Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage

Tsunade (綱手, Tsunade) is the Fifth Hokage (五代目火影,Godaime Hokage; Literally meaning "Fifth Fire Shadow") of Konohagakure. She took on the position after the death of her teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi. She, along with Orochimaru and Jiraiya, are recognized as The Legendary Sannin of Konoha.

 

Background

Tsunade is the granddaughter of the First Hokage, and the grandniece of the Second Hokage, leading other characters to call her "Princess" (姫, Hime). She is, along with Jiraiya and Orochimaru, a former student of the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

During the Second Great Shinobi World War, Tsunade and her former team-mates fought Hanzō, who gave them the title of Konoha's "Three Legendary Shinobi" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin) as a reward for surviving the strife of their battle. On their way back to Konoha, they encountered the Ame Orphans, who Jiraiya chose to train. Throughout the war, she would become famous for frequently counteracting Chiyo's poisoning attempts, earning contempt from Chiyo because of it. Furthermore, according to Jiraiya, Tsunade was the reason Konoha won the war.

At some point throughout, however, on her brother's twelfth birthday, Tsunade gave him their grandfather's crystal necklace in the hopes that it would help him achieve his dream of becoming Hokage. The next day, he died as a casualty of the war, which returned the necklace to Tsunade's possession. Sometime afterwards, Tsunade fell in love with a man named Dan, who also wanted to become Hokage. As a sign of her affection, and in the hopes that it would help make his dreams come true, Tsunade gave him the amulet as well. Dan, too, would go on to die a bloody death during the course of the war, once again returning the necklace to her possession. Dan's death caused her to develop hæmophobia, which made her unfit to take part in any more battles.

With the deaths of the two she loved the most, Tsunade came to lose faith in the title of Hokage, believing that only fools would want such a position. With these changes of ideals, Tsunade left Konoha with Dan's niece, Shizune, taking her in as her apprentice.

 

Personality

Tsunade typically projects a tough demeanor, 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 are rarely any 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 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. She also allowed herself to cry when she learned of Jiraiya's death, though not in public.

When first introduced, Tsunade is cynical of anyone with dreams, especially those who want to become Hokage. After meeting Naruto she realizes that this cynicism is insulting to the memories of Dan and Nawaki. She has a change of heart, puts her faith in Naruto, and takes 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 hundreds 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 is also a compulsive gambler, who has the unfortunate disadvantage of having 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, she believes it to be a bad omen, and bad things do tend to happen to her or her comrades afterwards. The symbol on the back of her coat, 賭 (kake), means "gamble", or "wager", as gambling is one of her favorite pastimes.

In life-threatening or important situations that involve someone she cares in danger, she tends to anger against people who disagree with her plan, such as the restrictions the Konoha Elders put on Naruto, or the argument on whether Naruto or Killer Bee should participate in the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, even calling Gaara a "little punk" once disagreed by.

When she caught Jiraiya peeping on her while she was in the hot springs, she proceeded to break both of his arms, six of his ribs and ruptured several internal organs as a punishment for being a pervert. Ever since then, Jiraiya has been very careful to suppress his perverted ways around Tsunade. Jiraiya mentions that this is one of the two times he has ever been close to death.

Tsunade shuns all of Jiraiya's romantic advances throughout most of the storyline. While he is 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 cries for the loss of her good friend. Thus making her the last living member of Team Hiruzen and the Sannin.

Tsunade took Shizune, her lover's niece, as an apprentice, and trusts her greatly. In fact, Shizune is one of the few people Tsunade trusts with absolute certainty. Tsunade also owns a pig, Tonton, as a pet, and leaves her to Shizune's care.

 

Appearance

Tsunade has a frail and old appearance, more so even than her age would suggest. However, she maintains the appearance of her younger self through a constant Transformation Technique. Despite being known as flat-chested in her childhood, she now has rather sizeable breast — 106 centimetres, according to Jiraiya. Her beauty has been pointed out several times and she's actually been called the most beautiful kunoichi in Konoha.

She has a violet rhombus on her forehead, a chakra gathering point known as the Yin Seal. Tsunade has fair skin and brown eyes. Except for her bangs, which are parted in the middle and fall down the sides of her face, Tsunade's long, blonde hair is tied into two ponytails using bands in the same colour as the seal on her forehead.

She often wears a grass-green robe 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 trousers. Her blouse is closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage.

She wears open-toed sandals with low heels and nail polish in the same colour as her trousers and obi on both her fingernails and toenails. She also wears a soft pink lipstick. She used to wear the First Hokage's Necklace in clear view on her chest, before giving it to Naruto Uzumaki.

 

Abilities

As one of the Sannin and the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade is one of the most powerful ninja that Konoha has ever produced. She excels in medical ninjutsu and hand-to-hand combat. She is hailed as the world's strongest and most beautiful kunoichi. Jiraiya commented that no one could stand equal to her in terms of combat and medical prowess. He adds that Tsunade is the only ninja who could spike a drink without a shinobi knowing it. Tsunade is also well-versed in fūinjutsu, capable of using an S-rank seal as the basis for healing techniques, and in the anime, designing a technique to seal a tailed beast from scratch. In the anime, she has shown some skill at Genjutsu, able to bind multiple targets at once.

Tsunade can also convert her chakra into electricity. With a quick strike behind an opponent's neck she is capable of sending electric waves into the opponent's nervous system. 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 considered to be Lightning Release.

 

Taijutsu

Tsunade's trademark ability is her incredible raw strength, which is great enough to launch her targets several meters with a mere finger flick, or cause gigantic craters with a simple punch of kick to the ground, even create fissures with tapping at the ground. Her legendary strength is amplified even further with chakra control to monstrous levels. By storing chakra and releasing it, she can lift inhuman amounts of weight, as seen from her lifting Gamabunta's gigantic sword several meters into the air and slam it down through the roof of Manda's mouth.

Additionally, Tsunade has showcased incredible durability feats, both physical and mental. She was still able to move after having her muscles torn, something Kabuto himself found impressive and praise-worthy. Furthermore, after being stabbed straight through the chest, her left shoulder, and her ribcage, she still managed to deliver a kick straight to Orochimaru's face. Likewise, her mental stability is so great that she was able to overcome her paralyzing fear of blood through willpower alone, something every eyewitness found miraculous.

As a medical ninja, she needs to be a master of evasion to keep herself alive in battle to aid her teammates. She drilled this skill into Sakura while training her.

 

Ninjutsu

Transformation Technique

Even though she is in her early fifties, Tsunade's Transformation Technique makes it appear as if she were still twenty (which Naruto calls "living a lie"). 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. The transformation dispels when she runs out of chakra, reverting her to her natural appearance.

 

Medical Ninjutsu

Tsunade is renowned as the best in the world for her expertise as a medical-ninja. Her knowledge of the medical arts are so great that she can immediately determine what kind of injuries or illness 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. During the Second Great Ninja War, Tsunade was the only one capable of countering Chiyo's poisons. Tsunade has also been noted to be capable of making a powerful sleeping potion, an ability that she passed on to her student, Sakura Haruno.

Much of Tsunade's fame comes from her being able to cure injuries that others would consider impossible. She healed the psychological damage caused by Tsukuyomi, the damage done to Rock Lee's spine, and counteracted the effects of the Three Colored Pills. Furthermore, Orochimaru believed she could undo the effects of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which Tsunade and Shizune made no attempts to refute.

The most extreme example of her medical prowess is her Creation Rebirth, a technique that makes use of the massive amounts of chakra available after using Yin Seal: Release to continuously regenerate the 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, because of the rapid cell regeneration, the technique shortens her life. 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.

 

Slug Affinity

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 multiple locations simultaneously.