51.Trouble in the snow(3)

"Who the hell are you?" asked Tsunade, her eyes growing sharp, she stood in front of shizune while signalling her to go to their hotel room as the man in front of her gave her a dangerous feeling.

"You will know everything you should know, once you come with me."said the man, his green pupil less eyes glowing in the darkness. " or do you want to do it the hard way?" he added, flaring his chakra and bloodlust causing the people around them to panic, some even fainted unable to withstand the pressure.

'He is a S ranked shinobi,' judged Tsunade, narrowing her eyes. 'Fighting here will limit my movements.' she thought, looking at the people in her surroundings, she didn't want to involve innocent people in this conflict and there was still shizune beside her.

"Ok, lead the way," she said after taking a deep breath. "Shizune-chan go back to the room, I will be back once I deal with things here." she said without turning back.

"But…" Shizune started, only to be interrupted by Tsunade's cold voice telling her to go.

Shizune looked at her teacher's back and grit her teeth running towards the inn, while Tsunade and the robed man quickly moved towards the outskirts of the village.

"Now that there are no distractions, we can 'discuss' properly." said Tsunade cracking her knuckles.

"So, you want to do it the hard way?" asked the man almost in a bored tone, he too stopped on the clearing a few miles away from the village entering a fighting stance.

'So fast' thought Tsunade as he quickly disappeared from her field of vision.

.....................................

The whole Kazahana castle was vibrating from the intense battle raging inside it, In one of the secret passages two people, one old and one young, were moving quickly towards a secret room, which was located at the bottom of the castle.

"Koyuki!, thank kami you are alright" came an excited voice from inside the room as soon as they entered it.

Sosetsu sighed in relief, looking at his unharmed daughter, as soon as the attack commenced he was brought into the secret room known only to the members of the Kazahana family, his only worry being his daughter's safety.

Now he felt like a giant stone had fallen off his chest, even if the whole castle was looted, he could gather it back, but human life wasn't the same.

Koyuki wanted to move forward to meet her father, but was stopped by the hand on her shoulder. Looking back she saw her Uncle looking at her father with a mocking smile on his face.

"No hurry dear" said Doto Kazahana, the brother of Sosetsu to Koyuki."I think we need to discuss something, Brother?, for example where the treasure is hidden?" he continued with a cold voice looking at the now shocked Daimyo.

She felt a sharp kunai lightly prick the skin on her throat as she now turned into a hostage of a man she thought of as family.

.......................................

'This is the place' thought Jiraiya standing in front of the inn. He was in a village next to the capital of the land of snow, which was famous for its casinos and other entertainment facilities.

Just as he was about to enter the inn to check if Tsunade was really staying here, he saw a girl around 12 years old walking towards the inn with a worried expression on her face. Jiraiya's eyes lit up as he moved towards the girl, startling her.

"Ji...Jiraiya-sama" stuttered Shizune looking at the white haired man who appeared in front of her, she recognised her master's teammate as she had seen him before they left the village and he was also one of the constant recipient of Tsunade's imaginary punishments along with her dead uncle whenever she got too drunk, if half of the savings were lost in gambling, the other half was used to compensate the damaged rooms they stayed in during their journey.

"Yo! Shizune chan, long time no see" said the man waving his hands looking around her as if searching for someone and frowned when he noticed her tense expression.

"What happened?"

"Jiraiya sama, I think Tsunade sama is in trouble" said Shizune quickly explaining the situation to him, even though Tsunade had blocked most of the pressure, the feeling she felt sent shivers down her spine.

"Which way did they go?" Jiraiya asked, his eyes growing sharp and quickly shuishined away after getting a general direction.

'It must be a strong opponent'. He contemplated, taking a pill from his clothes and eating it, 'Hope this will hold on long enough.' he thought, as the pill was from the Akimichi clan which would temporarily suppress the poison in his body allowing him to fight full power.

He knew very well about Tsunade's temper, if it was someone weak then she would have first beaten him to a pulp before asking any questions.

...................................

Tsunade's pupils shrank as she quickly crossed her arms blocking the punch which was heading to her face, the force made her slide a few meters leaving a deep mark on the snow covered ground.

Tsunade quickly stabilised her figure by applying chakra to the sole of her feet and made a fist punching the ground in front of her.

"BOOOM" with her as the centre the ground cracked in all directions raising snow and rocks flying into the air.

It was now the man's turn to retreat as he moved away escaping the range of the attack, the shockwaves making his robe flutter as his hood opened revealing a face half covered in black mask and Takigakure forehead protector with a slash on it showing his status as missing nin.

'A rouge nin from Takigakure' thought Tsunade trying to guess the identity of the man, but she didn't stop as she took a hard step forwards raising large stones from the ground which she quickly punched in his direction sending them like missiles

"Earth style: Earth wall" said the man forming hand seals in quick succession as he pressed his palms on the ground raising an earth wall blocking all the projectiles and the earth wall too shattered from the impact raising dust everywhere.

Tsunade put chakra into her feet blasting off from the ground as she moved towards the man's position punching through the dust.

"BOOM" there was another shockwave as the punch connected, clearing the dust away and a figure was sent flying away as it ground and slid for a few meters before coming to a stop.

"As expected of one of the legendary sannin" came the voice of the man as he slowly stood up coughing up blood his skin had turned dark in colour and had visible cracks on it.

'What monstrous strength, if I hadn't used Earth style: Iron skin, I would have been seriously injured.' he thought, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.

Tsunade suddenly stood still, her eyes trembling as she looked at the blood on the ground, the painful memories and self blame, which she had bottled up deep inside her, broke out to the surface leaving her paralysed with fear.

"Do you think you can afford to be distracted while fighting with me?" said the man, quickly forming a few hand seals as he muttered "Earthstyle: Earth dragon Bomb".

A huge dragon head made of mud, rose up from the ground in front of him, it opened its mouth shooting high speed mud projectiles at her, who was still staring blankly at the ground.