Although Kusagakure wasn't an especially powerful ninja village, it was still divided into two factions within.
One was the militant faction known as Grass Root, and the other was the pacifist faction called Grass Bloom.
At present, Kusagakure was under the control of the pacifists, but the militants never gave up their ambitions. They sought to harness a certain hidden power sealed away within Hōzuki Castle to conquer the world.
Of course—another group trying to take over the world. Typical.
Konoha and Kumogakure had gathered their forces precisely because of the pacifist faction's request.
Naruto's framing was also part of that plan. After Tsunade and the Fourth Raikage discovered that someone was pulling strings behind the scenes, they decided to play along—sending Naruto into Hōzuki Castle to draw out that power and destroy Kusagakure's militant faction once and for all.
It was a request from the pacifists, and they accepted it.
After all, any organization aiming to conquer the world—and possessing the means to do so—was something neither Konoha nor Kumogakure could tolerate.
"Then that's the situation. Once my people send word, we move immediately."
The Fourth Raikage spoke quietly, his arms crossed over his chest.
"I didn't expect you to have agents in place already. That Maroi guy, right?" asked Kiyosuke.
Maroi's behavior had seemed odd from the start—strange even among Hōzuki Castle's inmates. Kiyosuke had suspected something was off and had been watching him for a while. Now it all made sense: he was Kumogakure's plant inside the prison.
"Hmph. So you noticed." The Fourth Raikage snorted, his voice low and rough.
"Asakawa Kiyosuke, you brat… I once thought you'd become the Fifth Hokage. Didn't expect you'd be content to live under someone else's command."
"Huh? What's that got to do with you if I don't want to be Hokage?"
Kiyosuke picked at his ear. The old man was clearly trying to plant a seed of doubt in Tsunade's heart—but such a shallow attempt wouldn't fool either of them.
"Hmph." The Raikage snorted again. "Have you ever heard of the Box of Ultimate Bliss?"
"The Box of Ultimate Bliss?"
Kiyosuke thought for a moment.
"You mean that legendary thing?"
It was said to be a tool once used by the Sage of Six Paths himself—an ultimate weapon from the Sage's era that could grant a single wish to whoever opened it.
"That's right," said the Raikage. "The thing is rumored to have been used by the Sage. Our Kumogakure already possesses five of his tools. Years ago, we caught wind of information about the Box of Ultimate Bliss. I sent people to investigate in Hōzuki Castle. After all these years… we finally found it."
"Heh, looks like your ambitions aren't small."
"Hmph! Compared to that box, you're the more dangerous one," the Raikage growled. "Hōzuki Castle's construction wasn't just the will of the Five Great Nations—it hid Kusagakure's own schemes. They built the castle to conceal the box's existence, and they've been using the chakra of its prisoners to try to open it."
"Oh, so that's why ninjas keep disappearing from the castle."
Kiyosuke nodded. The vanishing prisoners of Hōzuki Castle weren't exactly a secret, but nobody bothered to care about the fate of convicts.
Now it seemed those prisoners had been offered up to the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"Then who was the one that framed Naruto?"
That part was simple—Jinchūriki had massive chakra reserves, ideal for feeding into the box. But what intrigued Kiyosuke was who could possibly transform into Naruto and stir up trouble across multiple villages.
"The culprit," said the Raikage, "was Kazan of the Hot Springs Village."
"Oh, that guy. Makes sense."
Kazan was a shinobi from the Hot Springs Village, though he'd long since left it behind. He'd had a son once, but the boy had gone missing. Kazan himself was a master of Transformation Techniques—so skilled that even jōnin struggled to see through his disguises.
No wonder the Naruto impersonation had fooled everyone.
"I see now."
Kiyosuke chuckled softly.
The Raikage went on, "After you returned, Uzumaki Naruto escaped from Hōzuki Castle… only to come back again. He challenged Mūi once more and ended up back in solitary confinement." The Raikage gave Kiyosuke a look.
"Is he really the son of the Fourth Hokage?"
To think that the son of his lifelong rival, Namikaze Minato, would turn out like this… pathetic.
"..."
Kiyosuke was speechless.
Kakashi cleared his throat and said,
"He's just… smart in the wrong way."
Exactly—smart in all the wrong places. Learning regular ninjutsu was hard for him, but he could master the Sexy Technique in an instant. Even Kiyosuke had to admit it—he was Minato's son, alright, just not in the ways that mattered.
"Forget it. I'll head to Hōzuki Castle myself."
"No—you'll come with us later," said Tsunade. "Once Naruto's released, we'll move together. The Raikage needs time to gather his people as well."
"In that case, five days from now, Hokage-sama, I'll meet you at Kusagakure's coastline."
With that, the Raikage punched straight through the wall of the Hokage's office and stormed out.
"Damn it! Ever heard of doors!?" Tsunade shouted furiously.
The only answer was the repeated crash of more walls breaking—since the Fourth Raikage never used doors.
He always left by smashing through walls.
That was why a stonemason was permanently stationed in Kumogakure's Raikage Tower, constantly patching up the damage left behind after the Raikage's dramatic exits.
Some of Kumogakure's shinobi had even learned masonry out of necessity.
"That muscle-headed idiot!" Tsunade slammed her palm on the desk. "Kiyosuke, you all can go. In five days, we'll depart for Hōzuki Castle."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Everyone took their leave.
Kiyosuke returned home and enjoyed five uneventful days of rest before setting out with Tsunade and the others toward Hōzuki Castle.
Konoha dispatched the Twelve Guardian Genin, four high-ranking shinobi including Kiyosuke, and the Hokage herself.
Kumogakure sent the Fourth Raikage, the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki Killer Bee, the Storm Release user Darui, and several other shinobi.
The two villages' forces gathered at the coastline.
Kiyosuke was the first to move, re-entering Hōzuki Castle. Inside the confinement chamber, he found Naruto sitting cross-legged in a corner, perfectly still. Orange markings had appeared around his eyes—the Sage Mode pattern—but something felt off. It was a shadow clone.
"So where's the real one, then?"
He didn't wake the clone; doing so would break Sage Mode, and within minutes it would vanish anyway. Better to leave it alone.
Outside, a commotion erupted.
Kiyosuke's body flared with fire as he slipped through the walls of the confinement room and emerged outside.
The entire Hōzuki Castle was in chaos. Prisoners were rioting, fighting each other wildly.
Even the guards couldn't get things under control.
Kiyosuke scanned the area but found no trace of Naruto. Frowning, he extended his senses to locate him—only to detect an overwhelming wave of malevolent chakra bursting forth.
"What… is this!?"
In the center of the courtyard where prisoners were usually allowed to gather, a massive cube surged up from beneath the ground.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss!
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