Speedrunning Naruto to the Top

Izayoi had been wondering where Nagato's real body had gone.

He hadn't expected Nagato to come straight for him—and using Izayoi's own tactic, no less: disguising himself as Ōtsutsuki Toneri via Wood Transformation. If anything went wrong, Nagato could simply put the blame on "Toneri."

Still, Izayoi couldn't figure out why Nagato was suddenly targeting him. The only time they'd met was in Orochimaru's underground base—was there really a reason to track him now?

At a glance, it didn't look like Nagato had discovered Izayoi's secret identity. If he had, he wouldn't have come alone to confront him in this forest. He'd have shown up in force to wipe out Konoha.

But regardless of Nagato's intent, Izayoi disliked being on the back foot. Gazing at Nagato descending from above, Izayoi sneered:

"The proud leader of the Akatsuki—the so-called God of the New Shinobi Era—actually disguising himself as his enemy. Those raids on the Five Great Nations over the past couple of months, the so-called 'Sage Eye showdown,' wasn't it all personally orchestrated by you, wielder of the Rinnegan?"

"…"

Nagato had planned to speak with Toneri-like arrogance, but Izayoi's words lodged in his throat. An awkward, goosebump-raising feeling swept over him.

Looking down at Izayoi's derisive face, Nagato couldn't help asking: "How did you figure it out?"

"Your disguise is as clumsy as Uchiha Obito's," Izayoi replied with a snort. "Your Wood Transformation is flawless, and your chakra signature does differ from the last time we met. But…you can't change the aura of your soul."

"Your sensory ability can detect soul auras?" Nagato blurted in shock.

"Interesting," Izayoi said with a mischievous smile. "You, outwardly of the Uzumaki clan, awaken Wood Release instead of any of the Uzumaki's unique traits. You even mastered the Wood Golem Jutsu that once belonged to the First Hokage, yet you've never displayed a single bit of Uzumaki's signature powers."

"I see," Nagato remarked, immediately grasping Izayoi's point. "You must have awakened the Uzumaki clan's unique ability as well, combining Mind's Eye of the Kagura with some other techniques to form a special type of sensory ninjutsu."

Indeed, Nagato had fused his own Mind's Eye of the Kagura with the Rinnegan to create the Rain Tiger at Will Technique—a specialized form of perception.

Realizing he'd truly been exposed, Nagato canceled his Wood Transformation. "As expected of the genius who saw through 'Uchiha Madara's' real identity back in the Academy. Your talent and intelligence even put me under pressure. Akatsuki's goal is to forge a new world, and you and that Ōtsutsuki Toneri are my biggest obstacles."

"To be praised by the God of the New Shinobi Era is quite an honor," Izayoi said with a chuckle. Then he asked in confusion, "But I'm curious: why come after me before dealing with Toneri? Isn't he the bigger threat?"

"It's because you wield the 'true' Wood Release." Nagato raised his hand toward Izayoi. "Your existence will accelerate and magnify something we can't allow. So please die here, Izayoi-kun… Universal Pull!"

A strange force abruptly yanked Izayoi off the tree branch.

"Heh, you're underestimating me." Fine—Izayoi thought—let me show you the true power of Wood Release.

He'd planned to provoke a decisive confrontation anyway once he left the village; no need for words now. Izayoi raised his hand, morphing it into a massive tree branch that shot toward Nagato like a giant serpent.

Simultaneously, a horde of thick vine-like wooden "snakes" burst out of the forest below, lashing at Nagato like the tentacles of an octopus.

Seeing this, Nagato's eyes flickered in surprise. No hand signs… How is that possible? Is this the legendary 'true' Wood Release?

Despite his shock, Nagato kept a calm demeanor. "Shinra Tensei!"

In an instant, the attractive force becomes repulsive. An invisible storm raged forth, flattening everything in its path. The ascending roots froze midair, their tips fracturing. Chunks of bark broke away.

But they didn't all shatter and fly off as Nagato had expected. When they merely cracked and fell away in some places, Nagato's expression shifted. He hastily channeled more chakra to blow the tree limbs to bits.

When it was over, Nagato scrutinized Izayoi, who had landed back on the tree. Scanning Izayoi's chakra with his Rinnegan, he muttered in shock: "Such powerful chakra. H-how is this possible?"

In Orochimaru's underground base, Nagato had encountered only Izayoi's Wood Clone, whose chakra alone was enough to cast Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence on a massive scale.

That was enough for him to suspect Izayoi's real body must possess impressive reserves—maybe on par with or slightly below a Jinchūriki like the Eight-Tails.

But now, Nagato realized Izayoi's chakra far exceeded what Toneri had displayed earlier in the year—and even surpassed that of the Eight-Tails. It was absurd. He'd just graduated last year. Next year he'd only just reach his "growth phase," so how could his chakra surpass a Jinchūriki's by so much?

Could this be what it means to be a 'true' Mokuton user?

"Wood Release: Hotei Technique!"

While Nagato stood there reeling, Izayoi shifted from defense to offense. Still with no hand signs, he simply pointed at Nagato like a mage casting a spell.

Boom— The surrounding forest shook. Crunching and cracking noises echoed. An earth-rending crash followed as a colossal wooden fist—like a small mountain—broke through, generating a powerful air current from its sheer speed and mass. It lunged toward Nagato with enough force to flatten a real mountain.

Witnessing the gigantic, rock-hard punch powered by massive chakra—harder than diamond—Nagato didn't try Shinra Tensei again. Instead, both his arms morphed into cannon barrels (Asura Path style), blasting flames with Mach rings. He rocketed upward to evade.

Then that wooden fist abruptly unclenched its five fingers, launching a barrage of wooden spikes at Nagato, forming a green bullet hell in the air.

"Wood Release: Cutting Technique!"

Covering a vast area with countless spikes, they flew as swiftly as arrows. To avoid being pinned down and letting Izayoi escape, Nagato opted not to go toe-to-toe with the barrage. He forced it back again with an invisible repulsive force, snapping many of the spikes.

He then soared toward the forest, forming a gigantic missile with one arm and hurling it down at Izayoi. That missile radiated tremendous chakra—once it detonated, it'd be a mushroom cloud–level explosion. Worse, it had a tracking device tied to Nagato's sensory range.

Izayoi, lacking his Tenseigan at the moment, could still see the missile's potency. So he raised his hand, forming a "Super Typhoon Serial Spheres," infusing Water and Lightning Release to create a Wind-Style energy sphere shaped into a beam, colliding with the missile midair.

BOOOM—

A deafening explosion erupted, the sky blooming with flame and wind that scorched and buffeted the forest below. Normal trees bent and snapped in the gust.

Hiding within a wooden cocoon formed by dense vines, Izayoi shielded himself from the blast wave and heat.

At that moment, Nagato—wrapped in a transparent white shield—alighted in front of the cocoon and placed a hand on the wooden surface, channeling Mokuton chakra in an attempt to grow a tree from the outside, consuming Izayoi within.

But the next second, a wooden spear shot out of the cocoon toward Nagato's face. Just before it struck him, it halted in midair, tip quivering, as though colliding with twisted airflow. A few seconds later, that swirling airflow burst forth, shattering the spear and blowing apart the wooden cocoon, flinging Izayoi away.

"Chibaku Tensei!"

Nagato stretched out a hand, creating a black sphere overhead. An immense gravitational pull tore at the ground, uprooting whole trees along with boulders large and small.

Izayoi didn't panic. Once again, he formed a Super Typhoon Serial Spheres, this time adding three nature transformations to create a Dust Release orb. It fired as a transparent beam at the expanding black globe in the sky.

BOOM— The black sphere exploded. Its gravitational field warped the remaining Dust Release beam, dispersing it.

"Incredible ninjutsu talent," Nagato thought to himself. A natural-born prodigy who mastered the mainstream five elemental releases by age ten, now casually blending them into compound ninjutsu—Nagato himself couldn't so seamlessly merge two or three elemental properties into something like a Kekkei Tōta.

If such a technique could alter genes and be inherited, Izayoi's descendants would be unimaginably powerful.

Nagato's amazement didn't stop him from capitalizing on the opening. He quickly flew to where Izayoi was landing, morphing his arm into an Asura Path mechanical limb, and aimed a blow at Izayoi's chest.

He expected Izayoi to cross his arms to block, letting Nagato shape a black rod at the last moment to disrupt his chakra flow for a swift victory. But Izayoi instantly countered. Two fists collided, shockwaves roaring. Despite having the advantage of initiative, Nagato's mechanical arm was destroyed, and he was sent flying.

Landing with his arm numb, Nagato's expression was a mix of shock and excitement. "So this is the Senju chakra burst? That monstrous strength—and the way he's using it—amazing!"

He sprang back at Izayoi, reforming the mechanical arm, now reinforcing it with black Earth-Style diamond armor. Another collision echoed. Though the mechanical arm shattered again, this time Nagato wasn't thrown back—his diamond defense held up against Izayoi's monstrous blow.

They launched into a thunderous taijutsu brawl across the ravaged forest floor. Each strike sounded like bombs going off, buffeting the area with shockwaves.

But after trading dozens of hits, neither could gain the upper hand. Both abandoned the notion of a "fair" martial arts duel. Nagato's head folded open, revealing a laser weapon, while Izayoi's shoulder morphed to wood, forming a giant wooden fist. The laser clashed with the wooden fist—neither attack pierced the other, and both men were blown back.

"So this is the real Wood Release?" Nagato muttered, watching Izayoi's body seamlessly turn to wood without seals, forming chunks so durable that even lasers couldn't penetrate them. Finally, Nagato grasped Izayoi's earlier assertion.

Compared to Izayoi, Nagato and Obito—who had only transplanted Hashirama's cells—were far behind in Mokuton power, requiring hand signs for any jutsu. Their Yang Release plus Wood Release simply weren't enough for Deep Forest Emergence. And their "wood" was nowhere near Izayoi's monstrous hardness. The gap was akin to a three-tomoe Sharingan facing the Eternal Mangekyō.

As Nagato had also realized, Wood Release strongly counters Shinra Tensei. For Nagato to completely obliterate Izayoi's real Mokuton, he had to expend several times—maybe more than ten times—the chakra it would take to shatter normal wood. And if he tried using a super–Shinra Tensei to destroy a single target, he'd risk leaving Amegakure open for a sneak attack by Toneri.

Thus, with no space-time ninjutsu and no willingness to use an ultra broad Shinra Tensei, Nagato resolved to take Izayoi down the hard way. He contacted his Wood Clone in Amegakure mentally while clapping his hands:

"Sage Mode—Activate!"

Red eyeshadow flared. Instantly, Nagato's aura shifted.

"Sage Mode?" Izayoi feigned surprise. "You unlocked it on your own?"

"You said 'also'?" Nagato echoed. Just as he prepared to fight in earnest, a bad feeling stirred within him.

Sure enough…

Izayoi clapped his own hands, red markings spread around his eyes, and his blue pupils turned golden.

"As I thought, you know Sage Mode too," Izayoi said calmly. "I may not have those absolute powers of gravity or repulsion like a Sage Eye user, but you won't take me down with that alone."

"Show me the Wood Release you used against Ōtsutsuki Toneri. A true Mokuton battle!"

"Sage Art: Wood Release—Deep Forest Emergence!"

Rumble— Rumble—

A barrage of colossal trunks—thick enough for twenty men's arms—burst from the ground. Like a gigantic green tsunami, they swallowed Nagato in an instant, rolling outward in all directions. In mere moments, the ordinary forest transformed into a primeval wilderness surpassing even the Forest of Death.

Each towering tree contained potent chakra at Izayoi's command, resistant to fire, water, lightning, wind… Even attempts at draining it would fail because these branches absorbed chakra from anything they coiled around. That was the signature jutsu used by the God of Shinobi to end the Warring States Period—the ninja world's strongest large-scale battlefield ninjutsu.

Only by donning Tobi's armor had Nagato temporarily tasted that power. Now he realized the full might of Deep Forest Emergence.

Yet Izayoi taught him another lesson. Nagato, though left unscathed by flying overhead at high speed, scanning in all directions, soon found four translucent purple walls ascending around him.

They rose high, and a fifth panel sealed the top. It turned out that the Mokuton branches sprouting around him had grown a Wood Clone that cast a barrier to trap Nagato inside.

Before he could approach the wall to absorb it with Preta Path, more and more vines and branches sprouted, flooding inward in a suffocating wave. With no space-time jutsu, escape was impossible.

"Didn't realize Mokuton could be used like this. Impressive," Nagato murmured sincerely. No longer underestimating Izayoi, he spread his arms wide. His massive chakra compressed into pure force, forming a green barrier around him.

As the branches closed in, about to devour him completely, Nagato glowed white. A flash of blinding brightness engulfed the entire cage, bleaching the enclosed forest pure white.

BOOM—

After ten-plus seconds, an earth-shaking blast reverberated across the woodland. Gale-force winds scythed through the colossal trees, each trunk towering over the forest canopy yet harder than solid rock. Many snapped or bowed under the force.

~~~

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