In the forest.
The Iwagakure spy disguised as a Root operative had become a blur, the kunai in his hand tracing a deadly, cold gleam through the dim forest light as it shot straight for Senju Chen's throat.
Faced with this killing blow, Senju Chen remained where he stood, barely even blinking.
His body was small and his strength weak, but he possessed a trump card no one in this world could imagine.
From the moment he was abducted, his mind had been racing, running through countless plans, screening them, and finally settling on one.
At the instant that deadly kunai was about to touch the skin of his neck.
Senju Chen had already feigned fear and fallen backward, then pressed his tender little hand against the soft, leaf-covered ground beneath his feet.
No hand seals.
No violent surge of chakra.
Not even the slightest trace of killing intent.
He merely pressed down gently.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk, shhk, shhk-!
The next moment, the surrounding earth and trees seemed to come alive!
"What!?"
The Iwagakure spy's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints!
In that tenth of a second when shock and his attempt to dodge left him momentarily rigid.
Pfft-!
Several of the thickest, most vicious wooden spikes burst from the shadow beneath his feet like demonic claws reaching out of the depths of hell, precisely and mercilessly piercing his legs, abdomen, and... his still fiercely beating heart.
"Urgh..."
The spy lowered his head, staring in disbelief at the wooden spikes through his chest. Blood poured from his mouth as his life rapidly drained away.
The last thing he saw was that four-year-old child slowly raising his head.
A gush of warm blood spurted high, splashing across Senju Chen's young cheek and forming the most eerie, unsettling contrast with his cold, fathomless gaze.
[Ding! Valid kill detected. A small amount of chakra and combat experience has been stolen.]
The system notification flashed through his mind.
Suddenly, Senju Chen's mind held techniques and experience in combat, assassination, and infiltration that he had never personally undergone.
At the same time, the chakra that Wood Release: Cutting Sprigs had just depleted also recovered and increased somewhat.
But Senju Chen had no time to pay attention to any of it.
He immediately stood up, and as the ninja's corpse fell, the cold indifference toward life and death in his eyes receded like a tide.
Forcing down the nausea from his first kill, he reached out with his other hand, picked up a broken wooden spike stained with the enemy's blood, and without hesitation cut a deep wound into his tender arm.
Intense pain struck, and blood immediately welled out.
Good. Convincing enough.
Once he had done all this, he withdrew all his power and plopped onto the ground as though he had exhausted his last ounce of strength.
Those fathomless eyes filled once more with a child's terror and confusion.
"Waaah-"
A loud cry, full of fear and distress, rang through the silent woods. Clutching his bleeding arm, he trembled all over, tears tumbling down like beads from a broken string, becoming a pitiful child who had been thoroughly frightened out of his wits.
The very next second after he finished his act.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several figures flashed out of the shadows between the trees. They were the frantic Shizune and several Konoha Anbu.
They rushed into the forest clearing, then everyone froze in shock at the sight before them.
A ninja's corpse dressed in Root attire lay pinned to the ground by countless vicious wooden spikes, his death gruesome.
Not far from the corpse, the child they had been desperately searching for sat on the ground, his arm bleeding, his little face covered in tear tracks and blood. His body shook like a leaf in the wind, his eyes vacant, as though he might faint at any moment.
"Little Chen!"
Shizune let out a piercing cry and rushed over without a thought for anything else.
Even the Anbu, accustomed as they were to life and death, were deeply shaken. They looked at the Root ninja's corpse, then at the spikes that had clearly been created by Wood Release, and an unbelievable thought arose in all their minds.
The four-year-old child before us did this? A single lethal strike, executed with practiced skill.
They could have believed a ninja of their own level had caused this scene, but a four-year-old child?
And the ninjutsu that had killed the man.
Wood Release...
Could that rumor in the village be true?
Looking at the gruesome corpse before them, the Anbu quickly formed up, keeping Senju Chen and Shizune in the center.
Just then, two even faster, more powerful figures descended from above with an overwhelming presence.
It was Tsunade and Jiraiya.
When Tsunade's gaze fell on the little figure sitting on the ground, covered in blood and crying his heart out, her entire world came crashing down.
All color instantly drained from her beautiful face, replaced by a pallor that could freeze the soul.
For an instant, Nawaki's and Dan's bloodied faces flashed through Tsunade's mind, then both were replaced by the bloodstained Senju Chen before her.
"Chen..."
"How are you? Are you hurt?"
"Don't be afraid. Your big sister is here."
With a Body Flicker Technique, she rushed to Senju Chen and pulled him tightly, tightly into her arms, as though she wanted to meld him into her very flesh and bones, terrified that if she let go, this little brother she had lost and regained would disappear again.
Her voice was as light as a feather, yet as heavy as a mountain.
She looked at her bleeding little brother before her, his face covered in tears and blood.
The next second, an utterly savage fury erupted from her!
Reason was instantly consumed.
Feeling the faint, trembling breaths of the child in her arms and seeing that glaring wound, Tsunade's reason was instantly consumed.
She raised her head, her amber eyes now blood-red. Her gaze passed over her little brother and locked onto the Root ninja's corpse. Every word seemed forced through clenched teeth, filled with bone-chilling killing intent.
"Dan-zo-!!"
Unlike Tsunade, who had fallen into rage and grief, Jiraiya's gaze had locked onto the Root ninja's corpse from the very start.
As one of the Sannin, he had immense combat experience and saw through the nature of the fatal wounds at a glance.
That was absolutely no ordinary wood.
Every wooden spike contained tremendous life energy. Its degree of concentration, the angle of penetration, and the timing all amounted to a textbook assassination.
A cold, absurd, yet irrepressible thought grew wildly in Jiraiya's heart.
He abruptly turned his head, shifting his gaze from the gruesome corpse to the trembling four-year-old child in Tsunade's arms, who was crying so hard he could barely breathe.
How was this possible...
A four-year-old child could wield the First Hokage's Wood Release to such a terrifying degree?
This was even more ridiculous than hearing that Tsunade had quit gambling!
At that very instant, a long-buried memory exploded through his mind like thunder!
Mount Myōboku, and the Great Toad Sage's mysterious prophecy...
Jiraiya's breath abruptly caught, his pupils contracting to pinpoints.
Could it be...
Mount Myōboku, the mist-shrouded toad hall, the Great Toad Sage's wrinkled old face, and that mysterious prophecy exploded through his mind!
"My prophecies are never wrong... You will become the teacher of one who brings change..."
"That child will bring unprecedented, tremendous change to the Shinobi World..."
For this elusive prophecy, he had traveled the world alone, searching for the so-called "one who brings change."
Over the years, he had taken several disciples.
He remembered those three children in Amegakure struggling to survive amid the war. Nagato in particular-that child actually possessed the legendary Rinnegan of the Sage of Six Paths!
Those eyes held the power to create and destroy the world.
He had once believed Nagato was the one who would bring change foretold in the prophecy. He had taught them everything he knew, teaching them ninjutsu and how to survive, hoping all the more that they could use those eyes to find a path to peace.
But in the end, he had still chosen to leave, entrusting their future to them.
Then there was Minato.
His disciple with that flowing blond hair was as dazzling as the sun. Exceptionally gifted and pure of heart, he was a genius Konoha rarely saw in a century, and in Jiraiya's eyes, the perfect successor to the Hokage.
Minato, too, was very likely the Child of Prophecy.
Jiraiya had once wavered between those two answers.
But now...
Jiraiya's gaze remained fixed on the little brat still sniffling in Tsunade's arms.
The Rinnegan was astonishing.
Minato Namikaze was a genius.
But they... seemed far too normal compared with this little fellow before him!
A four-year-old child! He had killed an elite Root ninja head-on without ever having learned ninjutsu?
And he had even used the signature ninjutsu of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju-Wood Release.
This was no longer something the word "genius" could explain.
Jiraiya suddenly felt his throat go dry. He even wanted to slap himself to see whether he was dreaming.
Was that old fellow, the Great Toad Sage, messing with him?
First the Rinnegan, and now Wood Release. Why were the selection criteria for this Child of Prophecy getting more and more outrageous?
Every one of these people had the talent and potential to become the Child of Prophecy.
He looked at the little fellow in Tsunade's arms, crying so hard he was almost blowing snot bubbles, his little face covered in blood and tears, looking as pitiful as could be.
Yet that appearance formed an utterly absurd contrast with the image in his mind of the Root corpse skewered full of holes by wooden spikes.
Could this child be the "savior" the Toad Sage had spoken of?
At this moment, Konoha's higher-ups were also shaken by the news they had just received. Because of this incident, a tremendous storm was quietly taking shape in Konoha.