Chapter 20 — Almost Restarted
Tsunade looked puzzled and followed the direction Nawaki was pointing.
On the calf he'd clung to earlier, there was a wrinkled square slip of white paper. She peeled it off and saw three crookedly written characters on it:
Explosive Tag.
The paper was smudged with pale yellow dirt.
It was unmistakably the fake explosive tag Yami had casually written earlier as a decoy. No one had expected Nawaki to keep it on him the whole time—much less use it at a moment like this.
A flicker of approval flashed through Tsunade's eyes. She was just about to nod in acknowledgment—
When Nawaki, like a magician revealing his final trick, puffed up his chest and grinned smugly at her.
Yami couldn't bear to watch. He almost wanted to rush over and physically shut that "look how clever I am" expression down.
Sure enough, Tsunade's face darkened in the very next instant.
Mimicking Nawaki's gesture, she raised a finger and pointed at the diamond-shaped seal on her forehead. Seeing that Nawaki still looked completely confused, she sighed and spoke flatly:
"Did you forget… that I can also use the Strength of a Hundred Technique?"
The smug grin froze solid on Nawaki's face, as if an invisible hand had clamped around his throat.
Under Nawaki's horrified gaze, Tsunade stepped forward again—and proceeded to beat him down soundly for a second time.
Even though she deliberately held back her strength, Nawaki was soon left bruised and swollen, looking utterly miserable.
Still feeling unsatisfied, Tsunade turned her head and noticed Yami standing off to the side, watching the spectacle. She pointed at him, beckoning him forward.
Being dragged into the spotlight didn't irritate Yami in the slightest. In fact, he'd been looking for a chance to test his limits without relying on his trump cards. Getting one of the Legendary Three—Princess Tsunade herself—as a sparring partner was an opportunity that simply didn't come twice.
Just as Nawaki was about to shout and stop his friend from stepping into danger, he heard Yami say calmly:
"Lady Tsunade. Please instruct me."
He took his stance, feet firm, eyes burning with focus as he faced her.
"Good," Tsunade nodded faintly. "I never quite believed that a genin could clear both an S-rank and an A-rank mission on nothing but 'luck'… Now, I'm even more convinced of my judgment."
Yami didn't react much, but the battered Nawaki beside them stared wide-eyed, his expression a shattered mix of disbelief and despair.
After all, Yami had never deliberately mentioned those achievements to him. Meanwhile, Nawaki himself had been proudly boasting about his own failed assassination encounter just days ago.
In the field, Tsunade didn't activate her monstrous chakra-enhanced punches. Just as she had with Nawaki earlier, she chose to rely purely on physical strength, engaging Yami in taijutsu alone.
In the past, taijutsu had been Yami's weak point. But after weeks of brutal training with Might Duy—and learning the Eight Gates—this weakness had been thoroughly erased.
Bang—Bang—Bang!
Their figures crossed and clashed, fists and kicks colliding in a constant rhythm. Tsunade's style was famously direct and overwhelming, while Yami's steel-fist techniques—learned from Dai—were quicker, sharper, and more fluid.
After another direct exchange, Tsunade saw that Yami was still handling himself with ease. Her expression sharpened, and she began to increase her output. The terrifying force behind her punches finally started to show.
Caught off guard, Yami was blasted backward by a single strike. He twisted midair, forcefully stabilizing himself, then landed cleanly with a backward flip.
Seeing Tsunade finally get serious, Yami stopped holding back.
Revealing a few cards now wouldn't hurt.
With the system backing him up, he was confident that as long as he didn't literally kill himself on the spot, he wouldn't end up like Rock Lee—ten minutes of glory, six hundred episodes of recovery.
"Eight Gates…
First Gate—Gate of Opening, open!
Second Gate—Gate of Rest, open!
Third Gate—Gate of Life, open!"
Green chakra erupted instantly, surging like roaring flames around his body.
Across from him, Tsunade's expression hardened completely.
"Kid—don't overdo it!"
"Eight Gates Formation. Lady Tsunade—please instruct me."
With that, Yami didn't hesitate.
His figure vanished in a burst of green light as he shot forward like lightning, charging straight at her.
Faced with that speed, even Tsunade found herself in an awkward position.
If she went all out, she might seriously injure him.
But if she held back too much… she might actually get suppressed by this brat.
And that would be utterly humiliating.
Yami became a streak of emerald radiance, his assault relentless and unbroken, crashing toward Tsunade like an endless tide.
Tsunade responded with pure experience—precise blocks, efficient counters, flawless timing.
Blow for blow, strike for strike.
To everyone watching, the two of them were actually fighting on even ground.
Nawaki, watching from the sidelines, was already dumbstruck. He'd never imagined that this friend of his—usually so low-key and unassuming—was hiding strength this deep.
At this moment, Nawaki wished he could go back to before leaving the house and slap himself twice. Not only had he just taken a brutal beating from Tsunade, he now had to endure a psychological critical hit from his own friend.
A textbook case of: you don't want your brother to suffer, but you're even more afraid he'll start driving a luxury SUV.
Yami only grew stronger as the fight went on. The power granted by the Eight Gates surged through him in torrents, every punch ripping the air apart with a sharp crack.
Tsunade, too, shifted from cautious restraint into genuine excitement. It had been a very long time since she'd encountered a young ninja who could confront her head-on in pure taijutsu.
Their figures crossed again.
Yami darted low, launching a swift sweeping kick aimed at breaking Tsunade's balance—but she sprang lightly into the air to evade it.
"Fourth Gate — Gate of Injury, open!"
Yami decided to hold nothing back, opening the highest Gate he could currently sustain. His speed surged explosively once more.
Seizing the instant Tsunade was airborne with no footing, Yami lunged in. His right fist snapped forward in a ferocious straight punch, aimed directly at her wide-open chest.
Unable to borrow strength midair, Tsunade abandoned defense altogether. Once again, she chose offense over protection—throwing her own punch and meeting him head-on.
But she underestimated the further spike in Yami's speed.
Their fists passed each other in midair—no collision.
Instead, each carried its full momentum and slammed mercilessly into the other's chest.
Yami suffered from the disadvantage of an underdeveloped frame. His shorter reach meant his punch didn't fully settle before he was blasted backward by Tsunade's counter.
Yet in that lightning-brief instant of contact, a sensation traveled up from his knuckles—
Soft.
And shockingly elastic.
As Yami was sent flying, the green chakra surrounding his body vanished as if doused with cold water. His eyes went wide, his mind racing at breakneck speed.
This is bad… One wrong move and I might actually have to restart.
Tsunade landed lightly.
She glanced down almost imperceptibly at her chest, withdrew the fist she'd kept extended, and only then looked back at him.
Her face showed no emotion, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.
Nawaki, who hadn't quite grasped what had happened, chose this exact moment to speak up—utterly out of place:
"Sis… don't you think you might've hit him a bit too hard?"
Yami silently praised him: Good brother.
He immediately put on a convincingly exhausted act, collapsing flat onto the ground as if completely spent.
Though Tsunade had every intention of properly teaching this audacious brat a lesson, seeing him in no condition to continue, she could only let it go.
She grabbed Nawaki by the collar and turned toward the Senju clan grounds, dragging him along.
Only the faint redness at the tips of her ears betrayed that something about this exchange… had been far from ordinary.