The Box of Ultimate Bliss had opened completely.
From within the mist, a gigantic figure slowly emerged.
It was a pitch-black monster with a pair of enormous black wings. It had no head, yet a massive mouth filled with sharp fangs grew from its abdomen.
"Is this... what was inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss?" The white-haired elder's voice trembled.
"That's right." The leader of Kusagakure looked up at the enormous figure. "This is the power capable of changing the ninja world."
The monster completely emerged from the box and hovered in midair.
"Power... I can feel limitless power." The Kusagakure leader spread his arms and walked toward Satori. "Come! Let us conquer the ninja world together!"
The enormous mouth on Satori's abdomen turned toward him.
"What are you talking about?"
"I opened the Box of Ultimate Bliss and gave you freedom!" The Kusagakure leader looked almost mad with excitement. "Now obey my orders! Go and wipe out every Iwagakure ninja on the northern bank of the Kusa River!"
Satori remained silent for several seconds.
Then its enormous mouth suddenly opened wide.
"Ah!"
The Kusagakure leader only had time to scream before a tremendous suction force dragged him toward Satori's mouth.
"Leader!"
The elders turned deathly pale and fled backward.
"Th-This isn't the power we wanted!"
"It's out of control!"
Satori violently flapped its wings, creating a raging gale.
Black feathers shot out like blades, instantly piercing through several of the slowest elders.
"Foolish humans." Satori's voice was ice-cold. "Did you truly believe that opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss meant you could control me?"
It slowly raised one hand and pointed toward the temple ceiling.
BOOM!
The entire temple collapsed in an instant, sending rubble and dust flying everywhere.
The surviving Kusagakure ninja crawled out from beneath the ruins and stared in terror at the enormous figure hovering in the sky.
"Run!"
Satori looked down at the ninja fleeing beneath it like ants.
The mouth on its abdomen twisted into a hideous grin.
"Run?"
"Where do you think you can run?"
Its wings beat again, and it dived downward like a bolt of lightning.
Screams erupted one after another.
Energy spheres blasted from Satori's enormous mouth, reducing building after building to rubble.
Kusagakure—a small village that had barely survived while trapped between the Five Great Nations—was transformed into a sea of flames in less than ten minutes.
Satori hovered in the air and looked down at the burning village beneath it.
"Too weak."
"These people aren't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."
It raised its gaze toward the distance.
In that direction, it could sense enormous chakra fluctuations.
"Over there... there's a lot of delicious chakra."
Satori's huge mouth curled into another grin, revealing rows of sharp fangs.
It spread its enormous wings and flew toward the front lines of the Land of Grass.
All that remained behind was a burning ruin and a handful of survivors trembling inside underground shelters.
...
Kakashi's team was making its way through the hills of the Land of Grass toward Konoha.
Obito was still endlessly complaining about how boring the mission had been, while Guy enthusiastically agreed that "even the boredom of youth is a form of training."
Suddenly, Kakashi stopped walking and looked up at the sky.
"What is it?" Obito followed his gaze. "It's just a weird-looking cloud, isn't it?"
A gigantic black shadow was rapidly crossing the sky.
Its silhouette was bizarre and resembled no known species of bird.
"That isn't a cloud." Kakashi's voice became grave. "That chakra... it's enormous. And it's pure malice."
Rin instinctively tightened her grip on the strap of her medical bag.
"This chakra..."
"What is that thing? A tailed beast?" Guy instinctively assumed a combat stance.
"It doesn't resemble any known tailed beast." Chakra erupted beneath Kakashi's feet. "It's heading toward the front lines."
Obito swallowed.
"The front lines? Isn't that where Lord White Fang and Lord Jiraiya are?"
Before he even finished speaking, a blinding purple light suddenly erupted on the distant horizon.
Immediately afterward came a deafening explosion.
Even the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.
On the northern bank of the Kusa River, the battle between Konoha and Iwagakure was raging fiercely.
"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Explosions from ninjutsu sounded continuously as dirt and shattered stone filled the air.
Hatake Sakumo wielded his short blade, moving through the Iwagakure ninja like a streak of white lightning.
Enemies fell wherever he passed.
Jiraiya stood on higher ground with his hands forming seals. The enormous toad beneath him leaped forward and spat a torrent of oil and flame toward Iwagakure's Earth Style formation.
"Iwa's offensive is about to collapse!" a Konoha ninja shouted.
At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened.
Everyone instinctively looked upward.
A pitch-black, headless monster with enormous wings was slowly descending into the middle of the battlefield.
"What the hell is that?!" an Iwagakure jōnin shouted in horror.
The enormous mouth on Satori's abdomen twisted into a hideous grin.
"So much... delicious chakra."
It violently flapped its wings.
A black gale swept across the battlefield, instantly lifting more than a dozen nearby ninja into the air.
Satori opened its huge mouth.
A terrifying suction force erupted.
The ninja screamed miserably as they were dragged through the air and swallowed into its mouth.
"Monster!"
No one knew who shouted first, but the ninja from both sides, who had been killing each other only moments ago, stopped fighting at the same time.
An Iwagakure squad captain reacted first.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
An earthen dragon rose from the ground and opened its mouth, continuously firing streams of earth toward Satori.
Satori merely raised one hand.
The streams of earth disintegrated into dust before they could even reach it.
Its enormous mouth opened again.
A purple sphere of energy shot out and exploded directly within Iwagakure's formation.
BOOM!
Dozens of Iwa ninja were instantly obliterated, leaving behind an enormous crater.
Hatake Sakumo and Jiraiya exchanged glances.
Both saw the same grave expression in the other's eyes.
"It isn't a tailed beast, and it isn't any known kekkei genkai."
"The Box of Ultimate Bliss..." Gamabunta's voice carried a faint tremor that was almost impossible to notice. "A monster from the era of the Sage of Six Paths. Why has something like that appeared here?"
Jiraiya looked down at him.
"Bunta, you know that thing?"
"Satori is born from the Box, moves according to its will, and remains until its end. It is a puppet controlled by the Box of Ultimate Bliss—and it can read people's hearts."
The moment he finished speaking, Satori's massive mouth opened once more.
Another purple energy sphere shot toward Konoha's position.
"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"
More than a dozen Konoha ninja formed hand seals simultaneously.
Thick earthen walls surged from the ground.
But the energy sphere pierced straight through them without the slightest resistance.
BOOM!
Another wave of screams erupted.
Hatake Sakumo's eyes sharpened.
Chakra exploded beneath his feet as he charged directly toward Satori.
His movements reached incredible speed, and his short blade drew a brilliant arc through the sunlight.
Satori did not even turn toward him.
It merely shifted its body slightly.
Sakumo's blade swept past its wing without leaving so much as a scratch.
Hatake Sakumo's pupils contracted sharply.
His speed ranked among the very best in the entire ninja world.
Yet Satori had avoided him with absurd ease.