Tsunade

Tsunade is a character from the Naruto anime and manga.

Tsunade is a descendant of the Senju clan and one of Konohagakure's Sannin; famed as the world's strongest kunoichi and its greatest medical-nin. The repeated loss of her loved ones caused Tsunade to develop a crippling fear of blood and she would later abandon the life of a shinobi for many years. She is eventually persuaded to return to Konoha and take on the mantle of Fifth Hokage (Godaime Hokage, Literally meaning: Fifth Fire Shadow), where her skills prove invaluable to the village.

In the AWA fics, Tsunade is one of vice-headmistresses of the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Tsunade is a fair-skinned woman with brown eyes and straight blonde hair that parts above her forehead. Her hair has shoulder-length bangs that frame her face and the rest reaches her lower-back. While as a child through her young-adult years she wore her hair in a high ponytail, she later keeps it tied in two loose ponytails. The Strength of a Hundred Seal - taking the appearance of a violet diamond shape - is clearly visible on her forehead. In her childhood, she wore grey mesh shirt and over it a teal-colored kimino with short sleeves and red-lining around the collars which she secured with a blue sash. She also wore red wristbands and white wrapping over her calves with blue sandals.

She was very skinny throughout her childhood to the point of being known as flat-chested. By young-adulthood however, Tsunade grew into a slender woman of curvaceous frame with above-average height and noticeably large breasts, which Jiraiya noted to be 106 centimetres; she is in fact widely regarded as the most beautiful kunoichi in the world. By her fifties, she appears much older, being heavily wrinkled while rather frail-looking (presumably from over-usage of her Creation Rebirth). However, Tsunade maintains her youthful appearance using a unique Transformation Technique. Tsunade often wears a grass-green haori with the kanji for "gamble" (kake) 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, strappy black sandals with high heels. She has red nail polish on both her fingernails and toenails and uses a soft pink lipstick. She wears the First Hokage's necklace for many years until she gives it to Naruto.

Personality
Tsunade was very willing to believe in the attainability of dreams while Nawaki and Dan were alive, and that by supporting and encouraging those dreams she might be able to help achieve them. When both died gruesomely shortly after receiving her support, Tsunade lost faith in the idea of dreaming for anything, believing that the mere pursuit would be doomed from the outset. She becomes especially critical of wanting to be Hokage, as both Dan and Nawaki died trying to attain the title and the past Hokage have all died prematurely and, Tsunade argues, pointlessly because they held the position; she concludes that to be Hokage is a fool's job.

Tsunade is forced to reconsider her cynicism upon meeting Naruto Uzumaki, who demonstrates two things to her: just because a goal seems impossible does not mean it actually is, as Naruto is able to master the Rasengan unprecedentedly quickly despite seemingly lacking any natural talent; just because the dreamer dies does not mean the dream itself does, as Nawaki and Dan's desire to become Hokage lives on in Naruto. Because Naruto is so very much an exception to how she thought the world worked, Tsunade puts her faith in dreams once again, a desire so strong that she overcomes her fear of blood. She becomes Hokage herself, partly so that she can live Nawaki and Dan's dream for them, but also so that she can pave the way for Naruto inevitably holding the title. Just as she once did, Tsunade supports all other dreams that she can: when Rock Lee tells her he dreams of being a ninja despite knowing he may die trying, she does not argue his decision and, in the anime, does all that she can to ensure he survives.

As Hokage, Tsunade is committed to protecting Konoha and its villagers, willing to give her life for her village and allies if necessary. She does this because Nawaki and Dan loved Konoha and so she keeps their dreams alive by doing so, but also because Konoha's continued survival honours all those who gave their lives creating it and keeping it safe. Although her reasons are somewhat different, the outcome is nevertheless consistent with the Will of Fire. Tsunade is similarly optimistic about the next generation of Konoha's ninja, especially Naruto, convinced that the village's future will be in good hands because of them. She in fact becomes angry when others lack this same faith in Naruto and his peers, believing it is better to let them try and then fail than to assume their failure is inevitable and thus prevent them from trying. Demonstrations of her own faith include: congratulating Shikamaru Nara for his failed mission because at least none of his teammates died; not labelling Sasuke Uchiha a missing-nin because she trusts that Naruto can someday convince him to return to Konoha.

Despite her many noble qualities, Tsunade is not without her faults. She is blunt and short-tempered, prone to striking Naruto for his immaturity or Jiraiya for his perversion; she is widely feared because of this tendency. Her own behaviour isn't much better than theirs, as she drinks constantly, sometimes sleeps on the job, and tries as much as she can to have other people do her work for her. One of her favourite vices is gambling, which she acquired from her grandfather, Hashirama Senju. Despite how often and how irresponsibly she gambles, Tsunade has notoriously bad luck, causing those who have made huge profits off of her to call her "The Legendary Sucker" (Densetsu no Kamo). Tsunade is fully aware of how unlucky she is, and so whenever she hits a winning streak she takes it as a bad omen and prepares for the worst; she has at times tried using her bad luck to her advantage, betting on outcomes she doesn't want so that her unluckiness will prevent them from happening. Hashirama finds Tsunade's many bad habits highly amusing on a personal level, but when he is told that Tsunade is Hokage he immediately worries about what misfortunes she's brought upon Konoha.

Jiraiya assumed that there was a mutual attraction between him and Tsunade from their first meeting, a statement that only served to annoy and anger her. Despite his many advances over the years, Tsunade never reciprocated his feelings, only ever loving Dan, even decades after his death. Jiraiya wasn't discouraged by this and claimed that her repeated rejections had not only made him stronger, but they've been excellent material for his Icha Icha series of books. Though he concluded that to be happy wasn't his fate. Tsunade doubted he believed his own words and she commented that he did not need to put on a brave front when he returned from Amegakure. When Jiraiya ended up dying during that same mission, Tsunade privately mourned for the loss of her dear friend and team-mate. Her greatest desire was to be with her lost loved ones, while supporting Dan as he lived out his dream of being Hokage. Despite this, she chose not to have Dan and Nawaki reincarnated when given the chance as she realized it would go against everything they stood for.

Abilities
Like other students of the Third Hokage, Tsunade is an exceptionally talented shinobi. Her skills became well known following the Second Shinobi World War when dubbed by Hanzō as a Sannin, alongside Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Tsunade's skills are popularly held as the reason for Konoha's victory during that war, and in the years following, became known as the world's strongest kunoichi. Despite being rusty, Tsunade's skills easily outclassed Kabuto Yakushi's when they battled, with him having to rely on using a Military Rations Pill to continue battling, and use her fear of blood against her to gain the upper hand. Upon overcoming this, she fought Orochimaru one on one and defeated him near single-handedly. She would later go on to become Konoha's Fifth Hokage, and was responsible for saving countless villagers when Paindecimated the village in Part II. Even the likes of Madara Uchiha admits that Tsunade was worthy of being a Kage.

Chakra Control and Physical Prowess
As a descendant of both the Senju and Uzumaki Clans, Tsunade inherited their life force and chakra, enabling her to battle the likes of Madara Uchiha for over half a day without even getting exhausted, then having enough chakra to heal several thousand shinobi during the final battle with Obito Uchiha. She also has excellent control over her chakra, a necessary prerequisite to her job as a medical-nin. After the Second Shinobi World War, she started gradually storing her chakra into the Strength of a Hundred Seal on her forehead. When the seal is released, Tsunade has access to all the accumulated chakra, totaling a so-named hundred-times her usual chakra levels. Although she normally uses this extra chakra to heal injuries or perform her other jutsu, she can also transfer the chakra to others, either to replenish or amplify their own.

Tsunade teaches her student, Sakura Haruno, how to build up chakra in her fists and release it on contact with a target, causing severe damage. Tsunade presumably uses this ability herself, but it isn't always clear when since she is naturally very strong, enough to lift Gamabunta's sword. Her physical accomplishments, whatever the cause, include: splitting the ground with only a finger, breaking six of Jiraiya's ribs, both his arms, and rupturing several of his internal organs. She has even broke through Susanoo, an "absolute defense", with only a few hits.

Tsunade believes it is vital for a medical-nin to avoid injury, as they cannot perform their duties if anything happens to them. To a certain extent, her unnatural strength helps her in this regard, as opponents may avoid getting near her so that she cannot strike them. At the same time, though, Tsunade is regularly injured in combat, even going so far as to place herself in harm's way in order to protect her allies. This is all because Tsunade deems her Creation Rebirth ability a reasonable exception to the "avoid injury" tenet, as she can receive serious damage and still survive. Even without the Creation Rebirth, Tsunade's ability to endure injury is quite impressive, as she can survive several mortal stabs to the chest and remain able to perform jutsu after being bisected.

Ninjutsu
Tsunade can summon segments of Katsuyu, a slug from the Shikkotsu Forest. In addition to fighting alongside Tsunade, Katsuyu can use her divisions as a form of long-distance communication or to move and shield Tsunade's injured allies. By linking with Katsuyu, Tsunade can monitor those that Katsuyu has attached to, remotely healing them and replenishing their chakra as needed.

Tsunade's natures include Lightning, Fire, Water, and Earth, as well as Yang and in the anime Yin Release. She isn't seen directly using any of these natures in the series, although her Body Pathway Derangement is suggested to use some amount of lightning chakra: she injects her chakra into an opponent, scrambling their body's electric signals so that commands to move their hand instead move their leg, and so on.

In addition to her other skills, the anime shows Tsunade using some amount of space–time ninjutsu, fūinjutsu, and barrier ninjutsu.

Transformation Technique
Despite being in her fifties, Tsunade's Transformation Technique makes her appear as if she were still in her twenties. She readily alters what age she appears in order to avoid her gambling debts. Tsunade's unique transformation seems to be permanent, as she can maintain this form without exerting any effort, even while injured or asleep. The transformation dispels when she runs out of chakra, reverting her to her natural appearance.

Medical Ninjutsu
Tsunade is hailed as the world's greatest medical-nin, able to identify ailments at a glance and treat conditions that other medical-nin deem impossible to cure. Her skills are enough that Orochimaru believed she could reverse the necrosis-like effects of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, heal the psychological damage of Tsukuyomi, fix the damage to Rock Lee's spine when he was deemed a helpless case and counteract the effects of the Three Coloured Pills with instructions from the Nara Clan Medical Encyclopaedia. Her medical prowess was again demonstrated was when she near-instantly healed Shikamaru’s severe chakra depletion after he came into contact with a root of the God Tree; the chakra cloak surrounding him noticeably reacting to her treatment.

Undoubtedly, the pinnacle of Tsunade's medical prowess is her Creation Rebirth, which draws on her vast chakra supplies to instantaneously heal any wounds she receives. Because it requires no hand seals to perform, she needs no conscious effort on her part once active, and can heal any damage no matter how severe (her chakra levels permitting); Orochimaru describes it as a form of immortality that even he is envious of. Despite how useful it is in battle, Creation Rebirth is a double-edged sword: the body's cells can only divide and be created a set amount of times, so whenever Tsunade uses the technique she shortens her lifespan. Because of this, she only uses it in very desperate situations.

Tsunade's skills extend beyond the typical medical ninjutsu. She earned fame during the Second Shinobi World War for being the only person able to make antidotes for the poisons of Sunagakure's Chiyo. Similarly, she can make sleeping potions that are undetectable to even the most skilled ninja. She is knowledgeable enough to perform autopsies and examine damage on a cellular level. Following the Fourth Shinobi World War, she studies the material that the White Zetsu Army is made of and learns to make prosthetic limbs from it. In the anime, she researches Kabuto Yakushi's Yin Healing Wound Destruction and uses what she finds to raise the survival rate of Rock Lee's medical procedure. Due to her vast medical knowledge, Tsunade was primarily responsible for setting up the modern system of medical-nin, though she exempts herself from many of the laws that govern them due to her Creation Rebirth.

Trivia

 * Tsunade and the other Sannin are named after the characters in the Japanese folktale Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari. Tsunade of that story excels in slug magic.
 * "Tsunade" means "mooring rope", which is not dissimilar to her brother's name, Nawaki, which means "rope tree".
 * Tsunade is first mentioned by Tenten in chapter 84 of the Naruto manga, which was 55 chapters before her first formal appearance.
 * Studio Pierrot's Settei sheets of Tsunade show that she was 145 cm when she was part of Hiruzen's genin team, and that her high-heeled sandals she wears as an adult add 5 cm to her height.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Tsunade's hobby is gambling.
 * Tsunade wishes to fight Naruto Uzumaki.
 * Tsunade's favourite foods are chicken breast and sake, while her least favourite food is liver sashimi.
 * Tsunade has completed 1,256 official missions in total: 40 D-rank, 236 C-rank, 467 B-rank, 418 A-rank, 95 S-rank.
 * Tsunade's favourite phrase is "One grab, a thousand gold" (Ikkaku Senkin), referring to getting rich without much effort.
 * Tsunade shares her blood type with her former team-mates, Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
 * While Tsunade's English anime voice actor is Debi Mae West, in some games, she is voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who is Kurenai Yūhi's voice actor.
 * In Clash of Ninja Revolution 2, McGlynn voiced Tsunade throughout the story-line while West voiced Tsunade during the actual gameplay.
 * Tsunade is the only Hokage to live long enough to see two generations of successors take office.