Just as she was getting near the village, six mysterious figures, all dressed in Kumo shinobi garbs, jumped at Tsunade.
With swords and kunai, three of them moved in to attack while the remaining three remained a step behind for backup.
Shiki being in her arms, the Senju princess could not fight back properly . . . Or so they thought.
Muscles bulging on her fair and slim arms, Tsunade hurled Shiki at the shinobi ahead of her in a burst of Chakra Enhanced Strength.
Clearly expecting everything but that, the unknown shinobi was hit full on, being knocked away.
Wasting no time at all,the Senju princess twirled mid-air, launching a devastating kick to the attacker on her right and simultaneously, a punch to the one on her left.
Quickly recovering, the two attackers weaved the strike while striking Tsunade down but to their surprise, her body popped into a cloud of smoke.
"Shadow Clone!" One of them pointed out the obvious.
As for the thrown Shiki, a log disguised with the transformation jutsu that knocked out its target.
Unfortunately for the Senju princess, cases like this were exactly why the other three assailants hanged back.
And so, she was still intercepted with the two remaining shinobi from the first attack swiftly arriving to support.
'A highly trained and coordinated elite unit. They also purposefully aimed for non-vital areas when they attacked my shadow clone. They don't want to kill me.' Tsunade analyzed the situation.
'If these fools really think anyone would believe Kumo infiltrators got this close to Konoha and somehow were standing in perfect positions to intercept me . . .' She trailed off in her mind.
It was clear that the uniforms were for appearances' sake.
Even if everyone and their mother knew there was something fishy, certain suspicious parties would merely have to vehemently deny their actions and no real consequences would reach them.
So long as no hard evidence was presented of course.
What seemed to be the leader of the assailants stepped forward, an Anbu mask hiding his features but his gravelly hoarse voice grating the senju princess' ears.
"Hand over the body. We have no quarrel with you princess." He demanded.
'Because of his injuries and hibernation-like state, they don't realize the brat is not dead.' Tsunade noted but did not miss a beat with her reply.
"Keep dreaming." Various escape plans were already phasing in and out of her thoughts.
"There is no need to make this difficult, we do not want to provoke Konoha by killing you. We merely want the boy's body." The man spoke once again, his tone slightly more hostile.
'Yeah right! As if those Kumo bastards would ever pay such respect to Konoha. If you want to pretend then at least keep to your role.' The Senju princess internally mocked.
With Tsunade not answering, the tension just kept rising as both parties considered what would be their best move.
The assailants had their orders, capture Shiki if he is alive, obtain his corpse if he is dead.
If he was aware, the boy would find it strange. After all, as far as Danzo should know, there would be nothing special about his body.
Then again, Shiki was quite anomalous so suspicions could definitely arise.
Tsunade's unexpected presence however, messed things up.
It was still an era close to the glory of the First and Second Hokage, the Senju clan was still going strong even if not as powerful as before the First Great Ninja War, so even the Root had plenty of misgivings about targeting the Senju princess herself.
But just as both parties began to move, a thunderous crash and menacing aura froze them all in place.
You could be utterly devoid of sensitivity towards chakra and still feel it.
The air thickened, becoming like a heavy liquid.
Everyone present was having trouble breathing.
Forget about moving, gravity felt so intense they could barely even keep themselves standing with all of their effort.
They turned to see the stone cold face of a young and beautiful Uzumaki woman tall and well proportioned, with long and luscious straight red hair as well as pupil-less bloody red eyes.
But none of them could truly appreciate the regal charm and beauty of the woman when her chakra weighed them down with her rage.
"Tsunade, come here and give me Shiki." The woman spoke.
"The rest of you better not move one muscle. Not even death can relieve you of me if you try." She added.
The voice was younger, more vivacious, but the tone was unmistakable.
"Obaa-sama!?" Tsunade could not process what she was seeing.
Hearing the Senju princess, the assailants became even more unbalanced.
It was simply impossible to believe.
What kind of conspiracy was taking place?
The supposedly aging and weakening Uzumaki Mito was right there in front of them, looking every bit in her prime with utterly monstrous chakra emanating from her form.
It was not even the feared Nine Tails' chakra.
What few people never realized as time moved on, was that the Uzumaki Matriarch was a powerhouse that was perhaps just a step below the likes of her husband, the First Hokage and his rival, Uchiha Madara.
The power she was showing at the moment was nothing surprising for the younger her, without even considering the enhancements that came from the Sanguine Pills of the Blood Spiral Sealing Arts.
And something that could not be forgotten, because she had used the Four Symbol Puppet Clone, Mito's power was half its actual level.
Meaning these elite shinobi including her Elite Jonin granddaughter were frozen in place, paralyzed, by a casual release of chakra from a half power version of her current self.
As all those present attempted to make sense of the situation, they were forcefully brought out of their fear filled thoughts by the chilling voice of the Uzumaki matriarch sounding out again.
"What are you standing around for, Tsunade?" She questioned.
Deciding to approach herself, each of her steps sounding like death knell for the Senju's princess' assailants, they could not even muster up enough resistance to end their own lives.
"Lay him on the floor." Mito commanded.
Tsunade, finally shook off her stunned state and hurriedly yet carefully did as her radically different grandmother commanded.
The thought she was dealing with a fake or something, never even crossed her mind despite the Uzumaki's matriarch strangeness.
That was how much the pressure was getting to her.
After all, this was not the battle hardened Sannin and Fifth Hokage but the teenage princess of the Senju clan.
"We'll be having a long talk about the boy's state despite me sending to specifically prevent such a thing." Mito declared.
"But later." She added, turning her attention to Shiki much to Tsunade's relief.
For someone with consummate mastery over her clan's arts like the Uzumaki matriarch, the so-called Healing Bite shown by Karin in the series was not required at all.
In fact, Karin even needed to bite herself if she wanted actual regenerative power, otherwise all she had was the natural vitality of the Uxumaki.
For Mito however, she merely had to lay her hand on Shiki's chest and make miracles happen.
Without any delay, all the damage accumulated by the boy's body began to disappear.
As if time itself was rewinding, flesh and bone grew back to fill the hole in his chest and even the damage [Shiki] had incurred by abusing clan arts his body was not ready to handle, even that was slowly being repaired.
Though the inordinate amount of chakra and lifeforce needed to heal these hidden injuries was swiftly noticed by Mito.
'Looks like the kid did a number on himself too. Just means yet another person will be added to my list for punishment.' The Uzumaki matriarch thought to herself.
If Shiki could see the redhead's current expression, he would surely shake in fear without Kukyo, the very manifestation of his hollow nature, deadening his emotions.
That said, there were other individuals in the village of Konoha that ought to be far more concerned than him.
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Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -