Life after returning to Konoha was comfortable—especially now that Hikaru was officially on leave.
He no longer had to stay on edge, worrying about whether Sunagakure would spot him.
He no longer had to obsess over whether the Dragon Vein chakra had brushed against a Flying Thunder God seal and somehow tipped off Minato.
He didn't have to report to ANBU at dawn.
He didn't have to drown in mission summaries, assignment rotations, or endless paperwork that made his head hurt.
Right now, all he had to do was stay quietly at home—or, as long as he didn't leave the village, do whatever he wanted within the rules.
"This really isn't bad," Hikaru muttered, lounging in his own place. "Feels like early retirement."
Of course, "retirement" was just a joke.
In his previous life, he'd spent his first day at work dreaming about quitting, but this world wasn't the same. Nothing was.
He sat at his table, flipping through a stack of documents, his brows knitting tighter every few pages.
The material was difficult.
But no matter how dense it was, he had to read it. He had to think through it.
Because these notes were something he had obtained from Senju Shōma—
Hashirama Senju's personal insights and records on Wood Release.
Getting them from an elder like Shōma should've been nearly impossible.
But for Hikaru, it wasn't actually that hard.
Because the moment he intentionally displayed a trace of Wood Release—
Shōma's eyes had practically bulged out of his skull. For a second, it looked like he honestly believed he'd hallucinated.
But after confirming it again and again, he couldn't deny what he was seeing.
That chakra—brimming with life—was unmistakable.
Hikaru… truly possessed Wood Release.
"How did you do it?" Shōma demanded.
"I don't know," Hikaru answered with practiced vagueness. "During my mission in Sunagakure, I suddenly awakened some kind of power. After that, I realized I could condense Wood Release chakra—though only as seeds."
"I understand." Shōma's tone hardened. "I'll provide you the records."
"Then thank you, Elder."
Hikaru's answer was borderline perfunctory, and Shōma clearly wasn't satisfied—but he had no better options.
After witnessing those seeds with his own eyes, he had to admit the truth.
At minimum, Hikaru had awakened Wood Release.
It was unbelievable. It left Shōma confused and shaken.
Yet one fact eclipsed all of it:
Hikaru was a Senju.
A Senju awakening Wood Release again…
The significance was immeasurable.
It was a symbol—almost an omen—that the clan might rise again.
Even with all his guilt and fear where Hikaru was concerned, Shōma still handed over every piece of material he had. He even warned Hikaru repeatedly:
Unless it was absolutely necessary, he should not reveal Wood Release.
"And even if you must," Shōma added grimly, "wait until your Wood Release is strong enough."
"I understand, Elder."
Hikaru agreed completely.
Even if Shōma hadn't said it, he would've done the same.
Power needed protection behind it. Without enough backing, throwing around a rare ability only led to one outcome—
being captured and dissected.
He didn't want to see Konoha as purely dark, but he couldn't afford naïveté either.
After all, the very thing that transformed him had come from a Konoha laboratory.
"…Still," Hikaru muttered, rubbing his temples, "these notes are brutal. Wood Release really is something else."
Hashirama's writing was fairly detailed. There were even Tobirama's annotations in the margins.
He could read it.
He could understand the words.
But truly grasping it was another story.
Every technique emphasized chakra composition—
Water + Earth, and then the crucial part: Yang Release.
That alone was enough to make his head spin.
"Forget it." Hikaru set the documents down with a sigh. "If I try to 'understand' this the normal way, I'll be here forever."
He was an "unfair" type of shinobi. A system user.
He should focus on what actually mattered.
He knew how this worked: once he learned a technique, he could master it completely.
But he still had to be careful.
Wood Release wasn't like ordinary ninjutsu.
Even Flying Thunder God—after learning it—still required him to leave "gaps," time windows where his growth looked believable.
He would never let himself look like someone who mastered everything instantly.
A genius who "works hard and improves" was far easier for the world to accept than a monster who learned anything in one try.
Sometimes his actions were undeniably utilitarian.
But he didn't have anyone backing him.
He couldn't afford to be reckless.
Hikaru stood, raised a hand, and began forming seals.
His movements were a bit stiff—slow, almost cautious—like someone attempting it for the first time.
Yet his chakra was steady. Not a hint of turbulence.
"Alright," he murmured. "So the seeds really are fusing Water, Earth… and Yang inside me."
He paused, thinking.
"Does that count as a special kind of Kekkei Tōta?"
Kekkei Tōta was the fusion of three chakra natures—terrifying in power.
Wood Release was similar in concept, except its "third component" wasn't simply another element.
It was something rarer, harder to draw out.
Yang.
"I have no idea what a beginner like me can do with this," he muttered. "But I'd better not go too hard. Not inside my house."
He wouldn't dare test this outside. Being noticed would be disastrous.
But even at home, he couldn't go all out. If he damaged his place, that would be an even bigger headache.
When his hand seals finished, his chakra surged to a peak.
He forcibly restrained the flow—then slammed his palm down.
"Wood Release: Piercing Branch Technique!"
In an instant, sharp wooden spikes exploded upward from the floor.
Then—
to Hikaru's shock—
they kept growing.
They spread like madness, branching out again and again.
His eyes widened as he realized something horrifying:
He could execute the technique—
but he couldn't control his chakra output at all.
"W-What…? What is this?!"
He tried to clamp down harder.
He tried to stop it.
It didn't matter.
Within seconds, his entire room was riddled with wooden stakes.
Every piece of furniture was pierced clean through. Everyday items shattered under the assault.
And the spikes kept climbing higher—
so high they threatened to punch through the roof itself.
"…I really didn't expect you to learn it so fast."
At Hikaru's doorway, Senju Shōma stared at him with a grave expression.
From the outside, the house still looked intact.
But inside…
It was ruined beyond repair.
Thick wooden branches crisscrossed the interior like a cage. There was barely enough space for a person to squeeze through.
All the furniture was destroyed.
The place was unlivable.
Shōma had gone in to inspect it himself.
He knew that room. He knew what it used to look like.
And what he saw had shaken him to the core.
How long had it been?
A week—at most—since Hikaru returned.
And he'd been reading those notes for less than five days.
Yet in that tiny span of time…
he had already reached this level?
Just imagining those spikes erupting inside a human body was enough to make Shōma's scalp go cold.
If the technique struck a vital point, death would be instant.
Piercing Branch Technique.
Shōma recognized it immediately.
But bringing it to this scale—this density—was not something an ordinary shinobi could do.
His mind trembled.
This kind of talent was… unreal.
"If I had actually 'mastered' it," Hikaru said with a tired sigh, "my house wouldn't look like a slaughterhouse for furniture."
He was genuinely irritated.
Wood Release was more troublesome than he'd expected.
Even with the seeds, things had gone wrong.
This was the first time he'd ever seen a technique "learned through seeds" still slip out of control.
Back when he got his Water and Earth beginner seeds, he'd had perfect control from the start.
Sure, the strength wasn't enormous, and shaping took time.
But output control?
Never once had it failed him.
Today, though—his chakra had gone berserk, and his house was basically gone.
And the loss of a house wasn't even what bothered him most.
He could buy another easily.
His mission reward was massive, and now that he'd awakened Wood Release, the clan would gladly offer far more.
A new residence wasn't even a problem. A bigger, more comfortable one wouldn't be either.
He didn't keep anything truly important at home anyway.
What truly annoyed him was something else:
He had intended to hide Wood Release longer—to let it look like a natural, gradual awakening.
But after this…
that plan was gone.
Even if his mastery wasn't "clean," what he'd produced didn't match the story he wanted the world to believe.
Still, only a handful of people knew.
And the technique he used wasn't an especially advanced one.
More importantly—
this accident had revealed a problem he needed to understand.
In that sense, it was a mixed blessing.
If it hadn't happened, he might've taken far longer to figure out the limits of his Wood Release.
"…Honestly," Shōma sighed, "you've already done extremely well."
He hesitated, then spoke more softly.
"Have you considered leaving ANBU? Your importance is beyond measure now. You're the Senju clan's only hope…"
"Only hope?" Hikaru cut him off with a light laugh.
"I think you're focusing on the wrong thing, Elder. And honestly—you shouldn't have focused on ANBU from the start, either."
He paused, staring at Shōma for a long moment.
"ANBU wasn't the wrong choice. Wood Release isn't the wrong choice."
Then his voice sharpened slightly.
"But I have a question."
"Elder… what exactly is your goal?"
Goal?
Shōma frowned.
His first instinct was to say it outright—
to restore the Senju clan's glory.
But before the words left his mouth, another face surfaced in his mind—
Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The hatred ran deep. Bone-deep.
He wanted Hiruzen dead.
He had always wanted that.
Restoring the Senju and killing Hiruzen didn't conflict—
but Shōma could feel it.
That wasn't what Hikaru meant.
Somewhere along the way, Hikaru had become… unfamiliar.
Especially after becoming an ANBU captain.
In that short time, the sense of distance had only grown sharper.
Shōma realized, with a chill, that the boy's mind was not as young as his face.
He wanted to hear it.
He wanted to know what this clan's lone Wood Release user truly thought.
And Hikaru didn't disappoint.
"For the clan," Hikaru said quietly, "you've never had a clear goal."
"The 'big goal'—whether it's hatred for Hiruzen Sarutobi, or rebuilding Senju glory—those sound grand, but they're vague."
"They aren't concrete. They aren't actionable."
"And beyond that, you don't have a direction."
"No plan. No structure. No guiding principle."
"You're just throwing your thoughts into the open and reacting to whatever change looks favorable."
Hikaru exhaled, his gaze steady.
"Elder… the clan's 'only hope' isn't me."
"Because a Senju clan like this…"
"…doesn't truly have hope at all."
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