The air whistled in his ears, straining his eardrums.
Naruto flew forward with incredible speed.
He pushed off the ground with such force that it heaved. His body, accelerated by the explosion of a Chakra and Qi mixture in his legs, turned into a living projectile launched to intercept death.
Against the backdrop of the ruined castle walls, Tsunade froze. She was pale as chalk. In her eyes, widened with horror, reflected not the approaching enemy, but ghosts of the past. She saw Dan's blood. She saw the dead Nawaki. Hemophobia bound her body in invisible chains.
Orochimaru flew toward her.
His body elongated, his neck stretching, turning him into a living spear.
The Sannin's face was peeling off in strips. The skin on his cheeks burst, revealing the gray, dead flesh of a foreign body rejecting his soul.
He formed hand seals right in mid-flight.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Blade!"
The Kusanagi blade in his mouth was enveloped in a transparent, vibrating haze. Wind Chakra sharpened the legendary sword to unprecedented keenness.
He intended to cleave Tsunade in half, along with her fears and her great name.
"DIE!" the Snake hissed, releasing the blade.
Tsunade didn't even blink. She waited for the strike.
BAM!
A black flash appeared between her and the sword point.
Naruto crashed into the trajectory of the strike.
He didn't try to dodge or parry with a kunai—the sharpened Kusanagi would have cut through steel like paper.
He tried to catch the sword.
Cloak!
Red, bubbling Kyūbi chakra erupted from his pores, forming a dense, corrosive second skin. Two tails whipped up behind his back.
Qi Control: Condensation!
White energy flooded his palms. It compressed bones, tendons, and skin, turning his hands into diamond vices.
CLAP!
The sound was like a cannon shot.
Naruto's palms closed on the Kusanagi blade.
The sword stopped with a screech.
The blade froze not far from Tsunade. The wind surrounding the blade bit into the skin of the Jinchūriki's hands, forcefully cutting through the Cloak, slicing flesh to the bone. Blood sprayed in all directions, splattering onto Tsunade's face.
But the bones, saturated with Qi, held. The sword went no further.
Orochimaru, hanging in the air on his elongated neck, widened his eyes, watching the wind technique gradually fade.
"You again?!" there was genuine, almost childish bewilderment in his voice, mixed with growing rage. "Why don't you just die already?!"
A cold, slippery thought flashed through the Sannin's mind, making him freeze.
Forest of Death—I had to retreat to avoid attracting attention. The Residence Roof—Sarutobi was there with the ANBU. Now—here in Tanzaku, when I was a step away from victory...
Every time his hand reached for this boy's life, circumstances formed an insurmountable barrier. As if Reality itself was stacking the deck, protecting this vessel.
This is no longer luck, the Snake realized, feeling an inexplicable chill. This looks like... Providence? Does the world itself keep him safe?
This thought enraged him even more. Orochimaru hated the very concept of fate. He lived to bend the rules of nature, not to submit to them himself.
The Uzumaki growled.
His sandals carved deep furrows in the ground—the Sannin's inertia pushed him back toward Tsunade, but he braced himself, directing Qi into the earth, becoming an immovable monolith.
Snake pupils narrowed.
He remembered that this brat was tough. Brute force couldn't move him; a strange power made his skin harder than iron.
"You're in the way," the Sannin threw out coldly.
The Kusanagi sword had a property many forgot about. It could elongate almost instantly.
"Die!"
The blade shot forward sharply, slipping through the blonde's clenched palms.
The speed was too high.
CRUNCH.
The sword plunged into Naruto's chest.
It pierced ribs, went through the right lung, and exited the back, passing dangerously close to the spine.
Tsunade screamed.
Orochimaru grinned triumphantly. He jerked his head, trying to twist the blade inside the wound to turn the presumptuous brat's insides into mince.
"And here is your end, little monster!"
But the sword didn't budge an inch.
The Uzumaki didn't fall. He didn't even stagger.
Instead of sinking to the ground, he took a step forward, impaling himself further on the blade.
He tensed every muscle of his torso.
Qi Control: Iron Shirt.
Muscles infused with Qi clenched around the steel with the force of a hydraulic press. They clamped the blade inside his body, preventing Orochimaru from pulling it out or moving it.
Naruto slowly turned his head.
Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto his vest. His face was pale, covered in sweat.
But his eyes...
They were bright scarlet. A vertical pupil burned with wild, primal fire. In this fire, there was no madness of a beast. There was an iron, human will.
Naruto looked at Tsunade.
"I told you..." he rasped, every breath coming with a gurgling sound. "That I won't croak."
Tsunade looked at him, not breathing.
Her vision doubled.
She saw Nawaki's back running into battle. Saw Dan's back falling dead.
They left, died, and left her alone.
But this boy...
He refused to die.
A sword stuck out of his chest, but he stood firmly, legs wide apart, shielding her from the monster. He took a blow that would have instantly killed a Jonin.
"My dream is—Hokage..." Naruto spat out along with blood. "And a Hokage doesn't let his own die... Even if they are... old, cranky drunks."
Something snapped in Tsunade's head.
The sound of shattering glass.
The wall of fear she had been building for years crumbled into dust.
Rage.
Pure, hot, blinding Senju rage flooded her veins. Rage at herself. Rage at Orochimaru. Rage that she was again letting someone die for her.
"Enough!" she barked.
The green glow of the Byakugō on her forehead pulsed in rhythm with her rising anger.
Tsunade stepped forward.
She grabbed the Kusanagi blade with her bare hand, right between the young Chunin's chest and the Snake's mouth.
Her palm was cut, blood sprayed.
But Tsunade seemed not to notice. She squeezed the blade so hard the steel creaked.
The Senju yanked the sword toward herself, pulling the stunned Sannin, who was still connected to his own weapon, closer.
"You..." the Snake hissed, trying to unclench his jaw, but it was too late.
Tsunade swung her other arm.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY PEOPLE!"
Tsunade's fist crashed into Orochimaru's face.
It wasn't just a punch. It was an explosion of concentrated chakra.
KA-BOOM!
The sound of impact drowned out all surrounding noise.
Orochimaru's face—or rather, the remnants of the mask of another's face he wore—simply exploded. The jaw shifted; the neck elongated and deformed with a crunch.
He was thrown back with such force as if hit by a train.
He flew a hundred meters, smashing through the remnants of the castle's stone walls, raising clouds of dust, and crashed into a cliff in the distance, leaving a crater in it.
The Kusanagi sword slipped out of Naruto's body, flying away with Orochimaru.
The Uzumaki staggered. With a last burst of will, the cloak began to dissipate. Consciousness was slipping away.
He started falling backward.
But he didn't touch the ground.
Tsunade caught him in her arms.
Her hands were covered in blood—hers and his. But she no longer cared.
"Fool," she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. "What a fool you are..."
From the sky, landing heavily and loudly, fell an alarmed Jiraiya.
"Tsunade! Naruto!"
He saw the blood. Saw the hole in his student's chest. His face turned white.
"Is he alive?"
"Alive," Tsunade replied harshly. Her palms were already glowing green, covering the blonde's wound. "I won't let him die."
In the distance, in the pile of stones, a body stirred.
Orochimaru slowly rose. His movements were unnatural, mechanical.
He looked monstrous. Half his face was missing, exposing flesh and bone. His body, already rejecting him, began to literally fall apart after Tsunade's blow. His left arm hung by a shred of skin.
But he stood.
He looked at the trio.
An enraged Jiraiya.
Tsunade, with bloodlust burning in her eyes.
And the Jinchūriki who, despite a mortal wound, was still breathing.
Thump.
Kabuto was already rushing to him, also beaten and barely alive.
The odds were not in his favor.
"This is... not over," Orochimaru rasped with malice, spitting out a piece of his own tongue. "We're leaving."
He grabbed the arriving Kabuto with his healthy hand and sank underground, disappearing into the hole Manda had left.
The Battle of the Sannin was over.
But for Naruto, the battle for life was just beginning.
Tsunade leaned over him; for the first time in many years, her hands didn't tremble as she did her work.