Chapter 578: Wood Release Erupts on the Battlefield

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"I think we should split the forces." Just as the jonin were locked in argument, Muyue spoke up.

In Muyue's view, defeating Yagura and his Mist ninja wasn't difficult; the real challenge was getting Yagura willing to engage in a frontal battle.

Based on current intelligence, the Mist's strategy was to exhaust Konoha's strength, only engaging in large-scale battles when they were confident of victory.

If he led the entire army over directly, Yagura would surely avoid battle.

The previously balanced situation shifted after Muyue spoke.

As the overall commander, Muyue held absolute authority in the unit.

Some jonin who opposed splitting the forces fell silent.

"But splitting the forces easily..." Mimura Hakama still felt dividing the troops was unreliable.

"Last time we lost mainly because we were outmatched in intelligence. This time the village has dispatched more resources, so something like that shouldn't happen." A jonin in favor of splitting seized the chance to rebut.

Although Mimura Hakama was the vice-commander, Muyue, who shared his opinion, was still the main commander.

Mimura Hakama opened his mouth, somewhat unable to counter.

Question Konoha's intelligence capabilities? If they lost to the Mist in intelligence even on home ground, that would be underestimating Konoha's intelligence assets—and if they were crushed in intelligence, it would be tough to fight even without splitting.

In the end, Mimura Hakama also fell silent, and the plan to split forces was approved.

Muyue chose a split-force strategy almost identical to Mitokado Homura's, having Teacher Chen, who was outstanding in strength and seniority, lead half the force to clear out the Mist separately.

Muyue's thinking was simple: if Yagura dared to attack Mitokado Homura's forces, then since he used the same strategy, Yagura would naturally dare to strike at him.

After all, even if Muyue was the number one among Konoha's younger generation, he was still a young ninja—Yagura, who didn't flinch at the Sannin, certainly wouldn't flinch at Muyue.

However, after finalizing the plan, Muyue didn't execute it immediately. Instead, he sent small teams to eliminate nearby Mist squads while waiting for intelligence from the recon teams.

Even though Muyue knew Konoha couldn't outdo the Mist, who had Uchiha Madara's help, in intelligence, he still had to wait for intel before acting.

Because the other jonin wouldn't let Muyue blindly charge in with a strategy nearly identical to Mitokado Homura's—from their perspective, that would be pure suicide.

Only after the recon team had investigated the Mist's current situation and the location of Yagura's unit did Muyue begin moving his forces.

"Commander Muyue, though it might be inappropriate, I have a bad feeling about this." On the march, Mimura Hakama said to Muyue.

"Perhaps we underestimated the Mist's intelligence capabilities."

The more the plan progressed, the more Mimura Hakama felt an odd sense of déjà vu. Upon careful thought, wasn't this the same script as Mitokado Homura's, just with a different set of ninja?

"Trust our comrades." Muyue replied with a smile.

Muyue had not underestimated the Mist's intelligence—after all, with White Zetsu's help, it would be strange if they couldn't suppress Konoha's intelligence.

From start to finish, Muyue intended to defeat the Mist ninja force with only half his troops.

The Mist would also need personnel to set up their decoy formation, so they wouldn't have their full army—likely around ninety percent of their original force.

With Muyue's current strength, even without going all out, he could neutralize seventy to eighty percent of the Mist force. Then wouldn't the remaining eight hundred Konoha ninja be enough to handle the remaining ten percent of the Mist force?

Mimura Hakama sighed softly and said no more.

Since Muyue had spoken like that, how could he argue further?

"Success at a young age still lacks steadiness," Mimura Hakama thought to himself.

He didn't develop any ill will toward Muyue because of this; he just felt that a life too smooth wasn't good. For someone like Muyue, becoming famous across the ninja world at such a young age and earning the Hokage's favor, it was inevitable that some pride would arise.

"I hope my premonition is wrong." Mimura Hakama perked up, alert to his surroundings, and continued forward.

Perhaps this world is too cruel—the more you don't want something to happen, the more it does.

The Konoha ninja force successfully located Yagura's unit's hiding spot based on the intelligence.

But what awaited them wasn't a small Mist squad, but a ninja force large enough to surround them.

"Hanyu Muyue, it seems I overestimated you. Don't you know to learn from your predecessors?" Yagura couldn't help but laugh.

Upon learning that Muyue was leading a ninja force to attack, Yagura had immediately taken it seriously and formulated numerous counter-plans.

He never expected Muyue to pull off the same stunt as Mitokado Homura.

At first, Yagura thought it was a trap—after all, even if Muyue wasn't good at tactics, the ninja assisting him definitely knew what they were doing.

But the intelligence given by the intelligence squad was contrary to his assumption.

Given that the intelligence squad had recently achieved repeated successes, Yagura trusted their information and overturned his own speculation.

And the intelligence squad did not disappoint his trust—they were about to win another victory.

"It's a trap! Launch the signal flare!" Mimura Yemaki shouted anxiously, looking at the large group of Mist ninja surrounding them.

The signal flare soared into the sky, its dazzling light blooming in the air.

"Could it really be this time?" Kakashi quickly drew his White Light Short Blade, his expression more serious than ever before.

Following Muyue, they had encountered powerful enemies by accident and used strategy to defeat ninja forces that outnumbered them, but being lured into an ambush and surrounded by a large enemy force was a first.

"Don't spread out too much during the fight—watch each other's backs, and keep an eye on Muyue-sensei's situation," Kakashi said rapidly.

Obito, Shisui, and the others nodded solemnly; the danger they were about to face was visible to the naked eye.

Neither the Mist ninja army nor Yagura's taunts could change the expression on Muyue's face.

"Have you ever heard the saying, 'An excellent hunter often appears as the prey'?" Muyue looked around, scanning the Mist ninja and appraising those with stronger auras.

Name: Yagura

Chakra: Skills: Water Nature Transformation (Mastery: 5100/), Yin Nature Transformation (Mastery: 3000), Wind Nature Transformation (Mastery: 2800), Water Mirror Technique (Mastery)...

Name: Hozuki Shingetsu

Chakra: Skills: Water Nature Transformation (Mastery: 3700/), Wind Nature Transformation (Mastery: 2600), Water Transformation Technique (Mastery), Water Pistol Technique (Mastery)...

Name: Momochi Kawazawa

Chakra: Skills: Water Nature Transformation (Mastery: 3300/), Wind Nature Transformation (Mastery: 2600), Water Transformation Technique (Mastery), Water Pistol Technique (Mastery)

Observation Haki could also sense strength, but it was far inferior to the Appraisal Technique, which revealed most of the information.

"Hmph, all bluff," Yagura tightened his grip on his iron staff, secretly gathering chakra, ready to strike.

Muyue's ninja unit had only eight hundred men, while he had one thousand four hundred Mist ninja—such a disparity in numbers meant that even if Muyue added another Orochimaru, they could only run away in disgrace.

"Commander Muyue, take some elites and retreat. I'll command the remaining troops to cover you," Mimura Yemaki said with a resolute face, looking at the nearly double-sized Mist force.

Compared to him, an old jōnin who had reached his limit, Konoha needed the young and talented Muyue more.

Whoosh! Whoosh!!

Boom!!

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"

Both sides' ninja made their moves, and in an instant the field was filled with flying kunai and shuriken, with a constant stream of ninjutsu as well.

Muyue shook his head slightly and stepped in front of Mimura Yemaki. "Yemaki-senpai, you can trust me a little more."

After he finished using the Appraisal Technique, this battle was already over—there was no ninja on this battlefield who could stop him.

"I hope your skills are as tough as your mouth!" Yagura raised his iron staff, burst with chakra, and charged at Muyue.

He had never personally fought Muyue; in the last battle he had been busy dealing with Orochimaru and couldn't spare time to handle Muyue.

But Yagura didn't think Muyue could be stronger than him—even Orochimaru couldn't easily defeat him, let alone Muyue.

To ordinary ninja, Yagura's speed was immense, almost impossible to track.

But Yagura was facing Muyue, who had already activated his Byakugan and entered the Transparent World. Before Yagura even took a step, Muyue had foreseen his next move.

Muyue calmly pressed his palms together, interlacing his fingers and overlapping his thumbs to form the Ram seal.

The moment he completed this gesture, the massive Wood Release chakra within Muyue erupted.

"Wood Release: Tree Realm Birth!"

Rumble!!!

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble, as if countless lives were stirring beneath the earth.

Immediately, emerald saplings burst through the ground and grew at a terrifying speed—so fast that even the earth itself was shattered under the pressure.

The saplings grew into thick, towering trees covered with dense foliage in the blink of an eye, and in an instant the entire battlefield was swallowed by the lush forest.

Moreover, these trees were like sentient tree-people, madly attacking the Kirigakure ninja around them with branches and trunks. Yagura Karatachi was also blocked by thick branches.

At this moment, the atmosphere of the battlefield changed.

Both Konoha ninja and Kirigakure ninja turned to gaze at Mu Yue in shock.

"This is...!" Mimura Hagaki stared at the suddenly appearing forest, unable to believe his eyes as he looked at Mu Yue standing before him.

His first reaction was that he had fallen under a genjutsu.

It couldn't be helped—not because Mu Yue was untrustworthy, but because this scene was too astonishing.

Even he had only heard stories about the First Hokage's power to create a forest with a wave of his hand.

But Mimura Hagaki was, after all, an experienced veteran jōnin, and quickly determined that he was not under a genjutsu; everything before him was real.

"No wonder he said something like that..." Mimura Hagaki looked at Mu Yue with a complicated expression, suddenly understanding many things.

He had thought Mu Yue was young, brash, and overly arrogant, but in truth Mu Yue possessed extraordinary strength and had everything well in hand.

With the powerful Wood Release under his command, even holding only half the troops, Mu Yue was not intimidated by the entire Kirigakure force.

If the enemy chose to ambush Teacher Chen, Mu Yue could rely on his high mobility to rush over and support.

"Teacher Mu Yue also has Wood Release." Kakashi revealed a surprised expression.

Mu Yue had never shown Wood Release in front of them before—because of Shimura Danzo, he had only taught Yamato Wood Release in private, and only taught other ninjutsu openly.

So Kakashi did not know that Mu Yue possessed the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai.

"Not this time?" Watching the turn of events, Kakashi felt he might have guessed wrong.

However, Kakashi's mood did not improve.

Mu Yue had mastered all seven chakra nature transformations, knew countless ninjutsu, had personally developed many powerful S-rank ninjutsu and secret techniques, possessed two Kekkei Genkai, and one of them was Wood Release—a power that only the God of Shinobi had once wielded.

Kakashi found it truly hard to imagine what kind of difficult situation could lead to Mu Yue's death.

Being surrounded and killed by a force of ten thousand ninja while covering his comrades?

It couldn't be that the legendary Madara Uchiha had been resurrected and fought Mu Yue, could it?

But for now, Kakashi was very clear on one point: they could hardly help Mu Yue—the gap in strength was too great.

Every time he felt he was getting a little closer to Mu Yue, Mu Yue would always display entirely new abilities.

"Wood Release! So cool, Teacher Mu Yue!"

Obito, who had been constantly watching Mu Yue, couldn't help cheering in his heart when he saw Mu Yue turn the situation around with a single jutsu.

"If only I could learn Wood Release. The Sharingan is useless," Obito grumbled inwardly.

Although Obito was a member of the Uchiha clan, he believed that the Sharingan was inferior to Wood Release.

First, the strongest Uchiha—Madara Uchiha—had lost to Hashirama Senju, who possessed Wood Release. Second, Wood Release was extremely rare; only Hashirama Senju and Mu Yue could use it, and generally, the rarer something was, the stronger it was.

Besides, the abilities of the Sharingan were too ordinary; mastering the Transparent World or mastering Observation Haki was no worse than the Sharingan.

"Wood Release!"

After the initial shock, many Konoha ninja looked excitedly at the Kirigakure ninja, as if it were not they who were outnumbered, but the Kirigakure force.

The Kirigakure side had the opposite reaction; many of them looked at Mu Yue in terror. If not for the fact that Kirigakure's rules were strict enough that desertion meant certain death, they would have already wanted to flee.

The hidden-village era had only been going on for a few decades, and the shinobi of the ninja world had not forgotten the legend of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and his invincible Wood Release.

Yagura Karatachi swung his iron staff to shatter the incoming branches, his expression turning grim.

Ninja of his age felt the pressure of Wood Release most keenly.

Back then, Konoha had even developed a genjutsu that created phantom trees, aiming to make the enemy mistakenly think, "Could the enemy be a Wood Release user?" thus sowing fear and causing them to show openings.

The deterrent power of Wood Release was evident from this.

Even with nearly double the numerical advantage, at this moment Yagura Karatachi couldn't help but have a fleeting thought of retreat.