The First Hokage, God of Shinobi.
He might even have another title he doesn't even know about—a walking, talking mini-God Tree. Not only does he possess the legendary Hashirama's cells, a game-breaking advantage in the entire Ninja World, but he also has a chakra capacity rivaling that of a Tailed Beast!!
When his anger unleashes a flood of chakra, the very atmosphere trembles around him.
Ninjas stationed at various locations throughout Konoha—Sakura Haruno, urgently assigned to treat the injured at Konoha Hospital. Ino Yamanaka, working alongside her father, Inoichi Yamanaka, in the Intelligence Division to gather intel on Pain. Kiba Inuzuka, accompanied by Akamaru, his mother Tsume Inuzuka, and her ninken Kuromaru; Shino Aburame and his father Shibi Aburame, as well as other Aburame clan members. Iruka Umino, helping to evacuate young ninjas and non-combatants to safety. Shikamaru Nara, handling intelligence analysis, Chōji Akimichi, assisting the wounded, and the Special Forces Team...
Everyone could feel that overwhelming, domineering chakra.
Tsunade was no exception, but why did this chakra feel so familiar? Even Pain, who had been ready to unleash the Super Shinra Tensei, hesitated for a moment, caught off guard by the sheer power of this chakra.
"Who is it?" The ANBU beside Tsunade exclaimed in shock. "This chakra is even stronger than Pain's just now!"
Tsunade took a deep breath, feeling the essence of this chakra, her heart racing with anticipation.
This power... Could it be... Grandfather?!
Almost everyone who sensed this power began to converge toward that direction. Even Konan, outside of Konoha, felt it. The first person she suspected, with this kind of strength, was Madara Uchiha—or rather, the masked man. She couldn't help but worry about Nagato's safety. If it was the masked man, he would surely know their true hiding place!
"It's okay, Konan."
Within the massive fake tree created by the Sacred Paper Emissary Jutsu, the real Pain—Nagato, now emaciated like a skeleton—panting heavily, reassured her.
"The owner of that power is probably not 'Madara.' It might be the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki finally revealing themselves."
Konan: "But that power..."
Nagato cut her off. "The Nine-Tails is far stronger than the other Tailed Beasts. Such power is only natural. Besides..."
"Nagato!!"
Nagato gave her a reassuring gesture. "Besides, we're only a step away from completing our plan. We can't back out now."
"Nagato..."
Konan's eyes were filled with sorrow. She didn't trust Madara's plan. And, as a woman, her intuition told her that her last remaining family member was slipping away before her eyes.
After a brief moment of stillness in the sky, Pain moved once more. Facing the Hokage Rock, he looked down upon the entire village of Konoha.
["From here, let the world feel pain."]
"Wait! Pain!!" Tsunade exclaimed in shock. "You—"
["Shinra Tensei..."]
Backlit against the sky, Pain looked almost divine. The intense light radiating from him transformed the entire world into a blinding, searing white.
Shinra Tensei...
Tsunade remembered this as one of Pain's most devastating attacks, as reported in the intelligence that Obito Uchiha had relayed. Shinra Tensei, Banshō Ten'in, Chibaku Tensei.
It was already...
No one could withstand this attack.
At that moment, Tsunade and the ANBU beside her all had the same thought. Simultaneously, Shima was summoning Naruto and the others using his summoning technique. The other Konoha ninjas could only watch helplessly, staring at the sky, passively awaiting their fate.
At that very moment, the fully prepared Hashirama Senju brought his hands together in a sharp clap.
"Sage Art!"
Whoosh——
Deep crimson markings, so dark they were almost black, spread across the face of the First Hokage in his Edo Tensei body.
"Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!!"
Gigantic trees surged in from all directions around Konoha, sealing the entire village in an instant, layer upon layer, without leaving a single gap.
Inside the village, the ninjas felt a brief moment of dizziness before their vision was swallowed by complete darkness. They couldn't see anything at all. What was happening outside, they had no way of knowing.
"!!!"
A massive impact thundered against the outside of the barrier, so loud it made their hearts pound.
The violent shock made them feel like ants trapped in a pot, as though some terrifying attack was slamming repeatedly against the lid. From within, all they could hear was the deep, overwhelming roar of the assault, lingering without fading for a long while.
Only after more than ten seconds did the noise finally die down. Enveloped in total darkness, the anxiety in the ninjas' hearts climbed to its breaking point.
"W-What… what just happened?!"
"What did that Pain do?!!"
"No!"
Someone jumped up to a higher spot, reaching out to touch the rough, uneven surface beneath their hand…
"This is wood?! A tree?!"
Another person hurried over and touched it as well.
"It's… wait, could it be that this tree protected us?"
"But aside from… aside from the First Hokage-sama's Wood Release, what kind of ninjutsu could make vegetation this powerful appear to protect us?"
The ninjas looked at one another in stunned silence.
The answer was obvious—there was none.
Even if a handful of people knew about Yamato's existence in Konoha, they could still easily conclude that he didn't possess chakra anywhere near this vast, nor the ability to protect an entire ninja village under Shinra Tensei.
A sense of expectation quietly hovered in everyone's hearts.
Even though it was impossible…
Still, who else could have such power, enough to save Konoha?
Tsunade was overwhelmed with emotion, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
...
From Pain's perspective, looking down from above.
The instant he unleashed Shinra Tensei, countless extraordinary giant trees surged out from all directions, sealing Konohagakure and the Hokage Rock so tightly that not a single gap remained.
That single Shinra Tensei slammed directly into the Wood Release: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees, created through Senjutsu by the Edo Tensei Hashirama. The result was nothing short of devastating.
Yet in the end, it still held. Not even the slightest damage reached Konoha itself.
The Hokage Rock was completely hidden as well.
The Wood Release gradually withdrew from the faces of the five Hokage. When the five massive stone heads were revealed again, combined with the enormous trees spreading below and in every direction, the scene looked from the outside as if…
"Are the spirits of the deceased Hokage really still protecting this village?"
Yes.
Beneath the Hokage Rock, dense vegetation sheltered the village.
It was as though the Hokage who had died long ago were still using their unimaginable power to protect the village and every single person within it.
Even Pain was deeply shaken.
The three Hokage revived through Edo Tensei, who had arrived outside the Wood Release barrier using the Flying Thunder God Technique, along with the two Obito Uchiha they had brought with them, were equally stunned by what they saw.
"This is…"
"…the power of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju?"
It was simply unbelievable.
Especially while staring at the five Hokage faces carved into the rock, the young Obito Uchiha, who still carried dreams of becoming Hokage, felt his blood boil with excitement. He was so fired up that he almost wanted to awaken his Mangekyō Sharingan on the spot and use Wood Release himself to teach that Pain a lesson.
At the same time, looking at those same five Hokage faces that seemed to have protected the village with unfathomable power, the adult Obito Uchiha, whose Hokage dream was slowly resurfacing, felt a jumble of conflicting emotions welling up inside him…
Edo Tensei Fourth Hokage: "As expected of Hashirama-sama!"
At a moment like this, reverent gazes and unrestrained praise were only natural.
Edo Tensei Tobirama was still awed by his older brother's strength every time he witnessed him using Senjutsu. Even so, he kept his proud posture. Praising his foolish older brother too much would just make him get carried away.
"Boom—"
Another deep, muffled explosion echoed.
Edo Tensei Minato, Edo Tensei Tobirama, Edo Tensei Hashirama, and both the adult and young Obito Uchiha all turned toward the source of the sound.
As the white smoke slowly dissipated, Edo Tensei Minato's eyes widened.
"Those are…"
Before them stood three enormous toads, comrades who had once fought alongside him through countless life-and-death battles.
"They're the toads of Mount Myōboku! And…"
The young Obito Uchiha shouted excitedly, "It's Naruto!!"
"The one standing on the small toad on top of the big toad's head is Naruto! It's Naruto all grown up!!"
Short golden hair, the black forehead protector's ties fluttering in the wind.
Over his orange tracksuit, a red sacred cloak rustled softly in the breeze.
Golden, toad-like pupils, with red Senjutsu markings at the corners of his eyes.
A massive scroll strapped across his back, standing tall and steady.
Beneath his feet were Fukasaku-sennin, Gamakichi, and Gamabunta, with Gamaken and Gamahiro flanking them on either side.
There was no doubt about it.
That person was the grown-up Naruto Uzumaki!!
Deva Path Pain spotted five figures standing atop distant trees, four large and one small. But since Naruto Uzumaki had arrived, his priority was naturally the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, Naruto.
Naruto looked out at the vast forest stretching as far as the eye could see. It reminded him somewhat of Captain Yamato's Wood Release from before. But this forest was far denser, far more powerful, and so massive it could rival the entire Konohagakure he had been rushing toward. Wood Release on this level was definitely not something Captain Yamato could pull off.
"Where is this place?" Naruto asked as he scanned his surroundings in Senjutsu Mode.
Fukasaku-sennin said, "Look carefully at the Hokage Rock over there. This is Konohagakure."
Naruto's pupils shook violently in shock.
How had his village turned into a forest?!
"What the hell… what the hell happened?!!"
Shima the Toad took advantage of her small body, struggling to squeeze out from between the nearly airtight mass of trees.
"It was Pain. Pain attacked the village."
As Naruto and the toads were still reeling, trying to figure out what kind of attack could turn Konoha into a jungle and where everyone had gone, Shima-sennin panted heavily and continued, "It was these trees that protected the village from Pain's attack. You should be able to tell, they took severe damage as well."
Indeed, these massive trees, which should have grown straight toward the sky, had instead spread sideways, stacking layer upon layer to cover Konoha from above.
After taking the full force of Pain's Shinra Tensei, the trees had caved inward, forming an enormous depression. If the wood hadn't possessed extraordinary defensive strength, and if it hadn't been so thick and tightly packed both inside and out, Pain would have shattered straight through long ago.
Pain himself was shaken by the sheer power of this Wood Release ninjutsu. Other than the legendary God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, he found it difficult to imagine anyone capable of using Wood Release on this scale.
This was far beyond his expectations. However, his top priority at the moment was capturing the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, and the power he had left was not enough to get entangled in a prolonged fight with a ninja who wielded such strength.
"Well, that saves me the trouble of looking for you, Naruto Uzumaki."
Pain descended from the sky and glanced toward the distance.
Several figures were standing there. Among them, the chakra flow inside three of their bodies was clearly unnatural, something his Rinnegan could see at a glance. They were not living people.
"Orochimaru again?" He had once heard Sasori report that Orochimaru possessed a technique supposedly derived from the Second Hokage: Edo Tensei, a jutsu that allowed him to summon and use the dead as tools in battle.
If Orochimaru had really summoned the First Hokage, that would indeed be troublesome. But logically speaking, as long as that traitor Orochimaru was restrained and forced to undo the Edo Tensei, the problem would be solved.
Thinking of Orochimaru, Pain let out a cold snort toward the group in the distance.
"Looks like today isn't a good day. There are quite a few insects coming out to interfere with my plans."
Even from that distance, the few Edo Tensei Hokage could hear him clearly.
Being called "insects" for the first time, the God of Shinobi found it… rather novel…
Mm… quite novel…
Novel my ass!!! Novel, my foot!!!
Call me an insect all you want! But using Tobirama's voice to curse me is crossing the damn line!!!
That's too much!! That's way too much!!!