Chakra erupted violently from Tsunade's body, her long green cloak bearing the word "Gambling" flaring behind her in the gusts of power.
She clapped her hands together.
"Wood Style: Gambler's Avatar!"
A towering wooden giant rose behind her, equal in size to a fourth-stage Susanoo.
But this wooden construct was unlike any that Uchiha Hikaru had seen from Hashirama. It wasn't the serene Thousand-Armed Kannon he remembered—no, this was something entirely different. The wooden giant bore a vicious, snarling expression. Its back was carved with the character for "Gamble," and a string of wooden dice swung from its thick neck.
Uchiha Hikaru instinctively compared it to other Wood Style avatars he had witnessed—those summoned by Obito and Hashirama.
Hashirama's construct took the form of a Buddha, symbolizing his ideals of peace and harmony.
Obito's version was a featureless giant, its face marked by spiral patterns, shaped with the aid of the artificial being Tobi (Guruguru).
But Tsunade's? This was something far more personal. A gambler's avatar—fierce, chaotic, unpredictable. In a strange way, it made perfect sense. Gambling had always been her deepest vice and her only escape.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes and focused on Tsunade's chakra. The fluctuations were eerily similar to those he'd sensed from Hashirama's cells… yet there was a crucial difference.
In her case, the Wood Style chakra had been completely assimilated. It wasn't like with Yamato or Obito, whose bodies struggled to contain the foreign cells. Tsunade's own chakra had stabilized and fully merged with it.
He remembered helping Orochimaru recover from his last body collapse.
"Orochimaru must've done some kind of deal with Fugaku…"
That would explain it. The only way such a stable integration could occur was if the Hashirama cells had been transplanted, then repaired using a technique like Izanami, forcibly rewriting fate to allow Tsunade's body to fully accept the DNA.
Had it gone any other way, her body should have been eroded by the cells, not harmonized with them.
As Hikaru pondered this, his eyes remained fixed on the massive wooden gambler beneath Tsunade's feet. The chakra it radiated brought back sharp memories of battlefield opponents—of the Senju.
His gaze sharpened.
"This chakra…"
"Senju clan?"
Then, Saya's voice rang out behind him, cold and unyielding.
"I don't care who she is. I won't let anyone harm Lord Hikaru!"
Her Mangekyō Sharingan spun rapidly, pouring out pupil power like a flood. Blood-red chakra surged around her, brutal and dense, swallowing the surrounding light.
Her black hair whipped violently in the wind as the earth beneath her cracked and split.
Crimson chakra laced with faint violet surged outward—an incomplete fusion of Uchiha and something… other. Her Susanoo roared to life, rising in a humanoid form over the training grounds.
"Still only at fourth stage?" Uchiha Hikaru tilted his head, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Saya was strong—there was no doubt—but unlike him, she lacked the same depth of pupil power. And she'd only absorbed a third of the chakra from the Rōran Dragon Vein.
More importantly, her eyes hadn't started bleeding despite maintaining such a high level of Mangekyō usage.
"So the Dragon Vein chakra can restore pupil stamina…"
"But it's not enough to push her Mangekyō into evolution."
As for himself, his mutated eyes were no longer purely Sharingan. They had become azure blue, tinged with something deeper.
He finally understood.
His eyes weren't ordinary anymore. They had become preludes to the Rinnegan.
After all, Uchiha Madara, Sasuke, and the Sage of Six Paths had all awakened the Rinnegan. Their eyes turned purple upon awakening—but Sasuke's were unique, adorned with six tomoe.
Other Ōtsutsuki had different variations. Toneri's was golden. Urashiki could switch between blue and red six-tomoe Rinnegans.
Clearly, the colors and designs changed based on the wielder's unique ocular powers.
His eyes, for now, were azure.
But once fully awakened…
Even Uchiha Hikaru couldn't predict what they would become.
Just as he was lost in thought, Tsunade's wooden avatar lunged.
The gambler took the dice from its neck and lashed out—swinging them like a massive whip.
Saya's Susanoo reacted quickly, catching the whip in both hands.
But the moment contact was made, Tsunade's lips curled into a sly smirk.
The wooden dice-turned-whip suddenly snaked around Susanoo's arms, binding them tightly.
"Wood Style: Roll the Dice of Fate!"
"Big, big, big!"
The dice flared with green chakra, spinning wildly in the air before locking into place: three dots, two dots, two dots.
Tsunade's eye twitched in frustration.
"Are you serious? You couldn't even roll for an explosion?!"
Her plan had been to gamble on a high roll to detonate a powerful backlash.
But instead, nothing happened.
Saya narrowed her eyes, now analyzing the dice.
Her Mangekyō glowed brighter as she activated her ocular power.
"Amaterasu."
Black flames burst to life on the dice. But the heat licked at Susanoo's arms too, slowly creeping up the construct.
Then something unexpected happened.
The black flames swirled into shape, aligning with the arm's chakra flow—forming black magatama along the limb.
Hikaru's eyes widened.
"Not just Amaterasu… she's using Kagutsuchi."
Saya hurled the newly-formed magatama toward Tsunade's wooden avatar.
"Amaterasu: Yasaka Magatama!"
Three rotating tomoe, blazing with eternal black fire, tore through the air.
Tsunade's eyes flashed.
She clapped her hands again.
"Wood Style: High Stakes Scatter!"
The gambler beneath her condensed three chips of pure, volatile chakra in its hands and threw them to meet the incoming attack.
The chips clashed with the magatama midair.
There was a split-second of stillness—then blinding light erupted.
The explosion lit up the entire Uchiha District as if dawn had broken early. A violent roar shattered the air, sending shockwaves that uprooted trees and flattened nearby buildings.
Saya shielded herself as the force slammed into Susanoo's body.
Even Hikaru, standing back, raised an arm to block the debris.
As the light dimmed, Saya stared into the smoke with a frown.
"Amaterasu… was extinguished?"
It had never happened before.
But Uchiha Hikaru saw it clearly.
The clash of chakra natures—Yin-style Amaterasu against Yang-style Wood Style chips—had caused the black flames to destabilize and combust.
Amaterasu's claim as an "eternal flame" only held true against standard elemental chakra.
But in this case, the two opposing energies collided violently—just like a clash of Tailed Beast Bombs.
The explosion was not a failure.
It was a testament to just how far their powers had evolved.
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Send Power Stones
Bonus Chapter at 150 Power Stone
Second Bonus Chapter - 300 Power Stones
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