On a sandy clearing north of Tanzaku Town, Tsunade was confronting a masked weirdo with two girls.
"I'll give her to you, and we'll pretend we've never met?"
Tsunade frowned, a little displeased.
She didn't want to fight with people right now.
And last night's fierce battle was mostly attributed to the man in front of her, who was afraid to show his true face.
"Hehe, Lady Tsunade of Konoha, you are also my prey."
A dull hoarse voice came from under the black mask, saying hair-raising words.
"Although you didn't inherit the legendary Wood Release jutsu, you are a qualified collector's item."
"Damn, we can only fight then. Shizune, you take this child and stay away."
Waving the two girls to leave, Tsunade took off her long green coat and threw it aside.
The long coat flew in the wind for a while before slowly falling.
Instead, Tsunade had already rushed to the enemy's position.
"Be careful! This guy isn't human!"
The young girl who was saved by Tsunade and Shizune sounded fearful. Her whole body trembled at the recollection.
'This weird inhuman thing took Grandpa, Aunt and Uncle, Mom and everyone in the village to ...'
Yesterday, the monster caught up with her and her father.
"What?"
Tsunade was about to throw a punch when a large number of needles suddenly shot out from under the mask of the strange man in front of her.
"So, it's a puppet!"
Not anticipating that the enemy wasn't alive, Tsunade had moved to the right when she saw the needles shoot out, but the distance between them was too close. The needles still stuck to her arm.
"I have a lot of experience fighting Suna's puppet masters."
As the two sides of a perpetual conflict, many shinobis from Konoha and Suna Village understood each other, probably better than they did their fellow shinobis.
The weapons of these puppet masters were covered with toxins.
Tsunade began to retreat to pull away. The enemy, naturally, wouldn't let her go.
Manipulating the puppet, he continued to shoot, with a large number of needles stabbing the ground along the way.
"Shizune, antidote!"
"Yes, Tsunade-sama!"
Stepping back in front of Shizune, Tsunade forced herself not to look at her left arm, which had begun to ooze blood.
With her right hand, she gathered chakra to cover the wound.
Medical Technique - Delicate Illness Extraction Technique
This was an advanced medical jutsu that locates the pathogen or virus by sensing the chaotic chakra in the body and sucks out the toxin through the chakra in hand.
Combined with Tsunade's homemade universal antidote, even the poison from Chiyo, Suna's strongest poison master, could be temporarily suppressed.
"If you want to defeat a puppet master, the most important thing is to find the opponent's original body. Hey, have you seen where his body is hidden?"
Healing the wounds from the poisoned thorns and needles, Tsunade looked at the young girl who had been pursued by the enemy.
"No, I've been running away."
The young girl gritted her teeth as her relatives fell one by one in front of her eyes, and she couldn't do anything about it, making her feel weak.
"Wait, is this a puppet?"
Tsunade looked at the enemy.
The shattered mask shot by stingers and needles had fallen somewhere.
The jaw, which was split into three pieces, still vaguely revealed traces of blood and flesh.
Having fought with Suna for many years and being a medical ninja who was proficient in the human body structure, Tsunade could naturally tell the difference between a living person and a puppet.
"Not a puppet but a human modification? ... Are you a shinobi from Suna Village?"
"Humph."
The suspected Suna shinobi didn't respond, grunting coldly and pulling away the black robe covering his body with his hands.
No, it was too inappropriate to say hands.
Attached to the forepart of the large arm, a straight wooden barrel with a mechanism box inserted and five gun ports replaced the five fingers.
"Sure enough, it's a monster."
Tsunade looked at his back, covered with a demonic metal face, and bowed down to build up her strength.
"You two, run a little further for me."
"Oh, you can't run away."
The hoarse voice sneered as the arm that had been transformed into a machine burst out.
The 'arm' fell to the ground, and the inserted mechanism boxes flew out, each of which was filled with thousands of deadly poisons.
"Shu shu shu---"
Thousands of poisonous needles scattered and shot out like a rainstorm.
The deadly 306 degrees attack could be said to be unavoidable.
And even if Tsunade could avoid it, the two girls behind her would be shot into a sieve by thousands of needles.
Of course, a strong person like Tsunade naturally wouldn't have such obvious weaknesses.
She closed her eyes and bit through her fingers, quickly making a seal.
Boar- Dog- Rooster- Monkey- Ram
Her bloodied hand slapped the ground, and a complex spell spread from Tsunade's bloodied fingers onto the ground. A cloud of smoke burst in front of her.
Summoning Technique!
A slug the size of an elephant appeared in the middle of the battlefield and blocked all the needles.
A gentle female voice completely incompatible with the outer appearance came from the slug's mouth, "Does Tsunade-sama need my strength?"
"Hmm, you'll protect them both."
The wound on the finger had healed automatically under her Chakra Enhanced Strength, and the blood was rubbed clean in the sand. Tsunade stood up and looked at the shinobi, who stood still and didn't move.
"Since this is the original body, I'll show you the power of my enhanced strength!"
"I'm also looking forward to your enhanced strength, hahaha."
The hunched monster crawled on the ground on his hands and knees like a beast and let out a strange laugh that didn't sound like a human's voice.
"Heh!"
Tsunade once again rushed to the enemy. The chakra gathered in her hands instantly exploded, and she slammed her fist into her opponent.
Hit head-on by Tsunade's Chakra Enhanced Strength, whether he was a man or a demon, he would have to fall under this punch.
Knowing it was Tsunade, the weird man didn't act arrogant.
The demonic metal face inlaid behind suddenly opened its mouth, and a thick mechanical scorpion tail popped up and plunged at Tsunade.
"I'm never afraid of a collision!"
The human fist and the steel tail collided, but the scorpion tail was made of steel that burst apart section by section.
With shards of crumbling steel, Tsunade's fist continued to hammer at the head of the sprawling monster.
"Damn it--"
The modified guy wasn't the agile type initially and could only watch as Tsunade's monstrous fist struck his face.
The hit was successful, but the result of the fist's feedback to the brain confused Tsunade.
'This feeling, it's not human flesh!'
Sure enough, as the force leaned on the enemy's face, the opponent's entire body shattered into pieces just like the steel scorpion tail before.
A short figure retreated from it to dodge.
"It turned out the puppet master was in the puppet's body?"
Tsunade froze but didn't dare to pursue.
"But it does look like a human body, not an effect created by puppets in disguise."
"Humph! You broke my puppet. You're going to replace him!"
The red-haired boy, unable to dodge, had a bone-deep cut on his face from the crumbling metal fragments.
Blood flowed freely from the wound, but the teenager didn't care at all. Instead, he pulled out a scroll from his pocket.
"Wail my name in hell, the man who will kill you is called Sasori!"