Naruto Of the Forest

[Knyght]

The Mokuton kekkei genkai allows the user to instinctively create earth and water chakra and use them simultaneously to create wood, trees and different forms of plant life. Their chakra is literally converted into a source of life. The most dangerous and famous aspect of this advanced element is that it has the power to suppress/absorb the chakra of the Bijuu (and possibly humans) to bend them to the user's will.

What if Naruto was born with this kekkei genkai?

Thoughts and possibilities:

1) Ability-wise, Mokuton is pretty damn versatile and we've seen its potential destructive power when Madara fought the Shinobi Alliance. Other than the basics, he wouldn't actually need any other ninjutsu and he's create enough to bring entirely new wood-style jutsu to the table.

2) The relationship between Naruto and Kurama would change. Naruto would have the potential to steal away its chakra and dominate it which Kurama would be fully aware of.

3) The dynamic between Naruto and other jinchuuriki would provide him with a unique advantage over them though it doesn't guarantee him victory should he fight them. But it can open up interesting interactions between them when he can literally neutralise their strongest abilities.

3) Naruto would naturally be a significant obstacle for the Sound/Sand Invasion when he could have the power to stop Gaara from unleashing Shukaku.

4) Orochimaru would have an interest since Naruto would be a living specimen with the Mokuton that was natural rather than genetically modified.

5) Danzo would have the knowledge that Konoha's jinchuuriki has the potential to control the Kyuubi to an unprecedented degree.

6) Kakuzu, having battle against the First Hokage, might take a personal interest in Naruto and deliberately seek out a fight with him.

7) The other villages would likely feel threatened that someone else with the First Hokage's power had appeared, potentially being capable of rendering their jinchuuriki helpless and become another ninja god.

8) When and where Naruto discovers this power could effect who knows he has it and opportunities that stem from it.

If there's any story I'd like to write it'd be a Mokuton!Naruto fic so I thought it'd be interesting to get some other thoughts on the subject. Discuss.

 

[sinewyk]

If we take into account recent things. A mokuton user with a shitload of chakra inside him is immortal because he can heal/regenerate stuff at will. And let's face it ... it seems like that bloodline is really OP. You basically "master" yourself because you kinda control your body and the nature of things around you.

You can grow forests, when you fight in a forest you are a god : ultimate battleground control, because every fucking things can grow a branch to impale someone, because it's your things, you can likely detect anyone in it.

You can make mokuton clones, which seems to be even more op than the shadow clones in a mind fuck/battle situation. For training, SC is still the way to go.

Your entire forest can send spores in the atmosphere to fuck up the best of ninja and make them sleep/die.

Already said it but, you can seemingly heal from anything. A lot of people talk about it, Madara and Tsunade, and imo, it's because of that weird texture. All the Zetsu apparently were made from the first, and the right part of Tobi. Is it an extension of the Mokuton ? Or was he really good at healing arts ? Dunno.

I would love to see a good/completed good Mokuton!Naruto, but it would need to be a late discovery, or a slow/weird one. Because if Naruto discovers it early and trains in it. It's over. You can just kiss your protagonists goodbye. There's a reason why the Shodai was a monster. Good DNA helps a lot.

With so much chakra, I would always grow a fucking forest, spam spore everywhere, attack via the clones that seems as good as the original, and actually never be in person in the fight.

Just imagining it send chills. The worst injury for a fighter is a foot injury. Imagine that the smallest deplacement in a battleground against the Shodai or a Mokuton!Naruto, can result in a fucking branch growing right under you & piercing your foot, and if you are too slow, piercing along your leg, your trunch, then your brain, in an instant BAM !

I would absolutely love to actually read it somewhen ... One can always hope.

 

[Ordieth117]

As with all godly power-ups, one would have to either make the battles be a footnote (Naruto faced off the combined forces of the elemental nations. A few hours later, the battle was finished. Silly elemental nations.) or come up with ways in which intelligent and powerful enemies can work around his godlike abilities, thus giving Naruto either highly specialized enemies, or godlike enemies as well.

Personally, I have more fun reading the first type, where it's a foregone conclusion that the Godlike Protagonist is going to win, and the only questions are the side effects from the victory. This allows the story to concentrate on the other aspects, be they interpersonal, political, or what-have-you.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

or, you know, have Naruto being a shitty Mokuton user because the way it works is totally not his style.

self healing was probably a mokuton extension: even Yamato does it to a minor degree(when he pushes Sasuke's sword out from his body)

 

[Knyght]

I figure there are a few ways to ensure Naruto doesn't just wreck everyone's shit. Though the things we learned about Hashirama were from when he was a grown adult and a powerful shinobi i.e. the end result of a lifetime of asskicking, not that of a kid who just discovered his powers.

I think the main thing that makes the Mokuton stand out is that it's the only element that actually creates life which could make it more powerful but harder to control. For instance, the growth of the trees might cause it's shape and movement to go beyond what the user's desires, destroying the surroundings, attacking allies, cutting off areas or even moving against the user. Naruto's poor chakra control and concentration would only make it worse, perhaps even going in the opposite direction where his trees don't grow to the right size with decent speed most of the time.

It could also work in stages of difficulty; first creating full trees, then creating just wood (houses and prisons), then created different types of trees and plants (like the spore trees) and then changing his own body being the most difficult. At least changing it consciously and to a specific effect though Tobito might get a pass since his body was half-Mokuton goo.

And I got the impression that the Mokuton gives you something of an affinity for medical techniques and you can perhaps seal a wound over like Yamato but isn't some instinctive regeneration. It's possible you'd need the same level of knowledge as a medic-nin to utilise it properly and still need to learn medical ninjutsu before reaching what Hashirama's capable.

 

[datakim]

Mokuton Naruto would easily become a boring super!Naruto. Though I guess there could be ways to bypass that.

Yamato for instance has mokuton, but his abilities are far inferior to that of the first hokage. And while its likely that this is due to Yamato having got his abilities due to genetic engineering, I don't think thats actually confirmed in the manga. So using that as an example a writer could say that the potential with mokuton varies between users.

For example we have heard people say that some Uchiha have better sharingan than other Uchiha. The same might apply here, and mokuton might go from Yamatos level (decent but not overpowering) to Hashiramas level (absolute pinnacle of mokuton). That way you could have Naruto who has mokuton, but whose mokuton does not allow him to instantly destroy everything anymore than Yamato can.

Another way would be to argue that maybe having a Kyuubi sealed into Naruto might mess things up to some degree. I mean mokuton is something that neutralises bijuu. You might say that the opposite is also true, and that having a bijuu would disrupt Narutos mokuton due to him possessing two things that are inherently incompatible (mokuton and a bijuu).

 

[Knyght]

<a href='http://i29.mangapanda.com/naruto/297/naruto-5797.jpg' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Yamato does admit he's weaker because he's a lab experiment</a> but you make a valid point. Though I also find Naruto having a lower potential for Mokuton rather dull in its own way, mainly because feels like a waste that he'd be nothing more than an inferior copy. But I'll admit there are ways around that since Naruto could excel in ways that Hashirama didn't, both with the Mokuton and with other shinobi arts which could be equally interesting.

The Kyuubi angle works too as even if it doesn't happen on its own, Kurama could willingly try to hinder Naruto's Mokuton. Each time he uses the Mokuton, the fox could be shoving his own chakra through seal to resist him which limits his ability. It could form an interesting part of their interaction should Naruto discover what's happening.

 

[datakim]

Yeah

Though the simplest way to write a non-super!Naruto would probably be the idea you suggested.

Hashirama was a fully grown adult who lived most of his life prior to the founding of the villages. I seem to recall it being mentioned somewhere in the manga that the time period prior to the villages was far more chaotic and violent, so Hashirama would probably have faced combat far more often than the "current" shinobi.

Given that, you could probably have a Naruto with mokuton potential equal to Hashirama, but since any such story would presumably start around the canon timeline (12 year old Naruto with no combat experience), then expecting Naruto to come even close to Hashirama would be silly. If it would take Naruto until say age 30 to reach the level Hashirama did, then it would not really matter as far as the story is concerned since very few would go that long.

It also just occurred to me that Naruto in KCM screws up any mokuton. The pillars Yamato created started turning into trees when Naruto went into KCM, and the Zetsu-clones who are somekind of hashirama/mokuton-clones also turn into trees when exposed to KCM chakra. Wonder how that would work out with a mokuton!Naruto and if Kyuubi might use that against Naruto (give chakra to Naruto without his will/hatred (the same as the KCM basically) and suddenly every mokuton construct of Naruto starts growing wildly out of control.

 

[zeebee1]

Yamato's powers are weaker because he's not one of the most powerful people to ever live. The Shodai was basically the second most powerful human being after the Sage.

 

[sinewyk]

Agree with what everyone said. If he's trained early in it, he will just steamroll through the opposition. So, you need something to make it so that he doesn't discover it until he's at least a genin and doesn't know the KB particularity after he discovers it.

You would have to write it as a real discovery, like, maybe because he's afraid, he would try to hide it, even more slowing him down, some freakouts, like maybe ... if he find himself sleeping in the forest during the wave arc training, he wakes up snared in vine roots or branches and totally thinks something is out to get him.

PS: FFS, Naruto doesn't know what chakra is in the first chapters, how the fuck would he know what Mokuton or bloodlines limit are xD. You can play his ignorance card at will to slow him down.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

the second Naruto thinks he has any kind of special ability, you can bet he'll let the world know.
That said, just have Naruto pull it out instead of Kurama's chakra against Haku, then give him a fucking hard time learning how to make more than a sapling at any time because his lousy chakra control. Which means Yamato is not going to train him at all due said lack of any decent control: Naruto'd have to better his basis before Yamato can help him with high-level shit like Mokuton.

Meanwhile, Naruto getting Mokuton is going to deepen the rivalry between him and Sasuke and Team Old Geezers is going to hope this is not going to be a revival of Hashirama vs Madara

 

[Knyght]

Team Old Geezers is going to hope this is not going to be a revival of Hashirama vs Madara

I like that. It could be interesting if the oldest generation start seeing parallels between those two which could cause them to take a more active role in their development, one way or another.

 

[soontoberichman]

I read one fic over on ffnet a few years back where Naruto found out he had mokuton after becoming a genin, and during the timeskip he started experimenting with creating new techniques by combining mokuton and kyuubi's chakra. While he was doing this he disappeared into a section of suna's desert and turned it into another forest of death... fueled and mutated by the kyuubi.

 

[goldenarms]

One thing to remember is Naruto is not likely to train like a madman to master Mokuton. In fact, I don't foresee him using it for the good of the world, but as a horribly overpowering pranking tool. Kekkei Genkai have some degree of intuitiveness built in so I can easily see Naruto discovering one day that he can mess with earth and water and start using those as a means to an end for his vengeance against the village. Only after he burns out his pettiness would he actually feel compelled to actually do good things with Mokuton. Assuming he grows out of his angry child phase.

Such a thing could easily make for an antihero Naruto at the least, if not a villain Naruto of some report.

 

[Amberion]

What is the point of nerfing him? It seems most just want another canon rehash, just instead of pulling out Kyuubi, it's mokuton.

Most interesting for me at least, is if he got it really early. That way it's not just Narutos fighting style that change, but Naruto along with the rest of the world. After all, they would need to prepare themselves for a fucking powerhouse.

 

[Knyght]

Canon rehash is for the weak.

The nerfing is so Naruto isn't steamrolling bitches and destroying conflict with his mad Mokuton skillz. Personally, I don't think having it is gonna make Naruto's fights nearly as much of a cakewalk as people seem to think even if he's got greater potential than Hashirama. Though Mokuton being difficult to control and/or the Kyuubi wanting to hinder him strike me as logical anyway (unless the seal and Naruto's chakra smack him down like a bitch for trying).

How and when Naruto's discovers his abilities would have a big impact so you can easily end up with different stories with this common link. A story where Naruto finds out he has the Mokuton several years before canon is gonna turn out a lot different from one where he discovers at the start of canon or after. It depends on how you want things to develop really.

One thing to remember is Naruto is not likely to train like a madman to master Mokuton. In fact, I don't foresee him using it for the good of the world, but as a horribly overpowering pranking tool. Kekkei Genkai have some degree of intuitiveness built in so I can easily see Naruto discovering one day that he can mess with earth and water and start using those as a means to an end for his vengeance against the village. Only after he burns out his pettiness would he actually feel compelled to actually do good things with Mokuton. Assuming he grows out of his angry child phase.

Such a thing could easily make for an antihero Naruto at the least, if not a villain Naruto of some report.

Obviously Naruto will do what Hashirama was too pussy to do and take over the whole goddamn world. Though Naruto was never particularly interested in the good of the world until his fight with Pain. He's against bad things happened to people but he took it as it came rather than deliberately try to change everything.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

I just had a horrible thought. It seems that in canon, Naruto has a bit of a green thumb (a detail from the databooks which got of course overlooked in the manga). Add Mokuton to that and, just what kind of plants would he be grooming?

 

[Amberion]

I agree with you that he wouldn't steamrolling people. After all, people would adapt. And let's not forget that Akatsuki work in pairs.

As for Kyuubi somehow messing with his mokuton... How? Does not compute with me. At most, i could see his mokuton suppressing Kyuubi. I.e. all of it going to that. But that would leave Naruto with neither Mokuton of Kyuubi.

As for hard to control, unless it was transplanted to him, I just don't see it being a problem. That is unless he is unlike everyone else with a bloodline.

We have seen bloodline users who had had no one to teach them, yet have several jutsu. Yet normal ninja should be happy if they have made a single jutsu in their lifetime.

 

[Knyght]

I had the idea that the Kyuubi would push his chakra through the seal to force the Mokuton's 'attention', for a lack of a better term, to split between suppressing the excess and doing the jutsu so they come out weaker. Though now I'm sure the fox wouldn't even want to do that since it would likely just draw Naruto's attention in a negative way. I doubt Naruto could outright suppress when he's so inexperienced but Kyuubi doesn't have as much as of an upper hand here.

The harder to control aspect was something I thought could be specific to the Mokuton itself because it's one of the only types of jutsu which can literally create life. That's what I thought might be in a factor in it being capable of suppessing the Bijuu and since the trees are living creations, they're harder to manage. I was thinking it would only be a problem until Naruto masters the standard usage of the Mokuton and then he can branch out of his techniques.

 

[Shirotsume]

I had the idea that the Kyuubi would push his chakra through the seal to force the Mokuton's 'attention', for a lack of a better term, to split between suppressing the excess and doing the jutsu so they come out weaker. Though now I'm sure the fox wouldn't even want to do that since it would likely just draw Naruto's attention in a negative way. I doubt Naruto could outright suppress when he's so inexperienced but Kyuubi doesn't have as much as of an upper hand here.

The harder to control aspect was something I thought could be specific to the Mokuton itself because it's one of the only types of jutsu which can literally create life. That's what I thought might be in a factor in it being capable of suppessing the Bijuu and since the trees are living creations, they're harder to manage. I was thinking it would only be a problem until Naruto masters the standard usage of the Mokuton and then he can branch out of his techniques.

Heh.

Anyway, I can see him getting weakened in that the trees are hard to control- they grow too much, too fast, much like what happens to mokuton around his sage mode.

In other words, the control problems he already struggles with.

 

[Amberion]

Thought people meant control problem with regards to his chakra control. And that was why I reacted a bit. From what I gathered with everything in canon, it's the mokuton itself that "calms" a bijuss chakra. And since I think at least that it's the Kyuubi that is the reason for his bad control, it wouldn't have been an issue.

As for the hard to control because it's a living thing, I guess that makes more sense. But wouldn't the Kaguya also suffer from it? As bones are also living.

Anyway, I can see him getting weakened in that the trees are hard to control- they grow too much, too fast, much like what happens to mokuton around his sage mode.

Wasn't that from the Kyuubi v2 mode? In any case, he would be fucking GAR in that mode with Mokuton I think.

Anyway, I'm just against the whole nerfing it. I just think that if someone can't write about a powerful Naruto, that they should just nerf an ability.

Bah, hope it makes sense, got such a pain in the head at the moment, that my words seem to blur together.

 

[Sdebeli]

Hmm. How about this?
From the start, Naruto's Mokuton manifests, in that it suppresses Kyuubi's rage, calms its chakra and keeps it asleep.
However, by doing that, it remains completely invisible, Naruto's chakra is a bit more difficult to control, and he can't actually access either Kyuubi's chakra or the Mokuton. Even if he knew how in the first place.

Then first on the night Mizuki tricks him, his control slips a bit. The Mokuton stops entirely keeping Kyuubi asleep, and his chakra stabilizes just a little bit.
On the bridge though, as he faces Haku's tale, as he struggles with his pain, grief, and the all encompassing sense of loss, Naruto breaks.
In a single moment, he wants to protect everyone, and with that impulse, that pure wish, the Mokuton goes berserk.

Drawing on both Naruto and Kyuubi's chakra, the bloodline follows Naruto's request. The flow of chakra is strong enough to disperse the mist, freezing Zabuza and Kakashi facing each other, revealing Gato and his men, reviving Sasuke out of sheer shock mixed with the life giving energy of the Mokuton.
From the water beneath them, the tip of a tree breaks out. Within moments, it grows taller, ever taller, branches spreading outwards and upwards, crawling in moments over the surface of the bridge and pick up the bodies of all present, only Kakashi and Zabuza managing to even respond from their shock, but are still caught.
A mere minute later, a glowing golden tree towers over the bridge, its roots supporting its pillars, but not crushing them. Atop its branches, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Zabuza and Haku lie unconscious, all of their wounds entirely healed. Gato and his men weren't as fortunate, as the branches mostly knocked them off the bridge, so all they can do is watch the thing in fear.
On one of the larger branches however, there's an indentation atop, holding a small pool of water, and in it Naruto's sleeping body. Parts are injured, but seem to be healing fairly quickly. And next to him, the only being awake, is a large, golden fox, easily the size of a horse, nine tails dancing around slowly.

 

[Ordieth117]

interesting consequence idea:

Naruto steamrolls all opponents. He grows in popularity by leaps and bounds and is hired for body guard missions. Other villages, tired of the lack of contracts (or ability to fulfill contracts) coming their way, decide they must take out Naruto.

So they CONSTANTLY pepper him with hit and run ninja attacks. Trying to disrupt him, keep him on edge, force him to be solitary unless his friends are caught in the crossfire. Full ninja war declared on Naruto.

 

[Sdebeli]

interesting consequence idea:

Naruto steamrolls all opponents. He grows in popularity by leaps and bounds and is hired for body guard missions. Other villages, tired of the lack of contracts (or ability to fulfill contracts) coming their way, decide they must take out Naruto.

So they CONSTANTLY pepper him with hit and run ninja attacks. Trying to disrupt him, keep him on edge, force him to be solitary unless his friends are caught in the crossfire. Full ninja war declared on Naruto.

Here's the thing.
If he's powerful enough to steamroll everyone, what's stopping him from making a long trip around all the villages that pissed him off and explaining in fine detail why the Mokuton made people shit themselves on a regular basis?

 

[Knyght]

What Shirotsume said was pretty much what I meant about the tree control issue. Not really a way to nerf him but to create a path of development for Naruto's Mokuton and basically expanding upon how it works.

As for the hard to control because it's a living thing, I guess that makes more sense. But wouldn't the Kaguya also suffer from it? As bones are also living.

That's manipulating the growth of their bone cells with chakra whilst the Mokuton turns chakra into a source of life. The former manipulates something that already exists but the latter creates something new. Plus the trees would be a seperate living organism.

Though it's possible that the Kaguya did suffer from control issue since while they may know how to manipulate their bones, they might not know the right or most effective way.