Naruto: Wooing Tsunade from Day One!

While the right flank had been breached, the center remained fiercely contested.

Sakumo had already fought Chiyo for several rounds. Their battle had cleared the area around them, leaving an open zone with no other ninja daring to get involved. It was just Sakumo against Chiyo and her ten puppets.

Though incomplete, the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets still posed an immense threat.

Sakumo remained extremely cautious, but Chiyo was equally wary of the Flying Thunder God Technique.

Whenever he threw a kunai to set up a teleportation mark, she deftly avoided it, preventing Sakumo from finding a decisive angle for a killing blow.

The one opportunity he did find resulted in Chiyo barely escaping a fatal injury. She was left with a deep, bone-revealing wound on her waist. If not for her exceptional Medical Ninjutsu, she would have lost her ability to fight.

After being injured, Chiyo steadied herself, withdrawing three puppets to defend her flank. Her strongest defensive puppet, the ox-head, had already been destroyed by Kawakaze and was now his trophy.

With a subtle flick of her fingers, the seven remaining puppets launched another coordinated assault.

The puppet with double blades clattered forward, swinging a vicious slash at Sakumo's head. Another puppet, armed with an iron whip, attacked from behind.

Sakumo advanced toward the puppet with the double blades, parrying its strike with his short sword before using the Body Flicker Technique to evade the whip and the remaining attacks.

Not losing momentum, he charged at Chiyo once again. He knew that if he could eliminate her, the puppets would become useless.

"Stop making such meaningless attacks," Chiyo said coldly, her fingers twitching as her three defensive puppets surrounded her once more. Her voice was low, but her sharp eyes flashed with brilliance.

Sakumo adjusted his position several times using the Body Flicker Technique, but each time his attack was blocked by Chiyo's precise control of the puppets. Poison needles shot from their mouths, forcing him to dodge once more and reappear a few meters away.

"You are far inferior to your younger brother," Chiyo taunted, her tone laced with provocation.

The words struck a nerve. Sakumo's face turned pale for an instant.

"Old woman, die," he muttered through gritted teeth. It was one thing to know his weaknesses—but to voice them so openly?

Just like your dead son, he thought bitterly, you really are a bastard.

"Kenjutsu, Sky Shatter!"

An intense, brilliant white light burst from Sakumo's short sword, crackling with energy. At the same moment, lightning flared beneath his feet, and his figure vanished, leaving behind two charred footprints where he had stood.

Whoosh!

Sakumo reappeared, his short sword cutting through the air with a high-pitched hum, charging at Chiyo with unstoppable momentum.

"Again," Chiyo muttered, her expression grave.

"Ninja Art: Triangular Shield!"

One of her puppets stepped onto the shoulders of two others, forming rapid hand seals. A massive transparent triangular shield materialized in front of Chiyo, shimmering like iron.

Sakumo's blade struck the shield with a thunderous clang, the clash of energy sending shockwaves through the ground. The immense recoil forced both of them to retreat several meters, their attacks temporarily neutralized.

For a moment, they stood at a stalemate.

Sakumo's gaze shifted to the surrounding battlefield. The Suna ninja holding the center line were formidable, and the Konoha forces were at a disadvantage.

Konoha ninja were falling before his eyes, but Sakumo couldn't break away—Chiyo's relentless control had him locked in place.

"There's no time to dawdle with you anymore."

"Gate of Pain, open."

Sakumo could only access the Fourth Gate for now, a feat made possible by his solid foundation. Yet, he knew that advancing further would require even more rigorous training. Duy, his mentor in the Eight Inner Gates, had been shocked by Sakumo's progress, admitting that it had taken him five years to open the fourth gate himself.

Chiyo's sharp eyes narrowed as she noticed Sakumo's face begin to flush red. An overwhelming surge of Chakra erupted from his body, shaking the very air around him.

"What an astonishing amount of Chakra…" Chiyo murmured, her voice low. A solemn look spread across her face as she felt the unmistakable pressure of imminent death.

Uncertain of Sakumo's current strength, Chiyo tentatively sent one of her puppets to test him.

"Shadow of the Dancing Leaf."

Sakumo sheathed his short blade, and his figure blurred—a green streak instantly appeared before the double-blade puppet. With a precise upward kick, he sent the puppet soaring into the air.

Chiyo's hands twitched as she desperately tried to maintain control of the Chakra threads.

"Konoha Whirlwind."

Following the upward kick, Sakumo delivered a powerful lower kick mid-air. The double-blade puppet shattered under the force, fragments of its body scattering across the battlefield. Physical strikes, when executed with such strength, proved far more devastating to puppets than blade attacks.

"Bastard!" Chiyo hissed, a flash of sorrow passing through her as another of the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets was destroyed.

"Ninja Art: Three Jewels Suction Crushing!"

Without wasting another moment, Chiyo formed a series of hand seals. Three puppets shifted into a triangle formation, activating their mechanisms. Their mouths opened to reveal Buddha, Dharma, and Monk symbols.

A violent tornado erupted from the center of the puppets, pulling debris—stones, wood, and dust—into its core. The fragments were compressed and fired out from behind the triangle like deadly projectiles.

Sakumo, caught in the powerful suction, braced himself against the force. Then, through the chaos, he noticed Chiyo hurling a small lion face mask, no larger than a fist.

"Seal: Lion Closing Roar!"

As the mask spiraled toward Sakumo, it began to expand, growing larger with each rotation. Its form twisted and morphed until it revealed a grotesque lion mask, its blood-red eyes glowing and fangs stretching wide.

Sakumo's instincts flared. He could feel the seal's oppressive force closing in—a Fūinjutsu that would lock his Chakra and leave him defenseless. Chiyo's plan was calculated: seal Sakumo's Chakra, and finish him at her leisure.

But Chiyo underestimated the true power of the Flying Thunder God Technique. Unlike the Body Flicker Technique, it was not bound by physical space—it was spatial Ninjutsu.

In a blur, Sakumo's form vanished from within the swirling tornado.

Chiyo's expression shifted from confident focus to disbelief. She had accounted for speed but not the instant translocation of Flying Thunder God. The lion mask fell uselessly to the ground, its sealing power wasted.

Before she could react, Sakumo's attack was already upon her.

"Kenjutsu, Thunder Fang."

Sakumo's green blade carved through the ground with unstoppable force. The short blade, enveloped in spinning green chakra, clashed violently against the three puppets in front of Chiyo, releasing an ear-splitting noise.

When the smoke and dust finally settled, the three puppets lay in shattered pieces. If Chiyo hadn't used Sand Clones to evade at the last moment, there would have been no way for her to survive that devastating attack.

Seeing the tides turning and her remaining puppets insufficient to match Sakumo, Chiyo decided to retreat.

"Explode!"

She manipulated her final puppet to fly directly at Sakumo, activating its self-destruct mechanism. The puppet detonated in a massive explosion, sending countless poison needles raining down like a storm.

Sakumo managed to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to escape the blast radius, but even so, some of the poison needles struck him. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the needles out, reached into his ninja gear pouch, and took one of Tsunade's antidote pills.

His eyes narrowed coldly as he refocused. Without hesitation, his figure disappeared.

Chiyo, fleeing desperately, glanced back—only to run straight into Sakumo's waiting short sword.

The blade pierced through her chest.

Her next step landed squarely on a Flying Thunder God Kunai that bore Sakumo's mark.

"Go reunite with your son," Sakumo said emotionlessly as he pulled the sword free. Blood spattered onto the ground.

Chiyo's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Her lips parted as if to speak, but no words came. She reached out weakly, her trembling fingers stretching toward Sakumo's face but falling short.

Her body, overcome with pain and regret, collapsed forward.

Sakumo stepped back as Chiyo fell heavily to the ground, her blood pooling rapidly around her motionless form.

"Cough, cough…"

Sakumo coughed up a trace of blood, his face pale. Chiyo's poisons had grown even more refined; Tsunade's antidote pills hadn't fully neutralized the toxins.

The strain of opening the Eight Inner Gates left him feeling weak, his limbs trembling slightly. This battle had been anything but easy.

He retrieved a Military Rations Pill from his pouch, popped it into his mouth, and sat cross-legged on the ground, finally allowing himself a moment of rest.

"I'm not as good as Kawakaze," Sakumo muttered to himself, "but I can still kill you. Old woman, watch what you say in your next life."

Despite the victory, Chiyo's words still lingered in his mind, irritating him.

Shouts echoed in the distance, drawing Sakumo's attention. Turning his head, he saw Kawakaze and Tsunade leading a group of Konoha forces from the right flank. They were coming to support him.

The outcome of the battle was now clear.

A faint, relieved smile appeared on Sakumo's face as he raised his hand and called out, "Kawakaze, over here!"

Help had arrived. Now someone would be able to cure his poison.