Standing to the side, operating on the principle that confessing early would earn him a lighter sentence, Kamiki stepped forward.
“I’m sorry, Lord Hokage…
I was actually trying to hold back, but I never expected it would still…” Hiruzen was still unwilling to believe it, his sharp gaze cutting straight toward Yamato.
“Yamato, you actually got this child to take the fall for you?!” Yamato wanted to weep.
So no matter what I say, it’s always my fault?!
The actual culprit stepped forward himself, yet you still refuse to believe it, old man!
Don’t you know what I’m capable of?
Even if I trained hard for another thirty years, I couldn’t produce a fifth of this sea of trees!!
“Lord Hokage, it really was me…” Kamiki defended Yamato.
“Yamato-sensei said he wanted to test my grasp of Wood Release and told me to go all out.
I just failed to control my power for a moment, and then…” It was only then that Hiruzen finally caught on.
A sea of trees this massive…
Yamato genuinely didn’t seem to have that kind of ability…
Could…
could it really be?!
It actually was Kamiki!
At this point, Hiruzen believed Kamiki’s words about seventy to eighty percent.
The sheer shock hit him so hard that the Third Hokage, who had governed the Leaf for decades, felt the breath catch in his throat!
What did Kamiki say just now…?
He was deliberately trying to hold back his power, yet it still caused catastrophic damage on this scale!
In other words…
This sea of trees lifting the entire village into the sky was not even Kamiki’s full power!
This little guy had held back!
Wait, no—that wasn’t even the most crucial part!
From the time he ordered Yamato to teach Kamiki Wood Release until now, it had barely been two days, right?!
Two days, and this kid learned the First Lord’s Deep Forest Emergence?!!
And cast it with such terrifying might!!
Hiss— The Third Hokage sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
This child is horrifyingly monstrous!
Realizing this, for some strange reason, Hiruzen wasn’t quite so furious anymore!
In fact, why did he feel a little pleased inside?!
After all, if Yamato and Kamiki’s story was true, the Hidden Leaf was very likely about to produce the next God of Shinobi!
A God of Shinobi capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with, or even surpassing, the First Hokage!
Still, as an old fox who had run the village for decades, the Third concealed his shock and excitement well, putting on a stern front before Kamiki.
“Kamiki, do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused?” Kamiki lowered his head, too frightened to utter a sound.
He could already picture just how miserable the next few decades of his life in prison would be!
The Third continued his scolding.
“I told you last time: you are not to use wide-scale, destructive jutsu inside a populated village.” “This time, you went ahead and uprooted the entire village!” “You should count yourself lucky that in this incident, only a few people suffered minor scrapes from the branches, and no one died.” “Otherwise, you’d be spending the rest of your days rotting in the Leaf’s prison!” Hearing that final sentence, Kamiki felt a surge of relief.
Judging by the Hokage’s tone, he wouldn’t be locked up for very long.
He answered at once, “Lord Hokage is entirely right.
I will definitely be careful from now on.” Hiruzen rolled his eyes.
“You’re still thinking about a ‘from now on’?” Kamiki shrank his neck.
“No, definitely not!
I’ll never use jutsu inside the village ever again!” “Hmph.
Start thinking about how to fix this mess right now,” Hiruzen said with a dark face.
Kamiki wore a thoughtful look.
In his mind, he could blow up the entire Leaf first, then use Wood Release to rebuild all the houses from scratch.
Then again, suggesting that would probably get him beaten half to death by the Third…
Yamato piped up from the side to remind them, “Wood Release creates real, physical trees.
Once summoned, they cannot simply be unsummoned.” “The only option right now is to mobilize the villagers to chop down the excess timber, then organize a full reconstruction…” “That is our only choice under the circumstances.” Hiruzen’s eyes held a trace of helplessness.
Finishing his sentence, his heavy gaze fell back on Kamiki.
“As for you—don’t think you’re getting off easy.
Go copy the Shinobi Rulebook ten thousand times!” Hearing that, Kamiki nearly laughed out loud from sheer excitement.
He caused such a massive catastrophe and thought a prison sentence was guaranteed, yet Lord Hokage let him off with a slap on the wrist, making him copy some rules a few times.
For Kamiki, who knew clone jutsu, copying text was ridiculously easy.
Hiruzen seemed to anticipate the kid slacking off and added, “No clones allowed!
If I catch you using one even once, it becomes a hundred thousand times!” “Yes, sir!” Kamiki nodded with a serious face.
The Third let out a long sigh and waved Kamiki away, telling him to go get some sleep.
He had considered tossing Kamiki into the cells for a while; the kid had caused him plenty of headaches over the past couple of days!
Yet it was only a passing thought.
The Third was soft-hearted at his core and couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Once Kamiki left, Yamato caught the brunt of it.
He was thoroughly chewed out by the Third for his sheer incompetence, the lecture dragging on well past midnight.
On the other end.
When Kamiki got back to Naruto’s place, he discovered Naruto’s apartment had been launched into the air by the Deep Forest Emergence too.
The tiny flat was perched high in a tree canopy, and Naruto was nowhere to be found.
At that moment, Kamiki truly grasped the scale of the mess he had made.
He still had a sense of responsibility.
Knowing the village suffered because of his mistake, he decided to do something to make up for it.
With determined eyes, Kamiki formed a hand seal.
“Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Poof, poof, poof…
Over a thousand shadow clones split off from Kamiki, fanning out across the village to help with disaster relief and reconstruction.
Elsewhere, the Third Hokage, who was still mid-rant chewing out Yamato, spotted several Kamiki clones bustling past.
A look of warm relief flickered in his eyes.
It seemed his judgment hadn’t failed him.
This Kamiki kid was truly worth nurturing!
All the extra attention hadn’t gone to waste!
“This child’s future is truly boundless,” Yamato remarked from the bottom of his heart.
“Cut the chatter and get to work helping with the cleanup!” Hiruzen snapped, planting a kick on Yamato’s backside.
Yamato scrambled off in a hurry.
The next morning.
The entire village was hard at work with reconstruction efforts.
Because the academy building had been wrecked by the massive trees and final exams were right around the corner, classes could not be paused.
So, the instructors moved class to an open clearing in the village.
The students gathered on the grass, chattering away.
“I wonder what happened.
How did all these trees suddenly burst out of nowhere?” Sakura wondered aloud.
“Based on my deductions, this was likely a Wood Release jutsu unleashed by a shinobi of Kage-level caliber!” Shikamaru analyzed.
“Cut it out.
Since the First Hokage died, nobody in the Leaf has inherited the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai for decades, let alone someone with Kage-level strength,” Kiba scoffed.
(Ordinary students had no idea the Anbu’s Yamato existed.) A passing student piped up, “No Wood Release users left?
You only think that because your rank isn’t high enough to access that tier of classified intel.” “Wood Release is too powerful; the village would never give up on it so easily.” “Word is that back before Orochimaru defected, he conducted secret experiments with the First Lord’s cells…
The person who cast this Wood Release is very likely an experimental subject created by Orochimaru!” Listening to his classmates’ wild theories, Kamiki noticed something odd.
Wood Release was a Kekkei Genkai unique to the First Hokage—so why was he able to use it?
Searching through every scrap of the original owner’s memories, Kamiki found nothing relevant.
Doubts about his true identity began to surface in his mind.
He thought he had merely transmigrated into an ordinary weakling ninja, but could this body actually carry an extraordinary bloodline?!
While the students were locked in heated debate, Iruka walked over carrying a thick stack of test papers.
“All right, settle down and stop chatting, everyone.
We have a pop quiz today.” “Another test?!” The students instantly deflated like frosted eggplants.