The Forest of Death was true to its name—a sprawling expanse of dense, overgrown wilderness teeming with venomous creatures, unstable terrain, and chakra-distorting flora. This semester's Chūnin Exam had gathered thirty-two teams from across the Land of Fire and its allied territories. Only sixteen would advance past this stage.
Each team was given either a Heaven or Earth scroll and three days to obtain the opposite scroll and reach the central tower. The rules were simple. Passing was not.
Ieyasu and Tsunade started in the northeastern section, moving with practiced ease. She was the brawn. He was the blade. Together, they tore through the terrain like wolves on a hunt.
"We need to finish this quickly," Ieyasu muttered, eyes sharp. "Less time in this forest, less chance for nonsense."
"Scared of bugs, Yacchan?" Tsunade teased, slamming her fist into a massive centipede that lunged from the brush.
"I fear nothing except you, Tsuna-chan," Ieyasu deadpanned.
They encountered their first enemy team two hours in—a trio from Kusagakure who had set up an ambush with traps in a clearing.
Ieyasu saw it coming from a literal mile away.
Tsunade simply bulldozed the traps Ieyasu spotted, while Ieyasu disabled the teammate they were focused on protecting with a precise strike to the head with his naginata's back end.
"Scroll acquired," he said, checking the enemy pack. "Let's go."
They reached the tower by the end of the first day, one of the first teams to arrive. Both were unscathed.
...
By the third day, only fourteen teams had made it. A few teams were let through via referee decision to round the number up to sixteen.
The second stage was announced immediately: a Team Battle Elimination Tournament.
Each match would be three-on-three. Performance, tactics, and teamwork would be evaluated, but only the winning team advanced. It was a brutal system that didn't allow individual standouts to recklessly act by themselves.
Since Team Hiruzen had two squads, they faced off against different teams. Ieyasu and Tsunade were paired against a group from Takigakure.
The opposing team was well-balanced: a water-style specialist, a sensory ninja, and a kenjutsu user. On paper, they were dangerous.
In practice, they were crushed.
Tsunade opened by breaking the ground beneath the brawler, then body slammed him through a tree. Ieyasu danced past the water jutsu with Wind-enhanced Body Flickers and knocked out the sensor with a flick of his glowing Hizakura. He ended it with a pummeling strike that broke the water ninja's arm.
Clean. Precise. Fast. Finished.
---
Round by round, the duo advanced.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru performed just as well. Orochimaru's snake taijutsu and diverse justu confused opponents long enough for Jiraiya to blast them with clever traps, jutsu and Fire release—or bind them with his Wild Lion's Mane.
By the semifinals, the four students of the Hokage made up half of the remaining participants. They faced two highly-ranked teams from Konoha. The fights were brutal.
Tsunade faced a Hyuga in close combat. Ieyasu dealt with the Fang over Fang technique of an Inuzuka and turned the tide against the Aburame clansman with Fire and Wind Release that helped him close the distance.
Tsunade had crushed the Hyuga by that point.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya faced an Ino-Shika-Cho formation that was still dangerous despite not being formed by the respective clan heirs.
The battle started with Orochimaru and Jiraiya immediately using a Fire-Wind combination jutsu that allowed Orochimaru's shadow clone to put up a kunai against the Yamanaka's neck and Jiraiya to quickly subdue the Nara with his hair before the latter had the chance to use Shadow jutsu.
The remaining Akimichi clansman had no choice but to admit defeat, no matter what, they had shown enough of their skills in the earlier matches to pass.
...
The final match was inevitable: Tsunade and Ieyasu vs. Orochimaru and Jiraiya.
Even Hiruzen leaned forward slightly in the stands.
From the start, it was chaos.
Jiraiya laid down fire and explosive traps. Orochimaru took a support role, trying to control the field with Earth-style walls and a barrage of ninja tools, he even pulled out the A-rank Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu.
But Ieyasu cut through the traps and fire techniques like a wind blade through mist. He pressured Jiraiya while Tsunade barrelled straight into Orochimaru with a face that spelled doom for him, she simply didn't care about his shuriken.
The fight went on for twelve minutes.
It mostly lasted that long because they held back on deadlier and more decisive moves.
In the end, Tsunade held the real Orochimaru down with a knee on his back, while Ieyasu had Hizakura inches from Jiraiya's throat.
"Do they have to surrender?" Tsunade and Ieyasu asked flatly.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya then smiled tiredly and muttered, "We surrender."
The judge finally announced Tsunade and Ieyasu's win, there had been too many shadow clone tricks in this match, so they had to be sure.
...
Later that evening, Hiruzen stood before the four of them, pride clear in his voice.
"You all performed excellently. From now on, you are officially Chūnin."
The group nodded. Jiraiya looked like he was trying not to cry.
Then Ieyasu stepped forward with the confidence of a man ordering dessert.
"Hokage-sama, as the winner of your promised reward, I humbly ask for two things."
Hiruzen blinked. "...Two? Go on, the Hokage can't be stingy with his students."
"Well said. Then, number one: I want any space-time teleportation jutsu you're willing to part with. Number two: your entire fuinjutsu collection."
There was a long pause.
Hiruzen stared at him like a man who just realized he brought a fox into a henhouse.
"You want not only a space-time jutsu, but also... all my sealing techniques?"
"Yes, please."
Tsunade groaned. Jiraiya facepalmed. Orochimaru was already trying to listen in.
Hiruzen massaged his temples. "You're trying to rob me blind. Again."
"I'm just being efficient. Wouldn't you want your student to get stronger quickly? That way you can rest assured, either way, a Hokage can't be stingy, right?"
Hiruzen sighed and relented. "Fine. But you're going to be learning from the scrolls. Don't pester me for endless demonstrations, I can only answer some Fuinjutsu questions."
"Deal!"
Orochimaru hissed, "Lucky bastard."
Tsunade asked, "I also want Fuinjutsu knowledge, especially the ones related to medical techniques. I also want you to help me convince Grandpa Mito to teach me the Yin Seal."
"Of course, that's fine, she was planning to teach you her Yin Seal in the future after seeing your chakra control talent, anyway." Hiruzen was relieved Tsunade didn't catch shameless fever from her time spent around Ieyasu.
"Well, since I'm already teaching two of you, I might as well teach you all the village's Fuinjutsu."
And just like that, Konoha's most chaotic batch of Chūnin took their first steps into the future.
...
Over the next seven years, the quartet trained to a completely new level.
A couple years after the Chunin Exam, Hiruzen had basically taught them all he knew.
After that, he let them act with full independence, training and doing missions was up to them.
It was during this period that the Sannin gained their respective summons—Jiraiya and Orochimaru stumbled upon their respective Sage Lands, while Tsunade got the Senju's Shikkotsu Forest Contract Scroll from the clan after seeing her teammates' new summons.
In this aspect, Ieyasu was left out.
But he didn't fret, as he finally awakened his Hizakura's weapon spirit, he could now transform any nature transformation into a passively controlled cherry blossom petal storm.
This meant he could rain down searing fire and sharp vacuum wind petals on his opponents without even having to consciously control them.
He wasn't quite at the level of Byakuya's Senbonzakura Kageyoshi Bankai yet, but he could release enough petals to qualify as a Shikai—he was able of basically releasing massive petal jutsu endlessly, it was more of a flowing river limited in volume but continuous than an endless ocean of petals.
Ieyasu obviously also learned Tobirama's Flying Raijin technique and Uzumaki Fuinjutsu.
He could already passively infuse his Flying Raijin Seal into every petal released, meaning he could easily deploy a teleportation field dozens of meters wide anywhere.
Ieyasu had also managed to summon the fifth gate of Rashomon and learn all of Hiruzen's jutsu, including the Wood Release jutsu that didn't require Sage Mode.
Lastly, and perhaps most unexpectedly, he could now externalize two arm-like tendrils from his soul—he could also bypass chakra hiding techniques by directly observing souls with his Byaku-Sharingan.
This was due to his natural affinity with souls and space-time, this was also the same talent that allowed him to summon all five gates of Rashomon.
His extra arms that he had named Soul Flow Tendrils allowed him to be a Taijutsu God surpassing even Tsunade, he could use them to make hand seals or to strike enemies.
Combined with his Byaku-Sharingan vision, he could directly disrupt the target's soul and chakra with each strike, disrupting not just their chakra flow, but their spirit itself, making their senses fuzzy, confusing their will, and making them more vulnerable to spiritual attacks like genjutsu.
These Soul Flow Tendrils were almost as sturdy as his real arms, but their main advantage is that they could be easily reformed, his Adaptive Vital Body boosted by Hashirama cells made him an endlessly regenerating well of vitality and energy.
In fact, during these past years, Ieyasu had also let Tsunade study his body in depth.
Even with her chakra control, it still took her years, but she was able to make her cells behave similarly to his—this basically meant that with soul-based Adaptive response, she no longer aged; Creation Rebirth was stronger and it would no longer exhaust her vitality.
All of that meant Tsunade had become the equivalent of Deadpool or Wolverine in the Naruto world.
Now, the quartet was 15 years old. Senju Nawaki was 4 years old. Ieyasu's 11 year old little sister, Tokugawa Sumiha, has just become a Chunin. She says she wants to be a medical-nin like Tsuna-nee.
Tsunade also agreed to teach her, they had become relatively close over the years.
In short, when they all went to meet in Tsunade's house for Nawaki's birthday today, Hiruzen told them they were all officially promoted to Jonin and could lead a team starting this year if they wanted to—but none of them felt like it.
...
Later that same day, Tsunade and Ieyasu were alone in a prairie located quite a distance from the village walls.
The sun had dipped low, casting a golden hue across the quiet prairie. The wind rustled the tall grass, brushing against the pair under the cover of the awakened stars.
Tsunade lay back with her hands behind her head, looking up at the drifting clouds. Ieyasu sat beside her, Hizakura planted blade-first into the earth.
"…Crazy how fast it all went," she said after a long silence. "We were just dumb kids punching each other, now we're both Jonin with siblings to take care of."
"We're still punching each other," he replied. "You just started healing me sometimes instead of always leaving me for dead."
Tsunade smirked but didn't laugh. Her expression turned thoughtful. "You've changed, too. Stronger, like a real monster. But you're still you."
"Same goes for you," Ieyasu said, watching the wind pull strands of her hair. "You're much more dangerous now. And even more beautiful."
She turned her head toward him, one eyebrow raised. "Flattery?"
"Just facts," he replied.
A beat passed.
"I used to think you were an idiot," she said, eyes narrowing.
"You still do."
"Yeah," she chuckled. "But I also think… you're the one that has always understood me most and that has always been on my side in a special way."
Ieyasu felt like it was time and looked at her, serious now. "I made a promise when I first saw you at the Academy. That anyone who looked at you the wrong way would deal with me first, especially Jiraiya. I guess I never really stopped meaning that."
Tsunade pushed herself up, staring at him now, eyes unreadable. "So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying…" He exhaled. "I want to be something with you. For real. Not as a comrade or teammate. I want to walk this whole damn life with you. Tsunade, let's stop pretending this isn't already something more."
Tsunade blinked. For once, the fierce girl had no comeback. She stepped closer, slowly.
Then punched him hard on the shoulder. "You took long enough, idiot. And only now do you call me Tsunade?"
Then she kissed him. No drama. No fireworks. Just a kiss like a promise, steady and warm, forged from years of friendship, blood, and banter—they both wanted to move on from the embarassing lovey-dovey words.
After pulling back, she leaned her forehead against his.
"…If you break my heart," she whispered, "I'll turn you into pulp."
"Like you don't already," Ieyasu murmured, pulling her into a hug. "And you say that like I don't have a heart too."
Tsunade snorted against his chest. "You've got one. You just hide it behind snark and absurd jutsu."
"Shhh," he said. "Don't say it out loud. It ruins my brand."
That night, under the stars and the cover of the Byaku-Sharingan's 360° view, Tsunade and Ieyasu conducted extensive "Jonin-level anatomical research." With their absurd stamina, the results were enlightening.