Taking Revenge on Tsunade

Since the pit was so large, it didn't feel cramped even with two people inside.

Tsunade's grip was strong. Li Tong, whose left hand she was holding, twitched the corner of his mouth, then raised his right hand and gave it a shake. A green pendant attached to a black string dangled from his palm!

That pendant again!

"Hm?" Tsunade frowned and quickly patted herself down.

It was gone! So it really was hers.

"When did you take it?"

"Just now, when you jumped down."

"You tricked me!"

"Hey! How did I trick you this time? You know I'm good at the Gambling Technique. My hands are fast!"

Tsunade kept a stern face and glanced at the pendant again before saying, "We'll deal with that later. First, about the hypnosis. You can't use chakra now. Come on! Hypnotize me. If you can't do it, then, hmph!"

A glint flashed in Li Tong's eyes. He waved his hand. "Look here!"

Tsunade obediently looked at the swaying pendant.

Time passed second by second. Tsunade stared at it, showing no sign of being hypnotized.

Li Tong watched her eyes, then suddenly spoke. "Hey! You have to cooperate with me, right? How am I supposed to hypnotize you if you don't cooperate? Even Sharingan Genjutsu only works if you look into the Sharingan, right? You weren't acting like this just now."

"Fine, how do you want me to cooperate?" Tsunade said, the corners of her mouth twisting. "But if you still can't hypnotize me, you're dead!"

She didn't believe Li Tong at all. She just wanted to expose his lie.

"Good! Do as I say. I need you to relax. You're too wary. Last time I hypnotized you, you weren't like this. Relax your mind. Take a deep breath. That's right, just like that. Breathe deeply. Relax your brow; don't frown. Let your shoulders loosen. That's right, very good. I'm watching your eyes. Don't get impatient. Stay alert, but relax. Don't go limp. That's it, good... Look here!"

Snap!

Li Tong snapped his fingers and opened his hand. The pendant dangled and swayed!

"Watch the pendant. Watch it swinging."

Li Tong fell silent. Hypnotizing her this time was completely different from the last, and much more difficult, so he needed more time to lay the groundwork. Tsunade still wasn't relaxed enough.

Tsunade kept her eyes on the pendant, her pupils following its slight movements.

Li Tong stared into Tsunade's eyes, watching for any change in her gaze.

Tsunade was cooperating with Li Tong—completely. She didn't believe she could be hypnotized, so she had no guard up. She had no idea what the consequences of cooperating like this would be.

Time passed.

Li Tong suddenly moved closer, slowly rising onto his toes until he was beside Tsunade's ear. In a low, magnetic voice, he began to speak.

"Now you're going to find that you need to relax... All you have to do is listen to me, and you'll relax... Listen to my voice. You feel very relaxed... My voice will gradually make you more and more relaxed and peaceful... Just listen carefully to my soothing voice... You'll feel very happy... More and more relaxed and calm... Peaceful... The wind... The waves... You're lying in a boat, drifting across a lake... You're lying on a soft cushion... The sky is blue, with white clouds drifting by now and then... You can see a few scattered trees along the lakeshore... Ripples occasionally form by the water's edge... You can feel the boat rocking gently... You're getting sleepy... Your eyes are closing..."

The pit's surroundings were perfect for hypnosis. It was dim inside, with most of the sunlight blocked out. The surrounding earth didn't move, so there were far fewer distractions.

The middle finger of Li Tong's right hand trembled slightly, ensuring the pendant would keep swaying.

Li Tong could control the pendant's swinging rhythm, which was important too.

Tsunade's eyelids were already growing heavy.

"You're tired. You need to rest. Close your eyes! Let them close comfortably and keep your mind quiet. Don't think about anything except what I'm saying. Your arms and legs feel heavy. Relax. Relax your whole body. You'll feel even more relaxed, even more comfortable, more comfortable..."

The swaying pendant gradually came to a stop, and at the same time, Tsunade closed her eyes.

The hypnosis had worked!

With Tsunade cooperating so completely, Li Tong might as well have bashed his head against a wall if he'd failed.

But it wasn't over yet!

The slightest sharp sound could wake Tsunade now. Li Tong could wake her up; he had already proven his point. But he hadn't gotten his revenge yet!

Last time, Li Tong had only hypnotized Tsunade into a light sleep. In that state, it was easy to wake someone, and they would dream. Most people could recall their dreams as soon as they woke up, and some even realized they were dreaming while still in the dream.

This time, Li Tong planned to hypnotize Tsunade into a deep sleep—the deepest kind! He wanted to bring her to a state like someone who had passed out drunk.

In this state, people lost all awareness of the outside world. They didn't dream and were hard to wake. Even mild pain wouldn't rouse them.

It was worth mentioning that some ordinary people could naturally enter this deepest level of sleep, and some of them suffered from "somnambulism," commonly known as sleepwalking!

Many people thought sleepwalking happened during light sleep. That wasn't true; it happened during deep sleep. Because people lost consciousness completely in deep sleep, they couldn't remember what they had done while sleepwalking.

Some medications used to treat sleepwalking worked by extending the patient's time in light sleep and reducing the time spent in deep sleep.

"Woom, woom... wula-la-di..." Li Tong began humming a wordless lullaby beside Tsunade's ear.

He had composed the tune himself.

It was exceptionally effective at quickly drawing someone from light sleep into deep sleep, something Li Tong had tested many times in his previous life.

Time flew by.

Twenty minutes had passed.

Only then did Tsunade begin to show signs of entering deep sleep. With an ordinary person, it would have taken only three minutes. Tsunade's subconscious vigilance was simply too strong. Shinobi all had this kind of subconscious alertness. Unless they were hypnotized or under a genjutsu, they rarely entered deep sleep, because light sleep let them wake immediately at the slightest sound while out on a mission.

At last.

Tsunade's body seemed to lose its support and went limp. The hand gripping Li Tong's wrist fell away too.

Li Tong caught Tsunade and shifted her into his arms, cradling her horizontally. Even such a large movement didn't wake her.

"Damn you! You buried me alive, huh? Buried me alive, you damn woman..."

Li Tong lowered Tsunade again, scooped up some dirt, and first smeared it over her face. Then he opened her clothes and stuffed a handful of mud inside. He pulled open her sleeves and filled them too. Finally, he simply scattered dirt over her, covering her from head to toe in dark brown earth.

Tsunade lay there as if dead, still not waking up.

"Yeah, yeah, your hair! So what if it's blonde?" Li Tong spread out Tsunade's hair and smeared mud all over it too.

He had a thing about cleanliness, but he didn't care anymore—not when he was getting revenge on Tsunade!

Tsunade had been turned into a mud person.

"Hmph!" Li Tong jumped up to the edge of the pit and looked down at Tsunade. He put his hands on his hips and snorted, then sighed.

Sigh! This was as far as he could go!

Li Tong didn't dare actually hurt Tsunade. If he did, his only option would be to defect from Konoha and spend the rest of his life being hunted across the world by Konoha Anbu.

"Sleep forever!" Li Tong muttered viciously. He waved his hand, turned around, and headed for the bathroom.

Another bath!

Li Tong had stocked up on plenty of clean clothes beforehand, so he had no shortage of fresh ones to change into.

Half an hour later, Li Tong emerged from the bathroom, clean and refreshed. He looked down into the pit. The mud-covered Tsunade was still asleep, breathing evenly.

Li Tong kicked some more dirt down at her, then hurried back to the wooden house to disguise himself and pack his things!

He was going to make a run for it!

Of course, he wasn't defecting. He was going to take a mission. Hiruzen Sarutobi had already agreed to let him accept missions. Once he took one, he could leave Konoha with a legitimate reason. He just needed to keep out of Tsunade's way for a while.