A barrage of harsh, ugly words came crashing down, and Tsunade staggered two steps back. Her lower abdomen ached fiercely from the kick, and her face went pitch black.
Having lived this long, she had fought in wars, endured curses, and taken the fall for others-what kind of depressing situations hadn't she seen?
Yet today, she felt truly aggrieved to the extreme.
Failing to beat Orochimaru meant losing face, watching the younger generation witness her wretched state, and getting surrounded and mocked by a bunch of town thugs. What angered her the most, however, was Miki Yūya, whom she had treated with her own hands.
This brat held not a shred of grievance and reasoned with no one. He was pure evil, latching onto people to curse them to death while wildly shifting blame, claiming she was the one who had ruined his character.
Tsunade's psyche exploded on the spot.
What the hell does your poor character have to do with me?!
I'm a doctor! I don't manage people's morals!
That stinking brat was born with a foul mouth and a black heart, completely lacking upbringing. What on earth did that have to do with my medical skills? Since when do doctors treat that?!
On the other side, Jiraiya had been poisoned by the snake, his entire body growing weak and unsteady. Coughing with a pale face, his combat power was completely shot.
Seeing the scene grow increasingly absurd, he could only force himself to step in and smooth things over, hoping to muddle through this hard battle first:
"Stop arguing, stop arguing!"
"Shizune, Yūya, and you friends from the casino, come help Tsunade fend off Orochimaru and Kabuto!"
"As long as you lend a hand, I'll personally guarantee that Tsunade's gambling debts will be settled immediately!
As for all of Yūya's treatment and medical fees, they'll be completely waived!"
Jiraiya's plan was simple.
First, stabilize these people and weather this crisis together; everything could be discussed easily after the fact.
As soon as these words left his mouth, not only did they fail to stabilize the situation, but they directly provoked Miki Yūya's malice.
He didn't reason at all. His gaze was overbearing and punchable, and every word out of his mouth was pure personal attack. Miki Yūya had already been furious at being dragged into this, and now Jiraiya wanted to send him up to fight?
"You have the nerve to call yourself a Sannin?"
"Naruto is a proper Ninja; risking his life on the front lines is his duty!"
"But I'm just an ordinary Konoha villager! I have no obligation to throw my life away for your Sannin feuds!"
"You just caught a tiny speck of worthless poison and you've turned straight into a puddle of mush!"
"You're just purely deficient in kidney and bodily Qi, your body's been hollowed out!
If you're old and useless, stop putting on a tough front!"
"Peeping at women bathing every day, with dirty thoughts and excessive indulgence, and now you're too weak to even stand straight!"
"And you still have the cheek to brag that you're a Toad Sage from Mount Myōboku? I think you should just rename yourself the Kidney-Deficient Sage!"
Miki Yūya's voice was loud and piercing, carrying pure malice without a shred of teasing or boundaries.
Jiraiya's face turned green instantly. How could Konoha have a villager with such low character? Low character was one thing, but how could this brat curse people so dirtily?
In his entire life, he had endured countless taunts from opponents, all of which he could brush off. Yet everyone more or less adhered to a code of morality and grand principles-who, like Miki Yūya, relied purely on personal attacks?
The group of thugs from the casino nearby were already bottling up anger, and seeing this, they immediately followed suit with a barrage of insults, becoming more and more unbridled:
"A pack of Sannin losers, huh!"
"One defaults on debts, one fakes illness, and one has a broken arm!"
"For Sannin, they can't even protect their own comrades, and on top of that, the guy's got kidney failure. What kind of men are they?"
"Is this what the Sannin are like? One fakes illness from kidney weakness, one's a hemophobic quack, and one's missing an arm. I could do better myself!"
"What? You have kidney failure too? No wonder a guy like you never goes to the bathhouse."
"Hey, don't go spreading random rumors!!"
These people usually couldn't touch Konoha High Command at all, let alone hold any reverence for them. Even if they had truly made contact, they probably belonged to the rabble.
Shizune, off to the side, was frantic and hurried to explain:
"Stop hurling random curses!"
Seeing Shizune step forward, Jiraiya and Tsunade felt a wave of relief. Thankfully, someone was still able to step up and speak for them.
"Lord Jiraiya doesn't have kidney failure. The liver is the organ that metabolizes snake venom. Lord Jiraiya has a bad liver, not bad kidneys. Kidneys are for filtering toxins, not metabolizing them!"
At that moment, the entire area fell into an eerie silence.
Jiraiya's face turned even greener. He looked at Tsunade, whose face was even redder!!!
Was this really the time for that? Did Shizune not look at the situation? Was the medical knowledge she had taught her meant to be used in a setting like this? Was that the main point here?!
"I... didn't I say it right?"
Shizune looked at everyone.
How would Miki Yūya know whether it was right or not? He only knew that his Haki was rising.
"Then his liver is shot and his kidneys are shot, he's ruined all over!"
"As expected of the trash trained by the Third Hokage. One old piece of trash trained three pieces of trash, mixed up in gambling, drinking, and drugs. One old geezer trained three disabled people: one with kidney failure, one hemophobic, and one with a broken arm."
"What Sannin? I reckon you and the Third Hokage could get together and form a trident, and the Third is the shaft!"
"And take that old geezer Jiraiya-low character is one thing, but every day he peeks at all sorts of messy things, and Icha Icha Paradise is always delayed!"
"Bah!"
[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +5]
[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +11]
[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +16]
Using the Sannin to grind Conqueror's Haki, even in a small setting like this, it went straight to double digits. This was awesome!!
Miki Yūya was loving it.
Shizune was completely dumbfounded.
She had genuinely never seen such a person, and for a moment, she had no idea what to do.
Upon hearing that Icha Icha Paradise was delayed, the casino boss flew into a rage.
"What, it's delayed?! Failing to respect your comrades is one thing, but how dare you fail us too?!
Beat him!"
With a wave of the casino boss's hand, a group of civilian thugs brandishing clubs rushed forward, paying no heed to the battlefield's life-or-death stakes as they went straight to beating Jiraiya to vent their anger.
"Don't, don't hit!!"
"Not the face!!"
Jiraiya's blushing face outweighed everything else.
Naruto, heavily injured and fallen on the ground, lay prone with his eyes narrowed slightly, watching in utter bewilderment.
The enemies hadn't even finished fighting, yet his own side had descended into chaos first.
Standing across the way, Orochimaru watched the entire farce with cold eyes and was thoroughly amused. As a pure Ninja—one who pursued only the extremes of power and life—Orochimaru was the least pressured person present.
"How truly pathetic."
"Jiraiya, Tsunade, I never thought that after all this time apart, you two would have fallen to this state."
"Even ordinary people can walk all over your faces now. You're getting worse by the year."
Orochimaru raised a foot and landed yet another kick squarely on Tsunade's face, sending her flying.
Yet Orochimaru's words became the straw that broke the camel's back, shattering the very last thread of Tsunade's sanity.
The terror of hemophobia, the softness of her body, the grief of her past-all of it was utterly pulverized by a monstrous, towering fury!
Right now, inside her heart, nothing remained but pure, unadulterated rage!
Orochimaru rushed forward once more, viciously kicking toward Tsunade's face with the intent of finishing it.
Yet the next second-
Hum!!
The Hundred Healings Mark on Tsunade's forehead instantly lit up!
Emerald-green Chakra flooded her entire body directly!
Her previously soft and stiff body instantly erupted with terrifying monstrous strength.
She raised a hand and deathly gripped Orochimaru's ankle in a tight lock.
With a crisp snap!
Orochimaru's entire foot was locked down dead, unable to move an inch.
Tsunade lifted her head, her gaze filled with fury. An aura resembling a wild beast burst forth from her body-pure, unadulterated, out-of-control rage.
"Get-lost!!"
Tsunade roared fiercely, her brute strength erupting completely as she threw a punch straight at Orochimaru.
Boom!!
The ground violently trembled, cracks crazily fracturing outward as dust soared into the sky.
Orochimaru was smashed heavily into the earth, his head spinning and his internal organs churning, completely failing to process what had just happened.
Before he could recover, Tsunade grabbed him by the collar with one hand and hoisted him out of the crater like a helpless chick.
All of her pent-up anger-from being cursed at by Miki Yūya, humiliated by punks, and mocked by the entire crowd-had nowhere to go, and she vented every bit of it onto Orochimaru.
With scarlet eyes and gritted teeth, Tsunade roared madly:
"Miki Yūya!! You better engrave this into your skull!!"
"You unbred brat!"
"I am not finished with you over today's ledger! I will absolutely not let you go!"
Simultaneously with those words, Tsunade's fist lashed out toward Orochimaru once more. The surrounding air was beaten straight into ripples by the blow, and Orochimaru's pupils dilated. The next instant, he felt his entire jaw split apart. The massive force warped his entire face, tearing his body away from Tsunade's grasp and sending him flying straight backward.
Mid-air, Orochimaru was beaten savagely and his mind went blank.
I didn't even hurl insults! The one making trouble was that villager! The ones egging it on were a bunch of thugs!
I just casually threw out a couple of taunts!
Why am I the only one pinned to the ground and beaten to death?!
Kabuto's scalp tingled. Just as he wanted to step forward to rescue him, the sound of rushing wind stung his face-Tsunade tore through the air, appearing right before Kabuto with a single kick. Just one kick.
Kabuto raised both hands to block, but that terrifying kick directly snapped the bone in his arm, sending him flying through the air.
As the dust across the sky slowly settled, Orochimaru and Kabuto-beaten savagely in succession-lay paralyzed on the ground, wracked with agonizing pain and fractured bones, unable to recover for a long time.
The two forced themselves up from the tearing pain, gritting their teeth to climb to their feet. Their muscles twitched and tightened, ready at any moment to weave hand seals for defense and meet Tsunade's next wave of fierce onslaughts.
Yet the next second, a scene unfolded that left the two of them utterly dumbfounded!
Tsunade, consumed by out-of-control rage and towering hostility, couldn't be bothered to look at them another second. She turned directly, stepping over the shattered stones across the ground, and marched murderously in the direction of Miki Yūya and the casino crowd!
Orochimaru's pupils shrank violently, his scalp instantly going numb. Every trace of his earlier arrogance was gone, leaving only the most extreme survival instinct-Tsunade had lost control.
"Kabuto, let's go!!"
"The target isn't us!"
"Evacuate the battlefield immediately!"
Kabuto had already had his arm bone snapped by that kick earlier, and cold sweat streamed from his body in agony. Hearing this, he didn't dare hesitate for a split second. Enduring the piercing pain, he propped up Orochimaru, and the two scrambled away haphazardly, not even daring to look back as they bolted from the battlefield and vanished in a blur.
Back on the battlefield, Tsunade's murderous intent locked entirely onto the crowd. Approaching with quick strides, she gnashed her teeth and cursed furiously, her anger soaring straight to the clouds.
"Miki Yūya! You unfilial, thoroughly unbred bastard!"
"Since no one taught you manners, today I'll step in on behalf of your parents to properly discipline you!!"
Turning her head, she glared murderously at the casino boss, her pent-up rage erupting completely.
"And you! A mere worldly civilian!"
"Over nothing more than a gambling debt dispute, you actually dared to gather a crowd to humiliate and threaten me publicly?!"
"Did you really think I, Senju Tsunade, am some soft persimmon anyone can knead and bully at will?!"
Everyone present fell silent instantly, leaving only the roar of the now-raging, beast-like Tsunade echoing across the open clearing.
The Ninjas who had been holding Miki Yūya watched Tsunade's appearance, hurriedly released him, and fled.
"A bunch of losers, too cowardly to even face the Sannin. Third-rate Ninjas like you will amount to nothing your entire lives!"
Miki Yūya showed not a hint of panic. Instead, he puffed out his chest, wearing a fearless, arrogant expression as he pushed right back:
"Stop leaning on your seniority! Who do you think you're trying to scare?!"
"We're all orphans here, so who's nobler than whom? Who's afraid of whom! If you've got the guts, bring it on!"
Hearing this, the casino boss-sporting two bruised, swollen eyes and a thoroughly battered face-felt the blood rush straight to his head. He grew instantly defiant, losing his fear completely.
As a civilian of the shinobi world, he had awakened the most absurdly outrageous Will of Domination of a Shinobi World Civilian!
The higher the tier of the powerhouse, the more I shall bully them! The more noble the status, the less I shall fear them!
Clenching his fists and adopting a professional offensive stance, the casino boss roared with overflowing confidence:
"Old woman, who do you think you are!!
It's one thing for Konoha villagers to bully me, but you, a Sannin and a Senju princess, actually dare to look down on me. Don't think that just because you're a princess of the Senju Clan, I'll be afraid of you."
"I am no pushover loser either!"
"I once received the true teachings of a peerless martial artist surnamed Ma! I've mastered top-tier Taijutsu-Mixed-Origin Intent Form!"
"Today I'll use this martial arts Taijutsu technique to properly cross swords with the ninjutsu of the legendary Sannin!"
Before the casino boss could even finish speaking, failing to finish his opening stance-
Bang!!!
A blur of shadow flashed with extreme velocity. Tsunade couldn't be bothered to listen to his nonsense, raising her hand to deliver a crisp, decisive punch!
The terrifying monstrous strength smashed squarely into the casino boss's face!
Before he could even let out a scream, the casino boss's eyes rolled back, his body instantly bowing into a shrimp shape as he passed out cold right where he stood, crashing straight to the ground and completely losing consciousness.
A one-second exit from start to finish; his so-called peerless Taijutsu hadn't even gotten the chance to display the slightest fraction of its power.
Miki Yūya, who had been held to the side, watched the whole thing clearly and wore a look of utter disdain:
* "Just as expected, another loser. A civilian is a civilian, a villager is a villager, and there's a chasm between villagers and civilians. How could a civilian's Will of Domination dare compare to the tyranny of a Konoha villager?" * "And Mixed-Origin Intent Form, my foot?!" * "With that level, the person who taught you wasn't any Teacher Ma at all!" * "It's a hundred percent that Ma Jiaqi guy who only knows how to strike poses! All flash and no substance, useless to look at!" * "You still have to leave it to me!!"
Finishing his rant, Miki Yūya refused to show any weakness at all, his aura surging wildly as he glared sharply and shouted:
"The Third Hokage is incompetent! The Sannin are all useless too!"
"All of you veteran powerhouses of the Shinobi World are totally undeserving of your reputations!"
"But I am different! I, Miki Yūya, do not yield to strength nor shrink from cowardice. I possess the aptitude of the Four Emperors!! I will definitely march toward the absolute strongest."
"You remnants of the old era, it's time to step down!!!"
An extreme burst of Conqueror's Haki aura exploded outward, a near-tangible pressure sweeping across the entire battlefield!
At this moment, even Tsunade-who was completely berserk and boiling with rage-visibly paused in her tracks!
She clearly felt an intensely powerful mental suppression envelop her, her spiritual strength actually momentarily shaken and slightly sluggish under Miki Yūya's terrifying aura!
Yet a furious Tsunade had long since thrown all caution to the wind; what Haki pressure, what aura-I am beating you regardless.
"All pretense! Die for me!!"
Tsunade let out an angry shout, charging forward like an explosion, carrying a shattering force as she threw a direct punch right at Miki Yūya's face!
The wind of her fist tore through the air, carrying terrifying momentum!
In the nick of time, Miki Yūya's Observation Haki instantly erupted to its absolute limit!
This time Miki Yūya predicted the trajectory of the punch seconds in advance, twisting his body to the extreme!
Whoosh!!
Tsunade's sure-kill fatal punch brushed directly past Miki Yūya's cheek, the shockwave shattering the air inches behind him.
He... he dodged it!!!
Having dodged the fatal blow, Miki Yūya didn't dare hesitate, instantly channeling the weakest and shallowest Armament Haki within his body!
Though it was insufficient to blacken his skin or harden his entire body, it was genuine Armament Haki coating his flesh!
He clenched his fist, throwing a backhand punch that struck precisely against Tsunade's cheek!
Bang!
A muffled thud exploded out!
The exclusive defense-penetrating power of Armament Haki took effect!
Even if it was only the most basic, faint Armament Haki, it far exceeded ordinary Taijutsu, genuinely injuring Tsunade's skin and flesh and making her clearly feel a sharp pain!
[Ding! Armament Haki +11]
Old hag, time for you to exit the stage!!
Miki Yūya was wild with joy inside.
Yet Tsunade, having activated the Strength of a Hundred Seal, possessed a terrifyingly monstrous self-healing ability for her physical body; this minor skin wound vanished in a flash, not worth mentioning at all!
Stung with pain, Tsunade's ferocity grew even more intense as she glared with crimson eyes:
"Brat! You've got some nerve acting so wild!!"
Before her words even faded, Tsunade instantly closed the distance with extreme speed, not waiting for Miki Yūya to strike a second time as she grabbed him in a locking hold!
Her powerful strength clamped vice-like around Miki Yūya's torso, smoothly following up with a crisp, violent body slam!
Boom!!
Miki Yūya's entire body was smashed heavily into the ground, his brain instantly ringing as the world spun before his eyes.
On the verge of unconsciousness, only a final absurd thought surfaced in his mind, once again a highlight reel of his life.
The Third isn't cutting it, and neither is his own Four Emperors self... then what about the Five Virtues?
Could it be that only the true ceiling, the uncrowned king of the Five Virtues, surpassing even the Four Emperors like Imu?! Could he be the only one capable of defeating the Sannin?
The next second.
Miki Yūya's vision went black.
Miki Yūya, filled to the brim with the aptitude of the Four Emperors, finally closed his eyes and passed out cold!
Having dealt with her biggest "enemy," Tsunade's anger still hadn't completely vented!
She abruptly spun around, staring fixedly into the distance at Jiraiya, who was shivering all over, covered in injuries, weak from poison, and had even been beaten up by the casino thugs.
All her pent-up frustration, the grievance of being humiliated, and the fury of being mocked transferred entirely onto this old companion who had played dead the whole time and gotten chewed out for being kidney-deficient and slacking off on updates!
Regardless of whether it was true or not, based on the very words Miki Yūya had just shouted, Tsunade figured there was a high probability they were true; Jiraiya this fellow had definitely faked being poisoned.
Tsunade rushed forward in giant strides, raising her hands to lay into him, beating him savagely while yelling angrily.
"Jiraiya, you still dare fake an illness?!"
"What snake venom paralysis! You purposely played dead, didn't you!"
"!"
"I didn't... Tsunade, listen to my explanation!!"
Thud thud thud thud!!
One muffled beating sound after another rang out continuously.
Jiraiya-already weak from poison and completely devoid of any counterattacking power-was pinned in place and frantically ravaged by a furious Tsunade.
His already pale face was beaten black and blue, and in the span of a short moment, he was directly turned into a pig's head, swollen to the point where his original appearance was completely unrecognizable.
The heavily injured Naruto simply didn't move a muscle, not daring to twitch even a bit, terrified that misfortune would befall him next.
"So terrifying!!!"
"Don't get caught in the crossfire!!"
Before you continue