Chapter 469: Box Of Ultimate Bliss

After leaving the Hokage Building, Mui remained silent the entire way. The Kusagakure personnel accompanying him followed closely behind, yet not one of them dared to speak to him. His mind repeatedly returned to the same question.

’Was there any other way? Any at all?’

Morihara Hayato was not only the village leader but also Mui’s teacher.

In this era of constant warfare, for a small ninja village struggling to survive between the great nations, a respected and capable leader was the pillar supporting the village’s very existence.

Once he fell, the infighting among Kusagakure’s internal factions and the ambitions of outside forces could tear the tiny ninja village apart in an astonishingly short time.

For that very reason, Mui wanted his teacher to survive more than anyone else.

As he thought about it, he suddenly remembered something.

More than a year ago, some ninja from the village encountered a married couple of physicians while carrying out a mission near the border of the Village Hidden in the Grass.

According to the Chūnin who had reported the incident upon returning to the village, the woman supposedly possessed a special ability. Whoever bit her could be brought back from the brink of death.

At that time, his teacher’s condition had already begun to deteriorate, and upon learning of this, he had immediately dispatched people to invite the couple back to the village.

However, no one knew what accident those people had encountered along the way. They disappeared without a trace, and the physician couple likewise vanished forever from the border region of the Village Hidden in the Grass.

If they had managed to bring that couple back then, even if they could not have completely cured his teacher, they could at least have stabilized his condition and prevented it from deteriorating to its current state.

Mui sighed inwardly and quietly put the thought aside. The past could no longer be changed.

What he needed now was to find another path.

He then turned his attention to a different possibility... the Box of Ultimate Bliss!

It was Kusagakure’s hereditary treasure, and in fact, it had existed on this land long before Kusagakure itself was founded.

Legend held that the box had been created by the Sage of Six Paths, and that whoever opened it would have one wish granted.

According to even older legends, Kusagakure’s ancestors had once successfully opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss and, with its power, had nearly conquered the entire world.

If even Tsunade, the greatest Medical Ninja in the world, had declared that his teacher was beyond saving, then the Box of Ultimate Bliss was all that remained.

Mui’s eyes sharpened as he made up his mind, but immediately afterward, he found himself facing a new dilemma.

The conditions required to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss were extraordinarily demanding.

It required an unimaginably vast amount of chakra.

Generation after generation, Kusagakure had continuously offered chakra to the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and countless people had devoted themselves, yet the box had remained completely unresponsive.

Exactly how much chakra did it require?

No one had an answer; they only knew that it was nowhere near enough.

Frowning deeply, Mui thought again of the international conference Shinichi Higashino had announced during today’s ceremony. Even if the convention were successfully signed, genuine trust between the ninja villages could never be established overnight.

In that case, could Kusagakure step forward and establish a prison specifically for holding prisoners of war from every nation and every ninja village, serving as a neutral mediator?

Once the prisoners of war from various villages were transferred to Kusagakure, he could secretly set up sealing barriers to extract their chakra and nourish the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

As he continued following this line of thought, his heartbeat unconsciously quickened. Yet after a moment, he shook his own head.

Leaving aside whether the convention would even be signed, even if it were, what right would Kusagakure have to serve as a neutral mediator?

Furthermore, if the truth were exposed before the Box of Ultimate Bliss had been successfully opened, Kusagakure would have to face the overwhelming wrath of the Five Great Ninja Villages, a catastrophe that would wipe it out.

Besides, his teacher’s body probably could not hold on for that long.

Chakra! Chakra! Where could he possibly find a source of chakra vast enough to open the Box of Ultimate Bliss?

Countless possibilities flashed rapidly through Mui’s mind. The first thing he naturally thought of was the tailed beasts. No one any longer knew their true origins, and it was only said that they had existed upon this land since the era of the Sage of Six Paths. But the tailed beasts possessed virtually inexhaustible reserves of chakra, something acknowledged throughout the entire Shinobi World.

But how could a tailed beast possibly be obtained so easily?

Every tailed beast was firmly controlled by one of the Five Great Ninja Villages. Every Jinchūriki was a core strategic asset of their respective village. How could an outsider ever hope to lay a hand on one?

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Mui had unknowingly led the Kusagakure group all the way to Konoha’s main gate. At that moment, another group happened to enter his field of vision.

The Takigakure delegation had stopped just inside the gate and seemed to be speaking with the Konoha guards before departing.

Mui’s gaze settled on the middle-aged man walking at the front of the group, whose expression was still heavy with worry, and he suddenly came to a stop.

Perhaps... There really was one.

The seven-tails Jinchūriki!

The only tailed beast Jinchūriki in the Shinobi World who did not belong to one of the Five Great Ninja Villages!

...

That evening, after the association’s internal activities had concluded, Obito Uchiha practically ran all the way home. As he passed the street corner, he casually helped an elderly woman across the road.

The old woman shouted after him, "I’d only just managed to get across."

However, the wind was too strong at the time. Obito didn’t hear her clearly and didn’t look back.

He merely raised a hand high in the air and waved to acknowledge her, shouting, "No need to thank me!" Before grinning and continuing to run toward home.

By the time he got home, his grandmother had already finished preparing dinner. From the moment he picked up his rice bowl at the table, Obito’s mouth never stopped moving.

With animated gestures, he vividly described everything that had happened at today’s assembly to his grandmother. Sometimes, when he became especially excited, his face lit up with enthusiasm, and his chopsticks nearly flew out of his hand and onto the corner of the table several times. His grandmother didn’t get annoyed, and she simply listened patiently.

As he continued, Obito became more and more excited. In the end, he simply set his rice bowl down on the table, puffed out his chest, and loudly declared to his grandmother that one day, their association would change the world.

His grandmother quietly listened the whole time, smiling and nodding from time to time.

Occasionally she would say, "Do your best, Obito," and every so often she would add another food to his bowl.

Her grandson had always been like this ever since he was little, focused, passionate, and kind, as though the entire world was worthy of her complete trust, devotion, and love.