Chapter 43: Mokuton

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Hashirama Senju was known as the God of Shinobi, for his power was absolute and his only match in the world, Madara Uchiha, was killed by Hashirama himself.

And Hashirama's signature technique was the Wood Release. It was a strange Kekkei Genkai since no other user had appeared since Hashirama, yet it was still feared in the ninja world.

Problem is, as I looked around, I saw the trees begin moving unnaturally as they formed several strong pillars, shooting towards me with the strength of cannons.

Grabbing Katai like a rag doll, I quickly jumped back. But the wood pillars were much faster than me, so I had no choice but to throw Katai as far away as possible as one of the wood pillars slammed into my chest.

I felt my insides shake as I spat out a mouthful of blood, and got sent flying backwards. I felt the world shake and blur, but I bit my tongue through the pain and managed to land on my feet.

"You survived that? My oh my, you really want to make me feel guilty don't you?"

He suddenly appeared in front of me, and his arm turned into several wooden spears. He was too close for me to dodge, so I unsheathed my blade and countered the attack.

He was much stronger, but it did allow me to retreat unharmed as I landed on a tree. I didn't wait for him to continue his monologue as I ran up the tree, and hide as I quickly began gathering leaves.

The man below laughed, "You do realize I manipulate trees, right? Hiding in them isn't the smartest things to do."

The tree I stood on began morphing into a wooden coffin, about to entrap me. I jumped out of the way in time, and let go of all the leaves I had gathered. Because of the huge changes brought to the tree, they seamlessly merged with the other fallen leaves.

Despite jumping away, the surrounding trees all turned into large constructs, and I could see that in less than a second, I would get trapped in them, with no way out.

But as I was about to get trapped, the leaves reached him, and he cried out in pain as they cut into his body. I had the time to work on my Senbonsakura since I invented it, and I was now able to turn the leaves into sharp blades that wouldn't lose out to any sharpened kunai.

Having several dozens of them fall on your body wasn't good. It broke his focus as the surrounding trees momentarily halted, long enough for me to use the Body Flicker to slip in between them.

As I got out, I sent a glance at the prisoners, and only saw a big coffin, out of which blood dripped out.

"You little c…"

The Anbu's angry bellow was stopped by a calm voice, "Koala, stand down."

The bloody Anbu, codenamed Koala, looked up, and so did I, and we saw another Anbu. Koala groaned, "Leader I…"

Leader stared at Koala, making him shut up, before finally looking at me. He looked at me up and down and said, "My apologies for Koala's behaviour, he has been on tenterhooks recently. Your team will soon arrive, so why don't we do this for now. You give us Captain Katai, and we leave in peace."

So they were trying to take him back? I thought they wanted to kill him. After a moment, I asked, "What tells me you won't try to kill me once you've got him? I don't think whatever group you are part of will like me knowing about your plans."

Leader sighed, "Indeed, it is unfortunate you learned of this. However, killing you would be more upsetting than anything. Believe it or not, we are loyal to the leaf, so I do not wish to kill a talent like you."

I sent a look at Katai, and finally replied, "Fine, take him away. I hope you won't be offended when I tell Anbu about you."

Leader's eyes turned into crescents as he appeared next to Katai, and he said, "We won't. I hope next time we see each other, it will be on kinder terms. Until then, farewell, Sukaina Sumichi."

The way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine, but I did not show any reaction as I watched them with cold eyes. I waited a few seconds after they disappeared before finally sighing.

I'm starting to think I'm cursed, why did I have to stumble upon yet another bothersome mission? Worst is, many other teams accepted it, yet it had to be me of all people who got the short end of the stick.

After a short while, I heard the shuffling of leaves, and looking over I spotted my team coming my way. As they came toward me, they passed by a giant wood coffin, out of which blood trickled down.

Amai-Sensei rose an eyebrow and asked, "How did you do that?"

I shook my head and replied, "I didn't. Those were my prisoners, someone else killed them."

Amai-Sensei nodded, not bothered by the lack of details as he asked, "Why did you call us here?"

An S Rank secret wasn't something supposed to be shared between teammates, it was something for the Hokage's ears only, as well as those involved of course. Since they hadn't seen anything, my team weren't involved.

So I said, "Can't really say, I needed help, but things resolved themselves… I'll be hurrying back to the village. I would like for your protection."

Amai-Sensei nodded slightly, and sent another glance at the wooden coffin, his expression somewhat grave as he finally cast an Earth Jutsu on it, burying it into the ground. Then, without much of a word, we sped off towards the village.

As we moved, I had the uncanny feeling someone was watching me from the shadows, but that was more probably than not me being paranoid because of my encounter.

While we moved, Izumi and Laiko were obviously curious about my encounter, but I didn't say anything as I wasn't allowed, and I didn't really want to say anything either.

Someone being capable of using Mokuton, that is Wood Release, was a big deal, and it was weird for no one in the village to know about it. After all, it was the legendary technique of the First Hokage, the God of Shinobi who inspired fear in several generations.

I get we hide our talents, that's exactly what I was going through myself, but that was an entirely different case entirely. Whether the guy I fought had reached a mastery of the art even close to Hashirama or not didn't matter.

As long as the other villages didn't know about his power, the mere fact that Konoha had another Mokuton user would probably be enough to stop the brewing conflict.

But then, maybe the village was waiting for the situation to reach a critical point before releasing the information, or they were simply waiting for him to grow to Hashirama's height.

But there was also another, grimmer possibility. Minato didn't know about this guy, meaning he either was in a hidden faction of Konoha, like Danzo's Root, or simply wasn't from the village.

In any case, I had to report this to the Hokage as soon as possible, as I also held the extremely important news of a rebellion starting out in the Land of Fire.

A real magnet for trouble aren't I?

Thankfully we reached the village without anyone attacking us, meaning whoever I had met really didn't intend to attack, or maybe Amai-Sensei had dissuaded them. Whatever the reason, I was happy we managed to reach the village.

We reached the Hokage Tower, and I was surprised I was given an immediate meeting with the Hokage. The Hokage was a busy man, and it wasn't unusual to wait for half an hour to meet him.

However, as I entered the office, which seemed so familiar now, there was a falter in my step. Minato was there alright, but there was another person inside. One I knew very well, and one I hoped to never meet if possible.

Danzo Shimura.