After sending another Iwa Chunin flying with a thunderous kick, Tsunade found herself facing a wall of Stone. Taking advantage of the brief window bought by the deaths of the three Chunin, the Iwa Jonin had finally coordinated their formation to suppress her.
"Earth Style: Earth and Stone Dragon!"
"Earth Style: Earth Flow River!"
Despite her terrifying dominance—having pulverized a Mud Wall with a single crater-forming punch, crushed one ninja's ribcage into splinters, and snapped another's spine with a casual kick—the Iwa Jonin were finally adapting. No matter how confident they were in their own Taijutsu, not a single one dared to engage her in close quarters. They stayed back, weaving high-level Earth Style jutsu in a relentless barrage, hoping to bury her under sheer volume and mass.
"Lady Tsunade."
A small Katsuyu clone, roughly the length of an arm, materialized on Tsunade's shoulder, its voice tinged with concern.
"I'm fine," Tsunade panted, wiping a mixture of sweat and grime from her forehead. She had just wrenched herself free from a mud trap and shattered a charging stone dragon with a heavy stomp. "Go. Help Minato and Choza."
"Substitution Jutsu!"
Looking up at the dense cloud of shuriken raining down on him, Minato—who had anticipated this exact scenario before launching his assault—finished his hand seals.
The moment the blades struck, his body vanished into a plume of smoke, leaving behind a scarred wooden log to take the brunt of the steel. He reappeared nearby, safe for the moment.
Choza, however, wasn't having such a lucky time.
To avoid being buried alive by the shifting quicksand, he had just managed to haul his massive frame upward when a searing pain tore through his feet. He looked down with great effort—his vision hampered by the sheer scale of his Super Multi-Size form—only to realize that the Earth Stone Flow had been a feint.
The enemy's true target was his feet, the one area he couldn't easily monitor or defend while transformed.
Earth Spears and Rock-Lodging Pillars erupted from the ground like jagged teeth, impaling his soles.
Despite the agony, Choza didn't deactivate his jutsu. He knew that was exactly what the enemy wanted. If he shrunk back to normal size just to save his feet, he would lose his momentum and be sucked into the quicksand, leaving him completely at their mercy.
"Hah!"
With a gutteral roar, Choza grit his teeth against the pain and pushed off. His titan-like body soared into the air.
"Earth Style: Rock-Lodging Staff!"
"Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!"
Seeing that he hadn't reverted as planned, the Iwa ninjas didn't hesitate. They adjusted their aim instantly, launching a full-scale barrage at the giant suspended in mid-air.
Blood sprayed from Choza's massive body as he tanked the hits, but he refused to falter. With a roar of defiance, he slammed a massive palm down toward the nearest cluster of enemies.
The Iwa Chunin hadn't expected Choza to ignore his own safety to trade life for life. Mid-jutsu, they had no time to finish their seals or dodge the descending shadow.
Some closed their eyes in despair. Some tried to scramble away with futile desperation. Others, eyes bloodshot, drew their shuriken and blades, determined to carve one last wound into Choza's flesh before they were crushed.
Several more crimson smears stained the earth. Several more "needles"—shuriken and tantō—were now embedded in Choza's hand.
Grunting with pain, Choza plucked the "toothpick" blades from his skin and hurled them back at the other Iwa ninjas. Finally reaching his limit, he could no longer maintain the massive chakra drain. He shrunk rapidly back to his normal size, collapsing to the ground as a mixture of blood and sweat soaked his clothes. He gasped for air, his lungs burning.
The Akimichi secret medicines provided a terrifying boost, but the price was steep.
Choza had no other choice.
Sitting on the ground, he fumbled for his pill box once more. He flipped it open and grabbed the second pill—the Yellow Curry Pill.
This pill would grant him a rapid recovery of his stamina and chakra, but the effect was fleeting. Once the medicinal power burned out, he would be left in a state of total, bone-deep exhaustion.
Knowing this all too well, Choza didn't close the box after swallowing the pill. His gaze drifted to the final compartment: the Red Chili Pill.
He had to make a choice.
The Curry Pill had brought him back to peak condition for a moment. This was the optimal time to take the Chili Pill. If he waited until the Curry Pill wore off and his body failed him, even the Chili Pill might not be enough to drag him back from the brink of total collapse.
But taking them back-to-back... if reinforcements didn't arrive or they failed to break out before the power faded, he was 100\% going to die right here.
Just then, Minato, having used his Body Flicker to reappear at his side, reached down and snapped the pill box shut.
"We aren't at that point yet," Minato said.
He met Choza's gaze, his face radiating a calm, unshakable confidence.
"Minato..."
"Choza."
Two voices, identical in pitch and tone, chimed in their ears.
Two small Katsuyu clones crawled up their legs and onto their shoulders, immediately flooding their bodies with healing chakra.
"Thank you, Lady Katsuyu," both boys muttered, feeling their strength begin to knit back together.
The Stone, however, wasn't about to give them a breather.
The Iwa Genin and Chunin, who had been forced to split their attention between the giant and the speedster, now consolidated their ranks. They surged forward like a rising tide.
Unlike the Jonin, who feared getting within reach of Tsunade's monstrous strength, the ninjas facing Minato and Choza were perfectly happy to mix close-quarters combat with long-range barrages.
It was here that the seeds of Minato's future combat style—that dizzying, blinding speed—began to truly sprout.
Surrounded, Minato moved like a ghost. One half-second he was striking Enemy A; the next, his kunai was already sliding across the throat of Enemy B.
Yet, he was still limited by his current raw speed. He was restricted to a four-to-five-meter radius. Even when his eyes spotted a fatal opening further away and his brain calculated the perfect kill-shot, his body simply couldn't get there in time. He could only watch the opportunities slip by with a silent sigh.
If only I could be everywhere at once...
As for Choza, he was proving that his fundamentals were even more polished than his son, Choji's, would eventually be.
Wielding a heavy iron staff, he fended off the encirclement. He lacked Minato's grace, but his defense was a fortress. By mixing steady strikes with sudden, unexpected Partial Multi-Size expansions of his limbs, he kept the Chunin at bay. Several times, he found an opening and used his staff to "broaden the minds" of the surrounding Genin—in the most literal, physical sense possible.
Despite their skill, the reality of the numbers began to take its toll. The enemy was a bottomless well, and their stamina was a dwindling candle.
For Choza, as the Curry Pill's effects began to wane, his iron staff felt heavier with every swing.
But what weighed on them even more was the sight of Tsunade. Not far away, the Sannin—pinned down by multiple Iwa Jonin—had finally begun to bleed. Several shallow cuts now marred her skin.
Even with the Senju clan's freakish regenerative abilities, they were all approaching their absolute limit.
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