Rain veiled the gorge like hanging silk.
"Please be okay, brat…" Tsunade sprinted through the storm, Hikari unconscious on her back. Her soaked clothes clung to strong lines and scar, but her eyes were only hard.
"Hanzo… pray he's alive," she hissed. "Because if he's not… I'll kill you."
She had found Hikari dumped in the trees. A baited trail, obvious as a snare—meant to rip her from Sogetsu's side.
She still didn't know why Hanzo needed the separation. She only knew what it meant.
Sogetsu was in danger.
She hit the battlefield in barely a minute more—and stopped.
The valley was chewed to rubble, gouged by fire, wind, and force. A killing field. Blood, rain-thinned, tracked across the rock in smeared swirls.
He's alive. He's alive. He's—
There. Behind a broken slab.
"Brat!"
Tsunade dropped to her knees, hands already moving. Deep—ugly—poisoned—but the blade had missed the true kill. The bleeding had been stanched—paper and will.
"Not fatal. Good." Her mouth went flat. "Hanzo's salamander venom… so it was you."
She exhaled once, long, anger tamped beneath a medic's focus. Then voices cut across the rain.
"Here! Lord Hanzo is here!"
"Someone killed him!"
"It's Tsunade!"
"She did it—she killed Lord Hanzo!"
Rain-ninja skidded into the clearing, faces contorted, grief tipping to fury.
"Seize her!"
"Make her pay!"
Tsunade didn't even look at them first. She bit her thumb, slammed her palm to the ground. "Summoning: Katsuyu."
With a puff, two human-sized slugs appeared, pearly and mild.
"Katsuyu, protect them."
"At once, Lady Tsunade." The slugs slid over Sogetsu and Hikari, enveloping them in soft, shielding bodies.
Tsunade stood and rolled her shoulders. The air chilled around her.
"Hanzo's dead. Fine." Her knuckles cracked, crisp as breaking ice. "Then the debt starts with you."
"Don't panic! It's one woman!" their leader barked, more for himself than anyone. "We're a dozen of Hanzo-trained elite! She can't kill us all—"
One of them didn't charge. He turned on his heel and ran for his life.
The rest leapt—steel first.
Tsunade leapt higher.
"Heavenly Kick of Pain!"
Her leg came down like a falling axe.
The earth screamed. Rock buckled. A wall of force ripped outward, pulverizing the charge. Men burst like fruit. Blood flashed and vanished in the rain.
The runner found a hand closing around his throat.
He hung there, boots kicking, staring into a face as beautiful as it was cold.
"You get one chance," Tsunade said. "Who told Hanzo to move on him?"
"M-m—Konoha… Root—Lord Danzo…" he rasped, eyes bulging. "S-said to take the Sharingan—kill him if we must—"
"Again, Danzo." Tsunade's smile didn't reach her eyes. Murder did. "Fine. I'll settle with you personally."
She squeezed.
A crack. The body went slack.
"Oops," Tsunade said without remorse, letting him drop. "Didn't mean to squeeze so hard. Next time, grow a sturdier neck."
She turned back to the slugs, fury burning clean and white. "Danzo, wait for me."
The last Senju. Student of the Third. Founder of modern medical ninjutsu. Acting director of Konoha Hospital.
Time to see just how big Root really thinks it is.
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