Chapter 211: Let's All Speak Like Normal People
"You three, keep an eye on Lord Mui. Don't let him come down."
After giving the order to Killer Bee's three disciples, the Raikage activated his Lightning Release chakra. In a flash, he vanished and reappeared below.
He kept a certain distance from Shiromo and the shattered Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Yet he remained in Lightning Release Chakra Mode, as if ready to join the fight at any moment.
Right after the Raikage jumped down, Killer Bee and Yugito followed.
The two moved very differently.
After landing, Killer Bee did several somersaults and hopped over beside the Raikage, still muttering his rap.
Yugito, on the other hand, landed lightly on all fours like a cat, then straightened up and leaped to the other side.
It's amazing.
Among the other jinchūriki and tailed beasts, it was either mutual hostility, or the tailed beast influenced by others.
Only Yugito was the one influenced by her tailed beast.
Her posture and personality were both cat-like.
Though Yugito had become a jinchūriki at the age of two, that wasn't really a reason.
Gaara and Naruto weren't much different in terms of timing.
Of course, when saying Yugito was like a "cat," it wasn't the cute, anime-style catgirl kind, nor the one who ends every sentence with 'meow' and constantly says "follow Hinata Taffy, meow" all day. (V-tubers)
It was more the cold, aloof, cat-demon type of cat.
Hearing the commotion, Shiromo merely glanced over and then stopped paying attention.
These people from Kumogakure were either worried that some monster would be released from inside and were preparing to help, or….
"What is your wish?"
After all the black aura had fully withdrawn, "Muku" twitched a few times expressionlessly and spoke its first human words to Shiromo.
That's right, the second thing the Kumogakure group was worried about was exactly this.
The legends only said that the one who opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss would have their wish granted. They never said how it had to be opened.
Destroying the box also counted as opening it.
Standing behind them, the Raikage shook his head at Yugito, who was crouched down sharpening her claws, signaling her not to act rashly. Then he turned his gaze to Shiromo, extremely wary.
"Asking it so directly really lowers your cool factor, you know."
Shiromo shook his head and sighed: "Forget it. Since you really can grant wishes, then help me drag the Sage of Six Paths out for a walk. I happen to have a few questions I want to ask him."
"…The Sage of Six Paths, hahaha. So you want to become the second Sage of Six Paths? In the end, you crave power. Then you should know the price of power…"
Smack.
Shiromo walked up and slapped it straight to the ground, then started punching and kicking.
"Still playing word games, huh? Still playing word games! If you can't do it, just say you can't do it! What the hell are you laughing at! And 'the price of power'? Do you know the price of acting cool?"
The scene left everyone stunned.
So this was the level of the monster inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss?
"Damn it."
After one final kick, Shiromo stopped.
If he hadn't deliberately held back because he still needed to absorb its chakra, this thing would have been dead beyond dead already.
And after Shiromo stopped, "Muku" finally got its chance. Its whole body began to swell and sprout fur, transforming into a black monster with no eyes and a massive mouth.
Yeah, it looked a bit like the Ultimate Vampire Beast.
"Bee, Yugito, it's our turn!"
Seeing the monster appear, the Raikage gave the order to attack.
By now, they were sure that everything Shiromo had said earlier had been completely sincere.
That earlier "wish about the Sage of Six Paths" was just something he'd said to fool the monster inside the box.
"Uh…"
Watching the three of them charge in while talking among themselves, Shiromo felt a little speechless.
Some things couldn't be solved by speed alone, let alone when the fastest among the three, the Raikage, wasn't actually that fast.
Satori was basically a low-end version of Daemon who had obtained Ōtsutsuki divine techniques. (Shinjutsu)
Hmm?
Thinking about it like that, its setting really was similar to divine techniques. Could this thing actually be some box dropped by the Ōtsutsuki?
Not dropped by Kaguya, but by Isshiki instead?
Anyway, under fear-sensing evasion, all three of their attacks missed.
After realizing something was wrong, the Raikage had Killer Bee stop while he continued attacking with speed alone.
As for Yugito…
After missing over and over, she got irritated and directly transformed into her tailed beast form, becoming the Two-Tails. With blue flames blazing all over, she pounced forward, and still pounced into empty air.
Even more irritating.
So why did the three of them have fear in their hearts, and why in the original story Killer Bee was also endlessly dodged?
The root reason was that their hearts weren't pure enough.
Satori's transformed appearance was simply too ugly.
Avoiding ugliness was an instinct of people who pursued beauty, just as much as it was a human instinct.
Even if the Raikage and the others could completely avoid being affected by that subconscious trace of fear and attack without hesitation, it still wouldn't work.
As long as even a sliver of fear existed, Satori could dodge.
In the original story, Naruto managed to hit Satori using Sage Mode because in Sage Mode his mind was free of distractions and fear was cast aside.
Of course, that was limited to Naruto at that stage.
If you said future Naruto, in Sage Mode, watching Boruto get stabbed to death felt no fear in his heart, no one would believe that.
The Two-Tails was a speed-type tailed beast, and the Raikage was a speed-type ninja, yet they couldn't even touch a single hair of Satori.
One person and one beast were darting around wildly. To anyone who didn't know better, it would look like they were watching [Battle at the Peak of the Forbidden City], the one where they say, "If you're going to fight, go to the dance studio."
Even though the fully transformed Two-Tails and the Raikage's assault were fierce, Satori gradually began to counterattack.
This wasn't the Satori from the original story that had only absorbed part of the Nine-Tails' chakra. This was an aggregate that had absorbed all the chakra within the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Killer Bee sensed something was off and quietly walked over beside Shiromo. Just as he was about to speak, Shiromo cut him off first: "If you're going to talk in rap, I'll just pretend I didn't hear anything."
Why? First, Shiromo didn't like rap. Second, fate (the author) declared that coming up with a rap for every one of Killer Bee's lines was too troublesome.
"Uh… little brother, why aren't you helping big brother and Yugito?"
Killer Bee finally spoke in normal human language, something he hadn't done in a long time.
It felt extremely unfamiliar.
Obedience aside, in his heart Killer Bee still secretly rapped a line, leaving the Eight-Tails inside him utterly speechless.
"Before I answer that question, I too would like to ask you something."
"Uh? Go ahead."
"Just as you said, why exactly am I not helping the Raikage and the Two-Tails jinchūriki?"
"..."
Isn't that exactly what I just asked?
For the first time, Killer Bee realized how painful it was to face someone who didn't speak like a normal person.
So this was how everyone felt listening to him talk before?
Even Uchiha Hikari, who was on their side, felt her scalp go numb after hearing this exchange between Shiromo and Killer Bee.
She awkwardly scratched her cheek.
No wonder Hanabi wanted to learn tai chi from Shiromo, turns out Shiromo was truly a master of verbal tai chi.
"Go try it. If it doesn't work, I'll help you."
Before Killer Bee could say anything else, Shiromo said this to Hikari beside him, who had been lost in her thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, okay."
After snapping back to her senses, Hikari immediately moved out.
(End of this chapter)