"We did it." The Namekians gasped for breath, watching the thick dust and smoke billow from the epicenter of their all-out assault. "We finally took him down."
"That guy is completely fine." Only Puru could sense the truth: the opponent's ki hadn't weakened in the slightest, it had actually spiked.
As the smoke cleared, Turles completely unscathed body was revealed. The Namekian who had been clinging to him slid off and collapsed to the scorched earth, barely clinging to life. Turles casually brushed some ash from his armor, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Trash is still trash. Even when you stack it high, it's nothing but garbage."
The gap in combat power was simply too wide, and the Namekians' energy techniques were too unrefined. They couldn't deal any effective damage to someone of his caliber.
While everyone focused entirely on the battlefield, no one noticed the dirt beneath Naruto's feet silently loosen, as if something had slipped seamlessly underground.
'Earth Release'
A few ripe Fruits of the Tree of Might hung sparsely from the upper branches of the towering canopy.
An arm extended from the thick wood of one branch and smoothly plucked a fruit. The trunk then rippled and twisted until a human silhouette fully emerged.
'Wood Release'
It was Naruto.
Ninjutsu still functioned perfectly in this universe, but most elemental techniques had an execution speed that was far too slow for high-level combat. Unless it was a close-quarters Lightning jutsu, landing a hit on a fast-moving alien was nearly impossible.
Auxiliary and stealth ninjutsu, however, remained highly effective.
For example, he could use Shadow Clones to draw the enemy's attention, slip underground with Earth Release, and then merge into the tree using Wood Release. As long as his true body perfectly suppressed its ki, even a high-tech scouter wouldn't detect his presence.
Creating a Shadow Clone that emitted exactly 500 points of combat power was child's play.
"Just one ordinary-looking fruit, yet it contains the concentrated energy to double someone's strength." Naruto inspected the harvest but didn't eat it immediately. He pulled out a blank scroll and neatly sealed it away.
There weren't many fruits on the entire tree, only about a dozen in total.
"I wonder how it compares to the Chakra Fruit?"
Both the Tree of Might and the God Tree grew by aggressively plundering a planet's natural energy, and both produced fruits that massively enhanced the consumer's power.
The key difference was that the quality and quantity of the Tree of Might's harvest depended entirely on the richness of the soil and local lifeforms. The God Tree, conversely, only ever produced a single Chakra Fruit.
"Naruto, I also want a taste of that fruit." Since arriving in this new universe, the Nine-Tails had rarely spoken. Now, his deep voice echoed in Naruto's mind. "My intuition tells me that just one will bring me quite alot of benefits."
"Really? Then I'll save an extra one for you."
Naruto moved quickly, plucking the remaining fruits in no time.
When he reached the very last one, instead of sealing it away, he brought it to his lips and took a large bite.
The moment he swallowed the crisp flesh, a wave of intense heat bloomed in his lower abdomen, and immense, thrumming power flooded every fiber of his being.
"So strong."
"Something feels off." Down below, the moment Naruto plucked the first fruit, Turles, who had been leisurely planning how to torture the Namekians, sensed a shift. He snapped his gaze up toward the towering canopy.
As Naruto plucked the last fruit, Turles unease spiked into genuine alarm. He felt an instinctual pang, as if someone had just snatched his most prized possession. (A/N: Like the NTR sense in doujinshi's.)
Could someone be stealing his harvest?
Turles tapped the scouter by his ear, but the environmental reading remained normal. Still, he needed to check immediately, those fruits were the absolute key to his future dominance.
"My patience has run out."
Turles waved his hand dismissively. A massive wave of energy erupted from his palm. The Namekians scattered wildly to dodge, but the explosive shockwave caught them anyway. None suffered fatal injuries, but every single warrior was thrown back and badly wounded.
Without sparing the fallen locals a second glance, Turles rocketed upward toward the canopy.
"Flash Cannon!"
Puru, who had deliberately held back during the initial assault, lunged forward. He gathered every ounce of ki in his body between his hands and released it in a single, desperate blast. A colossal beam of energy crashed toward Turles back.
He didn't know exactly what Turles was trying to protect, but his instincts screamed that he had to stop the invader from reaching the tree.
"As expected of Puru, whose strength is second only to Nail, he's already grown to this incredible level!" The injured Namekians marvelled at the sheer output of the attack. "This time, it has to work."
"You really were scheming something." Puru's desperate interception confirmed Turles worst suspicions.
Faced with the incoming blast, Turles stopped mid-air and calmly extended his right hand.
He caught the energy beam, a concentrated force that could easily vaporize an entire city, firmly in his open palm.
"Useless." He squeezed his fingers into a fist, and the massive energy wave dispersed instantly.
Puru's absolute full-power strike hadn't even singed Turles gloves.
The gap between 18,000 and 8,000 combat power was an impassable wall, much like the infamous gap between Nappa and Vegeta. Vegeta could obliterate Nappa with a casual ease.
Turles blurred forward, dismantling Puru with three brutal strikes. He left the Namekian critically wounded, destroying half his torso in the process.
"Die!" Turles spread his arms wide to vaporize Puru completely,
*Beep beep.*
His scouter suddenly blared a high-pitched alarm. A string of rapidly climbing numbers appeared on the green glass.
"Combat Power: 12,000."
"So someone really did steal my prize." Turles swept a furious, blood-red gaze across the battlefield and raised his right hand. Terrifying, crackling energy gathered in his palm. "All of you will pay for my fruit!"
Just as Turles prepared to glass the entire area, a firm hand clamped down on his wrist, stopping the attack dead.
"Hm? This guy is your twin brother?" The injured Namekian who had been rescued earlier by Naruto's Shadow Clone stared at the real Naruto, who had suddenly appeared to block Turles. He turned toward the clone to ask the question.
The moment he turned, the clone dispersed into a harmless puff of white smoke.
The Namekian warrior blinked in silent confusion.
"It's you again. And this time you stole my fruit!" Turles glared at Naruto, his face twisting in rage. "A piece of trash like you eating the fruit is an absolute disgrace. Is that all the power it gave you? You think 12,000 combat power means you can actually defeat me?"
Turles didn't know that while the fruit grown on Namek's barren soil couldn't boost power by hundreds of thousands, it had still massively enhanced Naruto's base strength. He mistakenly assumed 12,000 was Naruto's absolute limit, his full output after consuming the harvest.
"My true combat power is a staggering 18,000!"
Naruto completely ignored the arrogant taunts and drove his fist forward.
Turles scoffed dismissively as their forearms clashed.
*Boom!*
"Impossible, clearly, your combat power is 6,000 points lower than mine! Why... why can't I push you back?!"
They fought fiercely, blurring from the sky to the cratered ground and back again. Seeing that his absolute full power could not break Naruto's guard, and that he was instead being steadily forced onto the defensive, the formerly arrogant Turles began to question reality itself.
His momentary panic cost him dearly. Naruto slipped past his guard and landed a vicious hook to his ribs, sending a spray of blood flying from Turles mouth.
"Could the scouter be malfunctioning?!" Turles slammed the side of the device repeatedly. Given his tactical experience, he knew it wasn't broken, the machine still accurately displayed the Namekians' low data. Yet, while it clearly read Naruto at a static 12,000, Turles simply could not overpower him.
"No, your scouter isn't broken," Naruto answered calmly, dodging a frantic ki blast. "Didn't I tell you before?"
"There is a secret technique in this world that can instantly multiply one's combat power."
"Didn't you say that was a lie?" Turles wheezed, wiping a streak of blood from his chin.
"Saying there wasn't one was the lie. I can double my combat power whenever I want."
Naruto could use the Kaio-ken, though he wasn't even activating it now. Even without the technique, he had plenty of reserves. Currently, he was fighting using only his base physical strength, and he wasn't even pushing himself.
A single Fruit of the Tree of Might had already multiplied his raw baseline several times over.
"Impossible!" Turles refused to accept the reality and lunged back into the fray with wild swings.
But he was thoroughly outmatched. After a dozen brutal exchanges, he was heavily battered. Clutching his caved-in chest where Naruto had struck him deepest, he gagged and spewed another mouthful of purple blood.
Fighting in deep space was generally straightforward.
Here, there was no honor or complex technique, only raw combat power.
Fights back on Earth factored in intricate martial styles and leverage. The weak defeated the strong frequently, higher energy didn't guarantee an automatic victory. In space, the rules were brutally simple. If your power level was significantly higher than your opponent's, they couldn't hurt you. Even perfectly executed sneak attacks bounced off superior ki defenses.
It was purely a competition of speed and kinetic force.
Only a few isolated cultures, like the Yardratians or Metamorans, possessed truly unique utility techniques.
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