"Hey, big dumb ape!"
Naruto flew up close to the Great Ape, raised his hand, and fired a ki blast that exploded right across the creature's furry face.
After successfully drawing the monster's aggro, Naruto continued to taunt it while luring the Great Ape in a specific direction.
The mindless ape couldn't understand what Naruto was saying, but that didn't stop it from wanting to squash him flat.
An annoying little fly buzzing around nonstop.
"ROAAAR!"
The Great Ape fired a mouth blast, a beam of light several meters wide that grazed past Naruto's body.
The scorching beam struck the Spirit Tree's branches, sending woodchips and sparks flying everywhere. With its battle power over a hundred thousand, even the massive Spirit Tree suffered considerable damage.
"What a shame—just a little closer and you really could've hit me!" Naruto mocked, grinning. "Try harder next time. As a reward, I'll give you this!"
He gathered energy between two fingers and flicked another ki blast straight at the ape's sensitive nose.
The Great Ape howled in pain, its rage flaring even hotter as it rampaged after him.
Among Saiyans, only the elite warriors and royal bloodlines could retain their reason after transforming into Great Apes. That was when a Saiyan's power truly became terrifying. Turles, clearly, did not belong to that group.
He knew that flaw well — but without the transformation, he couldn't defeat Naruto anyway. Better to go all out and gamble everything as a beast.
The two of them — one flying, one chasing — soon reached the base of the Spirit Tree.
"Come on then, you big idiot!" Naruto fired another ki wave, earning another agonized roar.
At this point, the Great Ape utterly hated him.
Naruto's blasts couldn't pierce its defenses head-on, but he didn't fight fair — he kept aiming for weak spots: the eyes, the nose, even… less dignified areas. No matter how strong someone was, those spots still hurt.
The ape's speed wasn't actually slow, yet somehow it still couldn't catch Naruto.
But was it really too slow?
The Great Ape waited for an opening and swatted down hard. Despite its massive size, its hand moved with surprising speed. Naruto couldn't react in time — the giant palm struck him squarely.
A sharp puff! — and Naruto's body burst into a cloud of white smoke.
Moments later, another Naruto emerged from nearby.
"Missed me, you big oaf!" he taunted, firing another ki blast straight into the ape's eye, making it howl and squint in pain.
Shadow Clone Technique.
Each time the Great Ape smashed one Naruto, another clone would pop up — creating the illusion that it could never catch him.
If Turles were still in his human form, he might've realized the trick. But as a mindless Great Ape, all he could do was chase whatever moved.
Naruto continued leading the beast upward — climbing the Spirit Tree.
Yes — climbing.
That was the second weakness of the Great Ape form: Saiyans lose their ability to fly after transforming, reduced to jumping or climbing instead.
Even a towering ape dozens of meters tall looked like a crawling insect next to the colossal Spirit Tree.
While his clones kept taunting the creature, Naruto's real body had already reached a higher branch. He grabbed hold of a thick limb and waited quietly.
Finally, the Great Ape hauled itself up and snatched one of Naruto's clones. Holding it in its palm, it let out an excited bellow, bloodlust gleaming in its eyes. But before it could squeeze, the Naruto in its grasp went limp and melted into mud.
Earth Clone.
The ape stared at the mud blankly, confused, thinking it had simply crushed him too hard.
At that same moment, Naruto's true body released the branch.
The branch snapped back with a whoosh! and whipped across the Great Ape's face before it could react.
A deep red gash split across its snout, blood spraying everywhere.
The Great Ape howled in agony and fell from the tree.
BOOM!
The impact left a massive crater in the ground.
Moments later, it climbed out, brushed off its rear, and roared furiously.
This time, however, its rage was no longer directed at Naruto — but at the Spirit Tree itself.
Apparently, it thought the tree had attacked it.
With a furious roar, the Great Ape charged straight at the Spirit Tree.
The Namekian warriors nearby could only stare, dumbfounded.
"Is… is that even possible?"
They exchanged looks of disbelief.
What do you even call this?
This — this was called turning the enemy against itself.
Or more precisely: "redirecting aggro, using a tiger to eat a wolf."
After an hour, most of the Spirit Tree's branches had been ripped clean off.
After two hours, only a bare trunk remained — and the Great Ape began hammering at that too.
After three hours, the mighty trunk could no longer withstand the punishment. With a deafening crash, the Spirit Tree toppled to the ground.
The Great Ape roared in triumph — then collapsed with a loud thud.
It had destroyed the tree, but it had also completely exhausted its stamina. Its ki plummeted, and its battle power dropped sharply.
That was when Naruto emerged from hiding.
"Ki Blade!"
A flat wave of energy shot out, cleanly slicing off the Great Ape's tail.
The massive body began shrinking rapidly, reverting to Turles' humanoid form.
"Ow… guess I might've overdone it a bit," Turles groaned, regaining consciousness as he transformed back.
Low-class Saiyans who lost control during Great Ape form retained no memories of what they'd done.
Dragging his weary body upright, Turles grinned weakly.
"Hahaha! Now there's no one left on this planet who can stand against me!"
"Long time no see."
Before he could even finish his laughter, Naruto's fist slammed into his gut, sending him flying and coughing blood.
"How… how are you still alive?" Turles gasped, struggling to look up at him. His mind raced, quickly piecing things together — he hadn't fought Naruto while transformed.
"What… what did I do just now?"
"You smashed a tree," Naruto replied dryly.
"A… big tree."
"Damn it!" Turles immediately realized what he meant — the Spirit Tree.
Indeed, the Great Ape transformation was an unstable trump card.
"Goodbye, invader of Namek."
Naruto raised his right hand. A bright energy orb began forming in his palm.
"W-wait! I can tell you the Spirit Tree's secret—"
But Naruto's resolve didn't waver.
A blinding flash engulfed Turles — and when it faded, he was gone.
"Relying too much on outside power will never lead you down the right path," Naruto murmured, gazing at the spot where Turles vanished. Then he turned toward the devastated landscape, ravaged by the Spirit Tree's energy drain.
"Still… given how much damage was done, using Namek's Dragon Balls doesn't sound unreasonable, right?"
"Three wishes in total. If I take one and leave the other two for Namek's saviors — that's fair enough, isn't it?"
Feeling Turles' ki vanish completely, Puru and the other Namekians soon arrived, guided by Naruto's energy signature. After hearing Naruto's account, they were astonished.
"You actually defeated that space invader in such a way…"
"Your energy is incredible, Naruto! How did you train to reach that level?"
"Are there many warriors as strong as you on Earth?"
The Namekians crowded around him, brimming with curiosity.
After Puru's explanation — and learning how Naruto had even saved one of their own with a Senzu Bean — the warm-hearted Namekians nearly treated Naruto like a hero.
"There are plenty of people stronger than me on Earth," Naruto said modestly.
…Though he didn't specify which Earth.
"What?! Earthlings are that powerful?" the Namekians exclaimed in awe.
Puru looked out at the desolate, scarred land — torn apart first by the Spirit Tree, then by the Great Ape's rampage — and sighed deeply.
"What should we do with this land now?"
It had taken the Namekians centuries to restore their planet after its previous overexploitation. And now, so soon after recovering, they had suffered another catastrophe.
Although the fall of the Spirit Tree had reawakened some of the planet's vitality, it would take a long time to fully heal.
"Let's go to the Grand Elder," one warrior suggested.
Others quickly agreed.
"Yes — the Grand Elder will know what to do. And even if he doesn't, we still have the Dragon Balls, don't we?"
"The Dragon God will surely help us."
"Dragon Balls?" Naruto asked, feigning ignorance.
"Oh, that's right! You don't know yet, Naruto," one Namekian explained eagerly. "Our planet has these incredible orbs called Dragon Balls…"
He began enthusiastically recounting their origin, without the slightest suspicion.
"We have something similar on Earth," Naruto replied.
"Really? So the Dragon Balls aren't unique to Namek after all!" the Namekians exclaimed in wonder.
In the midst of their excitement, the group soon arrived at the Grand Elder's dwelling — a structure built atop a towering mountain hundreds of meters high.
When they were still about a hundred meters away, the large doors opened.
A tall Namekian, looking much like an adult version of Piccolo, stepped out.
"Nail!" the Namekians greeted him respectfully.
"The Grand Elder said our guest has arrived, so I came to welcome you," Nail replied coolly. His aura radiated a warning — he clearly wasn't fond of strangers. "Puru and the outsider may enter. The rest of you should wait here."
With a battle power of 42,000, he was currently the strongest warrior on Namek.
"If that's what the Grand Elder ordered, then go on," the others said. They didn't take offense — everyone knew Nail's personality well by now.
Naruto and Puru entered the white building. The massive doors closed automatically behind them.
Though Namekian architecture looked odd from the outside, the interior was surprisingly simple and comfortable.
Aside from a few essentials, the room was almost bare.
At its center sat an enormous chair, and on it — an even more enormous Namekian.
His skin was darker than any other Namekian's — a deep green.
His presence was strange, difficult to gauge. Not quite powerful, but not weak either — just… different. A calm, unique energy surrounded him. Naruto had never felt anything quite like it.
This was the Grand Elder of Namek.
"Grand Elder," Puru said respectfully, bowing deeply.
"Greetings, Grand Elder of Namek," Naruto said with equal respect, quietly studying the elder's face.
Compared to the dying state he would be in years later, the Grand Elder now looked far healthier. His eyes were open, and he could still stand on his own two feet.
"Puru, my child. Come to me," the Grand Elder said kindly.
Puru obeyed. The elder placed a large hand upon his head.
After a few moments, he nodded slowly.
"I see."
Through that contact, he had perceived everything that had happened.
Then his gaze turned toward Naruto.
"Greetings, friend from Earth. Thank you for everything you've done for Namek."
"Without you, our planet would have suffered a terrible calamity."
"You're too kind, Grand Elder," Naruto said humbly. "I've been a guest on your world for some time — I couldn't just stand by and watch it be destroyed. When faced with invaders full of malice, anyone would take action. You can't show mercy to those with evil intent."
The Grand Elder chuckled softly.
"Haha… regardless, I still owe you my gratitude."
"That evil Saiyan's power exceeded even Nail's. Without you, my children would have had no chance."
Indeed, had Nail foolishly tried to confront the Great Ape Turles head-on, there would have been no one left on the planet who could stop him.
"I never expected Earth to have Dragon Balls as well," the elder mused. "Ah, yes… now I remember. The Dragon Balls on Earth were created by Katas' son. How surprising — I didn't think he would make it to Earth safely."
"You mean… you know Earth's Kami?" Naruto asked, pretending not to know.
"Yes," the Grand Elder nodded slowly. "He's the child of an old friend — a prodigy among Namekians. I imagine he must be very powerful by now… perhaps the strongest Guardian in existence."
Naruto hesitated briefly, then said, "No… Kami isn't very strong."
"Oh? Why is that?" the Grand Elder asked curiously.
Naruto explained the story — how Kami had split himself into two beings.
"To think he divided himself… what a waste of such genius," the Grand Elder sighed. "Had he not done that, he could have become a truly extraordinary figure."
After a pause, the elder seemed to recall something. He reached behind his chair, lifted one of the massive Dragon Balls, and handed it to Naruto.
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