Dan Katō's Edo body performed a string of unfamiliar seals, his movements perfectly in sync with Izuna's renewed assault, both attacking Tsunade from opposite sides.
But unlike before, Dan's chakra now twisted unnaturally.
Its flow was pure yet tainted, half-Yin in nature, carrying fragments of his own soul as flickering essence fuel.
He molded it into spectral avatars, ghostlike projections of himself born from chakra shape transformation, each carrying that strange essence.
They multiplied rapidly, circling Tsunade and even the massive Katsuyu she rode, forming a dense, ghostly storm.
Each phantom struck and vanished, draining her focus little by little.
Their blows weren't physical, nor truly genjutsu; they simply pressed against her spirit.
Persistent, relentless, their presence clawed at the edges of her mind, and if left unchecked, they could slip through during even a brief lapse in concentration, corrupting her chakra flow and possibly her sanity.
And with Izuna's Susanoo still attacking alongside them, it was a suffocating pressure.
Tsunade clenched her teeth, fists flashing as she struck at Izuna's chakra armor while dodging the spectral swarm.
She kept repeating mental affirmations to steady her thoughts, to keep her mind grounded against the pull.
But, she was being forced on the defensive again.
She had no idea how Dan could use a technique like this. He'd never possessed anything close to it in life. 'If he'd had this kind of power before… he might never have died.'
Then, suddenly, a pulse of familiar chakra brushed her senses.
A small slug on her shoulder glowed bright, and in the next heartbeat, Ryusei's clone appeared beside her, reverse-summoned from afar.
His real body had already sensed everything: Dan Katō's presence, his interaction with Tsunade, and the parasitic nature of this new jutsu.
A dangerous one, and now, with Edo chakra behind it, the man's strength sat somewhere around Quasi-Kage level or even more.
Ryusei would think about that later, and how Dan had even developed such a technique, one completely absent from his known repertoire in life.
For now, there was no time for speculation. He moved.
The jutsu reminded him of that Yamanaka operative who'd once tried to kill him, though this version was far obviously even higher level.
In a sense, from Ryusei's perspective, Dan's current strange technique more so resembled a spiritual counterpart to the Eight Gates, where, instead of the body, it was overloading his very soul with chakra until it spilled outward strongly, manifesting externally as those various spectral projections.
It was reckless, unstable, and powerful in equal measure.
So, without hesitation, Ryusei stepped forward, placing himself between Tsunade and the encroaching specters.
His defensive soul barrier, Yin Release: Inner Bastion, unfurled around him in a dome of unique reddish-gold light.
Once a purely internal construct protecting his brain, it now manifested outwardly, strengthened through his growth in fuinjutsu and spiritual mastery over time.
The barrier expanded instantly, colliding with the phantoms mid-air. It no longer reacted; it anticipated. Preemptive rather than passive.
And that made all the difference because he could also protect others with it actively now.
The ghosts hissed and disintegrated on contact, their forms shredded by the mirrored will encasing him.
Tsunade's chest loosened the moment she felt the pressure lift.
The chaotic swirl of soul fragments pressing on her chakra simply… vanished.
She looked at him, at the clone framed in the glowing barrier, and that familiar steadiness filled her again.
She exhaled softly, a faint, almost amused smile forming despite the battlefield chaos.
"You really don't know how to stay out of trouble, do you?"
The clone smirked without turning. "Maybe. But you fight better when I'm around."
Her lips twitched, half amusement, half relief.
Her pulse finally steadied.
With him shielding her, she could focus solely on Izuna's Susanoo and Katsuyu's acid assault, pushing toward victory once more.
Inside, a quiet warmth bloomed. 'He really is my wall.'
Meanwhile, Ryusei's thoughts through the clone were steady and analytical.
He reflected on how far this technique had come.
Once a purely Yin-based defense, now it fused high-precision chakra control with layered fuinjutsu formulas and intricate spiritual principles, an advanced blend of sealing art and soul mastery.
In his assessment, Yin Release: Soul Bastion, as he now called it, could stand even against the strongest Mangekyō genjutsu ability in his current estimate.
Compared to that, Dan Katō's soul projections were still child's play.
The real challenge was Edo Tensei's limitless chakra.
Dan could spawn those wraiths endlessly, wave after wave.
It meant Ryusei's clone couldn't leave Tsunade's side to finish him off, as doing so would leave her exposed again.
But that was fine.
With the clone's barrier nullifying every spectral manifestation, Tsunade could keep hammering at Izuna's Susanoo without distraction.
Ryusei felt a rare satisfaction at the balance they'd achieved.
He'd neutralized Dan perfectly; this was the most manageable Edo among them, completely containable by a single clone, due to his counters.
And since the clone didn't need to engage him physically, durability, the usual biggest weakness of Shadow Clones, no longer mattered.
Perfect equilibrium. Perfectly contained.
Ryusei's clone flew effortlessly beside Tsunade, tracing every motion she made as she traded blows with Izuna's colossal Susanoo.
The battlefield thundered beneath them, yet he moved lightly, his body carried by the Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique.
He moved like a shadow orbiting her, his Yin Release: Soul Bastion flaring occasionally to intercept stray strikes or spiritual attacks aimed her way.
However, even in the middle of this chaos, he started talking to her, casually, like it was a quiet afternoon instead of the middle of a war.
His tone was warm, teasing, with the kind of confidence that always disarmed her recently, the exact blend that always threw her off-balance.
"Tsunade," his voice brushed into her mind through their shared link, he taught her how to use before, smooth and annoyingly smug, "the original wanted me to tell you something else before he summoned me in his mind. He said he's… very impressed."
She blinked, narrowly dodging a strike from Izuna's spectral arm. "Impressed?" she muttered.
"Yeah. You didn't flinch at all back there. Didn't lose focus. You even defended me so fiercely when they threw that Dan Katō stunt at you. He said you did well… better than he expected."
He paused, his mental tone dipping into mock amusement. "Actually, he said you looked kinda scary, so I should probably watch my tone."
Despite herself, she let out a short breath that sounded suspiciously close to a laugh."He's lucky he's far away, or I'd show him what scary really means," she muttered, eyes narrowing at the Susanoo ahead.
"And don't tell me he somehow heard all this from over there. What, did his sensing suddenly evolve to even pick up voices now?"
The clone's mental voice carried an amused hum. "Actually, he might've. You'd be surprised what he can pick up when you're the one talking."
Her eyes narrowed. "You're enjoying this too much."
"Maybe a little," he admitted, his tone softening into something almost fond. "But relax, he's not listening in to tease you. He's actually proud—really proud. Said you've come a long way. Smart, calm, collected. Mature at last."
He paused for a beat, that familiar smirk curling through his voice. "Apparently, you even passed his little test."
That made her twitch. "Test?!" Her inner voice rose with irritation, even as she cracked Izuna's armor with another chakra-laced punch. "That brat's even testing me now?"
But her bite had no venom. It came out more like the sound of a woman trying not to chuckle playfully in amusement.
"You're taking it the wrong way," Ryusei's clone chuckled. "He didn't interfere this time on purpose. Wanted to see how you'd react on your own. How stable your mind is… and maybe how close we've actually gotten."
Tsunade froze for a moment. "How close we've—what?" Her chakra flared with embarrassment as she swung again, hitting harder than before just to mask it. "You better explain yourself, kid."
But she wasn't angry. Not really. Instead, inwardly, she felt an inexplicable electrified warmth running through her. 'Why does he always sound like that?' she thought. 'Like he already knows he's under my skin.'
The clone laughed. "Kid, huh? You don't sound that sure anymore."
"Don't push it," she snapped, but her mental voice wavered, softer than her words. "You're lucky I'm busy."
"You say that, but you're blushing," he teased. "I can feel you all through the link."
She swore under her breath and hit Susanoo again, a massive crack spiderwebbing through its ribs. "Shut up and focus on defending!"
Katsuyu's acid surged beside her, melting through another magenta rib.
He smiled faintly, his Soul Bastion flaring just in time to block a wave of Dan Katō's spectral clones. "See? You fight better when I distract you."
Her reply was mostly incoherent irritation, but under it, something else pulsed. Heat. Amusement. And something she didn't want to name.
Also, when she thought about his "test," she realized she didn't find it offensive at all. Every strong woman still valued the kind of man who valued himself more first. Moreover, he had trusted her to face her own past, without interfering, and she respected that very much too.
She didn't even feel offended by him saying she'd finally matured, or by the quiet implication that she hadn't been all that smart before. In truth, she agreed.
She had been living in comfortable lies most of her life until she met him.
If anything, hearing it from him now felt… oddly pleasant. Almost satisfying, in a way she couldn't quite explain.
Ryusei didn't stop there, though. His voice turned more serious, lower, resonating in her thoughts. "You did the right thing, Tsunade. You saw through the manipulation. But I think Dan Katō wasn't just used randomly. He was placed there, in your life, by Hiruzen himself, probably, from the very beginning."
Tsunade hesitated mid-motion, barely avoiding a hit. "What are you saying?"
"Think about it," Ryusei said, calmly but sharply. "Nawaki dies in that 'accident". You're at your weakest. Suddenly, this kind, charming, and well-spoken man shows up instead. Always knows what to say. Always seems to understand you. Always supports your ideals and your medical projects. Too perfect, isn't it? Hiruzen probably planted him right there, a distraction to keep you from looking too deep into your brother's death, which happened coincidentally just before then."
The air around her shifted. She didn't answer at first. Her face hardened, her jaw clenched.
The thought hit her like lightning.
She paused for just an instant, fists trembling, blood boiling, and eyes burning with fury.
She struck harder, sending cracks through Izuna's Susanoo that echoed like thunder.
It made too much sense.
His perfectly timed arrival, their overly smooth first meeting, his uncanny understanding of her moods, her grief, her ambitions.
How he'd always seemed to say the right things at the right time—now it all felt artificial.
'He was never some destined soulmate like I once might have fooled myself into thinking, from time to time,' she realized.
'He was a leash they wrapped around my neck… a well-trained actor they sent as another lever to keep me in line.'
"It fits too well…" she muttered, half to herself. "His coincidental 'interests' and 'goals'… every single thing that happened…"
Every word of his made sense, and every memory of Dan Katō suddenly felt filthy.
Her mind drifted, those memories flashing, as if automatically being erased by her now one after another completely.
His encouragements, his smiles, his subtle attempts at closeness—all fake.
Her punches grew faster. More precise. Susanoo's arm shattered under her next strike.
Meanwhile, Ryusei's voice lowered, calm but edged with quiet irony as he further spoke.
"He was the perfect distraction, and a spy wearing sympathy as armor," Ryusei said evenly.
"To stop you from asking the wrong questions. To drown you in sentiment and false comfort, in a harmless romance, in idealistic dreams and projects that were never meant to go anywhere. Just enough to keep your mind busy, and far from the truth… especially when it mattered most to them."
Inside, her thoughts still spiraled. 'That's why he always seemed to know me. It wasn't real. Those perfect conversations and moments. None of it was real. It was all fed to him.'
Her eyes widened slightly, then narrowed again with fury. "That bastard…"
Her next punch shattered a chunk of Susanoo's chest, Katsuyu roaring in unison as acid rained down.
But alongside the anger was relief eventually—bitter, liberating relief.
And yet, beneath even that, something else flickered too—gratitude.
Grateful that Ryusei had opened her eyes.
Grateful that she had never crossed that line with Dan.
'Not even a kiss,' she thought, her lips pressing together. 'Not even once. Not to mention anything worse. Thank God I never let it go any further. If I had… I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye now. I'd now drown in shame for myself, knowing just how blind and foolish I'd been.'
Ryusei's clone hovered closer, his voice quiet now, understanding. "You see why I didn't tell you anything earlier? You had to reach something on your own. And you did. That's why I said you 'passed'."
Tsunade didn't answer right away. Her fists were still trembling, but her breathing had steadied again. "I see… thank you, Ryusei," she finally said, her voice lower than before.
Her reply sounded almost… finally yielding.
Like a woman answering the man, she instinctively followed from now on, which couldn't be denied anymore. It startled even her.
"Oh?" his voice came back with a teasing lilt. "Didn't expect you to sound that gentle. Say it again, I might actually believe you mean it."
Her brow twitched, and color crept up her neck. "You—stop talking and fight already!" she snapped, punching through a Susanoo rib with extra force.
He chuckled, blocking another wave of phantoms with the glowing dome of his Soul Bastion. "Relax. I'm multitasking."
"You're impossible," she muttered, though her lips curved slightly as she launched another punch.
"Maybe," he said, tone teasing again. "But you like that."
She blinked, caught off guard. "W–What?"
"You heard me."
"Brat," she hissed, cheeks heating. "You're lucky I'm in the middle of a battle."
"Then finish it fast," he said calmly. "I'll hold the ghosts."
And somehow, his current assertiveness with her, not the arrogance of youth, made her heart tighten.
'What's wrong with me?' she thought, biting the inside of her cheek. 'He's too damn young… for that... right?'
Her fists tightened. "At least wait a few years," she muttered under her breath. "Tsunade… you've officially lost it."
Ryusei's clone tilted his head slightly, amused. "Did you say something?"
"Nothing!" she snapped, hitting Susanoo again with enough force to split it open.
He only smiled faintly and said, "You're doing great, Tsunade."
And despite herself, despite the blood, fire, and ghosts around them, as she charged again at Izuna's infinitely regenerating Susanoo, she also couldn't stop the small, traitorous smile tugging at her lips. 'Just a few more years, Ryusei… then we'll see who was testing whom.'