Wood Release Monster? Showing Off Before a Master!

The green light on the ground pulsed like a heartbeat.

The twelve test subjects gave no one time to think. Danzō curled the fingers of his right hand, and the three Sharingan embedded beneath his skin dilated at once. The test subjects' roars synchronized into a single frequency as their malformed wooden bodies charged at Nawaki and the others at full speed.

The ground shattered beneath their feet. The largest test subject at the front raised its right arm, and its three-meter-long branch-like limb came crashing down, carrying the choking stench of rotten wood.

Kushina's body moved faster than her mind. Nine-Tails chakra surged up from her abdomen, and a thin red membrane wrapped around her fists—

A hand pressed down on her shoulder.

"Fall back."

Nawaki's voice was quiet, but Kushina's body stopped on its own.

Mikoto's hand froze around her short blade as well. She looked into Nawaki's eyes. They did not hold their usual calculating coldness. There was something deeper within them.

Nawaki stepped forward.

Just one step. He stood in front of the two girls.

The massive arm descended, less than three meters from his head. The pressure of the wind tossed his hair.

"Trash like this dares call itself Wood Release?"

He pressed his palms together.

In his mind, the system panel opened on its own.

[Detected that the host is facing a large-scale battle. Activate Hashirama Senju: Peak Experience Card?]

[Note: Duration five minutes. Cannot be interrupted once activated. One use only.]

Nawaki did not hesitate.

"Activate."

The panel shattered.

It did not close—it shattered. Golden light spilled through the cracks in the broken panel and flooded into Nawaki's chakra pathways.

His chakra reserves soared.

It took half a second to rise from quasi-Kage level to Kage level.

Then it continued upward without stopping.

Nawaki's body began to glow. It was not the light of leaking chakra, but the bioluminescence produced as every cell in his body activated at the same moment. The network of chakra pathways beneath his skin became visible golden patterns, spreading from his arms to his neck, then crawling from his neck across his cheeks.

Two deep crimson markings stretched outward from the corners of his eyes, turned at his cheekbones, and reached the roots of his ears.

A black diamond-shaped mark surfaced on the bridge of his nose.

Sage Mode.

Not the Sage Body from before. Not some beginner version.

Hashirama's peak, complete Sage Mode.

The three-meter-long giant arm crashed down directly above Nawaki's head.

But it did not fall any farther.

A strip of wood as thick as a finger sprouted beneath Nawaki's feet. Just one. It was as thin as a chopstick.

Its tip pressed against the underside of the massive arm.

The arm stopped.

A malformed wooden arm weighing several tons had been held up by a strip of wood as thick as a chopstick.

The test subject's roar turned into a confused gurgle. It was exerting force. The wooden muscles in its legs swelled, its joints creaked, yet the giant arm did not budge in the slightest.

Nawaki looked up at it.

"The cells in your body belong to my grandfather."

The strip of wood moved.

It pierced through the giant arm from below.

The test subject's body split open down the middle. It had not been cleaved apart—it was blown open from within by wooden fibers growing inside it. Upon encountering the chakra of a legitimate Sage Body, Hashirama's cells broke free from the test subject's restraints and became Nawaki's weapon.

The absolute obedience of an inferior bloodline before a superior one.

The first one. Instantly killed.

The remaining eleven froze for less than a second before lunging at him even more frantically.

They felt no fear. Test subjects did not possess such an emotion.

Nawaki closed his eyes.

His palms remained pressed together. Chakra flowed from his hands through the soles of his feet and into the earth.

Four thousand seven hundred seeds.

All at the same instant.

Sprouted.

The earth thundered.

The ground of the Senju Clan Compound rose and burst apart like a pot of boiling water. Countless trees erupted from underground, growing so fast that the naked eye could see only a blurred mass of green. Trunks, branches, and roots intertwined in the air, merging, stacking atop one another.

It was not a forest.

It was a structure.

A wooden body assembled in midair—a massive base rose from the shattered ground, dozens of thick pillars stretched upward, converging into a circular platform at the top. At the center of the platform, a humanoid outline was rapidly taking shape.

Danzō's eleven test subjects were flung away by the rising wooden structure. Some were dragged between tree trunks and crushed, while others were flattened by the ascending platform. Their wooden armor was as brittle as dry bark before true Wood Release.

Eighty-six Root suicide soldiers scattered in panic. Some slammed into the barrier of the Four Red Yang Formation and were bounced back. Others were tripped by roots surging from the ground. A complete military unit became a disorganized mob within three seconds.

But no one was watching them.

Everyone—Danzō, Sakumo, Kushina, Mikoto—everyone had their heads raised.

Because the humanoid figure had taken shape.

Height—one hundred meters.

Seated. Cross-legged. Palms pressed together.

Behind it, hundreds of enormous wooden arms extended from both sides of its spine, layered one over another as they spread into a fan that pierced the dusky sky.

True Several Thousand Hands. Top Transformed Buddha.

A scaled-down version. Nawaki knew perfectly well that Hashirama's original could exceed two hundred meters. But one hundred meters was enough.

Because his opponent was Danzō, not Madara Uchiha.

At the top of the wooden Buddha, Nawaki stood upon the platform on its head. The markings of Sage Mode were clearly visible from high above. The wind was fierce, snapping his clothes loudly.

He looked down.

A hundred meters below, Danzō stood amid a pile of rubble with his head tilted back. His Sharingan arm was trembling. The three embedded Sharingan spun frantically, like three pupils trying to stare directly at the sun.

The red glow of the Four Red Yang Formation enveloped the outside. The dark crimson of the Amaterasu Cage layered within it. Inside the double barrier, a hundred-meter wooden Buddha had trapped Danzō and every one of his trump cards beneath its feet.

"Danzō."

Nawaki's voice descended from a hundred meters above, amplified by the chakra of his Sage Body until every syllable exploded through the air.

"You said you wanted to see true Wood Release."

Hundreds of giant palms behind the wooden Buddha rose at once.

Each was the size of a house. Each gathered the white radiance of senjutsu chakra.

They hung in the air, and the shadows they cast blanketed the entire compound so completely that not even light could pass through.

On the ground, Danzō's legs finally began to weaken.

The trembling of his Sharingan arm spread from his right arm to his shoulder, then from his shoulder to his spine. It was not chakra backlash—his body was telling his brain a simple fact.

He could not fight this.

A hundred years ago, Hashirama Senju had used this move to smash a complete Susanoo in the Valley of the End.

What did Shimura Danzō have to withstand it?

"Take a good look."

Nawaki's voice fell from the heavens, carrying the composure of a five-minute countdown.

Hundreds of meters away.

Southeast of Konoha Village, several hundred meters underground.

Those cloudy, ancient eyes opened completely.

The tubes of nutrient fluid detached from his body. A wrinkled hand braced against the stone wall as he slowly sat up.

Madara Uchiha.

"This chakra..."

His cracked lips moved slightly.

He smiled.

"Hashirama?"