The Yin Seal Is Complete!

Three in the morning.

The Senju estate's backyard.

Tsunade sat cross-legged beneath the old locust tree in the courtyard, her eyes closed.

At the center of her forehead, the faint outline of a diamond was slowly lighting up.

It flickered.

It had been doing so for three days.

Three days ago, the Yin Seal's reserves had reached a critical threshold.

According to Mito, it meant "the mark was about to form."

Chakra surged around the point on her forehead, compressing and solidifying.

Again and again.

With each cycle, the diamond grew clearer.

Tsunade focused her awareness inward, concentrating completely.

She could "see" the Chakra reservoir in her forehead.

Months of accumulation had filled that storage space, aided by her upgraded body and accelerated infusion.

It was full.

Completely full.

The last trace of free-floating Chakra was pressed into the reservoir.

Click.

It was not a real sound.

It was something she sensed in her mind,

like the final piece of a puzzle falling perfectly into place.

The light on her forehead suddenly flared.

The blurred diamond sharpened and took solid form.

A deep-purple diamond mark settled firmly at the center of Tsunade's forehead.

The Strength of a Hundred Seal.

It was complete.

The Strength of a Hundred Seal that she had originally expected to take a year to form.

Now, in less than half a year, it had fully formed!

Tsunade slowly opened her eyes.

The first thing she felt:

Lightness.

The feeling that something had been steadily drained from her for the past year was gone.

In its place came a sense of fullness, like a long-dry riverbed filling with water again.

She looked down at her hand.

A faint sheen moved across her skin, almost invisible to the naked eye.

But she could feel it.

Every cell was vibrating at a low frequency.

Vitality.

It was the outward sign of heightened cellular activity.

"First, test my baseline."

Tsunade stood and loosened her joints.

She did not release the Yin Seal. She remained in her normal state.

Clenching her right fist, she gave the training post in the backyard, as thick as a bowl, a gentle punch.

She put no force behind it.

Bang—

The post snapped in half.

Its upper section spun through the air and buried itself in the dirt ten meters away.

The break was smooth, the wood fibers torn cleanly apart.

Tsunade glanced at her fist.

No pain.

Not even a jolt.

Before, that same effort would have left nothing more than a fistprint on the post.

"Ten percent of Hashirama Cells' full activity," she muttered. "That wasn't a free bonus after all. Even my strength has gone up this much."

The improvement to Tsunade's base physique alone was already a fundamental transformation.

But that was not today's focus.

Tsunade took a deep breath.

Her hands formed a seal.

"Yin Seal—Release!"

The diamond on her forehead lit up, and deep-purple lines spread outward like vines.

Across her temples and cheekbones, down her neck, and over her entire body.

In an instant, Tsunade changed completely.

The feeling was hard to describe.

If before, water had filled the riverbed, now the dam gates had opened.

Every cell in her body was flooded with Chakra and activated.

Her cellular activity shot from ten percent straight to its limit.

One hundred percent.

Full power.

Hashirama State!

Tsunade looked down at the purple lines flowing along her arm.

Beneath her skin, she could faintly see her veins glowing.

She drew a kunai from her waist.

Without hesitation, she slashed the back of her left hand.

Blood welled up.

One second.

The muscle fibers at the wound's edges began to shift, drawing together visibly.

New skin spread over them.

Two seconds.

The bleeding stopped.

Three seconds.

The wound vanished completely, without even a scar.

The new skin matched the surrounding skin exactly.

Tsunade stared at the back of her hand for three seconds.

"...Absurd."

That was her verdict on herself.

Three seconds to fully heal a cut as deep as a kunai could make.

That recovery Speed was beyond the realm of Medical Ninjutsu.

It was sheer life force overwhelming everything.

Not enough.

Tsunade thought for a moment, then went to the courtyard wall and found a fist-sized stone.

She held it over her left forearm and brought it down with a crack.

Bone cracked.

A hairline fracture formed in one of the bones of her left arm. Pain shot to her brain. Tsunade's brow twitched, but she made no sound.

Then she watched the injury.

Three seconds. Chakra flowed toward the injury on its own.

Five seconds. The fracture began to knit together.

Ten seconds. She tried moving the fingers of her left hand. Every one moved freely.

Fifteen seconds. The bone had healed completely, and even the bruise had faded.

A bone fracture. Fifteen seconds.

Tsunade exhaled.

"What about a broken bone? A minute?"

She did not test any further.

Beyond that, it would no longer be a test. It would be self-harm.

Besides, there was another figure she needed to establish first.

The total Chakra stored in the Yin Seal.

Tsunade closed her eyes and turned her awareness inward once more.

The diamond on her forehead was like a door. Behind it lay a deep-purple "sea."

A sea of Chakra.

She tried to sense its boundaries.

It was deep.

Incredibly deep.

Months of accumulation, combined with a tenfold infusion Speed.

The equivalent of more than a year's Chakra reserves at a normal training rate had been compressed into that tiny diamond. This could hardly be called Chakra anymore.

It was a whole ton of Chakra!

Tsunade made a rough estimate.

At the Speed she had just consumed Chakra while running the Strength of a Hundred Seal at full power...

"I can maintain full power for at least... three hours."

Three hours.

Three hours with Hashirama-level passive abilities.

What did that mean?

In the Second Great Ninja War, even the bloodiest battle had lasted only two hours from start to finish.

Granted, she would need months to replenish her reserves afterward.

But that was more than enough.

Tsunade's thoughts churned. Then she closed her eyes and drew a deep breath.

Her training with the Yin Seal was complete.

Now she was going to try something she had long wanted to do but had never attempted!

The next instant,

Tsunade's eyes flew open!

"Eight Gates!"

"Open!!"