The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #17

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Forest of Death, Konoha, Land of Fire

–Hiruzen “The Professor” Sarutobi–

The second he felt Danzo land behind him, he turned just the slightest amount and glared at the man, making sure to stress in the order to remain silent. Thankfully, Danzo took the hint or he never intended to create trouble but Danzo just remained silent, crossed his arms and watched the fight, as did everyone else.

He sighed, and after making sure that the barrier surrounding the Daimyo was strong enough, he leapt up from his spot and landed right next to Jiraiya who was watching the fight intently. So far, both of them had kept things relatively tame, limiting the damage to the small clearing they were in.

Some of the trees in the front were clearly damaged, leaning back way too much because of the shockwaves from their fights impacting them constantly.

His eyes narrowed as he saw Tsunade smile and laugh as the blows connected, her blows becoming more and more smooth and efficient, as opposed to before where she either pulled half her punches or just did not try as much, allowing Kenta to block them effortlessly.

Now? He could see her actually trying as half of Kenta’s shirt was torn apart, there were multiple gashes and bruises on his face but looking at Kenta’s expression, it seemed as if all those injuries were only superficial.

“It should happen anytime now,” Jiraiya whispered and he realised what he was talking about. Kenta’s Sage Mode. It did not have the longest timespan remaining active. Without his Sage Mode, Kenta would be at a massive disadvantage against Tsunade, if he did not tap into the Zero Tails’ chakra. He had forbidden that so he wondered how Kenta would get out of this.

Still, this fight confirmed one thing for him. Kenta, could, in theory, actually kill Orochimaru, provided his wayward student confronted Kenta head on, instead of fleeing on sight. It was possible that Orochimaru, underestimating Kenta, would not take him seriously and that would give Kenta pretty good chances of killing Orochimaru.

That…he did not know how to feel about that. Killing Orochimaru is something that should have been his responsibility but evidently, he failed in fulfilling that. No one said it to his face but he was certain that Minato knew, Jiraiya knew that he had let Orochimaru go, instead of his student escaping from him.

That was one of the lowest points in his life, to realise what a monster he had created, if not from his own hands then out of his inattention. 

He sighed and his gaze sharpened just in time to see the markings on Kenta’s face fade away as he jumped back to create some distance between him and Tsunade. Tsunade, obviously realising that this was her opportunity, shot forward like a rocket, intending to finish this.

Kenta substituted with a rock at the last moment but that did not work on Tsunade as she was instantly on him, her face set in a look of determination. It was only a moment, a single moment that Kenta had and even then, that was all it took for his Sage Mode to come roaring back.

Alas, he could not react in time as Tsunade’s fist connected with his face, snapping it backwards and then he watched as Kenta bowled over multiple trees, dozens of them falling down in the distance as Kenta travelled a fair bit.

“It’s not over yet,” Jiraiya stopped him from interfering as there was a spike of chakra in the distance, something that Tsunade felt as well, judging by her cautious stance. He squinted at  the subtle glow forming in the distance, along with the slight whine it created in the air, as if it was the–

“Rasengan,” he whispered, extremely surprised that Minato had taught his signature technique to Kenta.

___xx___

–Kenta Senju–

He grinned, jumping back into the fray, Rasengan hovering in his right hand as he crashed the jutsu into the ground where Tsunade was previously standing. There was a cloud of dust that was kicked up and his hands easily shook off the backlash as a large crater formed all around him.

Taking a deep breath, he continued doing what he was doing before, something that was only possible because of the extra chakra control granted by his Sage Mode.

See, the purpose of this spar was not just to beat down Tsunade, though doing that would be like fulfilling one of the younger him’s dreams but that was not the primary goal here. 

One of the abilities he had created for himself after getting used to the Zero Tails’ chakra after all these years was the ability to suck in negative emotions, but not in a way that weaponised it. 

In a fight, he would use it to disorient the enemy, even for a moment, and that was all the time he needed to kill his opponent. That was easy, laughably so but what was extremely difficult was to do the same but in a very targeted manner. The ability to sense emotions, coupled with the ability to slowly, subtly siphon off those negative emotions was something that was only possible if he was in Sage Mode.

So, for the entire duration of the fight, he had been goading Tsunade into bringing forth all her negative emotions and all her chakra to bear, so he could slowly, methodically, remove those extremely negative emotions that had been allowed to fester in her mind, easing the burden on the poor Yamanaka who would be assigned to Tsunade.

This, along with the royal beatdown he was going to lay on her, would, hopefully, convince her to at least stay and help, if not get help from Yamanaka. He knew it was a long shot but it was the best he could do in such a short time frame.

No one would know how he did it and he did not plan on revealing this ability to anyone but judging by the smile Tsunade had on her face, it would seem that it had worked. Her resentment, and guilt was still present but it was all in workable amounts.

Hopping out of the crater, he used his mastery of the Water Element, something he worked on extensively, to create three Water Clones of himself, getting just a raised eyebrow from Tsunade.

Those nonchalantly raised eyebrows turned into shocked, wide eyes as all the three clones had the Sage Markings on them and were in the possession of three large Rasengans in their hands.

“Surrender?” He offered, hands in his pockets, an image he crafted purposefully because he knew Tsunade would take the bait. Knowing what people felt with such minute precision was really helpful in such a scenario.

Tsunade scowled at him before the diamond on her forehead pulsed with an overwhelming amount of chakra, as black markings appeared on her face, “You’re not the only one with tricks.”

The area around them sank in slightly, due to the sheer amount of chakra being thrown around by Tsunade at that moment. The wastage alone was more than his total chakra which was mind boggling to think about because even without adding the Zero Tails’ chakra to the mix, his personal reserves had grown immensely over the years.

What a monstrous Jutsu!

Still, even with that..

He smiled as he took his hands out of his pockets, another Rasengan forming in his hands as he jumped forward, smiling as Tsunade did the predictable and punched the land with all her might, creating splinters and cracks as far as his eyes could see, throwing projectiles up in the air and creating many obstacles for him in his path to Tsunade, all in a single move.

Smart but predictable.

Alas, Sage Mode granted him more than just sharper chakra control and senses. It allowed him to bulldoze through everything in his path to reach her. Realising that, handseals formed and then a veritable tsunami of water flowed out of her mouth as a miniature lake was formed all around them, still churning with high speed water to make it difficult for any shinobi to find their footing.

He was no different, though his Sage Mode allowed him to remain somewhat in control of his trajectory. He looked down as a shadow emerged from the water, with Tsunade’s punch coming out of the water first before her determined face emerged from the lake, impacting his torso with immense force, blowing away the water surrounding them.

“Gah!” Spittle flew out of his mouth at that, Tsunade smiling but she forgot one thing.

“Checkmate,” He smiled as three Rasengans slammed into her body. She did a remarkable job of reacting in time but three Rasengans were three Rasengans, no matter how she tried to shield her body.

Another ability from the Zero Tails, the ability to cloak chakra and emotions from people in the near vicinity, allowing people, especially ones in intense combat, to overlook his clones, despite them being extremely threatening with the Rasengan taught to him by the Yondaime.

He was thrown away from the point of impact, as his clones burst one after the other but the damage was done. His vision was filled with white, and even then, his eyebrows rose as he sensed Tsunade’s emotions. Dazed and disoriented she might be but she was still standing.

Well, it might be cheating but without donning on the full Zero Tails’ cloak, he could not directly defeat her, despite her using her forbidden technique, so he used another ability and just knocked her out, remotely, or at least he tried to.

To his astonishment, even that, did not work properly because all it did was disorient her even more. Sighing at the amazement of the prowess of the Sannin and this was supposed to be the weakest of the bunch, he jumped back into the fray and finished the fight with a well placed punch to the head.

Even then, despite being so disoriented that she should not have had any semblance of balance at all, Tsunade turned and would have punched him had he been a few seconds late.

As it stood, he knocked her out, successfully as her forbidden technique deactivated itself, which was not supposed to happen, if his knowledge about it was correct. That forbidden technique was supposed to run continuously, until either Tsunade dispelled it or she died.  

Jumping out of the hole, Sage Mode left him as he landed in front of an extremely concerned Sarutobi along with Jiraiya who was looking at him with complicated emotions in his eyes.

Sarutobi, wanting to get this over with, raised his voice to the gathered audience, “Winner, Kenta Senju!” After checking if Tsunade had any major injuries, of course.

Still, Sarutobi might be correct in his assumption that he would not be able to kill Orochimaru. Because Tsunade’s specialty was to be the tank and he could somewhat get around that with his Sage Mode but Orochimaru was known to be slippery and he wondered if his Sage Mode would help with that or not.

Only time would tell.