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Tsunade's Tsuuten Kyaku ("Heaven Kick of Pain") came down like judgment itself. The moment her heel met the ground, the impact didn't simply crack the earth - it detonated through it, a brutal shockwave surging outward and rebounding into Hiruzen with the kind of force that made the air shudder.
Hiruzen Sarutobi snapped his hands up without hesitation. Doton: Doryuheki ("Earth Flow Wall") rose in a thick slab between them, packed soil and stone surging up to meet the oncoming blast - but it lasted less than a heartbeat. The barrier burst apart, chunks of earth flung into the air like shrapnel, and through the collapsing wall Tsunade was already there, her fist driving straight toward his head with a merciless, surgical intent.
At the last possible instant, Hiruzen twisted his body into motion. Not the stiff, weary movement of an old man - this was clean, sharp, and terrifyingly efficient. He flipped backward in a tight somersault, narrowly slipping past the strike as Tsunade's knuckles carved through the space where his skull had been.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed as she landed atop the broken remains of his wall. Dust coiled around her ankles, and for a moment something complicated flickered in her expression - anger, yes, but also a colder clarity, the kind that came from knowing someone too well.
"So you really did get your strength back, Sarutobi-sensei," she said, her voice steady, almost calm. "Edo Tensei suits you. The frail, worn-out version of you… it's gone."
It wasn't an insult. It was an observation - and that made it worse.
In life, Hiruzen had been weathered down by time. His stamina had waned, his mind forced to ration focus the way an exhausted shinobi rationed chakra. Even his instincts, once razor-sharp, had been dulled by age and regret. But Edo Tensei rewrote those limits. Endless chakra. Endless vitality. A body that didn't fear collapse, didn't fear exhaustion, didn't fear death.
People always talked about Hiruzen's mastery over all five chakra natures, as if that alone defined him. Tsunade knew the truth: his taijutsu had never been second-rate. Even the official evaluations only gave full marks to a handful of shinobi - names like Maito Gai, Rock Lee… and Tsunade herself.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had stood among them once.
Age had stolen that from him. Edo Tensei had returned it.
Hiruzen's mouth curled into a thin, bitter smile that held no warmth. He didn't answer her with words. He answered with seals.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu ("Summoning Technique")… come forth - Enma!"
A burst of white smoke rolled across the battlefield, and the Monkey King appeared again with the weight of a long, brutal history in his eyes. Enma took in the scene - Tsunade's stance, Hiruzen's posture, the ruin of the ground - and let out a quiet, tired breath.
"Again?" Enma muttered. "Fighting one of your students, Hiruzen?"
Hiruzen's gaze hardened. "I don't have the luxury of choice."
He lifted his chin slightly. "Enma. Henge no Jutsu ("Transformation Technique"). Become the staff."
Enma's expression tightened - resignation more than obedience - then his form compressed and shifted. In the next instant, the Kongo Nyoi-bo ("Adamantine Nyoi Staff") was in Hiruzen's hands, dense and unyielding, its surface like dark iron polished by war. Hiruzen spun it once, twice - each sweep cutting the air with a heavy whistle that promised pain.
"Tsunade," he said coldly, "today I'll clean up my own house. I'll end you - this traitorous disciple."
Tsunade's lips curved, not amused so much as unimpressed. "If you can do it," she replied, "then come and try."
Hiruzen moved first. The staff snapped forward and extended in a blur, lengthening like a striking serpent as it crashed down toward her with crushing force. Tsunade sprang away, light on her feet despite the power packed into her frame. The staff smashed into the ground where she'd been, splitting the earth and sending cracks racing outward.
She didn't retreat. She closed.
Tsunade came down with a savage precision, her heel slamming into the staff mid-swing. The impact rang out like metal struck by a giant hammer. The Kongo Nyoi-bo held - adamantine didn't fracture - but the force behind her kick ripped through Hiruzen's arms and shoulders, jerking him off balance so violently his feet skidded backward and his grip nearly tore loose.
Hiruzen's eyes tightened.
In raw strength, he couldn't match her. Not anymore.
And Tsunade wasn't the same Tsunade he remembered.
Hashirama cells had been fused into her body, and as Senju Hashirama's granddaughter her compatibility was on a different level - natural, frightening, almost unfair. It wasn't just chakra reserves. It was vitality, recovery, resilience… and that monstrous physical power, now amplified beyond anything her old self could have dreamed of. This Tsunade didn't merely surpass her prime - she stood above it like a mountain.
Hiruzen felt the staff starting to slip. He didn't fight it. He used it.
He released the weapon deliberately, letting it surge forward as a distraction while his hands blurred into new seals.
"Doton: Doryudan ("Earth Dragon Bullet")!"
Mud and stone erupted into a roaring, twisting dragon that surged across the battlefield.
"Katon: Karyudan ("Fire Dragon Bullet")!"
Flame followed, a second dragon screaming through the air, heat washing over the field in a rippling wave.
"Fukugo Ninjutsu: Doryu Enryu ("Earth Dragon Flame Stream")!"
Earth and fire merged into a brutal, coordinated flood - an advancing wall of crushing mass and searing heat, the combined release turning the air into a choking furnace.
Tsunade didn't panic. She moved like someone who had spent a lifetime stepping into danger instead of away from it, her body sliding left and right with crisp efficiency. Most of the barrage tore past her, gouging trenches into the ground and blasting pillars of flame into the sky. The attacks that came too tight to dodge, she met head-on - one punch snapping out with terrifying speed, her fist smashing the incoming force aside as if she were striking apart something solid.
Against Madara Uchiha, she had endured far worse and still kept coming. Compared to that, Hiruzen's combined technique was fierce - but it wasn't enough to slow her for long.
Within moments she was on him again, closing the gap with relentless pressure.
Hiruzen's instincts screamed the obvious: if he let this become a pure taijutsu exchange, he would be crushed. Not because he lacked skill, but because Tsunade's strength turned every clean hit into a death sentence.
So he shifted tactics.
"Enma!" he barked.
The Kongo Nyoi-bo shot forward and split in midair, dividing into dozens of smaller adamantine rods that snapped into place with rapid precision. In an instant, they formed a compact, cage-like chamber around Hiruzen - bars interlocking, angles locking tight, a fortress of adamantine built to restrain or protect.
"Kongo Roheki ("Adamantine Prison Wall")!"
A defensive masterpiece. A desperate one.
Tsunade looked at the cage… and didn't hesitate.
She stepped in and drove her fist forward.
The impact hit like a point-blank explosion. The entire structure vibrated, bars screaming as the shockwave ripped through the enclosed space. Adamantine held for a fraction of a second - then the smaller rods blasted outward, scattering across the battlefield as the "prison" collapsed into scrap.
The force didn't stop there.
It slammed into Hiruzen's body directly.
Blood burst from his mouth in heavy, violent waves, and his reanimated frame was launched backward dozens of meters. He struck the ground hard enough to carve a furrow through the dirt. Part of his torso had been blown away entirely, torn open by raw impact.
If he'd been alive, he would have died right there.
But he wasn't alive.
The shredded body began knitting itself together immediately - flesh reforming with that eerie, relentless certainty Edo Tensei carried. Even so, Hiruzen pushed himself upright before the regeneration finished, refusing to give Tsunade even the satisfaction of watching him stay down. Fury burned through his eyes, hot and ugly.
"This is what you've become," he thought, and the thought carried more than rage. It carried the weight of a teacher facing the consequences of everything he failed to prevent.
His chakra flared outward, heavy and overwhelming.
He was done holding back.
"Ninpo: Goton: Dairendan ("Ninja Art: Five Release Great Combo")!!!"
The battlefield answered with a roar.
"Doton: Doryudan ("Earth Dragon Bullet")!"
"Katon: Karyudan ("Fire Dragon Bullet")!"
"Suiton: Suiryudan ("Water Dragon Bullet")!"
"Futon: Furyudan ("Wind Dragon Bullet")!"
"Raiton: Rairyudan ("Lightning Dragon Bullet")!"
Five dragons surged forth together - earth, fire, water, wind, and lightning - each one massive, each one violent, the combined assault converging on Tsunade like an oncoming disaster. The ground tore up beneath them. Heat, pressure, and crackling electricity twisted the air into a chaotic storm. It was the kind of attack meant to end a fight in a single, absolute stroke.
Hiruzen's expression sharpened with grim certainty.
This was his final card.
Tsunade watched it coming - and smiled.
Not wide. Not mocking. Just a small, cold curve of the lips, as if Hiruzen had finally done something worth acknowledging. Her eyes didn't waver. If anything, they looked calmer than before, like she'd already accepted what this battle represented long before his jutsu reached her.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi," she said quietly, her voice cutting through the roar, "I'll show you… what I can do now."
Her hands came together in seals - precise, practiced, and so unexpected from her that it landed like a shock in its own right.
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
Tsunade, who had always fought like a storm of fists and iron will, was weaving hand signs with the composure of a shinobi who had stepped into a new realm entirely.
Then she spoke, clear and absolute:
"Mokuton: Bohai no Jutsu ("Wood Release: Placard Formation Technique")!"
And the battlefield held its breath.