With Tsunade and Jiraiya joining, the battle soon became one-sided.
Satoru had no chance to fight back at all and could only take a one-sided beating. However, no matter what kind of injuries he suffered, Satoru recovered quickly, making him even more troublesome than ordinary Tailed Beasts.
Seizing the opportunity, Jiraiya clasped his hands together and leapt onto the top of Satoru's head, slamming his palms down heavily:
"Ninja Art: Four Symbols Seal!"
As the technique was cast, Satoru's body began to be covered with sealing formulas.
But after only a few seconds, those formulas were swallowed by Satoru, and the Four Symbols Seal collapsed on its own.
Seeing that the sealing technique didn't work, Jiraiya's face grew even uglier. His sealing skills were not weak among Konoha shinobi, and the Four Symbols Seal was already considered an advanced technique.
Anything stronger than that… would only be large-scale combined ninjutsu or the Reaper Death Seal.
After dodging Satoru's counterattack, Jiraiya arrived beside the leader of Kusagakure and said meaningfully:
"My lord, ordinary sealing techniques won't work on Satoru. Kusagakure better start praying."
The leader of Kusagakure sighed softly and said:
"Satoru can only be sealed within the Box of Ultimate Bliss. Ordinary sealing techniques simply won't work."
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes.
"And how do you know so much about this monster…?"
The leader fell silent for a moment before replying:
"This is Kusagakure's fault. After this is over, I will personally apologize to the Hokage. But for now… let's deal with Satoru first."
Jiraiya snorted coldly.
"Then where is the Box of Ultimate Bliss?"
"It's in the ANBU base nearby. Please, Jiraiya-sama, lure Satoru there so it can be sealed."
Facing Jiraiya, the Kusagakure leader appeared extremely humble.
This wasn't just because Jiraiya and Tsunade had Kage-level strength—it was also due to the gap in overall power. Kusagakure was one of the strongest small ninja villages, but it still lagged five to ten times behind the great nations.
If the monster from the Box of Bliss had been controllable, Kusagakure might have risen to become a neutral power like the Land of Iron or Amegakure.
But now?
Everything had gone to shit.
They were facing threats from Iwagakure, dissatisfaction from Konoha, and had even lost Karin—their "free healing tool." The village's future looked bleak as hell.
After arriving at the Kusagakure base and standing at the edge of the shaft, the sounds of battle could be faintly heard below.
Jiraiya's sharp eyesight immediately caught sight of the undead monsters and Akatsuki members fighting below. He frowned and asked with a grim expression:
"You even secretly hired the Akatsuki?"
"Jiraiya-sama, the Akatsuki is a very powerful mercenary organization. Many villages hire them to make up for their lack of combat strength."
The Kusagakure leader explained while frowning.
But inwardly, he was panicking.
All the sacrificial shinobi should have been dead—so why the hell were the Akatsuki members still alive? And where were Wuwei and the Great Elder?
Could it be that they had deliberately manipulated Satoru to attack the village and were planning a coup?
The Akatsuki members also noticed Jiraiya and the others.
Uchiha Itachi, who had been hiding, frowned even more. He had only come to Kusagakure for a mission—how the hell did he end up running into the legendary Sannin?
After exchanging glances, Uchiha Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki appeared in front of Jiraiya in an instant.
"Uchiha Itachi… Kisame Hoshigaki!"
Jiraiya stared at them, a hint of vigilance flashing in his eyes. These two were extremely dangerous rogue ninja.
Logically, he should have attacked immediately—but this wasn't Konoha.
Itachi glanced at Jiraiya, then at the Kusagakure leader, and asked calmly:
"We need a reasonable explanation. Why did Kusagakure attack us? Why sacrifice hundreds of shinobi to open that box?"
As soon as those words were spoken, not only Jiraiya and Tsunade, but even the Kusagakure shinobi looked toward their leader.
The Kusagakure leader felt his scalp go numb and said stiffly:
"I don't know. Opening the Box of Bliss shouldn't require so many sacrifices. That was handled by the elders."
Itachi replied indifferently:
"Your elders are already dead—killed by another jōnin. Convenient. No evidence, no responsibility. But the fact remains—Kusagakure attacked the Akatsuki."
"You owe us an explanation."
The scene of the Kusagakure leader throwing the blame around made Jiraiya feel a strange sense of déjà vu.
Back in Konoha, Danzō had done all kinds of shady shit, while the Third Hokage acted like he knew nothing.
Even if you truly didn't know, you still had to take responsibility. Otherwise, it just looked like complete bullshit.
The Kusagakure leader had nothing left to say and could only turn to Jiraiya for help:
"Jiraiya-sama! Uchiha Itachi is a rogue ninja of Konoha—hurry and take him down!"
Shaking off his wandering thoughts, Jiraiya let out a long sigh and prepared himself for battle.
Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly and said:
"Jiraiya-sama, before settling our personal grudges, why not deal with the monster that came out of the box first?"
"Besides the flying one, there are dozens more below. If we don't handle them, none of us will get that box."
"More monsters?"
Jiraiya frowned.
Itachi nodded.
"That box devours corpses and turns them into monsters that won't die, no matter how you kill them. Their numbers are still increasing."
"If they grow large enough, it will become a disaster for the entire ninja world."
"Even though the Akatsuki is a mercenary organization, we won't just sit back and watch the world get destroyed. That much should be clear, Kusagakure leader… Jiraiya… Tsunade."
Hearing this, Tsunade, who had been silent until now, finally spoke:
"Little Uchiha, you're right. We'll put our grudges aside for now and deal with the monsters from the Box of Bliss together."
"However… once this is over, we're enemies again."
Itachi nodded lightly.
"That's only natural. For now, let's deal with the crisis at hand."
He paused slightly, then added:
"I've always wanted to fight alongside Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama since I was a child."
"I even once dreamed of becoming Hokage."
Those words made Jiraiya feel uncomfortable.
He still couldn't understand why Itachi had slaughtered his own clan.
As if sensing Jiraiya's thoughts, Itachi spoke calmly:
"Of course I killed them to prove my strength. That's how I obtained these Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Also… please tell the Third Hokage to train Sasuke well. I want him to grow stronger."
"I'll pass along the message."
Jiraiya's tone was extremely unfriendly.
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