[133] Resignation

Chapter 133: Resignation

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Before leaving Green Bit, Hashirama took the duty to heal everything that he had dried out. His chakra reserves were now full again, and so was his Seal of Hundred. So, it took only half a minute to regrow new plants in place of the old ones, which had withered away into dust.

"What was that, anyway?"

"You tell me. I'm clueless."

That was Sage Mode, but not exactly the one Hashirama was familiar with. It was more… one with nature than the one shown in Naruto anime. There was a kind of profound feeling about it.

"There are little people underground," Tsunade said, her eyes shimmering as she used Observation Haki. "Were they affected by the drain?"

"I hadn't gone berserk when I sucked life out of the world, sister." Hashirama shrugged. "They're fine. I wished to not harm them, and somehow the power listened to the wish."

Hashirama stood back up after saying that, taking his hands off the ground. His surroundings were green now, filled with nature and multiple kinds of trees. Since he had absorbed this forest's chakra and life itself earlier, he knew what kind of trees existed here, so he sprouted them all over the place.

Tsunade stared at her surroundings in awe, her head going round to look at everything with her lips slightly parted. Seeing his power work on a smaller scale was one thing, but only the times she saw it on a grand scale like this did she remember who he was. He was the perfection of her clan, the greatest and only success after centuries of failure.

Tsunade admitted one thing now. She had lost to him earlier in the battle of Haki. She had attacked him again and only beat him to that near-death state because he didn't want to fight.

She wondered, within a forest, which was his terrain, what could he do if he let go of his limitations and snapped. To begin with, physical powers weren't his forte — it was the Wood Release.

"Haah," the guilt in her heart grew as she recalled his beat-up face.

What a failure of a guardian she was. She didn't deserve someone like him.

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Tsunade held him by the shoulders as they were shooting through the air. A layer of thick wind energy circulated around them as they flew, thanks to her Devil Fruit powers.

"By the way," Tsunade said suddenly when they were about to enter the land of Dressrosa. "The Elemental-Elemental fruit is a fake name. My devil fruit's something much more."

"Why are you telling me that all of a sudden?" Hashirama eyed her.

"In my defense, I thought it's better to hide the name from the world than to broadcast it." She sighed. "From you too since you were a kid, and could have slipped out without intending to."

"Is it a mythical zoan?"

"It's a mythi- huh?"

Hashirama chuckled at her confusion. "No other reason why you'd bother to hide the name. So what is it?"

"...It's Human-Human Fruit, Model the Buddhist Avatar." She said, "I am some kind of Buddha — I don't know — who can manipulate elements."

Buddha.

Avatar.

"Ohh," Hashirama sounded pleasantly surprised. That made so much sense.

Whatever God or creator existed up there must have thought he was a genius cooking this fruit. The power of the Avatar, and perhaps even more, did sound juicy.

"Have you awakened it yet? Ah, and the Marines just lost big time losing you. They have the Golden Buddha on their side already, and secretly this new Buddha's Avatar too."

"...I haven't awakened it yet, no." She replied. "Kind of funny, I remember you threatened me with a Wooden Buddha, years ago. I still remember it, you said, 'Sis, if you keep telling me to get serious, I might just pull out a Wooden Buddha.'" She laughed. "I thought back then that it would be great when you do learn to pull out a Wooden Buddha. We can sail the sea with Buddha in our pockets."

"And then you just had to leave for the Marines."

"Shh, it was worth it." She blinked. "Ah, I don’t mean this fight. I mean I learned a lot. I got a lot stronger. I know a lot of outstanding techniques; my Haki is all-time strong now. All's well if end's well, no?"

"True." Hashirama agreed as the two of them paused in the air.

They halted over the area where lots of marines and pirates were gathered, about to go off in a war at any required moment, with the body of Doflamingo on the side.

Doffy's body was covered in flowers, all kinds of flowers were growing out of his body; a result of the Sage's outburst earlier. Even a scum like him received a flower coffin.

From the looks of it, the marines and pirates were waiting for the two of them to return. They have been waiting since they've been fighting side by side just until a while ago, but they would begin their fight the moment they see either of their group leader, Tsunade or Hashirama, has been defeated.

"Everybody, stop!" Tsunade yelled, and Hashirama waved a hand at all who looked up. "Marines, halt. Put your weapons down."

The two of them landed on their feet with a gentle thud, as Tsunade faced the marines and Hashirama the pirates.

"Damn, that's one big group." He said with a whistle, seeing his Senju girls being backed up by nearly a hundred pirates; led by Don Chinjao and Beidou, and even Pirate Prince Cavendish was there.

"Oi, Hashirama!" Vivi yelled with her weapon in hand. "Do we have to fight Tsunade?"

"Nah, I made up with her," I said as I watched the girls looking at me.

Mikita was frowning at me with her arms crossed, though at the same time failing to hide her worry as she looked for any injuries on my body.

Robin looked done, tired and resting on the back of Karoo; though she still found the energy to shoot me a glare, as if I was the fault behind everything. Speaking of Karoo, she was sipping water or some juice from the bottle on her neck, relaxed and calm. Running from a hundred-meter-long Sea Kings did her well.

Robin didn't look any worried unlike Mikita, she was smart and since her eyes didn't see any wound in me, she assumed the 'talk' with my sister went easy enough. Vivi too didn't look much worried about me. I knew why, it was partially the same as Robin's reason, while the other part was that she saw me get hurt too many times by doing dumb things, like trying to fly with my wings and snapping my neck, only to walk it off, to worry at this point.

Someone caught my eye though. Nami was sweating. Her face was pale, her breathing ragged, as she barely stood and met eyes with me.

I stared at her for two seconds, before rushing off to her. "Nami, did you get poisoned?"

"Huh? Uh-" Nami blinked, drowsy, as she tried to shake off the dizziness. "Ah. Now that you say it. Yeah. That Gladius guy, I think his name was, told me that his hair was coated in poison. Looks like I got a little grazed."

"Wait, you're poisoned?!" Vivi reacted loudly, drawing too much attention than necessary.

"Vivi, stop yelling," Hashirama said as he sharpened one of his fingernails into a little wooden needle. He grabbed her hand and sharply poked the needle on her finger, causing blood to sputter out.

Then, he took her finger in his mouth.

"Wha-"

"Shh."

Hashirama sucked on her finger, her poisoned blood slipping into his mouth. He closed his eyes and concentrated, letting the poison interact with his cells. He had to hold back his Healing Factor to not destroy the poison right away

Ten seconds later, Hashirama's tongue was painful, poisoned, and hurt. Then, he went through dozens of mixtures of plant-based antibodies inside his mouth. He just willed it as many kinds of plants merged inside his mouth to try and suppress the poison. On his 77th try, which was 20 seconds into the entire process, the poison was neutralized.

"Open your mouth," he said, watching her slowly do it. He turned to look at Vivi and Mikita. "Guys, keep in mind, this is just a medical procedure."

Nami blinked, wondering what he was talking about- as he leaped over and pressed his mouth on hers. A medical procedure it was, as he released the antidote inside her mouth through his saliva. There was also a requirement that he had to touch her body and massage it for better blood flow so that the antidote could take effect. There was nothing odd with it, naturally, as he squeezed her waist, fighting with her tongue.

Nami tried to resist at first, but she didn't have the strength. When the poison was cured though, she put her arms around his neck and pulled, falling on her back and holding him on top of her.

"Mmhff!"

"Mhm~"

People stared, dumbfounded, as the two of them were one step away from making out. Only when a strong cough resounded in the area did the two of them pause, breaking the kiss and looking up.

"Ahem-" Tsunade cleared her throat, looking down at Hashirama with a straight face. "I know you told me I am not supposed to explain anything to my subordinates, but I had to give them some last-minute orders so that they capture the defeated pirates and put them in jail. If there is… someone you want to kill in particular, or let go free, tell me now. I'll stop the marines from capturing them."

"Huh?" Marianne was baffled when she heard that. She stuttered. "B-but Vice Admiral Tsunade, this-"

"Marianne" Tsunade turned to her. "No, everyone, listen to me. This is an official announcement. I, Tsunade Senju, am quitting as a marine from this moment onwards. Rather, I'll be joining piracy, under the flag of the Senju Pirates, my home, as its Vice Captain."

"What?!" All of the marines yelled.

"If anybody dares to try and capture the Senju Pirates here," she turned to look at the faces of her subordinates, all of whom knew how wrathful she could be. "You shall be punished as fit. Now, capture the criminals here and leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'll hunt you down."

There was a long silence as the sky was darkening again. Then, in unison, the marines saluted their Vice Admiral one last time before rushing off to the city, to follow her last order.

Hashirama stared at her back with a soft smile. Tsunade truly was back in his life, and he'd make sure she would stay like that.

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