After learning the identities of the three led by Carl, Yugito's spirit completely collapsed. All will to fight drained from her in an instant.
The Raikage, still pressed flat against the ground, saw that Yugito was actually ready to accept her fate. He immediately roared in fury,
"Yugito! What are you doing?! Stop worrying about anything else and release the tailed beast's power—now!!"
The Raikage had always believed that Yugito refrained from using the tailed beast because she feared its destructive power would devastate the village. He wasn't alone—everyone in the Cloud Village thought the same.
But only Yugito herself knew the truth.
She wasn't worried about the village at all. The tailed beast inside her had already surrendered. Even if it wanted to struggle one last time, with Carl gripping her so tightly that she couldn't even circulate chakra, how could she possibly enter a tailed-beast state?
Yugito could already see her ending. The only thing she wished for was that the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki, Killer Bee, would escape far away—far enough to never be caught by Carl and the others…
"Let go of Yugito! You idiot—ya fool!"
The familiar rap-like voice rang out.
Yugito's heart sank straight to the bottom.
What she feared most had come true.
Killer Bee… had arrived after all.
The next second, a figure wrapped entirely in blazing red chakra flashed by, charging straight at Carl.
"Lariat!"
With a dull boom, Carl casually reached out with one hand and seized Killer Bee's forearm. He tightened his grip just a little—
"Aaagh!!"
Killer Bee cried out in pain and hurriedly retreated.
Backing away to the front lines of the Cloud Village forces, Killer Bee kept rubbing the arm that had nearly been crushed. Tailed-beast chakra spread over it, rapidly accelerating its recovery.
Carl's sheer strength stunned him so badly that he didn't even rap out of habit. For once, he spoke in a normal tone:
"How can a human possess power like that? Is this guy a monster?!"
As soon as those words left his mouth, the Cloud Village ninja behind him all wore strange expressions. Jinchūriki were always the ones called monsters—since when did a jinchūriki call someone else a monster?
Then again… anyone who could force a jinchūriki to say that must be terrifyingly strong.
The Raikage, still pinned to the ground, glared at Killer Bee with rage and bellowed,
"Bee! Who told you to come here?! Didn't I order you—without my command, you are not to leave that place even one step?!"
True to his reputation as the world's only perfect jinchūriki, Killer Bee's arm had already recovered for the most part in such a short time. He rolled his shoulder and clicked his tongue.
"Stupid big brother. They're already attacking our home—what, you want me to just hide and do nothing?"
As he spoke, Killer Bee narrowed his eyes at the Raikage, who was still crushed flat and unable to move. With a thought, a massive octopus tentacle burst out behind him and shot toward the Raikage at extreme speed.
But the moment the tentacle drew close, it was locked by an invisible gravity field and slammed straight down.
Pa!
The tentacle smashed hard into the Raikage.
With gravity amplifying the force, the blow was brutal. The Raikage spat out a mouthful of blood and grit his teeth.
"Don't worry about me. Save Yugito first! As long as the two of you can release the tailed beasts' power, they have no chance of winning!"
Killer Bee finally realized how dire the situation was. Following the Raikage's command, he immediately unleashed his signature technique and charged Carl.
Seeing this, Carl raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Want to play with swords? Fine. I'll play along."
Still holding Yugito in one hand, Carl flipped his wrist with the other. A pitch-black, demonic sword—Muramasa—flashed into view.
At that moment, Killer Bee had already closed the distance and launched into a dizzying display of eight-sword style.
To onlookers, all they could see were razor-sharp sword shadows flashing around Killer Bee's body. If it were anyone else, they'd be minced into pulp in an instant.
Yet Carl calmly swung his sword with one hand. No matter how fast Killer Bee struck, Carl deflected every single blow with effortless precision.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The continuous clash of blades echoed across the battlefield. Killer Bee, drenched in sweat, stared at Carl's relaxed expression and couldn't help but speak:
"N-not bad! This is the first time I've ever seen a swordsman as strong as you!"
Carl chuckled softly.
"First of all, I'm not a ninja. Second, my swordsmanship is actually pretty average—just decent reflexes and a bit more strength, that's all."
"Heh. You're pretty humble."
Carl only smiled and said nothing.
He wasn't being humble—he was telling the truth. In the world of pirates, swordsmanship mostly boiled down to unleashing overwhelmingly powerful slashes. Beyond that, there wasn't much technique involved—just raw power.
Even so, Carl admitted that Killer Bee's swordsmanship was truly exquisite. Eight-sword style taken to this level was unquestionably grandmaster-tier.
Purely in technique, Killer Bee's eight-sword style far surpassed Zoro's three-sword style. As far as Carl was concerned, the sword held in the mouth was really just a stat boost.
Killer Bee could also tell that his swordsmanship couldn't do anything to Carl. Worse still, though it looked like he was the one attacking nonstop, he was actually the one on the defensive.
His instincts screamed at him that the moment he was touched by that black-glimmering demonic sword, he'd be finished.
His gaze unconsciously shifted to Yugito, whose neck was still firmly gripped by Carl.
Hey… don't just stand there watching.
You're a jinchūriki too—there's no way you'd lose your ability to fight this completely!
Gritting his teeth, Killer Bee continued swinging his swords, while desperately communicating with the Eight-Tails in his mind.
"Eight, this enemy is way too strong. I need full tailed-beast transformation!"
The Eight-Tails' response sent a chill through his heart.
"Bee… he's not someone you or I can defeat. Even if the Sage of Six Paths were alive, he probably couldn't do anything to him…"
"What?! Are you kidding me?! Then what—he's a god or something?!"
"I don't know if he's a god. But the woman behind him, the one with her head lowered… she was once called by you ninja the Rabbit Goddess."
"..."
Even someone as free-spirited as Killer Bee experienced a complete mental shutdown at that moment.
If the Eight-Tails was telling the truth… then what was the point of fighting?
Since when did the Cloud Village provoke an existence like this?
Carl noticed that Killer Bee's attacks were growing slower and slower. He spoke calmly:
"As a perfect jinchūriki, is your stamina really that bad?"
Killer Bee snapped back to reality. His expression turned uncharacteristically solemn.
"In that case… what will it take for you to spare our Cloud Village?"
Those words stunned everyone present—the Cloud Village ninja, and even the Raikage on the ground.
Carl tilted his head slightly.
"I'm just here to take back two tailed beasts. That's all."
He smiled faintly.
"Of course… I don't need your permission."
-----------
+80 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg