Wood Release

After hearing the system's explanation, Nawaki nodded in understanding. In the original story, plenty of people had received Hashirama's cells, yet none of them had replicated the power of Hashirama's Wood Release. Take Yamato, the most successful example: his Wood Release could only suppress chakra, not absorb it directly like Hashirama's. And Yamato's Wood Release lacked vitality and couldn't grow to a large scale. That was because he had inherited Wood Release but not the First Hokage's perfect Senju bloodline, leaving him short on vitality and chakra and unable to bring out Wood Release's full power.

From this, it was clear that Wood Release and the Asura Bloodline were two separate bloodlines. Wood Release was the only bloodline art among all the elemental releases that had life and could turn into living techniques, making it a perfect match for chakra that was brimming with vitality and practically limitless.

Their perfect synergy was far more than a simple one plus one equals two. Without Wood Release, Asura Chakra could only offer an advantage in medical recovery, and its full potential couldn't be converted into offensive power. Without Asura Chakra, Wood Release couldn't unleash its full potential, just as in Yamato's case.

Hashirama Senju truly deserved the title of God of Shinobi. He had actually created an elemental bloodline to complement the nature of his chakra. By comparison, Asura and Naruto fell far short. One relied on the Nine-Tails to overwhelm his opponents with brute force, while the other merely followed in someone else's footsteps.

In the original story, Hashirama fought Uchiha Madara, who had the Nine-Tails and had awakened the Eternal Mangekyo, for three days and three nights. He forced Madara to use Izanagi and ultimately won, which showed just how powerful he was.

If he hadn't overdrawn his chakra and even his life force, while also suffering severe injuries, the cellular vitality in his body would have let him live for decades more without any trouble.

Wood Release could be fueled by life force as well as chakra. After exhausting his chakra, Hashirama had squeezed his own life force to deplete Madara and the Nine-Tails' chakra. Without the Nine-Tails, said to have infinite chakra, helping him, Madara wouldn't have stood a chance against Hashirama. Otherwise, given his personality, he wouldn't have spent so long being overshadowed by Hashirama.

Who besides Madara and the Nine-Tails together could have forced Hashirama to exhaust his chakra? The God of Shinobi couldn't have created a bloodline with such tremendous side effects. The perfect Wood Release was therefore a Kekkei Tōta composed of water, earth, and yang—not the Kekkei Genkai people believed it to be. Since Yin-Yang Release was extremely rare, only a handful of people knew this secret. Wood Release was an exceptionally perfect bloodline. As long as the user had enough chakra, it had practically no side effects; contrary to what some people guessed, it didn't consume life force or shorten the user's lifespan.

Now that he knew how important Wood Release was to the Asura Bloodline, Nawaki wanted it more than ever. But one million Wish Power points was an astronomical sum for him right now. He didn't know how many years it would take to gather that much. Was he supposed to keep waiting?

No. The sooner he got Wood Release, the better. Not only would it give him more time to master the Wood Release techniques in the Scroll of Sealing before the wars to come, but more importantly, he had stolen the First Hokage's body. That would come to light sooner or later. Orochimaru, at the very least, would definitely find out!

If Nawaki still couldn't use Wood Release ten or even fifteen years from now, then suddenly gained the ability, others would surely become suspicious. Given the talent and learning speed he'd shown, if he had inherited the First Hokage's Wood Release from birth and gained access to the Scroll of Sealing early on, he should have learned to use it quickly. Why would it suddenly awaken only when he was in his teens?

If someone with malicious intent spread rumors that the First Hokage's body had been stolen, people would inevitably connect the two. Nawaki's reputation would take a severe hit. His reputation was an essential foundation for the Wish Power System. Even if the chance was slim, he had to prevent this from happening. If he wanted to become Hokage, he couldn't afford a single blemish!

So he either had to never use Wood Release in public, or use it soon and reveal it openly. No one would believe that a one- or two-year-old child had stolen his own grandfather's body to conduct human experiments! It made no sense, and he wouldn't have had the means: the knowledge, a place to conduct experiments, equipment, and so on. Then he'd be able to rest easy. No one would suspect him.

As his mind raced, a bright idea struck Nawaki. "System, if I inject Hashirama's cells into my body and then fuse them, how much Wish Power would it take?"

"The cell injection procedure costs 1,000 Wish Power. Fusion costs 1,000 Wish Power. The cells are highly active, so the injection procedure carries a significant risk of failure. An ordinary person has a 0.1% success rate; a member of the Senju Clan with a low-level bloodline has a 5% success rate; a medium-level bloodline has a 10% success rate; a high-level bloodline has a 30% success rate; and a perfect bloodline has a 50% success rate. Since the owner of these cells is related to the host by blood, the success rate is 90%! If the procedure fails, treatment and recovery will cost 1,000 Wish Power. Will the host proceed with the transplant?"

After hearing the system's report, Nawaki couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth. Why did this feel like one of those predatory cash-grab games? At least he had a 90% success rate and could try repeatedly. That was far more worthwhile than spending a million points outright. With Nawaki's current Wish Power, he had a good chance of succeeding.

"Proceed with the procedure!" Nawaki ordered decisively.

"Ding! The procedure has begun. There may be a rejection reaction, and the process will be painful. Please prepare yourself, host."

"You... Why didn't you say that earlier?" Nawaki suddenly felt cold all over. Then his whole body began to itch unbearably, inside and out. Gradually, the sensation turned to soreness and numbness, then finally became excruciating pain. It was impossible to describe. Just as he was drenched in cold sweat and about to give up, all the sensations suddenly vanished.

Nawaki felt alive again. He took a breath, then asked in his mind, "System, did it work?"

"The cells have been provisionally integrated, and the host's body is no longer rejecting them. Would you like to spend 1,000 Wish Power to perfectly fuse the bloodline within your body?"

"Yes! Hurry up and fuse it!"

This time, the sensation was worlds apart from before. Nawaki felt warmth spread through his body, more comfortable than a full-body massage.

Once it was all over, Nawaki channeled his Wood Release chakra into his hand. To his surprise, his entire hand turned to wood. He flexed his fingers and found they moved freely, without any discomfort. Then he tried spreading Wood Release chakra over his whole body. He turned entirely to wood, and his hair turned green, making him look like a tree person.

"System, what's going on? I don't remember Wood Release having a transformation effect."

After Nawaki withdrew the Wood Release chakra back into his body, he returned to normal. He silently asked the question in his mind.