In the plaza, a large number of prisoners were gathered in groups, enjoying their designated yard time. A few burly men congregated in the very center, shouting loudly.
"My Kamikaze won!"
"Tch, if it weren't for that pebble blocking the path, my Chasing Cloud would've definitely won!"
Inside the circle formed by the men, two ants with enormous mandibles scurried about.
Rumble...
"What's happening?"
Everyone stood up in alarm. Hozuki Castle was an isolated island surrounded by sea, with treacherous undercurrents beneath. If an earthquake truly struck, there would be no escape.
"Is something coming out?!"
The men who had just been racing ants looked down in terror. Cracks were spreading beneath their feet at a visible rate, and in no time, a fissure as wide as an arm had opened up.
"Run!"
The crowd scattered in a panic, huddling against the towering walls, Hozuki Castle's numerous guards among them.
As a colossal wave of energy surged into the sky, a massive black box suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes. The four sides of the black box each bore a human face, displaying four different expressions: joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.
Suddenly, the stone ground near the box exploded, creating a large opening from which a woman enveloped in a crimson chakra cloak leaped out.
On the high wall, a dark-skinned man saw her and immediately rushed to her side.
"Are you alright?" Darui asked.
"What in the world is this thing?" Yugito Nii stared at the eerie box before them, her expression grave.
"The Box of Ultimate Bliss," Darui replied. "It's also the reason you're here."
While everyone was at a loss, a man dressed in the uniform of a head guard walked to the front of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, formed hand seals, and began chanting.
"Didn't I kill him?" Yugito's expression flickered as she recognized the man's face.
"What's going on?" Darui asked quickly.
"Down below, just now, I killed someone who looked exactly like him."
"Are you sure it wasn't a Shadow Clone or some similar jutsu?"
"Positive." Yugito nodded firmly.
"Box of Ultimate Bliss! Please, let me see my son, Muku, again!" Mui, the warden, raised his hands to the sky, shouting his wish.
"Who's Muku?" Yugito's brow twitched upon hearing his wish.
"His son," Darui explained. "He mysteriously disappeared several years ago. It seems he was swallowed by the Box of Ultimate Bliss during a previous attempt to open it."
On a tall building in the distance, two figures stood side by side, observing the events unfolding far away.
"Noticed anything?" Within Uchiha Sasuke's eyes, a pair of intricately patterned pupils slowly rotated.
A red light flashed on the Box of Ultimate Bliss. With a 'clang,' the faces on its four sides fell away, revealing the box's true form—four grotesque faces, neither fully human nor fully ape.
Immediately after, the face oriented towards Mui violently opened its abyssal maw.
"Something's coming out. This chakra... hmm?" A sea breeze swept by, lifting Naruto Uzumaki's long, slanted bangs, revealing a glimpse of a golden Rinnegan beneath.
A youth dressed in ragged white clothes, his skin a sickly pale, walked out from the giant mouth.
"Muku?" Tears welled up in Mui's eyes. He rushed forward and embraced his son tightly. "Dad was wrong. I'm so sorry." "Can you forgive... forgive your dad?" he pleaded, holding the youth's shoulders.
"Forgive?" The youth stared blankly at the man before him, as if searching through his memories for the meaning of the word.
"Yes, for—" Mui began, his voice thick with emotion.
Pfft!
A sickly pale hand pierced through Mui's chest.
"Do you have any idea what I've been through these past few years?" The youth's face twisted into a crazed expression. "Inside that damned box, I couldn't see any light, no hope of survival." "All I could do was pray, again and again, pray that my dear father would open the box, appear before me, and take me away from that horrifying place." "I don't even know how long I prayed!" "Do you understand what it feels like to cry until no more tears will come?"
"Yes... cough... I'm sorry..." Hearing the despair that poured from his son's heart, a flicker of remorse crossed Mui's eyes. He shouldn't have! He shouldn't have listened to those people and sacrificed his own son to the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"Is saying sorry of any use now?" Muku tossed the corpse in his hand aside like a piece of trash.
"Hey, you over there. Sorry to interrupt your touching father-son reunion," Darui drawled, spitting out the blade of grass he was chewing. "From your conversation just now, it sounds like you know the origin of that black box. Mind telling us about it?"
"And you are?" Muku looked at the two of them, puzzled.
"Darui, Jonin of Kumogakure. You can also call me Arashi of the shinobi squad, or just Arashi."
"Arashi? A Kumogakure Jonin? Does that mean you're strong?" Muku tilted his head, looking at them as strange gurgling noises emanated from within his body.
"Something's not right," Yugito said, her expression grave. Another chakra tail slowly materialized behind her, swirling with blue fire.
"I feel it too." Darui reached for the large sword strapped to his back.
Gurgle~ Gurgle~
Several unnatural bulges swelled up on the youth's body.
"Watch out!" Yugito yelled.
Their expressions changed, and they leaped backward just as a massive, black feathered wing swept past where they had stood, sending rock fragments flying. They focused their gaze; the pale youth from moments ago had vanished.
In his place stood Satori, a colossal, headless monster with two wings sprouting from its back. A gaping, blood-red maw had split open on its abdomen, four sharp, sword-like teeth looking utterly ferocious.
"Lightning Release: Black Panther!" Darui unleashed his technique. A black, panther-shaped bolt of lightning shot out from his hand.
Just as the attack was about to connect, Satori's massive black wings gave a sudden beat, and it vanished from its spot.
Boom!
The black panther lightning struck the ground, blasting out a deep crater.
A fierce gale swept through. Before they knew it, the black monster had appeared behind them.
"Absorbing my chakra—did you consider the consequences?" Yugito grinned fiercely, vanishing from her spot. With her hands clasped together, she slammed down heavily towards Satori.
But in an instant, the monster was gone again.
"What?" Yugito's pupils contracted. Before she could adjust her stance, Satori kicked her hard, sending her crashing into the high wall.
Darui seized the chance, unleashing another sharp Lightning Release jutsu, but the previous scene repeated itself. Satori still dodged his attack by a hair's breadth.
Boom!
With a flap of its black giant wings, Darui was sent flying backward at an incredible speed, disappearing among the buildings.
After dealing with the main threats, Satori slowly turned its gaze towards the surrounding prisoners and guards.
"Run for your lives!"
They weren't blind. Even a jinchuriki was no match for this monster, let alone them, who had been suppressed by the Heavenly Prison Technique and couldn't even mold their chakra.
However, blocked by the high walls, where could they possibly flee? Satori was like a hunter cornering its prey in a jar. With each flap of its black feathered wings, several prisoners were tossed into the Box of Ultimate Bliss. The Box, glowing with an eerie red light, was like a bottomless abyss; prisoners tossed into it were instantly silenced, their energy feeding the monster.
As if bolstered by this influx, several crimson energy spheres shot out from the giant mouths on the box in all directions. Anyone hit by the energy spheres instantly lost their lives, providing new energy for the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"It seems to be able to predict your attacks," Matatabi's voice echoed in Yugito's mind.
"I know." Yugito leaped up from the rubble. With a roar, Matatabi, the Two-Tails, fully manifested—a giant spirit cat wreathed in blue flames, appearing before the black monster.