Sorry, I Was Late

The rain poured down.

By the time Tsunade had climbed from the depths of the cliff to the surface, the golden hair behind her head was already in disarray. Her face had been stained gray by the swirling dust, and much blood and grime clung to her body, mixing with the rainwater and weighing her down all the more.

But even though she had always cared deeply about her appearance, even on the fiercest battlefields, she could no longer spare it a thought. Staggering through the puddles of the muddy ground, she sprinted toward Dan Katō.

Yet she had only drawn a little closer.

Tsunade's steps involuntarily slowed. Her pupils contracted sharply, her beautiful face turned deathly pale, and bluish veins could even be seen beneath her rain-speckled skin.

In the end, she stood there blankly.

Looking at the corpse that had been cruelly severed into two pieces not far away.

Even at the very end, Dan Katō had stretched out his arm, desperately trying to reach the necklace that had accidentally fallen to the ground. Deep within his blood-filled eyes, there was nothing left but profound darkness.

Splash—

The rain only grew heavier.

The puddle gathered in a depression in the ground completely swallowed the necklace he had treasured for so long, leaving only the tip of a green crystal exposed.

Raindrops struck the ground with a rapid patter.

"Dan?"

Perhaps she could not believe it, or perhaps the violent surge of emotion had crushed her reason for the moment.

At this moment, Tsunade seemed to have completely forgotten that she was still on a battlefield. Her entire body went weak beyond control, and even her legs trembled without end.

The scene of Nawaki dying 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 grief she had forcibly suppressed, the memories time had washed away—all of it flooded back into her mind with greater force, becoming a deep terror that ran through her entire brain.

The dark red blood that slowly flowed to her feet along the grooves in the ground, carried by the rainwater, became the deepest mark in her heart.

It was clearly the color she, as a doctor, knew best.

Yet now, merely seeing that flowing blood made it seem as though Tsunade could no longer even support herself enough to stand.

How had things turned out like this?

"How tragic."

"The last direct descendant of the Senju House."

The Third Raikage stood within the curtain of rain.

Having spent his life on campaign and endured countless battles, he seemed to see through her condition at a glance. There was even a trace of mockery in the Third Raikage's voice.

At this moment, he was no longer in a hurry.

Although the Cloud Village troops on the outskirts had been left behind because they could not keep up with his speed, they were now within the Land of Lightning. They were steadily closing in with unstoppable momentum.

The way he looked at Tsunade now was practically that of a cat toying with a mouse.

"Hashirama Senju, the man who once brought endless glory to Konoha, likely never imagined that his final clansman would meet her end on the battlefield in such a humiliating manner, did he?"

"What?"

"Can't move anymore?!"

The Third Raikage's massive, heavy body, like that of a brown bear, advanced slowly. The muscles in arms thicker than an ordinary man's thighs tensed as he clenched his fists, dazzling lightning coiling around them.

Lightning flashed through the cloud-filled sky.

Even the shadow cast by his advance seemed capable of blotting out every corpse and every trace of blood beneath his feet, mercilessly swallowing everything before him along with the rain curtain that obscured the sky.

He carried an utterly crushing aura.

A ferocious grin split his beastlike face.

"In that case, this old man will be coming over."

The instant his words fell.

The lightning wrapped around his body suddenly exploded.

His entire body shot toward Tsunade like a brilliant streak of light. A hand blade wrapped in violent lightning aimed directly at the vulnerable neck of Tsunade, who had completely lost her will to fight.

Tsunade watched the scene unfold before her eyes, but her body seemed utterly frozen, refusing to obey her mind.

In that instant, having already experienced countless battles, she could fully foresee what would happen to her the next second.

Is it finally going to end?

For some reason, she did not feel much desire to struggle.

This war and death that seemed as though they would never end—saving and killing, the endless dead buried on the battlefield whom she could never bring back no matter how hard she studied or improved her medical skills.

She had truly had enough!

However.

Almost at the exact moment the Third Raikage launched himself forward.

"Rumble—!!"

At some unknown distance away, a rapid roar suddenly rang out, like muffled thunder and yet like a sonic boom.

Before the violent tremors in the air could reach the battlefield where the two stood, the sight of countless trees in the distance collapsing and shattering had already entered the Third Raikage's peripheral vision.

That rampaging scene was practically identical to the way he himself had made his entrance earlier.

But even from the speed at which the rising dust shifted, the Third Raikage keenly noticed something.

That figure was absolutely faster than him—and more reckless!

"Who's there?!"

Almost instinctively, the Third Raikage, who had been charging forward just a second ago, abruptly gave up the prey within reach and reflexively assumed a defensive stance.

Before Tsunade could understand why he had stopped.

Her disheveled, wet golden hair had already been pulled into a straight line by the wildly howling gale.

The next moment.

A figure whose entire form became a blazing white line amid the gale appeared before the Third Raikage without warning, moving at an unimaginably terrifying speed.

He raised a foot.

"Thud!"

Like a great bell tolling.

The surrounding air, soil, dust, broken branches, pebbles—everything—seemed to be driven outward by the delayed, spreading force and airflow of that blow, forming ever-expanding spherical ripples around them.

In the narrow space where the bare foot met his chest, rings of blazing white Sonic Boom Rings burst forth, growing smaller one after another.

Limitless Technique · Full Power Version!

The explosive roar and hurricane that burst forth nearly swept the weak-legged Tsunade off her feet.

Tsunade only barely remained where she was by crouching down on pure battle instinct.

But the Third Raikage, who had just been in front of her, had vanished.

"Whoosh!"

The sound of air being pierced did not reach her ears until the next second, as if it had lagged half a beat behind.

Following the direction of the sound with her peripheral vision, she saw the Third Raikage's enormous, brown-bear-like body had been sent flying straight back more than a hundred meters in that instant.

Everything along his path had been blasted apart by the utterly terrifying shockwave, leaving behind a straight trench.

Even the gloomy, heavy curtain of rain seemed to have been cleaved apart by a massive axe.

All the way to the horizon.

Tsunade stared blankly at the scene, her expression frozen in that moment.

This sight, along with the image of the young man leaping into the air, became a beam of light that shattered all the gloom in her heart, forever seared into the deepest part of her memories.

"Whoosh."

But before she could react, she felt someone suddenly wrap an arm around her waist. Her body grew light, and the unfamiliar youth swept her up in his arms before leaping beneath the shade of a nearby tree.

When she lifted her head, the first thing she saw was a Konoha Headband.

Yet the face beneath it was far too young, making him unfamiliar to her.

Sahara Mizu laid Tsunade down beneath the tree roots. Turning his head, he saw the scattered corpses and traces of battle beneath the rain curtain, his voice slightly low.

"Sorry."

"I was late."

"..."

Tsunade looked at him, her sluggish mind seemingly unable to process it for a moment.

Her fingers unconsciously clutched his sleeve.

The rain grew heavier and heavier, occasionally washing over her dusty face, but she remained blankly silent.

However, Sahara Mizu did not continue looking at her. Instead, he turned his gaze farther away.

Roaring lightning lit up the horizon.

The Third Raikage, his upper coat blown apart by the kick, strode resolutely toward them from the deepest part of the rain curtain.