"Tao..." Tien stared at the figure he had once admired, his face full of disappointment.
This was who he used to look up to? A man like this no longer deserved to be called a martial artist.
"Get lost." Piccolo's voice was ice.
Without a second word, Tao jumped straight down from the arena. Not a flicker of hesitation.
Against anyone else, Tao might have feigned surrender and looked for a chance to strike from behind. Against Piccolo, he did not dare. Piccolo would actually kill him.
"Winner: Contestant Ma Junior."
The semifinal matchups were set: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Tien Shinhan, Son Goku vs. Ma Junior.
Naruto and Tien stepped onto the arena together. After a brief exchange of words, both made their move at the same time.
Tien's strength already placed him among the elite of Earth. Without resorting to special methods, body modifications like the Androids, or eating the fruit of the Tree of Might, surpassing him through training alone was incredibly difficult.
At the very least, doing so on Earth alone was extremely hard.
If the Dragon Ball universe had ended with Demon King Piccolo, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, the Z Saga began four years later, and the explosive growth in combat power that followed made a mere few hundred or thousand points completely inadequate.
The absurd power levels of the later era left the average Earthling with a combat power of 5 utterly in the dust.
So the Z Fighters had to become stronger.
In truth, the Z Fighters were capable of far greater achievements.
"You think your strength is already impressive?" Naruto blocked Tien's attack and looked him in the eye.
"Before I entered the Budokai Tenkaichi, I did." Tien was blunt, holding nothing back. "After entering the tournament and discovering all these powerful contestants, I realized, I'm not strong enough yet."
"That's right. Your potential, no, all of your potential, goes far beyond what you've reached." Naruto looked at Tien with visible approval.
Compared to Krillin, who later chose to become a police officer, or Yamcha, who transitioned into a baseball player, Tien was the only Z Fighter besides the Saiyans and Piccolo who never gave up on training. He pursued constant improvement in the martial arts path, pushing himself relentlessly, all the way through the Buu era, he never stopped growing stronger.
Though that growth could never compare to what the Saiyans were capable of.
During the Cell era, his raw power should have been one-shot by 17 or 18, yet he still managed to hold back Cell single-handedly after Cell evolved to his second form.
During the Buu era, Super Buu slaughtered all of humanity in an instant, but Tien alone survived the attack. He even reached Goku's side, and the two nearly performed Potara Fusion.
In the end, he took a full-force kick from Super Buu and survived.
"How did you train to reach this level of power?" Not long after they clashed, Tien understood he was no match for Naruto, though he still had no idea just how vast the gap truly was. "My power hasn't progressed in a long time."
"The main reason your strength has stalled is because your perspective is holding back your development," Naruto continued.
You could also say the era they lived in limited their development.
If the Z Fighters could set a clear goal in advance and push toward it relentlessly, then even if they couldn't reach first-tier combat power, they could still scrape their way into the second or third tier.
As the saying goes: a goal is what drives you forward, a goal is what gives you direction.
Naruto vaguely remembered a manga he once read called *Dragon Ball Multiverse*. In it, Universe 9 appeared, a world without Son Goku.
In that world, the Z Fighters relied entirely on their own abilities. They resolved the Demon King Piccolo crisis, defeated the invading Saiyans, crushed the Frieza Force, and even handled the Android crisis and Babidi's plot.
In that world, there was a Krillin who had inherited the title of Master Roshi, a Tien Shinhan of absolute power, a Yamcha who had modified his own body into an Android, and a Videl who was able to pull out the Z Sword.
While *Dragon Ball Multiverse* couldn't be taken as a direct reference, the Z Fighters were still capable of increasing their own combat power.
Naruto wanted to see a stronger generation of Z Fighters, at the very least, he didn't want them reduced to random bystanders who get one-shotted the moment they appear on screen.
"Do all of you want to see my true power?" Naruto's voice rang out in the minds of every Z Fighter, Piccolo included.
Of course they did.
Every Z Fighter present was curious about Naruto's power. Especially Piccolo. Just how strong he really was remained a mystery.
"Then I'll show you what I can do."
"Wait. Hold on a second." Naruto was about to flare his ki when Tien stopped him. Seeing Naruto's look, Tien explained, "I'm afraid if I see your full power, I'll lose the nerve to fight you."
"Before that, I developed a special technique. I want to test it out first."
Tien and Krillin, two masters of technique invention. Their most famous creations were the Solar Flare and the Destructo Disc, two borderline divine techniques in the Dragon Ball universe, capable of producing unexpected results no matter the situation.
"Go ahead." Naruto crooked his fingers at Tien.
As Tien's ki shifted, his body began to change. One split into two, two split into four, four identical Tiens stood in the arena.
"Look at that! Absolutely astonishing, four Tien contestants on the arena at once!" Even the announcer, who had seen it all, couldn't hold back his amazement.
The Multi-Form Technique, a move that split the user into four. Each body was real, with the same memories and abilities as the original. Four bodies, twelve eyes, sixteen arms, a massive advantage in combat.
The obvious downside: each body only had a quarter of the original's power. The moment they clashed with an opponent, the weakness would be exposed.
"Ha!"
The four Tiens stationed themselves at the four corners of the arena. In a rapid barrage of ki waves, a laser shot from the third eye on each of their foreheads, all aimed straight at Naruto.
At the same time, Naruto's figure blurred on the arena, and then four identical Narutos stood there.
'Shadow Clone Jutsu!'
The Multi-Form Technique and the Naruto universe's Shadow Clone Jutsu were similar, but in terms of practical use, the Shadow Clone was far superior.
The quarter-power limitation was a fatal flaw. Shadow Clones didn't have that problem, they retained the user's full power, just with comparatively limited chakra.
That said, the strongest clone technique of all had to be the Wood Clone. The Wood Clone's properties were truly broken-tier.
"Unbelievable! Naruto Uzumaki has also split into four, taking on all four Tiens at once!"
The four Narutos casually evaded the Tiens' attacks. Amid their stunned cries, each Tien was knocked off the arena in a single move.
"I never imagined the technique I worked so hard to develop was something you already knew, Naruto." The four Tiens outside the arena merged back into one. He wasn't frustrated about losing so easily, just caught off guard.
Naruto shook his head. "No. What I used wasn't your Multi-Form Technique. It's a ninjutsu that creates clones for combat."
"Ninjutsu?" Tien murmured the unfamiliar word. When Naruto didn't elaborate, he didn't press further, just writing it off as some technique Naruto had developed himself.
"Now then, let me show you my true strength." Although the match had ended, Naruto wasn't stepping off the arena yet. He gathered his ki.
"I'm only showing this once. Watch closely."
As Naruto's ki intensified, a brilliant fiery aura ignited around his body.
*Beep beep beep.* At the same time, the scouter Bulma was wearing blared a warning.
A string of numbers climbed rapidly before her eyes.
"1000 Points... 1500 Points... 2000 Points... 2500 Points..."
Krillin exclaimed, "What terrifying ki."
"How can a human possibly have ki this powerful?"
Kami's gaze flickered as he stared at Naruto, his aged face unreadable.
"Naruto Uzumaki?" Tao, who also had an energy-measuring device, cried out in alarm. His scouter was nowhere near as precise as Bulma's, but it could still put a number to things.
"His energy is several times higher than mine. I knew it, he installed a faulty device on me. It's completely inaccurate."
When Naruto's combat power broke past 1500 points, Piccolo said with a look of excitement, "I knew your strength was more than what you were showing."
But as Naruto's combat power kept climbing, that excitement gradually faded, replaced by a large bead of sweat slowly sliding down his forehead.
*'Just how much strength has Naruto been holding back?'*
If the gap were only one or two times greater, there was still room for a fight. But once it was more than five times greater, there was nothing to do but go back to training before issuing a challenge.
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