Chapter 111: The Purpose of the Box; Intelligence from Mount Myoboku
Konoha. The Central Research Institute. Underground Lab.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss, recovered by Danzo from the ruins of the Hidden
Grass, sat in the center of the laboratory.
Hiruzen, Orochimaru, and Hiruko stood around the monolith, waiting for word from
Jiraiya. They had spent the last few days conducting preliminary scans on this
so-called "Ultimate Weapon of the Sage of the Six Paths," but progress had been
stalling.
The Anbu had recently summoned Jiraiya back from Mount Myoboku. Apparently, the
Great Toad Sage had woken from his slumber with an urgent message regarding the
artifact.
"Sensei, this thing is definitely not from this era," Orochimaru noted, tapping
the obsidian-like shell of the box.
"I've had the Hyūga and Uchiha High Commissioners attempt to peer inside.
Neither the Byakugan nor the Sharingan can penetrate the casing. It's as if the
internal structure exists in a different dimension."
"The material is incredibly dense," Hiruko added, consulting his notes.
"Standard Ninjutsu doesn't even leave a scratch. In fact, the box seems to have
a passive 'Chakra-Siphon' effect. It slowly leaches energy from anything in a
ten-foot radius."
"It's absorbing something else, too," Hiruko narrowed his eyes. "Something our
sensors can't quite identify yet. It's... biological, but not quite chakra."
Hiruzen nodded. He wasn't a laboratory scientist, but he trusted the data his
team provided. He was looking at a strategic asset that defied the known laws of
physics.
A few minutes later, Jiraiya burst into the lab, looking winded and unusually
serious.
"Sensei! I've got the intel! The Great Toad Sage told me everything!"
Hiruzen's eyes lit up. "Good lad. Speak."
Hiruzen had sent requests to the other Sage Regions as well. But the Shikkotsu
Forest and Ryuchi Cave were vastly different from the proactive Mount Myoboku.
Lady Katsuyu was kind but legendary for being "out of the loop"—she spent most
of her centuries-long life napping in the sun. The White Snake Sage, meanwhile,
ran a savage "survival of the fittest" society and rarely cared for historical
records unless they involved something she could eat.
Mount Myoboku was the only Sage Region that functioned like a formal
intelligence agency.
"Sensei, the Great Toad Sage says the Box of Ultimate Bliss was created by the
Sage of the Six Paths himself," Jiraiya began, shocking the room.
Hiruzen and Orochimaru shared a look. They turned back to the box. This ugly
thing was made by a god? Where is the 'Bliss' exactly?
"According to the records, the Sage believed that the primary obstacle to world
peace was human misunderstanding caused by negative emotions—hatred, greed,
jealousy."
"So, he built a vessel to act as a global filter. He intended to absorb the
malice of the world into this box so that humanity could live in a state of pure
harmony."
Jiraiya pointed at the dark, twisted faces carved into the box's surface. "It
didn't look like this originally. It used to be made of white jade, glowing with
a divine light. But as it drank the world's hatred, it was corrupted. It turned
into... this."
"The 'Great Wish' the box is rumored to grant? That's a lie. It's a lure created
by the monster sealed inside—a creature called Satori. Satori is the physical
manifestation of all that compressed malice. It possesses the ability to sense
ill-intent and a body with near-infinite mobility. It's not as destructive as a
Tailed Beast, but it's arguably harder to kill because you can't even land a hit
on it."
Jiraiya scratched his head, looking troubled. "Old Man Fukasaku told me the Sage
eventually realized his mistake. When you take away a human's ability to feel
'bad' things, they don't become 'good.' They become hollow. They lose their
drive. Their ambition. Their... soul. They became a world of walking corpses."
"The Sage cancelled the project, but before he could dismantle the box,
'something happened.' The toads wouldn't tell me what it was. But the result is
that the box was lost to time."
"Sensei... why would a world without pain be a bad thing?" Jiraiya asked,
sounding genuinely confused. "Isn't that what we're all fighting for?"
Hiruzen gave a soft, knowing smile. In his past life as Arata, he had read a
sci-fi novel called The Mirror. It described a "perfect" society under total
surveillance—no crime, no lies, and eventually, no desire. It was a civilization
that achieved peace only to realize it had no reason to keep living.
"Negative emotions are a fundamental part of the human experience, Jiraiya,"
Hiruzen lectured.
"Anger is an immune response to injustice. Fear is a mechanism for survival.
Greed, when channeled, is the engine of progress. If you excise the 'Malice,'
you perform a Spiritual Castration on the species. A human who cannot hate also
cannot truly love, because they have no baseline for comparison."
"A perfect world is a stagnant world. And a stagnant world eventually dies."
Jiraiya shivered, shaking his head. "I guess that makes sense. But man... the
Sage really went for it, didn't he?"
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, catching a detail in Jiraiya's story. "Something
happened" that prevented the Sage from finishing his work. Combined with his
knowledge of the series' "Endgame," Hiruzen felt the pressure of time
increasing.
If there are threats out there that even the Sage of the Six Paths couldn't
handle, Konoha needs to be a lot stronger than this, Arata thought.
"Lord Hokage," Hiruko said, his voice full of awe. "Your grasp of the Sage's
philosophy is... breathtaking. You see the 'Design Language' behind the
artifact."
Hiruzen waved off the praise. "It's common sense if you look at the board,
Hiruko. We want a world where people choose to be good, not a world where they
are forced to be lobotomized."
Orochimaru nodded in agreement. If my hunger for knowledge was removed, I'd be
nothing but a tree. Immortality without ambition is a nightmare.
Hiruko scribbled furiously in his notebook: 'Hokage's Principle: Virtue must be
a choice. Ambition is the engine of the Leaf.'
Jiraiya caught a glimpse of the notes and facepalmed. Great. Hiruko is becoming
another Hizashi-tier simp. Sensei is literally brainwashing these guys with
logic.
"Orochimaru," Hiruzen said, looking at the Snake. "Do you see the connection?"
"I do, Sensei," Orochimaru hissed, his eyes glinting. "The Sage's box is a more
advanced version of the Zero-Tails theory in Lord Tobirama's notes. Both utilize
human malice as a synthetic power source."
Jiraiya blinked. "Wait, the Second Hokage was researching this too? I never saw
those scrolls!"
"There are many things you haven't seen, Jiraiya," Orochimaru teased. "Perhaps
you'd know more if you spent more time in the archives and less time at the
'research' baths."
"Hey! My research is essential for my literature! It's for the village's
cultural prestige!" Jiraiya barked. "And besides, since when did the 'Snake'
start acting like Danzo? You're starting to lecture people on 'discipline' now?"
Orochimaru smirked. "It's called being a professional. You should try it
sometime, 'Dead-Last.'"
Jiraiya's lip twitched. "Fourth Hokage? Me? I'm already halfway there! Just you
wait!"
The banter lightened the mood, but the underlying tension remained. Hiruko
watched the Sannin with a strange sense of security. He realized that as long as
Hiruzen was the anchor, these three monsters would never tear each other apart.
They were a family of rivals.
"Anyway," Jiraiya said, his tone suddenly dropping to a low, somber note.
"Sensei... speaking of Kage candidates... the Great Toad Sage gave me a new
prophecy."
"A prophecy?" Orochimaru scoffed. "The White Snake Sage told me the Great Toad
is just a senile old drunk."
"This one is different. The vision shifted," Jiraiya said, his eyes fixed on
Hiruzen. "He saw a fire that didn't just burn; it rebuilt. He saw a 'Great
Architect' who changed the tracks of fate."
"And... I have a confession to make."
Jiraiya dropped to one knee before Hiruzen, his head bowed in shame.
"During the war, in the Land of Rain... I took on three students in secret. I
didn't report it to the village. I stayed behind to train them for three years."
"One of them... a boy named Nagato... I believe he possesses the Rinnegan. The
eyes of the Sage of the Six Paths."
"I thought he was the Savior. I thought I was protecting a miracle for the
world. But I realized now that by keeping it a secret, I may have jeopardized
the village."
"I submit myself for your judgment, Lord Hokage."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. The "Nagato Gambit" had officially entered the game.
"Get up, Jiraiya," Hiruzen commanded, his voice as cold as a mountain peak.
"Tell me everything. Every detail. Now."
☆☆☆
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