In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[133] Resignation

Chapter 133: Resignation

—

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.

* * *

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.