Li Tong, About to Be Buried Alive

Li Tong was startled, leaning back abruptly in the wooden tub. Realizing something was amiss, he looked down at himself, then quickly sat back down, reached for a towel on the nearby chair, and covered his front.

"Brat, what did you do to me?" Tsunade repeated coldly.

"Look... could you step out first... let me put on some clothes..." Li Tong swallowed hard, speaking in broken sentences.

Tsunade's eyelids drooped as she glanced down into the water, a look of utter disdain crossing her face. She lunged forward, grabbed Li Tong by the shoulders, hauled him out of the water, and stared directly into his eyes.

"Brat! Answer my question—what did you do to me?!" Tsunade's voice was sharp and severe.

"Uh... well, about that..." Seeing Tsunade's agitation and fearing he might get beaten, Li Tong paused, then suddenly raised his hand. "Look here!"

Snap!

Li Tong snapped his fingers.

Tsunade didn't even blink. She squinted at Li Tong, her lips curling into a mocking smirk. "Brat, if you don't want me to snap your fingers off, you'd better put your hand down."

Li Tong put his hand down decisively.

It really didn't work!

Hypnotizing someone actually required very strict conditions. The most basic requirement was that the target be in a relaxed state—at ease and under no pressure—or, conversely, that they be highly tense. In the former, they are easily led into the state; in the latter, they are easily distracted by the sound of a snap and sensitive to noise, making hypnosis quite possible.

When Li Tong hypnotized Tsunade before, she had been in a relaxed, everyday state. She hadn't been on guard against him, which was why it had worked.

But now, she was on high alert!

"If you let me put on my clothes, perhaps we can talk this over properly," Li Tong said.

Tsunade's face darkened. After a moment of thought, she let go.

Splash!

Li Tong tumbled back into the tub.

"You have three minutes. I'll be waiting outside. Don't try anything funny!" Tsunade said, walking out of the bathroom.

"Crazy woman," Li Tong cursed under his breath. He let out a long sigh, dunked his head into the water to splash around a bit, and then hopped out of the tub to get dressed.

While dressing, Li Tong heard some strange noises coming from outside. It was clearly Tsunade, though he had no idea what she was doing.

Dressed and feeling refreshed, he walked out of the bathroom and looked toward the lawn, his expression turning bizarre.

Tsunade had actually dug a massive pit in the grass in front of the door—at least three meters in diameter and two meters deep. Standing at the edge of the pit, Tsunade glanced back at Li Tong as he emerged and tossed her shovel aside.

"What's the pit for?" Li Tong asked, walking to the edge and peering inside.

"Get down there!" Tsunade grabbed Li Tong's shoulder, threw him into the pit, and then kicked the pile of freshly dug dirt, showering Li Tong's face with soil.

Li Tong's body went rigid.

Great, the bath was for nothing!

He realized his germaphobia was truly being cured by Tsunade.

"Hey, what is the meaning of this?" Li Tong looked up, expressionless. While he was mentally cursing Tsunade's ancestors to the eighteenth generation, he also had a sinking premonition.

"Given that you're a brat full of nonsense and a total liar, I have to take some measures to ensure you tell the truth."

"What kind of measures?"

"Whatever I ask, you answer. If you dare lie to me, I'll bury you alive!"

"You can't be serious."

"I am very serious! You can refuse to answer any of my questions, but I guarantee I will bury you alive the moment you do!"

Li Tong believed her, because in his eyes, the relationship status Tsunade held toward him had changed. It hadn't shifted from neutral to hostile, but to furious! Clearly, if he provoked her any further, she was capable of anything.

Dead woman! I hope your whole family dies out, that you never find a man, that you get hit by a car, that your limbs rot and your face gets ruined... Li Tong unleashed a string of vicious curses in his heart, but on the surface, he forced a smile. "Ask away!"

"Good brat, that's more like it!" Tsunade squatted by the edge of the pit, her mouth twitching as she raised an eyebrow. "I'll ask you again: what did you do to me?"

"Hypnosis!" Li Tong snapped his fingers. "In layman's terms, it's a form of mental guidance. By using the continuous influence of sound, I guide a person's thoughts to reach a state of sleep or a half-dreaming, half-waking trance."

"Hypnosis?" Tsunade frowned. "Is this a ninjutsu?"

"Not at all. It doesn't involve the use of chakra. It's a form of mental guidance that even an ordinary person can practice."

Whoosh...

Tsunade swept a pile of dirt into the pit, covering Li Tong in dust.

"Hey! You dead woman, what are you doing? Are you sick in the head?" Li Tong had reached his limit; he jumped up in the pit and pointed at Tsunade, shouting.

"You're lying to me!" Tsunade said coldly. She stood up and stomped her foot, causing the shovel she had discarded to bounce back into her hand. She shouldered the shovel and glared at Li Tong. "I told you, if you lie to me, I'll bury you alive!"

"How did I lie to you? I told you the truth!"

"Pah! How can you hypnotize someone without using chakra? This is clearly an illusion technique!"

"You don't believe me when I tell the truth—what do you want from me?"

"Heh, I'll give you one more..."

Tsunade's voice cut off abruptly. She turned her head toward the entrance of the forest path, where Mikoto Uchiha was walking out with two Uchiha jonin. They saw Tsunade standing there with a shovel the moment they arrived.

"Oh? So Lady Tsunade came here," Mikoto Uchiha said, startled. Her expression shifted to one of panic, and she hurried forward, bowing. "I am truly sorry, Lady Tsunade. I didn't mean to disturb you just now."

"Hmm." Tsunade responded with a faint nasal hum.

Mikoto Uchiha let out a sigh of relief; Tsunade truly had no intention of pursuing the matter.

Two Uchiha Jonin also hurried to stand behind Mikoto Uchiha.

Li Tong, inside the large pit, spotted Mikoto and the others, his eyes lighting up before he began to shout excitedly: "Help! Help! This woman is crazy! Help! She's trying to bury me alive!"

Due to the angle, Mikoto Uchiha did not notice Li Tong at first, and it was only when he started shouting that she and the two Jonin looked down toward the pit.

"Hey! Save me! This woman is crazy!" Li Tong waved his hands frantically at Mikoto Uchiha.

Mikoto Uchiha's expression shifted; she looked at Li Tong, then at the pit, and finally at Tsunade, who stood expressionless while shouldering a shovel. Swallowing hard, she asked cautiously, "Lady Tsunade, what are you..."

"Burying him alive," Tsunade tilted her head, saying it with complete indifference.

"Oh, oh! Then we won't disturb you, Lady Tsunade. Lady Tsunade, we didn't see anything, please continue!" Mikoto Uchiha retreated several steps, waving her hands nervously before turning and running away quickly.

The two Jonin were just like her, their faces covered in cold sweat as they ran off together.

"Hey! Come back! Aren't you the Police Force? Hey! Murder! Come back!" Li Tong jumped up and down in the pit, waving his arms and shouting.

"It seems the rumors about that brat acting like a hooligan toward Kushina Uzumaki are true!"

"Lady Tsunade is actually burying him alive herself."

"We didn't see anything, we don't know anything."

The three of them exchanged quick, hushed whispers, not stopping for a second, and soon they had vanished from sight.

Li Tong was impressed!

Truly impressed!

Even the Police Force didn't dare to cross Tsunade; was she some kind of chaotic demon?

It certainly seemed so...

Moreover, Li Tong already had a sinking feeling that the news of him being buried alive by Tsunade would likely spread throughout all of Konoha very soon.

"Scream all you want; no one is coming to save you even if you scream until your throat tears," Tsunade looked down into the pit and delivered a classic villain line.

Li Tong gave up, looked up at Tsunade, and spread his hands with a listless sigh: "But what I said is true, why do you have to bury me alive?"

"I'll build you a tombstone," Tsunade said coldly, raising the shovel in her hand, ready to dump the dirt.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait! I can prove it!" Li Tong shouted in a hurry. "I can prove that I can hypnotize people without using chakra!"

"Oh?" Tsunade paused, a look of disbelief crossing her face. "Are you trying to stall for time? Hoping someone else will come to save you?"

"Of course not, I can prove it to you right now!" Li Tong's gaze was earnest. "Since you don't believe me, do you dare to be the target of my hypnosis?" Li Tong raised an eyebrow, challenging her.

"What is there to be afraid of?" Tsunade dropped the shovel, jumped directly into the pit, and grabbed Li Tong's left wrist, her thumb pressing firmly against his pulse point. A numbing sensation instantly surged through Li Tong's entire body.

His chakra was sealed!

Li Tong felt that he was no longer able to convert his chakra.

"Come on! Hypnotize me! Let me see," Tsunade also raised an eyebrow, challenging him back.

You are dead meat! Li Tong gritted his teeth and muttered to himself.