Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 251

"Damn it!"

Mui cursed silently in his heart as the flames on his palm were about to strike down on Orochimaru again.

But this time, Orochimaru made the first move. He lunged forward, biting Mui's neck which was right in front of him. His modified venomous fangs pierced Mui's skin and injected a specially developed toxin directly into his artery.

Three seconds later, Orochimaru released his bite, his neck retracted to its normal length, and his body completely emerged from the old, shed skin.

As Orochimaru let go, Mui collapsed to the ground, powerless.

The toxin Orochimaru used was a neurotoxin. As long as Orochimaru didn't want Mui to die, he wouldn't die immediately—but his body would remain paralyzed, unable to move, and his chakra was completely blocked.

"What's your purpose in attacking this place?"

Lying on the ground, Mui raised his head and questioned Orochimaru. But Orochimaru didn't answer him right away. Instead, he walked over to pick up Kabuto's glasses and personally put them back on Kabuto's face.

Kabuto was so touched by this gesture that he was momentarily speechless. But by then, Orochimaru had already stood up calmly and uttered a few words.

"The Box of Ultimate Bliss."

Hearing that phrase, Mui's eyes widened in shock as he asked, "How do you know about that thing?"

His surprise was well justified. The Box of Ultimate Bliss was the ultimate ninja tool created by the Sage of Six Paths, the greatest legendary figure in the ninja world. It was said to have the power to grant one wish to whoever opened it.

Back during the Sage's time, the predecessors of Kusa almost conquered the entire world using the power of that box—proving just how terrifying its capabilities were.

Because of the immense power it held, the Box of Ultimate Bliss remained the greatest secret of the little-known Kusa. To protect it, they even built the Hōzuki Castle on a remote island where the box was hidden.

In recent decades, Kusa had become increasingly ambitious. The village split into two factions over whether to use the box to try and take over the world.

One faction, Fruit Group, wanted to open the box and unify the ninja world.

The other, Flower Group, believed the box was too dangerous and should remain sealed forever.

Mui belonged to the Fruit Group. Nine years ago, he had even sacrificed his own son to the box in an attempt to open it. But not only did he lose his son, the box remained sealed.

Now, with an outsider attacking Hōzuki Castle and openly asking for the Box of Ultimate Bliss, Mui's first suspicion naturally turned to the Flower Group.

"Did the Flower faction tell you?"

In his mind, perhaps the Flower Group had somehow made contact with the mysteriously still-living Orochimaru, and struck a deal with him to seize the box from Fruit Group.

But Orochimaru immediately shook his head.

"I have no interest in your internal village disputes. If I have any opinion, it's simply that you're all fools."

"A thousand years... and you still haven't grasped the true secret of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Laughable."

"The true secret?"

Mui was even more puzzled.

Wasn't the secret of the box that it could grant any wish, even to bring the dead back to life?

Orochimaru turned to look at the battlefield, which had calmed down. It wasn't clear if he was speaking to Mui or Kabuto.

"The name says it all—Box of Ultimate Bliss.

"And since it's a box, of course the key isn't the box itself, but what's inside it. Whatever lies within is the true path to bliss."

"So what is ultimate bliss?"

"Money? Status? Power? Beauty? Immortality?"

"There are countless forms of bliss in this world, but they all come down to one thing... Omnipotence. To be all-knowing and all-powerful—that is true omnipotence!"

As he said this, Orochimaru's voice trembled with passion. His fanatical tone made Kabuto shiver involuntarily.

"If one possessed all the truths of this world, then everything in existence would be within reach. That is the true state of bliss! Clearly, the Sage of Six Paths never attained bliss—otherwise, he wouldn't have died. But he did choose to seal part of the key to bliss within the Box of Ultimate Bliss."

Orochimaru's words were cryptic, but they made Mui start to realize something.

Since the box was a creation of the Sage of Six Paths, surely he could have opened it. If the box could truly grant wishes—like bringing someone back to life—then it should also be able to grant immortality.

So why did the Sage die?

That's a paradox. And the only explanation is that the Box of Ultimate Bliss can't actually grant wishes at all. Eternal life? Uniting the ninja world? Nonsense!

For a thousand years, Kusa had been chasing a ridiculous dream.

For decades, the Seed and Flower factions had been fighting over... nothing.

Awakened to the truth, Mui was overwhelmed with confusion. What had he been scheming for all these years? Why had his son, Wugou, died?

Accepting the reality and knowing he had little time left, Mui let go of his burdens and revealed the location of the box to Orochimaru.

"The Box of Ultimate Bliss lies directly beneath this plaza. There's a hidden passage behind the bookshelf in the lord's tower that leads straight there. Since you seem to understand it so well, you must have a way to open it too."

In response to Mui's words, Orochimaru simply smiled faintly, murmured a few soft words, and left with Kabuto. Mui, paralyzed on the ground, could only stare as their figures disappeared from view.

Inside the main keep of Hōzuki Castle, Orochimaru led Kabuto, Guren, and Yūkimaru swiftly toward the topmost floor of the lord's tower.

As they moved through the central corridor, a few trembling guards clumsily tried to block their path with spears. But just one glance from Orochimaru sent them fleeing. Kabuto didn't even need to lift a finger.

At that moment, Orochimaru's heart was a frenzy of obsession and impatience. His snake-like eyes burned with complex emotions, and his twisted expression made his ominous face even more terrifying than usual.

Because the object described in the Necronomicon was now—finally—within arm's reach.

---

"My leg… I can't walk anymore."

During the climb up the stairs, the young and untrained Yūkimaru was the first to fall behind, collapsing on the steps.

"Guren, carry him!"

Ahead, Orochimaru didn't even turn his head, directly issuing an order to Guren behind him.

"Yes!" Guren quickly lifted Yūkimaru onto her back and continued to follow after Kabuto up the stairs.

At last, the group arrived at the Lord's chamber in Hōzuki Castle. Behind the desk exclusive to Mui was a row of conspicuous bookshelves.

Kabuto was about to step forward and search for a hidden mechanism, but Orochimaru stopped him with a curt, "No need."

"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"

Countless thick snake limbs shot from Orochimaru's sleeves, wrapping around the edges and corners of the entire bookshelf. With a forceful pull to the side, the entire shelf—along with the concealed passageway—was torn open.

A hidden entrance appeared, and the four took the elevator in the center down to the secret area below.

The layout was very similar to Orochimaru's secret laboratory, with various pieces of experimental equipment placed in the dark corners around them. It seemed Mui had conducted a number of experiments here in order to uncover the secrets of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

As for the experimental subjects, naturally they were the lifers locked away in Hōzuki Castle—prisoners no one cared about.

In the center of the lab stood an operating table.

As the most elite researcher in the ninja world, Orochimaru took just one glance at the surrounding instruments to deduce what kind of human experiments had been conducted here and for what purpose.

It appeared Mui had tried to use the prisoners' chakra to meet the conditions for opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss—a laughably naive idea.

Orochimaru sneered internally at Mui, then instructed Guren to place Yūkimaru on the operating table.

Guren obeyed and gently laid Yūkimaru down. But as she removed her arms, Yūkimaru reached out and grabbed onto her sleeve.

"Guren…"

Yūkimaru's face was full of vulnerability and sadness, but Guren still pried his hand off.

"Don't worry. It'll all be over soon."

Leaving those comforting words behind, Guren stepped aside with Kabuto.

All the while, Kabuto's sharp eyes behind his glasses had been quietly observing Guren's every move.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru was beginning to gather his chakra and prepare the hand seals needed for the ritual.

According to what Orochimaru had discovered in ancient texts, the Box of Ultimate Bliss was one of the Sage of Six Paths' ninja tools, mainly used for sealing.

There were many ninja tools left behind by the Sage of Six Paths. Among them, three had sealing functions: the Crimson Gourd, the Amber Purifying Pot, and the Box of Ultimate Bliss. But the Box was the most unique.

That's because only the Sage of Six Paths, with his immense chakra, could seal something inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss—and that seal was said to be eternal and unbreakable.

Furthermore, something had already been sealed inside the box since the moment of its creation.

That sealed entity was called Satori, a man-eating puppet capable of sensing and feeding on the weaknesses in human hearts—born from their fear. It could even turn those it devoured into its own kind.

And so, a chant has been passed down for over a thousand years: "From Satori comes the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Moved by Satori. Ends with Satori."

Because of this, the Box of Ultimate Bliss had long been revered as the ultimate weapon from the Sage's era—idolized by those who pursued power.

In common terms, power meant the ability to obtain anything one desired in the material world—leading the descendants of Kusa to misinterpret the Box as a tool that could grant any wish.

But—

It was all wrong!

Everything known about the Box of Ultimate Bliss so far was a misinterpretation. That chant and all the rumors were false!

Even the great Toad Sage, who lived for a thousand years, could never uncover the true purpose of the Box—because it was all a trap laid by the Sage of Six Paths himself!

The real purpose of the box… was to hide something.

Something incredibly important.

A key to all truths of existence!

That was the true goal of the Sage of Six Paths!

During the two years he had vanished from the public eye, Orochimaru had focused on studying bizarre lifeforms and secretly searched for scattered Necronomicon from around the world.

In a recently acquired volume, its content completely shattered Orochimaru's previous understanding of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Although the book didn't directly mention the Sage of Six Paths, it did reveal a name: Hagoromo.

Having studied many ancient texts, Orochimaru naturally knew that this was the real name of the legendary Sage of Six Paths.

According to the Necronomicon, Hagoromo's mother—like many other ancient species from the olden days—descended upon Earth from an extraterrestrial realm. She was not human.

Her race worshipped Shub-Niggurath, the Supreme Mother Goddess, as their one and only deity, and they even carried a trace of her bloodline.

Although this trace had weakened greatly over the ages, the race still regarded themselves as the descendants of the Supreme Mother Goddess.

Due to this sliver of divine blood, Hagoromo's mother inherited Shub-Niggurath's immense reproductive power—the ability to breed with any species and produce offspring.

Thus, she mated with humans on Earth and gave birth to the two brothers: Hagoromo and Hamura.

However, her descent to Earth wasn't without purpose. She came to plant a seed.

This seed belonged to another outer god, albeit one of lower standing than the Supreme Mother. It was the seed of K'thun, the Mother of a different alien species.

Once planted, it would grow into a Gray God Tree, absorbing the racial vitality of all living things across the world.

The purpose of Hagoromo's mother's race was to plant Kuthuun's seed in every life-rich planet in the universe, drawing out the genetic essence of all lifeforms to restore their own fading divine bloodline.

Because all living beings were originally birthed from the Supreme Mother Goddess. She was the origin of fertility, the progenitor of growth.

All life stems from Shub-Niggurath.

Thus, her race believed that by reclaiming even the smallest remnants of her bloodline from other species and concentrating it back into themselves, they could once again become her true descendants.

However, by mating with humans behind her race's back, Hagoromo's mother had further diluted their sacred blood, becoming an outcast.

In the end, she severed ties with her people and began living on Earth.