The moment Tsunade swung her fist, Kisame immediately blocked with his massive sword, Samehada, intercepting her right hand. Her left fist, however, brushed past his arm.

Screeeech!

The bandages on Samehada's body ripped apart, revealing its jagged, scaled surface. The living sword not only tore into Tsunade's right hand but also greedily devoured all the chakra gathered there.

"Hehehe, I told you," Kisame said, the corner of his mouth turning up in a proud smirk. "Your chakra is mine."

"Hah… hah…" Tsunade breathed heavily, staring at the complacent swordsman.

"The legendary Sannin is nothing special after all. Or… are you just the weakest of the three?"

"Hmph." Tsunade snorted, a confident smile spreading across her face. "You have already lost this battle."

"What did you say? Haha, where on earth do you get your confidence from… huh?!!" Halfway through his boast, Kisame suddenly noticed that his body was no longer under his control. He tried to move his right hand, but it was his left leg that moved instead. Kisame's eyes narrowed, and he looked at Tsunade in disbelief.

"What did you do? Could it be…?" Thinking of the moment her chakra had brushed against his shoulder, Kisame suddenly realized. In that single instant, less than a second, Tsunade had disrupted his body's neural signals. Is this the strength of one of the Sannin?

"I underestimated my enemy. The Sannin are indeed powerful," Kisame said, his voice laced with unwilling respect. "But don't think you can defeat me like this! I…"

Before he could finish, Tsunade leaped forward and punched him square in the left cheek.

BOOM!

Kisame had no time to react and was sent flying dozens of meters by the monstrous force, crashing heavily into a large boulder and shattering it into pieces.

"Next, it's just you," Tsunade said, shaking her fist. She no longer paid any attention to the swordsman buried in the rubble, her eyes now fixed on Itachi Uchiha, who had been standing there, unmoved, the entire time.

"Are you ready? The Uchiha's boy genius."

"Summoning Jutsu!" Before Itachi could make a move, Tsunade summoned Katsuyu. She knew that Itachi's genjutsu was extremely powerful and that it would be unwise to fight him alone. With Katsuyu, she could be awakened even if she was trapped in an illusion. The slugs she summoned this time were much smaller than before, only the size of her palm. She placed one on each shoulder, and another hidden in her cleavage.

Looking at Tsunade's serious expression, Itachi said slowly, "Lady Tsunade, I do not wish to kill you. I only want the life of Orochimaru, who is behind you. Please, do not stop me."

"Traitor!" Tsunade shouted angrily. "You don't wish to kill me? As if you can?. I remember you just used the Tsukuyomi, didn't you? It's impossible for you to use it a second time in such a short period. I know about the limitations of uchihas mangikyou sharingan"!"

Itachi shook his head. "I was indeed not capable of that before. But now, my body is no longer what it once was." As he spoke, a large number of wooden vines erupted from the ground at Tsunade's feet, binding her tightly in place.

"Wood Release again! How can the Uchiha use Wood Release now?!" Tsunade was numb to the shock. She was too exhausted to even be surprised anymore.

Orochimaru, still lying on the ground, said softly, "I think… it must be because of Hashirama's cells. Damn the Uchiha clan! How on earth did you get his cells?!" What puzzled Orochimaru even more was the Uchiha's compatibility with the First Hokage's cells. How… how did they do it? There had to be a mastermind behind all of this.

__________________________

"Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider donating Power Stones and joining our patreon

[patreon.com /coolperry]

for early access to future chapters.(+30 chapters)