Boom! Boom! Boom...
The sound of the earth shaking echoed as the wooden man Arhat charged at the Hundred-Armed Buddha statue again with the Dragon Slayer Sword in hand.
Under Izayoi's control—without the need for hand seals—and with golden-tier chakra driving it, the wooden man Arhat moved like a Gundam. Its flexibility was no less than that of the complete Susanoo or a complete Tailed Beast.
In contrast, the Hundred-Armed Buddha statue, with its cross-legged posture on a lotus pedestal, could only move forward slowly like a chariot.
In terms of speed and flexibility, it fell short compared to the wooden man Arhat.
However, the Hundred-Armed Buddha statue surpassed the wooden man Arhat in pure attack power, and since it was made of Sage Chakra, it was like a severely weakened version of the Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.
Seeing the wooden man Arhat charging in, Afei once again controlled the hundred giant arms behind the statue to rain down a violent storm of punches.
The wooden man gripped the Dragon Slayer Sword with both hands. The sword, transformed from the wooden dragon, was instantly coated in white chakra flames and swung swiftly.
Rumble—
Punches rained down on the wooden man. Each one could shatter the earth or blow up a small mountain, but they still failed to break the wooden man's body. They only left behind many fist marks and cracks and didn't manage to knock it back.
The Dragon Slayer Sword, imbued with Wind Release, slashed off wooden arms one after another. The wooden man was pushing forward, determined to reach the Buddha statue.
Seeing this, Nagato created a massive tracking missile. It weaved between the swinging arms of the Buddha statue, flames trailing from its tail. Its target: the right eye of the wooden man, where golden light shone.
With his Rinnegan's vision, Nagato saw a large chakra core there.
If nothing went wrong, that was where Izayoi was hiding.
However, Nagato still underestimated the synergy between the wooden man and the wooden dragon.
As the tracking missile was about to strike the right eye—after narrowly dodging the sword's Wind-enhanced slash—the sword suddenly turned back into a wooden dragon.
It whipped its body around like a massive tail and slammed the missile.
The speed and size were too much. The missile had no time to dodge and was destroyed instantly.
A blinding explosion of flames burst forth, airwaves howling.
The smoke didn't form a mushroom cloud but was split apart. Amidst it, the wooden man Arhat, whose body was scarred everywhere except the head, leaped forward and slashed down with the Dragon Slayer Sword toward Nagato atop the Buddha statue.
Several arms extended and caught the Dragon Slayer Sword barehanded.
But before a struggle could begin, the wooden man Arhat let go of the sword and punched with his fist.
At the same time, the tightly clasped hands of the Buddha statue finally opened, and it retaliated with a punch of its own.
The Dragon Slayer Sword, caught by the Buddha statue's arms, reverted to its dragon form again. It broke free from the relatively smaller arms and soared into the air, then slapped down with its massive tail.
The speed was too fast for any defense.
Nagato didn't waste chakra to launch a repulsive storm but instead dodged instantly.
The wooden dragon's tail smashed into the Buddha statue's head, destroying a large section. Cracks spread across it.
The fists of the wooden man and the Buddha statue collided again, and both giants were knocked back by the terrifying shock of Sage Chakra.
The wooden man staggered several steps back.
Meanwhile, the Buddha statue, now out of control, stumbled over ten steps.
The wooden dragon returned and hovered over the wooden man again. The fist marks and cracks on its body healed visibly.
Nagato also returned to the damaged head of the Buddha statue, which rapidly regenerated along with its shattered arms.
Then, the wooden man Arhat and the Hundred-Armed Buddha statue resumed their battle.
They kept attacking the other's main body.
If they couldn't cause damage, they focused on exhausting chakra—trying to make the opponent's chakra drain faster than their own.
This fierce battle continued for an entire day and night.
During this time, the final showdown in the Hidden Rain Village and the news of the Akatsuki leader's battle with Konoha's Wood Release ninja spread across the entire Ninja Continent.
Even the Land of Water and nearby islands heard of it.
Outside the ruined Hidden Rain Village, elite sensory ninjas from various countries took turns perceiving the battlefield. They relayed updates via summoning beasts in real time to their village leaders.
Not just in the Hidden Rain Village—spies from every land had also gathered in the forests of the Land of Fire near the battlefield.
Watching the brutal exchange of blows between the two giant warriors, both the veteran ninjas who had witnessed the Sage's Eye battle earlier in the year and those seeing such power for the first time were dumbfounded, feeling the vast gap between power levels.
The leaders of the Five Great Ninja Villages, upon receiving the updates, wore mixed expressions—some joyful, some worried.
"This era has become something I can't recognize anymore."
In Iwagakure, Ohnoki stared at the intel and photos in his hand. The wooden giants were even larger than the ones he'd seen at the start of the year.
Feeling powerless, he murmured:
"Lord Hashirama and Uchiha Madara only reached super-standard strength after becoming the heads of their clans in adulthood. These three youngsters look like teenagers—and one of them only graduated last year. How can they have such power already?"
"Even Lord Hashirama and Uchiha Madara weren't this strong at that age, right?!"
Even Ohnoki, one of the Five Kage, felt overwhelmed.
The other Kage felt similarly.
The Fourth Raikage was still unwilling and a bit skeptical.
Chiyo and Gengetsu were full of anxiety.
Two beings of overwhelming power once ended the Warring States era and founded the current system of one nation, one village.
This era was supposed to be about the conflict between the ninja world's overlords and the invaders from the moon—yet now, it had turned into a three-way battle.
If this war ended without any of the three being eliminated, the future might become even more chaotic than the three previous Ninja World Wars.
If they weren't careful, the Five Great Ninja Villages could become targets and be erased from history altogether.
Right now, the only one among the Five Kage who felt happy was Tsunade.
"When did that brat grow this strong?"
Looking at the real-time intel sent by Hinata and Karin, Tsunade was both shocked and excited.
She had never seen the legendary battle between her grandfather and Madara. She'd only seen the Wooden Man Technique through photos and the meteor shower summoned by Otsutsuki Toneri.
To her, that was godlike power—something even the Five Kage and ninja armies couldn't resist.
So she had placed high hopes on Izayoi, praying he could grow into someone who could one day perform the Wooden Man Technique.
That would mean Konoha finally had its own overwhelming power.
But Tsunade knew how difficult it was to achieve that technique. It wasn't like making a sea of trees with Tree World Advent—just chakra wasn't enough.
The Wooden Man Technique demanded huge chakra output, but also mastery over control, nature transformation, and form transformation…
She thought Izayoi would need to be at least 20 years old before his body matured enough to try it.
She never expected him to give her this kind of surprise.
In truth, Izayoi had been hiding his true strength all along.
Realizing he had awakened Wood Release long ago but kept it hidden until after the deaths of the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzo, Tsunade couldn't help but laugh and curse:
"Isn't this brat a little too cautious?!"
…
"Chief, can you still keep going?"
After a full day and night of fighting, both the wooden man Arhat and the Buddha statue had slowed down significantly. Their flexibility, power, speed of arm regeneration, and injury recovery had all declined sharply.
Non-critical injuries weren't even being healed anymore—they were conserving chakra.
On top of the Buddha statue, Nagato's breathing was chaotic, his forehead soaked in sweat, and his clothes alternated between wet and dry.
Afei's weak voice reached his ears.
"I'm fine. Afei, how about you?" Nagato replied.
"I ran out of chakra ages ago. If it weren't for your chakra, Chief, I'd have dropped out already," Afei said, exhausted.
"That guy's not in much better shape than us."
Nagato looked at the wooden man Arhat, whose golden glow was dimming and whose red Sage markings had long vanished. From his Rinnegan's view, the chakra core inside was only slightly better than his own.
Throughout this fight, Nagato hadn't once used Super Shinra Tensei.
Even though it could destroy the wooden man Arhat, it wouldn't be enough to kill Izayoi. The chakra cost wasn't worth it.
He mainly used Shurado attacks to try and target the wooden man's eye and force Izayoi out—but failed each time.
So they had stuck with a straight-up clash of giants, burning chakra slowly.
If not for Afei's assistance, Nagato's chakra would have been gone long ago.
Thanks to this prep and no Super Shinra Tensei use, he could last this long.
At first, a hundred arms weren't much of an advantage against two.
But as the wooden man consumed chakra to regenerate, Izayoi's Sage Chakra ran dry. His chakra alone couldn't handle the immense natural energy, so he lost Sage Mode.
Sage Art: Wood Release became just regular Wood Release.
Nagato experienced the same thing, losing Sage Mode two hours earlier.
Those two hours were the most dangerous for them.
Their defense dropped hard, and the wooden man nearly smashed the Buddha statue apart.
But with Shinra Tensei, Nagato helped Afei survive it.
Without Sage Chakra's boost, the wooden man's defense and power dropped sharply. Under a hundred fists, it got battered.
Soon, its chakra expenditure exceeded that of the Buddha statue.
The two-hour lead turned into a small edge.
And Izayoi was satisfied with that.
If his Sage Body hadn't upgraded Wood Release to golden-tier, allowing him to use the Wooden Man Technique, he'd have escaped the moment Afei arrived and switched into his "Otsutsuki Toneri" identity.
Golden-tier Wood Release could counter golden-tier Rinnegan—but only match golden-tier Wood Release.
Nagato had golden-tier Rinnegan and Afei's help, putting him at gold+ level.
That Izayoi could still gain a small advantage was thanks to not needing hand seals and the insane stamina of his Sage Body.
Red-tier traits were still red-tier—even if not fully realized, they outclassed gold.
Even better, Izayoi's puppet army fighting in the Hidden Rain Village had returned experimental results.
He could get entries by defeating strong enemies reanimated with Impure World Reincarnation.
Even if they only had souls left, defeating and sealing them could trigger equipment drops.
After the day and night battle, both Izayoi's puppets and Nagato's reanimated soldiers took heavy losses.
Once defeated, the puppets were destroyed and couldn't be recovered.
When sealed, reanimated shinobi were instantly banished by puppets using the Celestial Transfer Technique, and Nagato couldn't retrieve them.
Nagato lost permanently, while Izayoi's losses yielded big returns.
His points skyrocketed from [799999] to [856109].
At this pace, once the battle ends or if he gets one or two golden entries from Nagato, he could reach 990,000 points.
Izayoi looked through a small window at Nagato on top of the Buddha statue, eyes burning with determination.
There's no such thing as a draw in this battle.
He will definitely win!
The next second, Izayoi reappeared on top of the wooden man Arhat.
"Chief, why did he come out?" Afei said nervously. "I've got a bad feeling."
Nagato frowned but said, "Don't worry. We still have our trump cards."
"But weren't those for Otsutsuki Toneri?" Afei suddenly realized. "Also, we've been fighting this long—why hasn't he shown up?"
"Maybe he knows we've seen through his plans. But at this stage, I can't avoid the final showdown."
"Focus on the threat in front of us first."
"Yes!"
As Afei began to move the Buddha statue toward the wooden man again—
Nagato's eyes widened suddenly. His expression changed.
"This is—!"
A figure appeared beside Izayoi without warning—a wooden clone.
"Flying Thunder God?! He knows Flying Thunder God?!" Afei shouted. "Could he be Otsutsuki Toneri?!"
"With his talent, it's not surprising… but this is bad."
Nagato frowned. "I forgot—he's got brains, too."
From his Rinnegan's view, Izayoi's chakra, which had just been slightly stronger than his, had suddenly surged—like he was fully restored.
"Sage Mode: ON!"
Izayoi clapped his hands and entered Sage Mode again.
But he didn't return to the wooden man's head.
He injected a massive surge of Sage Chakra into the wooden man and made it charge the Hundred-Armed Buddha statue again.
…
"T-Ten… Izayoi, this bastard… he's draining me dry…"
In Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto lay on the ground, weak and groaning.
Nearby, Team 7 had gathered after receiving an emergency call.
Uchiha Sasuke sneered: "Your chakra's useless anyway—might as well help Izayoi."
Hatake Kakashi squatted and ruffled Naruto's hair. "If Izayoi wins, you'll be Konoha's hero."
Haruno Sakura looked around the village, nearly empty aside from some shinobi. The rest had evacuated to shelters.
"That level of battle… really is terrifying."
Though the fight was happening dozens of kilometers away, even Konoha—the strongest village—had to be on high alert.
Sakura had never felt the terror of overwhelming power until now.