Chương 431: Chapter – 425 I am Groot!

While Takeshi told Kimimaro and Jugo about the curse of the Kaguya Clan, a fierce battle between Hoshigaki Kisame and Iburi Tenzo was taking place on the other battlefront.

"Damn… Wood Release is really no joke…" Kisame muttered as he shredded another one of the many Wooden stakes trying to bind him and Samehada, as well as absorb his Chakra, "Chakra Absorption is supposed to be my advantage… but damn…"

For the entire battle, Tenzo has kept a good distance from Kisame and only used Wood Release Jutsu from a distance to make sure that his Chakra is not absorbed by that sword, but he has made every attempt to keep doing the opposite, that is absorbed Kisame and Samehada's chakra.

Moreover, Tenzo's Wood Release here also seems to be considerably much more strong when compared to his abilities in the Canon, so the effect it has is quite superior, and this is all because of Orochimaru.

Orochimaru wants the Sharingan, but the Sharingan he wants should be that of an Uchiha Shinobi with very high potential, perhaps someone like Shisui, Itachi, or maybe Shinichi, and Tsukihi too if she hadn't 'died'.

Despite his repeated attempts, Orochimaru has always failed, but even after all that, he has not given up on Sharingan, which is why he decided to use Tenzo for this purpose.

Tenzo possesses Wood Release Kekkei Genkai, and Orochimaru knows that in the battle of the Valley of the End fought between Senju Hashirama, and Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama won, which means Wood Release overpowered the Sharingan.

This is why Orochimaru has relentlessly trained Tenzo in the past few years using all the means ranging from scientific to the forbidden and cursed ones all for the sake of enhancing Tenzo's Wood Release Kekkei Genkai, as well as increasing Tenzo's mastery over the Kekkei Genkai.

And the result is quite evident, with his Wood Release, Tenzo has been able to put some fight against Kisame, of course, Kisame isn't using all his power, and currently, he is only testing the limits of Tenzo, but even then Tenzo's performance is quite good.

"Sigh, this battle would have been much more fun if he was stronger, but I suppose there is no use complaining as he is still quite young and immature, anyway, it's about time I end this battle, else who knows what might happen…" Kisame muttered and threw Samehada up in the sky, which distracted Tenzo for a moment. Kisame did not waste the opportunity and immediately after weaving hand signs he shouted,

'Water Release: Exploding Water Shock Wave!'

Instantly, Kisame molded a large amount of chakra in his stomach, then immediately after changing the nature of chakra Kisame spewed out all the water.

The volume of water spewed out by Kisame was too much, and the entire battlefront, that is the forest, was instantly covered in water, Kisame used the surging tide to his advantage, and after catching his Samehada back in his hand, he rode on the down wave and rushed towards Tenzo.

The momentary distraction broke Tenzo's flow, and he was overwhelmed by such a big wave coming toward him, and because of already having consumed quite a lot of his Chakra previously, he didn't have any solid counted to such a large Jutsu of Kisame, in desperation, he barely printed hand seals, and shouted,

'Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall!'

Tuk tuk tuk

Instantly, the roots of trees from under the ground were activated by Tenzo's Chakra and rose out of the ground forming a protective wooden dome of three layers over Tenzo, safeguarding him from the water wave.

Crack… It's just that the wooden walls were only strong enough to protect Tenzo from the large wave, but not enough to protect him from Kisame who waved his Samehada and destroyed the entire wooden dome with just one wave.

With now Tenzo out in the open, and Kisame standing right before him while pointing his Samehada at him, Kisame asked, "Since you are not a little child, so I suppose Kahyo-san wouldn't mind me killing you, now then Iburi Tenzo, do you have any last wish?"

Tenzo still had a resolute look in his eyes, and asked, "What is the purpose of you people coming here? I don't think we did anything that would offend either of the five of you… so why come to Otogakure?"

Kisame was surprised that even now Tenzo wanted to know why?

"Hahaha… Well since it's nothing important, so I suppose there is no harm in telling you. We are looking for a Shinobi named Orochimaru… got any leads? I think I can spare your lot if you do provide me with some useful intel. We do know that he is somehow connected to Otogakure… so, how about it?" Kisame asked, while still pointing Samehada at Tenzo, waiting for Tenzo to answer.

Tenzo's expression shrank at the mention of Orochimaru, 'So, they really are after Orochimaru-sama? Now that I think about it, their red cloud cloaks are quite similar to the one Orochimaru-sama wore until a few years ago, so maybe they are from the organization that Orochimaru-sama was part of at that time.

Anyway, even if I know that they can not do anything to Orochimaru-sama, I will still not give out anything.' With that decision, he shook his head, and said decisively, "No, we don't know anything about him, and I don't think a Shinobi of his caliber would do anything by associating with us… We are just people who do not have anywhere to belong and have found our way to this land upon being cast aside by this world…"

"Those are some heavy words, but you aren't fooling anyone with them. As for founding your way here? Yeah right, as if… All of you are children with such potential, Ice Release, Dead Bone Pulse, Crystal Release, Wood Release, that strange Monster Release… then perhaps Smoke Release too, all found your way here? I wonder if there are others with different Kekkei Genkai too?

The potential you lot hold is no less than a great Shinobi Village… This leads me to think, if you people aren't connected with Orochimaru, then are you people somehow connected to Amatsukami?" Kisame muttered in a pondering tone.

Tenzo's face was a bit pale as Kisame pointed out the flaws in his words, and he can't help but think, 'I did not think about this, I always thought that our powers were fairly common and nothing too special. Damn, I misjudged and made a grave mistake, and if these people think that we are connected with Amatsukami, then all of us are going to be in big trouble, I can not let that happen. I have no other option, I must kill this man, and make sure that this misinformation does not spread, and to do that, I have no other choice but to use that Juinjutsu!'

Kisame noticed the change of expression in Tenzo, and thought, 'He seems to be panicked about what I said, although I was just making some random guesses, is it possible that these children are somehow connected to Amatsukami?'

"Curse Seal of Forest: Level One: Release!"

Kisame did not have much time to think, as he noticed the sudden change in Tenzo, and he had to back off immediately otherwise he would have been swallowed up by the trees that suddenly started to grow.

"Curse Seal of Forest: Level Two: Release!"

As soon as Tenzo released the Level Two Curse Seal, a strange black pattern that had appeared on his body because of the release of level one Curse Seal started to change, and his figure now became inhuman.

The shape and length of his hair changed and became large tree vines reaching down to his waist, the color and texture of his skin changed from that of a human to that of a tree bark, even the body structure changed, height increased, and overall, the person that appeared in front of Kisame was no longer a human but more like a tree man.

Even if Kisame is used to nonhuman, and strange people because of having the characteristics of a shark himself, when he saw the tree man-like creature standing in front of him, even Kisame was a bit flabbergasted, "W… what are you? Are you a human, a tree, a tree-human, or something else entirely??"

The two-meter giant tree man looked at his body, analyzing that his body has indeed turned into something like a tree, then looked at Kisame and answered in a very cute tone, "I am Groot."

(Translator's Note: Okay that's just me trying to be a bit funny here by comparing this transformation with Groot's, in reality, he does look like Groot, however, not the Good Groot that we see in Guardian of the Galaxy, but the Evil Groot. Check out the image attached for a better reference.)

"Groot?" Kisame muttered in confusion… "And what's up with the cute tone?" the monstrous look with the cute tone made this more disturbing. But he did not have much time to think, as Tenzo on the opposite side has already raised his wooden arms, and slapped them on the ground, all while transferring his chakra,

'Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a Sea of Trees!'

Instantly, under Tenzo's command, trees started to sprout out of the ground and rushed towards Kisame, but this time, the number and size of trees were so huge that Kisame had to put quite a lot of effort into surviving or else he would be strangled to death by these rising vines..

Read up to Chapter - 680 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations