Tsunade Senju stood over Jiraiya's paralyzed form, the sight of his broken body shattering the last vestiges of her controlled composure. The Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead pulsed crimson, unleashing a torrent of chakra so dense it cracked the earth beneath her feet. This was not the measured power of a Hokage; it was the raw, protective fury of a sister seeking retribution.
"You look at him, Naruto," Tsunade's voice was strained, thick with suppressed tears, "at the man who loved your father like a brother, who carried the guilt of leaving you! You look at the consequence of your hate and tell me it was worth it!"
Naruto, standing on the shattered cliff face, felt the wave of raw emotion hit him. Even with the Kokoro no Heisa (Heart's Closure) sealed firmly in place, a dull, agonizing pressure attempted to breach the barrier. This wasn't the impersonal malice of the Akatsuki; this was human pain projected by someone who had genuinely cared.
"Feel nothing, descendant. This is emotional warfare. She seeks to destabilize your focus and force error," the Collective warned, a cold antidote to the rising internal pressure.
"Worth is relative, Hokage," Naruto replied, his voice still flat. "The value of a village that creates monsters is zero. The value of my revenge is infinite."
Tsunade didn't waste another word. She exploded into motion, covering the distance in a catastrophic blur. This wasn't speed fueled by chakra manipulation, but by physical might, concentrating phenomenal energy into a single point.
She aimed a single, massive punch at Naruto's position.
Naruto knew his Sōzō no Fūin could negate kinetic energy, but not the sheer volume of her force. He activated the seal, but also jumped backward, minimizing the direct impact.
BOOM!
The cliff face where Naruto had stood was not just broken; it was vaporized into gravel. The residual shockwave alone slammed Naruto into the ravine wall, momentarily stunning him despite the Primal Seal defense.
Tsunade followed, relentless. She was too fast, too strong for Naruto to use his complex Fūinjutsu offensively. He could only survive.
He used the Sōzō no Fūin again and again, absorbing her blows, but the sheer, repeated impact drained his chakra reserves faster than any Jutsu had. He was forced onto the defense, his moves becoming desperate and reactive.
"You cannot win by defense! Her power is regeneration! You must stop the engine!" the Collective screamed, their voices urgent.
Naruto knew the secret to defeating Tsunade was not brute force, but neutralizing her ultimate technique: the Creation Rebirth (Sōzō Saisei) and the accumulated chakra in the Strength of a Hundred Seal. This required a direct, surgical strike.
As Tsunade closed the gap for a final, earth-shattering blow, Naruto activated his ultimate counter-measure. He had prepared a new, targeted sealing application specifically for the legendary technique.
Tsunade swung her massive fist. Naruto absorbed the blow with his left arm's Sōzō no Fūin, allowing his arm to be brutally impacted (the seal only negates kinetic energy, not physical trauma), but securing a split-second of time.
With his right hand, moving in an inhumanly precise blur, he slammed his palm onto the crimson diamond seal on Tsunade's forehead.
"Uzumaki Fūin: Seimei Senmetsu (Uzumaki Seal: Life Extinction)!"
This jutsu was specifically designed by the Collective to reverse the flow of stored life-force chakra. It didn't destroy her seal, but it instantly ruptured the complex, controlled reservoir of the Strength of a Hundred Seal, forcing the accumulated life energy to be released chaotically and rapidly into her body.
Tsunade froze, a look of shocked pain washing over her face. Her chakra, instead of flowing outward to heal, surged uncontrollably, overwhelming her natural system. She stumbled back, clutching her head.
"What… what did you do?" she gasped, her voice losing its strength.
"I sealed your contract with death," Naruto stated, his breath ragged. The exertion had been immense, nearly breaking the Kokoro no Heisa.
The chaotic energy injection, while not lethal, temporarily severed Tsunade's connection to the technique's control mechanism. She was stripped of her regenerative ability and immense stored power, leaving her physically vulnerable and unable to heal the damage Naruto had forced upon his arm.
Naruto followed up immediately, using a lightning-fast application of Kishin\ no\ Kōsa chains to immobilize her arms and legs, pinning her to the ground with unbreakable seals, but leaving her unharmed.
Naruto stood over the two defeated Sannin—Jiraiya, the failed guardian, and Tsunade, the vanquished protector. He had proven his superiority, but the silence was agonizing.
As he turned to leave, Jiraiya managed to force a single, choked word through his paralyzed lips: "...Kushina..."
The name of his mother, the only warmth the Collective had intentionally excluded from his consciousness, pierced the sealed armor around his heart.
A sharp, violent crack shot through the Kokoro no Heisa. Naruto gasped, stumbling back, clutching his chest.
CRACK.
A fleeting, searing glimpse of his mother's radiant smile, fueled by Jiraiya's emotion, slipped past the seal's rupture. It was immediately followed by a wave of white-hot despair for his adopted family.
Naruto collapsed to one knee, breathing hard. The sealed emotions, though contained, had been violently agitated. The cold resolve of the Collective was momentarily fractured.
"Seal the breach! Focus, descendant! She is a memory! The revenge is real!"
With a guttural cry, Naruto used a surge of pure will to force the Kokoro\ no\ Heisa to repair itself, stabilizing the crack with a temporary, forceful surge of sealing chakra. The emotional wave receded, leaving behind a profound exhaustion and a chilling determination.
He could not linger. The defeat of the two Sannin signaled the absolute collapse of Konoha's protection. The path to Pain's lair—the Vault near Amegakure—was clear.
Naruto looked down at his defeated foes one last time, his silver eyes now even colder, fueled by the terrifying knowledge that even his emotional core was a battlefield.
"Wait for the end," Naruto whispered, and then vanished, leaving the two legends as silent witnesses to his ultimate failure.