Chapter 488: The Hokage's Death
"You're old, Tsunade."
Kenichi caught Tsunade's incoming fist, then kicked Shizune in the chest.
Shizune spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward, rolling several times across the ground before weakly collapsing onto her stomach.
Kenichi did not care about Shizune.
Shizune's battlefield should have been a hospital, not this place.
But since Shizune had come here with Tsunade, it proved she had already made her resolve.
Kenichi naturally would not pretend not to see her.
"Yes, I'm old."
Tsunade looked at her fist, then showed a faint smile.
Immediately afterward, she stomped on the ground and spun her entire body at high speed. Using the force of that rotation, she broke free from Kenichi's restraint.
She used her full strength and slammed a heavy punch into the ground where Kenichi stood.
The ground of Kumogakure cracked apart beneath Tsunade's fist.
Kenichi frowned slightly.
He took a deep breath.
Then a Wood Golem three stories tall rose from the ground.
Susanoo armor directly enveloped the Wood Golem.
Kenichi raised the long sword in his hand and slashed down toward Tsunade.
The long sword, imbued with Susanoo's energy, slammed directly into the ground, stirring up black flames.
The powerful wind pressure made Tsunade narrow her eyes.
But then she took a deep breath and charged forward, punching the Wood Golem in the chest with all her strength.
The Susanoo armor on the Wood Golem was shattered by Tsunade's unrestrained punch.
Kenichi knew that Tsunade was fighting with her life.
When she used ninjutsu now, there was a sense of recklessness to it.
She poured all her chakra into every attack, which resulted in immense power.
However, even with her Yin Seal, Tsunade could not sustain this kind of battle for long.
Tsunade had no intention of surviving.
At this rate, even if she did not die from his ninjutsu, Tsunade would die from excessive chakra depletion.
The Mangekyo Sharingan appeared in Kenichi's eyes.
Countless electrical charges flickered in his vision, then were deconstructed by him.
Kenichi's eyes began to ache slightly.
He not only had to face Tsunade's attacks, but also had to draw upon the ocular power of the Mangekyo at the same time to deconstruct these electrical charges.
That was a huge burden on his eyes.
"The same ninjutsu won't work a second time."
Tsunade stomped hard on the ground, kicking up countless clouds of dust and obscuring Kenichi's vision.
Kenichi felt somewhat helpless.
Tsunade might have thought he intended to use the Mangekyo to deconstruct her body.
But in reality, Kenichi had only intended to send Tsunade off with Lightning Release.
However, Tsunade's action had, by sheer coincidence, caused a problem with Kenichi's Mangekyo deconstruction work.
He currently could not gather enough electrical charges on Tsunade's body to unleash that world-destroying lightning.
"This is really troublesome... Was it Jiraiya's intel?"
Kenichi rubbed his brow.
But soon, he noticed something unusual.
His breathing became a little rapid.
This was not normal.
He had not even started any strenuous exercise yet, so why was his breathing becoming rapid?
Had Tsunade poisoned him?
Kenichi placed one hand on his chest.
Then the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique operated at full power.
Soon, Kenichi discovered some toxins that had begun to accumulate in his lungs.
Under the effect of the extraction technique, those toxins were sucked out and slapped onto the ground.
"Found it? That was fast."
Tsunade charged again.
She kicked Kenichi's body with a heavy foot.
Just as Kenichi defended, she immediately changed direction and kicked at his leg.
"Tsunade-neechan, you're really heavy-handed."
Kenichi blocked Tsunade's attack.
He rubbed his aching calf and looked at Tsunade.
Her attacks were particularly ruthless, almost completely unrestrained.
"Don't joke, Amamiya Kenichi."
Tsunade spat out blood.
She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and clutched her stomach.
Just now, Kenichi had raised a kunai to try to block her kick.
But Tsunade had still kicked anyway, resulting in the kunai being embedded in her abdomen.
Blood flowed profusely.
Kenichi looked at Tsunade.
Her eyes were still just as resolute.
Kenichi fell silent for a moment, then abruptly jumped backward.
A fireball slammed into the spot where he had just stood.
He turned his head.
Shizune had gotten up.
She was gasping for breath, looking at him with the same resolute eyes.
Kenichi sighed.
He could not be lax anymore.
"Sage Art! Wood Release!"
Kenichi clapped his hands.
Massive chakra surged, and in an instant, a giant Thousand-Armed Kannon statue stood in the very center of Kumogakure.
This enormous statue could be seen even from other places.
Although this was not Tsunade's first time seeing it, shock still flashed through her heart.
How could such a ninjutsu be resisted?
Madara, who had once stood on equal footing with her grandfather, was also a monster.
And now, she was the one facing a monster.
Countless fists rained down like a storm.
The immense chakra they carried instantly leveled all of Kumogakure.
Tsunade and Shizune's bodies disappeared beneath the continuous bombardment of fists.
At that moment, the entire mountain seemed to tremble.
After all the attacks dissipated, Kenichi casually performed Wind Release: Great Breakthrough, blowing away the sky-high dust.
It revealed Kumogakure, which had been literally smashed down by more than a meter.
Then he saw Tsunade lying in the middle, covered in blood, but her flesh was still slowly repairing itself.
And beneath Tsunade was another person.
Shizune.
Kenichi raised an eyebrow.
He jumped down and slowly walked to Tsunade's side.
Tsunade was slowly aging now.
Her chakra was almost completely depleted.
Just now, while dodging Kenichi's Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands, Tsunade had exerted all her strength.
But even so, she had only barely managed to survive.
"You... you didn't use your full strength, did you?"
Tsunade spoke weakly.
Shizune crawled out, tears streaming down her face.
She gritted her teeth, held a kunai, and charged at Kenichi, her blood-red eyes fixed on him.
Then she was pressed to the ground by Kenichi's hand, her head buried in the dirt.
"Yes."
Kenichi spoke calmly.
He had indeed not used his full strength.
Against a Tsunade who was severely injured, not fully recovered, affected by nuclear radiation, and even missing a fist, if Kenichi still had to go all out, he might as well find a block of tofu and bash his head into it.
However, Kenichi had used True Several Thousand Hands: Top Transformed Buddha.
He simply had not expected Tsunade to survive.
Although she was basically dead at this point, Kenichi would not give Tsunade a chance to recover.
The Mangekyo Sharingan in Kenichi's eyes began to spin.
He looked at Tsunade in front of him, his gaze focusing on her chest.
Then he saw the composition of Tsunade's body.
And then he saw...
The composition of her heart.
In Kenichi's eyes, blood slowly flowed down.
Kenichi remained expressionless.
He simply watched, continuously deconstructing Tsunade's heart.
Tsunade weakly tried to stand up and fight again, but she could not.
Her chakra was almost completely exhausted at this moment.
She could do nothing.
Tsunade closed her eyes, and her breathing slowly became steady.
Kenichi looked at Tsunade, who was continuously aging.
After her chakra was exhausted, Tsunade could not even maintain her appearance.
The current Tsunade no longer had the charm of a mature woman.
No wonder Tsunade feared aging.
Perhaps she simply did not want to face herself in this state.
"Deconstruct," Kenichi murmured.
Then he added, "Reconstruct."
Tsunade's eyes suddenly widened.
Then she saw a heart appear in Kenichi's hand.
An old, withered heart.
Her entire body began to rapidly grow cold.
A hint of relief flashed through Tsunade's eyes.
Tsunade felt her life force rapidly disappearing.
She seemed to see a light.
A white light.
A light that could bring peace to her soul.
She seemed to see Jiraiya, her grandfather, her grand-uncle, the old man, her younger brother, and Dan Kato waiting in that place.
"Let..."
Tsunade tried hard to say something.
But in the next second, she closed her eyes forever, her hand falling limply to the ground.
After losing her heart, Tsunade's vitality rapidly drained away.
Kenichi looked at the heart in his hand, deconstructed it again, then reconstructed it inside Tsunade's body.
He looked at the old, withered Tsunade on the ground, whose original appearance was completely unrecognizable, and shook his head.
Perhaps the current Tsunade was her true self.
Time had left its marks on her.
They had merely been covered by Tsunade's ninjutsu.
"Tsunade... Lady!"
Shizune crawled over, her head covered in blood.
She slowly crawled to Tsunade's side.
On her blood-smeared face, it was hard to distinguish between blood and tears, but her mournful cry echoed through the empty space.
Shizune tremblingly took out a money pouch from her clothes and placed it in Tsunade's hand.
Then she lay beside Tsunade, just as she had always followed Tsunade.
Then Shizune looked at Kenichi with her blood-matted eyes.
Kenichi understood what she meant.
So he raised the kunai, placed it against Shizune's chest, and pressed down hard.
Shizune trembled and died beside Tsunade.
Kenichi looked at Tsunade and Shizune.
They should have had a better future.
A future where they could live peacefully.
But for the sake of their inner convictions, they had torn that future apart with their own hands.
Kenichi had no choice but to personally send them on their way.
Looking at Tsunade and Shizune, Kenichi felt somewhat irritated.
He did not know why he felt irritated.
Although he had mentally prepared himself to kill Tsunade when he came, once he actually did it, Kenichi still felt annoyed.
After all, his relationship with Tsunade had been quite good before, and he had even borrowed Tsunade's superpower of always losing at gambling.
He had originally planned to research whether Tsunade's ability was a kind of causality manipulation or something else.
But now there was no chance.
"Sigh. War."
Kenichi shook his head.
However, from this moment on, the Shinobi World was about to usher in a new era.
An even stranger era.
But whether this era was good or bad still depended on how Black Zetsu handled things.
Kenichi looked around.
Kumogakure was gone now.
There was no trace that a village had ever existed here.
Kenichi took out a scroll, sealed Tsunade and Shizune inside, and then left the village.
Now that Tsunade was dead, Konoha had probably decided to surrender.
If that was the case, Kenichi wanted to see what choice Kumogakure would make.
"If those guys from Kumogakure are sensible enough, they can live. Otherwise, if they want to fight, let's finish it today."
Kenichi was somewhat irritated.
He looked at the scroll in his hand, his eyes filled with coldness.
He did not want to be in the middle of his research and have someone pop up to tell him that the Fourth Raikage A and Killer Bee of Kumogakure were waiting for him to fight.
That would severely affect his mood for experiments.
Therefore, Kenichi decided to first go to the Land of Fire and see what Kumogakure intended to do.
If they wanted to fight, he would resolve everything at once.
But before that, he still created a clone, sending the clone away from the Land of Fire with Tsunade and Shizune's corpses and toward another direction.
A gust of wind blew past.
Orochimaru looked up.
The leaves on the withered tree had fallen, swirling down into the mud.
Now, there were no other leaves on this withered tree.
Such a tree would soon be cut down, or it would slowly die in this forest.
"Teacher."
Kenichi's clone walked over and placed the scroll on the ground.
Orochimaru paused.
He did not turn around.
Kenichi's clone seemed to understand Orochimaru's meaning.
He directly dispersed himself.
Only then did Orochimaru turn around and pick up the scroll from the ground.
"It's as I expected."
Orochimaru looked at the deceased Tsunade and Shizune in front of him, a hint of helplessness flashing through his eyes.
Although he had heard from his disciple that Tsunade was waiting for his disciple in Kumogakure, and had therefore understood Tsunade's intentions, seeing it with his own eyes still left him with complicated feelings.
Orochimaru waved his hand, and a pit opened in the ground.
He placed Tsunade and Shizune into coffins, then buried them.
A grave mound appeared next to Jiraiya's grave.
Orochimaru picked up the wooden plaque he had carved earlier and placed it in front of Tsunade and Shizune's graves.
Then he stood up and looked at the graves before him.
He remained silent for a long time.
Only then did he turn and leave.
The wind blew through the falling leaves, sending them drifting from the trees.
The leaves brushed against the wooden plaque.
Carved upon it were the words:
[Hokage's Tomb]
.....
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