On the secluded forest path, Li Tong walked ahead with an expression that said he'd just stepped in something awful.
"An Elite Jonin? When I was sixteen, I still couldn't beat one. You did it at twelve. Come on, tell me, how'd you manage that?"
"Hey, you! Have you eaten yet? I haven't. Want to grab something together? My treat!"
"Hey, you! Do you like seafood?"
"What's wrong with you? Gone mute?"
"Hey, you! I'm talking to you. Stop!"
Li Tong suddenly stopped. It felt like eight hundred flies were buzzing around his head. He turned to look at Tsunade, who'd been chattering nonstop the whole way, and sighed. "Hey, lady, could you stop following me? I'm going home to take a bath. Want to come along?"
"Oh?" Tsunade paused, then immediately broke into a radiant smile. "Sure! Let's bathe together!"
Li Tong's shoulders slumped. He'd finally given up on this shameless woman. He'd practically written "I can't stand you" across his face. How could she pretend not to notice?
"I'm leaving. Do as you please!" Li Tong turned and trudged away with his head bowed.
"Hey! Don't look so down." Tsunade hurried after him and hooked an arm around his neck. Her rich fragrance enveloped him, nearly making him faint. His face fell.
"Huh?" Tsunade asked in surprise. "Why didn't you sneeze this time?" She'd done it on purpose.
"You're almost curing me," Li Tong replied, giving Tsunade a dead-eyed stare.
"That's amazing."
"But I still suggest you switch perfumes. This one's too strong. I can smell it from eight hundred meters away."
"Really?" Tsunade kept her right arm around Li Tong and lifted her left sleeve to sniff it.
"Hey! Could you stop holding me like this? We barely know each other!"
"You've got some nerve talking to me like that!" Tsunade raised an eyebrow and tightened her arm around Li Tong's neck, taunting him. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Look here!" Li Tong spoke rapidly and snapped his fingers.
For an instant, Tsunade's attention was drawn to the snap. She looked at Li Tong's raised right hand. He flipped it over, revealing a green pendant dangling from a black thread wrapped around his index finger.
The pendant swung back and forth like a pendulum.
"You're tired. You need to rest. Close your eyes. Close them comfortably and keep your mind clear. Don't think about anything except what I say. Your arms and legs feel heavy, don't they? Relax. Relax your whole body. You'll feel more relaxed, more comfortable, more comfortable..."
Tsunade seemed frozen in place, staring at the swaying pendant.
Li Tong's words were almost magical, guiding her consciousness and her mind.
The most powerful ability of a world-class magician: hypnosis!
Hypnosis was real, but because it had such a low success rate, few magicians ever performed it onstage. If they failed, they'd never get another chance to perform; their reputation and prestige would be ruined. Besides, audiences could easily assume that the hypnotized person was merely an "actor" helping the magician with his act.
Li Tong had never performed hypnosis in public in his previous life.
It wasn't that he had a low success rate. His hypnosis was highly effective, but it left him exhausted. He had to constantly watch the subject's eyes, control his own tone, and use his voice to find a hypnotic resonance. He could tell whether he'd found it by watching the other person's eyes. But everyone was different, and the tone that could hypnotize them varied too.
A single mispronounced syllable could make the hypnosis fail.
That meant there was no set formula. Hypnosis relied entirely on improvisation and making adjustments in the moment.
In his previous life, every time Li Tong successfully hypnotized someone in private, he ended up utterly exhausted and needed plenty of sleep to recover. It was an ability that drained the mind.
"...What do you see? You see the sea, a calm sea. A gentle breeze blows, and you enjoy the peaceful quiet. Warm sunlight wraps around you. Sleep, sleep..."
As the final syllable ended, Tsunade closed her eyes.
Li Tong carefully shifted his shoulder and crouched slightly, slipping free of Tsunade's arm around his neck. Little by little, he moved away from every point where their bodies touched.
Tsunade stood like a statue, eyes closed, the golden hair over her forehead still swaying gently in the breeze.
"Stupid woman!" Li Tong muttered, rubbing his temples, then looked at the pendant in his hand.
It wasn't his. He'd taken it from Tsunade just before deciding to hypnotize her.
"Is this the pendant that brings misfortune?" Li Tong suddenly remembered that in the original story, the pendant had belonged to the First, Hashirama Senju. Tsunade had given it first to her younger brother, Nawaki Senju, and later to her first love, Dan Katō. Both of them had died in the war.
But the pendant's last owner hadn't died, because that was Naruto Uzumaki, the protagonist of the original story—a child of destiny who seemed to cheat death at every turn!
"Phew. I hope she won't bother me again!" Li Tong sighed, hung the pendant on a branch beside the path, and hurried away.
Half an hour later.
Mikoto Uchiha and two Uchiha Clan jonin came down the path. From a distance, they spotted Tsunade standing motionless in a strange pose. Mikoto blinked in confusion. "Huh? That's Lady Tsunade. What's she doing?"
"Maybe it's some kind of unique training."
"No wonder Lady Tsunade is Lord Hokage's prized student. She's certainly diligent."
The two jonin offered their guesses one after another.
"Is that so? Then let's keep our voices down so we don't disturb Lady Tsunade." Mikoto lowered her voice.
All three walked quietly, passing around Tsunade.
Crack!
Mikoto accidentally snapped a thick dead branch, and the sharp sound made Tsunade, who had been standing motionless in the middle of the path, open her eyes at once.
"Ah! Lady Tsunade, I'm so sorry for disturbing you!" Mikoto immediately bowed in apology.
"How did I... How could I... Strange... Where am I...?" Tsunade was still dazed, her eyes unfocused. She looked at Mikoto, then glanced around.
When she saw the pendant hanging from the branch, memories flooded back into her mind like a tide.
"You! Damn it! What did you do to me? This can't be happening. I actually..." Tsunade's eyes widened. She snatched the pendant from the branch and vanished in a flash.
"Lady Tsunade..." Mikoto was bewildered. She had no idea what was wrong with Tsunade.
"Sis, finding that brat Li Tong is more important. Lady Tsunade won't give us any trouble," said the Uchiha jonin on her right.
******
The wooden house by the lake, bathroom.
Li Tong lounged in a tub full of warm water, contentedly bobbing his head and humming a strange tune. When he got carried away, he even stood up in the tub and spun around, wiggling his hips.
Li Tong had just completed a turn.
Whoosh!
Tsunade appeared in front of the tub like a phantom. She stared at Li Tong and asked in a chilly voice, "You! What did you do to me?"
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