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Chapter 66: Recovering the Box of Ultimate Bliss, Sasuke's Whereabouts
No matter. I'll test it first. If it's true... hehehe... A sinister laugh echoed in Alex's mind. He immediately activated his Paper Release, creating a number of white kunai. He mixed them in with Konan's attack, and they all shot toward "Satori." Just as before, the monster successfully dodged Konan's attacks, but something was different. Ten kunai were stuck deep in its back. They were the exact ones Alex had made. It's just as I thought. He felt a jolt of excitement. Satori truly couldn't read his thoughts. Konan took in the sight of the kunai on Satori, glanced at Alex, and nodded in understanding.
"Honoka, intensify your attack!" As she spoke, her own attacks became faster and denser, drawing Satori's attention.
Honoka gritted her teeth. "Yes, Lady Konan."
Her nine golden chains immediately shot out to bind Satori at an even faster speed. Unfortunately, even so, Satori still managed to dodge every attempt in advance. It seemed there was no way to catch the monster. The nine chains enveloped it from all sides while a dense barrage of white kunai and paper blades shot up from below. Satori roared and flew straight up to escape. Swoosh! Just then, five enormous, grey-white bone spikes suddenly stabbed down from high above. Hearing the whistle of air being pierced from above, Satori subconsciously looked up. Its eyes went wide, as if wondering why it hadn't sensed the attack. Bang! The next second, Satori was impaled in mid-air by the five giant bone spikes and slammed heavily to the ground, sending up a massive splash. As the water settled, Satori's form was revealed. Its giant, round body, along with its four limbs, were each pierced by a bone spike, pinning it deep into the ground. It was held firmly in place, with only its wide black wings struggling to flap, accompanied by angry roars. Still making a fuss? Alex snorted from the air. Three more identical bone spikes shot from his paper form, piercing Satori's wings and mouth. The monster's struggles and roars stopped abruptly. It was now a lamb for the slaughter. Konan couldn't use Shikotsumyaku carelessly, but he had no such restriction. As mere paper, he wasn't afraid of any bloodline disease.
Alex flew down from the sky, along with the other sheets of paper, and floated in front of Konan. Honoka stood to the side, eyes shining with excitement. "Lady Konan, you're amazing! You can even use white paper to cast other ninjutsu!!"
She had thought that just being able to form various ninja tools to attack was already incredible. She never expected that even ninjutsu could be cast. Lady Konan's Paper Release was truly magical, worthy of being the only and most unique existence in the ninja world! Just imagine, if thousands of white papers cast ninjutsu at the same time, how spectacular and terrifying that scene would be. My Alex is, of course, amazing. Konan smiled as she looked at Alex, but she didn't correct Honoka's misunderstanding. She would find out eventually. Honoka looked at Satori, pinned to the ground like a dead dog, and was in absolute awe. She had been so frustrated just moments ago when her repeated attacks couldn't even touch the monster's fur. Thank goodness Lady Konan was so strong. In just a few breaths, the monster Satori was easily taken down.
Honoka had grown up on the Summoning Island and didn't recognize that the giant bone spikes came from Shikotsumyaku. But the other person present, Ryūzetsu, had served in the Village Hidden in the Grass's Anbu and naturally knew what she was seeing. However, before Alex even attacked, Konan had preemptively restrained Ryūzetsu with Paper Release, wrapping her up like a mummy. Konan had no intention of letting an outsider like Ryūzetsu learn Alex's secret.
While Honoka went forward to examine Satori, Konan remained where she was and asked in a low voice, "What now? How do we deal with this monster?"
Alex replied after a moment, [Satori is hard to kill. It recovers automatically.]
Konan nodded. She had seen the situation on the field. Satori's wounds healed quickly. It was only because the bone spikes were in the way. Otherwise, the giant holes would have likely recovered in the blink of an eye.
[Exhaustion.] Alex gave the solution. [Keep attacking. Drain Satori's power. When it can't maintain itself, it will be automatically recalled by the Box of Ultimate Bliss.]
"Honoka," Konan said coolly. "Move away from Satori. I'm going to continue the attack to make it return to the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"Eh..." Honoka was confused. "You mean it still can't die?" She looked again at the eight giant bone spikes in Satori. The wounds they created were shockingly large. If it were a normal person, they would be long dead. "It really is a monster..."
Honoka spat silently and hurried back to Konan's side. Then, one Exploding Tag after another flew out, sticking all over Satori's body until its skin was completely covered. Boom! Boom! Boom! The next second, the Exploding Tags detonated, sending a towering mushroom cloud into the air. Black smoke billowed as the explosions continued relentlessly. Satori's massive body was completely engulfed in fire and smoke, impossible to see. Only a few muffled roars, barely audible, could be heard from within.
More than ten minutes later, Honoka stared blankly at the mushroom cloud, shocked. "Lady Konan, is it possible that monster still isn't dead? How long do we have to keep bombing it with Exploding Tags?"
She wasn't just surprised by Satori's toughness, but even more shocked by how many Exploding Tags Lady Konan had. Whenever the sound of the explosions weakened even slightly, Lady Konan would just toss another stack from her sleeve. How many Exploding Tags could she possibly have to be this wasteful... This wasn't just an explosion of paper, it was an explosion of money...
Konan didn't speak, just kept throwing in Exploding Tags. Finally, with one last sudden roar from within the flames, the silent Box of Ultimate Bliss began to buzz. The giant mouth on the "joy" face reappeared as a black vortex. It emitted a powerful suction, pulling in the entire mushroom cloud, along with Satori. The scene returned to peace. All that was left was a massive, dark crater and the eight bone spikes still stuck in its walls. Their surfaces were pitted and covered in black dust, badly damaged by the relentless explosions. Alex looked at the giant crater, thinking. It seemed that when Satori was recalled, it turned into a mass of chakra to be swallowed by the giant mouth.
[Retrieve the Box of Ultimate Bliss, then let's go back.] After this message, he slipped into Konan's chest, returning to that familiar, warm place.
Konan said, "Clean up the site."
Honoka nodded and began to clean up any traces, destroying anything that couldn't be hidden. Konan personally handled the eight bone spikes. A storage scroll couldn't hold items of such a massive volume, so she had to wrap them in a layer of white paper and float them beside her. She planned to take them back to the Ankoru Vantian. It was impossible to just leave them here and let someone discover that Shikotsumyaku had reappeared in the ninja world. The Hōzuki Castle prison was destroyed, and all the prisoners, along with the castle lord Mui, were dead. This would inevitably infuriate the Five Great Shinobi Villages and they would send people to investigate. Konan didn't want to expose herself too much yet.
After cleaning up, she took Honoka and Ryūzetsu, as well as the paper-wrapped Box of Ultimate Bliss and bone spikes, and quickly flew away from Hōzuki Castle. After reaching the mainland, they slowly descended to the ground. Ryūzetsu looked toward the Hōzuki Castle with a complicated expression. While they were flying, Konan had already released her restraints and informed her of the castle's final fate.
Ryūzetsu turned around and bowed. "Thank you, Lady Konan, for stopping Mui's plot. With the Box of Ultimate Bliss under your control, there will be no more danger."
She had seen how powerful and difficult Satori was. Although she didn't know how Lady Konan defeated it, that didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was knowing the Box of Ultimate Bliss couldn't cause any trouble in Lady Konan's hands.
Konan was expressionless. "There is no need for thanks. My only goal was the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
She looked at Ryūzetsu and suddenly asked, "You should know Kana Uzumaki's daughter, Karin Uzumaki, right?"
Ryūzetsu was stunned for a moment but nodded. "Kana's daughter... yes, I know her. Karin also inherited Kana's healing constitution. Ever since she disappeared three years ago after going to Konoha for the Chunin Exams, the village has been searching for her, wanting to capture her and bring her back."
"Are there any leads?"
Ryūzetsu glanced at the concerned Honoka and hesitated. "Recently, the village detected Karin's situation. It seems she's with Sasuke Uchiha, and they've formed a small team. The village elders were originally planning to get power from the Box of Ultimate Bliss and then go snatch Karin back from the Uchiha. The last known location was in the Land of Birds..."