Naruto: Kage of Kages

With her auburn hair dancing wildly, coursing with electricity, the tanned kunoichi could almost smell Inori’s charred flesh along with her long awaited victory.

A cruel, vindictive smile spread across Zee’s face as she amped her jutsu to strike with even greater ferocity.

‘When will you learn Zee? I’m not that easy’

Everyone was focused on the lightshow, giving the real Inori the perfect opportunity.

And adding insult to injury, she struck right at the most protected core of the Kumo formation, executing the sensory jonin that stood there before he could even mount a proper defense.

But it was destined not to go as well as her first and second strikes.

Before the Violet Rose could properly withdraw, one of Zee’s attendants drew his shinobi blade, wreathed in lightning, cutting through the air like a flash of light.

Body flickering away, Inori left a trail of spraying blood in the air from a deep, long gash on her back, electricity numbing her body from contact with lightning chakra.

It was not over yet though. The jonin she had injured earlier, with the benefit of experiencing her ambush personally beforehand, saw Inori’s attack and had already moved into position to blast her on her way out.

‘Fire Release: Burning Wave’

The red glow of the huge fire lit up the forest.

Zee had long stopped her pointless attack and dragged the jonin into the formation, just in time to see her sensor bleeding to death like the genjutsu specialist before him.

Unlike that time though, Inori had paid for it.

Once again safely hidden, especially now that the enemy’s sensor was taken out, the Violet rose suppressed her pain, using her rudimentary skills in healing jutsu to apply basic treatment to her wounds.

The numbness from the lightning slash had slowed the Yamanaka jonin enough that she could not fully evade the Burning Wave.

Now, Inori’s once beautiful supple skin was charred and melted around her upper left arm and shoulder as well as part of her left upper back.

Not to mention her luscious long hair was now singed, good thing it was strengthened with chakra for her Hair Binding Jutsu, it even helped protect most of her body from the flame.

With the Violet Rose’s injury, her genjutsu was broken and the now highly alert Kumo formation would only let her take another life if she was willing to trade it for her own.

‘Fuck that scheming bitch!’ Zee internally raged.

Enduring such losses despite having the absolute advantage was utterly infuriating her.

It was a failure, a show of her poor leadership, though perhaps she was being too hard on herself.

Expecting to take out someone of Inori’s caliber, especially considering they specialized in tricky tactics and disruption, without suffering casualties was a pipe dream.

Zee’s force still had an injured fire release jonin, another in perfect health and two skilled lightning style shinobi, the elite jonin’s attendants whose promotions to elite were not that far off.

‘There’s no way for me to step out again without being killed.’ Inori thought to herself.

‘It’s time to set up for my final stand.’ The Yamanaka decided.

‘I’ll wait until the last moment, until the other Kumo forces converge here, and use their tactics against them.’ She viciously planned, proceeding to take out a huge stack of Explosive Tags.

*

While this was happening and before Shiki’s battle really got going, Tsunade was heading towards Inori to try and pull her out of Kumo’s death trap.

What she didn’t expect was that once she started to move around faster with Body Flicker in her hurry, Kumo’s best sensor, Dodai, the most experienced Elite Jonin amongst the three in Kumo’s force, managed to detect her.

‘I have no idea why that woman is here but I can’t let her link up with Yamanaka Inori. With a frontliner to hold up the front, the Violet Rose becomes a nightmare to deal with.’

Swiftly coming to this conclusion, Dodai did not hesitate.

“With me!” He commanded the two elite chunin that stayed with him to follow and dashed into the valley.

‘I’ll intercept Senju Tsunade in the center of the valley and buy time. Hopefully, the battle will stop Yamanaka Inori from noticing the valley’s exit is no longer blocked and everything will work out.’

Dodai could only hope but vaguely, he could already sense things were veering off course and that did not bode well for them at all.

And with both parties rushing full speed ahead, it was not long before they clashed.

With the lightning enhanced kenjutsu, sword techniques, that many Kumo shinobi practiced, one of the elite chunin accompanying Dodai launched the first strike.

‘Trying to keep me from linking up with Inori eh?’ The Senju princess guessed her opponent’s thoughts immediately, it was obvious.

As an elite jonin herself, with taijutsu as her second strongest suit, Tsunade weaved the slash with minimal movement while lining up a punch with her Chakra Enhanced Strength Jutsu.

‘Lava Release: Rubber Ball’

With phenomenal reaction time, Dodai spat out lava in the form of a rubbery substance that quickly surrounded his subordinate just in time.

When Tsunade’s thunderous punch connected, the rubber sphere was sent flying, crashing into the ground but while dazed, the chunin inside was basically unharmed.

The Senju princess frowned.

‘Poor compatibility.’ She immediately realized.

Her style of combat that relied on powerful blunt force was perfectly countered by the rubber type Lava Release that could absorb and dissipate the strength behind her blows.

Standing face to face with Tsunade, Dodai signalled his subordinates, one of which was helping the other out of the rubber ball, to limit themselves to long range support and let him handle the fighting.

‘Well. It’s not my preferred method of fighting but it might be the move right now.’ Tsunade immediately decided to change her approach.

Firming her stance, she body flickered right towards Dodai.

Since the man was intent on not letting her pass, she would deal with him first.

And he, knowing that trying to defeat the kunoichi in combat by himself was not really viable considering his skillset, adopted a defensive delaying strategy.

‘Lava Release: Rubber Wall’

Yet despite the rubbery wall forming in her path, the Senju princess did not slow down as she conjured up the roughest, most chakra intensive Chakra Scalpel she had ever casted and plunged into the wall.

But she had underestimated its toughness.

‘Dammit!’ Tsunade cursed at the complete ineffectiveness of her spur of the moment tactic.

While Dodai had yet to reach the mastery he would in his later years, his rubber defence was powerful enough to withstand the Third Raikage’s Four Fingered Hell Stab.

It was the weakest version of Hell Stab but still enough to just blow through enormous ramparts of chakra hardened rock.

A hastily made chakra scalpel would never be able to pierce it.

Sensing an opening, Dodai controlled the rubber to surround and trap the kunoichi but seeing her attack’s complete lack of effectiveness, she had made a hasty retreat almost immediately.

And so, the two parties were back to a tense standoff, no words exchanged.

A minute passed uneventfully, just what Dodai who was trying to buy time wanted.

But Tsunade had come up with another plan of attack.

In an instant, three kunai with attached Explosive Tags flew towards Dodai.

Instantly making a rubber defense, he blocked them without issue though that was exactly the Senju princess’ intention.

The moment Dodai blocked with ninjutsu, she body flickered around him, towards Inori’s position.

Alas, the two elite chunin, ready for such an eventuality, were perfectly positioned to block her.

“Annoying flies!” She shouted, sending one of them flying with a bone shattering kick powered by her Chakra Enhanced Strength.

But that slight delay was enough for Dodai to immediately block her and prevent his second subordinate from being taken out.

As for the one Tsunade kicked away, his mangled corpse was a testament to the fearsome reputation Tsunade would earn in future battles.

+++++

Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -