Silent Forest

After dealing with the Kusanagi Clan, Yayoi and Kicho did not immediately return to Nightview City. Instead, they parted ways with Kakuzu and Aburame Yuto and headed north through the Land of Night.

Along the way, Yayoi explored the abilities of the Kusanagi Sword he had just obtained.

"Besides absorbing chakra, this Kusanagi Sword should have other abilities. For example, it can transfer the chakra it absorbs into its wielder's body. It can also release absorbed chakra as shockwaves... Looking at it now, it was fortunate that I killed the Kusanagi Clan head directly. Otherwise, things would have been far more troublesome."

It did not take Yayoi long to roughly figure out the Kusanagi Sword's capabilities.

Overall, it had two functions: absorption and release.

In terms of absorption, it could absorb not only chakra but also Ninjutsu, storing the chakra within the blade.

However, the Kusanagi Sword had to make direct contact for this ability to work. Otherwise, it could not absorb anything.

Release involved compressing and discharging the chakra stored within the Kusanagi Sword as shockwaves, causing widespread destruction.

The ability was simple and brutal, but exceptionally effective against ninjas.

Yayoi now understood why the border forces had been utterly defeated without any chance to resist, despite having two Jonin.

The Kusanagi Clan head had only been an ordinary Jonin, but with the Kusanagi Sword in hand, his strength had doubled. He had been far beyond what two ordinary Jonin could handle.

The ability to absorb chakra and Ninjutsu, even if it required direct contact, was enough to give most ninjas a terrible headache and prevent them from using even half their strength.

"Then let's test its release ability."

Arriving at an uninhabited rocky plain, Yayoi gripped the Kusanagi Sword's slender hilt with one hand, aimed its tip forward, and took a deep breath.

He could sense an incredibly substantial amount of chakra within the Kusanagi Sword. Though it was nowhere near the level of the Tailed Beasts, it was still far beyond what an ordinary ninja could possess.

Then, he controlled the chakra within the Kusanagi Sword, releasing it and gathering it along the blade.

The Kusanagi Sword was immediately enveloped in dense violet lightning, which crackled with a teeth-grating hiss.

As though charging before an eruption, the violet lightning grew so bright that it stung their eyes and made them unable to keep them open—

BOOM!

A dazzling streak of violet lightning shot straight ahead.

In the blink of an eye, a bombardment trail dozens of meters long appeared before them. Every rock in its path was smashed to pieces, sending dust swirling everywhere.

At last, the lightning struck a massive boulder with a deafening explosion.

The main body of the enormous rock was blasted away, while the rest shattered into countless tiny stones. A huge crater more than ten meters wide remained in its place.

"So powerful. The attack range is so great, yet it can still maintain this level of destructive force."

Kicho stared at the scene in amazement.

Even a Jonin like her could only avoid such an attack rather than meet it head-on.

"Yes. And if it absorbs more chakra, its destructive power can be increased even further. However, that also requires the user to possess powerful chakra and chakra control. In other words, the stronger the wielder, the stronger this Kusanagi Sword becomes."

"Also, judging from how it released that lightning strike, this Kusanagi Sword should have a lightning nature. That is not an attribute I am particularly skilled in. In the hands of a Lightning Release ninja, it could probably display its true power."

Even a divine weapon could not unleash its inherent power without a suitable wielder.

Thus, it was a divine weapon that complemented and elevated its user.

Yayoi understood this well. No matter how good a weapon was, its user needed sufficient strength to wield it.

An ordinary Jonin like Kusanagi Seiryu simply could not bring out the Kusanagi Sword's true power. It had been wasted on him.

"My lord husband, don't you know Lightning Release?"

Kicho had seen Yayoi's ninja registration file. If she remembered correctly, it listed him as possessing every chakra nature: fire, wind, lightning, earth, water, yin, and yang.

"As for nature transformations, I can use Earth Release, Water Release, Fire Release, and Lightning Release, but I have not studied any of them deeply. I only know the basics. The fields I am best at are still Medical Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Puppet Technique—the control and creation of puppets."

Those three fields alone had already consumed a vast amount of Yayoi's time and energy.

It was fine to merely dabble in nature transformations such as Fire Release and Lightning Release, but serious training required a great deal of time.

Although there were methods like the Shadow Clone Technique that could cheat and accelerate training, the problem was... in this era, the Shadow Clone Technique had not become widespread. Tobirama Senju was still keeping it to himself.

"It seems this Kusanagi Sword cannot be put to great use for the time being. It is such an amazing weapon, so that feels rather regrettable."

Kicho sighed wistfully.

As the general's wife of the Land of Night, she could access detailed information on every ninja and samurai in the country. Naturally, she knew each of their abilities inside and out.

The Land of Night did have Lightning Release ninjas, but none of them were particularly proficient.

It was unlike the Kumokiri in her possession, which had no attribute requirements. Anyone with some skill in swordsmanship could use it immediately. Its ability to suppress negative chakra could likewise be used flexibly by anyone.

However, Kicho rarely had occasion to use Kumokiri. When fighting enemies, she still primarily relied on Gentle Fist.

More than a weapon, Kumokiri was like an ornament she carried on her person.

Yayoi put away the Kusanagi Sword, stopped testing its abilities, and continued onward with Kicho.

After resting for the night in a nearby town, they set out again early the next morning. At around nine in the morning, the two officially arrived at a primeval forest in the northern part of the Land of Night.

Compared to Black Steel Forest, this primeval forest was somewhat smaller, but the dominant color of its trees was just as strange.

Like Black Steel Forest, it was also rarely visited by humans, a paradise for venomous insects and wild beasts.

As they entered the forest, Kicho's Byakugan saw a faint green gas rising from its center more than ten kilometers away, like a pale green rain of light.

"That is... chakra?"

Though the color was faint, Kicho could still tell that the pale green vapor rising into the sky was a gaseous manifestation of chakra.

"This forest could it be..."

Kicho seemed to think of something.

"Yes. This forest is called Silent Forest. The trees at its core can absorb chakra to grow... Many Ninjutsu scrolls, Explosive Tags, chakra nature testing paper, and other tools are made from these Chakra Trees. Such trees are distributed across many countries and are extremely important strategic resources."

Yayoi gave a brief explanation.

Kicho nodded slightly. That made sense.

The tools used by ninjas were all made from Chakra Trees and Chakra Metal.

Although this was her first time seeing a Chakra Tree, she had read many books on the subject and knew of their existence.

Yayoi seemed very familiar with the environment here. From then on, he could find the correct path through the forest without needing Kicho's Byakugan.

The deeper they went, the denser the ownerless chakra drifting through the air became in Kicho's Byakugan.

It was as though they had entered a paradise of chakra.

However...

"The chakra drifting here feels somewhat strange. It gives off a violent feeling, as though it could explode at any moment."

Kicho frowned. Merely allowing her body to make slight contact with the chakra here made her feel a trace of discomfort.

Her instincts urged her to leave this place as quickly as possible. If she remained for too long, the violent chakra here might affect her mind.

"It should be related to the area's unusual geography. I only discovered this place by chance in the past. The Chakra Trees growing here are generally of better quality than those outside."

Yayoi turned his head and explained.

"It seems there may be some secret hidden here."

Kicho fell into thought.

"Perhaps. But I once searched this forest for ten days and ten nights without finding any other abnormalities. Also, I named Silent Forest myself. This forest does not appear on maps of the Land of Night."

Yayoi narrowed his eyes. As a ninja who had emerged from the Warring States Era, he naturally knew that this forest hid secrets unknown to him.

Yet no matter how he searched, he could only find large numbers of Chakra Trees and nothing else.

Over time, he suppressed his curiosity and merely treated this forest as a resource supply point.

"Be careful. Ahead, the chakra concentration is so high that it has begun to merge with certain strange plants in the area, forming natural Genjutsu. If you are not careful, your mind will grow scattered, and you will exhaust yourself to death in this forest."

After Yayoi's warning, Kicho raised her vigilance to the utmost, keeping her Byakugan activated at all times.

They did not know how long they walked. In this deathly silent forest, there were no sounds besides their footsteps.

Not only had the breathing of wild beasts vanished, even the sound of the wind had disappeared from their ears.

It was as if they had entered a completely silent void.

"We're here."

Yayoi's voice suddenly rang out from the depths of the forest.

Kicho shook her head, trying to stay as clear-headed as possible, before a chill ran down her spine.

The natural Genjutsu here had actually drained a massive amount of mental energy from even a Jonin like her without her noticing.

If Yayoi had not led her, then had she entered alone, she would most likely have exhausted her mind, become a puppet incapable of thought, then wandered aimlessly until she worked herself to death without realizing it.

At a glance, Kicho saw a lush grove, all of it composed of Chakra Trees.

Upon closer inspection, most of the Chakra Trees growing here were no different from ordinary trees. In fact, they were even thinner and shorter, though their colors were greener and more vivid, filled with abundant chakra and vigorous life.

Some Chakra Trees had clearly been cut down, leaving only neatly severed stumps.

However, compared to the total number of Chakra Trees here, the cut trees were negligible.

Yayoi walked among the Chakra Trees and stopped before the thickest one.

Unlike ordinary Chakra Trees, this one was tall and massive. It would take at least twenty people forming a circle to barely encircle its trunk.

The surface of its bark also possessed an unusual blue luster.

More remarkably, this tree had branches but no leaves. It was bare and unsightly, as though it had withered and died, yet it gave off an impression of surging, overflowing vitality.

"What a huge tree. It must be several hundred years old, right?"

Kicho tilted her head back and looked at the Chakra Tree that towered above all the rest.

She did not understand the growth characteristics of Chakra Trees very well, so she could only estimate its age based on ordinary trees.

"I remember it being here."

Yayoi ran his hand along the Chakra Tree and quickly found what he was looking for. He took out a kunai and slashed hard.

The blue bark was cut open, leaving a long narrow wound. Blue sap flowed from it, rich with dense chakra.

Yayoi inserted his hand into the opening. Inside was an artificially excavated hollow, narrow enough to fit only a human arm.

Before long, Yayoi pulled a fist-sized, transparent blue crystal from the hollow within the tree.

The crystal was a perfectly spherical orb, containing an extremely condensed mass of chakra.

Kicho's expression turned strange.

Through her Byakugan, the chakra inside the blue core looked less like energy and more like the embryonic form of some living creature.

She could even sense that the chakra within the core was breathing rhythmically like an infant.

This was not the first time Kicho had experienced such a feeling. When she had used her Byakugan to observe Irori's body in the past, she had seen something similar.

"My lord husband, could this be what you use to create Puppet Lifeforms...?"

Kicho guessed instinctively, though she had already confirmed the answer in her heart.

Yayoi nodded slightly.

"This is a Chakra Crystal I placed here two years ago. It contains the embryo of a Puppet Lifeform. But compared to chakra, what I actually need more is the incomparably powerful vitality of this Chakra Tree. At last, I can try creating a second 'Automated Puppet.'"

Dealing with the Kusanagi Clan and the Kusanagi Sword had merely been incidental. The life embryo placed here to create an Automated Puppet was Yayoi's most important purpose for this journey.

The moment Yayoi finished speaking, the massive Chakra Tree, already bare of leaves, began to tremble violently.

Under Kicho's shocked gaze, cracks appeared across the surface of the Chakra Tree that required more than twenty people to encircle. The fissures widened, and its surface seemed to be wrapped in blue flames. In the end, it turned into fragments of blue fire and dissolved into the air.

"It collapsed."

Kicho murmured to herself. The sight of the Chakra Tree burning itself away and reaching its end left her deeply awed.

"Because its vitality was drained dry. Once this Chakra Crystal leaves, this Chakra Tree's life reaches its end as well. That is why all its leaves withered away."

Yayoi crouched down. At the spot where the Chakra Tree had turned to ash lay a black seed no larger than a fingertip.

"Even when life reaches its end, it will still do everything it can to leave behind proof that it existed. Whether animal or plant, life always finds a new path forward."

Yayoi picked up the seed, went to a nearby clearing, found a patch of fertile soil, and buried it.

One day, this seed would take root, sprout, and grow strong once more.

"Thank you, old friend. I won't trouble you again next time."

Yayoi smiled and gently patted the soil where he had buried the seed, as though comforting the other's wounded heart.

Then Yayoi and Kicho turned and departed, and the forest returned to its former tranquility.