Konoha: The thirty-year-old Uchiha is not motivated.

"despair!"

Just as Jiraiya was painfully imagining his miserable sock-washing journey, a pretty figure strode past him.

"Tsunade, what are you going to do?"

Seeing Tsunade warming up by stretching her wrists, Jiraiya exclaimed in surprise.

"I'm also a member of the team. If I don't step in now, the two of you will steal all the limelight."

Tsunade, who was rubbing her fists together in anticipation, turned her head away, a resolute smile playing on her lips. With that, she assumed her classic starting stance, and a tangible, deep blue chakra emanated from her body.

Jiraiya's expression tightened upon seeing this.
"Don't do anything stupid!"

Tsunade is not weak, but that depends on the enemy she faces. If it weren't for the boost from Sage Mode, she and Orochimaru wouldn't have dared to fight the clone army head-on.
Having grasped the underlying meaning in Jiraiya's words, Tsunade, despite being underestimated by her teammates, wasn't angry. Verbal rebuttals would be pointless; she wanted to prove through her actions that she was definitely not the one dragging the team down.
"Aha!"

With a loud shout, the Yin seal on her forehead flickered with a faint light, and the black marks wrapped around her fair skin spread again until they covered her entire body.
This time, she not only extracted all the chakra stored in the Yin Seal, but also borrowed a significant amount of life energy from her body, converting it into chakra.

"The gap between me and you has never widened!"

Feeling the surging power within her, Tsunade, brimming with confidence, uttered a single sentence, then leaped forward, transforming into a blue tornado, charging with unstoppable force towards the vanguard of the clone army.
"ah!"

Enveloped in a dense, monstrous chakra, Xiu's fist lashed out, striking directly at a clone that was in the recovery phase.

Under the impact of the terrifying force, the clone, which was struggling to repair the damage from the Sage Fire, was sent flying by Tsunade's fist and landed on an open field far from the legion.

While Tsunade is reckless, she's not stupid. Compared to Jiraiya and the other two, her abilities are more focused on single-target explosions. However, in a battle against an army of clones, her disadvantages become glaringly apparent.

Currently, Jiraiya has not only slowed down the clone army's advance with the Swamp of the Underworld, but also successfully breached their defenses with his scorching immortal fire, providing an excellent environment for her battle.
"Boom!"

A sickening thud rang out as Tsunade shattered the clone's charred chest armor with a single punch, revealing the pale skin beneath.

Upon witnessing this, Jiraiya instinctively touched his chest, secretly relieved that the punch hadn't landed on him; otherwise, he didn't know how many ribs he would have broken.
"careful!"

Orochimaru, equally astonished by Tsunade's monstrous strength, suddenly changed his expression. He discovered that the clone whose breastplate had been shattered was now raising its fists, its target Tsunade's intact head.

"Humph!"

Despite feeling the intense wind pressure overhead and her hair whipping wildly, Tsunade showed no panic; instead, a confident smile appeared on her lips.

"Whoosh!"

With a ghostly sidestep, she instantly circled behind the clone, her seemingly slender arms bulging with veins, and grabbed it tightly.
"That move...was it from that brat?"

Uchiha Hikaru, who was learning Uchiha Gin's OMO technique, raised an eyebrow. This move seemed vaguely familiar.
"It seems she's been giving Tsunade a lot of extra help."

Watching Tsunade lift the massive clone high into the air, Uchiha Gin nodded thoughtfully. This was the foreign taijutsu technique he had taught Senju Itama; he hadn't expected Tsunade to have learned it.

"Lei Yabo!"

Snap!

As Tsunade leaped into the air, the clone she was holding landed headfirst, the sound of a neck breaking clearly audible.

Even though she could feel the life force of the clone in her hand slowly fading, Tsunade, who had witnessed zombie-like resurrection before, still decisively chose to finish it off.

"Oh!"

After a brief moment of charging, the monstrous fist slammed into the clone's chest.

"puff!"

The clone, which was still repairing itself after being struck hard on the heart, immediately vomited thick, sticky blood. Dark red liquid slowly seeped from the gaps in its viscera.
A few seconds later, the clone, its life force completely gone, turned to ashes and disappeared, leaving only a broken treasure in its place.

"Won!"

Looking down at her spoils, Tsunade was overwhelmed with excitement at having successfully single-handedly defeated the clone.

"Hey hey~ Jiraiya, you're still that familiar loser!"

As is customary, now is the perfect time to start trash-talking, and with a smug look on her face, she immediately launched a personal attack on Jiraiya, who hadn't even gotten a kill yet.
"Without me providing the conditions, could you have defeated the enemy so easily?"

Jiraiya, humiliated by the mockery, turned ashen-faced. If it weren't for his Sage Mode combination technique's dual effect of control and defense reduction, Orochimaru and Tsunade wouldn't have been able to kill the clone so easily.
"We only talk about KDA, not the output table."

Tsunade, who was aligned with Orochimaru, conspired to form a kill-stealing alliance, attempting to erase Jiraiya's significant contributions.

"How can it be repaired?"

"Jiraiya, this is not the time for jokes. Those guys have recovered."

Just as the group was arguing about who should contribute to the team, Fukasaku, the sage perched on Jiraiya's shoulder, spoke up in a serious tone, reminding them...

The three turned their heads and, sure enough, found that the clones, which had just been scorched by the immortal fire, had recovered completely. Although their aura had been weakened somewhat by the erosion of natural energy, they were still quite impressive.

"Hey! Big guys, prepare for battle!"

The recent kill successfully proved that the clones were not invincible. Overflowing with confidence, the three lined up and, facing the menacing army, took turns assuming battle stances.
"A cough!"

As Jiraiya's loud and boisterous voice rang out, the three transformed into streaks of light and charged towards the clone army.

Jiraiya flicked his hair in mid-air, and his hedgehog-like white hair grew rapidly under the influence of Sage Mode chakra, each strand standing upright as hard as steel needles.
"Immortal Technique: Thousand Needles!"

With a roar, he shot out, striking the clone's hard armor like a torrential rain, producing a piercing metallic clang.
"Crack!"

The clones reacted, brandishing their weapons to defend themselves, and many began forming hand seals, with multicolored chakra flickering in and out of the crowd.

Orochimaru's gaze sharpened upon witnessing this scene. His figure vanished from the spot like a ghost, and the cyan dragon reappeared. He was going to stop these clones from casting their spells.

"Buzz!"

Just as he was about to get close to a clone and implant a natural energy toxin that would hinder chakra refining, another figure suddenly appeared behind Orochimaru, the scorching steam making him frown.
"The Five-Tailed Knight?"

Seeing the white knight closely following behind him, Orochimaru quickened his pace, trying to shake him off.

"So fast."

As it turned out, not only did they fail to create distance, but the cloned Five-Tailed Knight actually got closer and closer, and was about to catch up.
"Immortal Technique: Hidden Shadow Serpent Hands"

Seeing this, Orochimaru quickly raised his hands behind him, and countless small white snakes formed from condensed natural energy surged out from his sleeves, devouring the Five-Tails Knight chasing him.
"Buzz!"

Before he could even catch his breath, scorching steam shot into the sky, instantly vaporizing his little white snake.
"It seems I underestimated you before."

Looking at the scorching steam billowing from the vent of the opponent's face mask, Orochimaru shook his head calmly, then raised one hand...
"Immortal Technique: Serpent Controlling Thunder"

The running Five-Tailed Knight clone suddenly stopped, its body trembling violently. Blue-green natural energy then seeped from its mouth and nostrils beneath its mask, where steam was exhaling.

"Oh!"

The next second, brilliant fireworks lit up the sky.

The toxins formed from natural energy are virtually insidious; they can be injected through snake fangs or inhaled into the enemy's body, the only difference being that their activation time is significantly slower.
However, the Five-Tails Rider's metabolism increases significantly during high-speed movement, thus perfectly compensating for this drawback.

But
Before he could even revel in having secured another kill, Orochimaru turned to look at Jiraiya, who was desperately dodging the various escape techniques, and his mood couldn't help but darken.

With so many enemies, can they really win?
"You stinky snake! What are you daydreaming about? Come on, help me!"

Jiraiya's loud voice pulled Orochimaru back to reality. Looking at the two large holes burned into Orochimaru's buttocks by lava, he shook his head, suppressing his unease.

"Immortal Technique: Twin Serpents"

With a bend in his legs, he lunged forward, simultaneously unleashing two chakra snakes from his grasp. The menacing white snakes coiled and twisted in the air, precisely biting at the clone chasing after Jiraiya.
"Hey, you stinky snake, quick, check if my butt's still usable!" Having narrowly escaped death, Jiraiya scrambled to Orochimaru's side, showing him his smoking backside for inspection.
Orochimaru, who was usually expressionless, showed a rare look of pity.

"Cut it up, it's burnt."

"Huh? A tonic? I was planning to ask Lord Danzo for advice on how to use my hips to escape after this mission!"

"Aha!"

On the other side, Tsunade was engaged in a passionate hand-to-hand combat with several clones. By burning her life force to use the Hundred Healings Technique, her strength and self-healing ability were already infinitely close to those of Hashirama Senju (in his normal state).

Every punch and kick striking the clone's sturdy armor sent up granular debris.

"Weird punch!"

While dodging attacks from all around, Tsunade unleashed a powerful punch, slamming it into the clone in front of her.

"Boom!"

The heavy armor shattered into eight pieces instantly, but just as she was about to press her advantage, the clone beside her suddenly attacked, its fiery red fist aimed straight at her face.

"Shh!"

Fortunately, Tsunade's taijutsu was superb; she tilted her head and narrowly dodged the terrifying punch, but the force of the blow still grazed her cheek, instantly tearing her skin open.

"Huhu."

But just a few breaths later, the bleeding stopped. Tsunade gently wiped the wound with her finger, and not a single scar was left on her fair face.

Its self-healing ability is terrifying.

"Come on, I can keep you occupied all day!"

Clenching her fists, Tsunade, feeling confident in her condition and facing the menacing clones around her, charged forward once more. The brutal, hand-to-hand combat left Gin Uchiha, watching from a distance, utterly helpless.

"Blame me~blame me~"

Tsunade became like this entirely because of her own negligence, which allowed her to grow too close to Senju Itama, leading to this appalling fighting style.

Girls should be more refined.

"Ah Yin, what are you muttering about?"

Uchiha Hikaru, who was standing next to him, twitched his ears and asked suspiciously,
"It's nothing, Xiao Guang. Warm up and get ready to take over the game."

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Hikaru blinked in confusion. Wasn't she supposed to learn OMO? Why was she going to play in a match again?

"There are 30 seconds left. My cousin is about to suffer a setback. I have to go. I'm leaving Tsunade and the others in your care."

Uchiha Gin pulled out an old-fashioned stopwatch, glanced at it, clasped his hands together in a gesture of supplication to Uchiha Hikaru, and then vanished from the spot in a flash.
"Hmph! You'll be in for a surprise tonight."

Uchiha Hikaru pouted and stomped her foot angrily, secretly vowing to make Uchiha Gin pay for his blood debt tonight.
"Oh!"

However, before she could even think of what punishment to use, a dull thud from nearby interrupted her thoughts.

Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw Jiraiya, who had just been so smug, land face-first in the dirt. Three or five clones surrounded him and were beating him mercilessly with punches and kicks.

"Don't hit me in the face! Don't hit me in the face! I still need my looks to make a living!"

As Jiraiya was being brutally beaten by the clones, he clutched his head and wailed in pain. He was even more curious as to why these guys weren't going all out against him. His eyes widened with bruises, and he turned to look.

Orochimaru, using the Dance of the Snakes to move, was dealing with several Five-Tails Riders who were chasing and intercepting him. The enemies' attacks were all deadly, and the slightest carelessness could result in his death on the spot.

"what!"

The scene shifted again, and Tsunade's brutal, hand-to-hand combat continued, her wounds healing at a rate that seemed unable to keep up with the rate of increase.

"That's enough, don't kill him."

Just as he was wondering, Jigen's cold voice rang out above everyone's heads. Jiraiya struggled to lift his head and found that the other person was looking at him with great interest, as if looking at some kind of rare and exotic beast.
Upon hearing this, Jiraiya suddenly understood, and his expression became incredibly complex.
It turns out that the clone didn't kill itself because of this guy's authorization.

"A scholar can be killed but not humiliated!"

Even Jiraiya, bearing the name of a hero, could not accept pity from his enemies. The rage in his heart was palpable, and he decided to fight to the death, even if it meant dying on the battlefield, rather than being captured.

"Master Fukasaku, please lend me a hand!"

Thinking of this, he clutched his head and turned to look at the toad sage, who was also beaten black and blue by the clone. His gaze was terrifyingly resolute.
"Sorry, we may not be able to help."

The immortal with one eye larger than the other shook his head with difficulty, replying with a look of utter despair.

In all its years of existence, when has it ever suffered such a humiliating disgrace?
"what?"

"We'll go first. Little Jiraiya, good luck to you. But don't worry, the Great Toad Sage has already predicted your death."

The Sage Mode time was up, and even if the two toad sages wanted to help, they were too weak to stay and assist any longer. Before they could finish speaking, they were summoned back to Mount Myōboku.
"Bang~"

Jiraiya felt a sudden release in his shoulders, and the immense power within him vanished instantly. His once-normal face was now filled with despair.
That's it, now we don't even have the resources to fight to the death.

"Finally collected them. As for those two, kill them."

Jigen looked at Jiraiya, who had exited Sage Mode, and a smile finally appeared on his face. His gaze then shifted to Orochimaru and Jiraiya, who were still fighting fiercely, and a chill flashed in his eyes.

"Well"

Orochimaru and Tsunade tensed up upon sensing the sudden killing intent. The shadow of death hung over them like a sharp sword, causing their hearts to plummet to the bottom.
Their gazes swept over the closing clones around them, and the two gritted their teeth, preparing for a desperate fight.
Before they could even make a move, waves of weakness washed over them, and their momentum crumbled.
It's time for Sage Mode and the Hundred Healings Technique.

"Are you going to die?"

Tsunade collapsed to the ground, her legs giving way, and gave a bitter smile. Although she was somewhat unwilling, perhaps this was the fate of a ninja. It was just a pity that she would never see her grandmother, Nawaki, and her aunt again.
Familiar faces flashed through Tsunade's memories like a revolving lantern, and tears of resentment slid from the corners of her eyes to the ground, stirring up ripples.
Orochimaru, panting heavily, narrowed his eyes, a hidden light gleaming in his long, narrow snake-like pupils. Even in dire straits, he was still searching for a way to survive.

You're so dense, hurry up and think of something! Is there any other way?
"what?"

Suddenly, a strange red light shone into his eyes. Orochimaru opened his eyes wide in confusion, and his pale face gradually showed unprecedented astonishment.
"This is."

Tsunade, whose eyes were brimming with tears, stopped crying. Looking down at the crimson moon reflected in the mirror-like surface of her tears, her expression gradually shifted from bewilderment to surprise.

Where did the moon come from?

Jiraiya, who was being held down by the clone, struggled to raise his head, his bruised and swollen eyes wide open.

It's not even evening yet!

"Tap tap. Tap."

"Did you ask for my opinion before killing them?"

With elegant steps, Uchiha Hikaru spoke in a cool tone; his voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears precisely.

Feeling an inexplicable pressure, Jigen frowned, his gaze shifting from the moon to the tall figure slowly walking towards Tsunade's side.
"What is this technique?"

A crimson full moon hung high in the sky. Bathed in its red light, Uchiha Hikaru slowly opened his eyes, and the bewitching patterns on them were reflected in the moon.

"Limited Tsukuyomi: Eight Thousand Spears." (End of Chapter)