"Lady Tsunade, let me cover you and Choza. You need to break out now."
Minato, who had drifted back toward them in the chaos, spoke in an urgent whisper. He didn't even have the time to wipe the sweat stinging his eyes.
"No, I'll cover you. You two take the chance to escape," Tsunade countered. She had just narrowly dodged a stone pillar, and she looked even more disheveled than the boys. A mixture of grime and sweat streaked her face, making her look like a calico cat that had been rolled through the mud.
She looked at Minato and Choza, her eyes clouded with a thick layer of guilt.
"After all, if I hadn't been so headstrong—if I hadn't ignored your suggestions twice—you wouldn't be in this mess with me."
"No. Choza and I are just two mid-level Chunin. Even if we die here, it won't break the army's spirit," Minato said, shaking his head with an expression of cold, analytical logic. "But if you fall here, Lady Tsunade, it will be a catastrophic blow to our morale and a massive victory for the Stone. The scales of this war would tip against the village. For the sake of Konoha, you must be the one to survive."
Minato paused, a flicker of longing and a silent plea crossing his face.
"However, if you do make it out... I ask that you look after my brother, Hatani. And if it's possible... please give a message to Kushina. Tell her I won't be able to fulfill our promise. Ask her to forgive me... and tell her to forget me."
As Tsunade watched the light in Minato's eyes and heard his final words, the face of Dan Kato flashed across her mind. She was suddenly back in the Land of Rain, fleeing from Sand Jonin, hearing the same kind of finality in a voice she loved.
The pain flared in her chest, fueling her self-loathing, but it also hardened her resolve.
She was about to force the two of them to run when she caught a movement in her periphery. Choza, who had been silent until now, reached into his pouch and pulled out the Red Chili Pill. Before she or Minato could scream or reach out to stop him, he shoved it into his mouth and swallowed.
"Choza! What are you... quick, spit it out!" Minato lunged forward, trying to pry Choza's jaw open.
"Lady Tsunade, Minato... the effects of the Curry Pill are almost gone," Choza said, intercepting their hands. A gentle, fearless smile spread across his round face. "Once my strength is spent, I won't have a chance to run anyway. So, let me do this. Let me be the one to get you out."
He looked at Minato. "Minato, I'm glad we were classmates. I'm glad we're friends. In my heart, I know you'll achieve your dream and become Hokage. So, take my hopes with you. Get back alive... and become the Hokage I know you can be."
The Chili Pill finally took effect. Choza's stout, heavy frame began to change at a speed that any person struggling with weight would find miraculous. He grew lean and tall in seconds.
Behind him, massive, ornate wings of blue chakra erupted—vibrant and patterned like a Blue Morpho. They expanded further and further as his body stabilized.
It was like an ugly, bloated caterpillar finally emerging from its cocoon as a beautiful butterfly.
But for a caterpillar to become a butterfly, its old life must end. Beauty, in the Akimichi clan, always came with a lethal price.
"Lady Tsunade! Minato! Go!"
With a low roar, Choza took to the sky, propelled by the shimmering chakra wings. He dove straight into the group of Iwa Jonin who had been methodically wearing Tsunade down.
"Careful! That's the Akimichi Butterfly Mode!"
As a village that had clashed with Konoha since its founding, Iwagakure kept meticulous records on the prestigious clans like the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. The First Shinobi World War had given them a firsthand look at just how terrifying these clans could be.
However, a Butterfly Mode user with the freedom of flight was not an easy target to pin down.
The Iwa Jonin were forced to switch to long-range jutsu, attempting to probe and stall Choza's approach while setting traps for him to fly into.
But information on paper has its limits. Furthermore, it had been twenty years since the end of the first war. The veterans who had actually traded blows with a "Butterfly" had long since left the front lines.
Time has a way of eroding everything. Especially fear.
"Butterfly Bullet Bombing!"
It wasn't until Choza's concentrated chakra strike actually connected with a target that the Iwa ninjas realized just how much of a nightmare they were facing. This was a "bugged" power-up—one that allowed a Genin-level Choji to one-shot an elite Jonin in the future.
The Iwa Jonin, who had prided themselves on keeping their distance and taking zero casualties, saw their luck run out. One Jonin was targeted. Choza's fist, glowing with the entirety of his life force converted into chakra, smashed through a defensive Mud Wall as if it were wet paper.
The impact pulverized the ground for meters, turning the area into a shattered wasteland. The Jonin behind the wall—who had foolishly believed his defense would hold—was vaporized along with the stone.
"Lady Tsunade, let's go!"
Choking back tears, Minato shouted at Tsunade. She was staring blankly at Choza, her eyes a chaotic mix of regret and agony. Minato didn't wait; he bolted through the gap Choza had punched into the encirclement.
"Don't let them escape!"
The Iwa Jonin were not about to let their prize slip away at the last second.
"Earth Style: Moving Earth Core!"
Several ninjas finished their seals in unison. The ground ahead of Minato and Tsunade groaned and lurched upward, forming a massive, sheer rampart that blocked their path like a city wall.
In rapid succession, three more walls erupted to their left, right, and rear. The center of the square began to sink rapidly, turning the trap into a deep, inescapable abyss with vertical cliffs.
Normally, this wouldn't stop ninjas of their caliber—they could simply run up the walls. But the Iwa ninjas were one step ahead.
"Earth Style: Heavenly Falling Clay!"
The sky above the pit seemed to tear open. A torrential downpour of heavy, wet clay began to fall, aiming to bury them alive in the hole.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Tsunade realized they didn't have the seconds required to scale the walls. She slammed her hand down, and Katsuyu appeared instantly.
Katsuyu's massive volume filled the cramped space of the Moving Earth Core trap immediately. The giant slug was forced to curl up like a cat trying to fit into a tiny cardboard box.
This was exactly what Tsunade wanted. By curling up, Katsuyu's height increased. Standing on the slug's head, Tsunade and Minato used the elevation to leap clear of the trap just before the clay could entomb them.
Outside the pit, they saw it: Choza was still pushing forward, a lone blue streak of light tearing through the final layer of the Iwa perimeter.
The scent of freedom was finally in the air.