Six Gates! Blue Steam!

Chakra surged through her meridians like a tidal wave.

First Gate: Gate of Opening.

It was second nature now. The limits on her brain lifted, and the world grew sharp and clear.

Second Gate: Gate of Healing.

Her fatigue vanished. With the Strength of a Hundred Seal active, her body was like an engine that would never run out of fuel.

Third Gate: Gate of Life.

Her skin reddened, and veins bulged. Her strength and speed climbed another level.

But this time was different.

The power surging through her body was several times greater than before.

The immense Chakra released by the Strength of a Hundred Seal overlapped with the Eight Gates' explosive mechanism and resonated with it.

It was like throwing another nuclear bomb into a reactor.

"Keep going."

Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain—open!

Dark red spread across her body. Green steam poured from her skin.

Last time she had opened four gates, her body had sounded the alarm.

This time?

Tsunade rolled her neck.

She felt nothing at all.

The Strength of a Hundred Seal drove her cells into full activity, repairing tiny tears in her muscle fibers the instant they formed.

The side effects of the fourth gate were completely canceled out.

"Just as I thought."

Tsunade took a deep breath.

"Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit—open!!"

Voom—!

The steam around her body suddenly grew three times denser.

The ground sank beneath her feet, splitting into a web of cracks.

Her power surged again.

Flickers of blue flame even appeared around her.

Tsunade felt the Chakra inside her burning furiously.

Yet the reserves in her Strength of a Hundred Seal had barely budged.

For her now, the cost of the fifth gate was almost nothing!

"In this state..."

Tsunade looked at her hands, wrapped in green steam, and her heart raced.

"Can I keep going?"

Last time, four gates had been her limit.

Back then, she had judged that with her physical endurance, the fifth gate would be a stretch and the Sixth Gate nearly impossible.

But that was without the Strength of a Hundred Seal.

Things were different now.

With the Strength of a Hundred fully unleashed, her cells had Hashirama-level vitality. It was like giving her body a cushion of limitless durability.

The strain of the Sixth Gate?

She could take it.

"Let's do this!"

Tsunade's eyes widened as she drove her Chakra to its limit!

"Sixth Gate: Gate of View—open!!"

BOOM!!!

A deafening blast rang out.

With Tsunade at its center, the ground within a ten-meter radius exploded!

Stones, dirt, and shredded grass flew skyward, swept up by a visible shockwave!

The color of her skin shifted from dark red to deep crimson, and then—

It changed.

Tsunade froze.

The thick green steam coating her body was changing color.

From emerald green.

To azure.

To vivid blue.

Finally, it became a deep Blue Steam that engulfed her entire body like flame!

Blue Steam.

Tsunade's eyes widened.

"That's not right."

She rapidly searched her memory for everything she knew about the Eight Gates.

Might Guy only entered the Blue Steam state when he opened the seventh gate.

It was the hallmark of the seventh gate, the Gate of Wonder.

She had only opened six.

Six gates!

Why had she already reached Blue Steam?!

Deep-blue flames burned around her body.

The heat distorted everything in her sight.

The earth beneath her feet began to crack, dry out, and char.

Tsunade looked down at herself.

Blue light enveloped her, and power boiled in every cell.

She suddenly understood.

"The steam's color... depends on the concentration of burning Chakra and the vitality of the body's cells."

Might Guy had an ordinary human body.

He had to open the seventh gate to reach the threshold where his Chakra steam changed color.

But she was different.

Senju constitution. Uzumaki bloodline. The Strength of a Hundred Seal fully unleashed. Hashirama-level cell vitality.

Even with the same six-gate release,

The concentration and intensity of the Chakra burning inside her had already surpassed what an ordinary person could achieve with seven gates!

"So... my Sixth Gate can hit as hard as someone else's seventh?"

Tsunade grinned.

"That's ridiculous."

It felt incredible.

But in that same instant, she realized there was a problem.

She had too much power.

So much that she didn't know where to put it.

Every muscle in her body screamed to let loose.

To erupt.

To destroy.

She was like a balloon inflated to its limit. If she didn't let some pressure out, she would burst.

"No... I need somewhere to let this out..."

Tsunade gritted her teeth and kicked off the ground.

Whoosh!!

She vanished.

At the speed granted by six gates and Blue Steam, the naked eye could no longer track her.

Ten seconds later.

Deep in Konoha's Back Mountain, in an empty valley.

Tsunade appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the valley.

She had held it in as long as she could.

"Hah—!!"

One punch.

Straight into the cliff before her.

BOOM!!!!!

The entire cliff face—a stretch of rock dozens of meters high and wide—

Crumpled under that single punch like a biscuit crushed beneath a giant's foot.

Cracks spread from the point of impact at the speed of light.

The next second, the entire cliff face caved inward!

Broken stone poured down like a Waterfall, and dust billowed into the sky.

It still wasn't enough.

Tsunade turned and charged the cliff on the other side.

"Again!!"

One punch. Two. Three.

Every blow struck like a small earthquake.

The valley rapidly "expanded" under her assault.

The cliffs on both sides were forced back more than ten meters. Deep craters pitted the ground.

The whole thing lasted less than a minute.

But during that minute, in Konoha's residential district—

"Huh? An earthquake?!"

A woman out buying groceries early that morning stopped in surprise. The ground shook unmistakably beneath her feet.

"Mom! The table's shaking!"

"Earthquake! Run!"

On Konoha's main street, pedestrians crouched and covered their heads.

Vendors' goods rattled to the ground.

Roof tiles came clattering down.

Even the stone faces of the three Hokage on the Hokage Rock trembled slightly.

In the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had just lit his pipe and was about to begin the day's first document.

Then the tremors reached him.

The teacup in his hand shook twice, spilling tea.

"Hmm?"

The Third Hokage frowned.

An earthquake? No. That frequency and intensity... it wasn't natural.

Someone had caused it.

He set down his teacup and walked to the window, looking toward the source of the tremors.

The Back Mountain.

"Someone, come."

A masked figure appeared without a sound.

"Investigate the Back Mountain."

"Yes."

The figure vanished.

The Third Hokage's gaze darkened. He held his pipe between his teeth without taking a puff.

Who in Konoha could cause tremors on this scale?

Before long, the ANBU returned.

"Third Hokage, sir."

The ANBU knelt on one knee, hesitation clear in his voice.

"Who was it?"

"...Lady Tsunade."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nearly dropped his pipe.

"What?"

"In the valley east of the Back Mountain. Lady Tsunade is there alone. The valley has been..."

The ANBU paused, apparently searching for the right words.

"The terrain had been reshaped."

Hiruzen Sarutobi was silent for three seconds.

Then he set his pipe on the desk.

"Lead the way."

When the Third Hokage stood at the edge of the valley and looked down,

he fell silent for a long time.

The narrow V-shaped valley had become a broad U.

The exposed faces of the cliffs were too smooth to have been made by fists. They looked more like something a giant beast had gnawed away.

The valley floor was a wreck.

Deep craters, fissures, piles of rubble.

Not a single patch of ground remained intact within a hundred-meter radius.

And in the middle of it all, Tsunade sat on a broken rock.

The Blue Steam had dispersed, and the Hundred Healings markings had receded.

She was leisurely rolling her wrists and loosening up.

A satisfied smile rested on her face.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep breath and jumped down.

"Tsunade."

"Hey, old man." Tsunade looked up and grinned, not surprised in the least. "You got here pretty fast."

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the ruins around them, then at Tsunade.

He opened his mouth, but in the end, he asked only one question.

"When did you get this strong?"

Tsunade tilted her head and thought about it.

"About... ten minutes ago?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi: "..."

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

First thing in the morning.

An eighteen-year-old girl had blasted the Back Mountain apart.

And she was the First Hokage's granddaughter.

Hiruzen Sarutobi opened his eyes again, his gaze sharpening.

"This matter..."

"I know, I know." Tsunade waved a hand, cutting him off.

"Can't let anyone else know."

She stood and brushed the dust off her backside.

"Relax. I'm not stupid."

Hiruzen Sarutobi studied her.

There was none of the uncertainty one might expect from an eighteen-year-old in her eyes.

Only clarity and conviction.

The Third Hokage was silent for a moment, then turned and gave the ANBU an order.

"As far as the public is concerned, today's disturbance on the Back Mountain was a landslide caused by a shift in the underground water flow."

"Silence all witnesses. S-class secrecy."

"Yes, sir."

The ANBU vanished.

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned back to Tsunade. He looked as if he wanted to say something.

In the end, he merely put his pipe back in his mouth and slowly exhaled a stream of white smoke.

“Tsunade.”

"Hmm?"

"If the First Hokage were still here, he'd be very happy."

Tsunade froze for a moment.

Then the corners of her mouth slowly lifted.

"Of course he would."

She stretched and started walking back.

“After all, I'm going to be the woman who becomes the Fourth Hokage.”

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched her go.

Smoke curled up from his pipe.

Suddenly, he remembered something.

A few days earlier, Danzo had come to him and asked to put Tsunade on Root's watch list.

He had refused at the time.

Now, though...

Perhaps he needed to reconsider that decision.

Not to put Tsunade on the list.

But to make absolutely sure Danzo never learned what had happened today.

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a hard drag on his pipe and turned to leave.

His steps were quicker than when he had arrived.