Gourmet World – The Primordial Weald, Week 30
The forest here was not merely old—it was primal. The trees stood like pillars holding up the sky, their trunks wider than city blocks, their canopies lost in a permanent, green-tinged twilight thousands of meters above. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth, blooming fungi, and the sweet, heavy perfume of flowers that had never known sunlight. This was the Primordial Weald, a forest that had grown undisturbed since the Gourmet World's birth, a place where the line between plant and animal blurred into insignificance.
Indra and Rias moved through the perpetual twilight, their enhanced senses parsing the complex symphony of life around them. After the temporal disorientation of the marsh, the solid, deep-time stillness of the forest was both a relief and a new kind of pressure. Here, everything was slow, patient, and immense.
Rias: (Her voice softened, respectful of the ancient silence) "The sonic landscape... it's like a heartbeat. A single, slow heartbeat for the entire forest. Everything moves to that rhythm."
Indra: (His Rinnegan scanned the biological energy flows) "It's a unified organism. The trees share root networks, fungal mycelium acts as a nervous system. That CL 1200 Chrono-Serpent was a chaotic singularity. This... this is a coordinated, continent-sized entity. We're walking through its body."
They had come seeking rare botanical specimens, drawn by data from the Chronos Archives about lost flora species that had supposedly originated here. The discoveries began almost immediately.
Discovery #571: Memory-Root Tuber. A tuber that, when cooked and consumed, granted vivid ancestral memories—not just of one's own lineage, but of the land itself. Tasting it, Rias had a flash of Uzumaki elders sealing away raging tides, a memory not her own but carried in her blood.
#575: Sun-Deprived Orchid. A ghostly white orchid that grew in absolute darkness, photosynthesizing using geothermal radiation instead of light. Its pollen was a powerful sedative.
#580: Symbiosis Moss. Moss that actively repaired damage to the trees it grew on, sharing nutrients across species. A perfect model for regenerative ecosystems.
For three days, they documented peacefully. The forest seemed to tolerate their presence, its slow consciousness perhaps classifying them as interesting, non-threatening fungi.
On the fourth day, they found it: a clearing where a single, colossal tree had fallen millennia ago. In its place, growing from its decayed heartwood, was a grove of #585: Ancestor Saplings—trees said to contain the genetic memory of the first forests. Rias was carefully taking a core sample when the earth moved.
Not an earthquake. A repositioning.
Roots thicker than skyscrapers erupted from the soil around the clearing, not attacking, but forming a vast, wooden cage. The air grew heavy with an ancient, deliberate consciousness. From the far side of the clearing, what they had thought was a particularly massive, moss-covered hill stood up.
The World-Tree Ent was CL 1500. It wasn't just a creature; it was a forest god. Its body was assembled from the living wood of a dozen different megaflora species, woven together with vines as thick as bridge cables. It stood over two hundred meters tall. Its face was a shifting mosaic of bark, lichen, and glowing sap that formed eyes of deep, green intelligence. In one hand, it held a staff of petrified heartwood. In the other, a living shield of interlocked, thorned branches. Its voice, when it spoke, was the sound of roots grinding through stone and leaves whispering in a million tongues.
World-Tree Ent: "LITTLE ONES. YOU TOUCH THE ANCESTOR'S BONES. YOU CARRY THE SCENT OF METAL, OF SOUND, OF ENDINGS. YOU ARE NOT OF THE CYCLE. YOU DISRUPT THE PATTERN. EXPLAIN YOUR PRESENCE, OR BECOME COMPOST FOR THE NEW GROWTH."
The psychic pressure was overwhelming. Not violent, but inexorable, like the pressure of a continent settling. This being didn't just live in the forest; it was the forest's will made manifest.
Indra: (His voice strained against the pressure) "We mean no harm. We seek knowledge. To understand, not to take."
World-Tree Ent: "UNDERSTANDING REQUIRES STILLNESS. YOU ARE NOT STILL. YOU CARRY THE STORM AND THE SILENCE. YOUR VERY PRESENCE VIBRATES THE WEB. YOU HAVE UNTIL THE SHADOW OF THE CANOPY MOVES ONE HAND'S BREADTH TO LEAVE. OR BE ABSORBED."
It wasn't giving them an hour or a day. It was giving them minutes. The canopy shadow moved with glacial slowness here. A hand's breadth might be twenty minutes of normal time.
They began to back away, carefully. But as Rias took a step, her foot brushed against one of the Ancestor Saplings. A drop of her blood, from a tiny cut on her ankle made earlier, smeared on its bark.
The sapling shivered. Then it glowed.
A pulse of energy, deep green and gold, shot from the sapling up through the root network. The entire clearing lit up. The World-Tree Ent roared, a sound of crashing timber and seismic fury.
World-Tree Ent: "BLOOD OF THE RESTLESS ONES! THE ONES WHO BIND! YOU CARRY THE MARK OF THE SHAPERS! YOU WOULD IMPOSE ORDER ON THE WILD GROWTH! YOU ARE THE ANTITHESIS!"
It had sensed her Uzumaki heritage. Not just the vitality, but the sealing imperative, the ancient drive to impose structure on chaos, to bind wild energies. To a being that was the embodiment of untamed, primordial growth, this was the ultimate blasphemy.
The Ent attacked. It didn't move. It commanded.
The forest itself came alive. Vines lashed like steel whips. Roots erupted to entangle. Spores that induced rapid petrification filled the air. The very air thickened to sap-like consistency, trying to immobilize them.
Indra reacted instantly. "Palkia Form: Spatial Shear!" He cut through swathes of vines, but for every one severed, ten more grew. "Dialga Decree: Localized Acceleration!" He sped up his and Rias's personal time to dodge, but the Ent simply grew thorns in their projected path faster than they could change course.
Rias fought with everything she had. "Sonic Release: Shattering Crescendo!" Waves of sound shattered petrifying spores. "Destruction Release: Decay Field!" She withered advancing roots to dust. But the Ent simply regrew from deeper wood. Her powers were effective, but they were reactive. She was pruning a tree that could regrow instantly.
The Ent raised its staff. The clearing's floor erupted with Living Pillars—columns of hardened wood that shot up to crush them. Indra warped space to deflect them, but one grazed Rias's side, sending her spinning. She hit the ground, the breath knocked from her.
The Ent loomed over her, its mossy face impassive. "THE BINDER MUST BE REMOVED. YOUR BLOOD SEEKS TO TAME. THE WILD WILL NOT BE TAMED."
It raised its thorned shield, preparing to impale her.
In that moment, facing death, Rias's mind did not turn to fear, but to a deep, stubborn fury. Not just for herself, but for the insult. Her Uzumaki ancestors had tamed tidal waves, sealed away monsters, built great spires that stood against chaos. They were not the enemy of life—they were its protectors. They shaped so life could thrive safely.
She pushed herself up, blood from her cut side soaking into the soil. Her hair, the red Uzumaki heritage, seemed to blaze. "I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY!" she screamed, not with sound, but with raw will. "MY PEOPLE DON'T DESTROY WILDNESS! WE PROTECT IT FROM THINGS THAT WOULD CONSUME IT WHOLE! WE BUILD WALLS SO THE GARDEN CAN GROW WITHOUT BEING TRAMPLED!"
Her blood dripped onto the roots of the Ancestor Sapling. The sapling glowed brighter. Something in the ancient wood recognized her. Recognized the blood of the Uzumaki, cousins to the Senju, the people of the Wood.
Deep within her, beneath the Sonic Banshee and the Apocalypse Dragon, something else stirred. Not a Gourmet Demon this time. Something older. A genetic memory, a latent potential written into every cell of her Uzumaki body. The potential for Wood Release. But not just any Wood Release—the primordial, life-creating power that was the birthright of Ashura Ōtsutsuki's lineage.
The Gourmet World's immense life energy, the Appetite Energy she had been saturated in for months, acted as a catalyst. Her Banshee Bat, attuned to vibration and life frequencies, and her Apocalypse Dragon, understanding endings that make way for new beginnings, harmonized. They didn't awaken this power. They became the conduits.
The World-Tree Ent's shield came down.
Rias didn't dodge. She raised her hand.
From her palm, from her blood, from the very air, wood erupted. Not the Ent's wild, chaotic growth. This was structured, beautiful, intentional. A lattice of hardened, living wood intercepted the shield with a thunderous crash. The shield's thorns splintered against it.
The Ent reeled back, its glowing eyes wide with shock. "IMPOSSIBLE! THAT IS NOT WILD GROWTH! THAT IS... SHAPED! ORDERED!"
Rias stood, her body glowing with a soft, green-gold light. Vines of pure chakra and life energy swirled around her, not threatening, but nurturing. The cut on her side closed, skin replaced not by scar tissue, but by smooth, healthy bark that then transformed back to flesh. Flowers bloomed in her hair—real, living blossoms.
She looked at her hands, then at the Ent. Her voice was layered again, but this time with the warmth of sunlit soil and the strength of deep roots. "You're right. It's not wild. It's cultivated. It's protected. It's life that's been given purpose, safety, and love. That's what my power is. Not binding. Nurturing."
ASHURA'S INHERITANCE AWAKENED
In that moment, across the chasm of time and lineage, the will of Ashura Ōtsutsuki—the son who believed in collective strength, in nurturing growth, in protecting the many—saw her. Not a reincarnation. Not a vessel. But a kindred spirit. A soul who, through sheer will and circumstance, had manifested the same core philosophy: strength used to protect and cultivate life.
A wave of spiritual acknowledgment, warm and vast as a summer sun, washed through her. No template. No system. A simple, spiritual passing of the torch. The recognition that the ideals of Ashura lived on in this young woman from another world, who had earned the right to wield the power that embodied those ideals.
The green-gold light around Rias intensified. Symbols, reminiscent of but distinct from Senju and Uzumaki seals, glowed on her skin. She wasn't just using Wood Release. She was channeling True Wood Release—the power to create life, not just manipulate plants.
The World-Tree Ent felt this shift. The power was no longer just opposition. It was a counterpoint. A different answer to the same question: What is life?
"YOU... CREATE," the Ent rumbled, its fury giving way to awe and confusion. "NOT BIND. NOT DESTROY. YOU MAKE NEW LIFE FROM WILL ALONE. THIS... IS NOT IN THE PATTERN."
Rias: "The pattern can grow. Evolve. Let me show you."
The Ent, perhaps driven by primordial instinct, attacked with its final gambit. It slammed its staff into the ground. "GREAT FOREST RISING!" From the earth, a thousand copies of itself, smaller but just as deadly, began to sprout, a tidal wave of wooden annihilation.
Rias closed her eyes. She didn't see a threat. She saw a need. The forest was afraid. It was lashing out. It needed to understand. It needed to feel safe.
She breathed in, drawing in the forest's own immense life energy, her Uzumaki chains acting as a perfect conduit. She didn't fight the forest. She joined it.
Then, she formed a single seal—an instinctual, ancient hand-sign that had never been taught to her.
"TRUE WOOD RELEASE: BIRTH OF THE SANCTUARY."
Behind her, the air bloomed.
It wasn't a construct. It was a forest—a miniature, perfect, hyper-dense forest of countless species, all growing from nothing in the space of a heartbeat. And at its center, a towering, serene figure took shape.
The Thousand-Handed Buddha of Wood and Life. It was not a statue of war like Hashirama's. This one's face was gentle, compassionate. Its thousand hands were not poised to strike, but open—to give, to heal, to protect. Each hand held a different gift: a blossoming flower, a fruiting vine, a sheaf of grain, a vessel of water, a glowing seed.
The tidal wave of wooden clones met the outstretched hands of the Buddha.
They were not smashed. They were embraced.
Where the clones touched the Buddha's hands, they transformed. Thorny branches softened into flowering vines. Aggressive, spear-like roots became sturdy, nutrient-sharing taproots. The violent energy was smoothed, calmed, and redirected into growth.
The Buddha's thousand hands moved in a mesmerizing, gentle dance. With each touch, it didn't destroy the Ent's attack; it educated it. It showed the wild growth a different way—a way of symbiotic harmony.
The World-Tree Ent watched, its massive form trembling. It wasn't being defeated. It was being... taught. Shown a possibility it had never conceived in its millions of years of existence: that order could be born from will, not imposed as a shackle, but offered as a gift.
Finally, the last clone was transformed into a beautiful, flowering archway. The Thousand-Handed Buddha slowly dissolved, not vanishing, but sinking into the earth of the clearing, its energy seeding the ground with profound, peaceful potential.
Rias stood, panting, the glow fading from her skin but leaving behind a new, permanent vitality in her eyes—the green of deep forests and new spring leaves. Flowers continued to bloom spontaneously in her footsteps.
The World-Tree Ent lowered its staff. It approached slowly, then knelt, a mountain bowing to a sapling. Its voice was now a whisper of rustling leaves.
World-Tree Ent: "LIFEGIVER. SHAPER WITHOUT CHAINS. YOU DO NOT FIGHT THE WILD. YOU SHOW IT A NEW SONG TO SING. THE PATTERN... HAS CHANGED. THE FOREST... IS CURIOUS."
It reached out a massive, wooden finger. From its tip, a single, perfect seed—glowing with emerald light—dropped into Rias's waiting hand. Discovery #590: World-Seed. A seed containing the genetic memory and potential of the Primordial Weald itself.
"PLANT IT WHERE YOU WISH SAFETY AND ABUNDANCE. IT WILL GROW A FOREST THAT KNOWS BOTH WILD AND WISDOM. THE WEALD ACKNOWLEDGES YOU, LIFEGIVER. YOU MAY WALK ITS PATHS FOREVER, AND TAKE WHAT YOU NEED."
With that, the great Ent settled back into the earth, becoming one with the hill once more. The aggressive roots retracted. The clearing was peaceful, now filled with new, hybrid plants born from the interaction of Rias's power and the forest's own.
Indra, who had watched the entire transformation in stunned silence, finally approached. His Rinnegan had seen it all—not just the physical power, but the spiritual inheritance. He felt no jealousy, only profound respect and a strange, template-deep recognition. His Indra Ōtsutsuki template had stirred, not with rivalry, but with a silent, complex acknowledgment of its brother's chosen heir.
Indra: "Rias... that was... Ashura's legacy. Not his chakra, but his will. His philosophy. You manifested it perfectly."
Rias: (Looking at her hands, where small leaves unfurled from her palms before retracting) "It wasn't like the others. It didn't feel like a separate power. It felt like... remembering who I was supposed to be. The Uzumaki sealing arts, they're not about locking things away. They're about creating stable spaces where things can exist safely. This... is the same, but for life itself. I can... feel the trees breathing. I can hear the grass growing."
Over the following days, as they explored the now-welcoming Primordial Weald, Rias's new abilities revealed their full scope. She could heal grievous injuries by growing new tissue directly from Wood Release. She could create fresh, nutrient-rich fruit from thin air. She could communicate with plants, understanding their needs and states of health. And she could, as demonstrated, create vast wooden constructs, but always with a nurturing, protective intent.
The discoveries came faster, as the forest itself seemed to guide her to its lost children.
Discovery #591-660: The Lost Flora, Reborn.
Rias's presence acted as a catalyst. Seeds long dormant in the soil, species thought extinct, sprouted and bloomed in her wake.
#595: Heartwood Blossom. A tree whose flowers pulsed with a light that healed emotional trauma. Merely sitting under it brought peace.
#605: Sentinel Sapling. A tree that, when planted, would grow into a protective guardian, its branches capable of gently deflecting natural disasters away from a designated area.
#615: Weaver Vines. Vines that could be directed to grow into complex structures—homes, bridges, tools—living architecture that repaired itself.
#625: Memory-Berry Bush. Berries that, when eaten, allowed one to experience a single, perfect memory of pure happiness from any living thing that had ever contributed nutrients to the soil nearby.
#635: Sun-Crystal Fruit. A fruit that grew in deep shade, crystallizing captured sunlight within its pulp. A single fruit could illuminate a large room for a year.
#645: Harmony Moss. Moss that, when introduced to a damaged ecosystem, would regulate nutrient flows and encourage balanced regrowth.
#655: The Uzumaki Grove. A stand of unique trees that spontaneously grew where Rias's blood had fallen. Their wood had natural sealing properties, and their leaves, when brewed, produced a tea that boosted chakra control and vitality. A new species, born of her lineage and this world.
#660: The First Songflower. A flower that bloomed on the spot where Rias's Thousand-Handed Buddha had dissolved. It sang a constant, gentle melody that promoted healthy growth in all plants within earshot. Rias's Sonic and Wood powers had merged here, creating something entirely new.
On their final day in the Weald, Rias stood before the Ancestor Sapling that had started it all. She placed her hand on it. The sapling grew before their eyes, maturing into a majestic tree in minutes. At its base, a natural spring bubbled up—water infused with gentle life energy.
Rias: "I'm not a conqueror or a destroyer. I'm a gardener. A healer. A protector. This power... it's not for fighting, unless I'm fighting to protect life itself."
Indra: "You've become the embodiment of the Will of Wood. Or perhaps, the Will to Nurture. It's the perfect counterbalance. I shape space and time. You shape life itself. Together..."
He didn't finish the sentence. The implications were vast. They could create not just fortresses, but living paradises. Self-sustaining, healing, intelligent ecosystems that were also impregnable defenses.
Rias looked at the World-Seed in her hand, then at Indra. "When we go back... we're planting this in Kumo. A forest that knows both wildness and wisdom. A forest that protects."
She had ascended. No longer just the Scion of Storms or the Herald of Silence. Rias Uzumaki had become the Wood Goddess, the Lifegiver, the inheritor of Ashura's dream. And she was ready to bring that dream home.
End of Chapter – 61.