The cavern floor cracked as the Third Raikage lunged again, spearhand glowing with blinding lightning.
Orochimaru slid back, his body bending at an angle no human spine should have allowed.
The strike ripped a trench into the stone, sparks scattering into the dark.
A hiss followed. Dozens of snakes burst from Orochimaru's sleeve, their fanged mouths opening to release kunai and tags.
The Raikage swung his arm in a blur, lightning armor flaring.
The swarm exploded in smoke and gore, blasted apart like twigs in a storm.
Orochimaru's grin widened. His tongue slid over his lips.
"Magnificent… the famous spear of Kumogakure. I see the rumors weren't exaggerated."
The Raikage's glare sharpened. He didn't answer.
He simply charged again, body a bolt of thunder.
His spearhand pierced clean through Orochimaru's chest, pinning him to the cavern wall.
Lightning seared the stone black around them.
For a heartbeat, silence.
Then Orochimaru's lips moved. "…Kukuku…"
His body melted, splitting, peeling away as a pale husk hit the ground with a wet slap.
The real Orochimaru slithered free from the discarded skin just behind the Raikage, hands flashing through seals.
A massive dragon of water surged from the stone floor, crashing into the Raikage's back.
The torrent swallowed him whole, shaking the cavern with its roar.
For any ordinary shinobi, it would have been the end.
But the lightning armor flared brighter inside the wave, splitting the jutsu apart.
The Raikage strode through, unscathed, sparks leaping from his fists.
Orochimaru's expression didn't change.
His body bent again, flowing backward into the shadows, serpents spilling across the battlefield to keep distance.
So it went, again and again.
The Raikage tore through snakes, summons, walls of fire, and water.
Each time he reached Orochimaru, his spearhand struck true, and each time, the body split, peeled, or reformed, laughing.
"Persistent little snake," the Raikage growled.
Orochimaru's voice slithered back from the darkness, calm, indulgent.
"And you, Raikage-dono… such overwhelming physicality. Tell me, how many days would you last before your stamina runs dry? Shall we find out?"
Lightning cracked again as the Raikage hurled himself forward.
Orochimaru's pale form blurred aside, snakes lashing, seals flaring.
Neither could land the decisive blow.
One was too strong, fast, and durable to be contained or engaged directly.
The other too slippery to be killed.
The Third Raikage had come with one goal in mind: to cut off the snake's head fast.
If Orochimaru fell, Konoha's morale would collapse with him.
No more traps, no more slippery coordination, no more sneaky games.
But as the battle raged, he found the Sannin stronger than expected.
Lightning armor burned across his body, yet every time he drove his spearhand through, Orochimaru twisted out of it, shed another husk, sacrificed another clone, a snake, or reformed from his endless serpents.
The old plan, a quick kill, was failing.
The Raikage's senses spread wider, scanning the battlefield through the static hum of his chakra.
He caught it then, the strange, alien presence of Slug fragments scattered everywhere, each one transmitting chakra like a web across the entire defense.
And at the center of it, the other Sannin, Tsunade.
His eyes narrowed. Reports had painted her as a healer who stayed behind the lines.
But here, she wasn't just healing individuals; she was feeding entire platoons, keeping Konoha's force in motion when they should already be broken.
If she hadn't stopped, this raid would have turned into a stalemate or perhaps worse.
The Raikage made his choice instantly.
He couldn't crush Orochimaru quickly.
Then he would crush Tsunade instead.
He gathered chakra into his arm, spearhand trembling with condensed power, and shifted his stance toward her direction.
But Orochimaru's smile only widened.
"Going somewhere, Raikage-dono?"
The floor erupted.
Thousands of snakes poured up, hissing, their scales scraping the stone in a deafening wave.
Rashōmon gates slammed up behind them with a thunderous crack, one after another, layers of demonic walls cutting off the path forward.
Elemental blasts followed in quick succession: firestorms, wind gusts, water serpents, lightning arcs, sheets of earth.
Jutsu stacked over jutsu, A-rank and B-rank layered together, filling the cavern with chaos.
The Raikage snarled and thrust forward, his spearhand glowing white-hot. "Hell Stab!"
One gate shattered, snakes split apart, the air exploding with static.
Another thrust followed, and another.
Each strike pierced through flesh, stone, or flame, detonating everything in his path.
But Orochimaru wasn't standing still.
His body blurred, splitting into clones, snake replacements, fragments that dissolved and reformed, always circling, always pushing more summons into the fray.
Sensory suppression cloaked his true body, while the battlefield itself became a writhing ocean of scaled bodies and collapsing jutsu.
Orochimaru's thoughts were cold, precise.
'He's realized Tsunade is the key. If he reaches her, the defense collapses. So I must keep him here, no matter how dangerous.'
Snakes fused together, Yang release knitting their forms into new monstrosities.
Giant serpents slammed down into the cavern, their bodies coiling like walls.
Orochimaru's chakra shiki flared across their skin, forming seals that detonated with each strike.
All the while, his senses stretched outward, brushing over Tsunade's duel, over Ryusei's clones tearing into Kumo elites, over the Den still holding under pressure.
If he could keep the Raikage locked here, and Ryusei could stop enough of their elites, allowing her to remain safer, then Tsunade's summons would slowly flip the table.
Victory wasn't impossible.
But the Raikage's roar shook the cavern.
He tore through another Rashōmon, spearhand glowing like a blade of pure lightning.
Snakes burned and burst apart around him, yet he only pushed forward, relentless.
Orochimaru's smile didn't fade. His body shed again, slithering into the tide of serpents.
"Mm… shall we see whose patience runs out first, Raikage-dono?"
The Raikage's roar shook the cavern.
He tore through another Rashōmon, spearhand glowing like a blade of pure lightning.
Snakes burned and burst apart around him, yet he only pushed forward, relentless.
But a monster like him couldn't be stalled by Orochimaru's chakra alone.
The snake Sannin felt the difference surging through his body now, something unnatural feeding into his network.
Tsunade's slug fragments had spread so far and so deep that even his serpents carried their chakra.
Through them, her healing current and raw vitality pulsed into him, replenishing what he burned.
That was the only reason he could stand here at all.
Each wave of snakes, each wall of Rashōmon, each volley of fire, wind, water, earth, and lightning, it wasn't just Orochimaru's reserves anymore.
It was the Senju's ocean of chakra pouring into him through the hidden web of serpents.
For the first time in decades, Orochimaru felt what it was like to fight with a bottomless well.
And he used it to the fullest, hurling barrages of jutsu and waves of snakes in an endless tide, forcing the Raikage to waste stamina carving through them.
"Mm… so troublesome, isn't it, Raikage-dono?"
Orochimaru hissed, his grin widening as another giant serpent rose from the flood, its coils glowing with seals that burst in blinding light.
The Raikage smashed it apart in a spray of gore and stone, but his eyes narrowed.
He could sense it now; this wasn't just Orochimaru.
Something else was feeding him, powering this unnatural endurance.
And his instincts told him exactly who.
***
Meanwhile, somewhere else, one initial crash shook another cavern like a landslide.
A blurred forward, lightning armor blazing, his fist slamming into Tsunade's own chakra-enhanced strike.
For an instant, the two locked in place, power grinding against power.
Then the ground cracked apart under their feet, shockwaves tearing fissures across the walls.
A stumbled back, his arm screaming with pain, blood dripping down through the sparks of his armor.
He stared at her, wide-eyed.
"Impossible… even with this speed—"
Tsunade straightened, her green diamond seal glowing faintly on her forehead, her chest rising steadily, unbothered.
Her lips curled into a smirk. "What's wrong? Thought lightning would save you? You're quick, but you're still not built to take my hits head-on."
A's teeth clenched, his pride stung deeper than the pain. No one had ever overpowered him head-on like that.
Killer B tried to cut in, lightning dancing along his single blade as he lunged at her flank.
Tsunade didn't even bother to evade; she caught his swing with one hand, fingers closing on the sword like a vice.
With a twist of her wrist, steel snapped like dry wood.
B's grin faltered. "What the hell—"
Her other fist smashed into his chest, sending him skidding back into the cavern wall.
Dust and stone rained down as he struggled to catch his breath.
For the first time, both brothers realized they weren't dealing with the woman the reports had described, the healer hiding in the shadows.
To survive, B had no choice but to reach deeper.
The bond with Gyūki wasn't perfect yet; their training was incomplete.
But he could still force out the Version 1 cloak, jagged tails lashing into form behind him.
His muscles bulged, chakra spilling in waves, wounds knitting faster.
Jagged growths of the Eight Tails' body formed across his frame, half-finished armor meant only to tank blows.
The cloak snapped across his skin, and suddenly he was faster, tougher.
Not A's level, but enough to charge again, blades of pure chakra forming over his fists.
Tsunade's gaze hardened. "So the little brother's a jinchūriki, huh? Figures."
They pressed her together now, A from the back, circling with fists flashing like thunderbolts, from time to time, B like a tank with Gyūki's cloak covering him.
The pressure mounted, their coordination sharper than before.
But Tsunade had already listened to Ryusei's advice before this battle.
She hadn't underestimated them.
She had already activated her Mitotic Regeneration from the very start.
Her dark sealing marks spread all throughout her upper body, beneath her gray blouse, and the Yin-stored chakra flowed brightly violet from her forehead as the epicenter.
Wounds sealed before they could bleed.
Muscles tore and rebuilt instantly as she pushed her body past its natural limits.
She fought without restraint, micro-destroying her tissues with every punch just to land heavier blows, and letting it heal on the spot.
She brawled like a beast unleashed.
Every time A slipped through with his speed and hammered a blow into her ribs, she didn't flinch.
She healed, and the next moment her fist hammered him back harder.
Every time B slashed her arm with his chakra claws, she let him, only to grab his cloak-covered wrist and crush him into the ground.
And every strike she landed couldn't be erased so easily.
A reeled with fractured bones hidden under his armor.
B's cloak bubbled emotionally, the more he and his brothers were pressed, tails twitching erratically as Gyūki was forced to pour more chakra to keep up constantly.
"Don't think healing's your trick alone," Tsunade said, her tone sharp, almost mocking, between clashes. "Mine doesn't waste chakra in tantrums. Mine makes me unbreakable."
A snarled, lightning sparking brighter across his body. 'Faster… I need to be faster.'
His mind replayed that first clash, the humiliation of being thrown back.
He'd never admit it out loud, but she was stronger.
Her power dwarfed his.
The only edge he had was speed, the ultimate form of lightning release, a technique that refined every muscle, every nerve, every reflex in his body into blinding acceleration.
And even that wasn't enough to put her down.
B spat blood, his grin returning despite the ache in his body. "She's tough, bro. Too tough. But we're the sons of Raikage! We don't lose!"
They came at her again, one faster than her eyes could comfortably follow, the other tougher than he had any right to be at his age.
It was the first time both had been pushed so far, and it shook them to their core that it was her, the Sannin they thought was only a medic.
Tsunade's fists answered them again and again, her strikes splitting stone, sending echoes through the Den.
Slowly, surely, she was winning ground. Not fast. Not decisively.
But with every trade, every cracked rib, the truth grew heavier: they couldn't overpower her.
Her lungs burned. Her fists dripped blood that wasn't hers. But her eyes stayed sharp.
'Just one clean blow… one slip, and either of them goes down.'
Yet she also knew the reality.
B's imperfect cloak and tailed beast chakra gave him constant regeneration and durability beyond most shinobi, even if not as refined as her own.
After all, he carried the second most powerful tailed beast in existence, and their bond was not that of total strangers, she noticed, like it was usual with others, even much older hosts.
A's speed outstripped her completely, forcing her to constantly guard her blind spots while trying to launch counterattacks and breaking B's guard.
Against them both, the finish wouldn't come quickly.
And in the midst of their clash, she felt something.
Ryusei's chakra signature pulsing at the edge of her senses.
Dozens of hostile presences moved toward him, Kumo elites, closing in, their instincts sharp enough to see what Katsuyu's presence meant for the entire battle.
They were going to cut the link at the source.
Tsunade bit her lower lip, plump and full, eyes narrowing for a heartbeat.
She remembered how worried she'd been when Ryusei himself had suggested this plan.
He had been the one to predict the flow of the battle, to insist on being her shield against the enemy elites.
She hadn't wanted to let him. But now… everything was unfolding exactly as he'd said.
Her senses overlapped with his, as they were located relatively close now on purpose.
In the middle of chaos, she felt him, steady, sharp, already moving to meet the threat.
Somehow, the pulse of his chakra soothed her, like a wordless voice telling her not to worry.
She clenched her fist tighter, driving it into A's guard and forcing him to skid back again.
"Don't think you'll stop me. Not you, not your brother, not anyone."
Yet beneath the words, she felt the heaviness settle in her chest.
Ryusei was about to bear the weight alone, and with the two brothers locking her here, she couldn't reach him, not in this moment.