Gento nodded to them in acknowledgment.
The inside of the castle revealed an entirely different world.
Along both sides of the corridor were prison cells, each sealed by a heavy iron door with only a palm-sized window left open.
Inside the cells were serious criminals from various nations.
There were rogue ninja, ronin who had slaughtered civilians, unscrupulous merchants who trafficked Forbidden Jutsu...
Some leaned against the walls with their eyes closed to rest, some muttered curses in the darkness, while others repeatedly slammed their heads against the wall, producing dull thuds.
As Gento walked through the corridor, pairs of eyes stared at him through the small windows. There was hatred, numbness, and even pleading.
He walked past expressionlessly, but he had already made plans in his heart.
"Take me to the center of the island."
Shisui nodded and led him through the castle to an open area at the center of the island.
The terrain here was flat, surrounded by dense forest on all sides.
Gento swept his gaze across the surroundings and nodded in satisfaction.
He summoned many Uchiha Anbu proficient in Earth Release.
"Use Earth Release ninjutsu to dig downward from here. Dig a pit deep enough to reach below sea level."
Several Anbu accepted the order and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Earth Release: Planet Splitter!"
"Earth Release: Mobile Core!"
The ground shook as rocks were sliced apart, lifted, and removed as though they were tofu.
After repeated relay work by the many ninja and more than half a day of labor...
A gigantic deep pit gradually took shape at the center of the island. Its diameter exceeded a hundred meters, while its depth was even more astonishing.
The Anbu rotated in shifts, continuously outputting chakra as the pit became deeper and wider.
Gento stood at the edge of the pit, watching the depths below grow darker and darker.
When the depth finally reached below sea level, seawater surged up from the bottom, rapidly forming a small lake there.
"That's enough."
He dismissed the Anbu, took a deep breath, and retrieved a tiny emerald-green seed from a Sealing Scroll.
The Divine Tree seed.
It was only the size of a thumb, emerald green, with faint streams of light flowing across its surface.
Holding it in his hand, he could feel a mysterious life force pulsing within it.
Gento leapt into the bottom of the pit.
He descended all the way to the seabed and gently placed the seed into the damp soil beneath the ocean.
The moment the seed touched the ground, a sudden mutation occurred!
Emerald-green light burst forth from the seed, illuminating the whole pit!
The light spread in all directions like a living thing. Wherever it passed, rocks cracked apart and soil churned.
The Divine Tree's roots extended out from the seed. They were as thin as hair, yet as tough as steel.
They frantically rooted themselves deep underground, piercing through rock, soil, and every obstacle in their path.
Even more terrifying was that those roots spread in all directions like living creatures, drilling into the seabed and extending into the deep ocean.
All forms of marine life in the sea–schools of fish, shrimp, crabs, shellfish, and even gigantic sea beasts passing nearby–were directly pierced by the roots.
Their life energy was rapidly drained and flowed through the roots into that tiny seed.
After receiving nourishment, the Divine Tree seed began growing madly.
A tender emerald-green sprout burst out of the earth and, within only a few breaths, grew several meters tall.
Its trunk was thick and sturdy, its branches and leaves lush and flourishing. Every leaf shimmered with a jade-like luster.
Mysterious patterns appeared across the surface of the trunk, resembling ancient runes.
The Divine Tree continued growing at incredible speed.
Ten meters, twenty meters, fifty meters, one hundred meters...
In an astonishing speed, it broke past the boundaries of the pit and burst out above the water's surface.
Its canopy emerged from the ground and continued stretching toward the sky.
Its branches and leaves blocked out the sunlight, casting an enormous shadow over the center of the island.
The trunk had already become so thick that it would take more than a dozen people to wrap their arms around it. Its bark was as hard as iron, impossible to damage with blades.
At the same time, the Divine Tree's roots continued expanding.
They pierced through the island's entire foundation and extended into the deep sea like a gigantic web covering dozens of miles of ocean.
Those roots moved like living creatures, piercing through schools of fish and sea beasts.
Any lifeform passing through this sea region would be absorbed by the roots, while the surrounding marine life energy was endlessly transported into the trunk.
The Divine Tree's size no longer continued to increase.
All of that life energy was instead being accumulated within its body.
Standing beneath the canopy, Gento looked up at the towering giant tree, his heart filled with shock.
This was the Divine Tree…
This was the ultimate weapon the Otsutsuki clan used to harvest the energy of other planets and achieve endless evolution for themselves!
The Divine Tree's canopy had already covered the entire Hozuki Castle island.
Gento reached out and touched the trunk, able to feel the immense life force surging within it.
He turned and walked toward Shisui.
"Pass down the order. Strengthen the security around Hozuki Castle."
"The secret of this tree cannot be allowed to reach anyone."
"Anyone suspicious attempting to approach the island is to be killed on sight without exception!"
Shisui knelt on one knee.
"Yes!"
Gento raised his head and looked at the giant tree piercing into the clouds, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
The Divine Tree had been planted.
Next came the wait for the day it would bear a Chakra Fruit.
After leaving a Flying Thunder God mark within the core region of Hozuki Castle, Gento formed hand seals and disappeared together with Shisui and Itachi.
In the next instant, the three of them appeared inside the Clan Head's Office of Hidden Gento Village.
Gento's mind was still occupied with thoughts about the Divine Tree.
Although its growth speed was astonishing, growing from a single seed into a towering giant tree capable of covering the entire island the instant it was planted...
He knew that was still far from enough.
According to legends mentioned in the original story, the Divine Tree took an entire thousand years from the moment it was planted to the moment it bore fruit.
Even though that legend was most likely exaggerated, it was still enough to show that the Divine Tree's growth cycle was extraordinarily long.
Furthermore, during the era when Kaguya descended, the planet's population had been sparse, making it impossible to provide the Divine Tree with large amounts of high-quality life energy. This was perhaps one of the reasons for the Divine Tree's slow growth.
But now, the shinobi world possessed an enormous population, and wars occurred frequently. The supply of life energy was far more abundant than it had been during Kaguya's era.
This would perhaps greatly increase the speed at which the Divine Tree bore fruit.
Despite that, Gento still felt it was not enough.
Gento turned and looked at Itachi.
"Go tell your father to promote Hozuki Castle, now under Uchiha control, more frequently to clients issuing missions. Increase the number of criminals sent to Hozuki Castle."
"Additionally, once any criminal is sentenced to death by their home nation, throw them alive into the tree pit at the center of the island."
Gento knew that living humans could continuously provide nourishment to the Divine Tree for a period of time.
Itachi gave a slight nod. Without asking why, he directly turned and left.
Gento then looked toward Shisui.
"Right now, the great shinobi villages of the major nations are at war. There are bound to be ninja corpses left behind on the battlefield."
"Take the Anbu and collect those corpses. Throw them into the tree pit as well."
Shisui knelt on one knee.
"Understood."
Having followed Gento for many years and witnessed the Uchiha clan develop from a ninja clan ostracized by the Hidden Leaf Village into the now world-shaking Hidden Gento Village, he had long since learned to trust every decision of the clan head unconditionally.
...
Over the following months, the borders of the Land of Fire transformed into a slaughterhouse.
Under the Raikage's leadership, the two thousand ninja of Hidden Cloud Village rapidly looted the border towns clean.
Gold, silver, treasures, food supplies, materials, and even people were transported back to the Land of Lightning as spoils of war.
Meanwhile, in the northwestern region of the Land of Fire, the three thousand ninja of Hidden Stone Village, led by Kitsuchi, also began invading the Land of Fire.
They did not pursue a quick victory. Instead, they advanced steadily and methodically. Every place they occupied had its minerals, timber, grain, and resources completely stripped away.
Although Onoki was old, his vision remained sharp. He knew that Konoha was weak right now, making this the perfect opportunity to carve flesh from the Land of Fire.
In the southwest, the two thousand ninja of Hidden Sand Village, personally led by Rasa, advanced deeper into the Land of Fire along its border.
Rasa's Magnet Release displayed astonishing power on the battlefield, crushing Konoha's defensive fortifications one after another.
His objective was clear: plunder supplies.
Especially the prosperous granaries and trade routes of the Land of Fire.
The three great shinobi villages each harbored their own motives, yet no conflicts broke out between them.
With tacit understanding, they each divided their own areas of plunder. Even when they occasionally encountered one another at the borders of their territories, they merely exchanged cold glances before departing separately.
After all, the Land of Fire was large enough, prosperous enough, and rich enough for every one of them to return home fully loaded.
Naturally, Konoha could not simply sit by and ignore this.
Facing the latest situation, Hiruzen hurried back to the village and issued an emergency mobilization order.
He intended to assemble three separate forces to confront the three great shinobi villages.
However, after the order was issued, what answered him was complete silence.
Shikaku claimed illness and refused to appear, Inoichi used busy clan affairs as an excuse, while Choza simply shut the gates to the clan compound.
Hiashi did send several clan members over, but they were all young branch family ninja, without even a single Jonin among them.
Tsume claimed the ninja hounds needed rest, while Shibi said the kikaichu insects were currently in their breeding cycle.
Every ninja clan had perfectly valid reasons to refuse deployment.
The smaller ninja clans complained even more bitterly.
Last time, they had been forcibly conscripted by Hiruzen to fight against Hidden Cloud Village, suffering devastating casualties, and the compensation payments had still not been settled.
And now he wanted them to send more people. The young members of their clans were almost all dead already.
Hiruzen attempted to persuade the various ninja clans through the inherited Will of Fire.
Albeit no one paid him any attention at all.
Some people even secretly spread mocking rumors throughout the village:
Whenever danger appears, they use the Will of Fire to morally blackmail us.
At a time like this, why aren't the ninja of the Sarutobi, Utatane, Mitokado, and Shimura clans stepping forward to inherit the Will of Fire themselves?
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