Whoosh!
Several Grass Ninja heaved the thick black tarpaulin off.
The object beneath was revealed in its entirety.
It was a cube-shaped box, suffocatingly enormous and pitch-black all over.
Its surface was not smooth, but carved with reliefs of four demon gods, each with a different face.
They encircled the box, so lifelike that merely looking at them seemed enough to feel a vicious aura that devoured souls.
The entire box had a strange texture, neither metal nor wood, yet exceptionally heavy. Stranger still, it seemed to absorb the surrounding light, dimming the area around it.
It was the legendary ninja tool, the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Naruto showed no surprise at the sight of the box.
"Heh."
He gave a soft scoff that carried clearly down to them.
They had abandoned evacuating the civilians and any possibility of negotiation. Instead, they had brought out their last resort, a supposed "divine artifact" with destructive power, for one final gamble.
Sure enough, it had come to this.
Just look at Kusagakure. At least they had the guts to fight a powerful enemy. Those old fossils in the Hyuga Clan were lucky they were already dead.
Before deciding to move against Kusagakure, Naruto had naturally done his homework on the intelligence.
He knew something of the legends surrounding the Box of Ultimate Bliss as well.
Legend claimed that the box was one of the ninja tools left behind by the Sage of Six Paths.
Its construction was no ordinary craftsmanship, incorporating extremely advanced principles of Yin-Yang Release.
It supposedly required vast amounts of chakra to grant wishes, yet no one had ever actually had a wish granted. A monster named "Gō" was also sealed inside.
Apparently, the thing had even fallen into Hashirama Senju's hands during the Warring States Period.
Naruto had