"The Sage of Six Paths?" Jiraiya remembered what the Great Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku had once told him.
The Child of Prophecy.
The boy who would change the fate of the ninja world.
He had been searching for that person for many years.
"The sealing technique... I think the hand seals went like this?" Shin-chan shifted the chocolate stick to the other corner of his mouth. "When he taught me, I think I was imagining chocolate-flavored ramen."
Jiraiya: "..."
Hatake Sakumo: "..."
The Iwagakure jōnin: "...Maybe we should just run first?"
"Don't run, don't run! I remember now!"
Shin-chan rapidly formed hand seals.
Chakra surged from his body, and a massive circular formation slowly spread beneath Satori's feet.
"What kind of sealing formation is that?"
"Nohara Style: Gourmet Sealing Formation, First Form—Tonkotsu Grand Seal!"
Shin-chan shouted, and the sealing formation abruptly began to contract.
Satori frantically beat its wings, struggling against the restraints.
"It's breaking free!"
Sakumo tightened his grip on his short blade.
"It's fine. I still have a second form."
Chakra poured violently from Shin-chan's body.
"Tonkotsu as the bones, miso as the soul, chashu as the flesh, soft-boiled egg as the heart, chocolate sticks as the guide—seal!"
With every word, the sealing formation glowed brighter.
Satori's roars gradually weakened as black symbols spread across its entire body.
"...Soft-boiled eggs must be marinated for an entire day... chashu should be made from pork belly..."
"It's still muttering." Jiraiya wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Does your sealing technique have some kind of side effect?"
"Maybe my thoughts about ramen were too strong while I was sealing it." Shin-chan rubbed his chin with the expression of a scholar conducting serious research. "Next time, I'll try using thoughts of chocolate sticks. That should be gentler."
"There's going to be a next time?"
Sakumo walked around the sealed Satori once.
"How long will the seal last?"
"I don't know," Shin-chan answered honestly. "I've only learned about thirty percent of the knowledge the Sage of Six Paths gave me."
"..."
"But I remembered all the important parts."
The Iwagakure jōnin silently took two steps backward.
Once he returned to the village, he decided he would submit a report recommending that the name Nohara Shinnosuke be placed on Iwagakure's highest-level danger list.
The boy was simply far too unpredictable.
"The seal is stable for now. We can't leave this thing in the mine," Sakumo said as he sheathed his short blade.
"We can't take it back to Konoha either."
The Iwagakure jōnin coughed.
"Iwagakure is... also temporarily unable to accept it."
"Then what do we do?"
Jiraiya said, "The surviving Kusagakure elder told us that Satori came from the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
Shin-chan dusted off his hands.
"Then let's go find the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"Do you know where it is?"
"No." Shin-chan pulled another chocolate stick from his ninja tool pouch and placed it in his mouth. "But since it's the box that holds Satori, there should be some kind of connection between them, right? Like ramen and its soup bowl."
"...That comparison of yours."
"Pretty accurate, right?"
...
The Box of Ultimate Bliss lay among the ruins of Kusagakure.
Shin-chan poked it with a chocolate stick.
"How do you use this thing?"
The last surviving elder of Kusagakure stood nearby.
"Opening the Box of Ultimate Bliss requires an enormous amount of chakra. Back then, we only managed to open it by using the Dragon Vein chakra we had collected. To seal it again now..."
"We need even more chakra?"
"It isn't only chakra." The elder shook his head. "At its core, the Box of Ultimate Bliss is a vessel the Sage of Six Paths used to seal 'wishes.' A wish is required to open it, and a wish is also required to close it."
"A wish?" Shin-chan continued asking. "Any wish will do?"
"In theory, yes. But the wish must be powerful enough—strong enough to activate the sealing formula of the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
Jiraiya stood nearby with his arms crossed.
"What did you wish for when you opened it?"
The elder's face turned red.
"...For Kusagakure to become the greatest nation in the ninja world."
"And then?"
"Then Satori came out and ate half our people."
The corner of Jiraiya's mouth twitched.
"It seems the Box of Ultimate Bliss has a rather unique way of dealing with 'unrealistic wishes.'"
"So I just need to make the wish more realistic."
Shin-chan nodded thoughtfully, then pressed his palms together and closed his eyes.
Everyone held their breath.
Shin-chan took a deep breath and shouted loudly enough for his voice to echo throughout the ruins of Kusagakure.
"I WANT TO EAT THREE BOWLS OF RAMEN WITH DOUBLE CHASHU AND A SOFT-BOILED EGG IN ONE MEAL!!!"
The wind swept dust across the ruins and over everyone's frozen faces.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss did not move at all.
"That doesn't work?" Shin-chan scratched his head. "Then I'll try another one. I WANT A MOUNTAIN MADE ENTIRELY OF CHOCOLATE STICKS!!!"
The Box of Ultimate Bliss remained completely unresponsive.
"Apparently, the Box of Ultimate Bliss doesn't recognize wishes like those," Sakumo said in his usual calm tone.
Jiraiya had his own interpretation.
"Something left behind by the Sage of Six Paths shouldn't be that childish. What it needs is a genuine wish from the depths of the heart—something tied to fate itself."
"I understand!"
Shin-chan pressed his palms together again and closed his eyes.
"I wish..."
Sunlight passed through the ruins and fell across his small figure.
"...that everyone in this world who wants to eat ramen will be able to have a hot bowl with double chashu and a soft-boiled egg."
The instant those words fell, the ruins of Kusagakure suddenly became silent.
A thin line of light appeared across the surface of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Then the glowing pattern spread, rapidly covering the entire box.
Shin-chan placed both hands against the ground.
Chakra surged from his body like an ocean wave, enveloping him completely in pale-blue light.
The Kusagakure elder's eyes widened.
"Th-This amount of chakra..."
He had lived most of his life and seen countless ninja, yet never anyone with chakra on this scale.
Words like talented or genius were no longer enough to describe it.
"He's practically a tailed beast in human form." The elder's voice trembled. "What kind of monster has Konoha raised?"
"Sealing Technique: Tonkotsu Grand Seal—Final Chapter!"
Shin-chan shouted.
The light of the sealing formation reached its peak.
The entire ruined village became as bright as day, forcing everyone to raise their hands to shield their eyes.
Satori's body broke apart into countless black motes of light and was completely drawn into the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
"The seal... is complete?" The Kusagakure elder sounded dazed, like someone who had barely survived a disaster.
Shin-chan nodded.
"Complete."
The Kusagakure elder dropped to his knees with a thud.
"It's sealed... Kusagakure's vengeance... all those who died..."
"What are you going to do with this box?"
The elder looked at the black cube, and fear quickly filled his eyes.
"This thing... cannot remain in Kusagakure." His voice carried lingering terror. "We brought this disaster upon ourselves because we coveted its power. If we keep it here, sooner or later someone will be unable to resist touching it again."