What is the fate of a Jinchuriki who has their Tailed Beast extracted? There's no need to elaborate on that.
Was Hagoromo a bloodthirsty person? Honestly, he had never thought so himself. For a ninja, the act of killing could simply be categorized as work. Was killing fun? The idea of going out to kill someone just for amusement when bored—he had never harbored such thoughts.
But to him, if Kushina could die, who couldn't?
The Perfect Jinchuriki fell, and the Eight-Tails rampaged in Kumogakure.
Hagoromo didn't know that Orochimaru had actually done this kind of "work" once before. As a highly dedicated researcher, Orochimaru's goal was merely to acquire a tissue sample of the Eight-Tails... For that reason alone, Uncle Snake had caused the previous Eight-Tails Jinchuriki to rampage and lose control. He had done it so covertly, however, that to this day, no one knew the truth of the incident.
What Hagoromo was doing now was essentially just repeating Orochimaru's work.
He truly wasn't here to fight. After all, in his current condition, Hagoromo couldn't kill anyone in a direct clash. So, he relied entirely on calculation and his brain.
As for the methods he used to liberate the Tailed Beast, they were all things Kushina had taught him long ago.
Unsealing a restrained Eight-Tails Jinchuriki with the Five-Pronged Unseal might not be considered a terribly difficult task; the hard part was mastering the Five-Pronged Unseal itself. In reality, the only people in all of Konoha who could use this jutsu were Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Hagoromo, and perhaps the Third Hokage. Even Minato and Kushina themselves couldn't use it.
But harder still than mastering this jutsu was rendering a Perfect Jinchuriki completely unable to resist, and only Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains could achieve that.
Was trapping the Fourth Raikage in a barrier really that simple? The answer is that it was extremely difficult. Eyesight, judgment, timing, and decisiveness—all were absolutely indispensable.
Fortunately, right now, with his combat power severely compromised, Hagoromo's focus was... unparalleled.
No matter how powerful a ninja is, they always have weaknesses that can be exploited. As long as one has the intelligence and finds a countermeasure, solving the problem isn't hard. To put it simply, the Raikage possessed a rather impulsive personality and liked to tackle everything head-on. Hagoromo had already confirmed this during their last encounter.
Perhaps when he could freely control his new eyes, these things would be much simpler, but right now he genuinely couldn't do that... Let alone utilizing this reality-breaking "bug" on a deeper level, he couldn't even activate the eyes on demand.
Even assuming he could activate the eyes, the trouble remained. Using the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception required an extremely vague, ambiguous, and elusive "comprehension." Theoretically, they could indeed erase anything, but the cognitive demands on the user were absurdly high.
Hagoromo's calculation ability was rooted entirely in rationality and logic, but when using Death Perception, in many cases, this logic was useless.
When erasing a purely objective existence—like a rock or a biological creature—calculation could indeed help the eyes exert their power. But in another sense, especially when dealing with things leaning toward the conceptual, this calculation ability not only failed to have a positive effect, but might actually cause severe interference.
After all, many concepts were akin to pure fantasy, containing far too many irrational and illogical connotations. And only by genuinely "comprehending" them could one kill them.
So, looking at the Eight-Tails before him, Hagoromo's job here was actually done. One day he would kill a Tailed Beast, but not today.
"The Eight-Tails has been released!!" "It's on a rampage!" "Lady Yugito, stay back! That guy can undo a Jinchuriki's seal!"
From this moment on, Kumogakure's enemy was no longer Hagoromo, but the Eight-Tails, Gyuki.
And right after the Eight-Tails was released, Kumogakure instantly reacted: the enemy's next target was very likely the Two-Tails. This ability to seamlessly undo the Iron Armor Seal forced them to feel genuine dread.
In truth, the Cloud ninjas were overthinking it. Hagoromo had no power left to repeat what he had just done. Free the Two-Tails? That was impossible now.
The Quintuple Rashomon was one of the First Hokage's ultimate defensive jutsus. Summoning five gates at once versus summoning them one by one posed a fundamental difference in chakra consumption. Coupled with that super-powerful sealing barrier, this had already drained the vast majority of Hagoromo's chakra.
Even Orochimaru, a master of the jutsu, usually only summoned a Triple Rashomon at most.
After releasing the Eight-Tails, Hagoromo leaped back onto the Giant Bird's back. As for his remaining summoning beasts, he released them all. With the Eight-Tails around, the destructive power of a few summons was inconsequential.
Five minutes was enough for the Eight-Tails to cause massive destruction. Half an hour, and it would inflict unhealable wounds on Kumogakure.
After hovering high in the sky for an hour, Hagoromo could safely leave... The mission had been completed perfectly.
Besides, this was the enemy's stronghold. Between the Raikage's destructive power inside the barrier and the frantic efforts of the Cloud ninjas outside, his seal was nearing its absolute limit. No matter how sturdy he made it, what Hagoromo had set up wasn't a Four Red Yang Formation, let alone a Six Red Yang Formation.
In reality, Hagoromo was pushing himself past his limits. At this point, he didn't even have the ability to escape safely, not even by flying back on his summon.
So, after watching one Cloud ninja after another die, satisfied with the results caused by the Eight-Tails, he could only use Reverse Summoning to return to the Shikkotsu Forest.
From start to finish, Hagoromo hadn't spoken a single word in Kumogakure...
While he sometimes loved to talk nonsense, this time, he really wasn't here to chat.
Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest. Toads, Snakes, and Slugs.
The former were the three great uncharted sage regions, and the latter were the most iconic characteristics of the Legendary Sannin—far more recognizable than their faces or their respective gambling, lecherous, and poisonous personality traits.
The three great sage regions were hidden in unfixed spatial coordinates by absolute sealing barriers. They indeed existed within the actual physical space of this world and had definitive coordinates, but without using Reverse Summoning, it was basically impossible to reach these places from the outside.
While Hagoromo was in Shikkotsu Forest, if Tsunade had been in Konoha, he could have returned easily—it would only take a single summoning from her.
But unfortunately, Tsunade wasn't around, and this specific summoning contract was only shared between him and her. So, he had to leave Shikkotsu Forest on foot and journey back to Konoha the normal way.
Before that, he needed to rest and recover, meaning his return to Konoha would take a considerable amount of time.
Thus, the speed of intelligence transmission was far faster than his return journey.
And this time, the Konoha Jonin, the White Yaksha, finally and thoroughly stepped into the sight of absolutely everyone in Konoha.
After the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage, Minato, and the passing of Kushina Uzumaki, "prestige" had become something Hagoromo needed.
Although the Legendary Sannin were illustrious, the one who truly helped Konoha break the war's equilibrium and strike at the enemy's heart during the Third Great Ninja War was the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze.
And now, without the Yellow Flash, Konoha had the White Yaksha.
In this sense, the constant, unending emergence of brilliant ninjas generation after generation was what truly made Konoha terrifying.
The old hero dies, and the void he leaves behind is instantly filled by a new hero. This psychological compensation and overall restoration of morale was far more meaningful than the actual combat power Hagoromo exerted.
The intelligence was simple:
The White Yaksha invaded Kumogakure alone. The Fourth Raikage was trapped, the Perfect Jinchuriki died, and the Eight-Tails Gyuki went completely berserk.
Konoha Jonin, Kamishiro Hagoromo, sixteen years old, shook the ninja world.
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