The rooftop was enveloped in a deathly silence.
The wind blew across the ruined tiles, lifting dust into the air and stirring the Hokage's ceremonial robe on the Third Hokage's body — a robe that had long since lost its warmth.
The surrounding Anbu shinobi knelt on the ground, releasing muffled, anguished cries.
Might Guy and Kakashi stood not far away, faces heavy with grief, staring at the peacefully resting body of the old man, unable to speak.
Akashi Sora slowly, step by step, walked toward the silent center.
He said nothing. The signature smile that usually adorned his face had vanished completely. In his amber eyes was an emptiness — a calm that seemed to have been drained of every emotion.
He knelt down and reached out, intending to gently close the old man's still-open eyes.
But halfway there, his hand began to tremble violently, uncontrollably.
"Third… Lord…"
His voice was hoarse and dry, like two pieces of wind-dried wood scraping against each other.
The next second, as if he could no longer hold himself together, his knees buckled. He collapsed heavily beside the Third Hokage, forehead pressed against the cold tiles, shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
"AAAAHHHH!!"
A roar — suppressed to the extreme, filled with endless grief and fury — erupted from deep within his throat!
[Alright. Lights, camera, emotions fully primed.]
[Oscar owes me a little golden statue. Showtime!]
BOOM!
A vast, boundless surge of vibrant emerald-green chakra, brimming with the breath of life, exploded upward from his body like a volcanic eruption!
This was not chakra belonging to any elemental ninjutsu.
This was… the power of creation!
Crack! Crack!
With his kneeling body as the center, countless thick, vigorous vines and trees burst through the hard tiles, spreading wildly in every direction!
They did not attack anyone. They simply coiled and grew in a mournful posture, as though offering a final elegy to the fallen king.
"This… this is?!"
In Kakashi's single visible eye was pure, incredulous shock.
"The First Hokage-sama's… Wood Release?!"
Everyone was stunned speechless by the scene before them — a miracle made manifest.
A young boy, upon witnessing the Hokage's death, in the depths of his extreme sorrow, had awakened the legendary power of the God of Shinobi!
What talent!
What tragic grandeur!
But just as everyone was immersed in this mixture of grief and awe—
"ROOOOAAARRRR!!!"
An even more savage, far more malevolent beastly roar exploded from the center of the village, instantly drowning out every other sound!
The earth trembled violently, as though an ancient colossus was awakening from the depths of hell.
Above the ruins of the arena stood a gigantic tanuki formed entirely of yellow sand, its size rivaling a mountain, head thrown back in manic laughter.
Shukaku — the One-Tail — in its complete form!
"GYAAA HAHAHAHA! I'm out! I'm finally OUT!!"
Shukaku's deranged laughter echoed through every corner of Konoha.
It opened its massive maw. A ball of ultra-compressed air rapidly condensed within.
"Wind Release: Training Air Bullet!"
BOOM!
A pillar of white air pressure, like a divine punishment, instantly erased an entire nearby building — and everything around it — from existence!
"Ga… Gaara…"
On the stands, Temari and Kankuro stared at the completely berserk tailed beast, their faces drained of all color.
It was over.
Everything was over.
In this moment of utter despair—
On the rooftop, the boy who had been kneeling beside the Third Hokage slowly stood up.
The aura of sorrow that had surrounded him, along with the mourning trees, vanished in an instant — completely and without trace.
[Tch. What an unprofessional extra. Can't even read the room.]
[The protagonist's tragic scene isn't even finished yet, and you're already rushing in to steal the spotlight? Zero professional ethics.]
Sora raised his head. Those amber eyes calmly fixed on the rampaging giant tailed beast in the distance.
He didn't even form hand seals.
He simply closed his eyes slowly… then opened them again.
A perfect orange Sage Mode facial marking quietly appeared at the corners of his eyes.
A terrifying pressure — more vast, more majestic than Shukaku's, as though fused with the very heavens and earth — descended with a thunderous crash!
"Sage Mode."
He whispered softly, as though stating a simple, inevitable fact.
"Wha… what is that?"
Temari felt her very soul trembling.
She stared at the figure on the rooftop, bathed in natural energy, as though gazing up at a true deity.
"Shut up, you ugly tanuki."
Sora's voice wasn't loud, yet it reached every ear clearly.
He casually raised one hand, pointing it toward the still-rampaging Shukaku.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: Advent of a World of Trees!"
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE——!!!
If the earlier Wood Release had been a sorrowful dirge,
then this was divine judgment!
The entire ground of Konoha Village split open in that instant!
Countless colossal divine trees — ten times, a hundred times thicker than before, glowing with verdant Sage chakra — erupted from the earth!
They weren't growing.
They were hunting!
The enormous trees moved like living divine dragons, wrapping around Shukaku's limbs, body, and even its roaring maw with an unstoppable force!
"Wuuu… UUUUUUU!!"
Shukaku let out an unwilling wail. It struggled madly, but the divine trees coiled around it were frantically draining its chakra!
In just a few breaths of time,
The once-unstoppable giant tailed beast deflated like a punctured balloon. It rapidly shrank until it became a red-haired boy covered in cracks, bound tightly by countless vines and hoisted high into the air, unconscious.
Having finished, Sora didn't even spare it another glance.
With a casual wave of his hand,
Two slender vines, like living spirit serpents, silently broke through the ground. Moving at speeds nearly impossible to track, they instantly wrapped around Temari and Kankuro — who had been trying to flee — binding them into two neat, helpless bundles.
The entire world fell silent.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the scene before them.
The boy with ashen-brown hair stood quietly on the rooftop, beside the body of the Third Hokage.
Beneath his feet lay a miracle forest that now covered the entire village.
[Alright. Job done.]
[Next up — time to discuss war reparations.]