Tsunade had originally intended to seize the initiative. Regardless of whether this so-called Heavenly Dao was the person she was looking for, she planned to give him a thorough beating first and ask questions later.
After all, the name "Heavenly Dao" was anything but common in the Ninja World. There was a strong chance she would be hitting the right target.
However, the moment she saw the young man's face clearly, Tsunade could not help but hesitate.
She had expected Heavenly Dao to be calculating, crafty, and sinister—a shadowy figure lurking behind schemes and conspiracies. Instead, the man before her looked bright and cheerful, with an open expression and calm eyes. His blond hair and handsome features were accentuated by a faint, ever-present smile.
If not for the subtle differences in facial contours, Tsunade might have believed that the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had been resurrected.
Tsunade had always held Minato in high regard. He was a fine young man with a broad mind and a long-term vision. In some ways, his personality resembled that of her grandfather, the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama—though the gap in their strength was as vast as the heavens and the earth.
Minato, too, had died far too young.
A shadow flickered through Tsunade's eyes as a familiar thought resurfaced in her heart: truly good people were never suited to be Hokage.
Perhaps out of respect for Heavenly Dao's appearance, Tsunade's tone softened slightly. Having already begun to rule him out as her primary suspect, she asked calmly, "Do you know about the Shikkotsu Forest contract?"
"I do," Heavenly Dao replied honestly.
A golden blur cut through the dust.
Almost the instant his words left his mouth, Tsunade's fist—imbued with terrifying chakra—tore through the air and lunged straight toward Heavenly Dao's chest.
The punch was powerful, but it was far from Tsunade's full strength. She intended to teach him a lesson, not kill him outright.
Heavenly Dao reacted just as swiftly. From the moment Tsunade descended from the sky, his body had already entered a state of full combat readiness.
In truth, Heavenly Dao had long anticipated this clash—or rather, he had deliberately facilitated it.
When the System awakened, it spoke of making him famous throughout the Ninja World and pushing him toward the level of a Kage-class expert. At the time, he had wondered what kind of rewards the System would provide once he truly reached that tier.
But before that, he needed to understand the gap between his current strength and that of a genuine Kage-level powerhouse.
Although he was deeply familiar with the original Naruto series, words on a page could never compare to firsthand experience.
As a standard high Kage-level expert, Tsunade was the perfect opponent.
She was the Ninja World's top tank and healer—capable of taking devastating blows, delivering overwhelming force, and healing herself almost instantly. In every sense, she was a true hexagon warrior with no obvious weaknesses.
Compared to her raw attributes, however, her combat mechanics were somewhat less refined. A sufficiently skilled Jonin could still exchange a few blows with her without being instantly crushed.
Although Heavenly Dao's current specialty in taijutsu was partially countered by Tsunade's monstrous strength, the situation was not entirely unfavorable. If he were seriously injured, at least emergency treatment would be convenient.
Moreover, since they belonged to the same village, Heavenly Dao believed Tsunade would not easily resort to lethal force.
Whoosh!
Tsunade's fist cleaved through the air.
Faced with this thunderous strike, Heavenly Dao wisely chose not to meet it head-on with taijutsu. He kicked off the ground, retreating like an arrow released from a bow, while his hands rapidly wove seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A massive fireball erupted, crimson flames instantly filling the battlefield as they surged forward to block Tsunade's advance.
Tsunade did not even blink.
She snorted coldly, her speed increasing rather than slowing. She burst through the fireball, scorching air currents billowing in her wake, making her look like a goddess of war emerging from purgatory.
"A little spark like this can't stop me!"
Heavenly Dao never expected the Great Fireball Technique to achieve anything miraculous.
As a technique with a reputation not unlike Amaterasu, the Great Fireball possessed respectable power, but its speed was far too slow to threaten true experts. Heavenly Dao had only used it to stall Tsunade for a brief moment.
As expected, the fireball failed to halt her advance.
Heavenly Dao's gaze sharpened. He slammed his hands against the ground as chakra surged out in a violent torrent.
"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Pillars of water rose from the training ground as if summoned from nothingness, forming multiple layered walls between the two of them.
Boom!
Tsunade's fist smashed into the foremost wall of water without any fancy techniques. There was no dramatic splash—at the instant of contact, the wall was pierced as easily as tofu. With a simple jolt of her arm, the entire barrier collapsed into a rain of scattered droplets.
Tsunade's monstrous strength was on full display.
Yet this fleeting delay was enough.
Heavenly Dao used the opening to pull back. His master-level Konoha-style taijutsu granted him just enough speed to keep pace with the rhythm of a Kage-level battle. He inhaled deeply and began weaving seals once more, the fluctuations of his chakra growing even more violent.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
This time, it was no single fireball.
A surging sea of flames erupted forth, sweeping across the battlefield and devouring everything in its path. The inferno covered both sky and earth, a terrifying ninjutsu capable of reducing an entire forest to ashes—something no ordinary Jonin would dare face head-on.
Within the blazing sea, Tsunade's figure became indistinct.
She had initially believed this would be a simple confrontation, yet Heavenly Dao continued to surprise her. His mastery of Fire Release was already extraordinary, and judging by his reactions and footwork, his taijutsu foundation was equally solid.
She knew she could not afford to remain passive.
If she truly needed to exert herself to subdue him, then she would be the one losing face.
Tsunade stopped holding back.
Her chakra exploded within her body, circulating at high speed. Her movements accelerated further, turning her into a near-invisible blur. As the sea of fire surged toward her, she did not evade.
She charged straight into the flames.
Heavenly Dao was stunned.
Before he could react, Tsunade burst out from the inferno in the very next second.
Her clothes were scorched and tattered, blackened by the flames, yet not a single burn marred her skin. Even without activating the Strength of a Hundred Seal, Tsunade's immense chakra was enough to repair any damage almost instantly.
Heavenly Dao's Fire Release was still worlds apart from that of Uchiha Madara.
"This fire of yours isn't even enough to warm my hands!"
Before her voice had fully faded, Tsunade had already closed the distance. Her fist tore through the air, producing a sharp sonic boom.
She gave Heavenly Dao no further opportunity to weave hand seals, sticking close to him relentlessly. Every punch carried terrifying power, forcing him to rely solely on taijutsu to defend himself.
In his heart, Heavenly Dao knew the battle was already decided.
To defeat Tsunade in taijutsu, one needed either greater strength—or overwhelming speed.
He was not a power-type fighter. Meeting her head-on was tantamount to suicide. His speed had only barely reached the threshold of Kage-level, nowhere near enough to suppress her completely.
It's time to end this, Heavenly Dao thought.
He retreated rapidly, his footsteps light as the wind. Utilizing the exquisite footwork of Konoha-style taijutsu, he dodged left and right amidst Tsunade's storm-like assault, barely carving out a sliver of breathing room.
"Hiding?" Tsunade sneered. "Let's see how long you can keep this up!"
She threw a heavy punch that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand tons.
Heavenly Dao still possessed enough strength to dodge—but his resolve was firm.
After neutralizing part of the force, he allowed the remaining impact to slam into his chest.
Fearing it might not be convincing enough, Heavenly Dao secretly bit down on his tongue.
"Pfft—!"
A spray of bright crimson blood erupted, forming a mist that splattered directly across Tsunade's cold face.
Time appeared to freeze.
Tsunade's pupils shrank abruptly.
The warm blood sliding down her cheek shattered her will to fight in an instant. Long-buried memories surged forth—of her younger brother, of her lover, both dying before her eyes.
Her legs weakened. Her knees buckled as she stumbled back a step.
Tsunade—one of the legendary Konoha Sannin, the world-renowned medical ninja—collapsed to her knees before Heavenly Dao, powerless and shaken.
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