Konoha.
The Senju Clan compound.
“So noisy.”
Just when everyone thought Chiba was certain to die, he finally raised his eyes.
His deeply impatient voice echoed clearly across the entire area.
Boom!
In the span of a single breath, visible blue chakra erupted from Chiba like a volcano and surged into the sky!
The violent shock wave instantly transformed into a devastating hurricane.
The Root ninja charging at the front seemed to slam into an invisible wall of steel.
Crack!
The chilling sound of bones shattering rang out in rapid succession.
Dozens of Root elites were hurled backward at ten times the speed of their charge!
Blood sprayed through the air.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Their bodies smashed into the ruins behind them like tattered sacks.
The next moment, the storm swept outward without distinction.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was forced to raise his arms to shield his face.
Shimura Danzo swayed unsteadily in the gale and nearly toppled over.
The clan leaders standing on the treetops around the perimeter struggled to maintain their balance against the violent air currents.
Uchiha Fugaku forcibly steadied himself, his three-tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly.
“This is impossible!”
“He instantly killed dozens of Root elites just by releasing his chakra?”
“What kind of monstrous chakra reserves does he have?”
Hyuga Hiashi covered his right eye as a drop of blood seeped between his fingers.
In that instant, Chiba’s chakra had resembled a miniature sun exploding within the Byakugan’s field of vision!
It was too dazzling!
The sight sent a sharp pain through Hiashi’s ocular meridians, making it impossible to look directly at Chiba.
At the center of the ruins, Chiba remained standing in place.
He could not be bothered to look at the Root rats whose fates were unknown.
He interlocked his fingers and pressed his palms together.
Clap!
The crisp sound of his palms meeting was especially startling at that moment.
“Since it has all collapsed…”
“I’ll build a new one.”
The chakra within Chiba surged into the ground like water bursting through a dam.
“Wood Release: Wood Human Technique!”
Rumble!
The earth began to shake violently, as though a magnitude-ten earthquake had suddenly struck.
The ground throughout Konoha trembled without pause.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, standing closest to Chiba, retreated several steps before regaining his balance.
“This chakra…”
“And that hand seal!”
The sight of Chiba’s hand seal caused a decades-old memory to erupt in Sarutobi Hiruzen’s mind.
“Impossible!”
“This is absolutely impossible!”
Crack!
Crack!
The ground of the former Senju compound split apart, opening countless enormous chasms.
Trees of unimaginable thickness burst roaring from the soil.
Like furious dragons, they intertwined, wrapped around one another, and fused together as they grew ever taller and larger.
Ten meters.
Fifty meters.
One hundred meters.
A wooden giant that blotted out the sky rose from the ground!
A terrifyingly fierce wood dragon coiled around its body.
An overwhelming sense of terror pressed down upon everyone like a physical mountain.
In that instant, it seemed as though all the oxygen had been drained from the surrounding air.
Everyone involuntarily tilted their heads back, their mouths hanging open.
“What is that thing?
A giant as large as a mountain!”
Nara Shikaku’s legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.
Cold sweat poured down his forehead like rain.
“Wood…
Wood Release?”
Uchiha Fugaku trembled from head to toe.
Before this wooden giant, his Susanoo was nothing more than a laughable toy!
This was true power!
This was the absolute force capable of suppressing the entire shinobi world!
Shimura Danzo’s single eye widened until it nearly bulged from its socket.
The fingers gripping his cane turned white from the force.
“The First Hokage’s power!”
“This is the power the First Hokage used to pacify the chaotic world!”
“Not only does he possess the Senju Clan’s bloodline…”
“He has actually awakened Wood Release at this level!”
Greed!
Insane greed instantly consumed Shimura Danzo’s reason.
If he could obtain that body, he would become the new God of Shinobi!
The Wood Human’s enormous form did not shock only those present.
Even Konoha’s civilians and ordinary ninja could see the terrifying monster from far away!
Screams.
Cries.
Piercing alarms.
All of Konoha was instantly plunged into unprecedented panic.
“Enemy attack!”
“Run!
The village is going to be destroyed!”
“What kind of monster is that?”
Chaos spread through the streets like a plague.
At the Senju compound, Chiba stood atop the Wood Human.
His eyes were ice-cold as he looked down at the ant-like crowd below.
“Go.”
At Chiba’s command, the several-hundred-meter-tall Wood Human moved.
It raised one enormous foot and stomped down hard on the cluster of dilapidated buildings below.
Boom!
The earth shook and the surrounding land swayed.
A vast section of the ruins was ground to dust beneath that single step.
Immediately afterward, the Wood Human bent down.
It swung its mountain-like palm and swept it fiercely across the ground.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Ruins and broken walls.
Weeds and trees.
Before such overwhelming force, nothing could offer the slightest resistance.
Vast stretches of ruins were ripped from the ground, and enormous chunks of rubble flew into the sky.
The terrifying shock wave became a tangible gale that swept wildly in every direction.
“Retreat!”
“Everyone, retreat!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen roared at the top of his lungs.
He desperately channeled chakra through his body and anchored his feet firmly to the ground.
The ANBU and Root ninja fared even worse.
Many were blown away by the shock wave and slammed heavily into distant tree trunks.
No one dared step forward!
Who would dare stop him?
Even the slightest graze would instantly reduce them to a mass of flesh!
Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu had completely lost their former dignity.
The two high-ranking officials clung to each other, trembling.
This was not a power any ninja could oppose!
This was a miracle!
In just a few minutes, the vast former Senju compound had been reduced to a broad expanse of cratered yellow earth.
The entire place had been razed to the ground.
Chiba dispelled the ninjutsu.
The enormous Wood Human dissolved into countless motes of green light.
But he was not finished.
Under everyone’s gaze, Chiba extended his right hand and formed a one-handed seal.
“Earth Release: Moving Earth Core.”
As he poured an immense amount of chakra into the technique, the land within several kilometers shifted like soft dough being kneaded at will.
The uneven craters quickly filled in.
The protruding mounds of earth instantly sank.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Senju compound became as flat as a mirror.
Uchiha Fugaku watched numbly.
A one-handed seal?
An Earth Release technique covering several kilometers?
How much chakra and how much precision would that require?
Was this really something a human could do?
Immediately afterward, Chiba pressed his palms together once more.
“Wood Release: Four-Pillar House Technique!”
Rumble!
This time, no terrifying monster burst from the soil.
Instead, exquisite wooden buildings rose from the ground.
A vast and majestic main residence.
A quiet and elegant courtyard.
Tall, sturdy walls.
A broad, level training ground.
In just over ten seconds, a brand-new, sprawling, magnificent estate appeared before everyone’s eyes!
The entire area fell deathly silent.
Even the wind seemed to have stopped.
No one spoke.
The way the leaders of the major clans looked at Chiba had completely changed.
Shock.
Awe.
And profound fear.
Tsunade’s disciple?
To hell with that!
He was clearly the Senju Clan’s legitimate heir!
Only a direct descendant of the Senju Clan could unleash such mythical Wood Release!
Sarutobi Hiruzen, that old fox, had known everything from the beginning!
He had merely wanted to use the various clans as pawns to test this monster’s limits!
Anger at being used and deep wariness toward Chiba rose simultaneously in the hearts of the major clan leaders.
Chiba brushed the wood shavings from his hands as though he had just completed a trivial task.
He turned and looked toward Konoha’s disheveled leaders.
“I’m simply returning home.”
“And renovating my own house while I’m here.”
“What?
Does Hokage-sama have an objection?”
“…”