Tsunade

Tsunade (綱手, Tsunade) is the Fifth Hokage (五代目火影, Godaime Hokage; Literally meaning "Fifth Fire Shadow") of Konohagakure — a position which she succeeded after the death of her teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and a major supporting character for the series. She hails from the village's Senju clan, and is also a descendant of the Uzumaki clan through her late grandmother Mito. Along with former team-mates Jiraiya and Orochimaru, she is recognised as one of the "Three Legendary Shinobi" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin). Tsunade is considered to be the most powerful kunoichi in the world, and is celebrated as the greatest medical-nin of all time, credited with creating the official system which governs them.

Background
Tsunade is the first granddaughter of the First Hokage: Hashirama Senju, and his wife Mito Uzumaki, as well as the grandniece of the Second Hokage: Tobirama Senju, leading others to call her "Princess" (姫, Hime). In her childhood, she was spoiled by Hashirama, who doted on his first grandchild, and was even taught how to gamble by the great shinobi. She, along with Jiraiya, and Orochimaru are also former students of the Third Hokage. Like Team Kakashi, Tsunade and her team-mates were given the bell test, which Jiraiya failed and was subsequently tied to a log. Tsunade taunted him before leaving.

At some point, she almost killed Jiraiya after he was caught peeping on her while she was in the hot springs, breaking both of his arms, six of his ribs and ruptured several internal organs. Ever since then, Jiraiya has been very careful to suppress his perverted ways around Tsunade. Jiraiya mentions that this is one of only two times he has ever been close to death.

During the Second Shinobi World War, prior to meeting the Ame Orphans, Tsunade and her team-mates fought Hanzō, who gave them the title of Konoha's "Three Legendary Shinobi" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin), the Sannin, as a reward for surviving their battle with him while everyone else in the group died easily.[8 ] On her own merit, Tsunade became famous for frequently counteracting all of Chiyo's poisons, earning the Sunakagure kunoichi's contempt for it. Furthermore, according to Jiraiya, Tsunade's unrivalled skills as a warrior and a medic were the reason Konoha won the war. However, Tsunade suffered painful losses prior to the Second Shinobi World War ending.

The tragic turn of events began when younger brother Nawaki was killed in action the day after his twelfth birthday, receiving their grandfather's crystal necklace which she gave him in the hopes that it would help him achieve his dream of becoming Hokage. This event resolved Tsunade to advocate for the inclusion of medical-nin to be incorporated into teams that were on the battlefield but unable to as Hiruzen informs her the conflict makes it impossible for them to utilise resources or the time to train such ninja. It was by that time that a discouraged Tsunade met Dan Katō who seconds her request of focusing on finding ways to save their comrades' lives on the battlefield.

In time, finding herself and Dan have similar ideals, Tsunade fell in love with him. As a sign of her affection, and in the hopes that this time it would help make his dreams come true, Tsunade gave him Hashirama's necklace prior to his death, with the necklace returning to her possession, rumoured as a cursed item that kills anyone other than Tsunade who wears it. Developing hæmophobia which renders her unable to take part in any more battles, the deaths of both Nawaki and Dan disillusioned Tsunade to see the Hokage title as nothing but a fool's position. With these changes of ideals, Tsunade left Konoha with Dan's niece, Shizune, taking her on as her apprentice who became one of the few people Tsunade truly trusts. Tsunade also came to own a pet pig, Tonton which she leaves mostly to Shizune's care.

In the anime, Tsunade met the Fourth Raikage, A, after he and his followers were ambushed by the ninja of the Nokizaru Group and needed her help to remove an Exploding Insects implanted in A and one of his followers. However, due to her phobia, Tsunade had Shizune carry out the surgery while she oversaw it until a bit of blood splattered on her and she excused herself from the room.

Personality
When she was first introduced, Tsunade was cynical of anyone with dreams, especially those who want to become Hokage believing that it was a futile dream. After meeting Naruto, she realises that this cynicism is insulting to the memories of both Dan and Nawaki. After seeing Naruto's conviction to become Hokage and proving her wrong in his ability to learn the Rasengan, she has a change of heart. Despite her still blunt attitude towards Naruto, she has come to care for him deeply and puts her faith in him for the future, even agreeing to take on the mantle of Hokage herself, carrying on the dreams of Dan and Nawaki. As Hokage, Tsunade has shown the same level of loyalty to the village that previous Hokage held; during the invasion of Pain, she released all of her chakra in order to save the lives of thousands of people within Konoha, at great personal risk. Tsunade also has a great deal of faith in the next generation, and sees the potential that Naruto and the rest of the Konoha 11 hold.

Tsunade typically projects a tough demeanour, even when facing great personal difficulty. She readily criticises others for their faults, such as Naruto's immaturity or Jiraiya's perversion, though her habits are rarely any better. Another trait of Tsunade is her monstrous, quick-temper. Many fear her because of this, such as Shizune, Jiraiya, and Sakura, the latter of whom has on several occasions warned Naruto on how to behave in her presence. Despite her temper, Tsunade is a reasonable person. She was willing to listen to Pain and even admit Konoha's past faults though he was the one who killed Jiraiya and threatening her own village. Beneath this tough exterior, Tsunade truly loves her village and its people and will at times show sympathy for others, consoling Shikamaru that, while he failed his mission to return Sasuke to Konoha, all of his team-mates survived. This is also shown when she worked hard in order to help heal Rock Lee, so that he might continue to be a ninja. In life-threatening or important situations that involve putting someone she cares for in danger, she tends to get angry with people who disagree with her plan, such as the restrictions the Konoha Elders placed on Naruto, or the argument on whether Naruto and Killer B should participate in the Fourth Shinobi World War, even calling Gaara a "child" when he disagreed with her. As with all Hokage before her, Tsunade deeply believes in the Will of Fire.

Tsunade also has a firm belief that Naruto, and all jinchūriki, are people rather than instruments of war. She has always voiced that Naruto is a great ninja and should be used by the village as any other ninja would be. This value is so strong in Tsunade that she yelled at the other Kage for not allowing Naruto and Killer B to fight in the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Although she eventually agrees to keep the jinchūriki away from the battles, she is outraged when A decides to kill Naruto to prevent him entering the war. Tsunade then turns on A, saying that they need to use the jinchūriki in the war if they are going to win. This shows her great faith in Naruto to end the war, as she was even willing to challenge the Raikage in order to let Naruto and B pass.

As a legendary medical-nin, Tsunade truly is a role model for other medical-nin to follow. Her first priority in any situation is the lives of others. She created four rules that guides other medical-nin on the battlefield, one of which is that they should never give up on treating their comrades as long as they are still breathing.[4 ] When Pain attacked Konoha, she actively took on the role of a medical-nin, healing all the injured shinobi while even having Katsuyu protect the corpses of the deceased, and did all she could to protect the village, even if it meant that she had to risk her own life. Because of this, even the persons that were later revived by Nagato, had bodies to return to. In the fight against an extremely powerful opponent like Madara Uchiha, she was the one who received the worst injuries. However, she was still the only one who was able to regain consciousness, and still put the lives of the other Kage, before her own.

Tsunade is also a compulsive gambler, a trait she inherited from Hashirama, with a losing streak due to her terrible luck. As a result, she has been elevated to a comical status as "The Legendary Sucker" (伝説のカモ, Densetsu no Kamo) because of the gross profits others have made off of her misfortune and gambling addiction. In the rare instances that Tsunade hits a winning streak, seeing it as a bad omen that eventually effects her or her comrades afterwards. However, using this to her advantage she can take steps to protect herself and her comrades.The symbol on the back of her coat, 賭 (kake), means "gamble", or "wager", as gambling is one of her favourite pastimes.

Despite Tsunade shunning all of Jiraiya's romantic advances over the years, as she was still in love with Dan even after his death, she still cared very much for him as one of her oldest friends. While he was in Amegakure investigating Pain, she bets that he will die so that her terrible luck will ensure he survives. When she finds out he has died, she thinks back on their time together and mourns privately for the loss of her dear friend.

Because he had spoiled her greatly in her childhood, Hashirama couldn't help but wonder whether Konoha was all right upon learning she was the Fifth Hokage.

Appearce
Tsunade is a fairly tall, light-skinned woman with brown eyes and straight, blonde hair. Her hair is waist-length with shoulder-length bangs framing both sides of her face. As a child, she tied her hair in twin short pigtails before becoming Hiruzen's student when she then wore her hair in a high ponytail. As an adult, Tsunade usually ties her hair into two loose ponytails. Some time after leaving the village, she obtained a violet rhombus mark on her forehead similar to her grandmother's, which she uses as a chakra gathering point known as the Yin Seal. It will temporarily disappear when unleashing the conserved chakra and reappear after she has accumulated enough chakra. When she releases the Yin Seal, the diamond mark on her forehead opens out into a seal that usually extends to her jaws. When using the Strength of a Hundred Technique, the markings extend themselves around her entire body.

While only in her early fifties, her form is a frail and wrinkled old appearance, more so than her age would suggest. However, she maintains the appearance of her younger self through a unique and constant Transformation Technique. In her youth, the appearance she normally takes, she had a slender frame. Despite being known as flat-chested in her childhood, she now has a rather large bust; 106 centimetres in circumference, according to Jiraiya. Her beauty has been pointed out several times and she's been called the most beautiful kunoichi in the world by several characters.

She often wears a grass-green haori with the kanji for gamble (賭, kake) written in black on the back, inside a red circle. Underneath she wears a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves, held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matches her pants. Her blouse is closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage. She wears open-toed sandals with high heels and red polish on both her fingernails and toenails. She also wears a soft pink lipstick. She also used to wear her grandfather's necklace in clear view on her chest, before giving it to Naruto.

Abilities
As one of the Legendary Sannin and the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ninja that Konoha has ever produced. Greatly admired around the world, Tsunade is reputed to be one of the most powerful kunoichi in ninja history. She is a remarkable combatant and medical-nin and is also hailed as the world's strongest kunoichi, which has lead to many younger kunoichi to look up to her. Jiraiya commented that no one could stand equal to her in terms of combat and medical prowess.

Physcial Prowess
Tsunade's trademark ability is her immense raw strength, with which she is able to launch her targets several metres with a mere finger flick or create fissures with a single finger jab at the ground. An opponent struck by her attacks could suffer damage ranging from broken bones, ruptured organs, or even death, as Jiraiya learned for his perverted actions in his youth. In the anime, the Fourth Raikage had to resort to using a feint to throw her off-balance in conjunction with his high-speed to defeat her, as he was being overpowered. She also showed remarkable durability, able to survive the life-risking Heavenly Transfer Technique with only minor injuries in the process. She was also able to recover from a Yasaka Magatama fired at close-range.

While not her most prominent trait, she is quite fast and equally fierce in battle, having displayed high levels of quickness to the point that her opponents find her an overwhelming adversary. She was able to incapacitate Shizune with a quick strike before she could react, use the Body Pathway Derangement technique on Kabuto when he thought she was incapacitated, catch Orochimaru's sword attack with her feet moments after her hands were bound, and even intercept Manda mid-bite while lifting Gamabunta's sword. Before any of the other Kage could react, Tsunade intercepted all five of Madara's flame dragons dissipating them all. As a field medical-nin, Tsunade is highly skilled in the art of evasion.

While a medical-nin normally tries to avoid direct battle, Tsunade’s close-range combat skills have been considered unsurpassed, which she uses mainly to intimidate her opponents from approaching her in order to carry out her primary duties as a medical-nin. When entering battle directly, she is a force to be reckoned with as seen when she easily shattered Madara Uchiha Susanoo's ribcage, its sword, and later knocking down a complete version of the Susanoo with single punches. She was also able to obliterate one of Madara's wood clones in a single punch. Uchiha Madara has noted that her strength far outweighed that of the Fourth Raikage.

Stamina and Life Force
As a Senju, Tsunade inherited an incredible life force and physical energy passed down from her earliest ancestors. She also has immense vitality, stamina, durability, and endurance which stems from this life force, and as a direct descendant of the Uzumaki clan through her grandmother Mito, Tsunade also has the potential for a long lifespan as well as incredible vitality; a testament to the latter include her still being able to move after having her muscles torn — something Kabuto noted was an impressive and praise-worthy feat no ordinary person could achieve.[35 ]

She also has a high tolerance for physical pain, as she was able to deliver a heavy kick to Orochimaru after being sliced in her shoulder, and stabbed through her chest. Throughout the fight with Orochimaru, she was able to push herself to fight on despite being tired and injured. Furthermore, her endurance was great enough to survive the normally fatal injuries of being stabbed straight through the shoulder, abdomen, and even chest to still land a powerful blow to Orochimaru. She was also able to continue fighting with extreme force against Madara's Susanoo army despite being impaled through her abdomen with two Susanoo blades. Even after being bisected, she was still able to survive the ordeal, maintain consciousness, summon Katsuyu, and feel confident she could survive long enough to heal the other Kage before being healed herself.

Chakra Prowess and Control
Due to her heritage, Tsunade was also gifted with great supplies of chakra. She was able to simultaneously heal a large number of people with the help of Katsuyu over a long period of time, without being fatigued.

When needed, Tsunade can also release a large amount of stored chakra using Yin Seal. Upon its release, Tsunade can either use the stored chakra to facilitate the activation of one of her techniques such as the Creation Rebirth, which makes her virtually immortal in battle or simultaneously heal and protect the entire citizens of Konoha from a very powerful attack such as Pain's Shinra Tensei. She is also able to transfer chakra to others as seen when she gave Ōnoki some of her chakra in order to facilitate his large-scale Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique and still manages to maintain the activation of her Strength of a Hundred Technique. [

Even more impressive than her chakra reserves is Tsunade's control. Since a young age, Tsunade excelled in all forms of chakra manipulation; even able to maintain multiple techniques at once. Her innate talent for it allows her to gather her chakra from any part of her body with such precision and perform any technique to their maximum potential without any wasted chakra or timing. Her signature ability with chakra control is to instinctively amplify her already legendary strength with chakra control to monstrous levels, allowing her to perform feats like causing gigantic craters with a simple punch or kick to the ground, launch Gamabunta's tantō into the air and then guide it down right into Manda's mouth, and destroy Madara Uchiha's Susanoo's ribcage and its sword with relative ease. This is done by building up and releasing her chakra with precise timing upon impact, making it effortless for her to decimate any target.

Tranformation Technique
Even though she is in her early fifties, Tsunade's Transformation Technique makes her appear as if she were still in her twenties as Jiraiya noted she was not one to "age gracefully". She readily alters what age she appears in order to avoid her gambling debts. Tsunade's transformation is somewhat different from a normal transformation, as it seems to be permanent, not getting dispelled when she is slashed or injured, and she apparently does not need to exert any effort to stay transformed. She is able to maintain her transformation even while asleep. The transformation dispels when she runs out of chakra, reverting her to her natural appearance,

Medical Ninjutsu
Much of Tsunade's fame comes from her being able to perform any procedure flawlessly to cure and heal injuries that others would consider impossible or a lost cause. She can do so through the usage of no more than chakra or basic tools. She healed the psychological damage caused by Tsukuyomi, the damage done to Rock Lee's spine, [ and counteracted the effects of the Three Coloured Pills on Chōji, something Chōza stated would have been impossible if she weren't there.Tsunade has also been noted to be capable of making powerful sleeping potions that are also colourless; so much that she is the only one in the world who could spike a drink without a ninja knowing it was drugged.

With her remarkable knowledge of the human body and converting her chakra into electricity, Tsunade is capable of sending electric waves into the opponent's nervous system by striking the back of the neck. This then scrambles the electric signals within them and disrupts the way their body moves, such as attempting to move the right hand would cause the left leg to move instead, and so on. It is unknown if this is Lightning Release. In a similar manner, Tsunade has also shown the ability to use medical ninjutsu adversely and use it to harm, even kill, instead of heal. She can use a single chakra-infused strike to effortlessly cause internal damage or incapacitate a target as she did the latter to Shizune when she tried to stop Tsunade from meeting with Orochimaru. Tsunade is also able to create a chakra scalpel both for surgery and to inflict internal lacerations and even attack the internal organs.

The most extreme example of her medical prowess is her Creation Rebirth, a technique that makes use of the massive amounts of chakra stored in her Yin Seal to continuously create new cells in her body, healing any wound and even growing back missing organs. It gives her a form of "immortality" in battle that even Orochimaru expressed envy for.However, as cells can only divide and be created a set amount of times, the technique shortens her life-span. Because of the risk associated with the technique, Tsunade only uses Creation Rebirth in extremely desperate situations. This technique is considered as the absolute pinnacle of medical ninjutsu, and Tsunade developed it under the resolution of protecting those dear to her. She also created an extension of the Creation Rebirth known as the Strength of a Hundred Technique, which causes the seal to extend all the way down her body. While this technique is active, any wounds Tsunade receives will heal instantaneously, without the need to make hand seals or even a conscious effort.

Summoning Technique
Tsunade can summon slugs of varying sizes, although she has only ever been seen summoning Katsuyu. The slugs' primary abilities seem to revolve around spitting acid and splitting into smaller slugs. Tsunade apparently has a mental connection with Katsuyu, as she was able to get reports and send out messages through Katsuyu during the invasion of Pain. Tsunade can transfer her chakra to a large number of slugs over long distances. By having the slugs spread out and attach themselves to wounded individuals, Tsunade is then capable of healing multiple injuries at different locations simultaneously. This technique proved particularly helpful during the Invasion of Pain which helped Tsunade preserve the life of the villagers even after a devastating attack by the enemy forces.

Intelligance
While normally appearing carefree or short-tempered, Tsunade is a capable leader. A keen thinker, Tsunade is also highly observant and analytical, allowing her to see through most deceptions, and is rarely caught off-guard. Most commonly, Tsunade will choose the best ninja available to construct a team after looking over the assigned mission. In the anime, she was able to analyse and replicate the basic mechanics of Kabuto’s regeneration technique to aid in bettering the chances of Rock Lee's life-risking surgery being a success.

Her intelligence is most renowned as the best in the world for her expertise in all areas of medicine. She has been credited with creating the official medical-nin system and the laws that govern them. She can immediately determine what kind of injuries or illness (physical or mental) a person has from a single glance. In addition to this, Tsunade seems to have a vast knowledge of poisons and herbal medicine, as noted by Chiyo who stated that during the Second Great Shinobi War, Tsunade was the only one capable of countering all her poisons perfectly. She also has remarkable knowledge of the human psyche, as she was able to effortlessly undo the damage to Kakashi and Sasuke's minds inflicted by Itachi's Tsukuyomi in a matter of seconds. Tsunade has also proven to be a very capable teacher, having single-handedly trained Sakura and Shizune and passed on much of her knowledge make them become two of Konoha's best medical-nin and field support.

In battle, she has shown great ingenuity, able to quickly pick up on her opponent's fighting style and battle pattern to better avoid damage and plan her attacks around that. These traits are to keep herself alive in battle so she may heal her team-mates; things she drilled into Sakura while training her. Her mental fortitude is also noteworthy, as she overcame her paralysing fear of blood through willpower alone, something every eyewitness found miraculous.

Other Skills
In the anime, Tsunade demonstrated noticeable skill in a variety of other areas. When dealing with the Legendary Stupid Brothers, her skill in genjutsu was great enough to bind the immensely strong duo at once. She was also able to use Space–Time Ninjutsu to send one of Katsuyu's divisions to Team Three's location despite the great distance. Tsunade is also well-versed in fūinjutsu, capable of developing an S-rank seal that continuously stores up chakra for various reasons including using the high-level techniques such as the Creation Rebirth technique which she also created. In the anime, she designed the Four-Corner Sealing Barrier which can be used to seal a tailed beast from scratch.