Basara POV
Standing beside Tsume on the water's surface, I stared at the surging demon. Nothing we tried worked. All the ninjutsu we launched simply washed away from its form, and anything that touched the dark cloud surrounding it instantly died.
How do you even fight something like that...? I thought.
In desperation, I ignored the consequences and clasped my hands, molding my chakra to call upon my Mokuton.
Just before I could erupt roots as thick as pillars against the creature, something blurred in front of me. I could barely track it.
Golden light flashed across my vision.
A massive, radiant palm slammed down from above, crashing into the River Widow with earth-shaking force. The impact drove the towering entity back into the river, half submerging it beneath the weight of pure power that could be felt in the air.
The entire river quieted at the feat.
My eyes widened.
Touka Senju stood in front of us now, her back to me in her flowing kimono. When she glanced back, I could see intricate, glowing markings covering her face and arm.
Sensing her, I realized she was more...
She's a sage, I thought in awe, and then froze. She was staring directly at me.
Her eyes were wide, mouth slightly parted in raw shock and unmistakable recognition. My heart started hammering in my chest.
She could sense me... what I was trying to do...
She knows...
But there was no time to process it.
The River Widow shrieked in fury and lashed out. Dark tendrils erupted from its body like black arrows, screaming through the air toward us all. Touka-sama reacted a fraction too late, still caught in that moment of shock. The tendrils slammed into her first and simply shattered against her senjutsu-enhanced body, disintegrating on impact.
She still moved, reacting and creating more golden palms to shield the rest of us, but it wasn't enough, and in the process, the hand holding the demon weakened. The tendrils punched clean through the nearest Suna shinobi and several others in bloody, violent sprays of death.
She's distracted, I realized with a jolt. That hesitation is going to cost us.
"Fuck it," I growled under my breath.
Fear and tension boiled over into something reckless and bright.
The secret's out... I steeled my mind, moving through the ox and ram seals, drawing out as much chakra as I could in that instant.
And even if it isn't the real jutsu...
"MOKUTON: DEEP FOREST EMERGENCE!"
Chakra exploded out of me visibly.
From the riverbed, multiple enormous roots and trees erupted with violent force, each one thicker than three grown men standing shoulder to shoulder. They burst upward in a thunderous roar and rushed toward the River Widow under my control.
The trees wrapped around the demon's elongated body with crushing strength, coiling tighter and tighter, the steel-like bark groaning as they constricted. Dark miasma hissed violently wherever it touched living wood,
Holding it in place.
Then Touka Senju snapped out of her stunned silence.
She moved through seals in a flash. Three solid clones burst into existence around her in a puff of chakra. The four Toukas—original and clones—blurred across the water, positioning themselves in a perfect square formation surrounding the trapped demon.
Their hands flashed through a series of unique, intricate seals I had never seen before, very different from the standard ones.
All four of them slammed their palms down onto the river's surface at the exact same time.
"Fūin: Ashura Demon Binding!"
Black kanji seals erupted outward from them like living ink, racing across the water toward the demon, wrapping around its distorted form, covering every inch of its now flickering body. The demon thrashed wildly, screeching loud enough to make my ears ring, but the seals held.
With one final, ear-splitting wail, the River Widow was dragged downward.
The river swallowed it whole.
In an instant, everything went calm.
The violent currents smoothed out. The dark miasma dissolved into nothing. The night became quiet again, save for the gentle lapping of water and the distant voices of the people on the banks.
I felt instant relief as the widow was sealed. I willed my trees to loosen since there was nothing left to hold down, and the strain crashed over me all at once.
I only then realized I was panting hard, sweat pouring down my face, my chakra reserves dangerously low, almost completely drained. My legs trembled beneath me as I barely managed to remain on the water's surface.
Whispers broke out all around me.
"Mokuton..."
"Hashirama's bloodline..."
"Senju...?"
"Is that...?"
Even Tsume was staring at me with naked awe, her eyes wide in disbelief.
I realized too late how exposed I was. Standing in the middle of the river, a small forest of thick trees now rising like a monument where the demon had been, I had just shown every shinobi here, Konoha and enemy alike, something I could never take back.
One of the nearest Suna nin took a step forward, eyes gleaming with hesitant killing intent, clearly seeing how drained I was.
Before he could move another inch, Tsume and the closest Konoha shinobi formed a protective cordon around me, weapons drawn and killing intent blazing.
"Retreat!" one of the Suna jonin shouted, voice sharp with panic.
In a rapid shunshin, the surviving Suna forces vanished into the night, fleeing the capital.
We stood there for a long second, breathing hard, the tension slowly bleeding out of the air.
Touka Senju walked toward us across the water, the sage markings on her face and arms already fading away. One of her kunoichi landed gracefully beside her from the riverbank.
"Touka-sama, Suna is currently retreating from the capital," the woman reported, giving me a long, sidelong glance. "The Daimyo's forces are securing the perimeter."
Touka-sama nodded calmly. "Kimiko, inform the Daimyo that the seal has been properly reapplied. Apologize for how the sealing transpired, but let him know Konoha has upheld its end of the bargain."
She turned back to our group, her expression softening as her eyes landed on me. A gentle, almost motherly smile touched her lips.
"We will leave the capital immediately."
One of the other shinobi blinked. "Back to the camp, Touka-sama?"
"No," she said, still looking at me with that quiet smile. "We're going back home."
She turned slowly, addressing the gathered shinobi who had all converged on the river after the fighting ended. Her tone carried the elegant weight of old nobility, the kind of refined authority that came from decades of war and leadership.
"I realize we are all exhausted after that engagement," she continued, her words precise and slightly old-fashioned in their cadence, "but new circumstances have forced our hand. We must reach Konoha with all possible haste."
She swept her gaze across the group. "Consume soldier pills as needed. Help your comrades where you can. We will not stop until we are home."
Touka-sama then turned to the kunoichi beside her. "Kimiko, ensure the camp knows we are returning home on my express orders. Say nothing of what transpired here tonight."
Her eyes drifted briefly to the small forest of thick trees now standing like a silent monument in the middle of the river, the lingering proof of what I had done. She gave a small, almost wistful yet happy nod before turning back to us.
We all nodded in silent agreement.
As I finally got my breathing under control, Tsume stepped close and smacked my arm with a heavy hand.
"Heh... ow!" I winced, looking at her askance.
My face froze when I saw the look in her eyes. It wasn't her usual grin. There was something different about this, like she'd just discovered an entirely new kind of prey.
"You've got a lot of explaining to do, mister," she growled, voice low and full of promise.
I could only nod and laugh awkwardly, rubbing my arm.
Touka-sama approached me next. She walked with her arms held neatly inside the wide sleeves of her kimono, that gentle smile still present, though now it carried a more emotional weight.
"There is so much I want to know... so much I want to ask," she said softly, almost hesitantly. For a moment, she seemed on the verge of saying more, but then she simply shook her head. "But there will be a time for that."
I popped a soldier pill from my pouch into my mouth as we began to move. The instant it hit my system, a wave of rejuvenation flooded through me, my fatigue melting away, chakra reserves stabilizing.
We traveled at a moderate and steady pace for three days.
Other squads of Konoha shinobi gradually joined us along the route, falling silently into formation as word spread. My own squad mates—Tsume, Hanami, Riku, and the others—kept giving me these strange, sidelong looks. The entire cohort seemed to move with a protective ring around me, as if they were unconsciously shielding me from prying eyes or sudden threats. It felt... weird. Really weird.
By the time we reached the great gates of Konoha, we were all tired and exhausted, bodies aching despite the soldier pills. The familiar walls rising before us brought a wave of relief mixed with lingering tension.
Touka-sama found her way to me, her expression warm, but I could tell there was a sense of seriousness to it.
"Basara-kun," she said gently, "why don't you come with me? Hiruzen is expecting you."
I gulped. This is it...