I’m the Last Senju, and the Hokage Wants Me Dead! Chapter 243: Senju vs. Senju, Now with Extra Hyūga

anwhile, Ashina found himself locked in a relentless duel against Sakumo's Edo Tensei.

The White Fang's movents were fluid and elusive, his body flowing like the wind itself.

Wind chakra wrapped around him in perfect harmony, giving every step a seamless grace, swift, silent, and almost impossible to track.

Ashina countered with waves of chakra chains that shifted endlessly in form, length, and nature, weaving and coiling like living serpents.

Many elentals, four tail's lava, and sealing chakra fused together in each swing, but even that wasn't enough to fully catch Sakumo's elusive speed.

Sakumo darted through the storm of chains, his tanto blazing with compressed, the sharpest kind of lightning imaginable.

Neither could gain the upper hand for long.

Sakumo cut through smaller chains directly despite the chakra sealing and suppressing formula inside them, while massive, furnace-like constructs of molten chakra tried to close around him to trap him and burn him alive.

He t those with sweeping crescents of blinding White Flash Arcs, slashing through the glowing living furnaces before they could.

Ashina planted his foot, forcing the ground to rise, his fastest chains bursting outward in a ring to trap Sakumo inside again.

For a brief second, it almost worked, until the White Fang vanished again in a burst of light.

Ashina clicked his tongue. "Still too slow."

When Sakumo appeared behind him, blade already raised, Ashina invoked another technique.

His body blurred and snapped back several ters to the exact spot he had stood seconds earlier. "mory Step," he muttered, exhaling slowly. The move had saved him more than once already.

But Sakumo adapted quickly. His strikes grew faster, his angles sharper.

Even Ashina's "Spatial Decay Technique", a black orb of condensed sealing chakra that slowly sealed away the very essence of matter near it, proved too slow to catch him.

The orb grazed the ground where Sakumo had been a heartbeat ago, leaving a perfectly smooth crater of nothingness behind.

Forced onto the defensive, Ashina unleashed his last resort. "Void Zone!"

His chains slamd into the earth, tracing a perfect circle around Sakumo before flaring with bright red light.

The space inside distorted, the air thickened, gravity twisting.

Within that barrier, only Ashina could move freely; his opponent's movents slowed, distorted, bound by invisible pressure that ca from gradually sealing away all chakra he wanted.

For a mont, it seed to work. Sakumo's pace faltered, his form flickering inside the shifting field.

But then, the ground exploded beneath him.

He had slipped directly into the ground, his body coated in Earth Release chakra until he blended with the terrain itself.

Moving through the soil like liquid stone, he bypassed the barrier completely and reerged several ters away, white lightning still crackling around him.

Ashina's chains, anwhile, recoiled, the glowing circle collapsing as Sakumo reappeared, calm and ready.

"Fast as ever," Ashina muttered, repositioning himself.

Then they moved again, blinding light and burning chains colliding once more, neither giving an inch as their battle carved new scars into the land.

anwhile, on the other side, the clash between Tobirama and Tsunade and Kanae, who attacked him from the start, tore across the battlefield like a storm that refused to end.

Tobirama had already sent his four newest Edo Tensei to attack Ryusei, yet he still couldn't join them for now.

Now, the Second Hokage faced Tsunade and Kanae directly.

His movents were razor-sharp, his control absolute.

His signature kenjutsu sword from life, recovered in Konoha, was thin, gleaming, and honed to perfection.

A pressurized sheath of Water Release wrapped around it, forming a cutting layer so sharp it sliced through stone as easily as air.

Each swing carried the precision of a master surgeon and the speed of a teleportation jutsu.

The battlefield was already instantly marked with dozens of Flying Raijin seals by him and his clones, through kunai or not.

Tsunade charged first.

Her Yin Seal was fully open, and combined with her Creation Rebirth, the markings spread from her forehead across her body, glowing faintly as her chakra flow surged in perfect sync, creating Mitotic Regeneration, a state of constant, automatic, and flawless healing which defied reason and also allowed her to ignore all of her body's natural limits in terms of speed and power it could generate.

And as if that wasn't enough, five of her Inner Gates were open, her body roaring with raw vitality. Each punch she threw cracked the air itself, every strike landing like a cannon blast.

Tobirama attempted his signature genjutsu, overwhelming, expanding Yin Release darkness, imdiately, while jumping back, the Infinite Darkness Technique, to distract them both first, and perhaps finish it fast, but it was useless.

Kanae's Byakugan was seemingly far too advanced to be affected, for so reason, and Tsunade's imnse chakra flow from her opened Five Gates made her nearly impossible to disrupt, as she just bulldozed forward near him. Even if it had worked partially, she was already moving too fast for it to matter in ti.

Therefore, Tobirama imdiately pivoted and teleported sowhere behind her in a flash of steel, his sword already mid-swing.

Kanae shouted, "Left side—now!"

Tsunade pivoted, her fist connecting mid-motion with the flat of Tobirama's blade.

The collision detonated the ground beneath them.

The shockwave uprooted trees and sent shards of stone flying in all directions.

Tobirama's arm trembled slightly from the impact, but his expression didn't change.

The Water Release coating of his sword shimred back into focus, reforming instantly.

Kanae's Byakugan flared with faint light.

Her perception now far beyond any ordinary Hyūga, she could track the minute distortions of space every ti Tobirama shifted between seals.

His teleportation speed was still overwhelming, but she could anticipate it now, see the chakra displacent a fraction before he reappeared.

Tobirama threw a kunai to the right and vanished. Before he even materialized, his sword was already mid-swing, his signature Flying Thunder God Slash.

Kanae saw it, shouted the angle to Tsunade again, and both won moved as one.

Tobirama's blade struck only air. He appeared several ters away, frowning slightly.

The next mont, Tsunade massively closed the distance in a single step, her punch colliding with his counter-ford Water Drill, with his other free hand, this ti, a whirling stream of condensed water, rotating with such force it scread against the wind.

The impact shattered it instantly. Water exploded outward, Tobirama's Edo Tensei body tearing apart under the force of her hit.

However, as the debris settled, his ash-like form reassembled almost imdiately, reforming bone, flesh, and armor in re seconds.

Tsunade's fist was torn and her fingers bloodied from clashing against the water drill, yet the wounds vanished almost instantly as her regeneration surged, knitting flesh and bone back together before the next strike.

Kanae was beside Tsunade now, her palms glowing faintly as her chakra shifted through multiple elents, two conceptual and two elental this ti around. Her movents were smooth, her strikes blindingly fast.

When Tobirama tried to appear behind her again, she spun, her hands forming a sharp rotation of chakra. "Gentle Step: Dual Vacuum Palms!"

The four blasts, joining into two, of compressed air and lightning-infused chakra shot forward, striking Tobirama's chest, lingering a bit, while shattering it into fragnts.

His current vessel effortlessly regenerated again, expression still calm, as if it didn't bother him and he was past the point of care.

He was certain he could sense traces of Yin Release within those strikes, subtle interference aid at disrupting his internal signals and paralyzing his autonomic nervous system further from within, preventing a better response.

And their force was far greater than any Hyūga he had known in life, as if they carried another layer of pressuring energy behind them altogether.

The girl's Byakugan also 'glowed' strangely and pinged too intensely for his sensory perception, its energy pattern far more potent than ordinary.

All of it only reinforced what Tobirama had co to suspect more and more in recent months, that the Hyūga possessed far greater secrets than they had ever revealed.

"Impressive," he muttered quietly. "Even the Hyūga evolve beyond my records now.

Kanae's eyes narrowed. "And you talk too much."

He then appeared behind her again instantly, already weaving signs.

"Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"

A razor-thin stream of water slashed through the air like a laser, cutting through the landscape, grazing Tsunade's cheek as she narrowly avoided decapitation.

She grabbed the ground, crushed it with raw force, and launched the debris at him like bullets.

He flickered away instantly, reappearing above her.

Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags covered the ground beneath her before she even noticed.

"Tch—!"

Kanae shouted, "Back—now!"

Tsunade jumped, the explosion erupting beneath them.

The shockwave lit up the battlefield, and dust filled the air.

When the smoke cleared, Tobirama was already weaving a new set of signs as he recovered from the aftershock of his own technique, the ground under him turning darker and wet.

"Abyss Release."

The earth liquefied into black, viscous water charged with crackling blue lightning.

The substance expanded outward like a flood, spreading thick and slow but alive, dragging everything into it.

The air hissed as the fluid's current surged with voltage.

Kanae and Tsunade both jumped back, but the terrain shifted too fast.

Tobirama's voice echoed faintly, almost chanical. "Water, Earth, and Lightning—the perfect storm. You won't cross it."

Tsunade's fists glowed faintly with chakra. "Then I'll just shatter it!" She slamd both hands into the ground, and the impact sent shockwaves through the terrain, splitting the black mire apart in a burst of earth and light.

Tobirama reappeared behind her—but Kanae was faster. She intercepted his strike mid-teleport, her hands glowing white. "Gentle Step: Shattering Pulse!"

The strongest wave of compressed chakra she could muster now hit him square in the chest, fracturing his Edo Tensei body again.

But before they could capitalize, the air around them shifted—sand and dust began to swirl violently, whipping into a blinding storm.

"Gale Release."

The storm was infused with wind, water, and earth chakra.

Tiny particles of sand, wet and sharp, battered the two won relentlessly, eroding skin and visibility.

Kanae shielded them both with a Rotation, but the storm's force pushed even her defensive sphere to its limit.

Tsunade crouched low, preparing to move. "Kanae, down!"

They ducked as spectral figures suddenly erged from the storm.

Tobirama's chakra flickered within them—semi-transparent, ghostlike constructs that phased through the sand and earth.

"Spectral Release."

Wind, lightning, and water intertwined to create hauntingly pale shapes—phantom weapons that sliced through solid rock.

One passed through Kanae's rotation, grazing her shoulder before she countered with a pulse of lightning-infused chakra that scattered it.

Tobirama's real body erged from the storm then, blade raised, teleporting between seals mid-air.

His sword ca down, coated again in razor-thin water pressure.

Tsunade t him head-on, fists glowing.

Their clash split the field with a shockwave, each hit sending ripples through the terrain.

Kanae followed with a strike to his flank, her Yang chakra-laced palm disrupting his internal flow before he vanished again.

Kanae's Byakugan had strengthened further since the procedure three months ago, followed by another one soti after.

She had been refining a few new pairs of eyes in parallel, their growth accelerating with each cycle of accumulated progress.

Even so, the evolution remained unfinished; her Byakugan had not yet reached its true peak.

In the anti, for several minutes, the three continued in a dizzying exchange, raw force colliding again and again.

Tsunade's fists shattered his form repeatedly, Kanae's precision kept him from landing lethal blows, and Tobirama's speed and regeneration made him nearly impossible to finish off.

At last, they broke apart, each side montarily catching breath amid the ruined field.

Tobirama straightened, his sword reforming as his body regenerated once more. "You're stronger than I expected. Both of you. But you still lack one thing—finality. You can't seal away, and I'm immortal."

Tsunade wiped blood from her chin, "Funny. I was thinking the sa thing about you. You can't do anything against her Byakugan's vision guiding my overwhelming physical strength."

Kanae's eyes glead, her Byakugan pulsing. "He's right, though, we can't kill him. So we make sure he can't move. We wait and believe for Ryusei to finish his part over there first."

Tsunade nodded, her fist tightening. "Then we keep him busy."

They charged again, and Tobirama vanished in a flash of light.

The battlefield erupted once more into chaos, sandstorms, spectral waves, and shockwaves colliding endlessly, neither side yielding an inch.

When the dust finally began to settle, all three still stood, Tobirama's body half-regenerated, Tsunade's seal pulsing weakly, Kanae's breath steady but labored.

For now, it was a stalemate. But every one of them knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.

anwhile, inwardly, Tobirama was a bit surprised by their current resilience against him.

Those last three shown forms of his, Abyss, Gale, and Spectral, releases, were no longer simple combination jutsu.

No, they were true Kekkei Tōta already, full advanced elental releases he had mastered within the past half year, thanks to those sa otherworldly insights that had first entered his mind when he awakened as an Edo Tensei.

Later, through his soul's travels to the Pure Land, Tobirama had explored even deeper truths, visiting the souls of powerful Senju ancestors long gone and absorbing their elental wisdom and even procedural mories, holding their centuries of mastery over nature transformation and fusion, the true Senju specialty.

Even so, while he could now perform those techniques, he hadn't yet perfected them. If he had, he was certain Tsunade and the Hyūga girl wouldn't have been able to hold him back like this. He would have already surpassed the Kage level entirely and entered his brother's realm of power. But for now, he was only halfway there, still climbing toward that new stage.

And those three weren't the only ones. He had uncovered the foundations of two even greater elental fusions, though they still remained incomplete, unstable, and too dangerous to bring into any battle presently, for now.

Still, the progress itself was extraordinary, a result of his never higher desire to improve massively, his curiosity, vision, intellect, and the mysterious aid that could only have co from the Sage of Six Paths himself.

He was now far stronger than he had ever been in life, not rely because of his Edo Tensei immortality or the limitless chakra that ca with it.

Even then, Tobirama found himself surprised.

His original plan had been simple: eliminate Tsunade, then join the four Edo Tensei he had summoned to crush Ryusei himself completely.

But this Hyūga girl, the one who had joined Tsunade, had far exceeded his expectations.

Her vision and all-around performance had evolved dramatically since their last encounter.

She was no longer just a talent side actor; she was firmly within the Kage class now.

It was as if her entire essence had been upgraded sohow.

When she started assisting Tsunade from the beginning, it was very hard to finish her.

It wasn't just their individual strength that made them formidable; it was how perfectly Kanae's precision and vision complented Tsunade's overwhelming, brute power, each amplifying the other without needing to speak at all tis.

Still, Tobirama knew the four Edo Tensei he had deployed for Ryusei were monstrous in their own right, each a high Kage-level combatant.

No single shinobi alive could withstand all four together.

Not even his brother could handle that easily.

They could very likely end Ryusei Senju all on their own.

Yet here he was, still seeking an opening to finish this fight himself and move there quickly.

Whatever sentint he might once have had toward Tsunade as his grandniece was gone.

Family or not, she stood against him now, for the biggest enemy of the Leaf, and that made her his enemy.

He wouldn't hesitate to cut her down the mont an opening appeared, regardless of his brother's feelings.

After all, if he cared about that, he wouldn't have co here in secret, concealing his actions even from Hashirama himself.

Even so, Tobirama couldn't help but feel a flicker of surprise, perhaps even respect, for her strength and how far she had co entirely on her own, bypassing both the traditional Senju thods and the usual shinobi paths of growth.