Kawaii!
Little Karin, barely a year and a half old, looked chubby and incredibly adorable.
Hiruko scooped her up, gave her soft cheek a playful squeeze, and strode out. Not a single soul noticed his departure. Interestingly, the toddler didn't cry even when being carried away by a stranger—perhaps she sensed no malice emanating from him.
Before long, Hiruko reunited with Karin's mother.
"Let's go!" Hiruko said calmly.
"Yes, sir!"
As they sprinted toward the border, Hiruko asked, "Rumi, what is the maximum range of your sensory ability?"
"At most... thirty kilometers," Rumi Uzumaki said somewhat sheepishly. "This power only awakened two months ago; I'm still not very proficient with it."
She didn't know much about the shinobi world. When she had first mentioned this ability to the leader of the Hidden Grass, he had dismissed it with a look of contempt, calling it useless. Consequently, Rumi believed her talent was mediocre at best.
Thirty kilometers!
Hiruko was stunned. Even the Byakugan's standard sight range was only one or two kilometers. Rumi had reached this level just by awakening the ability. This was undoubtedly one of the most powerful sensory traits in existence.
"Lord Hiruko... I think someone is ahead," Rumi suddenly frowned, staring into the distance.
Due to the dense forest, Hiruko couldn't see through the terrain. He asked, "Rumi, can you sense how many people there are?"
"Six in total. But their chakra levels aren't particularly high," Rumi replied.
"Use your ability to scan the border outpost. Tell me the number of people there and their chakra signatures," Hiruko commanded.
They were at the junction of the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. Evidently, the Hidden Stone had already begun encroaching upon Konoha's territory.
Is it a surprise attack?Not quite two full squads yet.
Hiruko decided to take them out while he was at it. Rumi didn't need to fight; she stayed on the perimeter, clutching little Karin.
Hiruko pinpointed the outpost's occupants. These were temporary stations—scouting positions set up by the Hidden Stone as a vanguard for their invasion. As Hiruko approached, he was immediately spotted.
The Stone sentry barely had time to signal before Hiruko abandoned stealth and charged forward. He instantly performed a summoning jutsu, calling forth one of his experimental "Hashirama Cell Plant Clones."
Hiruko tossed the sapling toward the outpost. In an instant, the tiny plant grew with the wind, transforming into a towering, gnarled tree whose thick, muscular branches lunged toward the Stone shinobi.
The Stone outpost commander turned pale and screamed, "Damn it! Attack!"
The Stone shinobi rained down explosive tags and kunai, followed by a barrage of Earth Style jutsu. However, these attacks did little to slow Hiruko. He wanted to see exactly what his bio-engineered plant could do.
The clone tree acted like a wooden kraken, lashing out with countless vines. Despite the Stone ninjas' desperate speed, they couldn't outrun the growth. As a vine closed the final meter to one ninja, the man froze in sheer terror, the gap between him and death feeling like an abyss.
Wood Style... Konoha has truly become too powerful. I'm dead.
The thought had barely crossed his mind before his world spun. A vine impaled him. A sickening gulping sound followed—the sound of someone drinking greedily. Within seconds, the ninja was drained into a withered husk.
The Stone squad leader dodged a vine, his face contorted in rage. "I told you to stop! Did you not hear me?" he roared at Hiruko.
Hiruko merely sneered. Using his mental energy, he directed the vines toward the captain.
"Everyone, attack together!" The captain finished his hand signs: Earth Style: Earth-Shaking Palm!
The ground split into massive fissures, accompanied by violent tremors meant to uproot the predatory tree. But a second later, the tree's roots split and dove deep into the bedrock, stabilizing its massive frame as it continued its relentless advance.
Hiruko's experimental plant wasn't just a tree; its vines functioned like high-speed spears. The Stone ninjas were forced into undignified rolls to avoid being skewered. On the battlefield, dignity mattered little—survival was the only goal.
Yet, even as they dodged the overhead thrusts, they suddenly found their ankles ensnared by vines erupting from beneath the soil. Panic set in. The vines sprouted thousands of tiny wooden thorns that sank into their flesh.
Once again, the gulping sound echoed. In less than five seconds, their life force was siphoned away.
"Ah... Captain, save me!"
Three men were dragged into the thicket of vines, their bodies turning into husks before they could even finish their pleas.
The Stone captain cursed hoarsely, but a cold realization dawned in his gut: he wasn't going to make it out alive today.
Five minutes later, the entire Hidden Stone outpost had been eradicated and "consumed" by Hiruko's Wood Style experiment. Hiruko waited a moment before the massive tree turned to ash, dissipating into the air.
This was the flaw of the Hashirama Cell clones: they could only exist for a short duration. Because they used life force to trigger instantaneous growth, the plant's natural lifespan was incredibly brief.
Seeing the enemies cleared, Rumi emerged from the shadows with Karin. Hiruko led them quickly away. Though they were technically within the Land of Fire, the area was a tinderbox.
The friction between Konoha and the Hidden Stone had reached a breaking point. The war between Konoha/Sand and Cloud/Stone had officially begun. There were no diplomatic insults or expelling of ambassadors—those formalities didn't exist here. On a single day, the Four Great Nations simultaneously issued declarations of war.
The conflict consumed the four powers, their vassals, and even neutral factions caught in the crossfire.
History would record it as the Fourth Shinobi World War.
The fires of war were finally lit!
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