"Wood Release: Birth of the Tree World!"
Danzo slammed his massive hand onto the ground, and the earth began to shake violently.
One by one, trees burst forth, wrapping themselves around Naruto and his Shadow Clones.
While Birth of the Tree World might not look especially lethal, in actual combat, it was an exceptional technique—an overwhelmingly powerful crowd control ninjutsu.
The trees summoned by Wood Release possessed incredible resistance to ninjutsu and boasted extraordinary regenerative ability.
A ninja trapped within the Tree World would be relentlessly pursued by countless branches. Once caught, their chakra would be drained away, spelling inevitable defeat.
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the familiar Birth of the Tree World unfold within Konoha, his expression dazed.
The First Hokage's overwhelming power came vividly to mind.
For a moment, the Third wavered. Danzo, who could use Wood Release—perhaps he really could control Naruto?
Should I step in… and help Danzo?The thought surfaced from the depths of his heart.
As Hiruzen hesitated, countless branches surged toward Naruto and his clones, clearly intending to capture them all in one fell swoop.
Danzo stood tall at the very center of the Tree World, nearly equal in height to the trees themselves. His pale face was resolute.
"Even if the real Nine-Tails appeared now, I could suppress it! Submit and become Konoha's weapon, Jinchuriki!"
Faced with the incoming entanglement, Naruto dared not take it lightly.These thick, flexible branches were far more dangerous than any mere vines.
He and his Shadow Clones all moved in unison—gripping glowing azure blades, knees slightly bent.
Eighth Form: First Gale Slash!
The Eighth Form was a sword technique that combined movement and offense into one.All the Narutos burst forth in a high-speed charge, slashing brilliant sword arcs that cleaved through the incoming branches.
Wood Release might resist conventional ninjutsu, but Naruto was now in Sage Mode—his blades infused with Senjutsu chakra.
Blue sword-light erupted, cutting through everything like a hot knife through butter, blazing a path straight toward Danzo.
"What?!"
Seeing the advancing Narutos blinking ever closer, Danzo was once again shocked.
"This is Wood Release! How could this happen?!"
Hiruzen was thinking the same.He imagined himself trapped in such a Tree World and realized he wouldn't be able to escape quickly—certainly not push through like Naruto was doing now, cutting a path like chopping vegetables.
Danzo roared, ignoring the instability of the Hashirama cells in his body, and poured chakra to the limit.
The trees surged again, swelling larger, the branches thicker and more ferocious.
Naruto's slashes could still break them, but it was becoming more effortful.
However, the distance was already short. With the Eighth Form's speed, Naruto soon reached Danzo's front.
Dozens of Narutos surrounded him.
Danzo's expression darkened.
"You think getting close to me means you've won? Foolish!"
"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Jutsu!"
Danzo formed several hand seals. A massive wooden dragon raised its head from the ground—its enormous body erupting dozens of meters skyward.
Naruto noted the state of Danzo's body after using the technique. Pale and exhausted, his skin pulsed with bulging growths that quickly healed again—clearly on the verge of collapse.
It looked like stronger Wood Release techniques like Wood Golem Jutsu or True Several Thousand Hands were no longer possible for him.
The wooden dragon roared, sweeping toward Naruto.
The ground trembled beneath its charge, massive dust clouds rising in its wake.
Inside the sealed space, the Nine-Tails shrank back instinctively at the sight of the wooden dragon.Unpleasant memories surged up from the depths of its mind.
Its canine teeth bared, it snarled as it sent a message to Naruto.
"Naruto! Use my power! I'll tear that wooden dragon to shreds!"
'The one from Hashirama, I can't beat... but this old man's dragon? It's mine for the taking!'
Just as Naruto was about to use another sword form, he paused.
After a brief moment of thought, he decided to draw on the Nine-Tails' power.
His true body began to emit a blazing red chakra—a cloak of tailed beast energy forming around him.
One tail…Two…Three…
Only at the fourth tail did he stop.
Unlike past times when entering this state, Naruto's skin wasn't being burned by the chakra, nor had he lost his rationality.
The chakra cloak wasn't blood-red, but a brilliant pale gold.
When Danzo saw Naruto sprout four tails, his heart skipped a beat.
"The Nine-Tails' power..."
But then, Danzo sneered coldly in his heart.
'Wood Release suppresses the Nine-Tails. This brat finally made a mistake. Time to seal him!'
The wooden dragon instantly shifted direction, lunging toward Naruto's real body.
Hiruzen also saw the Nine-Tails chakra enveloping Naruto and grew tense.
"Has he lost control?"
But quickly, Hiruzen noticed something.
Naruto's eyes—calm and clear—showed no signs of madness.
A terrifying thought surfaced in his heart:
Not only had Naruto grown powerful—he had tamed the Nine-Tails.
A perfect Jinchuriki… with heaven-defying talent?
If such a Naruto turned against Konoha—how could they possibly stop him?
The Third Hokage was stunned. What he had seen today weighed more on him than the past decade combined.
Naruto's next move confirmed Hiruzen's suspicion.
He controlled the Nine-Tails' chakra—his four golden tails transforming into giant hands.
Four golden hands stretched out, palms up. At their centers, black and blue particles spun, condensed, and solidified…
"That's... the Tailed Beast Ball?! Four of them?! Impossible!"
Hiruzen gasped. Memories of the destructive power of Tailed Beast Balls surged into his mind. His forehead was drenched in sweat.
Danzo's face was equally grim, but he clenched his fists.
'Wood Release suppresses Tailed Beasts. Even this, I can block!'
The wooden dragon didn't stop, charging straight at Naruto.
Creating Tailed Beast Balls required fusing yin and yang chakra in an 2:8 ratio under intense compression.
But Naruto wasn't just doing that—he had the Transparent World's perfect perception and absolute chakra control to aid him.
He even fused Senjutsu chakra into the mix.
He had already tested this method via Shadow Clone experiments—it worked.
The four Tailed Beast Balls grew rapidly from the size of a fist, to basketballs, then swelled to nearly ten meters in diameter.
Though smaller than the Nine-Tails' own, these orbs contained Senjutsu chakra—making their destructive potential far greater than the sum of their parts.
'Just like a certain someone spinning chakra lotuses by hand…'
The moment the four Tailed Beast Balls stabilized, they emitted a terrifying aura that made even Hiruzen's breath hitch.
Boom.
With a push of the golden hands, the four orbs shot toward the wooden dragon and Danzo at supersonic speed.
In the blink of an eye, the Tailed Beast Balls collided with the wooden dragon.
For an instant, all of Konoha fell silent.
Then came the deafening explosion.
The four Tailed Beast Balls infused with Senjutsu chakra detonated simultaneously.
In that instant—A pillar of fire shot hundreds of meters into the sky.The massive wooden dragon, at the heart of the blast, looked like a tiny snake.Within the flames, it silently roared—before crumbling into ash.
Had Deidara seen this, his eyes would've lit up and he'd probably cheer:
"Art is an explosion!"
All of Konoha shook like an earthquake.
Its residents rushed out of their homes in panic, staring at the towering inferno in the distance—every face frozen in fear, unable to comprehend what had just occurred.