"You three, keep an eye on Warden Mui. Don't let him come down here."
After giving sharp instructions to Killer B's three disciples, the Raikage's Lightning Style chakra flared to life.
He transformed into a blinding blue flash as he leaped down into the courtyard.
He maintained a cautious distance from Makoto and the shattered rubble of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, but he kept his Lightning Release Chakra Mode fully activated, crackling with static, clearly ready to join the battle at any moment.
Following the Raikage down were Killer B and Yugito Nii.
Their movements were quite different.
Killer B landed with several flashy backflips before arriving beside his brother, still quietly muttering a rap beat to himself.
Yugito landed as lightly and silently as a cat on all fours, then stood up gracefully and leaped to the other side to flank the threat.
It was quite remarkable.
Other Jinchuriki either never interacted with their Tailed Beasts, or the Tailed Beast was entirely suppressed by the human's personality.
Only Yugito seemed physically and psychologically influenced by her Tailed Beast.
Her posture, reflexes, and aloof personality were distinctly feline.
Of course, when saying Yugito is "like a cat," it's not the cute, moe anime-catgirl type.
She wasn't the kind to end her sentences with a cutesy 'meow' or bat at string.
She was the deadly, aloof, apex-predator demon-cat type.
Hearing the heavy thuds of the Cloud ninja landing, Makoto glanced over briefly before paying them no more attention.
These Hidden Cloud elites were clearly worried about whatever monster had just been released and were preparing to help contain it.
Or, more likely, they were preparing to jump him if he tried to use it.
"What... is your wish?"
After all the viscous black chakra retracted and solidified, the humanoid figure of "Muku" twitched expressionlessly a few times before speaking its first hollow, echoing words to Makoto.
That's right, the second concern of the Cloud ninja was exactly this.
The legends only stated that the person who opens the Box of Ultimate Bliss would have their deepest wish granted.
The legends never specified how to open it.
Technically, violently shattering the box into a million pieces also counted as "opening" it.
The Raikage, standing in the back, shook his head sharply at Yugito—who was bending low and sharpening her chakra claws—signaling her not to act impulsively.
Ay then turned his gaze to Makoto, extremely vigilant.
'What is this kid going to wish for? Power? World Domination?'
"Speaking so directly really lowers your mysterious boss-monster cool factor," Makoto shook his head and sighed, looking disappointed.
"Forget it. Since you claim you can really grant wishes, then help me bring out the ghost of the Sage of Six Paths for a walk. I happen to have some lore questions I want to ask him about the moon."
"...The Sage of Six Paths?" The demonic Muku let out a hollow, grating laugh. "Hahaha... So you wish to become the second Sage of Six Paths? So it is ultimate power you crave! Then you should know the terrible price of such power..."
Smack!
Makoto didn't even let the demon finish its edgy monologue.
He stepped forward and directly backhanded "Muku" across the face, knocking the entity flat onto the stone ground.
Then, Makoto started ruthlessly kicking it in the ribs.
"Still playing fucking word games, are you?! Still twisting wishes! If you can't resurrect the Sage, just say you can't do it! Don't try to sell me a monkey's paw!"
Kick!
"What the hell are you laughing at?! The price of power?! Do you know the price of showing off in front of me?!"
Kick!
This brutal, utterly mundane street-brawl scene left the Kage-level spectators completely stunned!
'Was THIS the terrifying monster inside the legendary Box of Ultimate Bliss? It's getting jumped in an alleyway!'
"Damn scam artist," Makoto grumbled, finally delivering one last heavy kick to the demon's head and stopping.
If he hadn't deliberately held back his physical strength so Hikari could absorb its chakra later, this guy's head would have been a red mist by now.
After Makoto stopped the beatdown and stepped back, "Muku" finally got his chance to act cool.
"RAAAAAAGH!"
His entire body began to violently swell and mutate.
Black, feathery hair erupted from his skin as he transformed into a massive, winged black gargoyle with no eyes and a gaping, terrifying maw.
It somewhat resembled the ultimate nightmare form of Venom.
"B! Yugito! It's our turn now!"
Seeing the true monster (Satori) finally appear, the Raikage immediately issued the attack command.
By now, Ay could confirm that Makoto wasn't trying to ally with the demon.
Makoto's earlier wish regarding the "Sage of Six Paths" was clearly just a sarcastic troll to test the artifact's limits.
"Uh..."
Watching the three Cloud ninja instantly launch their coordinated assault without consulting anyone, Makoto felt speechless.
Some problems can't be solved with brute speed alone.
Especially since the 'fastest' among them, the Raikage, isn't actually that fast compared to spatial hax.
Satori's primary gimmick was essentially a budget version of the Otsutsuki's absolute evasion.
It could perfectly read the fear and killing intent in a person's heart, allowing it to dodge any attack preemptively.
'Hmm?' Makoto rubbed his chin.
'Thinking about it this way, this thing's core mechanic is somewhat similar to 'Shinjutsu'. Could the Box of Ultimate Bliss really be an artifact dropped by an Otsutsuki? Not Kaguya, but maybe Isshiki?'
Regardless of its lore origins, with its ability to perfectly dodge by sensing fear and intent, all three of the Cloud ninjas' devastating initial attacks missed completely.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
Satori danced through the Raikage's lightning chops, B's erratic swordsmanship, and Yugito's fiery claws with mocking ease.
After realizing the problem, the Raikage ordered Killer B to fall back and provide cover fire, while Ay continued his relentless close-quarters assault, stubbornly relying on his overwhelming speed to try and outpace the mind-reading.
As for Yugito...
After having her precise, feline strikes endlessly dodged, she got deeply frustrated.
She bypassed her base form entirely and directly entered full Tailed Beast Transformation, taking on the massive form of the Two-Tails.
She pounced forward, a mountain of roaring blue flames, but still ended up catching nothing but empty air.
Satori simply wasn't where she aimed.
She roared in frustration.
Why were the Raikage, B, and Yugito being endlessly dodged?
The fundamental reason was that their hearts weren't completely "pure" in the Buddhist sense.
Satori's transformed appearance was genuinely horrifying.
The instinct to pursue beauty and recoil from grotesque ugliness is basic human nature.
Even if the three elite Cloud ninja could suppress their conscious fear and attack without hesitation, it was useless.
As long as even a microscopic, subconscious trace of revulsion or killing intent existed in their minds, Satori could read it and dodge.
In the original movie, Naruto managed to finally hit Satori only while using Sage Mode, because in that serene state of natural harmony, Naruto's mind was entirely free of distractions, malice, and fear.
The Two-Tails was a speed-type Tailed Beast.
The Raikage was a speed-type ninja.
Yet they couldn't even touch a single black feather on Satori's body.
The massive flaming cat and the lightning-cloaked man were darting around the courtyard, destroying the masonry, while the gargoyle effortlessly slipped through the gaps
Anyone who didn't know better might think they were watching a highly choreographed, zero-contact martial arts demonstration.
Even facing the Two-Tails in its complete form and the Raikage's fiercest attacks, Satori didn't just dodge—it gradually began to counterattack with devastating force.
This was not the weak Satori from the original movie that had only absorbed a tiny portion of Naruto's chakra.
This was an aggregate abomination that possessed all the historical chakra from the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Killer B sensed something was horribly off about the monster's stamina.
He quietly stopped his barrage and approached Makoto.
Just as B struck a pose and opened his mouth to spit a rhyme, Makoto cut him off flatly.
"If you're going to speak to me in rap, I'll just pretend I didn't hear you and let your brother die."
Why?
Firstly, Makoto didn't like rap.
(Secondly, the author declared that it was far too tedious to write a rhyme for every single line of Killer B's dialogue in this chapter!)
"Uh... alright, young man. Why aren't you helping Big Bro and Yugito?"
Killer B finally spoke in normal, un-rhyming human language—something he hadn't used in a very long time.
It felt extremely unnatural on his tongue.
(Though he complied outwardly, Killer B stubbornly recited a sick diss track about Makoto in his mind, leaving the Eight-Tails inside him utterly exhausted by his host's antics).
"Before I answer your question, I have one of my own to ask you," Makoto replied calmly, not taking his eyes off the fight.
"Huh? Go ahead."
"As you said... why am I not helping the Raikage and the Two-Tails Jinchuriki?"
"..."
'Wasn't that exactly what I just asked you?!' Killer B stared at him, bewildered.
For the first time in his life, Killer B realized how incredibly painful and annoying it was to deal with someone who refused to communicate clearly.
'Is this how everyone else feels when they listen to me rap during a crisis?'
Even Uchiha Hikari, who was fully on Makoto's side, felt a bit of severe secondhand embarrassment upon hearing the circular, nonsense exchange between the two.
She awkwardly scratched her cheek, looking away.
'No wonder Hanabi is learning Tai Chi from Makoto,' Hikari thought.
'It turns out Makoto is truly a grandmaster of deflection!'
"Hikari. Go give it a try. If your trick doesn't work, I'll step in and help you crush it."
Before Killer B could complain about the non-answer, Makoto spoke to Hikari, who was lost in thought beside him.
"Huh? Oh, okay!"
Snapping back to reality, Hikari's eyes shifted into her Mangekyo Sharingan, and she immediately leaped into the fray.