Hiruzen Sarutobi had fallen into a kind of despair so complete that even his rage couldn't disguise it. No matter how often his Edo Tensei body reassembled itself, the truth of this battle stayed the sa: he could regenerate, but he couldn't win.
Tsunade faced him without the slightest hesitation. To her, he wasn't just a forr teacher - he was the man who had overseen the Senju's slow eradication, the blade that had severed her clan from Konoha's foundation. And now, he wasn't even truly "alive." He was a corpse being used as Akatsuki's weapon, a tool forged to smash the village he once led.
She spoke calmly, and that calm carried more finality than any shout.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi… it's ti to send you back."
Hiruzen's expression twisted with fury and unwillingness, but there was nowhere for it to go. He had believed that Edo Tensei would restore what age stole from him, that freed from fatigue and decline he could suppress Tsunade with certainty.
Instead, Tsunade had fused with Hashirama's cells. Her chakra and physical power had surged beyond reason - and worse, she had awakened Wood Release, a legacy once thought to belong solely to Shodai Hokage Senju Hashirama. From beginning to end, she had overwheld him so completely it felt like a verdict.
Losing to Chiba had been bitter. Losing to his own student - standing as the Godai Hokage, looking at him like he was already finished - was humiliation he couldn't swallow.
He roared, voice ragged with spite. "Tsunade! You're just working with Chiba now! Konoha will be destroyed in your hands!"
His eyes burned as he hurled the last barb he could think of.
"When it happens, I want to see how you'll face your grandfather - Shodai Hokage-sama!"
Tsunade didn't blink.
"That's not your concern," she replied evenly. "You should be thinking about what you'll say to the previous Hokage when you get there."
Then she moved.
Her chakra gathered into her leg with brutal clarity, and her heel ca down as if the sky itself had dropped.
Tsuuten Kyaku ("Heaven Kick of Pain")!
The ground detonated. Hiruzen couldn't brace in ti - couldn't answer in ti. The impact swallowed him and flung him away like debris, tearing his form apart mid-flight. Shoulder, torso, one leg - blown to pieces. He hit the ground mangled and motionless, unable to rise.
Tsunade didn't linger. She gave a short command, and Konoha's sealing unit rushed in, surrounding the broken Edo body with practiced precision. Seals ignited, fuuinjutsu layers locking together in a tight, relentless weave.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was sealed completely.
Only then did the despair inside him rot into sothing uglier. Trapped and helpless, he began cursing - at Tsunade, at Chiba, at Konoha, at the entire shinobi world - spitting venom into the air as if hatred could tear through the seal.
It couldn't.
It was done. Irreversible.
Tsunade stared at him for a brief mont - the man she had once respected reduced to a raging wreck - and let out a quiet breath. She shook her head once, not in pity, but in grim disappointnt. Then she turned away.
There was no ti for sentint.
The mont Hiruzen was handled, Tsunade looked toward the other fronts. Jiraiya had Danzo Shimura completely suppressed, driving him back without pause. Elsewhere, Hatake Kakashi and Maito Gai were battering Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura into retreat. Those two were already dead bodies being used as tools - Tsunade didn't spare them much attention.
Danzo was different.
He had started faking his death as far back as the lightning assault on Konoha, slipped away, and later crawled into Akatsuki's shadow. He had clung to Konoha while poisoning it from within, and the bill for that had been accumulating for far too long.
Tsunade raised her hands from a distance, seals snapping into place.
Mokuton: Kaibukuro no Jutsu ("Wood Release: Great Cloth Bag")!
The earth roared. Gigantic wooden hands erupted from beneath the battlefield, ripping through soil and stone as they surged toward Danzo with crushing intent.
Danzo's eyes widened. He tried to retreat - but one massive palm caught him before he could slip away, closing around him like a living vise.
Jiraiya didn't hesitate.
Katon: Dai Endan ("Fire Release: Great Fla Bullet")!
A massive blast of fla slamd into Danzo's body. Fire swallowed him whole, and his scream tore across the battlefield - raw, furious, unmistakably real.
Even so, Danzo was still a veteran who had survived too many wars to die cleanly. Through smoke and pain, he forced seals and poured chakra into his counter.
Futon: Shinkuujin ("Wind Release: Vacuum Blade")!
The cutting wind carved through the wooden grip, slicing open enough space for him to wrench himself free. He stumbled out, flas still clinging to his body. Teeth clenched, he tore away his outer clothing and threw it aside, chest heaving as he stared down at scorched flesh that still hissed with heat.
Tsunade and Jiraiya stepped forward together - two of the Legendary Sannin standing side by side like a sentence being read aloud.
Tsunade's gaze was ice.
"Danzo," she said, voice flat with disgust, "you've survived long enough."
Jiraiya's expression didn't soften. "It's ti you paid for what you've done."
Danzo let out a harsh laugh. "Paid? For what?"
His eyes narrowed, accusation sharpening his tone.
"Everything I did was for Konoha. Anyone can condemn - but you, Tsunade, have no right. You're the traitor who betrayed the village!"
Tsunade didn't react. No anger, no surprise - only certainty.
"Hopeless," she said quietly.
Then her voice dropped, decisive and lethal.
"In that case… I'll send you to keep Hiruzen Sarutobi company."
She and Jiraiya attacked in the sa instant, pressure closing in from both sides. Danzo knew it imdiately - no matter what excuses he clung to, he couldn't defeat two Sannin together.
But he still had one last trump card.
Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.
Kotoamatsukami.
At the edge of death, Danzo stopped hesitating. He was going to use it - right here, right now - his final, absolute move.
And then Tsunade spoke, slicing straight through his intention.
"Danzo," she said coolly, "you're about to activate Uchiha Shisui's Mangekyo power…"
Her eyes locked onto him.
"Kotoamatsukami - aren't you?"
Danzo's blood ran cold. "Y-You… how do you know - ?!"
Tsunade's lips curved into a cold, knowing smile. "Because the Mizukage-sama already knows everything."
Her voice stayed steady, each word landing with quiet weight.
"Don't you rember? He was the one who spread the truth about Shisui's death. Of course he also knows the other Kotoamatsukami eye is in your hand."
Danzo was shaken - but not enough to stop. Desperation overrode caution. Chakra surged into his eye, and he unleashed it at Tsunade without hesitation.
"At the very least," he snarled, "I'll turn you - the Godai Hokage - into my puppet!"
A low hum vibrated through the air. The Mangekyo's power blood, blood-red light flaring as the jutsu surged - silent, absolute, designed to rewrite will itself.
For an instant, Danzo believed he'd won.
Then Tsunade's voice ca from the side.
"Looking for ?"
Danzo's head snapped around, horror widening his eyes. "Y-You…?! Then who - "
Tsunade stepped forward, expression rciless. "A Kage Bunshin no Jutsu ("Shadow Clone Technique")."
Her tone turned colder.
"Danzo, if we already knew you had Kotoamatsukami, do you really think we wouldn't prepare defenses?"
Beside her, Jiraiya smiled faintly. "Sorry. Mine was a clone too."
Danzo's chest seized. Kotoamatsukami wasn't ordinary genjutsu - once used, it demanded a cooldown asured in decades.
And he had wasted it.
On a clone.
Sothing inside him cracked. He threw his head back and howled, the sound half rage, half despair, because there was no undoing this - no second chance, no next move to hide behind.
"CHIBA!"
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