Even with Night's calm personality, a surge of irrational anger flared up in his chest. For a fleeting moment, he had the impulse to just teleport back to Konoha.
Of course, that was just a delusion. The chakra cost for long-distance Flying Thunder God jumps increased geometrically. If he actually tried it, he'd be sucked dry and turned into a mummy halfway there.
"Don't resist."
Night's warning was mostly a formality. The two of them were barely able to move, let alone resist. Violent struggles would only worsen their internal bleeding.
"Pawn!"
[Scan Complete. Discovered pawnable items:]
[Ding! Extremely Rare Senju Bloodline x1 ... Valuation: 1000]
[Ding! Ordinary Ninja x1 ... Valuation: 0]
"Confirm."
With Night's command, the two people in front of him vanished into thin air. Only a pool of crimson blood on the ground proved they had ever existed.
Night anxiously checked the system panel. Seeing the new notification, he finally relaxed slightly.
[Extremely Rare Senju Bloodline (Living) x1 — Redeem Points: 2000]
[Ordinary Ninja (Living) x1 ... Valuation: 0]
(Note: Living Pawn redemption is only available within 24 hours.)
Even though he had tested it with kikaichu bugs before, this was Night's first time pawning living humans. He couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.
With the burden gone, Night could finally focus on the Five-Tails in front of him. One of its hind legs and half its body had been torn apart by the Dust Release. The wound was gruesome.
But as a mass of chakra, it roared in anger and hadn't lost its mobility completely.
Fueled by Boil Release, it continued to charge forward, though its movements were clumsy and unbalanced due to the missing limb.
Rampaging, the Five-Tails closed in on Night. The steam on its body was dissipating. It was clearly running on fumes.
Night sensed that Onoki hadn't chased after them; he must have been tied down by the two Sannin. The few Stone ninjas in the area were nowhere to be seen.
This situation gave birth to a dangerous idea in Night's mind.
He checked his body's condition, quickly created a Shadow Clone holding a kunai, and sent it fleeing toward the safe zone outside the battlefield.
His main body erupted with green steam again. This time, he didn't stop at the Fourth Gate.
"Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit — OPEN!"
Opening the Fifth Gate for the first time, Night felt the massive chakra impact every meridian in his body. The burden increased exponentially.
He stomped on the ground, shattering the earth. Using the recoil, Night shot toward the Five-Tails like a cannonball.
"Konoha Strong Fang!"
This spinning back kick, fueled by personal grudges, slammed heavily into the Five-Tails' jaw.
The heavy impact made the Five-Tails feel like it had been hit by another massive beast. Already unstable from losing a leg, its colossal body crashed to the ground.
Although the surprise attack worked, Night knew this force alone wasn't enough to subdue a Tailed Beast.
"Damn it! I'm going all out!"
With a roar, Night unleashed all the pent-up frustration from the battlefield. His chakra surged again, the green steam now mixed with flashes of blue light.
"Sixth Gate: Gate of View — OPEN!"
Carrying immense power, his fists broke the sound barrier. The friction with the air ignited flames, raining down like a meteor shower on the fallen Five-Tails.
Wanting to end the battle quickly, Night didn't even have time to shout the name "Morning Peacock." He just focused on pounding the beast into submission, venting his rage.
The Five-Tails struggled to get up, but its missing leg made it powerless. Under the relentless barrage of high-speed fire punches, it was continuously hammered into the ground.
If anyone had been watching, they would have found it unbelievable. A tiny human was physically overwhelming a massive Tailed Beast.
But Night hadn't reached his peak yet. The punches of the Morning Peacock gradually slowed down. He gasped for air like a broken bellows, his body soaked in sweat.
Mixed with the blood already on his clothes, the sweat and blood pooled beneath his feet.
In front of him, the Five-Tails had been beaten into a stupor. Its once-white fur was now scorched and brown, lying motionless in a crater.
Enduring the agony in his body, Night leaped onto the beast, pressed both hands against its massive body, and shouted:
"Pawn!"
[Scan Complete. Discovered pawnable item:]
[Ding! High-Density Chakra Aggregate (Five-Tails Kokuō) ... Valuation: 4000]
"Confirm."
The system seemed to struggle with such a massive entity. The Five-Tails' body didn't vanish instantly but began to dissipate slowly.
[Ding! High-Density Chakra Aggregate (Five-Tails Kokuō) Soul has escaped. Pawn failed. Re-valuation: 2000]
Then, the Five-Tails' physical form vanished completely. The panel refreshed.
[Current Pawn Points: 4575]
Night didn't have time to look closely. The backlash from deactivating the Eight Gates nearly collapsed him. Pushing past his limits to open the Sixth Gate left his meridians screaming in pain, feeling like they were about to snap.
"Flying Thunder God!"
He teleported to his Shadow Clone. The clone immediately caught the main body, saving Night from an intimate encounter with the dirt.
"Redeem Pawn!"
While he was still conscious, Night quickly redeemed Nawaki and Shibi from the system.
From their perspective, their vision went black for a second, and then light returned. They were suddenly near the edge of the Konoha battlefield. They had no idea what happened; time inside the system seemed frozen for them.
Seeing Night being supported by his clone, barely breathing, they realized he had saved them again. By tacit agreement, neither asked questions. Even the usually energetic Nawaki was unusually silent.
Basically, Night was the MVP of this mission. He carried three people and achieved a godlike score.
Feeling his meridians in chaos, Night didn't dare use the system to repair his body yet. Walking into camp fully healed after a battle like that would raise too many questions.
Enduring the excruciating pain, the three of them slowly made their way toward the rear of the Konoha lines.
Normally, the walk would have taken an hour. In their condition, they didn't reach the perimeter until late at night, when a Konoha sentry spotted them.
"Who goes there?!"
The sentry saw three ragged figures in tattered Konoha uniforms. At first, he thought they were wounded soldiers returning. But when the firelight illuminated their faces, he turned pale with shock.
"Are you humans or ghosts?"