Embracing Destiny

Once her former friend stopped struggling, Ryuzetsu pushed his body off her kunai. Her face scrunched up when she saw how soaked her arm was in the blood of one of her most dear friends. The white-haired girl rolled over and vomited the contents within her stomach.

"Must have been her first kill. Most shinobi consider it a rite of passage that all genin go through, but...not many murder their friends," Akari said.

"He wasn't a friend. He was just a weak chain. Now that she's free, she can move forward," Naruto replied.

"Naruto-sama, did...you do it too?" Akari asked.

The redhead frowned for a moment as he stood at the door to the realm of darkness within. "I had to," he replied. Hana and Akari glanced at each other, but whatever questions they had they didn't ask. Instead, they decided to silently wait for Ryuzetsu to collect herself.

The time it took for Ryuzetsu to find some semblance of self-control came in about two minutes. She rubbed her eyes and looked at what she had done. Father and son laid on top of each other as lifeless as she had envisioned in recent dreams. When she looked down at her hands, they were stained with crimson fluids. A sigh, she grabbed a dirty rag and wiped the blood away. She then placed her kunai back in its holster. Then...she continued walking until she met with the others.

"Still want to destroy it?" Naruto asked her. She turned to him and took off the green bandana that had been used to keep her hair together. Once she released it, her hair fell down in such a way that truly made Naruto realize that Ryuzetsu would become one of the most beautiful and deadly female warriors ever produced within the Elemental Nations. He had to have her. He would have her. When she looked at him, he would have kissed her if he were not concerned about her emotional mood at the moment.

"You're leaving it to me?" she asked.

"Of everyone here, you are the one who has the most history with the box, Ryuzetsu," Akari stated.

Ryuzetsu stared at the opening of the box and folded her arms. "If Muku and Kusagakure don't want to use it, then I will," she answered. She then shivered when she felt two hands on her shoulders. When she turned her head, she noticed Naruto smiling at her.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Ryuzetsu. Hana, teach Akari what I've been doing. I'll teach Ryuzetsu," Naruto said.

"But how will we get out?" Akari asked.

"I have a plan for that. In the meantime, each of you take six of these blood pills and one of these newer pills I made. Take them only if you really need to," the young jinchuuriki stated. He gave each woman their required amount. Akari and Ryuzetsu looked them over curiously while Hana clenched her own.

Seeing that she thought there was no more discussion, Hana grabbed Akari's arm and pulled her inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss while Naruto took Ryuzetsu's hand into his own. To her, his hands felt...much warmer than she thought they would. It...was nice.

"Tell me one thing, Naruto," Ryuzetsu said. He turned his head towards her.

"Daijin-sama didn't send us here to destroy the box. He sent us here for you to get it, didn't he?" she asked.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki remained silent for a moment. He felt no ill intentions from the young girl and though he thought to lie, something within him had decided to give her the honesty that she desired so much. "What makes you ask that?" he returned to her.

"You stopped addressing Akari-sensei professionally and turned more casual. I imagine you've done this before. Plus, it would explain why a non-shinobi of Kusagakure would come on a mission as important as this.," she answered.

...What a woman he had come to find.

"Good and evil are only concepts rationalized by those too weak to change the terms themselves. The Grass Fruit and Flower groups came to understand that about the box. What is deemed evil is only a term that people use when they can't control a power they don't know the origins of. I was sent to evaluate who in Kusagakure had the power, strength, and courage to become the master of the Box of Ultimate Bliss. And, I found none more beautifully prepared than you," he told her.

That vague answer should not have pacified Ryuzetsu as it did, but she found herself believing him. Right, perhaps...she was the same way. Perhaps that was why she found herself looking at him when she thought no one else was looking. The compliment had thrown her off as she averted her eyes from his intense gaze. Yes, she was strong. She was the one who would inherit the Box of Ultimate Bliss and the limitless energies that swirled within it.

"Right, stay in the realm of the dead, Muku. It's where a weakling like you belongs," Ryuzetsu thought to herself.

Once Naruto saw that this young kunoichi had the resolve to go through with her decision, he pulled her into the box. Once they stepped inside, the door closed and the box lay still within the central courtyard of the Blood Prison.

Meanwhile, inside the box, for the first time, Naruto felt like his life was being choked off. Darkness, endless darkness, unfathomable darkness, that was what surrounded him and Ryuzetsu. So dark was it that he couldn't even see his hands or his feet as they walked one in front of the other. There...was pressure here and that pressure seemed to drive the very strings that held his mind together to the breaking point.

Inside here, he could hear the moans and groans of hundreds of people that he and Ryuzetsu shared this space with. He could not see them, but their wails were too noticeable. It was like he was traversing the seamless road of the underworld.

His mind was unraveling and it felt like the powers that be within the box sought to drain him until there was nothing left. In essence, inside this box, there was only a prolonged death for lesser men. The line between living and dying rested here.

...perfect.

Naruto took in a deep inhale and a surge of pain filled the very bones within his body as the box's energy clung to his being. Yes, this was what he needed. Spending time upon his cultivation here would yield great benefits.

"Ryuzetsu?" Naruto called.

"I'm here," she replied.

....

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