Chapter 205: Landing at Hōzuki Castle
Hōzuki Castle, a massive prison located on a lonely island in the sea.
Around it surged violent, turbulent undercurrents, and in addition there was the castle lord's inherited technique passed down through generations, Fire Release: Heavenly Prison, used to seal prisoners' chakra.
With these two working together, no ninja could escape from here.
As the saying went, easy to get in, hard to get out.
For ordinary ninja, the raging waves were equivalent to being struck by large-scale Water Release techniques with every crash, let alone prisoners who had lost their chakra.
Yet right on this stormy, pitch-dark sea surface, a tiny boat was weaving its way forward.
Strangely, around this little boat, the waves seemed to reach some kind of forbidden zone and became unbelievably calm.
On the boat were Shiromo and the other two.
The calm sea wasn't because Shiromo had some Delta Airflow trait.
If one remembered the earlier situation, it should be clear that Shiromo had long since gained an ability he named "Weather Forecast," which in reality went far beyond the scope of mere weather control.
While Shiromo was injecting natural energy into Terumi Mei, letting her experience Primordial Sea Mode, he himself was also using the opportunity to understand and master high-level techniques related to water and the ocean among the natural elements.
In other words, Shiromo could also activate Ocean Expansion at any time.
This growing sense of accumulating elemental mastery made Shiromo feel like he was about to turn into an alpaca.
But he quickly snapped out of it.
What was meant by different paths leading to the same destination.
In the Naruto world, reaching the transcendent Six Paths level meant having all five elements complete.
And even at the early ninja stage, the more chakra natures one had, the better.
It was completely opposite from the cultivation world next door, where one aimed for a single spiritual root as much as possible.
That actually made sense.
In cultivation, a person's initial talent totaled only a hundred points, divided among the five elements, so naturally, the fewer the elements, the better.
But in the Naruto world, chakra nature was usually called "elemental proficiency."
It was a kind of talent, not something with a total of a hundred points. Once you had it, that attribute was at least sixty points, up to a hundred.
But in the cultivation world, in the end you still had to complete all five elements to break through.
That was where the paths converged.
In the end, everything had to be made whole in order to achieve the sublimation of life.
"We're here."
The boat docked.
Shiromo, Uchiha Hikari, and Tsunade walked up to the tightly closed gates of Hōzuki Castle.
When the major ninja villages sent prisoners over, they would notify the castle in advance. The harbor would be opened, and the main gate would open as well.
But Shiromo's group had clearly arrived unannounced.
Before leaving Konoha, Tsunade hadn't even known Shiromo was coming here, so naturally she hadn't given Hōzuki Castle any prior notice.
"Let's try being polite before resorting to force."
Tsunade grabbed Uchiha Hikari, who had just stepped forward, and smiled awkwardly.
If Jiraiya heard this, he would absolutely think Tsunade had changed into a different person.
Tsunade advising someone not to solve things with violence?
"I was going to knock."
Uchiha Hikari turned back, looking at Tsunade in confusion.
"Do I look like some kind of demolition maniac or rage disorder patient?"
Uh, aren't you?
Tsunade really wanted to fire back with that, but decided not to provoke her.
Uchiha Hikari walked up to the gate. A skeletal Susanoo appeared, and its fist slammed into the castle doors.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
"You call that knocking?"
Tsunade was dumbfounded.
Was this knocking, or laying siege to a city?
"Then how else are you supposed to knock? You do it."
Uchiha Hikari turned around innocently and stepped aside, making room.
You do it, my ass!
With that kind of noise, the entire Hōzuki Castle probably heard it already, why would she need to knock?
Eh?
After hearing Hikari say "you do it," Tsunade subconsciously imagined how she herself would handle it.
She looked at the massive gates of Hōzuki Castle.
Because this place only allowed entry and not exit, and visitors were always notified in advance, there wasn't even anything like a normal door knocker.
There wasn't even a gate guard… no guards stationed at the entrance at all.
If it were up to her, she'd probably just smash it with monstrous strength too.
So why was she even criticizing Uchiha Hikari?
While Tsunade was reflecting on herself, the gates had already opened.
The lord of Hōzuki Castle, Mui, led a group of prison guards and cautiously looked at the three of them.
"So it's the Fifth Hokage."
Mui let out a sigh of relief and signaled the others to lower their weapons.
"May I ask why Hokage-sama has come to Hōzuki Castle unannounced? Is there some urgent matter?"
Mui asked.
Tsunade subconsciously looked toward Shiromo.
How was she supposed to say this?
Just say they were here to take a treasure from the era of the Sage of Six Paths that the prison held?
Wouldn't that make them sound like bandits?
"We're here to take a treasure from the era of the Sage of Six Paths that you have here. Hurry up and bring it out."
Uchiha Hikari said it for Shiromo, then waved a hand in front of her nose. "This is a prison, right? It stinks, and there's a fishy smell too. I don't want to stay here long."
Hearing that the Fifth Hokage's group had come for the Box of Ultimate Bliss, Mui's gaze instantly changed.
His eyes lingered on the Strength of a Hundred Seal on Tsunade's forehead for two seconds, then he put on a somewhat forced smile.
"Of course, that wouldn't be a problem. However, the Fourth Raikage of the Kumogakure Village mentioned this some time ago as well, and even made an advance appointment to come to the island soon. For matters like this, there should always be a first come, first served order, shouldn't there?"
"The Raikage?"
Tsunade froze, then immediately frowned.
The Raikage was involved too?
If the Kumogakure Village wanted the Box of Ultimate Bliss, it definitely wasn't for anything good.
There was no way they wanted to wish for world peace.
Shiromo, on the other hand, didn't find it strange at all.
At the beginning of the Blood Prison movie, it was precisely the Raikage and Samui's team who brought up the matter of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Then the fake Naruto attacked, triggering the chain of events that followed.
It could be said that Mui and the Raikage were using each other.
The Raikage wanted the Box of Ultimate Bliss to strengthen the Kumogakure Village, while Mui wanted massive amounts of chakra to open the box and retrieve his son.
In the original story, that massive chakra referred to the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruto.
Now, with the ninja world undergoing various upheavals, the Raikage had learned about the Box of Ultimate Bliss earlier than before and contacted Mui in advance. At this point, what Mui wanted was no longer Naruto.
It was the tailed beast chakra of the Kumogakure Village.
In the original, Killer Bee, who should have stayed in the Valley of Clouds and Lightning, ended up appearing at Hōzuki Castle. So now he was definitely going to be brought over by the Raikage as well.
The only question was how Mui planned to have the Box of Ultimate Bliss absorb Killer Bee's chakra while he was there as a "guest."
The Raikage might temporarily let desire override reason, but that didn't mean he was stupid.
According to the plot, in the end the Raikage did sink the Box of Ultimate Bliss into the sea, permanently sealing it.
He didn't covet its power.
So once it involved his beloved younger brother Killer Bee, Mui would probably end up eating a Lariat.
Wait.
Shiromo thought of how Mui's gaze had just paused on Tsunade.
Was he planning to feed the chakra from the Strength of a Hundred Seal into it too?
What did Mui think his Fire Release: Heavenly Prison was?
A god spirit or Imagine Breaker?
(End of this chapter)