"Were you inside that teapot?"
Chōmei looked at Shukaku, puzzled.
Shukaku froze. It wanted to vanish on the spot.
How had Chōmei noticed that? Why had that damn human put it inside a teapot in the first place?
Shukaku's thoughts raced as it searched for an explanation, preferably a reasonable one, or at least one that was not completely humiliating.
"Teapot?"
Kurama paused, and its eyes slowly shifted toward Shukaku.
"A teapot tanuki?"
The next moment, Kurama burst out laughing.
"That human is keeping you as a pet?"
Shukaku wanted to bury its head in the ground. If the tailed beasts survived this crisis, Kurama would probably mock it for the next thousand years.
But now was not the time to care about that. It could deal with the mockery later. Right now, there were more important things.
"In short, that human is extremely strong."
Shukaku forced itself to ignore Kurama's laughter and looked at Gyūki and Kurama.
"You two absolutely cannot be careless."
"I'll stay near that human for now and send whatever I can."
"I hope the two of you can work together to defeat him and rescue the others."
"Otherwise, everything the old man left us may disappear."
In the real world, Jie was already preparing to move again. This time, his destination was Turtle Island near the Land of Lightning.
According to the information sent by the Uchiha and Senju, the Eight-Tails was there now. The Nine-Tails' exact location still had not been confirmed, only narrowed down to a rough area.
That meant Jie could not afford to waste much time. After capturing Gyūki, he would have to set out again immediately.
Shukaku sensed Jie moving and quickly withdrew from the mental space. If it wanted to pass on information, it had to stay close.
The remaining tailed beasts stayed behind. The Two-Tails through Seven-Tails had no choice; with their chakra sealed, there was nowhere else for them to go.
Gyūki and Kurama were still processing Shukaku's warning.
"Kurama, this doesn't look good."
Gyūki looked at the Nine-Tails seriously.
"The old man's eyes suppress us heavily. If that human is really as strong as they say, strong enough to subdue us without relying on the Rinnegan, even you may not have an easy time against him."
Kurama's expression darkened.
"I don't believe a human reached that level so easily."
"And even if he did, I'm not the same as the others."
Kurama snorted coldly.
"If that human comes for me, I'll remind him what a tailed beast really is."
After saying that, Kurama vanished from the mental space.
Gyūki could only watch it leave. There was nothing it could do about that fox. Kurama had a terrible temper and enough strength to ignore advice.
For now, Gyūki could only hope Jie was not as terrifying as the others had described. With a sigh, he also disappeared.
The remaining tailed beasts looked at one another in silence.
Jie did not know that the nine tailed beasts had just held a meeting because of him. At that moment, he was already on his way to Turtle Island.
The previous tailed beast's hiding place was quite far from the island, so Jie spent two full days traveling.
Turtle Island was not truly an island. It was a living turtle the size of one, and because it kept moving, its location was never fixed.
Even with information from the Uchiha and Senju, Jie still had to search the sea before he finally found it.
A turtle as large as an island was something even Jie had never seen before.
Jie looked over the turtle for a moment, then lost interest.
Aside from its size, he did not sense any especially powerful chakra from it, and there was no senjutsu chakra either. As far as Jie could tell, it was only an unusually large turtle.
Compared with the Eight-Tails, a large turtle was not worth his attention.
Through the vision of his Tenseigan, Jie had already found Gyūki's location.
A spatial vortex opened in front of the Eight-Tails.
Gyūki instantly grew alert. When the young man walked out of the vortex and Gyūki saw the teapot hanging from his waist, its eyes narrowed.
So he had come after all.
Now Gyūki only needed to find out whether this human was truly as strong as the others had said.
Jie looked at the Eight-Tails in front of him, but for a moment, he did not speak.
The Gyūki before him had two horns.
In Jie's original timeline, Gyūki had lost one horn to the Third Raikage. Even the Eight-Tails chakra rewarded by the system had reflected that form, so seeing both horns intact now felt strangely unfamiliar.
Gyūki noticed Jie studying it and felt uncomfortable. It had no idea what this human was looking at.
Of course, Gyūki could never have guessed the truth. Kumogakure did not even exist yet, so there was no way for it to know Jie was comparing it to a future version of itself.
"Human," Gyūki said carefully, "what are you here for?"
It had already sensed Shukaku's chakra from the teapot at Jie's waist. ...Still, it asked.
Jie put the thought aside and looked at Gyūki calmly.
"Isn't my purpose obvious?"
"On this island, the only things with any value are you and the giant turtle under your feet."
So it really was him.
"Human, you really are capturing tailed beasts."
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
That made Jie curious. The tailed beasts were scattered across the ninja world, and he had captured them quickly, without giving the news much chance to spread. Turtle Island was in the middle of the ocean, so how had Gyūki already found out?
Then Jie glanced at the teapot hanging from his waist and understood.
He had nearly forgotten about the tailed beasts' mental space.
With a little traitor beside him, the news leaking was not strange.
But it did not matter. Shukaku had only just submitted, so expecting loyalty from it would be foolish. And with enough strength, knowing a little in advance changed nothing.
Jie had not taken any of the previous captures seriously, so even if Shukaku leaked information, it would not help much.
Besides, once Jie sealed the tailed beasts into the Gedo Statue, the others would disappear into the Ten-Tails. Only Shukaku would be left outside.
After seeing that, Jie did not believe Shukaku would still dare to betray him.
With that thought, Jie looked back at Gyūki and spoke directly.
"Tell me where the Nine-Tails is."
"Refuse, and I beat you first. Then I control your mind and make you talk."
With the mental space, every tailed beast could contact the others. Gyūki and Kurama were no exception.
If Jie could get Kurama's location from Gyūki, it would save him a lot of trouble. The Uchiha and Senju had only narrowed Kurama's location to an area the size of a small country, and searching it would take time.
Of course, Jie did not expect much. If tailed beasts were that easy to force into obedience, he would not have needed to take half of Shukaku's chakra.
And even if Gyūki refused, Jie still had Shukaku.
Shukaku was his little pet now. It should know what choice to make.
"Dream on."
Gyūki's voice turned cold.
"If you want me to tell you where Kurama is, step over my body first."
Jie had not answered what he wanted, and now he was asking for Kurama's location. That alone was enough for Gyūki to understand his intent.
Jie only shrugged.
It had only been a casual attempt anyway. If talking failed, then so be it. At most, it gave him a reason to beat the Eight-Tails first.
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