Forest of Death, Konohagakure
Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Shizune yawned half-asleep, and asked Tsunade-hi, “Tsunade-sama, why did you bring here in the middle of the night? I had barely fallen asleep…”
Tsunade-hi smiled, as she said, “To show you sothing you wouldn’t have expected at all…”
“Huh? Sothing I haven’t expected, at all?” mumbled Shizune with a stunned expression.
Tsunade-hi nodded, “Indeed…” She then turned around and smiling to herself, asked Shizune, “Haven’t you noticed sothing in the past few days? Sothing about that is different?”
“Ehh? Is there anything different about you?” muttered Shizune trying to recall if she noticed anything worth paying attention to, and said, “Now that I think about it… you don’t seem to have gone to the Izakaya much in the last two weeks… well, I am very happy about that since I didn’t have to drag your slumped body back to your house… and… you didn’t go to the Gambling House too… I bet Hiruzen-sama would be very relieved to hear about this as he doesn’t have to settle your debts… and… what else… hmm… Co to think of it… you’ve been acting all secretly for the past two weeks and not making any major appearances… could it be Tsunade-sama… have you secretly borrowed money from soone and…”
Hearing Shizune’s words, tick marks appeared on Tsunade-hi’s forehead, and she felt like wanting to punch the disrespectful girl, “Shizune!”
“Hai?! Ahh… Hahahaha… Did I say sothing? Not really… Or maybe, I was just sleep talking… yes… it’s that, I was sleep talking… Ahahahaa…” Shizune laughed nervously while waving her hand realizing that she had spoken too much.
Tsunade-hi sighed, ‘Am I that kind of woman?’ Even if that’s indeed the case, she wouldn’t admit it, ‘Humph, that’s not the case at all!’
Discarding that thought, Tsunade-hi wondered to herself, ‘Shizune doesn’t seem to notice the changes in my appearance and body… Is it because she is too sleepy?’ But then she shook her head, ‘Forget it, it shouldn’t really matter…’ and after putting aside that thought as well, she spoke to Shizune, “I have brought you here to show you sothing… don’t care about pointless things…”
“Alright?!” nodded Shizune tilting her head silently and no longer spoke about her inner thoughts.
Satisfied with Shizune’s response, Tsunade-hi approached a small tree sapling, she crouched down in front of it and as she touched the sapling with the palm of both her hands, she said to Shizune, “Watch carefully…” Then without waiting for Shizune’s response, she injected the Wood Style Chakra into the sapling.
Zoosh!
The mont Tsunade-hi poured her Chakra into the small tree sapling, visible to the naked eye, it began to grow… Its size increased as it matured as the bark beca hard along with the visible increase in the girth of the stem, the number of branches increased, and more leaves appeared on the branches.
Overall, the sapling changed from a little sapling to a young tree.
And as the sapling changed, Shizune’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth in shock, “Tsunade-sama… this is…”
How could she not understand what the growth of the sapling into a young tree ant the mont Tsunade-hi poured her Chakra into it… As an elite Jōnin of Konohagakure, she very knew what that signifies and questioned, “Tsunade-sama… have you succeeded? Did you really…”
Hearing Shizune’s question, Tsunade-hi stopped pouring her Chakra into the sapling that had grown into a young tree. She wiped the non-existent sweat from her forehead, then turned around and affird, “Yes, I have indeed acquired Wood Style Kekkei Genkai!”
“Really?” mumbled Shizune as if wanting to confirm Tsunade-hi’s words.
Shizune was aware of the fact that Tsunade-hi had been trying to acquire the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai for so ti now, but to think that she succeeded… Shizune had to be surprised, after all, to her knowledge this was the first ti anyone in Konoha had inherited Shodai’s Wood Style. Shimura Danzō cannot be counted since he had betrayed the village, therefore, Tsunade-hi is indeed the very first user of Wood Style in Konoha since the death of Shodai Hokage.
While knowledge about the human experintation conducted in Konohagakure related to the inheritance of Shodai Hokage’s Wood Style has always been a secret to most of the populace, as Tsunade-hi’s disciple, Shizune is naturally privy to these matters… therefore, she knows how many people, including several Senju Clansn have been sacrificed over the years in pursuit of Wood Style yet there was no result, all the experints failed.
For this reason, Shizune was sowhat worried when she learned that Tsunade-hi had made up her mind to walk the sa path… She even tried to talk her out of it several tis, but Tsunade-hi never listened…
But to think that what no one else could accomplish, Tsunade-hi accomplished… she successfully inherited her grandfather’s Kekkei Genkai!
…
On the other side, after so bargaining with Elder Hiruzen and Elder Koharu, Kuroto successfully obtained the ‘tender’ of the Afforestation Project and imdiately comnced the Project.
The person responsible for regrowing the Forest was naturally Tsunade-hi, having rested and adapted to the changes in her body following the implantation of Hashirama Cells, she has begun to learn Wood Style. Practicing a Jutsu is the best thod to learn it… and what better way to practice Wood Style than having to regrow an entire Forest?
Of course, Kuroto wasn’t naive enough to entrust the entire Afforestation Project solely to Tsunade-hi without providing assistance or supervising her. While she is generally very capable and dependable, relying on her completely can also backfire due to her occasional laziness and irresponsibility.
Moreover, Tsunade-hi is still not quite ready to create fully grown trees using only her Chakra. She has to start by creating branches and vines, which she can do with relative ease, and then progress from there. This will pave the way for her to eventually harness the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai she awakened through the implantation Operation, enabling her to grow complete trees.
To ensure that the Afforestation Project wasn’t affected in any way because of Tsunade-hi’s occasional laziness & irresponsibility or the ti it would take her to beco capable of growing fully grown trees using only her Chakra, Kuroto employed so ninjas to purchase a few thousand small tree saplings and then began planting them in the forest of death.
Tsunade-hi’s job is to use Wood Style Chakra and accelerate their growth from tree saplings into fully grown trees.
This exercise of accelerating the growth of tree saplings into full-grown trees using Wood Style Chakra is similar to the Leaf Cutting Exercise for Wind Style Chakra, the more saplings she turns into fully grown trees the better she’d beco at using the Wood Style Kekkei Genkai.
Although purchasing thousands of small tree saplings does cast a lot, compared to the overall cost of transplanting fully grown trees, transplanting small tree saplings is easier and cheaper.
In fact, there’s another advantage of using small tree saplings and nurturing them into fully grown trees in comparison to transplanting fully grown trees, it’s that the small tree saplings during their growth can adapt to the new soil, environnt, and weather conditions relatively easily compared to the fully grown trees that have already adapted to a certain type of soil and weather conditions.
As for the problem of the soil of the Forest of Death losing nutrition and fertility because of the accelerated growth of thousands of tree saplings in a very short period of ti?
After all, the growth of trees requires nutrition… without nutrition and water how would the trees grow?
Without human intervention, ‘Nature’ follows the concept of ‘balance’ which ensures that nothing is overexploited and what’s taken from nature returns back the nature maintaining a balance. But accelerated growth of thousands of trees in a very short period of ti can disturb this balance and make the soil nutrition less…
Kuroto has considered this problem… but it’s nothing worth paying attention to.
No, it’s not that Kuroto intends to completely ignore this problem… no, that couldn’t be farther from the truth… it’s just that there is no need for him to pay any special attention to this problem, and the reason for that is because the accelerated growth of trees in the Forest of Death has nothing to do with ‘Nature’ because it will not take away the nutrition from the soil.
The ‘nutrition’ that will be used for the accelerated growth of thousands of trees will be provided by Tsunade-hi in the form of her Wood Style Chakra. Essentially, she will be nurturing those trees using her Chakra and once the trees are fully grown, they will only take the essential amount of nutrition from the soil for their survival. Naturally, this will not disrupt the overall balance since the soil of the Forest of Death used to provide nutrition for that number of trees even before the second phase of the Chūnin Promotion Exam.
As such there was no need for Kuroto to be concerned and he could freely comnce the Afforestation Project.
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