"...It's okay... I'll hold on until others find us..."
Not even deigning to glance at Hii Kōri, Tsunade looked toward Katō Dan, comforting him in a slightly trembling voice.
"Mm-hmm, love is the best medicine for everything. I don't dislike that romantic notion, but isn't there also the saying 'every medicine has side effects'?"
Though unsurprised by Tsunade's response, Hii Kōri's tone carried a hint of amusement.
"The line between love and curse is often quite blurry..."
He'd seen similar examples—he'd even taught Okkotsu Yūta how to use a longsword.
So-called comfort often fails to achieve what the speaker intends. Ultimately, without understanding the other's position, 'comfort' becomes mere self-satisfaction.
For Tsunade now, she was probably thinking only of 'bringing Katō Dan back and healing him.' But from Katō Dan's perspective—knowing more of the situation—he could completely conclude that hope was unrealistic. Even if support arrived, Tsunade might be rescued, but he absolutely wouldn't survive.
Katō Dan certainly understood Tsunade was being tough and determined to give him confidence. Yet from his stance, everything Tsunade endured was entirely unnecessary.
For Katō Dan—his spirit already riddled with holes from watching his teammates tortured to death, and continuously infected by the curse's negative emotions—his lover's comfort was instead an unforgettable agony.
But he could no longer voice this, nor even close his 'eyes' or turn away.
He could only watch.
"What do you know—huh?!"
Tsunade tried to retort sharply, but unexpectedly, while she spoke, he struck her inner thighs with the crop several times.
Her retorted cut short, turning into a short cry of pain. Her toes curled in her sandals, her pale feet scrunching together.
"I know quite well. Mm, in the area of destroying others' spirits."
Thanks to Kōrin for the valuable experience. Even without any preference for torture, Hii Kōri was quite adept at it.
Shadows rose at his feet, tearing away Tsunade's remaining tattered clothing, then formed a blindfold over her eyes. The crop immediately fell mercilessly on her luxurious body.
Waist, back.
"Nngh—ah—damn you—"
Inner thighs.
"Just—this level of humiliation—what's there to be proud of—ah—mmph!"
Soles of feet, armpits.
"Bastard—bastard! I'll kill you—I'll definitely kill you!"
Abdomen.
"Ugh—ah—"
Back, backs of knees.
"Hah—this much—!"
Continuously changing target areas, Tsunade couldn't predict where the next strike would land.
A depressed flush crept up her cheeks, her breathing grew heavier. Yet still she forcibly suppressed cries, cursing Hii Kōri intermittently.
"Ha... I'm tired of hearing such harsh words."
Roughly gripping Tsunade's chin with his left hand, he shoved two fingers into her mouth, stirring violently. Frothy saliva gushes between fingers and lips until Tsunade couldn't help retching.
Manipulating shadow to form a ring gag again, Hii Kōri wiped his saliva-coated fingers on her disheveled hair, then dragged the 'meat rack' before Katō Dan, marking Tsunade's abdomen with red pigment.
Honestly, Tsunade's figure was undoubtedly the most perfect Hii Kōri had ever seen.
Her Senju and Uzumaki Yang Release lineage filled her body with shapely muscle.
From arms to back to waist and legs, the wild beauty muscle lines outline the taut yet not stiff curves. Even with not-so-low body fat, she maintained the lithe predator temperament of a lioness.
Her back, forced tense by her bound position, clearly showed each effort; the dimples at her waist float with each struggle—an exquisite accompaniment.
Her tapered waist drew the eye to her abdomen, and the outline of abdominal muscle was faintly visible—quite alluring.
Combined with medical ninjutsu and Yang Release maintaining her body, what met the eye was perfection.
Even without any superfluous thoughts toward Tsunade, viewing her solely as a tool to destroy Katō Dan's psychological defenses, Hii Kōri still felt a flicker of satisfaction in destroying something beautiful.
'Please... stop...'
"Hm? Begging for mercy? Such a thing doesn't exist in this world."
Sensing Katō Dan's moan through the Spirit Thread Nerves, Hii Kōri's gaze dropped as he poured forth his vicious rhetoric: "You kept refusing my goodwill. If only you'd handed over Spirit Transformation after defeat, you could have died cleanly without pain."
"People are such irredeemable creatures—they derive pleasure from others' suffering. Now, it's no longer your choice when this stops."
Placing the keepsake pendant in his palm, he pressed his fingers one by one, clenched his fist, and punched—deeply in the bullseye he'd drawn on Tsunade's abdomen.
"Gah—!"
The heavy blow sent the body hanging on the rack swinging high. Even with her mouth gagged and vision lost, Tsunade still emitted cries; even her wrists and ankles twisted swollen from the strain.
"I'll make you taste hell, then let you die. Simple."
Feeling the cursed energy pouring into Tsunade's chakra core, Hii Kōri twisted his wrist, removed the dazed, nearly unconscious Tsunade from the rack and casually tossed her onto the newly risen table.
"After all, without thoroughly cursing you like this, I can hardly have peace of mind."
"Mngh!"
The wounds on her body were sharply slapped; collapsed on the table, Tsunade couldn't help groaning.
Hii Kōri slowly removed his loose clothing, adjusted Tsunade's position on the table, cleared the debris from her face, and before she could react, thrust violently.
"Ghh! Mmgh! Nngh—ghh!"
A strong sense of suffocation forced tears from Tsunade's eyes. As if displaying this miserable scene, Hii Kōri gripped the crossbar, turning her over to lie supine on the platform.
Her head was tilted back, facing him directly, limbs fixed, utterly unable to resist. She could only emit broken cries in the brief moments she was allowed to breathe.
"Even using the Senju princess as a bargaining chip, you couldn't get 'Impure World Reincarnation' or your Spirit Transformation from Konoha."
Amid uncontrollable movement, Hii Kōri's fingers pressed Tsunade's saliva-coated chin, sliding down her throat, over her body covered in miserable red marks and sweat, stirring unbridled in the mire.
"After all, being Senju means knowing exactly what Impure World Reincarnation is. Compared to that, a mere 'princess' is worthless. Ultimately, there's no longer any 'Senju clan' in Konoha anyway."
Yet even in such rough intercourse, Hii Kōri's expression remained flat, as if feeling no pleasure, discussing quite realistic topics.
Dissolving the clan, integrating into the village—in Konoha's environment, this was indeed a masterstroke.
With Konoha established, dissolving the Senju not only won civilian hearts but also reassured other clans: the clan that founded Konoha dissolved for the village—proof enough to put others at ease.
Not requiring them to go as far as the Senju, but at minimum, they must devote themselves to the village.
But likewise, with the Senju name now a 'symbol,' Its appeal naturally diminished. And precisely because Tsunade was the Senju 'princess,' the Senju people were even more restrained.
"But what if I cut her up like you now, and sold her to Kumo as breeding stock? How much would those guys pay?"
As if struck by inspiration, Hii Kōri drew lines at Tsunade's limb roots with his mucus-coated fingers, as if about to sever her limbs as he'd described.
Kumo plundering bloodline ninjas for breeding was no secret in the ninja world. Yet even the offspring of captured bloodline ninjas had no complaint.
Abandoning individual identity, retaining only the stance of Kumo ninja—as if expressing this philosophy, Kumo's leadership actively abandoned their names, adopting codenames like A, B, C.
This highly seditious act gave Kumo unparalleled unity among the five major villages.
Though Tsunade inherited no kekkei genkai, Senju and Uzumaki Yang Release bloodlines were inherently valuable. Moreover, she was the direct descendant within three generations of the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju—who knew if Wood Release genes lurked?
If sold to Kumo in her position, her fate needed no elaboration.
"Ha, joking. After all, I have blood feuds with Kumo—no way I'd help them."
Stepping back, freeing Tsunade from intense suffocation, Hii Kōri narrowed his eyes, telling a joke even he didn't find funny. Then he flipped the limp Tsunade over, making her face Katō Dan.
"I know, I know. Now you have a mortal enemy with me too. Elite jōnin Katō Dan would never hand Spirit Transformation to someone as dangerous and despicable as me, right~"
Pulling Tsunade's disheveled honey-blonde hair like reins, forcing the disheveled Tsunade to face Katō Dan, he sensed Katō Dan's incoherent pleas and, as if not hearing, lamented affectedly:
"So powerless me can only vent hatred like this. Right, Katō-kun?"
Entering that muddy swamp with his clone, Hii Kōri's movements were extra gentle.
The dull flesh impacts like precise drumbeats matched Tsunade's increasingly irrepressible, nearly moan cryings as pleasure spread.
"Come now. I'm in no hurry. Until you can't even groan, I won't stop."
Even in Katō Dan's eyes, Hii Kōri's majestic malice nearly became black evil aura, swallowing him whole.
'Stop...'
'Let her go!'
'I'll give you whatever you want!' 'Please... stop...'
Spirit exhausted, unable to form complete sentences, Katō Dan waited inwardly, repeating this monotonous plea, especially pathetic against Tsunade's increasingly high-pitched cries.
Until Tsunade's voice went hoarse, her spirit completely depleted.
Ideals, past, resolve, emotions... beautiful or regrettable, aspirations and will—everything that once constituted Katō Dan as an individual was washed away by that monstrous malice.
Leaving only an emptiness where even despair was forbidden.
"What a long detour..."
Gripping Katō Dan's head, reviewing the knowledge in his brain through the Spirit Thread Nerves connected to it, Hii Kōri sighed quite tiredly.
Not just the physical exertion, but these days of exhaustive scheming.
With Kōrin, though somewhat restrained when interrogating him as 'bonus,' since he never expected complete intelligence, ensuring maximum intelligence in the shortest time sufficed.
The survivors captured from the Konoha stronghold, After three days of intensive interrogation, the Nara Shadow Imitation Technique was revealed—pure stream-of-consciousness word puzzles, fragmented and contextless, with coherent passages numbering under twenty.
To accurately and completely extract knowledge of Spirit Transformation from
Katō Dan's mind, Hii Kōri had practically prayed to Valhalla for his Yin Release to respond.
But now, all the hard work has come to an end.
So now...
"What to do with you, Senju princess?"
Casually tossing the flesh mass into distant shadow, Hii Kōri's gaze fell upon Tsunade, covered in wounds, curled into a ball.
***
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