On the way to the training grounds, Tsunade's brow remained locked in a tight scowl. No matter how much she accelerated, she couldn't close the gap between her and Saiki.
She realized with a heavy heart that Saiki's physical power wasn't the only thing that had changed—his entire mindset had undergone a volatile transformation.
Suppressing her frustration, Tsunade decided she needed to talk to him before she actually started the beating. If he went astray during this rebellious phase of his youth, the consequences would be catastrophic for the village.
She slowed her pace, catching up as Saiki finally stopped in a wide, open meadow on the outskirts of the village.
"You brat! Hold it right there!" Tsunade yelled, hands on her hips as she struggled to catch her breath.
Saiki turned around, admiring the faint pink flush on her cheeks. He smirked. "What's the matter, violent woman? Out of breath already?"
Tsunade flared up again, but this time she stayed her hand. She took several deep, calming breaths to steady her nerves.
"Saiki, your behavior in the Hokage's office today was incredibly impulsive. Do you have any idea what would have happened if I hadn't stepped in?" she asked, her voice deadly serious.
Saiki clicked his tongue. He could still feel the lingering weight of a sensory scan on them.
He pulled a kunai from his pouch, blurred through a few hand signs, and slammed it into the dirt. The moment the barrier activated, sealing them from external observation, Saiki's expression turned cold. "I was just being honest. I'm not a Leaf ninja, and that old geezer has been plotting against me since day one. You felt those eyes watching us just now, didn't you? He's still doing it."
Tsunade frowned. She had indeed sensed the Telescope Technique. After a long silence, she tried to reason with him. "Saiki, the village's methods aren't always perfect, I know that. But as the Hokage, he is responsible for the safety of everyone in this village. Your defiance only places a target on your own back."
Saiki's lips curled into a mocking, bitter smile. He looked at Tsunade with a gaze filled with pity. "Sister Tsunade, please stop lying to yourself. Do you actually believe the nonsense you're spouting?"
Even though Saiki didn't want to hurt her, his resentment toward her for abandoning him—and her current attempt to play the "loyalist" teacher—sparked his anger.
Tsunade's face went dark instantly. She suppressed her roar, scolding him instead. "Stop being so arrogant, brat! You don't understand the complexities of the adult world. You will either learn to obey, or you will have to leave Konoha. This attitude of yours is a suicide note."
The "new" Saiki was done with submission. In the past, he had hidden because he was weak. Now that he had the power to stop anyone from shitting on his head, he refused to act like a submissive victim.
"Suicide? I'd like to see them try. And what about you? You're the one who brought me to this dump, then abandoned me here, and now you're telling me to leave? Who gave you the right to lecture me? If it weren't for you, I would have left this pathetic village a long time ago!" Saiki's voice was defiant and full of righteous indignation.
His words struck Tsunade like a physical blow to the heart. It was the truth: she had brought him here, and she had fled because she didn't know how to handle their intimacy. Facing his accusations, she felt a paralyzing mix of guilt and fury.
"You think you're so tough?! You think you can just talk back to me?! If I don't give you a proper thrashing today, I'll take your damn surname and call you 'Master'!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Saiki grinned. "I would love for you to take my surname, Tsunade."
She froze for a second, then realized she'd been teased again. The brat was playing with her!
Her teeth ground together, and her knuckles cracked as she balled her fists. Her light-brown eyes burned with a fire that promised a world of pain.
"What the hell are you thinking?!"
With a surge of resolve, Tsunade lunged. Her fist, wreathed in a terrifying aura of compressed chakra, tore through the air with a roar.
This time, Saiki didn't dodge. He intended to break her spirit through raw dominance. He tightened his own fist, lightning crackling across his skin as he met her charge head-on. Two identical "Chakra Enhanced" strikes collided in mid-air, triggering a deafening, earth-shaking boom.
Chakra discharged in a violent, expanding wave, shredding the grass for fifty feet in every direction.
Tsunade was widely considered the physically strongest human in the Shinobi World. But Saiki was a freak of nature. His body had been tempered by Pre-natal Qi and bolstered by the dual cultivation breakthrough. With the added multiplier of Senjutsu chakra, his raw power had reached an unprecedented, superhuman level.
Fist against fist, neither of them yielded an inch. The air between them groaned and distorted as the pressure built toward a breaking point.
"Is this all you've got, brat?!" Tsunade yelled. Frustrated by the stalemate, she doubled her output. She refused to believe a snot-nosed kid could match her in a test of pure strength.
Saiki just laughed. He was enjoying the sensation. Slaughtering people with a sword was efficient, but it lacked the visceral thrill of a real brawl.
"Come on, Sister Tsunade! Is that really the best you can do?" Saiki taunted.
Enraged, Tsunade flooded her entire system with chakra. The air around her fist solidified, looking like it could shatter a mountain with a single tap.
"TAKE THIS!"
She let out a primal scream. Her fist became a blur of absolute kinetic energy.
Saiki's eyes grew solemn. He didn't back down. He focused his own chakra into a singular point on his knuckles and met her final charge.
BOOM!!
The collision was apocalyptic. The atmospheric pressure between them became a solid wall, then exploded. A massive shockwave blasted outward, leveling the meadow and turning the soil into fine powder.
Every one of Tsunade's punches carried enough force to liquefy a man, but Saiki absorbed the punishment with his inhuman constitution and his own Senjutsu-enhanced counter-force.
Tsunade, however, was beginning to feel the strain. She had given him a medical check-up not long ago, but in the short time since, his body had become impossibly denser and tougher.
Hitting Saiki felt like punching a mountain of solid, enchanted steel. The recoil was traveling up her arm, making her bones scream in protest.
Back at the Hokage's office, the moment Saiki set up the barrier to block the Telescope Technique, Danzo had immediately used it as evidence of the boy's "treachery."
Tsunade's chakra eventually shattered the barrier, and the image flickered back to life, though it was now distorted by the massive energy discharge, looking like a static-filled screen on an old television.
On the field, the two warriors traded a frantic series of blows. Fists whistled, and shockwaves erupted with every exchange.
Tsunade was throwing haymakers, and Saiki was meeting them blow for blow, refusing to retreat.
Saiki's battle-lust was soaring. He hadn't felt a rush like this in a long time.
Tsunade, however, was becoming increasingly alarmed. Initially, she had held back, terrified of accidentally killing him. But as she dialed up her power to 100%, she realized to her horror that Saiki wasn't just surviving—he was thriving.
"How many trump cards is this brat hiding?!" Tsunade thought, her frustration mounting as she ramped up her aggression.
Suddenly, Saiki flickered, vanishing from the path of her next punch and reappearing several dozen meters away.
"What's the matter? Can't handle it? Ready to run?" Tsunade mocked, panting heavily.
Saiki ignored her taunt. He took a long, slow breath. The lightning around him grew blinding, and his aura underwent a qualitative shift.
"Sister Tsunade... I'm going to stop playing now." Saiki's voice was low and deadly serious.
In a fair fight where he didn't want to actually hurt her, Saiki was at a disadvantage. His chakra reserves were massive, but they couldn't compare to Tsunade's "Strength of a Hundred" storage. He wasn't built for a war of attrition.
Seeing Saiki's shift in posture, Tsunade's instincts screamed at her. She realized the real fight was starting.
"Bring it on! Let's see how strong you really are when you stop hiding!" Tsunade roared, lunging at him again.
They collided once more. It was a pure clash of wills and fists. Each strike contained enough power to level a city block.
The air itself seemed to shred under the pressure, producing a series of high-pitched, agonizing whistles.
The battle had moved beyond the comprehension of ordinary ninja. Even a Jonin would have found it hard to believe two humans could generate this much raw, kinetic violence.
This time, Saiki didn't hold back. He channeled a heavy dose of Senjutsu chakra into his fist. The blow was powerful enough to knock a Tailed Beast unconscious. When their fists met, Tsunade's defense finally buckled, and she was launched backward like a cannonball.
She tumbled through the air, barely managing to land on her feet after several rotations. The moment she stopped, her internal organs heaved, and a metallic tang filled her mouth.
She looked up at Saiki, her eyes wide with total, unadulterated shock. She couldn't process the fact that she had just been physically overpowered by a child.
Seeing the thin trail of blood at the corner of Tsunade's mouth, Saiki's triumphant expression vanished, replaced by instant, frantic worry.
"Sister Tsunade! Are you okay?!" In a flash of speed that looked like literal teleportation, Saiki appeared in front of her and dropped to a crouch, reaching out for her.
Saiki's explosive speed terrified her. If he had used that velocity during the actual fight, he could have decapitated her before she even realized he'd moved.
But he wasn't attacking. He was looking at her with genuine, desperate concern. A warmth spread through Tsunade's chest, but it was quickly replaced by a flash of competitive shame. She couldn't believe she was being pitied by this brat.
She took a breath, forcing her roiling chakra to settle. As Saiki reached for her hand, Tsunade—who was looking down—suddenly let a cold, triumphant smirk touch her lips.
In the next heartbeat, she snatched Saiki's wrist. With a violent pull, she used his momentum to slam him into the dirt and pinned him beneath her body.
Saiki had been entirely focused on her injury. He never imagined Tsunade would play dirty and use his concern as a trap.
Lying flat on his back in the dirt, Saiki stared up at her in total, open-mouthed shock.
Tsunade was straddling his waist, her hands pinning his shoulders into the earth. A mischievous, cunning glint danced in her eyes.
"You're still too green, you little brat!" Tsunade laughed triumphantly.
Saiki snapped out of it and tried to buck her off, but Tsunade's grip was absolute. Combined with the leverage of her position, he found himself momentarily immobilized.
"Sister Tsunade! What are you doing?! Let me go!" Saiki yelled.
Tsunade ignored his protests, her smirk widening. "Not a chance. Today, I'm going to give you a proper education. I'm going to teach you what happens to brats who don't respect their elders!"
With that, she raised a fist and aimed a mock-heavy punch directly at his face.