Chapter 295: Isn't It Normal for the First Hokage-sama to Use Wood Release?
Kenichi had a headache.
He truly had not expected Obito to have a method like this. In the original story, he had never seen Obito use a Wood Release technique of this type.
But now, Obito had undeniably used it.
"This is basically a giant box," Kenichi muttered, frowning as he dodged the thorns lunging at him. "And it's constantly shrinking my room to move. It also has ridiculously high resistance to Ninjutsu."
If Hell's Chaos was a large scale destructive Wood Release technique, then this one was clearly a specialized variant developed from it, a powerful Ninjutsu focused on restricting an enemy's movement.
Wood Release itself was already troublesome enough.
Fire Release could not easily break through Wood Release unless it was overwhelmingly strong, or used by someone on Madara's level. But the problem was that even Madara, when facing Hashirama's Wood Release, could not simply claim he would burn it all away.
Obito's strength had not reached Hashirama's level, of course, but the Wood Release he wielded still gave Kenichi enormous trouble.
Fire Release was ineffective. Even if he focused his flames on a single point, countless thorns would immediately surge up to block the attack and weaken its effect. At the same time, he still had to stay alert for more branches stabbing in from every other direction.
The only good news was that this technique had trapped only him.
Tsunade was not inside.
Otherwise, he would also have had to deal with Tsunade at the same time, and that would have been even more troublesome.
Still, he had no idea what Tsunade was doing outside. Was she fighting Obito? Or was she simply standing there, waiting for him to break out so she could land a finishing blow?
Either option was bad news.
"I'm running out of time. I have to settle this quickly." Kenichi glanced at the ever tightening wall of thorns around him. His space to move was shrinking by the second. At this rate, he really would be skewered like a dango before long.
Against a Ninjutsu of this scale, the cleanest way to escape would naturally be to use Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan and tear open an exit with Kamui.
The problem was that he had not brought the test tube containing Obito's Kamui eye with him.
And Kenichi was fairly certain Obito had another motive here as well.
On one hand, Obito wanted to kill him.
On the other, Obito was testing him. He wanted to see whether Kakashi's Kamui Sharingan was with him.
That suspicious bastard had never given up doubting him, and it gave Kenichi a headache.
The Kamui eye was not here. That meant the method of escape...
Kenichi silently calculated his options while continuing to evade the incoming spikes.
No matter how he looked at it, he did not have many good choices. And the thorns were still closing in. If this continued, it would become truly dangerous.
Still, the situation was not hopeless.
Before coming here, he had made some preparations. Those preparations meant he still had options.
He had thought of two solutions.
The first was the God Slaying Bomb sealed inside his scroll.
Its destructive power was enormous. It should be enough to blast open a path, but he could not be sure, and more importantly, he himself was also inside the kill zone. If he used it here, he could very easily blow himself up along with the cage.
In a confined space, a thermobaric bomb would only become more lethal.
So that option was troublesome even for him.
That left the second solution.
Originally, that solution had been reserved for dealing with Obito. Using it now, however, was equally reasonable.
Kenichi quickly formed hand seals, then slammed a hand against the wall of thorns.
The next moment, a coffin rose from within the dense tangle of branches.
As the coffin opened, the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, stepped out.
"Ah, so this is the world of the living?" Hashirama opened his eyes in confusion, then looked at Kenichi. "You're the one who summoned me last time, aren't you?"
He had some impression of this young man.
Back in the Pure Land, he had even chatted with Tobirama about Konoha afterward. After learning that Konoha's Fourth Hokage had died because of the Nine Tails, even Tobirama had found it hard to understand. The Nine Tails was powerful, yes, but not to the point where it should have been enough to kill Minato in that way.
"First Hokage-sama, please take a look at this Ninjutsu. Do you have a way to deal with it?" Kenichi asked respectfully.
If he wanted Hashirama to display his full strength, the simplest method was naturally to preserve his self awareness. Kenichi had already communicated with him once before, and because there was no one else in this enclosed space, there was no need to suppress Hashirama's will from the start.
Of course, once they got outside, that might no longer be possible.
So Kenichi had already prepared a control kunai. The moment Hashirama broke this Wood Release prison, he would immediately drive it into the back of Hashirama's neck.
"An enemy? And using Wood Release?" Hashirama immediately sensed the abnormality around him. Looking at the sprawling thorns, surprise flashed in his eyes.
Naturally, he recognized it.
It was Wood Release.
What he had not expected was that one day, someone would use Wood Release against a ninja of Konoha.
"Yes. He's a very troublesome enemy. He also killed a lot of Konoha genin, and his methods are extremely cruel." Kenichi wore a solemn, sorrowful expression as he spoke.
His acting was impeccable.
Back when he had been surviving under Orochimaru, if his acting had not been good enough, he would have ended up on an operating table long ago.
"The structure of this Ninjutsu is interesting," Hashirama said as he observed the cage, "but this person's understanding of Wood Release is clearly lacking. Wood Release is not meant to be used like this!"
The rather naive First Hokage immediately believed him.
After all, in his impression, Kenichi was still a junior from Konoha. There was nothing especially suspicious there.
And hearing that this enemy had actually used Wood Release to slaughter Konoha ninja instantly enraged Hashirama, who had founded the village with his own hands.
At the same time, he also wanted to see what Konoha had become in the present day.
So he attacked without hesitation.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Hashirama rapidly formed seals. This time, because Kenichi had used a Chunin as the sacrifice, Hashirama could bring out more of his strength than before.
Almost immediately, the ground inside the thorn prison began to shake.
Kenichi raised an eyebrow. So this was the power of the God of Shinobi.
Perfect.
While this was happening...
"Who are you?" Tsunade looked warily at the white masked man in front of her while the vast forest of thorns surged around them.
She had never seen anyone like him in Konoha, and yet he wielded Wood Release, a power that should have belonged only to her grandfather.
More importantly, he had just used that Wood Release to kill Konoha ninja without restraint.
That alone proved he could not possibly be one of Konoha's own.
"...The one who's going to kill him," Obito replied.
He touched the white spiral mask on his face.
He was still not ready to reveal his identity. Uchiha Obito was dead. That identity no longer mattered. He was now only a man of vengeance, someone determined to create a world where Rin still existed.
Besides, revealing himself too early would also risk drawing Konoha's attention to the Akatsuki.
Even though he wanted to test Kenichi, he had no intention of exposing the Akatsuki's involvement.
Otherwise, he could have simply shouted Kenichi's name earlier and dragged his true identity into the open.
But that would also attract suspicion toward the Akatsuki, and that was unacceptable.
Still, it no longer mattered much now. Hell Descends had almost completely sealed the area, and Kenichi still had not broken out.
Which meant...
It was time to leave.
If he stayed any longer, Tsunade might turn on him next, and he had no interest in getting tied down by her.
Just as Obito reached that conclusion and prepared to withdraw, he felt the ground tremble.
The next moment, countless giant trees erupted upward from below, smashing straight through the prison he had created.
Two figures appeared within the wreckage.
One of them was, of course, the masked Kenichi.
The other was...
"...Grandpa?" Tsunade stared in shock.
The man forming hand seals in the center of the shattered Wood Release prison was unmistakably Senju Hashirama.
But that was impossible.
Her grandfather was dead.
And the state of his face...
Before she could finish the thought, she saw the masked Heavenly Demon step behind Hashirama and drive a kunai straight into the back of his neck.
Instantly, Hashirama fell silent.
Tsunade froze.
She looked at her grandfather, now motionless once again, then at the man who had stabbed him.
In an instant, her eyes turned red with fury.
Her breathing grew ragged. Even with repeated deep breaths, it felt as though her lungs were about to burst.
This man had not only desecrated her lover's corpse.
He would not even let her grandfather rest in peace.
Kenichi looked at the furious Tsunade and sighed inwardly.
He had known this would happen the moment he chose to suppress Hashirama's self awareness. But he had done it anyway, because he could not afford to be surrounded by three enemies at once.
Even though he could release Edo Tensei at any time, the whole point of summoning Hashirama had originally been to deal with Tsunade.
There was no way he could let the grandfather and granddaughter have a touching reunion right now.
"I know you're in a hurry," Kenichi said calmly, waving a sealing scroll in front of Tsunade, "but don't be in a hurry just yet."
At the same time, under his mental command, Hashirama had already turned and engaged Obito, forcing him into combat.
Obito, who had already expended a huge amount of chakra using Hell's Chaos and Hell Descends, immediately found himself under immense pressure against the God of Shinobi and could only barely hold on.
"This," Kenichi said, lifting the scroll slightly, "is the weapon I used to attack Konoha earlier. Konoha's defensive barrier will not be able to withstand a second one."
He laid his cards on the table.
At this point, he already understood what Obito had lured him here for. Continuing to fight had little meaning.
What he needed now was to get out of here as fast as possible.
At the same time, he needed to start collecting the remains of famous figures throughout the ninja world as soon as possible. After today, Konoha would definitely become even more cautious. They might even push for cremation from now on, and that would become troublesome for him.
"What do you mean?" Tsunade glared at him, her eyes bloodshot. "Are you threatening me?"
"No. I'm negotiating," Kenichi said. "Strictly speaking, I just accepted a mission and carried it out. The client has a grudge against Konoha. I..."
Then he looked into Tsunade's eyes and fell silent.
A second later, he quietly put the scroll away.
He had forgotten something important.
Tsunade was a pure ninja.
And pure ninja were the hardest people in the world to negotiate with.
You could not talk them down with schemes or tricks. For them, the only real way to resolve things was to fight. Their fists were their arguments.
"That's exactly why I hate dealing with people like you," Kenichi muttered.
He truly hated this type of opponent. There was no room for clever shortcuts.
If it had to be a fight...
Then fine.
The next instant, Kenichi vanished from Tsunade's sight.
At the same time, thick mist exploded outward, rapidly flooding more than half the forest.
"Trying to run?" Tsunade roared.
She stomped down with Heavenly Foot of Pain. The ground cracked apart, and the resulting shockwave blasted through the mist, clearing part of it.
Yet even then, visibility remained terrible.
Tsunade narrowed her eyes in surprise.
This was not an ordinary Hidden Mist Jutsu.
She understood that immediately.
A normal Hidden Mist Jutsu should have been blown apart over a huge area by that strike, but instead, this mist kept spreading and had even grown thicker.
Meanwhile, Kenichi silently crouched on a tree branch, watching her from within the fog.
Hidden Mist combined with Silent Killing Technique was already one of Kirigakure's signature assassination methods. After integrating the principles of Rain Tiger at Will, Kenichi had developed a new variant of his own.
It combined the concealment of Hidden Mist with sensory perception through moisture.
Inside this fog, he could sense enemies with alarming precision.
"Tsunade..." Kenichi slowly stood up as the mist around him parted to form a vacuum around his body. "I really didn't want to attack you."
In his hand, a black sphere of lightning had already begun to form.
.....
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