Tsunade's Attack: Increasingly Irritable!

Chapter 122 Tsunade's Attack: Increasingly Irritable!

Meanwhile, relying on her confidence and the remaining "memories" in her body, Tsunade led Kakashi and Shizune in a search through the mountains in the dark for most of the night.

They crossed two mountain ridges and crawled through three suspicious mine tunnels, but still couldn't find the true entrance to the base hidden deep in the mountains.

Finally, Tsunade stood on a ridge, hands on her hips, her gaze sweeping heavily over the ground below, her expression gradually shifting from initial confidence to frustration.

Ultimately, she had to admit that she probably wouldn't be able to find him tonight.

"Camping!" she spat out irritably, then turned and walked to a sheltered rock face, where she plopped down on a rock.

Neither Shizune nor Kakashi dared to utter a single word.

Silently, she lowered her head and quietly took out her camping blanket and dry food from her backpack, moving very quietly so as not to make too much noise.

Kakashi then consciously moved to the outer perimeter, turning his back to the two and facing the dark forest to keep watch.

He didn't even have the courage to look back at Tsunade, afraid of meeting her fiery eyes and being punched into the mountainside.

Silent all night.

The campfire burned weakly beneath the rock face, casting the three men's shadows of varying lengths.

Tsunade leaned against the stone wall with her arms crossed, her eyes closed, it was hard to tell whether she was really asleep or just sulking.

Shizune curled up in the blanket, occasionally stealing a glance at Tsunade's face before quickly looking away.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was in a state of semi-sleep all night, his short sword held tightly in his palm, the blade reflecting the flickering light of the campfire.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Tsunade stood up.

She didn't eat breakfast or greet the other two, and walked straight down the mountain.

She still walked with long strides, but the pent-up anger from the previous night was beginning to seep out of her.

Kakashi and Shizune exchanged a glance, neither daring to ask, and silently followed.

Tsunade bypassed the main road of the village and instead of taking the normal mountain path, she turned directly into an abandoned mine tunnel that was almost completely covered by bushes.

The withered branches and vines were roughly pushed aside in front of her, snapping with a cracking sound, as if she wasn't looking for a way, but rather struggling against the forest.

Kakashi followed behind her, his right eye constantly scanning the surroundings; the alertness instilled in him by his Anbu training kept him constantly vigilant.

Abstinence.

His right hand remained resting on the hilt of the newly forged short sword at his waist, a sword technique he had recently picked up again from the Hatake family.

The short sword is more agile than a traditional ninja sword and is more suitable for his current fighting style.

Shizune carried Tun Tun at the back, her steps light, but she would occasionally look back at the way she came, her ears perked up, paying attention to the movements behind her.

"This is it!"

Tsunade suddenly stopped and reached out to push aside the layers of vines hanging down in front of her.

Behind the vines, a deep cave was suddenly revealed.

The entrance to the cave is small, barely enough for two people to enter side by side, and faint traces of human carving can be seen on the cave walls.

The three of them took a few steps deeper, and a bone door blocked their way.

The door was entirely white, pieced together from countless bones of varying thicknesses, with faint chakra glows flowing through the cracks, clearly indicating it was no ordinary object.

Shizune opened her mouth as if to say, "Should we check if there are any mechanisms first?" Kakashi was also about to step forward to check the structure of the door.

But Tsunade didn't give them a chance to speak; she had long since grown impatient.

All the futility of the night, the toil of half a day, and the pent-up frustration welling up from the bottom of her heart all converged in her right fist at this moment.

Pale blue chakra condensed on her fist, which was her signature ability, Super Strength!

A punch was thrown!

The bone gate exploded, and countless bone fragments flew in all directions like cannonballs, hitting the cave walls with a dense crackling sound and kicking up a cloud of choking white dust.

That seemingly sturdy bone door couldn't even withstand Tsunade's fist for a second before turning into a pile of fragments.

Shizune and Kakashi both gaped, their expressions of astonishment widening.

The two exchanged a glance, their eyes conveying the same message—aren't we supposed to be infiltrating? Is this really a good idea to make such a big fuss?

"alert!"

Kakashi's ears suddenly twitched; he heard a faint, rhythmic sound coming from deep within the mine.

It sounded like bones rubbing against stone, or like something moving.

Without hesitation, he flashed past Tsunade, blocking the two of them, and drew a short sword from his back with his right hand, the blade drawing a cold arc in the darkness.

The sound disappeared the moment Kakashi drew his sword, as if it had played a joke on him.

Kakashi didn't relax; the tip of his sword drooped slightly, maintaining a posture ready to strike at any moment.

His breathing became light and slow, and his right eye was fixed on the pitch-black darkness deep in the mine.

But Tsunade didn't care at all.

She didn't even glance at Kakashi, striding past him and heading deeper into the mine.

She continued to stride casually, as if that punch was just a warm-up, and that what lay hidden in the darkness ahead was not worth her attention.

Kakashi's eye twitched, and he slowly lowered his hand holding the sword, revealing a helpless expression.

He glanced at Shizune, who returned apologetic smile before jogging to catch up with Tsunade.

"Is anyone inside?" Shizune asked softly, her voice sounding particularly ethereal in the empty mine tunnel.

Tsunade did not answer. She walked in front, her gaze sweeping over the cave walls on both sides, the rubble under her feet, and the faint traces of chakra remaining in the air.

She sensed something familiar, but it wasn't a memory, nor a scene.

Rather, it was some sealed instinct within her body telling her: she had walked this path before.

She wanted to know everything, to know what else she didn't know besides that part of her memory.

The three soon arrived at a fork in the road, with two mine tunnels extending in different directions.

Different excavation marks are faintly visible on the cave walls; the left side is wider, while the right side is narrower.

Tsunade stood at the crossroads, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the two passages, her brows furrowed slightly, as if trying to retrieve some fragments from her blank mind.

Kakashi and Shizune remained silent, waiting quietly.

"Left!" she finally decided, lifting her foot to walk towards the left mine tunnel, her tone so certain it was almost unreasonable.

Suddenly, a series of soft, crackling sounds came from deep within the mine tunnel ahead, like bones rubbing against stone, or like some kind of mechanical device in operation.

This time, the sound grew closer and clearer, no longer the fleeting illusion of before.

The three of them stopped at the same time.

From around the corner of the mine tunnel, a skeletal golem slowly emerged.

Its entire body was pure white, with a faint grayish-white sheen on the surface of its bones. Its eye sockets were empty, with only two faint chakra lights flickering deep within.

It held a bone knife in its hand, the blade gleaming with a cold light, the tip pointing towards the ground, swaying slightly with its steps.

It seemed to be on patrol, and when its hollow eye sockets "looked" at the three of them, it tilted its head slightly, as if trying to identify something.

Then—it raised its bone knife!

"Step back."

Tsunade's voice was calm, even tinged with impatience.

She took a step forward, clenched her right fist, and pale blue chakra once again gathered on her fist, emitting a deep hum.

The skeletal puppet swung its sword down.

The bone blade whistled through the air. Tsunade dodged to the side, the blade grazing her clothes before striking the cave wall and slicing off a shard of rock.

She didn't give the puppet a second chance to swing its sword, and instead punched it directly in the chest.

The sound of bones cracking was deafening, like firecrackers exploding in the closed mine tunnel.

The puppet's sternum caved in deeply, and its entire body flew backward like a stone thrown by a catapult, crashing heavily into the rock wall.

The rock wall was smashed into a shallow crater, and the puppet was scattered into a pile of broken bones, with bone fragments rolling all over the ground.

The bone knife bounced a few times before landing on the ground with a crisp clinking sound, then remained still.

Tsunade flicked the bone fragments off her hands, her tone laced with disdain: "Too weak. It's nowhere near as good as that guy's bones back then."

She glanced at the fragments on the ground and scoffed, "These must all be discarded, defective items left here to be used as sentries."

Kakashi stared at the pile of broken bones and remained silent for a moment.

Even if it's a defective product, the hardness and strength of this skeletal puppet are far beyond what an ordinary genin could handle.

He crouched down, picked up a piece of bone fragment, and examined it closely. The surface of the bone fragment had fine lines, like some kind of chakra conduction circuit. It was hollow inside and much lighter than it looked.

"These things—are made from corpse bone veins," he said, "but the quality is really poor; they should be substandard experimental products."

"Keep going." Tsunade had already stepped over the pile of broken bones and continued deeper into the mine tunnel without even looking back.

The journey that followed was far from peaceful. Every few dozen meters, skeletal golems would burst out from side passages or dark rooms, brandishing bone knives and lunging at the three of them.

Some hung upside down from the rock crevices overhead, some crashed out from the hidden doors on the side, and a few even broke through the rubble on the ground.

They were numerous, but their strength varied greatly; most of them couldn't even withstand a single blow from Tsunade's monstrous punches.

With one punch, bone fragments flew everywhere, and the puppet fell apart on the spot.

A few of the slightly stronger ones had thicker skeletons and sharper bone knives, but they still couldn't gain an advantage against Kakashi's short sword.

He moved with agility, his short knife precisely cutting into the joints of the puppet, severing an arm with one stroke and a leg with another, dismantling a complete puppet into pieces in just a few breaths.

Shizune barely had a chance to make a move; she simply carried Ton-Ton and followed behind the two, occasionally using medical ninjutsu to treat Kakashi's abrasions from the bone knife.

Tun Tun seemed even more nervous than its owner, huddled in Jing Yin's arms, its two little eyes wide open, occasionally making "poof poof" sounds.

"These puppets—" Kakashi caught his breath during a break in the battle, twirling his short sword in his hand and flicking away bone fragments from the blade.

"They don't seem to really want to stop us; it's more like—they're trying to drive us away?"

He noticed that although the puppets would attack on their own initiative, their attacks were disorganized, lacking coordination and strategy.

They don't flank, they don't lure the enemy, they don't utilize the terrain; it's as if they're simply carrying out a "drive away the intruders" order, rather than actually fighting to the death to defend this place.

After one body was smashed, the others did not retreat, but they also did not speed up.

They just kept bringing them over one by one, as if they were stalling for time, or as if they were clearing out their inventory.

"Because this place is no longer important." Tsunade stood in front of a bone door, gazing inside, her expression somber and uncertain.

Because—it's completely empty!