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Rain poured down.
After climbing from the deep cliff bottom to the ground, Tsunade's golden hair was disheveled, her face was gray from the flying dust and mist, and her body was stained with a lot of blood, which, mixed with the rain, clung to her, making her feel even heavier.
However, even on the most intense battlefield, she, who was always meticulous about her appearance, now cared for nothing else, stumbling through puddles on the muddy ground and rushing towards Kato Dan.
Yet, as soon as she got a little closer.
Tsunade's steps involuntarily slowed, her pupils constricted tightly, and her beautiful face turned deathly pale; one could even see the blue veins beneath her skin, which was now covered in raindrops.
Finally, she stood frozen in place.
Looking at the brutally severed body parts not far away.
Until the very end, Kato Dan stretched out his arm, trying to grasp the necklace that had accidentally fallen to the ground, and the depths of his blood-filled eyes had already turned into a profound darkness.
Splash—
The heavy rain intensified.
The puddles accumulated in the ground's craters completely swallowed the long-cherished necklace, leaving only the tip of a green crystal exposed.
Raindrops hitting the ground made a pattering sound.
"Dan?"
It seemed as if she couldn't believe it, or perhaps her reason was momentarily overwhelmed by intense emotional fluctuations.
At this moment, Tsunade seemed to have completely forgotten that she was still on the battlefield, her entire body uncontrollably weak, even her legs trembling incessantly.
The scene of Nawaki's death on the battlefield years ago, his entire abdomen blown apart by an explosive tag trap, replayed in her mind like a slideshow.
The pain from that time, the forcibly suppressed sorrow, the memories that time had diluted, now surged into her mind with a vengeance, forming a deep fear that permeated her entire brain.
The dark red blood, slowly flowing to her feet, following the ground's crevices and the rain's wash, became the deepest imprint in her heart.
It was a color that, as a doctor, she was most familiar with.
But at this moment, merely seeing the flowing blood, Tsunade felt as if she couldn't even manage the most basic act of standing.
How could things have turned out this way?
"How pathetic."
"The last direct descendant of the Senju."
The Third Raikage stood amidst the rain.
Having spent his life in battles, he seemed to instantly discern her current state, and the Third Raikage's voice even carried a hint of sarcasm.
At this moment, he was no longer in a hurry.
Although the outer Kumogakure forces were left behind because they couldn't match his speed, they were now within the Land of Lightning, and the entire unit was slowly encircling them with an unstoppable momentum.
At this point, his gaze towards Tsunade was like a cat playing with a mouse.
"Senju Hashirama, that person who created endless glory for Konoha back then, probably never imagined that his last clan member would be ended on the battlefield in such a humiliating manner, did he?"
"What?"
"Can't move anymore?!"
The Third Raikage's body, as tall and heavy as a brown bear, slowly advanced, his arm muscles, thicker than a normal person's thigh, tensed and clenched into a fist, wreathed in dazzling lightning.
Lightning flashed across the sky, where dark clouds had gathered.
Just the shadow cast by his advance seemed to completely cover the corpses and blood beneath his feet, and along with the rain curtain that obscured the sky, it mercilessly swallowed everything in its path.
He carried an overwhelmingly heavy presence.
A ferocious grin spread across his beast-like face.
"Since that's the case, this old man will proceed."
The moment his words fell.
The lightning coiling around his entire body suddenly exploded.
His entire being, like a brilliant streak of light, shot towards Tsunade, his hand-blade, wreathed in violent lightning, aimed directly at Tsunade's fragile neck, as she had completely lost her will to fight.
Tsunade watched this scene with wide eyes, but her body seemed completely rigid, utterly unresponsive to her brain's commands.
At this instant, having experienced countless battles, she could fully anticipate her fate in the next second.
'Is it finally over?'
Strangely, she felt little desire to struggle.
This seemingly endless war and death, salvation and slaughter, the countless dead buried on the battlefield who could not be saved no matter how hard she studied or improved her medical skills—
She was truly fed up!
However.
Almost simultaneously with the Third Raikage's activation.
"Rumble—!!"
A sudden, urgent roar, like muffled thunder or a sonic boom, erupted from an unknown distance away.
The violent air vibrations had not yet reached the battlefield where the two were, but the sight of massive trees collapsing and shattering in the distance had already entered the Third Raikage's peripheral vision.
The scene of reckless charging was exactly like his own entrance earlier.
However, even just by the speed at which the rising dust changed, the Third Raikage keenly noticed one thing.
That figure was definitely faster and more reckless than him!
"Who is it?!"
Almost instinctively, the Third Raikage, who had been in a charging stance a second ago, abruptly abandoned his close-at-hand prey and instinctively adopted a defensive posture.
Before Tsunade could even understand his reason for stopping.
Loose, wet golden hair was already pulled into a straight line by the wild, howling gale.
The next moment.
A figure, whose entire form had turned into a searing white line in the fierce wind, appeared before the Third Raikage without warning, at an impossibly terrifying speed.
He launched a kick.
"Thud!"
Like a great bell.
The surrounding air, soil, dust, scattered branches, stones, and everything else seemed to be pushed by the delayed, spreading force and airflow from this single blow, forming continuous, expanding spherical ripples all around.
The narrow space where the jade foot met the chest even broke open circles of searing white sonic boom rings, from large to small.
Limitless, Full Power Version!
The sudden roar and hurricane almost swept Tsunade, whose legs were weak, off her feet.
Tsunade instinctively crouched down, relying entirely on her combat instincts, to barely remain in place.
But the Third Raikage, who had just been in front of her, had disappeared.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of air being pierced only reached her ears the next second, as if a half-beat late.
Glancing in the direction of the sound, she saw the Third Raikage's massive body, as imposing as a brown bear, had been sent flying straight back over a hundred meters in that instant.
Everything along his path was shattered by the terrifying impact, forming a straight gully.
The gloomy, heavy rain curtain also seemed to be split apart by a great axe.
Extending to the very edge of the sky.
Tsunade stared at this scene in a daze, her expression seemingly frozen at that moment.
This scene, along with the image of this young man leaping, like a beam of light breaking through all the gloom in her heart, was permanently etched into the deepest part of her memory.
"Whoosh."
However, before she could react, she suddenly felt her waist encircled by that person, her body lightened, and she was carried horizontally by the unfamiliar young man, leaping to the shade of a nearby tree.
When she looked up, what met her eyes was a Konoha forehead protector.
However, the overly young face made her feel somewhat unfamiliar.
Sawara Kiri gently placed Tsunade down at the base of the tree, then turned to look at the scattered corpses and battle traces beneath the rain, his voice slightly low:
"Sorry."
"I'm late."
"..."
Tsunade looked at him, her sluggish mind seemingly unable to react for a moment.
Her fingers unconsciously clutched his sleeve.
The rain grew heavier, occasionally washing over her dusty cheeks, but she remained in a daze, not speaking.
However, Sawara Kiri did not continue to look at her, turning his gaze further into the distance instead.
Roaring thunder illuminated the sky.
The Third Raikage, whose upper coat had burst open from the kick, walked steadily from the deepest part of the rain.
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