What era is it now, and you're still stuck on traditional fighting?
The outcome of a battle is decided in an instant, so the best strategy is to go all out within three seconds of the fight starting!
Thus, Dead Demon Consuming Seal!
Just as Muku had crawled out of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, stabbed his own father to death, and was about to run amok, he suddenly turned and realized… the Shinigami had arrived!
"Are you insane?" Satori or Muku stared at Naruto, his massive body trembling slightly.
"You've been dead all along. Never come out again." Naruto's words were spoken lightly, but to Muku's ears, they were as sharp and cold as blades, making all the hair on his body stand on end.
"Seal!"
The enormous phantom of the Shinigami moved, grabbing Satori and pulling him over. To outsiders, it looked as though Satori was being bound by some invisible force.
Then, a terrifying scene unfolded.
The ten-meter-tall Satori let out a scream as his massive body was compressed, violently collapsing inward. Blood poured down like a torrential rain, stunning everyone present.
The blue-faced, fanged Shinigami phantom opened its mouth, gripped the white short knife in its hand, and began slicing into Satori's body, meticulously chopping it into pieces before swallowing them.
Muku had long been dead, his body and soul fused within the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
The Shinigami's phantom simply flattened him, chopped him up, and devoured him raw. To the outside world, it appeared as though Satori had been flattened and then vanished.
The scene fell silent. Naruto had quelled the disaster with swift and decisive action. What the people of Kusagakure might have seen as an invincible catastrophe hadn't even lasted three seconds.
Naruto didn't so much as glance at the higher-ups of Kusagakure, ignored long-dead Mui, and paid no mind to the chaotic prison.
His gaze shifted, landing on Ryuzetsu.
Ryuzetsu shuddered, all other thoughts vanishing from her mind. She couldn't even muster a single word of questioning.
This is how people are… when something falls within their understanding, they feel discontent and raise objections. But in the face of absolute power, they turn inward and blame themselves.
Even if Naruto's actions and words didn't perfectly align in some details, Mui had indeed revived Muku exactly as Naruto had said… that was undeniable.
From this perspective, he had fulfilled his promise to Ryuzetsu.
But in terms of the outcome, Muku hadn't truly been revived, and only his lingering regrets remained within the Box of Ultimate Bliss. After revival, those regrets lost their original intent and transformed into a horror.
The horror didn't last long before Naruto personally suppressed and destroyed it.
So when Naruto glanced at her, Ryuzetsu didn't dare entertain any other thoughts. If anyone was to blame, it was Mui. No matter what, Ryuzetsu wouldn't dare hold any resentment toward Naruto.
He didn't bother with the mess left behind. After storing the Box of Ultimate Bliss in his seal space, he left directly.
Night fell.
Ryuzetsu, having changed clothes, found her way to him through sensing. Naruto sat by a fire in the woods, the scent of burnt ashes wafting through the air, repelling mosquitoes and insects.
"Sit." Naruto seemed to have been waiting for her.
"Yes." Ryuzetsu sat across the fire from him.
She didn't dare say anything to Naruto, but her attitude clearly wasn't cheerful. Her childhood friend had died once again, and it was hard to avoid feeling melancholy or conflicted.
Across the fire, Naruto glanced at her, unhurriedly tossing a dry piece of firewood into the flames. As sparks flew, he asked, "What are your thoughts on today's events?"
She initially wanted to say she had no thoughts, but she still harbored some resentment. Seeing that Naruto's expression didn't seem accusatory, she gritted her teeth and spoke up.
"Muku is still dead."
She didn't say Muku had died by Naruto's hand… she didn't dare and felt somewhat guilty, as this hadn't been part of their prior agreement. What was done was done, and saying more wouldn't change anything.
"You're unwilling to accept it?" He shot her a glance, "Or are you blaming me for not waking your childhood friend and giving him a new body?"
"Should I just sacrifice someone randomly and let your childhood friend use their body? Orochimaru has methods for that, but one vessel isn't enough… I'd need to find several."
Ryuzetsu's face instantly paled. She swallowed hard and said in a low voice, "That's… that's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" Naruto stared at her, returning to the initial question… what did she think?
"I..."
"You overthink things and lack strength." Naruto stood up, "Ten years ago, before your childhood friend was sent to the altar, why didn't you stop it?"
"I didn't know it would... lead to death. By then, it was already too late." Ryuzetsu instantly became dejected, "Our entire village took pride in opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss, but no one knew what it truly was."
"Is that so?" Naruto uttered the words.
Though lightly spoken, those words made Ryuzetsu immediately lower her head as if struck at her core. There was no need for her to explain so much, and the more she said, the more guilty she appeared.
This was nothing but shirking responsibility. No matter how many excuses she made, the situation back then was far better than now. What she couldn't accomplish herself, she only realized was a trap just before Muku's death.
Now, to resent others for not saving Muku was utterly unreasonable. She realized this, hence her shame and self-blame.
"The dead cannot return to life, and even if they could, it would come at a great cost." Naruto never spared those in the wrong, his words sharp as blades.
"Why did you do nothing back then? What gives you the right to hope for a miracle? The Box of Ultimate Bliss was opened, you saw him again, and then you left him to kill?"
"Or did you think Muku died too quickly? Would you have preferred to let him kill thousands, tens of thousands, before dying? Were you thinking that, at worst, you could die with him, easing your guilt a little?"
Word after word struck Ryuzetsu's heart, making her bow her head lower and lower, almost suffocating.
Perhaps before Naruto displayed his overwhelming power, he hadn't exuded such feeling of oppression. But now, Ryuzetsu had already signed the Jashin's contract and naturally understood Naruto's status.
Coupled with today's display of crushing his opponent in three seconds, Naruto mercilessly shattered the last trace of stubbornness in Ryuzetsu's heart. Reason is for the weak, the strong only speak of rules.
"I'm not… Stop it!" Ryuzetsu was on the verge of breaking down.
Naruto's words were like a very thin blade, peeling off the scab over the wound in her heart and slicing away a nearly transparent piece of flesh.
See? How foolish you were back then!
After doing all this, he held it before her and said,
"This was his fate. Muku died long ago. What you saw today was merely a puppet." Naruto had no intention of letting her off, he felt no sympathy.
Since Ryuzetsu had signed the Jashin's contract with him, he couldn't keep someone by his side who might cause trouble at any moment. She needed to learn to accept reality.