Seeing the rock tearing through the fireball and flying toward him, Shin quickly retreated. Before his feet even touched the ground, he rapidly gathered chakra into his right fist and swung it out forcefully.
The moment his fist made contact with the rock, the hard stone immediately shattered. He used the recoil to continue flying backward.
But almost simultaneously, Tsunade, who was following right behind the rock, had already appeared in front of Shin. Her Heavenly Foot of Pain landed directly on his chest before he even had time to defend.
Boom!
Shin's body instantly burst into a puff of smoke.
At the same time, ten meters off to the side, a water jet as thick as a wrist shot toward her.
Tsunade seemed to have anticipated it. As she landed, the chakra from her toes adhered tightly to the ground with precise control under the Ultra Precision Mode.
Using the strong suction force, her body suddenly sank down, narrowly dodging the water jet. At the same time as she dodged, she jumped to the side again, avoiding another water jet slashing down from above like a sharp blade.
The hard rocky ground was sliced in half the moment it touched the water, but the water jet didn't stop, instead, it swept horizontally, chasing Tsunade.
This was the Water Severing Wave developed by Tobirama.
A high-pressure straight stream of water was spit from the mouth, slicing through targets like a sharp blade.
However, this sweeping attack still failed to land. Ducking once more to dodge the water jet, Tsunade charged at Shin again.
At this point, the water jet had already stopped spraying.
"Let's see how you dodge this one!" With a light shout, her figure suddenly appeared above Shin like a teleportation, delivering a heavy kick down at him.
After sparring for so long, she had already understood his capabilities well. For some of the lower-level jutsu, he could use shadow clones to perform them like the Great Fireball Technique.
But for higher-level jutsu like the Water Severing Wave, he had to first recall his shadow clone before using it himself.
Not everyone was like Naruto, with seemingly bottomless chakra reserves, able to use even high-cost techniques like Rasenshuriken through shadow clones without hesitation. Nor was everyone Edo Tensei Madara, who could use Perfect Susanoo even with just a clone.
Shin's talent was exceptional, but his current chakra levels were only at the average Kage-level, not enough to recklessly burn chakra like a jinchūriki.
In a panic, unable to use another jutsu in time, he could only gather chakra throughout his body and raise his left arm to block.
Boom!
With the massive force of the impact, the hard ground immediately cracked inch by inch from under his feet, spreading out in all directions for tens of meters.
Under the immense opposing forces, he curled up and spun several times in mid-air to reduce the impact, then used the momentum to launch a heavy kick down at Tsunade, who had just landed.
But Tsunade had already prepared for this, she threw a punch and collided solidly with the descending foot. The clash sent out a powerful shockwave, blowing away the already fractured ground and lowering the entire terrain by a notch.
Originally, Shin had wanted to use the recoil to create distance between himself and Tsunade. But the moment he moved, she appeared like a ghost right in front of him and launched a relentless storm of attacks.
So the two began trading blows directly with taijutsu, their figures constantly shifting, pursuing and dodging, punches and kicks flying in a fierce exchange.
Since he had only recently learned the Chakra Enhanced Strength, strictly speaking, not even ten days ago, and hadn't yet mastered the Ultra Precision Mode, he wasn't her match in close combat due to his lack of experience.
But at this point, he had no choice.
She never gave him a chance to disengage from the fight, forcing him to engage her head-on with taijutsu. There was no room left to perform ninjutsu. Under such intense and rapid exchanges, it didn't take long before Shin gradually began to fall behind.
Thankfully, he had been training in chakra-based body strengthening techniques for the past six years. His physical attributes were extremely strong, and combined with his exceptional reflexes, he could just barely keep up with Tsunade.
But relying on taijutsu alone, the gap between the two was still undeniable.
Ten minutes later, Shin lay on the ground, gasping for air, once again ending the day's sparring session as the loser.
Before his transmigration, he had somewhat underestimated her strength.
After all, not every taijutsu ninja was like Guy, ready to open the Eight Gates at the slightest provocation.
But after truly facing Tsunade in combat, Shin realized how wrong he had been, completely wrong. Because of him, she had never slacked off in her training over the past few years.
Once the laziest among the Sannin, she had now become the most diligent of them all. She had even quit gambling, dedicating all her time to training and researching medical ninjutsu.
This effort, combined with her already exceptional talent, had made her far stronger than Orochimaru or Jiraiya at this point in time. She had solidly reached Kage-level strength.
More importantly, she was still improving. Her potential was terrifying, she was truly someone favored by the heavens.
In the original timeline, even after slacking off for more than twenty years, she was still able to unleash high-level Kage-level power during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
Now, having never slacked off, what heights she might reach in the future was simply unimaginable.
Yet while Shin was shocked by Tsunade's strength, she was even more shaken. Because his rate of improvement left her speechless, he was a complete monster.
Just a month ago, he had been a total rookie, utterly clueless about ninjutsu and combat. But now, he was already able to go head-to-head with her, even when she was fighting at full strength.
And that was without using Sage Mode or the Sharingan.
If he did use Sage Mode, she wouldn't even be a match for him.
Give it another month, and he might be able to defeat her outright, even without special techniques. It wasn't that his talent vastly surpassed Tsunade's.
Over the past seven years, while he hadn't trained, he had never stopped thinking about ninjutsu and combat. He had mentally simulated countless battles in his mind, hundreds of thousands of times. But he had always been a theorist, someone who had never actually use a jutsu or engaged in real combat.
So even with astonishing talent, he still needed time to adapt in actual practice.
Fortunately, he had Tsunade, a super sparring partner who was both patient and attentive. That was the only reason he'd managed to fully integrate all his theories into real combat within just a month.
All things considered, he had only been training for one month.
To last twenty minutes against a full-power, Kage-level Tsunade, without using Sage Mode or the Sharingan, and only lose in the end, was already an incredible feat.
His outrageous growth rate suddenly made her understand why her granduncle had been so wary of him. It was likely because he saw the unparalleled talent within Shin and wanted to strangle that potential in the cradle.
As for the reason? Because he was an Uchiha.
With that, everything made sense.
But that only made her angrier.
Just because he was an Uchiha, he wasn't allowed to fulfill his potential? His life had to be ruined? He had to be eliminated?
In the end, it was still her granduncle's deep-seated prejudice at play. Were Uchiha ninjas not also ninjas of Konoha?
From what she knew of her granduncle, she had every reason to believe that if Shin hadn't been born into the Uchiha clan, her granduncle might have gone all-in to nurture him into one of Konoha's strongest.
But just because of the name Uchiha, it had come to this? It was honestly laughable.