Speedrunning Naruto to the Top

A golden pillar of light pounded down for several minutes without pause.

Dust had no chance to rise—each wisp was blasted apart the instant it formed, scattering in every direction.

Every plant, tree, rock, and hillside within the beam's reach was reduced to powder in a heartbeat.

The violent tremor spread for an unknown number of kilometers, causing large numbers of buildings to collapse.

When everything finally calmed, the very map had been redrawn.

The land that once held flowers, forests, rivers, and wildlife was now a single vast basin.

Just as Hashirama's Sage Art · Wood Release · True Several Thousand Hands — Top Transformed Buddha had smashed the plains of the Land of Fields into the Valley of the End, this basin was even wider and deeper than that famous valley.

If water were to fill it, you would mistake it for a boundless sea; such was its scale.

The view zoomed in to a certain spot at the basin's floor.

Uchiha Madara's tattered body lay there, caked in bloody dust. His flesh twitched and squirmed, healing at an agonizingly slow pace.

A remnant force was still ravaging him from the inside.

He possessed only three Kekkei Mōra, if you counted the Sword of Nunoboko—an ability on par with Kekkei Mōra—along with Wood Release and that arrow itself.

Among these, only Wood Release and Sword of Nunoboko were offensive, yet Madara still hadn't truly mastered either. He still used the former like ordinary Wood Release, while the latter could only unleash crude white slashes—nowhere near creating or destroying worlds.

His own attacks could not touch Izayoi, who could see the future; yet Izayoi's Kekkei Mōra struck true.

To ordinary ninja, to Kage-class fighters, and even to Naruto and Sasuke after receiving the Sage of Six Paths' power, the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki is an inexhaustible chakra source immune to ninjutsu.

To Izayoi, however, the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki was merely a punching bag that could take a beating.

Had Madara been able to use Amenominaka, Ash-Killing Bone, Yomi-Hirasaka, and Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, Izayoi would certainly have been cautious, given Madara's combat experience and wit.

Unfortunately, "if" never happened.

Only Kekkei Mōra can counter Kekkei Mōra. Unable to withstand Izayoi's, Madara's fate was sealed.

Gazing down at Madara, Izayoi scoffed, "Still not enough? Or did that other guy get scared too?"

With that, he glanced in a certain direction, raised a hand, and formed a golden orb of light. Opening Yomotsu Hirasaka, he tossed the orb inside.

A black fissure opened beneath Madara at the basin's bottom.

The golden orb shot out, its gravity tuned only to chakra. It immediately drew the Ten-Tails' chakra out through Madara's wounds, sucking it into itself.

The sensation of power being stripped away jolted Madara back to consciousness.

Ignoring the question of why he wasn't dead, he tried to activate Limbo to destroy the orb—

—and suddenly found his body unable to move.

"I… I can't move!" Terror spread across Madara's half-shattered face. His eyes quivered in confusion. "What is this?!"

"Madara, you truly are a cruel fox."

A raspy voice echoed in his mind.

Madara's pupils shrank. "Black Zetsu? How can it be you? When did you possess me?!"

"You're too arrogant," Black Zetsu sneered. "In Izayoi's words: as a mixed-blood descendant of the Ōtsutsuki, you're nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well. You can't fathom the might of a pure-blooded Ōtsutsuki. Even as the perfect Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, you can't compare to Hagoromo, that unfilial son of his, or Mother.

"Against me, the third son of the progenitor of chakra, you left only a wood clone to watch me. Have you forgotten how I once implied I was your will incarnate?"

Madara's eyes contracted.

Connecting this with Izayoi's earlier taunts, he suddenly understood.

Izayoi hadn't seized the Demonic Statue or made himself the Ten-Tails' host because Black Zetsu had already built a contingency inside the statue.

As a Yin-Release being who could liquefy, extend, and create clones, Black Zetsu had embedded a fragment of himself in the Gedo Statue long ago.

Even Six-Paths Sage Mode couldn't sense him, so Madara never discovered the deception.

Izayoi, who could see past and future, had long been aware of it.

Disarming a hidden trap is impossible if you never notice it—otherwise it's no obstacle to Izayoi at all.

Had Madara realized Black Zetsu's presence early, he could have avoided this end. So why did Izayoi still refuse to become the Ten-Tails' host himself?

Recalling his own speculation, Madara felt as if he too could now see the future.

Black Zetsu, sharing Madara's thoughts through Yin-Yang Release: Spirit Possession, laughed. "You guessed right. I am the key to reviving the Rabbit Goddess.

"Your Infinite Tsukuyomi just now resonated with the God-Tree and its fruit, awakening Mother and linking Earth to the Moon.

"And thanks to Izayoi's help weakening you, I have my chance.

"Don't worry—your efforts won't be in vain. Mother will avenge you." Black Zetsu chuckled. "Farewell, Madara…-sama!"

As he spoke, black matter like Truth-Seeker orbs gushed from Madara, forming a great sphere.

At the same moment, Black Zetsu's other half emerged from the ground and merged into the sphere.

The sphere rose, defying gravity, soaring upward.

Izayoi watched it, eyes full of anticipation.

Round two was finally coming.

Clear this hurdle, and he could obtain the real treasure.

The black sphere soon halted, then deflated like a punctured balloon, reshaping from a globe into a human form.

Its ink-black surface paled visibly.

A beautiful woman appeared before Izayoi.

She had waist-length blue-white hair, dried-wood-colored horns, a white robe patterned with black magatama, skin white as snow, Byakugan eyes, and a crimson Rinne-Sharingan on her forehead.

She was Ōtsutsuki Kaguya—the Rabbit Goddess—who arrived on Earth with Ōtsutsuki Isshiki to plant the God-Tree, betrayed her superior during the sacrifice phase, and devoured the chakra fruit herself.

Perhaps owing to her recent resurrection, Kaguya floated blankly, an icy beauty without awareness.

In truth, she was absorbing centuries of memories from her "son" Black Zetsu.

Izayoi did not strike; attacking now was pointless. Though Kaguya's battle experience and tactical mind were inferior to Madara's, her raw stats overwhelmed his. Without Naruto and Sasuke's ultimate sealing jutsu—the Six-Paths Chibaku Tensei—she was unbeatable.

A single duel? No matter Madara's tricks, he stood no chance. She could crush him with sheer power.

And her "stats" were terrifying.

Two-digit bubbles of light floated around her—dozens, some even Multi-Color:

Ōtsutsuki Bloodline (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Mōra: Rinne-Sharingan (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Mōra: Wood Release (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Mōra: Ash-Killing Bone (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Mōra: Nature Assimilation (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Genkai: Byakugan (Multi-Color)

God of Taijutsu (Multi-Color)

Kāma (Multi-Color)

Flight (Multi-Color)

Regeneration (Multi-Color)

Ten Multi-Color entries—Izayoi clicked his tongue internally.

Absurd. Absolutely insane.

As the host of the chakra fruit merged with the Ten-Tails, her numbers might even surpass her strength a millennium ago.

Back then she lacked the Multi-Color "Wood Release" entry.

And Izayoi knew this still wasn't her limit. Several Kekkei Mōra powers weren't listed separately—they were bundled under certain entries: Amenominaka, Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, Yomotsu Hirasaka, and the Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball.

The first two likely belonged to the God of Taijutsu, the latter to Ōtsutsuki Bloodline or Flight.

He wasn't sure which entry covered the Expansive Truth-Seeking Ball; it might require multiple entries combined.

A mere "lower-rank" who stole a chakra fruit already possessed such a fearsome panel. Izayoi couldn't fathom how terrifying Ōtsutsuki Shibai—the Ōtsutsuki clan's rumored strongest, perhaps transcendent—must be.

Clearly, Izayoi had far to go.

His Transcendence Aptitude (Multi-Color) only gave him the ceiling, not the height.

Reaching it depended on effort.

Shibai's path was to scour the cosmos for living worlds, plant God-Trees, wait eons for fruit, consume or refine them, and evolve step by step.

Izayoi could follow that—but it would take ages.

Yet he had another shortcut: the Talent-Entry System.

It had taken him from orphaned commoner to mixed-blood Ōtsutsuki, then to horned pure-blood. It could surely let him surpass pure-bloods and become something higher.

To walk that shortcut, he needed points—lots of them.

Izayoi's gaze burned at Kaguya. He longed to seize those ten Multi-Color entries and break them down into points.

Even if each were "low-tier," he would net at least ten million points—maybe enough to learn whether Multi-Color entries could upgrade further.

Sensing his stare, Kaguya's blank Byakugan finally turned, locking onto Izayoi as he rose slowly to meet her.

Veins bulge at her temples.

Her breath hitched, as if her heart trembled.

Had she not shared Black Zetsu's memories and learned that this youth was a native of this planet, she might have fled with Yomotsu Hirasaka on the spot.

She couldn't help it—Izayoi looked exactly like a clansman from the Ōtsutsuki main family, and his golden eyes held a pupil force on par with the Rinne-Sharingan. Even among the main family, one needed countless and immense talent to awaken such eyes. Lower-class clan members destined for Ten-Tails sacrifice could never hope for it.

Even she had needed a chakra fruit to open the Rinne-Sharingan. Without it, awakening a Byakugan-linked unique power would have been her limit.

Someone like Izayoi would be an exalted upper-rank in the main family.

Why did this planet have such an Ōtsutsuki?

Kaguya quickly calmed her mind and asked the same question Madara had: "What is your relation to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki?"

Besides her rebellious sons Hagoromo and Hamura, only she—using her own genes and the chakra fruit's residual power—could create a pure-blood Ōtsutsuki. Even if Hagoromo became the Ten-Tails' host, he could not.

Their descendants, no matter how gifted, would always be mixed-blood.

A fourth pure-blood should be impossible.

Izayoi had no connection to her line—yet his pure blood was undeniable. Only her superior could craft such a masterpiece. Could Isshiki have survived?

"I'm looking for your superior too. Do you know where he is?" Izayoi smiled.

Kaguya seemed to sense something and snorted softly. "You are not lying."

Relaxed, she curled her lips into a wicked grin. "Your appearance is a delightful surprise.

"If I feed you to the Ten-Tails, I'll obtain a second chakra fruit!"

~~~

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