Being lifted into the air by the ankle was an unbearably humiliating posture. On top of that, Kurotsuchi was wearing a tight, high-slit dress that made it dangerously easy to expose herself. She could only clutch the hem of her skirt tightly with one hand and shout in fury,
"Damn it! Let me go right now!!"
Carl didn't respond to her at all. With a single person, he firmly restrained both Ōnoki and Kurotsuchi, this grandfather–granddaughter pair, and calmly said to Kaguya,
"Kaguya, are you not going to make a move?"
Upon hearing this, Kaguya immediately drifted forward. She raised her hand and pressed it against Han's forehead as he lay immobilized on the ground, forcibly pulling out a miniature blue Five-Tails, Kokuō, from his body.
Han's eyes instantly turned hollow, the vitality in his body rapidly draining away. The fate of a jinchūriki who loses their tailed beast was something everyone knew well—death on the spot. Only a very small number of jinchūriki with special constitutions could hold on a bit longer.
Seeing Han lying motionless on the ground, Kurotsuchi's face filled with grief. As for Ōnoki, he was already on the verge of passing out from suffocation.
...
Kurotsuchi truly lived up to the reputation of someone destined to become Tsuchikage in the future. Seeing her side pushed to the brink of annihilation, she no longer cared about whether she might expose herself or not. She released her grip on her skirt, twisted her body with powerful core strength, and punched Carl's wrist with all her might.
Of course, with her strength, even a furious full-force punch was no more than a tickle to Carl. Still, he released her grip along with the motion and casually tossed the already unconscious Ōnoki aside.
Kurotsuchi landed in an extremely difficult split stance. She raised her head, about to continue her assault, only to see Carl lift Han's body from the ground and tap a finger directly against his chest—right over the heart.
Han's body suddenly convulsed violently once before Carl tossed him aside again.
Kurotsuchi thought Carl had merely desecrated a corpse. Her anger flared even higher as she leapt into the air, launching a high leg raise followed by a vertical axe kick straight at him.
With Carl's dynamic vision, he naturally enjoyed a crystal-clear view of some rather generous scenery. He lightly raised a hand and pressed against Kurotsuchi's leg. Without any visible exertion, she was pushed sideways, her body slamming heavily into a thick wall.
The impact was brutal. Kurotsuchi shakily stood up from the ground, stumbling again as soon as she did. Clutching her injured arm, her expression turned grim.
No matter how unruly her personality usually was, she now clearly realized the enormous gap between herself and Carl. His abilities were strange and terrifying, and even purely in hand-to-hand combat, he was someone she couldn't hope to face—yet taijutsu happened to be what she excelled at most.
At this point, the situation had clearly become a dead end.
Iwagakure's strongest combatant—her grandfather, the Tsuchikage—was unconscious, effectively removed from the battle.
And Han, the jinchūriki, had his tailed beast extracted and should have been dead—
…Wait!
Why was Han standing up again?!
...
Under Kurotsuchi's incredulous gaze, Han—who had just been tossed aside—slowly stood up. Han himself looked completely confused, clearly not understanding his current situation either.
At that moment, several figures pushed open the doors and rushed in. Leading them was Kurotsuchi's father—Kitsuchi.
Behind him followed a group of Iwagakure jōnin and chūnin. When they saw the scene inside, they all froze in shock before immediately assuming battle stances, their gazes locked tightly on Carl.
Kitsuchi glanced at Kurotsuchi from the corner of his eye and asked in a low voice,
"Kurotsuchi, what happened here? What's wrong with the Tsuchikage-sama?"
Supporting her injured body, Kurotsuchi moved to Kitsuchi's side. Throughout the entire process, she never dared take her eyes off Carl, afraid he might suddenly attack.
Yet Carl made no move at all, simply allowing her to reach that seemingly safe position.
Kurotsuchi briefly explained everything that had just occurred. After hearing it, Kitsuchi and the Iwagakure shinobi all wore expressions of utter disbelief.
No one could accept that their village's two greatest forces—the Tsuchikage and the jinchūriki—had been defeated by a single person in what was nearly an instant kill.
Did such a monster really exist in the shinobi world?!
...
Kitsuchi stared solemnly at Carl, while Carl clearly couldn't care less about them. He looked directly at Han, who had seemingly returned from the dead, and said calmly,
"The power of the tailed beast has been returned to its original owner. I preserved your life. If you still wish to reclaim the tailed beast's power, you may—but an opportunity like the one just now only comes once."
At this moment, Kaguya spoke softly,
"Carl-sama, you are truly merciful."
Lily couldn't help but laugh when she heard that.
"Merciful? Kaguya, if certain groups from another world heard you say that, they'd probably curse you to death. He even has a habit that terrifies them whenever they remember it."
Kaguya asked curiously,
"What habit?"
Lily smiled faintly and pointed at Kitsuchi—whose head was the largest among the Iwagakure crowd.
"He likes to twist people's heads off and use them as cannonballs."
Hearing this, the Iwagakure shinobi all shuddered uncontrollably. The pointed-at Kitsuchi subconsciously shook his neck, then clenched his fists and said coldly,
"No matter who you are, Iwagakure is not a place you can enter and leave as you please!"
After all, as one of the Five Great Villages, even knowing how terrifying the enemy was, allowing someone to storm their headquarters and beat up their Tsuchikage without paying a price was something they could never accept.
If they didn't make the intruder suffer, how could Iwagakure continue to stand in the shinobi world?
It could only be said that Kitsuchi and his group hadn't personally witnessed what Carl looked like when he fought seriously—otherwise, he wouldn't have dared say something so tough.
...
Carl looked indifferently at Kitsuchi. Within his golden Tenseigan, chakra flowed like a tangible current. Under the gaze of those eyes, even someone as steady as stone like Kitsuchi felt his heart tremble violently, a single thought emerging in his mind:
If I fight this man… I will die.
If even Kitsuchi felt this way, it went without saying how the shinobi behind him felt. By heaven's mercy, Carl didn't even need to move—just standing there, the pressure he emitted was already something these "ordinary people" couldn't endure.
Carl slowly stepped forward.
The Iwagakure side subconsciously took a step back.
The scene made Carl smile faintly. He then looked at Kurotsuchi, who was gritting her teeth while standing behind Kitsuchi, and said softly,
"Not bad, little girl. At the very least, your legs are quite strong."
Kurotsuchi froze for a moment before her face flushed red with anger.
"What do you mean 'little girl'?! You don't look that old yourself!"
Carl chuckled and shook his head. Under the tense stares of the Iwagakure shinobi, he slowly raised one hand and said calmly,
"All right. You may all exit the stage now…"
"…Shinra Tensei."