Chapter 163: The Furious Slug Queen and Akira's Perfect Evasion
Lady Tsunade could clearly feel the intense, vibrating power emanating from Uchiha Akira's arm. It wasn't just raw chakra; it was a high-frequency current, buzzing like a million angry insects.
It was the signature of advanced Lightning Release.
The raw confidence in her heart, built upon a lifetime of unrivaled physical dominance, wavered slightly. This man wasn't just planning to meet her strength; he was planning to counter it.
"Can we start?" Uchiha Akira's calm voice awakened her from her momentary shock.
Tsunade took a deep, steadying breath. She forcefully suppressed the distracting thoughts, channeling all her focus into her right arm.
It doesn't matter what ninjutsu it is! she told herself, her gaze hardening.
Before my Chakra-Enhanced Strength, before pure, overwhelming power, all tricks are illusions!
[Inorin's Note: Chakra-Enhanced Strength (Kairiki) is Tsunade's signature fighting style, involving the precise release of chakra upon impact, granting her inhuman strength.]
I absolutely will not lose! Not to him!
Tsunade's eyes, the color of honey and steel, once again became resolute. She glared at Akira and gave a sharp nod to the Sannin standing between them.
Jiraiya, looking profoundly uncomfortable to be refereeing this clash of monsters, raised a hand. "Alright, you both know the bet. On my count... Start!"
With Jiraiya's command, both hands exerted their full force in the same instant.
Bang!!!
It wasn't a simple sound. It was a sonic boom.
A shockwave of compressed air exploded from the point where their palms met. The air in the small tavern instantly crackled, emitting a dull, chest-thumping THUD.
Jiraiya and Shizune were thrown back a step by the sheer kinetic force. Every glass and bottle in the bar rattled violently, and several shattered on their shelves.
The small, sturdy stone table beneath their arms cracked instantly... but it did not break.
The stone brick floor beneath their feet, however, wasn't so lucky. It spiderwebbed, cracks spreading outwards from the two competitors like a crater.
Yet, the two people at the center of the storm remained utterly motionless.
Their arms were still locked in the exact middle position.
It was... an even match.
"How... how is this possible?!"
For the first time in her adult life, a look of genuine, unfiltered horror appeared on Tsunade's face.
He... he blocked it?!
He's holding my full, unbridled strength... and his arm isn't even shaking!
He actually blocked my Kairiki head-on! How?!
Tsunade's pride—the one absolute, undeniable fact of her life—was her strength. It had gained not a single, millimeter-wide advantage.
She refused to believe it. This was an insult to her very existence.
"Fall... FALL DOWN FOR ME!" Tsunade roared, her voice guttural.
She released another surge of chakra, enough to level a building, pouring it all into her arm. The stone table beneath their hands began to groan and buckle.
However, Uchiha Akira's arm remained as immovable as a mountain. The high-pitched thrum of his lightning chakra only grew louder.
He met her furious, desperate gaze with one of cold, academic curiosity.
"Is that all the strength you have?" Uchiha Akira looked at her and, in a voice dripping with disappointment, shook his head.
"Too weak."
"If this is the full extent of your power, Tsunade-hime," he said, his voice dropping, "then this game should end."
As his voice fell, the lightning chakra enveloping his arm suddenly surged. It didn't just get stronger; it condensed, becoming a blinding white-blue sheath of pure energy.
A force several times more terrifying than her own—not just in power, but in penetration—erupted from his palm. It was the vibrating, cellular-level assault of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
"Ugh!"
Tsunade's face, which had been red with effort, instantly turned pale.
An irresistible, immense force didn't just push her arm; it neutralized it. The lightning ran up her muscles, disrupting her own chakra control, making her arm go numb.
Tsunade's arm was uncontrollably, and now effortlessly, pushed little by little to the other side.
"No... impossible!" she gritted, her teeth clamped shut. She tried to muster her last bit of strength, to fight back against the electrical paralysis.
But it was too late.
Crack!
A crisp, finalizing sound echoed through the stunned silence.
CRASH!
Tsunade's hand didn't just hit the stone platform. It was slammed through it. The stone table exploded into a dozen pieces, her fist smashing into the now-cratered floor beneath.
She lost.
She... actually lost. In a contest of pure strength.
"Lost... she lost?!"
"Lady Tsunade... actually lost... in an arm wrestle?!"
"Am I dreaming? Did I drink too much?"
Shizune, who had been watching with her hands over her mouth, looked faint. Her eyes were wide with pure, unadulterated disbelief.
Jiraiya, on the other hand, let out a long, weary sigh and shook his head. He had an "I knew this would happen" expression on his face. He'd seen Akira's power firsthand. This was, unfortunately, the only logical outcome.
Uchiha Akira slowly stood up, retracting his hand. The blinding lightning chakra receded back into his body as if it had never been there.
He looked down at the dispirited Tsunade, who was still kneeling, her arm buried in the wreckage of the table. She seemed to have been drained of all her strength, both physical and spiritual.
"I won," Akira stated faintly.
"According to our agreement, you will stop running. You will come back to Konoha with me."
Tsunade slowly, mechanically, pulled her hand from the rubble. She raised her head, her bangs shadowing her face, and looked at Akira with a storm of complex, unreadable emotions.
She opened her mouth, perhaps to curse, perhaps to argue.
But in the end, no sound came out. She just lowered her head again, staring at her trembling hand, not saying a word.
Uchiha Akira looked at her defeated posture, his brows furrowing slightly. "What? Are you exhausted? Or are you, the granddaughter of the First Hokage, trying to renege on a bet?"
The accusation struck a nerve. Tsunade's body trembled suddenly.
She abruptly shot to her feet, a flash of her old, fierce annoyance returning to her eyes.
"Who... Who's trying to renege?!" she snapped, her voice cracking with humiliation.
"I... I just... I just need a little time to pack my things! I can't just leave!" she said stubbornly, defensively.
"Good." Uchiha Akira nodded, his expression unchanging.
"I'll give you ten minutes."
After speaking, he turned his back on her, a sign of both supreme confidence and dismissal. He walked towards the now-broken doorway of the tavern to wait.
Tsunade stared at his back, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. She gritted her teeth, and a cunning, desperate glint flashed in her eyes.
She shot a sharp, frantic wink at Shizune.
Shizune's eyes widened. Oh no. Lady Tsunade, you can't be...
You want me to go back with you? Dream on, you arrogant Uchiha bastard! Tsunade screamed internally.
Let's go, Shizune! Run!
She wasn't going to just run. She was going to flee the continent if she had to.
A gentleman's revenge is not too late, even after ten years. Or, in her case, a lady's.
When she developed even stronger power, when she figured out a way to counter that... that jutsu... she would come back and settle this score!
She grabbed Shizune's arm and bolted, not for her room, but for the street. She didn't just run a few steps; she burst out of the tavern, ready to disappear into the panicked crowds of Tanzakugai Town.
However, she had only just cleared the threshold.
Uchiha Akira's voice, calm and cold, sounded not from in front of her, but directly in her ear, as if he were whispering to her.
"I think I said... do not renege."
As soon as his voice fell, the world dissolved.
Tsunade only felt a sickening, twisting lurch, not of speed, but of placement. The noisy, panicked street of the Tanzaku Quarters vanished in an instant.
[Inorin's Note: Tanzaku Quarters (Tanzakugai) is the town famous for its gambling dens and entertainment, where Jiraiya and Naruto first found Tsunade.]
In its place was a vast, boundless, barren plain. The sky was a dull gray, and a cold wind kicked up dust.
Here, there was only silence. Only her. And Uchiha Akira, standing ten meters away as if he had been there all along. Shizune was gone.
Flying Thunder God? A huge wave of shock and panic surged in Tsunade's heart.
[Inorin's Note: The Flying Thunder God Technique (Hiraishin no Jutsu) is a space-time ninjutsu created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and famously used by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.]
No! she realized immediately. This is different!
She had seen Minato use the Flying Thunder God Technique. It was instantaneous, yes, but it required a jutsu coordinate, a pre-placed seal. Akira had placed nothing. This was something else. This was Rinnegan power.
She forcefully suppressed the rising fear in her heart, falling into a defensive stance. She vigilantly stared at Akira. "What exactly do you want to do? Where did you bring me? Where is Shizune?!"
Uchiha Akira looked at Tsunade, his face devoid of emotion. "Shizune is safe. She is with Jiraiya, who is likely paying for the damage you both caused."
"I said I hoped you were a person of your word, Tsunade. But you disappointed me."
"Since you're not obedient, since you still want to run like a child..." His purple eyes seemed to glow in the dim light. "I can only give you a small punishment. A lesson in obedience."
Tsunade was furious. Punishment?
What did this bastard take her for? A Genin? A child who could be disciplined at will?
"You bastard! Don't get so cocky!" Tsunade roared, no longer able to suppress the torrent of humiliation and rage in her heart.
Boom!
Terrifying, pale-blue chakra erupted from Tsunade's body like a volcano, visible to the naked eye. The ground beneath her feet shattered with a bang from the sheer pressure.
Monstrous Strength!
She didn't just activate it; she channeled all of her rage, all of her chakra, condensing it into her right fist.
She wanted to let this Uchiha brat, who didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, know the consequences of enraging her!
"Go to hell!"
In a flash, Tsunade's figure turned into a green-and-blue afterimage. She crossed the ten-meter distance in less than a second, appearing instantly in front of Akira.
Her fist, containing the terrifying power to shatter a mountain, whistled through the air, breaking the sound barrier as it smashed fiercely towards Uchiha Akira's face!
This was a blow that could kill a Kage.
However.
Tsunade's fist, as expected, whistled... harmlessly past Uchiha Akira's cheek.
He hadn't leaped back. He hadn't ducked. He had, at the last possible nanosecond, simply... tilted his head. The shockwave from her punch carved a fifty-meter trench in the barren earth behind him.
"He... he dodged it?!"
Tsunade's eyes widened in disbelief.
How is that possible! At such a close distance, with my speed, how could he possibly dodge it?!
She refused to believe it!
Missing with one strike, Tsunade spun on her heel, using the momentum to drive her left fist in a brutal hook toward Akira's ribs. It was both fast and fierce!
But, it still missed.
Akira didn't even move his feet. He simply leaned his torso back, the punch grazing his robes by less than a centimeter.
"You won't hit me. Don't waste your strength," Uchiha Akira's voice came from in front of her. He hadn't moved.
"When... when did he... He didn't even move?!"
She suddenly turned, lashing out with a spinning kick powerful enough to shatter a Susanoo's ribs. The gust of wind it created was like a scythe, carving a shallow furrow in the ground.
Akira had ducked beneath it, his expression still one of complete, insulting calm.
"Is this all you've got?"
He straightened up. "Your strength is indeed good, but unfortunately... what's the use if you can't hit anyone?"
Uchiha Akira's voice, still devoid of any real exertion, sounded again, this time from her left. He had taken a single, casual step.
Undisguised mockery!
"You... You bastard!" Tsunade was completely, utterly enraged.
Her fists rained down like a storm, wildly striking at him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A right cross! A left uppercut! A spinning backfist! An axe kick!
Each punch, each kick, contained incredibly violent, world-breaking power. She was turning the entire plain upside down. The earth beneath her fists continuously cracked, collapsed, and was thrown into the air, creating new craters with every single blow.
However, no matter how violent, how fast, or how dense Tsunade's attacks became...
She still couldn't even touch Uchiha Akira.
His movements were economical. Precise. Infuriating. He flowed around her attacks like water, never moving more than an inch or two, his robes barely even fluttering.
With a mere thought, his eyes could perceive and his body could react to the Second Hokage's Flying Thunder God Slash. How could Tsunade's linear, brute-force attacks possibly hit him?
"Why... Why can't I hit him?!"
Tsunade's heart, which had been burning with rage, began to sink little by little into a cold pit of despair.
Her physical strength, while immense, was being rapidly depleted. Her chakra was burning out.
Her breathing, once controlled, also became heavier and heavier.
"Huff... huff... hah..."
Finally, her barrage slowed. Her arms felt like lead. Tsunade stopped her attack, bending over and planting her hands on her knees, gasping for air.
"Tired of fighting?"
Uchiha Akira stood two meters away from her, not a single hair out of place, not a single drop of sweat on his brow. He looked as if he had been watching, not participating.
"Since you're done fighting."
He took a slow, deliberate step forward.
"Then... it's my turn."
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