It... Has Arrived

From her conversation with her mother, Hinata learned that her father had been summoned away by Anbu not long after she had gone down for her nap, and he had yet to return.

Hinata briefly sensed her surroundings. There were no particularly intense Chakra fluctuations within the Hidden Leaf Village, which meant the village was safe.

So she did not activate her Byakugan to scan the entire Hidden Leaf Village. She respected other people's privacy and had no hobby of peeping on them.

Though there was also the fact that seeing through people and being disgusted by their internal organs and other bodily tissues was rather unpleasant...

As for why Anbu had summoned her father?

Other than a meeting, there was nothing else it could be.

Thinking of that deserted village and the Sealing Jutsu at the merchant's residence, Hinata realized that the village must have uncovered some clue she did not know about.

But Hinata did not look into it further. After all, the village's shinobi were no pushovers. It was merely a newly born Bizarre Creature, and they already knew that Sealing Jutsu could restrain Bizarre Creatures.

The threat those Bizarre Creatures posed to them had already been reduced to a minimum. After all, shinobi themselves were powerful.

Since that was the case, Hinata should not worry too much about it.

But a few years ago, she had still been living in an ordinary, peaceful world, where death had been something very distant.

After personally "dying" once, Hinata had instead become more reverent toward life. Every life was a miracle and deserved respect.

When she possessed the strength to prevent a tragedy before it happened, yet allowed it to occur for various reasons, Hinata knew she still could not do that.

However, Hinata could distinguish between civilians and shinobi. She would not interfere too much with civilians, but from the moment someone chose to become a shinobi, they had already prepared themselves for death. Hinata respected their choice as well.

Although Hinata did not think highly of the shinobi's chances against those Bizarre Creatures, she would step in unless they truly could not handle them or the casualties became too severe.

Sigh, besides being cute and charming, I never expected myself to be this softhearted too.

Looks like I need to change that. Being softhearted might get me killed someday. Though fatal injuries were nothing much to her...

But doing nothing at all felt a little awkward. After all, Hinata knew very little about where that twisted, chaotic energy had come from, or where its nature originated.

Although she had once guessed that this energy came from beyond the universe, perhaps it had existed in this world all along?

As for why it had only appeared now, perhaps it had simply drifted over recently.

But Hinata's intuition told her that this energy did not belong to this world. Perhaps it had appeared here because of her.

After all, Hinata's soul had crossed into this world. Who knew whether she had smashed through some kind of world barrier? Though she did not think her soul was that powerful, there was no telling about her cheat.

It only had the ability to idle, but it was still a system. It should be quite advanced.

Although Hinata wanted to do something, when it came down to it, she had no idea what to do.

Eliminate those Bizarre Creatures... But she did not know whether all the Bizarre Creatures that had been born were like this, possessing spatial abilities one after another.

The first Black Shadow she had discovered could enter her own shadow and cross half the Hidden Leaf Village to appear directly in Hinata's bedroom. As for that bizarre rope, who knew whether it had hidden itself in some Alternate Dimension? Otherwise, Hinata could not possibly have failed to find it.

The Shinobi World was special.

One aspect of that was the many Alternate Dimensions hidden within the Shinobi World.

Hinata knew of several.

There was the underworld of the Sage of Six Paths, the Alternate Dimension connected to Obito's eye, and the Alternate Dimension inside the belly of the Shinigami summoned by the Uzumaki Clan.

She did not know whether these Alternate Dimensions had existed from the beginning, or whether they had appeared after the Divine Tree had plundered this world's vitality a thousand years ago.

Although Hinata's Byakugan could now vaguely see those Alternate Dimensions connected to the Shinobi World, they were too far away. She could see them but not reach them. Without the correct method, Hinata might never be able to touch those Alternate Dimensions.

That was assuming her strength did not increase...

In other words, searching for those Bizarre Creatures one by one and sealing them away was unrealistic from the start.

Although the appearance of these Bizarre Creatures might, perhaps, probably, possibly... have something to do with Hinata, she was not their mother. There was no need for her to work herself to death.

Besides, Hinata did not have that many children.

"If I don't encounter them, then so be it. But since I've encountered them, I can't just ignore them. This is a matter of principle."

In the outskirts of the village, inside a small earthen hut temporarily built with Earth Release, a filthy figure lay on a bed. His body twitched from time to time as though he were freezing, yet even the thick quilt over him could not bring him the slightest warmth.

Sweat covered his exposed face. It was impossible to tell whether it was from heat or a cold sweat.

After all, it was spring now. The snow had melted, the branches had begun to sprout, and warm breezes had started to blow. The weather was not that cold.

Quite a few shinobi were concealed around the small earthen hut. They appeared to be protecting this merchant.

Who knew what status this merchant had? With this level of protection, only the Hokage and Jinchuriki received such treatment.

As the sun was about to set and faint stars began to glimmer in the sky, in that dim environment, an utterly ordinary hemp rope eerily descended from above.

It was eventually blocked by the roof of the small earthen hut. The hanging hemp rope coiled atop the roof like a deadly venomous snake.

"What is that... Wait, the target has appeared! Quickly notify Hokage-sama!"

At that moment, inside a conference room in the Hokage's Office Building, the Third Hokage and the heads of the Hidden Leaf Village's major clans were all seated there.

They were holding a meeting. It had begun in the afternoon and continued until dusk, with half the sun already below the horizon, yet it still had not ended.

The subject of their meeting was the Black Shadow that had appeared two months ago.

Ever since the Black Shadow had been sealed away, the Hidden Leaf Village had conducted all manner of research on it.

They had more or less studied all of its various abilities.

After its research report had been placed on the Third Hokage's desk and he had read it,

he had been unable to calm down for a long time...

It could devour the shadow of any living creature, its body could rob anyone it touched of the ability to resist, and it possessed an Immortal Body.

Any one of those abilities alone was enough to shock people, much less all of them combined.

Perhaps the only good news was that the Black Shadow's power was controllable.

After figuring out the Black Shadow's power, they naturally began considering how to make use of it.

The first thing they thought of was Jinchuriki, and naturally, they began conducting experiments.

They sealed the Black Shadow inside a human body.

Perhaps because the Black Shadow lacked intelligence, its Jinchuriki could use its power very smoothly and even wield all of the Black Shadow's strength!