Chapter 165: The Return
To deal with a thorny, proud, and powerful woman like Tsunade Senju, one must use the most direct and brutal method.
This was Akira's cold, simple philosophy.
One must completely shatter all her pride, all her defenses, and all her defiance in one go.
Only then, when she is left with nothing but the truth of her powerlessness, will she truly behave.
"However, your verbal promise isn't enough," Akira stated, his voice calm as he looked down at the disheveled Sannin on the barren, rocky ground.
"I need to add another layer of insurance. For you."
Tsunade's heart, which was already pounding with a mixture of rage and terror, sank abruptly into a cold abyss.
What... what else does he want to do?
What else could this demon possibly want from me?!
"You're very afraid of my punishment just now, aren't you?" Akira asked, his voice a low murmur, yet it cut through the wind.
Tsunade's face, already streaked with dirt, flushed a deep, agonizing crimson. It was a wave of pure, undiluted shame and indignation.
She was Tsunade! The Slug Princess! The world's greatest medical-nin! Granddaughter of the First Hokage!
And he had... he had...
"What if..." Akira continued, his voice full of a chilling, menacing contemplation.
He knelt slightly, bringing his face closer to hers, forcing her to meet his dark, impassive gaze.
"I punish you exactly like that... but in front of everyone in Konoha Village."
Boom!
Tsunade's mind didn't just go blank; it felt as if it had fractured.
In... in front of the entire... Village?
The mere, fleeting image flashed in her mind: the crowds, the shinobi, the Jōnin, the children... and him, doing that to her...
The vision was so horrifying that she felt like she was suffocating. The air refused to enter her lungs.
If something like that really happened...
She would definitely commit suicide on the spot. There would be no other option.
No!
"You... you... demon!" Tsunade's voice cracked, trembling violently with a terror that far surpassed any battlefield fear she had ever known.
"I'm not joking."
Uchiha Akira's expression, which had held a flicker of cold amusement, instantly turned flat and glacial.
"Tsunade, I am warning you one last time." His voice held the finality of a death sentence.
"After returning to Konoha, you will obediently listen to me and do what you are supposed to do. You will heal my shinobi. You will run my hospital. You will be a loyal asset."
"If you dare to have any improper thoughts again... if you try to run, or try to challenge my bottom line in any way..."
He paused, letting the threat hang in the dead air.
"I guarantee that by then, the entire Shinobi World will know how the Legendary Sannin, Konoha's Tsunade-hime, was pressed against the Hokage Rock—against her grandfather's face—and punished by me."
Tsunade was afraid.
No, she was broken.
This wasn't fear of death or pain. It was a soul-deep terror of absolute, irrevocable humiliation. He had found her single greatest weakness—her monumental pride—and placed a kunai directly against it.
"I... I understand..." she whispered, the words feeling like ash in her mouth.
Tsunade knew, in that moment, that for the rest of her life, she was stuck. She was chained to this man.
"Alright. Get up," Akira said, his tone shifting back to one of simple command, as if nothing had happened.
He stood and turned his back to her.
Tsunade's limbs trembled as she pushed herself up from the dirt. The moment she stood on her feet, a lifetime of instinct, of being one of the world's strongest, surged.
Fight him!
Her body screamed for it. Her chakra flared, and she instinctively wanted to channel her monstrous strength into her fist and shatter that bastard's spine.
But in her mind, faster than the thought could even complete itself, Uchiha Akira's threat flashed again.
...pressed against the Hokage Rock... in front of everyone...
Tsunade shivered violently, a full-body tremor.
The slight, desperate thought of resistance that had just arisen... it vanished. It was extinguished by a tidal wave of pure, sickening dread.
She didn't dare to gamble. She couldn't.
Tsunade had no doubt—zero—that this man was not bluffing. He would absolutely, and without a moment's hesitation, do as he said.
Her clothes were covered in dust and gravel. Her hair, once tied back, was messy and falling over her face. She looked utterly disheveled.
And the sharp, burning pain from behind, where he had struck her, was a constant, humiliating reminder of what had just happened.
Tsunade lowered her head, hiding her face, not daring to look into Uchiha Akira's eyes. She couldn't bear to see his, nor could she bear for him to see hers.
Akira reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.
Tsunade flinched, her entire body tensing as if struck by lightning, but she didn't pull away. She couldn't.
"Let's go."
The next moment, the world distorted.
[Amenominaka] activated.
[Inorin's Note: Amenominaka is an extremely high-level spatial ninjutsu, famously used by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki and Sasuke Uchiha's Rinnegan. Akira's ability to use it signifies his mastery over space-time, likely due to his unique Mangekyō Sharingan abilities in this fanfiction.]
Tsunade felt a violent, nauseating rip in reality. It was nothing like a Shunshin (Body Flicker). It felt as if space itself was torn open, and they were pulled through it.
Their figures instantly disappeared from the barren plain.
Space twisted again, and just as suddenly, reality snapped back into place.
When Tsunade regained her senses, her stomach churning, she was already back in the familiar, sake-stained alley in Tanzaku-gai (Tanzaku Quarters).
Jiraiya and Shizune were waiting anxiously in their original spots. They had been pacing, Shizune visibly frantic and Jiraiya's face grim.
Seeing Akira and Tsunade suddenly appear out of thin air, they both gasped, then breathed a sigh of relief.
But that relief lasted only for a second.
"Tsunade! Are you alright?!" Shizune rushed over immediately, her voice high with panic, clutching her piglet, Tonton, in her arms.
She stopped dead a pace away, her eyes widening in horror as she truly saw her master.
"Lady Tsunade... what... what happened to you?"
She took in the ripped clothes, the dirt, the wild hair, and... the eyes. They were hollow. Empty.
"That bastard... what did he do to you?!" Shizune's eyes instantly reddened, tears of fear and rage welling up.
Jiraiya's expression also became somewhat grim. His jovial mask was gone, replaced by the cold face of a Sannin.
Although he knew Uchiha Akira was strong, and he had guessed—even hoped—that Tsunade would suffer a loss to knock sense into her...
This was not what he expected.
Seeing Tsunade looking as if she had been completely and utterly broken... as if her very spirit had been shattered... an unknown, protective anger surged in his heart.
"Fifth Hokage!" Jiraiya's tone was low and dangerous, carrying a hint of accusation.
"What did you do to Tsunade?"
Tsunade's body trembled violently when she heard Shizune and Jiraiya's voices. The sound of their concern felt like needles on her raw nerves.
She instinctively took a step back, avoiding Shizune's outstretched, caring hand.
She didn't want anyone to see her. Not like this.
And she certainly, certainly didn't want anyone to know what had just happened.
That humiliation... that threat... she only wanted to bury it deep in her heart, forever, to let it rot inside her until she died.
"I... I'm fine," Tsunade mumbled, her voice rough and low.
She kept her head down, using her messy blonde hair to cover her face.
"Let's... go back."
Go... back?
Shizune and Jiraiya were both stunned into silence.
She just... agreed?
This wasn't Tsunade. This wasn't her personality at all.
With her explosive temper, she would never give up without turning this entire town upside down. She would have fought to the death first.
But now, she actually, voluntarily, said she wanted to go back?
And with such a... a submissive tone?
What happened? Jiraiya's mind raced, his alarm bells screaming.
What did the Fifth Hokage do to her on that plain? What could possibly make her like this?
Jiraiya's heart was filled with a terrible doubt and unease. He looked at Uchiha Akira, his eyes demanding an explanation.
Uchiha Akira, however, didn't even bother to look at Jiraiya. He acted as if the Sannin wasn't even there.
He simply looked at the alley exit. "Since it's decided, let's go."
"Konoha still has many things waiting for us to handle."
After speaking, he took the lead, his footsteps silent, and turned to walk out of the alley.
Tsunade looked at his back, her hands clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms. Her eyes were an extremely complex storm of emotions.
There was pure, undiluted hatred.
There was deep, abiding fear.
And... and there was a hint of... a strange, cold feeling that even she couldn't quite describe or understand. A feeling of finality.
She took a deep, shuddering breath, forcibly suppressing the chaotic, surging emotions in her heart.
Silently, she followed him.
Seeing this, Shizune, though full of a thousand questions and sick with worry, could only hold Tonton tightly and quickly follow her master.
Jiraiya was left standing alone for a moment. He looked at the backs of the three people in front of him—the composed Hokage, the broken Sannin, and the terrified apprentice.
He sighed, a long, heavy, helpless sound. He followed as well.
He knew that even if he asked, Uchiha Akira wouldn't say a word.
And looking at Tsunade... it was even less likely that she would tell him. She would rather die than speak of this.
Never mind, he thought, a bitter taste in his mouth. As long as everyone is... safe. As long as she's back.
Uchiha Akira walked at the very front, calm and composed, as if taking a stroll.
Tsunade followed a few paces behind him, head bowed, not saying a word, like a... like a young, shamed wife who had done something wrong.
Shizune and Jiraiya followed at the very back, exchanging worried glances, not daring to speak, not daring to breathe. The tension was suffocating.
They walked through the bustling streets of Tanzaku-gai, past the gamblers and shops, and no one gave them a second glance.
But to Tsunade, every step felt like a march of shame.
When the familiar, massive main gate of Konohagakure appeared in their sight...
Tsunade, who had been keeping her head down the entire time, finally, slowly, lifted it.
This place.
It held too many of her memories.
There was laughter from her genin days. There were tears over her brother. There was the glory of the Sannin. And there was... endless, sharp, crippling pain.
She had once sworn, over Dan's grave, that she would never return to this village that consumed everyone she loved.
Unexpectedly, after so many years, she was forcibly brought back.
Brought back by that man, in the most brutal and humiliating way imaginable.
"Stop!"
The gate guards, Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki, moved to block the path, their hands on their weapons.
"Hokage-sama!"
Seeing that the person who arrived was Uchiha Akira, they instantly snapped to attention and bowed deeply.
And when they raised their heads and clearly saw the people with the Hokage, they froze.
Their eyes widened, and their jaws dropped.
"Ji-Jiraiya-sama!"
"And... L-Lady Tsunade!"
The gate guards were all experienced chūnin, old-timers from the Village. They, of course, recognized the two Legendary Sannin.
Their faces instantly transformed, showing expressions of pure, unadulterated excitement and pleasant surprise.
"Lady Tsunade! You... you've finally returned!" Kotetsu exclaimed, his voice filled with awe.
"This is great! This is truly great! Lady Tsunade is back!" Izumo added, his joy palpable.
[Inorin Note:
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