24 Ch. 24

--Tsunade POV--

I'm speechless about the scene in front of me. There is a person who is standing in front of me with their back facing me. The person is wearing sandals with bronze shin guards running from their ankle and extending and flaring out at the knees. Their thighs were thick of corded muscle where I could see what looked like a long tattoo of vines with fire surrounding it. Above that is the red studded leather strips that made what looked like a skirt. Their chest and back were covered by a bronze breastplate that was layered to add more mobility than a solid one. On the bronze shoulder guards, they had what looked like a casting of Katsuyu's head. Following the arms down I saw the same vine and fire tattoos running down the arm, leading into bronze bracers. To finish off the outfit was a bronze helmet that had red hair densely back and fanning across the top of it. (A/N: Kind of like this https://imgur.com/IXqvp42)

Tsunade: "Wh-who are you?"

The person didn��t answer, they just turned their head enough to glance at me. Seeing their eyes I couldn't help but think that they looked familiar. But before I could say anything else the weapon they were using transformed into a bow with three arrows knocked. They drew the bowstring back and lined up the shot, releasing the bowstring in the split second the bow was brought up. The speed that the arrows flew was comparable to the speed that I could throw a senbon with my full strength. All three arrows met a different target, sending each of the Grass Shinobis flying off into the distance. (A/N: Zach's super ripped now after fighting for two years straight, so a lot has changed physically for him. We'll throw in some scars cause chicks dig it.)

I was in a daze, this person just showed up and not even 10 seconds had passed and he took out 4 trained shinobis from ambush. All without using any ninja tactics, this was pure force. It was like a god of war had descended into the shinobi world.

The person wasn't done, not by a long shot it looked like. Right after they shot the arrow, they were already on the move running towards the shinobis. The bow had transformed into a circular shield that had two circular cutouts one on the top and one bottom of it. I've never heard of anything like these changing weapons before, where could it have possibly come from?

As the person reached Shizune holding off the horde I saw them reach out their free hand and grabbed her shirt. They flexed their muscles and threw Shizune back in my direction. She did a break fall landing on her feet and was about to rush back in.

Tsunade: "Shizune wait! They're with us, come help me heal my arm! I don't want to waste the Yin seal unless I have to!"

She just nodded and came over to me and started to treat the wound. I just continued to watch the fight in front of me. Looks like they got a spear somehow, using it with extreme lethality. Judging from the look of the people that I saw, the majority of the shinobis were genin and chunin, with what looked like two jonin. One of the jonin was the one that just got hammered, and the other seems to be in the back of their formation.

I stopped focusing on the fight and started to focus on healing myself as much as possible. Looking at Shizune working hurriedly at my broken arm I started to work on the ribs. Sore ribs are fine, I just don't want to risk worse injury with broken ones. Closing my eyes I focused on the healing, I don't know why but my instinct was telling me that nothing would get near me.

Ten minutes later I was working on the last rib and I could sense Shizune tending to Karin. While Katsuyu was still taking care of Kayla, I could sense her vitality returning. It felt like a little weight had been lifted off my shoulder.

??: "AHHHHHHHHHH"

I immediately opened my eyes expecting to see the worst. But what I saw shocked me, there were bodies, and body parts were strewn everywhere. But what caught my focus was the man in the weird armor. Yes, it was most definitely a man, finally seeing from the front I could see him better. His armor was dyed red with blood and he was standing there with some kind of clawed gauntlet grabbing onto the last shinobi left alive by his head. With his free hand, a dagger appeared and they stabbed what looked like the jonin in the heart, killing him instantly.

As the man dropped the body like a sack of potatoes he turned around and started to walk towards me. I was honestly starting to get nervous, I knew I could do what he did if I hadn't gotten injured. But it's unsettling when an unknown entity displays this power. Getting into a defensive stance I was ready for anything he could throw at me.

He started to get closer and slowly took his helmet off. The first thing it showed was a full beard that was covered in blood, followed by the start of a scar on the left side of his face. He finally got the rest of the helmet off, long sweaty brown hair cascaded down and most of his face was caked in blood. I could see what looked like grapes on a grapevine on the side of his temples, and tattooed flames that looked like they were flickering from his forehead and up into his scalp. He looked strangely like Zach, but not at the same time. My gut started to churn at the thought of something happening to him.

Tsunade: "Stop right there, who are you?"

Zach: "Awe come on Tsu-Tsu can't your future husband come and save you?"

Tsunade: "Don't call me that I don't know who you are, we have never met before."

Zach: "Come on! I'm the one that put the two buns in your oven! It's me, Zach!"

Tsunade: "Bullshit! Zach is a crafter and not skilled in combat yet."

Zach: "Really? How the hell do I prove to you that it's me?"

Tsunade: "Why continue the bluff? There is no possible way you're him."

He facepalmed and shook his head back and forth.

Zach: "How about this, I'll tell you something that only I would know."

Tsunade: "I've almost had enough!"

He walked closer to me, as he did that he let go of the helmet and it looked like it disintegrated into dust. He had gotten into striking distance for me and I took the chance of attack. I won't be caught off guard with this banter! I burst forward to punch him, but before I made contact with him he dodged it. He wrapped his arm around my waist as he went past and came around behind me. He pulled me in close to his body and brought his head down next to my ear. It made me shiver in repulse thinking I'm going to have to deal with another perv like Jiraiya.

Zach: "You have that cute little mole on your inner thigh, and the first time we said I love you was in front of my parents grave, on earth."

I froze at that, only Zach would know those things. But why did he start out with the mole on my thigh?!

Tsunade: "YOU PERVERT!"

I tried to break free from his grasp to give him a nice wallop. He just held me tighter and kissed the back of my head.

Zach: "It's been 3 years, I missed you."

Wait, did he just say three years? What the hell happened, we were only gone for 4 days?!