Chapter 30 — Pawn It All! Everything Goes to the Shop!
Even with Yami's normally steady temperament, a surge of nameless fury flared in his chest. For a fleeting moment, the reckless thought of teleporting straight back to Konoha crossed his mind.
Of course, it was nothing more than an instant of madness.
Long-distance Flying Thunder God consumed chakra at a geometric rate. If he truly dared to attempt it, he'd likely be drained into a dried husk halfway through the jump.
"Don't resist."
The reminder was more symbolic than anything else. At this point, neither of them could even maintain movement, let alone struggle. Any violent motion would only worsen their internal bleeding.
"Pawn it."
---
[Scan complete. Pawnable items detected:]
[Ding! Extremely rare Senju bloodline ×1
Estimated value: 1000]
[Ding! Ordinary ninja ×1
Estimated value: 0]
---
"Confirm."
With Yami's decision, the two figures before him vanished into thin air. Only a pool of dark red blood remained on the ground, silent proof that they had ever existed at all.
At the same time, Yami hurriedly turned his gaze to the system interface. Only after seeing the updated prompt did he finally let out a breath.
---
[Extremely rare Senju bloodline (living) ×1
Converted points: 2000]
[Ordinary ninja (living) ×1
Estimated value: 0]
(Note: Living collateral may only be redeemed within 24 hours.)
---
Although he had already experimented using kikaichū before, this was the first time Yami had pawned living people. No matter how rational he tried to be, a trace of unease still lingered in his heart.
With the burden gone, Yami could finally focus entirely on the Five-Tails before him.
At this moment, one of the beast's hind legs—along with nearly half its body—had been completely torn apart by Dust Release. The wound was horrifying to behold.
Yet as a being formed from condensed chakra, it roared in fury without having entirely lost its mobility.
Driven by Boil Release, it could still lurch forward, charging ahead—though its movements were awkward and unstable, its massive body constantly on the verge of losing balance.
Crashing forward in wild zigzags, the Five-Tails closed in on Yami. The steam surrounding its body was already thinning, clear evidence that it was nearing the end of its strength.
Within his perception, Ōnoki was nowhere to be found—clearly still tied down by Konoha's two Sannin. As for the few remaining Iwa ninja in the area, they had already vanished without a trace.
And in this eerie calm…
A dangerously bold idea began to take shape in Yami's mind.
Sensing the state of his body, Yami swiftly split off a shadow clone, a kunai clenched in its hand, and sent it fleeing toward the safer outer perimeter of the battlefield.
The real body, meanwhile, erupted once more with surging green steam—no longer limited to just the Fourth Gate.
"Fifth Gate—Gate of Limit, open!"
Opening the Fifth Gate for the first time, Yami felt torrents of chakra crash through his meridians. The strain on his body spiked instantly, pressure mounting everywhere at once.
He stomped hard against the ground. The earth fractured with a sharp crack, and by relying on the recoil, Yami shot forward like a cannonball, hurtling straight toward the Five-Tails.
"Leaf Strong Whirlwind!"
This spinning back kick—packed full of very personal grudges—slammed brutally into the Five-Tails' lower jaw.
The impact was so heavy that, for an instant, the beast felt as if it had been rammed by another colossal creature. Already unsteady from losing a hind leg, its massive body crashed down with a thunderous boom.
Even so, Yami knew full well—this alone was nowhere near enough to subdue a tailed beast.
"Damn it—then let's go all in!"
With that roar, as if venting every ounce of rage he'd bottled up on today's battlefield, his chakra surged yet again. The green steam flaring around him now carried faint streaks of blue.
"Sixth Gate—Gate of View, open!"
Iron fists laden with terrifying power tore through the air. At extreme speed, his straight punches ignited flames from sheer friction, raining down upon the fallen Five-Tails like a blazing storm.
Desperate to end the fight as fast as possible, Yami didn't even bother shouting the name Morning Peacock. All he cared about was smashing the colossal beast into submission, venting his fury without restraint.
The Five-Tails struggled to rise and counterattack, but its body—missing a hind leg—was clumsy and weak. Under the relentless, high-speed barrage of Yami's punches, it was hammered deeper and deeper into the ground.
Had anyone been watching, they would've found the scene utterly surreal—a mere human shaking a tailed beast head-on.
But Yami himself had not yet reached his peak. His punches gradually slowed, his breathing turning ragged like a bellows. Sweat drenched his body, soaking through clothes already stiff with blood.
Blood and sweat mingled, dripping down to pool into a shallow puddle at his feet.
As for the Five-Tails—it lay motionless in the crater, half-stunned. Its once snow-white fur was now scorched brown-black, its massive body showing no sign of movement.
Forcing himself to ignore the screaming pain in his body, Yami leapt forward and pressed both hands against the beast's enormous frame, rattling off the command at top speed:
"Pawn it!"
---
[Scan complete. Pawnable item detected:]
[Ding! Highly condensed chakra entity (Five-Tails, Kokuō)
Estimated value: 4000]
---
"Confirm."
Perhaps even the system struggled with a creature of this scale. The Five-Tails' body didn't vanish immediately; instead, it began to fade away slowly, dissolving bit by bit.
---
[Ding! Highly condensed chakra entity (Five-Tails, Kokuō) — Soul has escaped.
Pawn failed. Re-evaluated value: 2000]
---
The massive body finally disappeared completely, the system panel refreshing once more.
[Current pawn points: 4575]
Yami had no time to dwell on it.
The backlash from releasing the Eight Gates nearly crushed him. Forcing his way up to the Sixth Gate had left his meridians screaming in agony, as though they were on the verge of snapping apart.
"Flying Thunder God!"
He flashed to the shadow clone's location. The clone immediately hoisted his main body onto its shoulder, sparing Yami the humiliation of collapsing face-first into the dirt.
"Redeem!"
While he still had clarity of mind, Yami hurried to redeem Nawaki and Shibi from the system.
From their perspective, everything went black—then brightened again. When their vision cleared, they found themselves near Konoha's defensive lines. Time inside the system had felt completely frozen.
Seeing Yami half-carried by his clone, barely conscious, they both understood—he'd saved them yet again. Without a word, neither asked any questions. Even the usually talkative Nawaki fell uncharacteristically silent.
There was no doubt about it—this mission's MVP was Yami. One man dragging two teammates, pulling off an absurd, godlike performance.
Though his internal pathways felt like a tangled mess, Yami didn't dare use the system to repair himself yet. Doing so before reaching camp would raise far too many questions.
Enduring the pain, the three of them slowly made their way toward Konoha's rear lines.
Under normal circumstances, the journey would've taken only an hour or two. This time, they didn't arrive until deep into the night, when Konoha's sentries finally spotted them.
"Who goes there?!"
At first glance, the guards assumed they were wounded comrades returning to camp. But as the torchlight revealed their blood-soaked, barely recognizable figures, the sentries froze in shock.
"Are you… humans… or ghosts?"