"Lord Raikage, those three arrived yesterday without notice and caused quite a stir," Warden Mui said, smoothly stepping forward.
Mui seemed to have guessed what the Raikage wanted to ask and directly explained Makoto's trio's purpose.
"They're also here for the Box of Ultimate Bliss. After my... persuasion, they decided to wait and visit the artifact with you today."
It seemed Mui wanted to play a classic political game of 'driving away the tiger to swallow the wolf,' setting two apex predators against each other while he reaped the benefits in the chaos.
"Without any notice?"
The Raikage, Ay, noticed this key information.
He immediately recalled the highly classified intelligence he had received weeks ago: Shortly after Tsunade succeeded as the Fifth Hokage, the Fire Country Daimyo mysteriously had his entire family killed.
Ay couldn't help but speculate about the cause and process of this incident from a conspiracy theory perspective.
It was just too coincidental!
At least the Hidden Stone Village and the Hidden Mist Village still put on a polite political show—the Daimyo tragically "died of illness" first, then the new Kage succeeded and began consolidating national resources.
The Hidden Leaf Village didn't even bother pretending.
Tsunade forcefully took the Hokage position first, and then the Fire Country Daimyo's entire bloodline was wiped off the map overnight in a terrorist bombing.
Ay absolutely didn't believe the international rumors that the killer of the Fire Daimyo was the exact same rogue bomber who killed the Earth Daimyo.
The Raikage had originally thought the Fire Country and the Hidden Leaf Village were the most conservative, stagnant places on the continent.
The Hidden Cloud's recent compromise—forcing their Daimyo to voluntarily give up executive power to be kept as a wealthy mascot—was already considered radical enough.
As for the Leaf? He had thought the Third Hokage, that old fossil Hiruzen, had decided to play ostrich and bury his head in the sand while the world changed.
But then Tsunade took the hat and immediately made massive bloody moves.
It was said the Daimyo's only surviving heir was eventually blown up too.
Such cruel, decisive, and borderline tyrannical methods made the Raikage incredibly wary of Tsunade.
He had only interacted with Tsunade once before (during the arm-wrestling incident), so her true political character was completely unknown to him.
Now, Tsunade was arriving unannounced at a high-security prison, bringing Makoto—the absolute menace who stole the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki—along with her.
"They come with ill intentions, Lord Raikage," Omoi whispered, standing tensely beside Ay, chewing his lollipop nervously.
"We can hear you perfectly fine, gentlemen of the Hidden Cloud."
A calm voice drifted over, making Omoi flinch and show a highly embarrassed expression.
'They actually heard that?'
The Raikage didn't mind.
Since they heard it, he might as well be straightforward.
He wasn't one for subtle politics anyway.
Ay marched aggressively toward Makoto's group, stopping right in front of the three.
Uchiha Hikari was someone he didn't recognize, so he ignored her and locked eyes with Tsunade and Makoto.
"Fifth Hokage. We meet again," Ay rumbled. "And this gentleman... After our last encounter at the Waterfall, I had my Anbu gather information about you. But aside from your name, Makoto, we found absolutely nothing."
"According to the Warden, you're also here for the Box of Ultimate Bliss. So I presume you've heard the legend—that it can fulfill the wish of whoever opens it."
The Raikage stared sharply at the two, his muscles tense, wondering if Tsunade and Makoto appearing together here meant the Leaf sought the Box to obtain powerful weapons for starting a World War.
"Of course. We also know this is supposedly a magical treasure from the Sage of Six Paths era," Makoto replied smoothly, stepping up to continue the conversation.
"However, judging by its fundamental mechanism of absorbing massive amounts of chakra to activate... this thing couldn't have been created earlier than Kaguya Otsutsuki's descent."
The Cloud Hidden Village members blinked.
They couldn't understand Makoto's following words at all.
'Who the hell is Kaguya Otsutsuki?'
Her name contained 'Kaguya'—was she related to the extinct Kaguya clan?
The crazy bone users from the Mist?
Makoto ignored their confusion and kept lore-dumping. "Doesn't your Hidden Cloud Village possess the Six Paths Treasures? The Gold and Silver tools? While those are explicitly said to be created by the Sage of Six Paths, the Box of Ultimate Bliss isn't attributed directly to him—it's only said to be from his 'era.'"
"Though to be fair, while the Sage of Six Paths might look somewhat unorthodox and creepy when smiling, he's fundamentally a decent guy and wouldn't create such an inherently evil, twisted object."
"So where did this Box actually come from? Could Kaguya actually a saint, leaving behind Surprise Magic Boxes when she was sealed?"
"..."
The Cloud Village members stared at him blankly.
They clearly understood that Makoto was casually revealing top-tier, ancient mythological intelligence.
They were committing every word to memory, yet comprehending absolutely none of it.
"Look, the Box's origin is irrelevant," Makoto finally concluded, waving his hand. "We're just here to destroy it, preventing anyone from using it to cause trouble in the future."
"It can't destroy the world, and destroying a major country would be somewhat difficult for it, but causing unnecessary mass casualties would be effortless for whatever demon is inside it."
"And as we all know, every life is precious."
(Somewhere in the Pure Land, the ghosts of the Fire and Earth Daimyos screamed: "REALLY?! WE DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU!")
"Your goal is to destroy the Box of Ultimate Bliss?"
The Raikage felt somewhat emotional—he had finally understood one sentence in that entire speech!
Regarding this objective, Ay felt slightly relieved.
If this were truly the case, then things would be much simpler.
Originally, the Cloud's purpose in coming here was to verify the Box's legend and determine its actual military applications.
If it was controllable, they'd use it.
If there were unacceptable side effects or it was a monkey's paw, they'd find ways to destroy or seal it to prevent other villages from obtaining it.
Viewed this way, both sides' core objectives aligned to some extent.
The current problems were:
The Raikage couldn't fully trust Makoto or believe a word he said.
The premise of shared objectives required verifying that the Box truly couldn't be used beneficially and must be destroyed.
However, the Raikage glanced back at his squad.
His brother Killer B was rapping quietly, and Yugito was boredly scraping the iron doorframe with her feline fingernails.
They had two Perfect Jinchuriki here, plus himself as the fastest Kage alive—completely overwhelming combat power.
What about Makoto's side? Tsunade, Makoto, and an unknown little girl.
Ay had fought both Tsunade (arm wrestling) and Makoto (a brief clash) before.
Both were physically matched with him in raw strength.
Last time he withdrew his troops from the Waterfall, it was because Makoto's side had already secured the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki and could theoretically deploy a Tailed Beast Bomb at any moment.
But today? Makoto's side had no Tailed Beast.
Ay's side had two.
So what is there to fear?
Moreover, there were massive tactical advantages to this setup.
Since Makoto and Tsunade had taken the initiative to propose destroying the Box, they would be the ones to interact with it first.
The Hidden Cloud wouldn't need to take any initial risks.
Even if it ultimately required someone to expend a massive amount of chakra to trigger the Box's defenses, it would be Tsunade bearing the burden, not his brother B or Yugito.
'Excellent. Truly excellent strategy,' Ay thought, praising his own tactical genius!
"I never expected the Leaf to care so deeply about peace in the ninja world. I deeply admire it," the Raikage lied smoothly.
"Let our Cloud Village members provide support and security from the sidelines. Please, go right ahead."
The Raikage extended a massive hand, signaling Mui to lead the way.
This wasn't entirely an act of posturing.
Though Ay was letting Makoto and Tsunade act as the guinea pigs, it didn't mean he actively wished for their deaths.
If any demonic riots or anomalies occurred, the Cloud would indeed intervene to secure the island.
"Very well. Please follow me."
Mui walked ahead leading the Kage-level group to the center of Hozuki Castle—a vast, open stone courtyard.
In the middle of the square stood a massive, cubic box made of an unknown, dark stone.
Each side was carved with a horrifying, screaming demonic face.
It seemed Mui had made logistical preparations the previous night, hauling the artifact up from the depths.
Seeing Makoto confidently approach the Box of Ultimate Bliss alone, Mui said nothing.
He just watched.
Mui had a complete plan and wasn't afraid of Makoto attempting to destroy the Box.
After losing his son Muku to the artifact years ago, Mui had tried countless methods to open or destroy the Box himself.
Explosives, high-level Ninjutsu, blunt force—all of them had failed to even scratch the stone.
Aside from infusing it with a massive, Jinchuriki-level amount of chakra to trigger its jaws to open, there was absolutely no other way to interact with the Box of Ultimate Bliss...
Click.
CRACK!
Makoto casually placed his palm directly against the screaming stone face of the Box.
The artifact emitted two sickening groans.
The indestructible stone surface violently twisted, groaned under impossible pressure, and then—
BOOM!
The legendary Box of Ultimate Bliss shattered into a million jagged pieces of gravel, collapsing into a mundane pile of rubble.
Mui: "The fuck?????"