Tsunade (Naruto)

Tsunade is a female anime and manga character who features in Naruto.

Biography

Origin

Tsunade in Naruto v1 #18.

Tsunade (Japanese: 綱手) was a female human of the Senju Clan who lived in the village of Konohagakure in the Ninja World. She was the first grandchild of Hashirama Senju and had a younger brother by the name of Nawaki (縄樹, Nawaki). It was said that she was the first grandchild of the Hokage with Hashirama doting on her and spoiling her as a result. This led to her becoming a wild child and even picking up some of her father's gambling habits much to his amusement. As a child, she graduated from the Academy with her being taken on as a student of Hiruzen Sarutobi where she joined a team consisting of his two other students that included Orochimaru and Jiraiya. During their training, they took part in the bell test where they were supposed to take the bell from their sensei with Tsunade accomplishing the task. Jiraiya was said to had once flirted with her but she rejected his advances with him once commenting that she had punched him so hard that he flew the opposite way. She often noted that her younger brother had his sights on the necklace of the First Hokage which stemmed from his dream of continuing his grandfathers legacy. Thus, he wanted to be the next Hokage and was driven to fulfilling this vision as he wanted to protect the village. Tsunade came to gift Nawaki the necklace on his twelfth birthday and supported her brothers dream. During this time, the Second Shinobi World War was being fought with Nawaki being a casualty of the conflict. During this time, she came to learn that her younger brother was involved in an incident that had led to his death. She and her team rushed to the scene where Jiraiya wanted to spare her seeing her Nawaki's ruined body whilst Orochimaru had recovered his necklace for Tsunade. In the aftermath, Tsunade wanted to avoid the needless deaths of shinobi and during a strategy meeting she suggested that each team have a medical ninja among their ranks to help reduce deaths. Though a good suggestion, the Hokage noted that they lacked the experts in this field and the resources as the village was still engaged in the great ninja war. Despite that, Tsunade pushed for the medical ninja training initiative with a fellow shinobi named Dan Katō voicing his approval of the strategy. This earned Tsunade's gratitude and the two embarked on a close friendship after that point. One day, she was with Dan where he professed his dream of becoming the Hokage with Tsunade kissing him on the forehead. The two embarked on a romance afterwards until one day they were on a mission with Dan being critically wounded. Despite Tsunade's medical talents, she was unable to save him and he died in her arms with his death breaking her spirit.

Afterwards, her team was disbanded but she along with Jiraiya and Orochimaru continued to work together in the Second Shinobi World War. This saw them battling in Amegakure where they came to battle Hanzō of the Salamander where they came to be the only survivors of the battle. Their powerful opponent came to be impressed at the accomplishment of the three leaf shinobi and after learning their names he came to call them the Three Legendary Sannin (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin). He decided to allow them to leave as he desired to fight them again in the future thus allowing Tsunade and her comrades to depart. On the way back, they encountered a group of war orphans named Yahiko, Konan and Nagato. Jiraiya decided to remain behind to help care and look after the three children until they were better capable of surviving on their own. Thus, only Tsunade and Orochimaru returned to Konoha with her making her own independent contributions to the war. This included frequently counteracting the poisons created by Chiyo of the sand village of Sunagakure.

After Dan's death, Hashirama's necklace returned to Tsunade where she became convinced that it was cursed and that it killed anyone who wore it except for her. Over time, she came to believe that one achieving their dreams was impossible and that the position of Hokage was a fool's errand. This led to her deciding to leave Konoha where she was accompanied by Dan's niece Shizune who became Tsunade's apprentice and trained under her. However, Tsunade began to suffer from haemophobia resulting in her retiring from any direct matters involving medicine or combat with Shizune dealing with them instead on her sensei's behalf.

Naruto

Whilst at a town, she continued to embark on her gambling streak but ended up owing money to others. During this time, Orochimaru and his aide Kabuto Yakushi approached her about enlisting her aid in healing his arms after suffering from a cursed wound from the Third Hokage. She came to learn that this was the result of Orochimaru's failed attack against Konohagakure and that he was responsible for the death of Hiruzen Sarutobi. Tsunade refused to help Orochimaru and was even prepared to fight him unless he departed the scene to avenge her mentor. However, Orochimaru offered to use a forbidden jutsu he developed to bring back Tsunade's love and her younger brother with him giving her a week to think over the offer. This left Tsunade deeply divided as she came to learn that Orochimaru intended to destroy Konohagakure once he was healed from his injuries. In the time afterwards, she wandered the city where her comrade attempted to convince her to not accept Orochimaru's offer. Around this time, she encountered Jiraiya at a tavern by accident where her fellow Sannin was accompanied by his student who was a young boy named Naruto Uzumaki. She was informed that Konogakure had decided to name Tsunade the next Hokage but she refused the offer as she had become disenchanted with the life of a ninja and that of the Hokage with her words infuriating Naruto as he intended to become Hokage. Tsunade though felt that this was a fool's errand where she decided to challenge the young Gennin to a fight to put him in his place. She easily managed to overpower him with only a finger but was surprised by Uzumaki's determination of being Hokage that reminded her of her younger brother. This led to her lowering her guard for a second with Naruto surprising her again by attempting to use the Rasengan on her but she managed to defeat him. She then made a deal with Naruto that she would give him a week to master the Rasengan then if he failed he would admit his dream of being Hokage was foolish and if she lost then she would admit she was wrong whilst giving away her necklace to him.

Though seriously considering accepting Orochimaru's offer, Naruto's embodiment of her loved one's dreams leaves her unable to do so knowing that Orochimaru would only use his restored strength to destroy Konoha. She joins forces with Jiraiya in an attempt to kill Orochimaru and keep Konoha safe from his future plans, but he is able to escape.

Tsunade accepted the title of Fifth Hokage (五代目火影, Godaime Hokage) to protect the village should he strike again. When they get back to Konoha, the villagers start making preparations to officially place Tsunade into office. Before that can happen, Naruto has Tsunade heal the damage to the minds of Kakashi Hatake and Sasuke Uchiha. She also looks at the damage to Rock Lee's spine; although she's the only one who can fix it, she confesses that there's a fifty percent chance he wouldn't survive the procedure and recommends he give up on life as a ninja. After thinking it over, Lee tells her plainly that being a ninja is his dream, which she cannot argue with. In the anime, Tsunade tries to improve his chances of survival by studying one of Kabuto's jutsu, and in doing so she improves Lee's odds to 58%. Lee ultimately survives the procedure. Being Hokage comes with a heavy workload, especially in the aftermath of Orochimaru's Konoha Crush, which left the village understaffed. For this reason, when Tsunade is informed that Sasuke has defected to Orochimaru, Shikamaru Nara - only recently promoted to chūnin - is the highest ranking ninja she can assign to lead the Sasuke Recovery Team; she allows him any genin he can recruit for the mission, though recommends Naruto's inclusion. After the Recovery Team leaves, Tsunade is notified of the Konoha Special Mission Platoon's defeat by the Sound Four, Sasuke's escorts. Having already suspected that a team of genin wouldn't be enough, she requests Sunagakure's support so that Orochimaru, a mutual enemy of both villages, can't gain Sasuke's Sharingan. She is also informed that Lee, despite still recovering from his surgery, has also gone off to lend support. Since then, Tsunade had primarily acted as a source of assignments and mobilizes Konoha's forces when necessary. In addition, Tsunade plays a large role in healing the more severe injuries that befall upon ninja she sends on missions. Despite the best efforts of the Recovery Team, Lee, and Suna's Three Sand Siblings, they are unable to stop Sasuke from joining forces with Orochimaru. Tsunade sends the Medic Corps to retrieve the Recovery Team's members and tend to their injuries; Tsunade, by studying the Nara Clan Medical Encyclopaedia, is able to cure Chōji Akimichi of the Three Coloured Pills' side-effects. Tsunade is later approached by Sakura Haruno, who asks to be taught medical ninjutsu. Sensing that Sakura has something she wants to protect her comrades with Tsunade agreeing to train her. Sakura Haruno thus became Tsunade's apprentice, and over the time skip, Tsunade teaches her how to use her healing abilities and how to focus chakra and release it at a precise point so it will enable her to have superhuman strength. However, her decisions began to conflict with the views of Konoha's elders, and she is forced to form compromises before her plans can proceed. Despite being needed for the role of Hokage, Tsunade has stated that she would leave Konoha if Jiraiya ever needed her help fighting Akatsuki. Jiraiya makes plans to take Naruto away from the village to train him.

Shippuden

Tsunade is informed of Naruto's return to Konoha after two-and-a-half years of training. She shares this news with Sakura and together they welcome him back. Tsunade has Naruto and Sakura reform Team 7 under Kakashi's leadership. While trying to find a mission to send Team 7 on that Naruto won't complain about, Tsunade receives a report that Suna's Fifth Kazekage has been kidnapped by Akatsuki. Tsunade decides to send Team 7 to lend assistance in the Kazekage's rescue in full awareness that Akatsuki wants to capture Naruto too. She isn't initially concerned, but when she suddenly wins the lottery she takes this as a bad sign and sends Team Guy to provide additional support. A few days later they receive news that the Kazekage was successfully rescued and that Teams 7 and Guy will be returning to Konoha. Shizune questions the wisdom of sending Naruto into battle with Akatsuki, to which Tsunade replies that, because both Naruto and the Kazekage are jinchūriki, Naruto was the single best person for the mission.

During a meeting with Jiraiya, he came to inform her that his intelligence network had uncovered the location of the Akatsuki's leader which was believed to be in Amegakure. At first, she intended to assemble a team when her forces had gathered but Jiraya said that he intended to scout alone. Tsunade intended to deny him the mission as she had a bad feeling about it but he convinced her to allow him to embark on the journey. He promised to return and even had Tsunade bet on the mission's failure as he claimed that her bad luck in bets meant that he would return back alive. Sometime later, the toad sage Fukusaku arrived at Konoha to inform Tsunade and the other shinobi that Jiraya had died fighting against the Akatsuki leader Pain. She was heartbroken at his death and further saddened when an angry Naruto initially blamed her for his demise. Lord Fukusake then revealed the last bit of information entrusted to him by his former student Jiraiya which was a body of one of the people claiming to be Pain along with a code that Tsunade had her shinobi went to analyse to learn her comrade's last words. Meanwhile, a dissection of the dead Pain was conducted to uncover his secrets. Lord Fukusaku then requested that Naruto accompany him to be trained at Mount Myubuko with Tsunade agreeing to let him journey there to better be prepared for the coming fight. Sometime later, Konohagakure came under a surprise attack from Pain who was searching for the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails. To save the villagers, she distributed her chakra into her summons Katsuyu who split into smaller versions of herself where she used her power to remotely heal any injured in Konoha. Despite her efforts, many still died at the hands of Pain and the village itself was labelled by one of his most powerful attacks. However, hope arrived when Naruto finally returned to battle Pain with Tsunade wanting revenge for the attack. However, she was exhausted by this point and fell unconscious after using her entire chakra reserves to help heal everyone. This even caused her transformation jutsu to stop showing her actual appearance. Ultimately, Naruto was able to defeat Pain with their foe using a rebirth jutsu to restore all the people that died leading to his death thus ending the threat posed by him. In the aftermath, Tsunade was in a coma where it was decided by the village elders that a new Hokage needed to be appointed with Danzo manoeuvring himself into that position whilst the village was being rebuilt.

She later came to regain consciousness sometime afterwards where by this point Danzō Shimura had been killed and the tribal elders were looking to make Kakashi Hatake the new Hokage. Her recovery led to her resuming her office as leader of the village where she restored herself to full health. At that time, she had to attend the Kage summit that had been formed by the other villages after they came to ally with one another following the declaration of the Fourth Shinobi Great War by Madara. During a prior summit when Tsunade was unconscious, they were confronted by the leader of the Akatsuki who claimed that he looked to acquire the Tailed-Beasts in order to merge them back into their original form as the Ten-Tails and use their power to place the world under an Infinite Tsukuyomi (無限月読­, Mugen Tsukuyomi) thus depriving everyone of free will. The only thing he was lacking was the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails that were held in the hidden cloud and hidden leaf villages. It was decided by the Kage to keep the two remaining jinchuriki in safety despite Tsunade believing that the Tailed-Beast hosts should be used on the frontlines. However, she was overruled by the other Kage and forced to comply by sending Naruto away to keep him safe. At the conclusion of the meeting, Tsunade met with the Raikage and asked for a favour where she wanted the hidden cloud's jinchuriki Killer B to help train Naruto in order to wield his Tailed-Beast properly in battle. The Raikage agreed as he intended to send the pair to a hidden island where he intended for his brother to train Uzumaki so that he could be more effective in fighting off the Akatsuki. Afterwards, she stood amongst the other Kage's as they prepared the Allied Shinobi Forces for the coming war with them assigning leaders to the various divisions. At the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War, she observed from headquarters as the Akatsuki fielded a 100,000 strong army of White Zetsu along with reanimated fallen shinobi for use in the conflict. Among the mind controlled reanimated included Tsunade's former love Dan Katō who was sent into battle.

During the conflict, one of the reanimated shinobi turned out to be the real Madara Uchiha who was let loose against the Allied Shinobi Forces. Such was his fighting skills that the five kage decided to all gather and personally fight him. This saw Tsunade arriving on the battlefield where she provided invaluable healing to her fellow kage as they battled Madara. Despite their numbers, they were unable to defeat Madara as he awakened his full powers and came to easily best them. The kage came to be defeated with Tsunade's body being cut in half and left for dead though her superior healing ability allowed her to survive for an extended period of time. She and the kage were then approached by the restored Orochimaru who decided to lend his help and had Tsunade's body restored. This allowed her to heal her body where she went about tending to the other kage to bring them back to fighting form. The five kage then joined the Allied Shinobi Forces who had gathered to fight Madara and Tobi.

Next Generations

She maintained contact with the Uzumaki family after Naruto had a son named Boruto Uzumaki and a daughter Himawari Uzumaki. Boruto noted that he had met Tsunade where she was very strict with him.

After the Otsutsuki attack on Konogakure, Tsunade returned to the village where she along with Kakashi were present during a meeting concerning a recent attack on the chunnin guards to the hidden leaf. Among the attackers was an individual named Mitsuki who was one of the shinobi being trained at the academy. It was then that Tsunade was the child of Orochimaru with her being furious at Naruto's decision to admit the son of an enemy into the village. However, she was convinced that Mitsuki should be given another chance as he had prove himself during his time at the academy.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Tsunade was a fair-skinned human woman with brown hairs and straight blonde hair that was parted above her forehead. Her hair had shoulder-length bangs that framed her face and the rest reached her lower-back. Those who were particularly close to her came to affectionately call her by the nickname of Tsuna (綱, Tsuna). Due to her summons, she came to be known as Konoha's Slug Princess Tsunade (木ノ葉のナメクジ綱手姫, Konoha no Namekuji Tsunade-hime, English TV: Slug Queen). Her terrible luck in gambling led to her being given the nickname of the Legendary Sucker (伝説のカモ, Densetsu no Kamo). After Hiruzen's death, she came to be his successor as the leader of the hidden leaf were she took the title of Fifth Hokage (五代目火影, Godaime Hokage). Tsunade was well-known for her extremely large breasts, despite the fact that Jiraiya referred to her as 'flat-chested Tsunade' during their childhood.

In her youth, she believed it was possible for one to achieve their dreams where she supported and encouraged people in achieving the. This changed when her brother and later her lover died after she supported their goals to be Hokage. As a result, Tsunade lost faith in the idea of dreaming of anything and that any such pursuit was doomed from the beginning.

After petitioning unsuccessfully to add medical ninja to every team to avoid a repeat of what happened to her loved ones, Tsunade left Konoha with her faith and dreams shattered.

She inherited her grandfather's necklace after he had died and came to be Tsunade's most noticeable possession. It as said to be valuable enough to buy three gold mines and the mountains on top of them. During her youth, Tsunade gave the necklace to both her younger brother and lover in turn, hoping that it would help them achieve their dreams of becoming Hokage. Both died in battle within days of receiving the necklace and it returned to her possession, leading Tsunade and many others to believe the necklace to be cursed.

For a time, the long years of conflict and the various deaths had greatly impacted Tsunade. This led to her becoming largely pessimistic and she had a lack of faith in achieving the impossible. In fact, by this point, she began to see any attempt at achieving one's dreams to be a foolish commodity. Similarly, she came to lack faith in the title of Hokage and had believed that only fools would want such a position that would, as she believed, inevitably require them to give up their lives. Her views though began to change when she she met Naruto Uzumaki whose dream was to someday become Hokage himself where his determination caused Tsunade to have a change of heart. Realizing that what she lacked faith in was what she most admired about her brother and lover. This led to Tsunade bringing her self to have faith in another's person's dreams once again. She ended up giving Naruto her grandfather's necklace and took the position of Hokage until Naruto was old enough to take her place.

Tsunade typically projected a tough demeanour, even when facing great personal difficulty, and rarely compliments or praises people. She readily criticizes others for their faults, such as Naruto for his immaturity or Jiraiya for his perversion, though her habits being rarely better. On occasion, though, Tsunade shows sympathy for others, consoling Shikamaru that while he failed his mission to return Sasuke to Konoha, all of his teammates survived. In the filler arcs, it is shown that Tsunade often tries to avoid doing work and takes bribes. As a result of doing so, she often overlooks information that would be crucial to Naruto and his teammates, resulting in them accepting seemingly easy missions that turn out to be much harder than they expect or easy missions that sound hard, but actually aren't.

It was said that she came to pick up her grandfather's gambling habit. This manifested in Tsunade becoming a compulsive gambler who had 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, Viz "The Legendary Loser") for the gross profits others have made off her misfortune and gambling addiction. In the rare instances that Tsunade hit a winning streak, she believed it to be a bad omen, and bad things tend to happen to her afterwards. For example, soon after she had a winning streak at the slots machines, she had a traumatic run-in with her former teammate, Orochimaru. Her luck with bets has occasionally been used for optimistic purposes, such as betting that Jiraiya will die to ensure that he returns home safely. The symbol on the back of her coat, 賭 ("kake"), means "gamble," or "wager," as gambling is one of her favourite pastimes.

When she was a child, she first came to meet Jiraiya when they were assigned to the same team together. In that time, he regularly flirted with her and wanting the two to be a couple. However, she came to reject his advances with the two often having arguments though remained close friends. By adulthood, he remained stating that she was beautiful though the two never became involved but there were lingering feelings for one another. This became apparent during Jiraiya's last mission where he was killed at the hands of Pain with Tsunade weeping tears for him.

Tsunade once had a fear of blood until her fight with Orochimaru when he laughed at her for protecting Naruto. She came to resolve herself where she told her foe that by protecting Naruto the she was protecting her home. He scorned her for trying while she was trembling all over. After listening to Orochimaru's harsh and cruel words, she looked at Naruto and conquered her fear and helped Jiraya fight Orochimaru.

Powers and abilities

Tsunade was born a female human shinobi where she was trained in martial arts and in the ability to manipulate her chakra. Her skill led to her becoming particularly well known after the Second Shinobi World War where she was named as one of the legendary Sannin (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin, literally meaning: Legendary Three Ninja). Following the war, she became well-regarded as being the world's strongest kunoichi. She was even able to survive being bisected and retain consciousness long enough to heal others before being healed herself. Her Chakra reserves were notable for being immense and enough to heal several thousand shinobi.

Her trademark ability was her superhuman strength derived from her excellent chakra control. By storing chakra and releasing it at the point of contact, she can enhance her strength to the point where she can break through boulders with her bare hands or create a gigantic crater by simply kicking the ground. In one case, she simply used a finger where she was able to create a large rupture in the ground. In addition, Tsunade can convert a small amount of this chakra into electricity for her Important Body Points Disturbance (乱身衝, Ranshinshō). Once opponents are struck by this technique, the electrical flow of signals from their brain to the rest of their body is disrupted, such as causing their leg to move when they attempt to move their arm. This does not totally incapacitate the victim, however, as a person with enough physical control can work the system out such as by re-learning to move their limbs with the disrupted signals and continue fighting with only a delay in reaction times. Kabuto came to surprise Tsunade with this and fights until was hit with Naruto's Rasengan.

Among the techniques known to her included:

• Transformation Technique (変化の術­, Henge no Jutsu) : with this technique, Tsunade was able to alter her physical age to any point in her life ranging from being a child to an adult. She typically used it to make herself appear in the prime of her life rather than show her actual age.
• Body Pathway Derangement (乱身衝­, Ranshinshō) :
• Chakra Scalpel (チャクラのメス­, Chakura no Mesu) :
• Heavenly Foot of Pain (痛天脚­, Tsūtenkyaku) :
• Heavenly Spear Foot (槍天脚­, Sōtenkyaku) :
• Strength of a Hundred Seal (百豪の印­, Byakugō no In) : a jutsu said to the pinnacle of chakra control whereby the user stored vast amount of chakra in a specific area of their point which in Tsunade's case was in a space behind the forehead. A deal was created that contained the chakra and could manifest a rhombus-like marking over her body. Once activated, it allowed Tsunade to perform techniques without any wasted energy.
• Summoning Technique : (寄せの術­, Kuchiyose no Jutsu) : the technique allowed the user to summon a target to their location with her able to call forth a giant slug named Katsuyu (カツユ, Katsuyu).
• Creation Rebirth (創造再生­, Sōzō Saisei) : a technique invented by Tsunade as a result of her resolution to protect the lives of her comrades. It required a large amount of chakra to be released in a single moment which was used to allow the body's cells to divide in forced stimulation. Thus, use of this technique repaired all damage to the body whether it was to tissues or if organ were destroyed. Regardless of severity, all injuries were healed instantly so long as the jutsu was active which meant they could not die during this time. It was said to be the pinnacle of medical ninjutsu and the ultimate regeneration technique.

She was also an extremely talented medical ninja and regarded as Konoha's best medical-nin. With her medical jutsus, she was able to heal wounds that most others would consider impossible. As a result of her chakra control and her medical abilities, Tsunade has created a form of regeneration. By releasing the seal on her forehead, she can access the chakra stored inside to allow her to use Creation Rebirth (創造再生, Sōzō Saisei, English TV: "Mitotic Regeneration"). Once activated, her chakra is immensely increased and her strength also is increased, Creation Rebirth heals any and all damage to her body instantaneously and continue to heal at an accelerated rate for the duration of the jutsu. While an extremely powerful healing technique, the rapid regeneration of cells cuts down on her lifespan, making it a technique to only be used in desperate situations. It also uses up her chakra reserves, leaving her unable to fight once the jutsu ends.

Through her Transformation Technique, she was able to appear at almost any age she wanted to where despite being in her 50s she could make herself appear much younger. Typically, she preferred her default form to be a woman in her 20s. Tsunade often use this ability to alter her apparent age to escape those who had lent her money in order to avoid being recognised by others. Unlike a typical transformation, the change seemed to be permanent and could not be dispelled even if she was injured with it not taking much exertion to maintain her appearance. However, it did rely on her chakra supply to maintain it and exerting her reserves could result in her reverting to her actual appearance.

Her summoning allowed her to call forth the giant slug Katsuyu (カツユ) who was very loyal to her. She was able to perform a number of jutsu that even her lady Tsunade was unable to perform. These included being able to spit acid and replicating herself. Tsunade was capable of channelling her healing abilities through her summons allowing her to use Katsuyu to heal people remotely and repair critical injuries across an entire village in the process.

Notes

• Tsunade was created by Masashi Kishimoto where she featured in the setting of Naruto.
• She was referred to the title of "Hime" (姫, "Princess") due to her being the granddaughter of the First Hokage though the English dub translated this to her being called "Lady Tsunade."

In other media

Television

• In Naruto, Tsunade appeared in the setting of the anime television series where she was voiced by Japanese actress Masako Katsuki and by English voice actress Debi Mae West in the dub.

Appearances

• Naruto:
• Boruto: Naruto Next Generations:

External Links

• Naruto Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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