With Tsunade taking over the deserted island base's internal affairs and medical care.
Zabuza focused on construction, while Haku handled logistics and meals.
Kenya could finally leave the management to others and devote himself wholeheartedly to his final special training.
At the center of the deserted island lay a deep, secluded gorge.
It had originally been the lair of several high-level sea beasts.
On Kenya's first day on the island, he had forcibly requisitioned it through physical means, turning it into his private secluded training ground.
Inside the gorge, huge rocks stood everywhere, and not a blade of grass grew.
Bare-chested, Kenya sat cross-legged on a massive slab of granite.
The sea breeze blew through the gaps in the gorge, letting out wails like howling ghosts and wolves.
But he paid it no heed, his whole being seeming to merge with his surroundings.
My integration with the Garp Template has already reached 50%. Even in my normal state, my body's hardness and strength have surpassed those of an ordinary Kage Level fighter.
But if I want to smash Madara Uchiha's Perfect Susanoo in the Fourth Shinobi World War, or even take on Otsutsuki Kaguya head-on...
My current strength is still nowhere near enough.
Kenya silently weighed things in his mind.
The pinnacle of pure Taijutsu in the Pirate King world was undoubtedly Garp's "Fist Bone" series.
And one of the ultimate displays of power in the Hokage world was the First Hokage Hashirama Senju's "Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands."
Then what if those two pinnacle powers were perfectly combined?
The First's Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands is enormous, but its attacks mainly rely on chakra driving wooden arms to deliver physical blows.
Put simply, it's just a bunch of wooden fists.
Kenya opened his eyes, a feverish light flashing in his pupils.
What if I hardened every one of those thousands of wooden arms with the highest-density Armament Haki, turning them into real "iron fists"?
At that thought, Kenya's breathing involuntarily quickened.
He stood up and walked to an open stretch of flat ground in the center of the gorge.
He took a deep breath.
The blood and vitality within him began surging wildly like boiling magma.
"Wood Release Cells, activate!"
Kenya did not form hand seals like a traditional ninja.
For him, with his Garp Template, chakra served more as a supporting tool.
His body was his strongest medium!
He abruptly spread his legs slightly and sank into a horse stance.
He slammed his palms together before his chest.
Smack!
A crisp clap echoed through the gorge.
Immediately afterward.
Rumble-!
The hard, rocky ground beneath Kenya's feet suddenly began trembling violently.
Huge cracks spread outward like a spiderweb.
A suffocatingly vast surge of life force, mixed with savage physical pressure, erupted from deep underground!
"Come out!"
With a low roar from Kenya.
Crack! Crack!
Several immensely thick wooden arms suddenly burst out of the cracks in the ground!
Unlike ordinary Wood Release, these arms did not have the brown color that represented vitality.
Instead, they were pitch-black from end to end, their surfaces gleaming with a cold, heavy metallic sheen!
Black Iron Wood Release!
Each arm was as thick as an adult's waist, its five fingers clenched into a fist.
Like steel demons from hell, they stretched their bodies freely in midair.
Still not hard enough!
Kenya frowned slightly as he looked at the Black Iron Wood arms.
Although this degree of hardening could withstand ordinary A-rank Ninjutsu, against a defense on Susanoo's level, they would probably still be severed.
"Armament Haki, coat them!"
Kenya bellowed, and the muscles all over his body instantly swelled.
A tangible black current surged wildly out of his body.
Through his feet, it poured furiously into the underground roots connected to the wooden arms.
Humm-!
With a high-frequency hum that made his eardrums sting.
The already pitch-black wooden arms actually darkened further!
Dense black Armament Haki blazed over the arms like black flames.
The wood grain was completely smoothed away.
In its place was the texture of dark metal that seemed to have been forged countless times.
This was no longer wood.
These were true giant steel fists, condensed from Haki and Wood Release Cells!
It worked!
Wild delight blazed in Kenya's eyes.
He could clearly feel a wondrous bond forming between himself and these Black Iron Wood arms, as though they shared his blood.
These arms were like extensions of his body!
Let's test their power.
Kenya turned his gaze toward the hundred-meter-high cliff ahead, made of hard granite.
He took a deep breath, his eyes instantly turning utterly cold.
He thrust both hands forward!
"Black Iron: Senju Hundred Rending Fists!"
Following his movement.
The thick Black Iron Wood arms, coated in Armament Haki, shot forward like cannonballs, accompanied by terrifying sonic booms that tore through the air.
They slammed viciously into the cliff ahead!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
There were none of traditional Wood Release's complicated attack patterns.
This was the purest, most violent physical assault!
Every Black Iron Wood fist that struck the rock face unleashed a terrifying crash comparable to dozens of Explosive Tags detonating at once.
Before those black fists, the hard granite was as fragile as crumbled tofu.
The savage winds from the punches became visible black shock waves, rampaging through the gorge.
Shattered stone flew everywhere, and dust blotted out the sky and sun.
In just a few seconds.
Kenya controlled those dozens of Black Iron Wood fists, bombarding the cliff face hundreds of times in rapid succession!
Rumble-
With one final deafening crash.
That hundred-meter-high, immensely thick granite cliff.
Had actually been battered into a gigantic hollow cavern by that terrifying Hundred-Fist Barrage!
Stone powder drifted through the gorge like snowflakes.
It was as though a thick layer had been shaved off the entire gorge!
"Whew-"
Kenya let out a long breath of stale air and lowered his hands.
The dozens of Black Iron Wood arms likewise turned into black smoke and dissipated into the air.
He looked at the enormous cavern ahead, which almost pierced straight through the entire mountain.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead in satisfaction.
"This is even more powerful than I imagined."
And this was only the power of a few dozen arms.
What if he truly developed Wood Release to its limits and summoned a thousand, or even ten thousand, of these Armament Haki-coated black fists?
"When that time comes, even if it's Madara Uchiha's Perfect Susanoo, I'll smash it into a pile of scrap metal, one punch at a time!"
Kenya clenched his fists, his heart filled with unprecedented confidence.
The initial form of his self-created divine technique was complete.
Next came repeated special training to increase his reserves of Armament Haki and the number of arms he could summon with Wood Release.
Just as Kenya was about to sit cross-legged again and recover his stamina.
Suddenly.
Boom!
Without any warning.
The entire deserted island, and even the sea for several nautical miles around it, suddenly began trembling violently!
This trembling was not a vibration from underground, like a tsunami or earthquake.
Instead... it came from the sky!
The smile on Kenya's face instantly froze.
At that moment, his Observation Haki actually began sounding frantic alarms.
He abruptly raised his head and looked toward the previously cloudless sky above the deserted island.
At some point.
An eerie shadow had blotted out the sunlight.
A pressure so heavy it was almost suffocating was bearing down from the sky with utterly brutal force!