This raised the idea that perhaps the Hyuga elder who was trying to stir the pot previously might have had a point. Clearly Kenzo wasn’t merely an S rank shinobi and had been hiding his strength which many found confusing. Why would he hide it? Power was something to be shown off as far as most people were concerned, a sign of status and worth. The idea of hiding power was usually relegated to spies and those with the intent to turn traitor. It clashed with their worldview to learn for the Hokage herself that Kenzo simply didn’t want to be bothered with the pressure that came from being so powerful.-
The few shinobi at Elite Jonin and in Kakashi’s case S rank understood however what she meant. It was the way people looked at you and treated you. The stronger you were thought to be the more weight your every action carried and the more responsibility others thought you should carry. Kenzo simply didn’t want to deal with it and these people could empathize. While the public had the thoughts that Kenzo was shirking responsibility these shinobi understood he was simply unwilling to accept it to begin with.-
The ironic part was that none of them blamed him at all as if they had so much power they might also avoid being weighed down like that. Honestly speaking Kenzo couldn’t even be said to have shirked responsibility as if he was given a mission he completed it without any trouble at all. The only real oddity was that he had almost no combat missions under his belt but more medical missions than most shinobi will have on their record combined. This was simply because he had a mitosis clone practically living in the hospital.-
Along with his mastery of medical techniques he got four or five more cases done in a day than most other medical shinobi so his record was naturally much much longer. This also confused many people as now that they knew that he was likely well beyond even the Hokage herself in power they couldn’t understand why he bothered with medical work that many considered beneath true shinobi. This was more because the general populace was under the impression that shinobi life was all action and power struggles between the villages when in fact medical work was merely just one of many paths a shinobi could take that was just as if not more valuable than a combat shinobi.-
The controversy of Kenzo’s actions or rather lack thereof aside all the earth release users in the village were working hard to close the massive hole he had created. This was not simply a matter of pouring dirt into the hole either as the subterranean layers needed to be fixed and the soil and rock being added being blended and compressed. This took close to four days to fix and on the fourth day Kenzo awoke from his slumber.-
(NORMAL POV)
I felt weak, drained really when I regained consciousness. Not tired exactly but like my body itself was recovering from an illness and thus not operating at one hundred percent. I sat up as I opened my eyes and found myself in my bed at my home. At first I thought everything was normal before the memories hit me and I unconsciously flared my chakra from agitation.
‘I need to calm down before I destroy something accidentally.’ I thought as I heard groans and cracks forming from the bed and house itself.
Suppressing my chakra I got up and noticed I was still dressed and hoped that I had not been unconscious for too long. Leaving my house I winced at the sight that greeted me. A massive crater stood no more than a few feet from my front door and in it’s center the massive hole I had literally punch out stood like a giant had stabbed the earth with a mile long pencil several meters across. There were many tents and people bustling about as they tried to have some sense of normalcy. I saw the shinobi trying to fix the hole I made and chose to help since I was responsible for it after all.-
From the edge of the crater I crouched down and placed my hands on the ground before pushing my chakra out into the soil and stone. My chakra spread like a tsunami as it flushed through the entirety of the crater in no time at all. With a push of my will and control I activated the technique fully.
‘Sage art: mountain revival!’ I thought.
The soil and stone under everyone’s feet started to rumble and rise as the hole filled in and rose alongside it until the entire crater was gone and replaced with an unnaturally flat surface that covered the entire area.-
No one was harmed or even really effected beyond a sudden spike of terror from the suddenness of the phenomenon. Once it was over with however everyone was speechless as the village that had been reduced to a massive crater was now back to being flush with the surrounding ground. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how this happened and more and more gazed landed on the figure standing at the edge of this changed area with his palms flat against the ground.-
I felt the gazes on me as well as their emotions and only sighed as I stood up. I sensed my sensei’s position nearby and started walking towards her while intentionally releasing small amounts of Wood release chakra out through the soles of my feet as I walked causing grass and other plants to sprout up and grow at a visible rate behind me. Despite the tumultuous emotions in the gazes on me none spoke to or approached me as I walked, merely watched. My sensei was in a large tent that had shinobi rushing into and out of it as she and the other governing people were incredibly busy.-
“I knew you woke up!” she exclaimed when she saw me walk into the tent causing many there to pause what they were doing to stare at me.
“You must have felt me fixing the crater.” I said quietly but she still heard me.
“Nobody tried to say anything to you did they? There have been some voices that condemn your hiding your power but I’ve done my best to quiet them.” she said misunderstanding why I was so reserved.