"Ha, ha, ha! As expected, I couldn't hide it from you!" Daidao sheathed his sword, looking relieved.
"A mere fight between Genin-level children hardly warrants a powerful samurai like you stepping in!" Tsunade shook her head, then continued, "Other than me, there should be no one else here worthy enough to be your opponent!"
"I'm curious, do you even know who I am? And you still dare fight me?" Tsunade brushed aside the golden hair by her temple, looking utterly unconcerned.
"One of the famed Three Legendary Ninja—how could I not recognize you? If Lord Mifune hadn't stopped me, I would have come to challenge you long ago!" Daidao said fearlessly, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit.
"Then why aren't you listening to Mifune's advice now?" Tsunade shifted a few steps, maintaining the distance between them as she casually asked.
"That's because..."
Before he could finish, Daidao suddenly stepped forward and slashed down at Tsunade.
Fortunately, Tsunade had been prepared. She lightly shifted aside and dodged the blow. Then she struck the blade with her palm, and the tremendous force nearly knocked Daidao's sword from his hand.
"That's because you openly started a brawl in the street. As a law-enforcing samurai, it is only right for me to come punish you!" Daidao used Tsunade's force to retreat several steps, continuing his explanation.
"Oh? So, in other words, even without this incident, you would have found an excuse to fight me?" A look of understanding appeared on Tsunade's pretty face.
Heaven-Guarding Kick
Tsunade suddenly stomped down, instantly shattering the terrain several meters around her. The previously flat ground split apart and crumbled, making it impossible to find firm footing.
Yizhe estimated that she must have held back her strength. Otherwise, it should have been far more powerful than this.
Hah!
Daidao shouted and swung his sword, forcibly slicing the uneven terrain flat!
"What a nuisance!" Tsunade raised her brows at the sight, seemingly dissatisfied with the result of that move.
"Again!"
Daidao raised his sword and swung hard at Tsunade from afar. Three arcs of sword energy materialized out of thin air and slashed toward her.
"Nuisance." Tsunade was becoming impatient.
She gathered her strength and punched the ground. Massive chunks of earth and stone, mixed with snowflakes, were blasted from beneath the ground by her overwhelming force, forming a brief earthen barrier that blocked Daidao's three slashes of sword energy.
Tsunade's overwhelming power made Daidao abandon any thought of launching another close-range ambush.
Meanwhile, Daidao's incredibly fast sword-drawing speed made Tsunade wary as well.
Although ninja also used weapons and engaged in close-quarters combat with taijutsu, they naturally paled in comparison to high-level samurai.
Moreover, this was Tsunade's first time fighting such a high-level samurai, and for the moment, she could not think of a better way to deal with him.
Though she possessed regenerative power and was not afraid of injury, it would still cause permanent drain on her body. This was only a sparring match; there was no need for her to use such a forbidden technique.
"How about we settle this in one move?" With neither side able to break the stalemate, Daidao finally suggested ending things quickly.
Once word of his fight with Tsunade reached Mifune's ears, he would certainly be stopped.
"Fine!" The suggestion struck right at Tsunade's thoughts, so she readily agreed.
Daidao returned his sword to its sheath and rested his hand on the hilt at his waist, staring fixedly at Tsunade as he gathered his strength like a tiger ready to pounce on its prey.
Through the Byakugan, Yizhe clearly saw a large amount of chakra gathering in Daidao's right hand.
Tsunade, on the other hand, appeared much more relaxed. She was not as tense as Daidao, merely remaining carefully on guard.
Slash!
With Daidao's shout, Yizhe could not see how he had drawn his sword at all. He only saw a silver radiance seem to burst from Daidao's sheath, a full thirty feet long, streaking straight toward Tsunade.
That must have been Iaijutsu! It was truly terrifying! Remembering that he had previously fought an expert like this, Yizhe felt chills run down his back.
Hmph!
Tsunade made no unnecessary movements. She merely snorted coldly, gathered all her strength, and punched the ground.
This time, she seemed to have unleashed part of her power. The ground within dozens of meters collapsed under her monstrous strength, with earth and stone crumbling as the ground shook like an earthquake.
That streak of silver radiance was directly blocked by the earth and stone Tsunade had blasted into the air, vanishing without a trace.
Only after the earth and stones had settled did Yizhe find Daidao amid the rubble.
Daidao had lost all of his earlier high spirits. Tsunade's overwhelming Monstrous Strength had injured him, and he lay in the snow-dusted rubble in a miserable state.
"Do you concede now?" Tsunade slowly walked to Daidao's side and asked softly.
"I have no choice but to concede! One of the Three Legendary Ninja truly lives up to her reputation!" Daidao shook his head with a bitter smile.
"I've practiced swordsmanship for so many years and thought I had already reached the pinnacle of the sword. Yet before you, I was still utterly vulnerable!"
"Are ninja really this powerful? Or have samurai truly declined?" Daidao muttered to himself, deeply dejected.
Since childhood, he had trained diligently in swordsmanship, hoping that one day he could revive the samurai lineage and keep samurai from vanishing into history as relics of the past.
But today, before Tsunade, his dream had been mercilessly shattered.
Their duel could be called a clash between a peak samurai and a peak ninja, yet the samurai had been so utterly helpless before the ninja.
He suddenly understood why ninja had risen while samurai had gradually faded away.
Hearing Daidao's heartfelt words, Tsunade understood that he was not merely battle-hungry and seeking to challenge her.
The fit survived, while the unfit were eliminated. That was the law of nature.
The replacement of samurai by ninja was the result of time's test. She did not know how to comfort this simple-hearted swordsman.
"Such is fate!"
Daidao struggled to his feet, refusing Tsunade's treatment. Leaning on his sword, he sat blankly on the ground without moving.
Looking at this desolate samurai, like a broken sword, Yizhe found it deeply regrettable. A man like this should not be ruined here!
He did not dislike swordsmen. In fact, he was quite fond of such pure-hearted swordsmen.
Perhaps it came from the admiration he had felt in his previous life.
Back then, he had read many wuxia novels and had once yearned for the life of wandering the martial world with a sword at his side. Unfortunately, that had ultimately been nothing but a fantasy.
After he was reborn into this world, he learned of the two professions of ninja and samurai.
He had originally planned to fulfill the dream from his previous life and become a true swordsman.
But the reality that samurai had already been eliminated by ninja completely extinguished that thought.
The decline of samurai showed that the profession had unavoidable limitations. Yizhe could not go against the tide and choose such a declining path.
Besides, how could the prestigious Hyuga Clan of the Ninja World, along with his parents, have allowed such a rebellious child to appear?
Thus, he had once again been cut off from swordsmen.
Until today, when he saw a living swordsman like this, the heart of a swordsman within him began to stir once more.
It was as though he saw his old dream being carried on through this man.
He felt that he ought to do something!
He could not let this living swordsman fall into complete despair!
He could not let this swordsman waste away like this!
I spent more than an hour revising the end of this chapter. It finally doesn't seem quite so awkward anymore T_T. In the next chapter, the transition won't be so abrupt either O(≧?≦)O
I'll keep revising tonight T_T
I'm really exhausted. I really want to... (You guess →_→)
Before you continue