Chapter 164: The Princess's Punishment
The air on the desolate, sun-baked plain was heavy and still. Tsunade's final, defiant refusal—a furious "I will never return!"—seemed to still be echoing in her own ears.
Uchiha Akira's cold, impassive smile was the only warning she received. "I gave you a choice, Princess."
The moment his words fell, his form blurred. It wasn't a Shunshin. He didn't flicker. He simply… vanished from where he stood.
"This is bad!"
Tsunade's mind shrieked. Her battle instincts, honed over decades of war and countless life-or-death struggles, screamed a deafening, primal warning.
Danger! Behind you! Now!
She tried to spin, to bring her chakra-infused fists up in a guard that could shatter mountains.
But it was already too late.
A chilling presence materialized at her back. A hand, not striking, but gently pressed against the bare skin of her neck, just below her blonde ponytail.
The touch was deceptively light, yet it locked her in place. A precise, invasive jolt of his chakra, colder than ice, shot down her spine, instantly paralyzing her motor functions. Her limbs locked, her muscles refusing to obey.
"I told you," Uchiha Akira's voice whispered directly in her ear. His breath was cool against her skin, a demon's murmur in the suffocating silence.
"Those who don't listen must be punished. And you, Tsunade-hime, have been very, very disobedient."
The next second, Tsunade felt her knees buckle. Her legendary, monstrous strength, the power of a Sannin, vanished as if it had never existed.
Her entire body fell forward, completely uncontrollable.
Akira's other hand smoothly pressed onto the small of her back, not catching her, but guiding her fall.
There was no brutality in the motion, no violent slam. It was a slow, methodical, and infinitely more humiliating press. He forced her down, down, until her cheek was flat against the cold, cracked earth of the plain.
She was forced onto all fours, then pressed flat, her arms splayed uselessly.
The posture… it was one of utter helplessness. Total subjugation.
Unprecedented humiliation.
"You…!" she choked, the dry dust filling her nostrils. "What do you think you're doing?! Let me go!"
Tsunade's voice trembled violently, a cocktail of pure, unadulterated shame and a rapidly gathering, explosive rage.
Uchiha Akira did not answer her. He simply kept one hand firmly planted on her back, the pressure unyielding. He held her there as easily as one might pin a butterfly to a board.
He raised his other hand.
Slap!
A sharp, crisp sound echoed across the utterly silent plain. It was shocking in its clarity.
Time seemed to freeze. The world stopped.
Tsunade lay on the ground, completely, totally stunned.
Her mind, one of the most brilliant medical and strategic minds in the world, one that could process complex medical anomalies in seconds, went utterly blank.
[What...]
[What... just... happened?]
Her brain struggled to process the input. The sound… the sharp, stinging feeling...
[He... he hit me?]
Her thoughts were slow, disconnected, and wrapped in disbelief.
[On... on that place?]
An indescribable, sharp, stinging sensation bloomed from her backside, instantly spreading like a hot fire throughout her body, a feeling so alien she couldn't immediately categorize it.
It was followed a millisecond later by an overwhelming, crushing wave of shame. It was a humiliation so profound, so personal and childish, it completely drowned her rationality.
"Ahhhhhh!"
A raw scream, mixed with animalistic anger and pure, horrified shame, tore from her throat.
"UCHIHA AKIRA! YOU BASTARD! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! I'LL TEAR YOU APART!"
She struggled like a woman possessed, thrashing against the ground, trying to get up, trying to bring her power to bear.
But the hand pressing on her back was like an unshakeable mountain. His chakra was a nullifying force, suppressing her own, keeping her paralyzed and weak. She couldn't move an inch.
She was completely, utterly helpless. Her monstrous strength was useless. She was no different from any ordinary, powerless woman.
"LET GO OF ME! YOU BASTARD! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
"I AM SENJU TSUNADE! THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF THE FIRST HOKAGE! I AM ONE OF THE LEGENDARY SANNIN!"
[Inorin's Note: The First Hokage is Senju Hashirama (千手柱間), revered as the "God of Shinobi". Tsunade is his first and only granddaughter, making her shinobi royalty.]
"HOW DARE YOU TREAT ME LIKE THIS! I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS! I'LL GRIND YOUR BONES TO DUST!"
Tsunade roared hysterically, her voice cracking with fury.
However, Uchiha Akira was completely unmoved by her threats or her lineage. He looked down at her struggling form with cold, clinical indifference.
"So noisy."
Slap!
Another crisp sound. This one was heavier. Louder. It stung with a sharp intensity that eclipsed the first.
Tsunade's roar stopped abruptly, cut off by a sharp, strangled intake of breath.
Her body trembled violently, a full-body shudder. Her eyes, which had been wide with rage, widened even further in sheer, stunned disbelief.
Tears.
Tears of pure, hot humiliation, no longer able to be held back, streamed from the corners of her eyes, tracing paths in the dust on her cheeks.
[No... No... This can't be happening...]
Since childhood, she had been a princess. Konoha's Princess. Pampered, adored, and respected by her two grandfathers, Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama—the two strongest and most feared shinobi of their era.
As an adult, she had earned her own respect. She became one of the "Legendary Sannin" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin), her name famous throughout the Ninja World, thanks to her own unparalleled strength and medical skill.
No matter where she went, she was a respected, even feared, presence.
Men had desired her, feared her, respected her. But none had ever dared... none...
Even with Dan… with Kato Dan, the man she had loved with all her heart, their most intimate gesture was merely holding hands, a chaste, hopeful kiss...
But now… now!
She was being held down by a man, a boy younger than her, on the cold, dirty ground, and punished in such a degrading, archaic, and humiliating way!
"I… I'll… kill… you…" Tsunade's teeth gnashed together so hard her jaw ached.
She used every last ounce of her strength, every trick she knew, to try and resist, to break the chakra seal he had on her.
But everything was futile.
Uchiha Akira looked down at the woman beneath him, who, even while weeping in humiliation, still refused to yield. Her defiance was written in every tense line of her body.
His brow furrowed slightly.
Her Senju and Uzumaki lineage made her impossibly stubborn. He had expected as much.
It seemed the punishment wasn't strong enough. The lesson wasn't sinking in.
Slap!
"I'll kill you!" she sobbed, the words muffled by the earth.
Slap!
"Stop... stop it... please...!"
Slap!
Crisp, rhythmic, continuous sounds echoed across the empty plain. They were the only sounds, a horrifying, steady percussion in the vast, uncaring silence.
Each time the sound landed, Tsunade's entire body would uncontrollably flinch and tremble.
The stinging pain was one thing, but the shame... the shame was a tidal wave drowning her, pulling her under.
In the end, she had given up struggling. Her strength was gone. She stopped cursing. Her throat was raw and ached.
She just buried her face deeply in her arms, pressing her forehead into the dirt, her body trembling violently from a storm of extreme shame, helpless anger, and an encroaching, cold despair.
Her consciousness had begun to blur. The world narrowed to the cold dirt, the unmovable hand on her back, and the rhythmic, nightmarish slap... slap... slap...
Who knows how long passed. It could have been minutes. It felt like an eternity.
The nightmare-like sounds finally stopped.
The sudden, heavy silence was almost as deafening.
Tsunade remained balled up, flinching, her muscles tight as she expected another blow.
Uchiha Akira released the hand pressing on her back. The suppressing chakra lifted, leaving her feeling weak and hollow.
He slowly stood up, brushing a speck of dust from his dark sleeve, his expression as calm and composed as if he had just been tending a garden.
He looked down at the motionless, trembling figure lying on the ground. She looked like a broken doll, her blonde hair matted with dirt and tears.
"Now," his calm voice cut through the silence, "are you willing to listen?"
Tsunade did not answer. She didn't move.
She lay there, her face hidden, completely unresponsive. Only the violent, uncontrollable trembling of her shoulders showed she was even conscious.
Uchiha Akira raised an eyebrow. "Hoh. Still quite stubborn."
He walked around to her front and squatted down. He reached out a hand.
Tsunade flinched violently, a small, terrified whimper escaping her, but he wasn't striking her.
He pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger and forced her face up, lifting it from the dirt.
A tear-streaked, dirt-smeared face, filled with a galaxy of shattered pride, profound humiliation, and pure, undiluted hatred, appeared before him.
Tsunade's eyes, however, were disturbingly vacant. They stared through him, unfocused.
"I… I will… definitely… kill you…"
She used her absolute last ounce of strength and willpower to squeeze out those words, her voice a broken, raspy whisper.
"Oh, really?"
A cold, almost playful smile appeared on Akira's face. This last, dying spark of defiance... it was almost amusing.
"It seems you still haven't recognized your situation."
He released her chin, letting her head drop. He stood up slowly, looming over her.
"Since one punishment isn't enough," he said, his voice casual, "I don't mind doing it again. We have all day. I will continue the lesson until you learn it, however long it takes."
He began to raise his hand, not to strike, but as if preparing to grab her and press her back down again.
That simple, threatening motion shattered her.
Upon hearing those words—"doing it again"—the emptiness in Tsunade's eyes vanished.
A new emotion flooded in, so powerful it eclipsed even the hatred and the shame.
It was fear. Pure, primal, terror.
She was afraid. She was truly afraid.
Her mind, her body, her very soul screamed. She could not, would not, endure this bone-deep, spirit-breaking humiliation a second time.
"No…"
Her voice was a tearful, desperate gasp. "Don't… please… don't…"
"Oh?" Akira paused, his hand in mid-air. He looked down at her with a questioning tilt of his head.
"So, you're willing to listen now?"
Tsunade bit her lip so hard she tasted the metallic tang of blood. Tears of humiliation welled up again, blurring her vision of his dark boots.
She didn't want to give in. Her pride, her very identity, was screaming.
[I am a Sannin! The granddaughter of the First! How can I yield to this... this scoundrel! This Uchiha tyrant! How?!]
But… just thinking about that nightmare-like sound, that stinging, rhythmic experience... her body involuntarily began to tremble uncontrollably. Her resolve, her stubbornness, crumbled into dust.
Uchiha Akira looked at her hesitant, tear-streaked expression and lost his patience.
"It seems you still need a deeper lesson. Stubbornness must be beaten out completely."
As he spoke, he took a deliberate step forward and reached out his hand again, moving to grab her shoulder.
Tsunade's body stiffened abruptly. A raw, terrified sound ripped from her throat.
"I'LL LISTEN! I'LL LISTEN!"
She finally broke, screaming it out, the words tumbling from her in a desperate, sobbing, incoherent rush.
"I'll listen to everything you say! I'll go back! I'll do what you want! Please… please… just don't… not again… don't anymore!"
Her dignity, her Sannin pride, her Senju lineage—it was all completely abandoned at this moment, shattered in the face of absolute terror and complete humiliation.
Uchiha Akira's hand stopped in mid-air.
He looked at the woman before him, who had finally, finally broken down and completely submitted, and he nodded with satisfaction.
[It would have been better if she had just done this earlier,] he thought, a flicker of annoyance passing through him. [She had to force me to use such unpleasant, hands-on methods.]
"Very good."
Akira withdrew his hand, his voice returning to its usual icy calm.
"Remember what you said today. Remember this feeling."
"You will come back to Konoha with me. You will serve the Village. You will use your medical skills as I command."
"No more tricks. No more running. No more resistance."
His voice was flat, stating the terms of her surrender, not negotiating. "Can you do that?"
Tsunade lay on the ground, her body still wracked with trembling sobs.
She didn't speak. She just buried her head deeper in humiliation, her hands clenched into fists in the dirt.
"Hm?"
Akira's tone rose slightly, just a fraction, but it was laced with a chilling hint of danger. The threat was unspoken but perfectly, agonizingly clear.
Tsunade's body trembled violently.
"...Yes."
A barely audible, choked sound escaped her lips.
"Louder. I didn't hear you."
Tsunade abruptly lifted her head. Her beautiful, hazel eyes were now burning with a blazing, impotent anger, a bonfire of hatred in a sea of tears.
She stared intently at Uchiha Akira, her gaze a physical force, wishing she could tear him to pieces, burn him to ash, erase him from existence.
Akira met her gaze, his own narrowing slightly. The playful coldness was gone, replaced by a simple, deadly warning.
Tsunade saw it. She instantly panicked.
The fire in her eyes was doused by a fresh wave of fear. She had no doubt—zero doubt—that if she dared to say "no," or even defy him with her silence, the nightmare would replay.
And this time, he would make it worse.
"I… CAN… DO… IT!"
She practically gnashed her teeth, shouting each word distinctly, the syllables torn from her raw throat.
"Very good."
Only then did Uchiha Akira nod, his satisfied expression returning.
"That's a good girl."
He reached out his hand and gently patted Tsunade's head, ruffling her dirt-caked blonde hair, as if comforting a disobedient pet that had finally learned its lesson.
Tsunade's entire body instantly stiffened.
[He... he... patted... me...]
She felt like she was going to explode. The rage was so total, so absolute, it almost made her pass out.
[This bastard! This...!]
[What did he take her for?! A dog? A child?!]
She wanted to dodge. She wanted to bite his hand off.
But her body wouldn't obey her. She was frozen. She didn't dare to move. The lesson had been too well-learned.
Uchiha Akira savored her expression—that mask of extreme, burning humiliation, where she so clearly dared not speak her anger—and he felt a surge of cold satisfaction.
The Legendary Sannin. The Princess of the Senju.
Broken.
Now, she was ready to be brought home.
He stood up, turning his back to her as if she were no longer a concern.
"Get up. We're leaving."
[Inorin Note:
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