One of the rarest, if not the rarest, Kekkei Genkai in the history of the shinobi world is without a doubt the Wood Release. After all, it is the ability to manipulate nature itself. There are only two known individuals that can use this technique in history, the legendary shinobi, Hashirama Senju, and the temporary leader of Konoha’s Team 7, Yamato.
Truth be told, Yamato’s wood release is actually the result of Orochimaru’s experimentation, unlike Hashirama who was born with this rare ability. That being said, their wood release ability is practically the same. Yamato even inherited the ability to constrain and, to some extent, control the tailed beasts. And yet when the 4th Great Ninja War happened, we bear witness to the overwhelming difference in power between the two. Yamato is technically Hashirama’s clone, so why is his Wood Release not as strong as Hashirama?
Difference In The Amount Of Chakra
The first difference that caused such a huge rift between the wood release ability of Hashirama and Yamato is none other than their innate physical ability, or to be more specific, the difference in the amount of chakra pool that they have within their body. As a Jonin and an ex-member of the elite Konoha Anbu forces, Yamato is without a doubt a fairly accomplished shinobi and has a well above average amount of chakra reserve. He can exchange blows with other top level ninja and come on top. That being said, comparing Yamato’s chakra reserve to Hashirama’s is like comparing a pond to an ocean. Just from the sheer amount of chakra alone, Yamato never stood a chance against Hashirama.
Hashirama has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, chakra reserves in the history of the ninja world. There’s one particular instance that proves the validity of this statement. During the 4th Great Ninja War, Naruto combines his chakra with the chakra of the nine tails beast, and distributes it among the alliance soldiers. Seeing that, Hashirama remarks that Naruto “almost has the same amount of chakra as me”.
Having a large amount of chakra is like having a big battery. That means Hashirama can pull much more energy from it, he can use it to cast a much more powerful jutsu, he can last in a battlefield way longer, and lots of other great benefits.
Difference In Fighting Experience
One of the variables that contribute to a Shinobi’s power is their fighting experience. That translates to not only to the amount of time they spent engaged in a fight throughout their lives, but to the intensity of those fights as well. As a former member of Konoha’s Anbu, Yamato has certainly been stuck in numerous difficult situations and fought against tons of strong Shinobi throughout his career. But for the most part, he lives in a relatively peaceful time.
Hashirama, on the other hand, lives during the most tumultuous period in history. He has engaged in countless deadly battlefields, and he risked his life fighting against some of the most powerful Shinobi in history, such as Madara Uchiha, on a daily basis. A shinobi that has tons of fighting experience can quickly react to any oncoming attacks, analyze the fights, and formulate the best plan to take down the opponent. Needless to say, that is why Hashirama, who had been using his wood release on deadly battlefields against legendary Shinobi for decades, became a much more formidable shinobi than Yamato.
Difference In Personality
One of the most underrated variables when it comes to developing and mastering a jutsu is the user’s personality. As a mostly calm and reserved person, Yamato usually uses his wood release in a much more straightforward and efficient manner. He only produces the woods strictly based on the objective at hands. Nothing more, nothing less.
For example, when he needs to create a bridge for Naruto’s training, he simply creates a log that is thick, wide, and long enough to hold Naruto and his shadow clones. There’s no unnecessary ornaments or overgrown branches anywhere around the wooden bridge. His limited amount of chakra and his straight-laced personality are the two things that affect how Yamato utilizes his wood release.
Contrary to Yamato, Hashirama is a free-spirited person. He is the type of person that has a wild and vibrant imagination. He always comes up with lots of different ideas, and he won’t hesitate to test any of them, be it during practice or in a live combat situation. For example, when he wants to restrain his opponents’ movement, Hashirama will use his wood release to conjure a whole forest with trees growing all over the place, thus restraining his opponent in place. This carefree attitude combined with his bottomless chakra is the reason why he can, and will, create and use a wide variety of wood release techniques.
So as you can see, Yamato may have the DNA of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, embedded deep within his body, which allows him to use the ultra-rare Wood Release jutsu. However, just because he can use the same jutsu, doesn’t mean he is comparable to the legendary ninja. Hashirama’s absurd amount of chakra, his extensive battle experiences, and his wild personality are some of the main reasons why he becomes such a powerful entity. That’s why even with the same ability, Yamato will never be able to catch up to him.
Naruto is available to stream on Crunchyroll.