Naofumi of the Sharingan

Chapter 21 - Violence of the Vines

I AM SOMEHOW NOT DEAD!

Sorry guys, standard excuses, uni and family shit happened. I'm here now, on uni break for the next 5 or so weeks, we'll see what happens, on with the story

———

Naofumi wasn't sure what he was meant to expect when he was told by Hickwaal about the large amount of herbicide in a place known as Lerno Village, but he most certainly didn't expect to find a recreation of the warring states era, or more specifically, a battlefield left behind by Hashirama Senju.

He kicked himself for not thinking about the idea.

Riding along in the carriage pulled by Filo, Naofumi looks over the carnage of the plants, growing all over the road and the natural stone walls, thick, green vines stretching for ages, further than the eye could see in all honesty. It was a sight Naofumi never thought he'd see. "They're gonna need a lot more than just this herbecide to take care of this problem." he muttered looking over the vines. He noticed something really off about them too. 'Why do they have chakra? Or is this mana?' he asked himself.

"Master Naofumi, look there!" called out Raphtalia, pointing ahead. Naofumi turned his attention to where she directed her finger, laying his eyes upon a circular wall made of wood covered in vines, probably the village that had requested the herbicide if he had to guess. The situation looked anything but good for them.
"Okay Filo, get us up there as quick as you can!" ordered Naofumi.
"Here we go!" called out Filo, picking up her speed as the wagon made it's way towards the fenced off village.

———

"I don't know how to thank you enough." said the elder of the village, an old man with a fairly substancial white beard, wearing clothes that seemed to be two sizes too big for him. "This place was about to fall prey to all the vines too!"
"How about burning them?" asked Rifana, tapping her bow on instinct. "Or did you already try that?"
"Certainly." muttered the old man. "We've tried everything we can think of. We even resorted to summoning adventurers, but the situation is worse than before. Our village was already overrun with the vines. What's worse, the plants turned into monsters and started to attack us!" he exclaimed as a cry of anguish came from the jungle. It was a perishing scream, one that meant certain death.

"Some adventurers went to level up, but when they left the village they had no idea what was ahead of them." mourned the elder. "I begged them to stay."

Adventurers meant plural, and with only one scream, there could be survivors. And when there were survivors, there was valubal intel. "Filo, find the adventurers and bring them back to the village!" ordered Naofumi.
"Okay..." sighed Filo, stuffing 2 berries in her beakbefore standing up, giving a quick 'I'll be back' with her beak full of food as she set off.

That got people talking, and he swore he heard mention of his stupid Saviour of the Heavenly Fowl title.

Naofumi's gears were turning in his head. Something about this situation stank, and he didn't mean the herbicide currently being unloaded by Keel and Raphtalia. The plant growth was way too quick, the only thing capable of doing so at the speed the vines were growing was the Wood Release of the First Hokage. So what suddenly caused the plants to grow like this? Was it a side effect of the Waves of Calamity? No... that didn't make sense, seeing as there hadn't been a wave in this area yet. Rouge magicians were a possibility as well, but then again, not necessarily a stand out.

Then it hit him.

"That fucking idiot did this, didn't he..." muttered Naofumi with a sigh.
"Sir?" questioned the elder, confused.
"The Spear her came through these lands and introduced a seed, didn't he?" asked Naofumi, already feeling the headache of dealing with Motoyasu's shit coming along.
"Why yes! He called it a miracle seed." exclaimed the elder. "Our village was being ravished by famine, until one day, the Spear Hero visited. He went to some nearby ruins when he heard of our plight, and returned with a seed that had been sealed there many years before."