Speedrunning Naruto to the Top

Amegakure's "final battle" began at full throttle.

The clash between Izayoi and Nagato was no less intense.

A radiant white repulsive-force storm not only destroyed all the trees within the barrier but also blew apart the Four Violet Flames Formation that was holding back a Five Kage–level powerhouse.

What remained of the storm continued to expand outward, making the gargantuan trees—each the size of a small mountain—lean and bend. Some became riddled with cracks; some trunks outright broke apart.

Where Nagato stood became a wasteland.

Rumble—

Nagato hovered in midair, scarcely able to catch his breath when the sound of more upheaval reached him. The land below—already turned to barren ground, even forming a giant basin—began producing more trees, huge, serpent-like trunks coiling toward Nagato to bind him.

This time, he didn't use Shinra Tensei to repel them. Instead, his arms transformed into cannon barrels, and he soared even higher to avoid giving Izayoi another chance to trap him with a barrier. At first, the branches still reached skyward in pursuit, but once Nagato flew beyond their reach, they withdrew back into the forest.

Realizing he'd climbed to a height that even those monstrous branches couldn't match, Nagato stopped ascending. Using gravity to hover in midair, he clapped his hands. A black sphere appeared between his open palms.

"Chibaku Tensei!"

He casually hurled the black sphere forward. Immediately, a terrifying gravitational force engulfed the terrain like a tsunami. The ground rent itself apart, uprooting colossal trees and hunks of rock that soared into the sky.

Izayoi was also caught within the sphere's influence, lifted into the air on a massive uprooted tree. He was about to use the same Dust Release strategy as before, to blow apart the black core. But spotting Nagato floating nearby, apparently low on chakra after all this fighting, Izayoi abandoned that plan.

Through their skirmish, Izayoi had confirmed that Nagato's Preta Path couldn't absorb the chakra contained in living wood—it could only drain "energy-type" chakra blasts. But a Sage-level Dust Release was precisely such a big-energy ninjutsu; if Nagato absorbed that, he'd likely regain a good chunk of his "blue bar" (chakra reserves).

So Izayoi canceled the spinning chakra ball he'd already condensed, clapped his hands, and said, "Sage Art: Wood Release—Wood Dragon Technique!"

"Roooaaaar!"

A roar that seemed to shake all living things echoed through the forest. A colossal, mountain-sized wooden dragon tore out of the ground.

Under Nagato's widening eyes, the wood dragon opened its gaping maw and clamped the Chibaku Tensei "meteor" between its jaws—almost like a dragon playing with a pearl—and then whipped its tail, stirring violent air currents as it slammed toward the dumbstruck Nagato.

Watching that sweeping tail—like a mountain smashing sideways—Nagato had no time to drop down, nor could he accelerate away with his Asura Path. He could only unleash his repulsive force to block it.

A moment later, something unbelievable happened: swirling air currents formed an invisible barrier resisting the dragon tail's onslaught.

But unlike those normal trees that froze in midair, the tail continued slowly pressing forward. The usual Shinra Tensei that effortlessly crushed entire forests couldn't smash this wooden dragon; it barely held it off.

How hard is this thing? Nagato thought. How heavy—and how much chakra is packed inside it? If a normal Shinra Tensei can't blow it apart, does that mean every time I need to repel a Mokuton of this caliber, I have to spend time charging up?

I can't afford this kind of slugfest, Nagato decided. While his repulsive windstorm still persisted, he quickly descended into the forest. During the descent, he spared Izayoi a glance, feeling slightly relieved to see that the latter's chakra was also draining at a massive rate—he wasn't the only one burning huge amounts of power.

Once on the ground, Nagato prepared to form hand signs and create a few Wood Clones, hoping to do what Izayoi had done earlier—trap them together in a barrier and force Izayoi to burn huge chakra on Shinra Tensei. However, before he could begin, a swirling vortex of space-time appeared right next to him.

"Leader, I'm here to help you!"

That silly voice rang out, and a pale-white creature named "Tobi" popped out of a fist-sized black hole.

"Tobi, you finally made it!"

Nagato's expression brightened. "Just in time—help me finish him off!"

"Yes, sir!"

Tobi saluted, then spread his body like white glue, covering Nagato. At once, Nagato felt his Mokuton chakra and Yang Release surge. Where previously he couldn't compete for control of this forest, now he could.

Even his Sage-enhanced physique received another boost. If they switched to taijutsu again, Nagato—empowered by Sage-mode chakra, Asura Path machinery, and Earth Spear technique—would no longer lose to Izayoi's own Earth Spear + monstrous strength combo.

"Leader, our village is under attack by Ōtsutsuki Toneri's puppet army. Shouldn't we go back to support them?" Tobi's voice murmured in Nagato's ear.

Still scanning for Izayoi, Nagato calmly replied, "That man's official mission is to retrieve the Gedo Statue. But from what we discussed last time, it's clear the statue originally resided on the moon until I summoned it here via Rinnegan. As long as my Rinnegan remains, no matter where he takes the statue—even if he hides it in another dimension—I can summon it back. His real mission isn't to get the statue at all, but to seize these eyes. He and I can't coexist."

"He's likely lurking nearby, waiting for Konoha's Mokuton user to wear me down so he can strike at an opportune moment. I've made arrangements, and it doesn't matter if the village is destroyed. I can Edo Tensei as many reanimated corpses as needed, so as long as our people are safe, it's fine. Compared to Toneri, Konoha's Mokuton user is the bigger threat—both now and in the future."

Finished speaking, Nagato clapped his hands. "Let's go, Tobi!"

"Understood. Sage Art: Wood Release—Wood Golem Technique!"

Just as Tobi spoke, two voices overlapped, chanting the same jutsu name.

BOOM—

The ground quaked violently. A towering wooden statue—roughly 150 meters tall, reminiscent of a huge hundred-armed Buddha—rose from the earth.

"So this is how it's made," Izayoi murmured, having watched the entire process from the shadows rather than interrupting. Observing the birth of this giant hundred-armed Buddha, he instantly grasped the trick behind the Wood Golem. He clapped his hands, pouring his vast Sage chakra into the earth:

"Sage Art: Wood Release—Wood Golem Technique!"

Another violent tremor rocked the land. Even though Hinata and Karin—who had arrived from Konoha and were still 20+ kilometers away—felt the tremors. They were using Byakugan and Mind's Eye of the Kagura to watch the battle. Yet more than the scale of these vibrations, what truly left them gaping was the sight of two mountain-sized chakra masses.

"How can there be so much chakra that it's visible—even physically manifested? That's crazy," Karin muttered shakily. Mind's Eye of the Kagura showed her fuzzy outlines but could sense profound vitality and aggression within that chakra. She identified the first as Yang Release, the other as natural energy—just as Izayoi had once described.

Meanwhile, watching the newly risen "Golem" face off against the Hundred-Armed Buddha, Hinata thought Izayoi-kun and the Akatsuki leader had both grown even stronger.

Back at the start of the year, she'd seen Nagato and Tobi use a hundred-armed statue that wasn't anywhere near this size. It wasn't only Sage Mokuton boosting it—Nagato's chakra must have increased over the months.

But that couldn't compare to Izayoi's insane growth. After Tenseigan's second gestation, Izayoi's chakra skyrocketed. And once he stopped permanently maintaining Sage Mode, it rose again. Now it dwarfed Naruto's many times over, easily eclipsing the Akatsuki leader.

But with her keen sense for battle, Hinata was worried. At this rate, Izayoi-kun is in trouble. Because once Tobi showed up, it was no longer a fair one-on-one. Izayoi would be facing two at once.

"He does know Wood Golem Technique?" Nagato said, grimly gazing at Izayoi standing atop the golem's head. "All right, then let's make the target even clearer."

"Leader, should I greet him?" Tobi asked slyly.

Nagato smiled. "Go ahead, Tobi—say hello."

"Got it!"

Tobi channeled the hundred-armed statue's chakra, turning it into five different chakra nature transformations. A prismatic pillar of fire blasted from its mouth toward the Arhat Golem and Izayoi. If anything touched or collided with it, the explosion would wreak cataclysmic damage. Even the Arhat Golem—tough enough to catch a Tailed Beast Bomb—would be blown to pieces by that level of force.

Yet Izayoi had more than one way to defend. The simplest would be using the Golem to launch a Dust Release and disintegrate the Sage Five-Elements blast. But if he unleashed such a big ninjutsu at the giant scale of the golem, Nagato would likely jump free and use Preta Path to absorb it, regaining a huge chunk of chakra. Similarly, Tenseigan's absorption technique was also off-limits—he couldn't blow his cover here.

So Izayoi simply twitched a finger.

"Roooaaaar!"

The huge wooden dragon that had fallen to the ground after losing control reawakened, spat out the "dragon pearl" it had formed from Chibaku Tensei, then opened wide to swallow the rainbow pillar. Its body swelled, glowing five-colored as it hurtled toward the hundred-armed statue.

Seeing this, the statue extended its colossal arms, grabbing hold of the wooden dragon.

BOOM—

Before it could fling the dragon back, the swollen wooden mass burst like a balloon, exploding into a blinding flash of multicolored radiance. That terrifying blast disintegrated the statue's outstretched arms, also engulfing Izayoi and Nagato on either side.

The Arhat Golem shielded Izayoi from the fiery shockwave; Nagato used Preta Path to drain as much Sage chakra as he could from the blast. The moment the glow subsided, the earth-shaking rumble echoed again—this time, the Arhat Golem charged forward and launched a fist at the Hundred-Armed Buddha. The statue responded with its own punch.

When the two fists collided, the shockwave howled like a storm, making the Mokuton forest sway violently. The impact forced both giants back, but they instantly swung again. As soon as the second collision occurred, Nagato exploited the opening—"Banshō Ten'in!" (Universal Pull). He tried yanking Izayoi off the Arhat Golem's head with gravity. But a wooden shield popped up, cutting off that gravitational link.

Tobi, meanwhile, rained down massive punches from the statue's hundred arms, plummeting at Izayoi like meteors. This was exactly what Hinata had feared: from the moment Tobi arrived, it was 2v1. Nagato used gravity interference; Tobi piloted the statue.

"An impressive combo. Nearly caught me—except…"

Izayoi snickered, "You still have no concept how powerful a no-hand-sign Mokuton can be!"

With those words, the wooden platform beneath Izayoi sank, lowering him inside the Arhat Golem's head. At once, the golem's eyes flashed golden, red eye markings appearing. It raised its other hand against the incoming barrage of fists, sprouting countless thick branches to form a cluster of massive wooden fists that crashed into the statue's raining arms. A terrifying backlash jolted both giants back a few steps, splintering limbs on both sides.

"What the—?!"

Even Tobi couldn't maintain his usual jokey tone. "He's literally going inside the Wood Golem? Didn't he need hand signs for that?"

"His Mokuton truly has no need for them," Nagato said quietly. "Tobi, can you do the same?"

"Impossible. This is beyond me," Tobi replied bitterly. "We can channel the statue's chakra to cast five-element combos, or set up certain techniques using the statue as a medium, but not fluidly like that. We'd need time for incantations or forming seals. He's doing it seamlessly, with zero delay—like hand signs don't exist. How?!"

"Probably…that's the power of a 'true' Mokuton," Nagato concluded.

"So this is a genuine Wood Release? It's amazing," Tobi said excitedly. "Leader, we gotta capture him. If we transplant his cells, you and I can boost our Mokuton even further!"

"That's my plan!" Nagato grinned. "You handle his Golem. I'll exploit his weaknesses."

"Got it!"

Tobi commanded the statue to regenerate its shattered arms and move toward the Arhat Golem. At the same time, a wooden dragon burst from the forest, coiling around the Arhat Golem. The Golem raised its newly regrown fist, cloaking it in a bluish chakra flame, and charged at the statue.

"N-No way," Nagato and Tobi gasped.

Seeing this, the statue halted. Its hundred arms extended wildly once more, raining down a hurricane of blows. The Arhat Golem answered with a single tremendous punch.

BOOM—

A cataclysmic tide of Sage chakra exploded, blowing apart dozens of the statue's arms. The wooden dragon also flew off, swinging its tail, which crushed many more arms with force surpassing the statue's own. The chakra shockwave still carried on, surging toward Nagato.

Regaining his composure, Nagato formed a one-handed seal and created a Wood Clone in front of himself while pulling back. The clone spread its arms, forming a translucent white shield that absorbed the oncoming chakra wave like a magnet, sucking it into its body.

Seeing that, Nagato smiled. "It's still just chakra—we can absorb it."

"Great! Then we have nothing to fear," Tobi chimed in happily.

"Hmph, I messed up," Izayoi thought from inside the Arhat Golem's head. I forgot just how massive this golem is. Monstrous Strength Punch is effectively the Senju clan's raw chakra burst.

Even though it's a form of taijutsu, we're releasing obvious chakra outward—like a giant wave. That's easy for Preta Path to absorb. Unless we catch them off guard, we can't use that giant, obvious blow again.

Izayoi changed tactics, once more showing the difference between his Mokuton and theirs. The Arhat Golem grabbed the wooden dragon's head in its hand. In a flash, the dragon coiled around the golem transformed into a gargantuan wooden broadsword.

"That's cheating—too much cheating!" Tobi howled. "This kind of fluidity and shape morphing—without seals—that's too OP!"

No-hand-sign Mokuton was indeed that broken—like a fully formed Susano'o made of Yin Release chakra that can shape swords, Magatama, shields, and bows at will.

~~~

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