The gap between them was far wider than older-Naruto had expected.
He stood in his Nine-Tails Sage Mode, golden chakra blazing around him like living flame, every enhancement active, every boost maximized. And still, he had to crane his neck upward just to see his younger self's face.
Thirty meters tall.
The number didn't properly convey the reality. Thirty meters of perfectly-proportioned muscle and bone, every inch optimized for violence, golden marks glowing across the surface like veins of molten metal. The sheer presence was overwhelming, creating pressure in the air that made breathing difficult.
Young Naruto looked down at his smaller self and felt satisfaction settle in his chest. This is enough. Thirty meters gives me the advantage I need without risking serious injury. Any bigger and I might accidentally kill him.
The System's voice resonated in his mind, calm and analytical. [You've surpassed this world's fundamental limitations. Your training path has taken you beyond what this timeline's physics can properly contain. You're operating on different rules now.]
I can feel it, Naruto thought back. The world feels fragile around me. Like I'm walking on paper instead of stone. If I'm not careful, I could break something important.
[Precisely. This timeline's version of you never received my guidance. Never embarked on Ultimate Taijutsu training. He followed the conventional ninja path, which has strict upper limits. You've transcended those limits entirely.]
Young Naruto's gaze fixed on his older self, studying the Nine-Tails Sage Mode's structure. "Let me see how strong the Nine-Tails' power makes you. I'm curious about what Kurama can do when fully synchronized."
In my world, Naruto thought with a trace of humor, I'd never dare beat up Kurama. He'd stop cooking for me out of spite, and that would be a disaster. My appetite requires his culinary expertise.
This is a rare opportunity to test Nine-Tails power without domestic consequences.
The thought brought genuine enthusiasm. Finally, he could satisfy this curiosity without risking his food supply.
Older-Naruto dropped into a combat stance, the golden chakra cloak rippling around him. "You want to see what we can do? Fine. Kurama and I have saved the world together. Defeated gods together. Let's see if your physical training can match that!"
He launched forward, and the battle resumed with renewed intensity.
Young Naruto quickly discovered that the Nine-Tails Sage Mode provided impressive benefits beyond simple power multiplication.
Every technique older-Naruto used came faster, hit harder, recovered quicker. Ninjutsu that should have required multiple seconds of preparation manifested instantly. Physical attacks carried force far beyond what his muscle mass should generate. And most impressively, damage healed almost immediately.
A cracked rib sealed itself within seconds. Split skin knitted back together before blood could flow. Even the swelling from facial impacts reduced rapidly, the bruising fading from black to yellow to gone.
More durable, young Naruto noted with approval. Much more durable. He can take a proper beating without breaking permanently.
His fists moved faster, striking with gleeful precision. Each impact landed cleanly despite older-Naruto's enhanced reflexes. The gap in fundamental ability was too vast for power-ups to bridge.
CRACK. THUD. CRACK.
Face. Ribs. Face again. The rhythm was almost musical.
This is therapeutic, young Naruto thought, watching his older self stagger from another combination. All the frustration from seeing Mitarai Sweet Potato and Aunt Mei is draining away with every punch. Physical violence really does help process emotional trauma.
Older-Naruto spat blood, his regeneration struggling to keep pace with the damage accumulation. How is this me? How can any version of me be this strong?
Every attack he launched—Rasengan variants, shadow clone barrages, taijutsu combinations—met the same fate. Casually negated. Effortlessly countered. His best techniques couldn't even slow young Naruto down, let alone damage him.
His strength, speed, and durability are all beyond mine. Even enhanced by Kurama's chakra, even in Sage Mode, I'm still just... ordinary by his standards.
The realization was crushing.
Young Naruto continued his assault, fists blurring, but part of his mind wandered to a nagging question. He reached out to the System mentally while maintaining the beating.
System, Naruto thought, landing another face shot. Why does he have such strong self-healing? When I was training as a child, I needed your ointments constantly. My injuries didn't heal this fast naturally.
The System's response came immediately. [Ah, that's an excellent observation. The answer is quite interesting.]
I'm listening.
[When I first bonded with you at age five, I detected three distinct self-healing factors in your body. One came from the Nine-Tails' chakra leaking through the seal. One was innate to your Uzumaki bloodline. And one came from reincarnation chakra implanted by a previous life's power.]
Young Naruto's mental voice sharpened with interest. Three sources? I only knew about the Nine-Tails.
[Yes. In your world's terms, someone called Asura had his chakra reincarnated into you. A spiritual legacy that carried certain benefits, including enhanced healing. However, when you chose to pursue Ultimate Taijutsu training, I had to make modifications.]
What kind of modifications?
[I temporarily disabled all three healing factors,] the System explained. [This was essential. If your body healed too quickly during conditioning training, the micro-tears in muscle and skin would repair before the strengthening process could occur. The self-flagellation training, the elemental tempering—none of it would have worked if your healing factor kept resetting your progress.]
Understanding dawned. So you suppressed them for my training to be effective.
[Correct. And as for their current status: The Nine-Tails' healing was removed permanently when Kurama was released from the seal. Your bloodline healing became irrelevant—your current durability means conventional injuries are impossible. Who could hurt you enough for healing to matter?]
And the reincarnation chakra?
[I erased it completely,] the System said, its tone carrying unusual firmness. [That one was necessary for your development. The reincarnation chakra carried personality imprints from previous incarnations. Specifically, it would have made you excessively merciful, dangerously forgiving, inclined toward self-sacrifice at the expense of your own interests.]
Young Naruto felt a chill despite his massive body's heat. It would have affected my personality?
[Substantially. If that chakra had remained active, subtly influencing your thought patterns, you might never have killed Sarutobi Hiruzen or Shimura Danzo. No matter how much they wronged you, no matter how much evidence you accumulated, the reincarnation chakra would have pushed you toward forgiveness, toward "understanding," toward accepting suffering as necessary sacrifice.]
The System's voice took on a lecturing quality. [Naruto, you're pursuing eternal training. That path requires decisiveness. When something or someone threatens you, your goals, or those you protect, you must be able to act without hesitation. Kill when killing is needed. No hand-wringing. No excessive mercy that endangers yourself.]
The philosophy of training.
[Exactly. Reincarnation chakra breeds indecisiveness, attachment to cycles, acceptance of fate. These qualities are poison for someone seeking to transcend mortality. You must forge your own path, make your own choices, unrestricted by dead souls' lingering philosophies. That's why I removed it completely.]
Young Naruto processed this information while landing another devastating combination on his older self's face. So this version of me, he still has all three healing factors?
[Presumably. He never received my intervention. His natural abilities remained intact, giving him the regeneration you're witnessing. It's impressive by normal standards. But as you can see, it has limits.]
Indeed, older-Naruto's healing was finally failing to keep pace. His face remained swollen, bruises deepening rather than fading. The accumulated damage was overwhelming his recovery rate.
Young Naruto increased his striking power deliberately. Good. I want him to remember this. Want the bruises to last days. He needs to think about what I'm saying instead of just dismissing it as temporary pain.
Older-Naruto felt his regeneration struggling, the familiar sensation of healing slowing, stopping. His face burned with pain that wasn't fading. He's hitting harder. Deliberately exceeding my recovery threshold.
This is going to leave marks. Going to hurt for days.
Frustration and humiliation warred with pure survival instinct. He couldn't win this fight. Couldn't even defend effectively. His only option was escalation to his absolute peak.
I didn't want to use this. Was saving it as a last resort. But I don't have a choice anymore.
Older-Naruto's chakra erupted with renewed intensity, shifting color from gold to pale luminescence. His body lifted off the ground, floating without effort. The very air around him warped, reality bending to accommodate the massive power surge.
Truth-Seeking Orbs manifested, six black spheres circling his form. In his hands, two staffs materialized—extensions of his will, capable of nullifying any ninjutsu they touched.
His eyes opened, revealing new patterns. Not the slitted pupils of Sage Mode, but something more fundamental. The Rinnegan's ripple pattern overlaid with tomoe markings.
Six Paths Sage Mode.
The transformation was immediate and total. Older-Naruto's presence became vast, oppressive, his chakra touching on concepts beyond normal understanding. Space and time bent slightly in his vicinity. Matter itself seemed negotiable in his hands.
"THIS!" he roared, his voice echoing with divine harmonics. "THIS is my true power! The legacy of the Sage of Six Paths himself! The power that saved the world from the Rabbit Goddess!"
Young Naruto watched the transformation with analytical interest, tracking energy flows, observing how the power integrated with older-Naruto's body.
Impressive, he admitted. That's genuine divine-tier power. In most worlds, someone with that kind of enhancement would be considered peak-level. Potentially unbeatable.
Then he smiled.
"You transformed again? Then I'll match you!"
His body began expanding once more. Thirty meters became fifty. Fifty became seventy. Seventy became one hundred.
At one hundred meters tall, young Naruto's form blotted out the sky. His shadow covered acres of forest. Each breath created wind that bent trees. The golden marks on his knuckles blazed like small suns.
Older-Naruto, floating in his Six Paths Sage Mode, stared upward at the titan and felt his confidence shatter.
"I... what..." The words wouldn't form properly. His divine-enhanced mind couldn't process the impossibility standing before him. "What the FUCK?!"
The curse escaped involuntarily, his usual composure obliterated by shock.
Young Naruto's massive hand drew back, golden marks flaring brighter. The air around his fist ignited from friction alone, creating a corona of fire.
"Let's see if your divine power can withstand this!"
The punch came.
BOOM.
The sound wasn't impact. It was a sonic detonation, the air compressed so rapidly it exploded. Older-Naruto dodged desperately, his enhanced reflexes screaming warnings, and the fist passed through the space he'd occupied a nanosecond earlier.
It hit the ground instead.
The earth didn't crack. Didn't shatter. It simply ceased to exist in a massive sphere around the impact point. Trees, rocks, soil—everything within a hundred-meter radius vanished, converted to dust and superheated gas. The shockwave radiated outward, toppling forest in concentric rings, roots tearing free from earth, trunks snapping like toothpicks.
A crater opened, deep enough to have its own weather system. Steam rose from superheated stone at the bottom. The walls were glass-smooth, melted and then instantly cooled.
Older-Naruto hovered above the destruction, staring down, and felt sweat pour down his face despite the chakra cloak's protection.
One punch. One casual punch created this. If that had hit me, even in Six Paths Sage Mode, even with all my enhancements...
I'd be dead. Instantly. Completely. No recovery. No resurrection. Just gone.
"Don't bother dodging!" Young Naruto's voice rumbled like a rockslide. His form blurred—Instantaneous Movement scaled up to match his size—and suddenly he was beside older-Naruto, both massive fists already in motion.
The attacks came like artillery bombardment. Hundreds of strikes per second, each capable of cratering landscapes, all aimed with surgical precision.
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