Her hands clenched his lapels, her knuckles turning white from the force. She did not burst into loud sobs—she could not make such a sound. She only cried into his chest, her shoulders hitching as her whole body shook.

Nawaki raised a hand and rested it on the back of her head, giving it a gentle press.

The wind in the canyon was strong, making the white flowers throughout the forest rustle and sway.

In the distance, footsteps sounded from the direction of the frontal breakout.

Fugaku's voice carried from fifty meters away.

"Nawaki! Mikoto! You—"

The footsteps stopped.

Fugaku saw what the canyon had become.

A forest as far as the eye could see. Corpses covering the ground. And—Mikoto buried in Nawaki's arms, Nawaki's hand resting on her head.

Fugaku's Sharingan widened until it was bloodshot.

Nawaki looked at him over Mikoto's head.

His expression was calm.

"Young Clan Head Fugaku." Nawaki's tone was lazily irritating. "Did the breakout on the right flank go smoothly?"

Fugaku did not answer. His gaze was nailed to Mikoto.

"You—"

"Oh, right." Nawaki cut him off, his voice dropping slightly. "How did that thing you said go again? 'The battlefield isn't like a classroom'?"

He lowered his eyes to look at the Hidden Stone corpses covering the ground.

"You were right. It really isn't the same."

"In the classroom, I only made one flower bloom."

Blood rushed to Fugaku's head. His hand went to the hilt of his ninja sword.

Just then, Mikoto lifted her head from Nawaki's arms.

Her eyes were red, but her gaze was not.

She turned to face Fugaku.

"Lord Fugaku." Her voice was soft, but not a single word trembled. "After we return, I will ask the clan elders to dissolve the engagement."

Fugaku's pupils shrank sharply.

"What did you say?"

Mikoto did not repeat herself. She raised a hand to wipe her face, then turned and walked back behind Nawaki.

The canyon wind rushed through, scattering petals. White petals fell over corpses, over broken stones, and over Fugaku's ashen face.

In Nawaki's mind, the system panel flashed madly.

[Mikoto Uchiha's favorability has surpassed 80—utterly devoted!]

[Bond mission progress updated: 75%!]

[Abnormality detected: traces of "First Hokage cells" cultivation discovered among the remnants of the target stronghold. Evidence of Danzō's Wood Release human experiments being leaked has been automatically collected. View?]

Nawaki did not lower his head to look at the panel.

His gaze passed over Fugaku and landed on a shattered piece of Hidden Stone shinobi armor at the canyon entrance.

Inside a hidden layer of the armor lining, half of a broken test tube fragment glowed with an eerie green light.

He had seen that color in the system database.

It was the nutrient solution used to cultivate First Hokage cells.

"Interesting."

Nawaki's lips twitched.

Why did Hidden Stone shinobi have something from Konoha on them?