According to the Book of People, Kakuzu had once ambushed the First Hokage and been defeated by his Wood Release.
It hadn't been as humiliating as the running joke about him throwing a shuriken from eight hundred miles away and then fleeing, but Kakuzu's raw strength was only so impressive. Challenging the First Hokage alone before he'd even mastered his secret technique...
Chinatsu even suspected that the First Hokage whose Wood Release Kakuzu had witnessed had actually been one of his wood clones...
Precisely because the First Hokage's Wood Release had sent him scrambling for his life, the psychological scars it had left hadn't faded in the slightest, even after several eras had passed.
Kakuzu: Do you know how badly Wood Release beat me up back then? You could never guess. And do you know how much psychological trauma Wood Release caused me? You could never guess that, either.
Chinatsu clapped her hands together and unleashed Wood Release: Tree Sea Advent. Countless vines and towering trees burst from the ground.
Kakuzu immediately jumped to dodge the vines growing beneath his feet, but once he was airborne, he could forget about returning to solid ground. Vines, lashing tendrils, thorns, and all sorts of other growth erupted beneath him. One careless move sent Kakuzu plunging into the "abyss."
The vines kept growing. True to its name, Tree Sea Advent could create an entire forest outright.
But the chakra cost...
"Good grief, this move burns through way too much chakra... I need to get moving on that chakra improvement plan. How am I supposed to afford Wood Release with only six or seven Kakashis' worth of chakra reserves?"
Chinatsu muttered under her breath. A few dozen seconds later, thunderous explosions rang out from within the sea of trees. Presumably, Kakuzu, who had fallen