----POV Tsunade----
The battle against Hanzo the Salamander had taken place only a few days ago, yet the weight of what we had experienced still struck me with force. It was hard to process everything that had happened. The war had left scars on all of us, and the battle with Hanzo had been more than just a simple confrontation. We faced not only the man but also his monstrous summon: a giant salamander whose mere presence could devastate everything in its path. Each of its attacks was imbued with a deadly poison that tainted the very air, forcing us to fight against death while struggling to stay on our feet.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya, my longtime comrades, fought by my side as we always had. The battle was a titanic struggle that seemed endless. Every strike from the salamander made the ground tremble, and its poison spread like a deadly mist. None of us had a clear advantage, but we kept fighting, knowing that the future of the village depended on it. Hanzo's fury was not only physical but also psychological, as if he were trying to wear us down not just with brute strength but with his relentless strategy.
Though the three of us—Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and I—faced Hanzo together, I couldn't stop my mind from drifting elsewhere. It wasn't just the battle that troubled me, but the disappearance of someone who had left a mark on me in a way my comrades never could. Kaito.
Among the three of us, I was the only one who had met him personally. I had spent a few days with him—days that, though short, left a deep impression on me. Despite that, we had kept in touch through letters. He would send us suggestions for recipes, games, and more. But suddenly, all of that stopped. He wasn't a close friend, not by any means, yet there was something about his presence that made me feel a connection I hadn't experienced in a long time. He was a man of humility and determination, traits that made me admire him, even if I hadn't known him well enough to consider him an integral part of my life.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru knew of Kaito, of course, but they didn't share the same bond I did. To them, Kaito was just another name among many. However, to me, his absence felt like a shadow looming over me in the midst of battle. As I fought against Hanzo and his salamander, I couldn't help but wonder: Where was Kaito? Why wasn't he fighting alongside us?
Rage swelled within me. Amid the chaos, it was difficult to focus on the fight. The pressure of the salamander's attacks and Hanzo's speed forced me to react quickly, yet my mind kept returning to that unsettling thought. What if Kaito had fallen? What if he was just another forgotten casualty of this endless war?
As I dodged the salamander's venom, frustration took hold of me. With every charge from the beast, with every movement I failed to evade, a deep pain grew inside me. Why wasn't Kaito here? What had happened to him? For those minutes of battle, I feared the worst, and that idea—that vision of Kaito dead—haunted me.
The battle ended in a stalemate—or rather, it became clear that Hanzo had barely fought at full strength; he was merely testing us.
We had managed to endure, but at what cost? Hanzo couldn't defeat us, but neither could we defeat him. The salamander, after having caused so much destruction, finally vanished, leaving the battlefield scarred by our struggle. Hanzo looked at us with respect, and at that moment, he recognized us as the Sannin.
But that recognition meant nothing to me. While the others celebrated our victory with the composure of great warriors, my mind remained trapped in a single thought. Kaito. He wasn't in the Village Hidden in the Rain, nor anywhere nearby. There were no signs of him. And I, burdened by my grief, wondered if I would ever see him again.
Kushina, who had also spent some time with him, was just as saddened. Though Kaito had been her only friend, she knew how important he had been to her. Even though Kaito wasn't part of our daily lives the way Jiraiya and Orochimaru were, his absence felt like a void that couldn't be filled. The fact that he wasn't there, at such a crucial moment, weighed heavily on us.
We wondered where he could be, what had happened to him. As for me, I couldn't stop thinking that maybe he had fallen on a mission or that something had kept him away—perhaps wounded, perhaps... dead. Something in my heart told me there was no hope. The pain in my chest grew, but there was no way to confirm it.
In the days following the battle, sadness continued to weigh on me. We had faced one of our greatest threats, and though we had managed to endure, the price of our victory was the loss of something far more personal. The news that we were now Sannin, the title granted to us by Hanzo, brought me no comfort.
The battle against Hanzo, though epic, left behind nothing but scars. We had stared death in the face and survived, yet what hurt me the most was Kaito's absence. It was a void that no title or victory could ever fill.
Despite all our achievements and triumphs, the true battle—the one we fought within ourselves—remained the hardest of all.
What tormented me most was not knowing whether Kaito had survived. Without him, the battle against Hanzo felt hollow.
War, as always, took the most precious ones away, and I couldn't help but wonder if he had been one of them.