Destruction

The Root base was grim and dim.

Shimura Danzō's shadow swayed faintly in the candlelight. As he looked over the classified intelligence before him, a hint of fanaticism crept into his eyes.

"The Box of Bliss can grant any wish?" Danzo spoke slowly. "Does such a miraculous treasure really exist in this world?"

"Perhaps... it is all true. The Land of Grass was erased from the map. Even the First Hokage could not have achieved such terrifying might overnight, could he?"

A few nights ago, Konoha had been struck by an earthquake accompanied by a powerful mental shockwave. In truth, the Shinobi World had not suffered a natural disaster in a long time; most disasters were man-made. Konoha swiftly investigated whether the quake had been accidental or deliberately caused, and Root had also intervened.

Yet according to the relevant intelligence, Konoha's upper ranks soon learned that the earthquake had not struck Konoha alone. The Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, and the surrounding smaller nations had all trembled, while the source of the quake lay in the Land of Grass.

The shinobi dispatched to gather intelligence in the Land of Grass made a shocking discovery: the Land of Grass was gone. Not Kusagakure—the entire country had vanished, physically erased from existence!

Bottomless ravines and enormous craters covered the Land of Grass. The ground looked as though it had been completely overturned. Fewer than one in ten of its people remained, and most survivors had gone mad, utterly unaware of what had happened.

Fortunately, Root found a villager barely clinging to life near Kusagakure. Though his mental state was equally abnormal, Root forcibly read his memories and thereby learned of the red-haired witch Karin and the Box of Bliss.

"The witch offered sacrifices to the Box of Bliss and wished for the destruction of the Land of Grass. The monster born from the box fulfilled the witch's request."

The instant Danzo obtained this information, he knew his opportunity had arrived. The Box of Bliss was a treasure bestowed upon him by heaven! With it, he would surely become Hokage!

No, what was a mere Hokage worth!

If the Box of Bliss could truly grant wishes, then he, Shimura Danzō, would become the new master of the Shinobi World!

Even if the Box of Bliss could not grant wishes, the terrifying destructive power it had displayed was enough to move Danzo. This power was even greater than that of the Tailed Beasts!

Though living people had to be sacrificed to activate the Box of Bliss, Danzo did not care. To him, human lives were merely renewable resources. He could have as many as he wanted. If the lives of ants could forge Danzo's path to becoming Hokage, that would be their good fortune~

"Foolish Hiruzen, this time, I will get ahead of you! Hahahaha..." Danzo laughed softly, completely shedding the dejection of having been forced to take the blame some time ago.

The Yamanaka possessed secret techniques for reading memories, and one of Danzo's trusted subordinates was Yamanaka Fū. Spies from other factions probably would not use such brutal means to interrogate survivors from the Land of Grass, so Danzo concluded that he was likely the first to obtain intelligence on the Box of Bliss.

All of Root swiftly sprang into action. Danzo issued two orders. First, eliminate every survivor in the Land of Grass, especially those near Kusagakure, to prevent further leaks about the Box of Bliss. Second, reclaim the Box of Bliss at any cost. It was his treasure alone and the foundation upon which he would realize his dream. Danzo would not allow anyone else to lay a hand on it!

At this point, Danzo had no idea that everyone already had a copy of the information about the Box of Bliss.

That day, Karin and Nao had released Satori, the monster within the Box of Bliss. This thing knew a little rudimentary mind-reading and possessed a somewhat straightforward form of immortality. So long as the Box of Bliss was not destroyed, Satori could not truly die.

Satori could communicate, but his sanity often went offline. He had an indescribable connection to the Sage of Six Paths, so the Demon decided to use him to stir up trouble.

The rumors about the Box of Bliss resembled those of the Wish-Granting Lamp. However, Satori's destructive power was too low. More accurately, the destructive power of all ninjutsu in the Shinobi World was rather limited. Most ninjutsu were meant for targeted killing, while the Demon preferred abilities that could unleash widespread natural disasters—earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, or plagues—to harvest lives on a massive scale.

Using the Box of Bliss as the setup, Satori and Karin jointly staged a grand performance as the starring leads!

Because of Karin's horrifying wish, Satori, a tool controlled by the Demon, wreaked havoc across the Land of Grass. This was both the Demon's test and its first attack. The souls of the dead did not enter the Pure Land; instead, they were cruelly devoured by the Demon.

--On the surface, it looked as though Karin and Satori had done everything, and Satori was the one devouring souls. The Demon had remained in a state of deep Concealment the entire time.

The mad slaughter did not last long. Karin soon sensed that some danger was about to descend. An unknown gaze was spying on them, as though the eyes of an alien being had crossed time and space. That cold gaze carried a strange, uncanny scrutiny, and a sense of crisis abruptly surged into her heart.

The next moment, a majestic power erupted from the Pure Land. Ignoring the barrier between yin and yang, it bore down on Satori with overwhelming force. The very earth seemed to wail. It was also this power that caused so many people to suffer a mental shockwave.

Satori did not even last half a second before he was reduced to ashes. In theory, Karin should not have been able to withstand it either, but at the critical moment, she hid inside the Box of Bliss and avoided the strike from the Pure Land.

"The Sage of Six Paths is indeed still watching over the Shinobi World!" The Demon was absolutely, positively certain of this. After Satori was eliminated, that scrutinizing gaze lingered for a long time before finally withdrawing.

Many had died in past Shinobi World Wars, yet the Sage of Six Paths had never stepped in to take charge. Why had the destruction of the Land of Grass drawn his attention this time?

The Demon guessed that the disturbance had simply been too great and too many people had died. The death toll in the Land of Grass this time far exceeded the combined casualties of several Shinobi World Wars. After all, a Shinobi World War was not a world war. Even if shinobi beat each other's brains out, not that many people would die. (War was confined to the small group of shinobi. In a sense, ordinary people in the Five Great Nations lived rather peacefully.)

The Box of Bliss had originally belonged to that old man, the Sage of Six Paths, so it was not strange that it attracted his attention. More importantly, this time, it might have touched the Pure Land's slice of the pie!

The souls of those who died in the Land of Grass had not entered the Pure Land. Most likely, that was the main reason the Sage of Six Paths could not resist taking action. Thinking carefully, the Uzumaki had developed the Reaper Death Seal back then, stealing business from the Pure Land, and afterward the Uzumaki had inexplicably been wiped out. Who knew whether the Sage of Six Paths had a hand in pushing things along?

All of that was merely the Demon's speculation. It would not abandon its plan simply because the Sage of Six Paths had suddenly acted. The destruction of the Land of Grass and the survivors deliberately allowed to escape were enough to spread word of the Box of Bliss's power throughout the world!

That was enough.

Karin was thrown out of the Box of Bliss, but Nao did not emerge with her. She only told Karin to do two things: "Throw the Box of Bliss to Iwagakure, then find a way to join Akatsuki."