"Swish, swish..."
The thick vines tore through the air like tentacles, howling as they chased him from behind.
Jokichi suddenly stopped, gripped the shakujo staff, and swung it backhand. A massive airwave instantly ripped the vines into countless pieces.
Suddenly, the Second Hokage's figure appeared near a section of vine behind Jokichi.
His right hand was plunged into his chest. Through the torn chest, one could see a body composed of countless pieces of paper, with explosive tag formulas spreading across it.
Jokichi swept his hand back, cutting the Second in half at the waist.
Countless pieces of paper fluttered out from the cut, each one bearing an explosive tag formula.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
Violent roars were continuous, and the sky was swallowed by the fireworks of the explosion.
The ninjutsu named Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags could infinitely summon trillions of explosive tags in a continuous cycle through a single tag, causing infinite continuous explosions.
As long as chakra was sufficient, the cycle could continue infinitely.
The power was astonishing. Once attached by a single explosive tag, it was impossible to shake off.
And combined with the infinite chakra of the Impure World Reincarnation body and the body composed of paper, it could be multiplied to the Nth power based on a single summoning.
In the anime, the Second Hokage used this move against Obito, the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
Although it was defended against by Yin-Yang Release, the aftermath of its explosion could destroy the Deity Gates, and the resulting hurricane blew away countless Ten-Tails fission bodies, proving the immense power of this jutsu.
Although he failed to attach the explosive tags to Jokichi to initiate the summoning detonation this time, at such close range, the effect wasn't much different.
However, from within the flames of infinite detonation, a hurricane erupted.
The flames were blown away, and the unignited explosive tags fluttered through the sky, illuminating brilliant sparks.
Jokichi reached out his left hand, violently gripping the Second Hokage's neck, and activated the Preta Path's ability.
A massive amount of chakra was sucked into his body.
[Ding! Discovered special material "Water..."]
"Don't forge."
Before the system's prompt could finish, Jokichi decisively rejected it, while simultaneously slamming the Second's body hard onto the ground.
Then, he flicked his left wrist, and several black metal rods flew out from his sleeve.
"Pfft, pfft, pfft..."
The Second's body was pierced and pinned firmly to a massive boulder.
The black metal rods continuously absorbed and disrupted his chakra, rendering him immobile.
Although the Second Hokage had mastered countless forbidden jutsu, his basic speed, strength, and skills were still within the Jonin realm, perhaps not even as good as the elderly Third Hokage.
Although he could exchange a few blows with a Six Paths level expert relying on the effects of forbidden jutsu, it was only exchanging a few blows.
Without another Flying Thunder God user to coordinate and support him, and without other experts creating a frontal diversion...
Facing a peak Six Paths expert who knew his intel head-on, alone...
To put it bluntly, he couldn't even make Jokichi warm up.
Jokichi wanted to test his power; the person he wanted to fight was the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
Not this ninjutsu inventor, Senju Tobirama.
It all happened in a flash.
Just as Jokichi pinned the Second Hokage to the boulder, a wooden dragon soared into the sky. Hashirama stood on the dragon's head, his indifferent eyes fixed on Jokichi.
Although Jokichi knew the other party had no consciousness, he still smiled lightly and met his gaze.
At this moment, the First Hokage clapped his hands together.
"Sage Art: Gate of the Great God."
Shadows descended from the sky.
Accompanied by the sound of tearing air, red torii gates fell from above.
A Truth-Seeking Orb condensed behind Jokichi's back, automatically flying up and shattering them in the air.
Splintered wood fragments scattered everywhere.
The First remained unaffected, riding the wooden dragon through the air.
Although the wooden dragon wasn't a real dragon, having been infused with Senjutsu, its might was no less than a true giant dragon. Even without a dragon's roar, every movement stirred up waves of air.
Its rumbling sound rolled forward, demanding respect.
"Bring it on!"
Seeing such might, Jokichi's long-calm blood began to stir with excitement.
He transferred the shakujo staff to his left hand and extended his right hand. White and black chakra condensed on it.
Black chakra accounted for eighty percent, while white accounted for twenty percent.
The two merged, forming a massive dark purple chakra sphere.
"Tailed Beast Ball!"
Jokichi pushed his right hand gently forward, and the massive sphere howled as it flew toward the wooden dragon.
The First Hokage's eyes focused, and he clasped his hands together again.
"Quintuple Rashomon!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Accompanied by deafening sounds, five massive demon gates rose from the ground one after another. Each gate was embedded with a green-faced, fanged demon head.
From this, one could tell the thickness of the demon gates was extraordinary.
However, such thickness, and demon gates cast from unknown metals, were as fragile as thin paper against the power of the Tailed Beast Ball...
Let alone blocking it, they didn't even slow its speed down one bit.
But Senju Hashirama had already anticipated this situation. These five demon gates were merely to test the power of the Tailed Beast Ball.
The moment the first gate was breached, a thick wooden arm grew from the long body of the wooden dragon.
When the palm opened, it was a full three or four meters wide.
The arm had barely grown out when the Tailed Beast Ball arrived before it.
And that open palm, like catching a baseball, firmly grasped the Tailed Beast Ball in its hand.
Then, shoulders, torso, head, legs...
An entire giant, countless times larger than the wooden dragon, grew out of the dragon's body bit by bit.
And the wooden dragon hung on the wooden human like a snake.
The First jumped from the wooden dragon's head to the wooden human's head, then controlled the wooden human, grabbing the Tailed Beast Ball and pressing it toward Jokichi.
"As expected of a Wood Human infused with Senjutsu chakra. It can catch a Tailed Beast Ball fired jointly by five Tailed Beasts with its bare hands."
Looking at the Tailed Beast Ball pressing down on him, obscuring his entire vision, Jokichi couldn't help but marvel.
He wanted to take back his previous statement that the First Hokage was the strongest below the Six Paths level.
He was an existence at the Six Paths level.
He should have realized this earlier.
Naruto and Sasuke's combined Majestic Attire: Susanoo defeated Obito, the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
And Hashirama, who could defeat Madara—who also used Majestic Attire: Susanoo—without killing him, how could he be below the Six Paths level.
Although he himself only had a Sage Body and Wood Release, the power of the Divine Tree and the Sage Mode that required reaching the realm of Creation of All Things to master allowed him to reach the Six Paths tier even without Six Paths power.
However—
"This is as far as it goes."
Jokichi reached out his right hand, placing it against the rapidly descending Tailed Beast Ball, and activated the Preta Path's ability.
"Suck~"
Like slurping noodles, the end of the Tailed Beast Ball touching Jokichi's right hand was drawn in, instantly being sucked into his body.
However, while the Tailed Beast Ball could be absorbed, the massive wooden palm falling subsequently could not.
The absorption of the Tailed Beast Ball did not affect the Wood Human's attack at all. It pressed down like the Five Finger Mountain.
Shadows obscured the sky.
Just as Jokichi was about to be crushed by the wooden palm, Jokichi and the First Hokage suddenly swapped places.
Before the First could react, he was crushed to dust by his own Wood Human's palm.
—Amenotejikara.