The rain continued to fall, endless and merciless.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, smoke, and rotting earth.
Ryo's silhouette tore through the storm, a red spear thrown toward the depths of hell.
B-7 High Ground.
Mud, shattered rock, broken weapons, and pools of dark, congealed blood painted the field. The air still tingled with the residue of explosions and the clash of chakra that made the skin crawl.
Behind him, Konoha's reinforcements struggled through the mud, their shouts echoing. But Ryo's inhuman speed left them far behind, only splashes of muddy spray marking his path.
Emergency rescue? No. Ryo trusted only his blade.
Bringing Mikoto and Nawaki would only slow him down. They would be liabilities.
Now, speed meant survival.
Beneath the cliff at B-7, the mouth of a hidden cave exhaled damp, heavy air that pressed down like a weight.
Outside, the rain hammered against stone and earth in an endless roar, smothering the distant battle where death reigned.
Inside, a few weak strands of light seeped through the cracks, revealing three fading figures.
Tsunade knelt on one knee. Her golden hair clung to her blood-drained face, her cloak torn to ribbons that revealed wounds deep enough to show bone. Rain-thinned blood trickled from them in steady lines.
She had nearly burned out her chakra with medical ninjutsu. Each circulation through her meridians stabbed like needles, scraping her soul raw.
Ignoring her own pain, she forced the last of her chakra into her trembling hands, pressing them against Jiraiya's head. His brain beneath her palms was the final line she refused to lose.
The pale green glow of medical chakra flickered weakly, like a candle guttering in the dark, fragile but stubbornly holding on to the last trace of Jiraiya's life.
Jiraiya lay sprawled on the cold, wet stone. His once-white hair was matted with blood and mud. His powerful body had become a broken husk riddled with mortal wounds. The worst was the gaping hole in his side, as if an unseen hand had torn it open, his organs exposed to the air.
Each shallow breath bubbled with blood at his lips. Pain had numbed him, leaving only a faint, exhausted smile.
"Hey… Tsunade… save your strength…" His voice rasped weakly. "Seventeen, eighteen broken bones… lungs… pierced too… what's the point…" He tried to grin, but only managed a twitch.
"Heh… feel a little bad for my student… Minato… told him I'd teach him the Mount Myōboku summoning… guess that's off…"
"Shut up!" Tsunade's voice cracked, raw and shaking. Sweat rolled from her jaw and fell onto Jiraiya's face, mixing with blood. "Save your breath to live! You're not dying here, Jiraiya! You hear me?!"
Jiraiya coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth and wounds. Tsunade bit her lip hard, forcing one more flicker of chakra from her exhausted body, veins bulging as she pulled him back for another heartbeat from death.
His skin turned gray, his gaze drifting toward the ceiling. "Let it go… dying in front of you… not the worst way to go…" His eyes moved to the shadow where Orochimaru stood.
Orochimaru was in better shape, but barely. His pale face was smeared with blood and grime, golden slit pupils cold and calculating. His left arm hung limp, but he could still stand.
"Orochi… maru…" Jiraiya's whisper barely carried. "Be… reasonable… don't… be sentimental…"
Orochimaru's throat moved once. His eyes locked on Jiraiya's ruined face, and whatever warmth was left in them died. Only logic remained.
"He's right, Tsunade," Orochimaru said coldly. "Any movement will finish him. Carry him, and we all die. Leave him, and two of us might live."
He stepped forward. A kunai slid silently into his hand, its steel glinting faintly in the darkness.
The light stabbed into Tsunade's eyes.
"Cut clean." Orochimaru's voice didn't waver. "Jiraiya knows what this means. It's his last dignity. And the only one we can give him." The kunai leveled over Jiraiya's heart.
"Dignity, my ass!" Tsunade screamed, voice raw with grief and fury. Her golden eyes burned red with veins, her face contorted in pain and rage. The medical chakra in her hands faltered as her body trembled, the faint light breaking apart.
Orochimaru said flatly. "Which is why you should understand. Stay, and we die. Carry him, three die. End it, and two live." His hand moved, the kunai darting for Jiraiya's chest with a viper's precision.
At the last moment, Tsunade's snarl tore through the cave. "Over my dead body!"
Her broken body moved before thought, driven by pure will. Chakra, long dry, erupted one final time from the depths of her life force, ignited by her instinct to protect.
Her golden hair whipped through the air as she hurled herself between the blade and Jiraiya.
She didn't block it with her body. She guided it, forcing her arm directly into the kunai's path.
Shhk.
The kunai punched through her forearm, through an old, half-healed wound. Blood burst out in a hot spray.
It splattered across Orochimaru's face, freezing him in shock. A few drops hit his eyes, steaming against his skin.
More blood dripped down, striking Jiraiya's pale face below.
For a moment, time stopped.
Outside, shouts broke through the storm. "Movement! Over here, quick!"
Orochimaru's kunai arm trembled. The sight before him, a comrade's blood dripping down his blade, stilled even his cold logic for an instant.
He felt it. The tremor in his arm. The raw, reckless power of Tsunade's choice, burning her life away for one impossible act of defiance.
Drip. Drip.
Outside, the storm raged. Inside, Tsunade's ragged growls of pain mixed with Jiraiya's faint, rattling breath. The shouts of Iwa-nin drew closer, their armor clattering, boots squelching in the mud. The vines at the cave's mouth trembled.
Orochimaru's shock hardened into deadly calm.
His eyes darted from the kunai through Tsunade's arm, to Jiraiya beneath her, to the cave mouth about to be torn open. Countless thoughts collided in his mind, each one cutting deeper than the last.
Tsunade's body shook violently, blood streaming from her arm and dripping onto Jiraiya's cold face. Her hair hung in clumped gold strands, slick with blood and sweat.
Jiraiya's pupils strained to focus. Tsunade's face was only inches from his own, her pain carved into her every line, her blood spilling for him.
He tried to speak, but no words came. Only a broken rattle escaped his throat. A faint smile twisted his lips, half sorrow, half resignation.
Despair filled the cave.
Outside, the vines suddenly tore apart with a sharp rip.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)