Meeting

The problem was that while using Black Shadow's power, Black Shadow was also eroding the Jinchuriki's body.

In one experiment, a Genin became a Jinchuriki and used Black Shadow's power for sixteen hours every day. A week later, he died.

Tests showed that after becoming a Jinchuriki, as long as the seal was secure and Black Shadow's power did not leak out, the Jinchuriki's lifespan would not be affected in the slightest.

In other words, every use of Black Shadow's power consumed the Jinchuriki's lifespan.

Although the corrosive nature of Black Shadow's power was terrifying, it was not all bad news.

Because Black Shadow had no Chakra at all, their power was not connected to the Jinchuriki's Chakra. That meant even if Black Shadow was extracted from the Jinchuriki's body, it would not endanger the Jinchuriki's life.

After reading the report, the Third Hokage personally selected a Jonin loyal to the Hidden Leaf Village and made him Black Shadow's Jinchuriki.

He also assigned three Sealing Squads to him, ready at all times to repair the seal in his body, which Black Shadow was constantly eroding, and prevent even a trace of Black Shadow's power from leaking out.

The protection afforded to Black Shadow's Jinchuriki was only half a level below that of the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki.

Setting aside Black Shadow's bizarre and deadly abilities, the fact that they had no Chakra fluctuations and possessed spatial abilities alone was enough to make them the deadliest assassin in the entire Shinobi World.

Just as the Third Hokage was delighted that the Hidden Leaf Village had gained another trump card, he suddenly thought of something. Since there were nine tailed beasts, could there really be only one Black Shadow?

At that thought, the Third Hokage could no longer remain calm.

He immediately ordered the Anbu to investigate any bizarre incidents that had occurred recently across the Shinobi World.

Specifically, they were to look for Bizarre Creatures with strange abilities but no Chakra.

The investigation itself was not the issue. But once the report reached the Third Hokage's hands, he immediately summoned Danzō Koharu and Homura for a meeting.

That was because Bizarre Creatures like Black Shadow had appeared in every major nation of the Shinobi World, and there were quite a few of them.

If the Bizarre Creatures in other nations possessed abilities like Black Shadow's, they needed to discuss how to capture them and bring them to the Hidden Leaf Village without the other Shinobi Villages noticing before they could react.

At first, Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others were not overly concerned about those Bizarre Creatures. Once they learned of their weaknesses, they saw them as gifts from heaven.

The dispatched Anbu did indeed capture two Bizarre Creatures, but the two Anbu squads suffered devastating losses. Two ninja returned from one squad, while only one returned from the other.

As for the remaining squads, their news had vanished without a trace. Sarutobi Hiruzen knew that they had likely met with disaster.

According to the investigation, these squads either failed to find the Bizarre Creatures and were killed after encountering people from other Shinobi Villages while searching in foreign lands.

Well, they had struck first. Sarutobi Hiruzen had given a strict order that they had to bring back Bizarre Creatures. But the Bizarre Creatures had also drawn the attention of other Shinobi Villages, which sent out many ninja as well. In the end, those unfortunate Anbu members who encountered ninja from other villages had no choice but to fight, and none of them met a good end.

Or they found the Bizarre Creatures and were wiped out. The fact that they managed to bring back two Bizarre Creatures meant they had been lucky.

Losing several elite ninja units at once pained Sarutobi Hiruzen for a long time. Fortunately, they had brought back two Bizarre Creatures.

But only a few days later, something went wrong while those two Bizarre Creatures were being studied.

For some unknown reason, one of the researchers in the laboratory studying one of the Bizarre Creatures did something, and the creature suddenly began slaughtering people. Several researchers in the laboratory died. If they had not reacted quickly and sealed it in time, it probably would have escaped.

From then on, they understood that Bizarre Creatures were not some stray cats and dogs they could study at will. They were as dangerous as tailed beasts, perhaps even more troublesome.

Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen was hesitating over whether to dispatch more ninja to search for Bizarre Creatures,

a merchant arrived at the Hidden Leaf Village seeking protection.

Based on the merchant's account, the ninja receiving him believed that he had been attacked by a ninja with an unknown ninjutsu.

After the report made its way through several levels, the merchant's request landed on Sarutobi Hiruzen's desk.

An ordinary ninja might only have thought the merchant had been attacked by a ninja, but Sarutobi Hiruzen saw something different.

The merchant's description sounded far too much like a Bizarre Creature.

Sarutobi Hiruzen summoned members of the Hyuga clan, but they found nothing. They could not see anything abnormal about the merchant, aside from his somewhat unstable mental state.

In the end, it was Black Shadow's Jinchuriki who detected the bizarre aura on the merchant.

After settling the merchant in, Sarutobi Hiruzen urgently convened a meeting.

The keen instincts honed through decades as Hokage, along with the intelligence reports from all over the Shinobi World piled on his desk, were telling him that the Shinobi World was about to change!

He had originally believed that there might not be many Bizarre Creatures. After all, there were only nine tailed beasts.

The initial intelligence had confirmed that assumption. Some nations had no reports of such Bizarre Creatures, while others had discovered several. Altogether, excluding the unconfirmed cases, there appeared to be around a dozen.

That was still within a controllable range.

But when the first squads sent to capture Bizarre Creatures returned—roughly one month after Black Shadow appeared—the latest reports showed that the number of Bizarre Creatures might already have reached several dozen. And it was still growing.

That was no good news.

More importantly, over the following month, several confirmed and unconfirmed murder cases involving Bizarre Creatures had also appeared within the Land of Fire.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had already dispatched ninja to investigate when, at this critical juncture,

the first village to be wiped out by a Bizarre Creature appeared. This was a major incident!

Outside of wartime, only famine could lead to a village being wiped out.

But with the Land of Fire's fertile soil, famine was basically impossible.

At the same time, Sarutobi Hiruzen confirmed that Bizarre Creatures might possess the ability to confront an entire army head-on.

And there were dozens of such beings...

If they did not quickly determine how to deal with those Bizarre Creatures, the world might descend into chaos.

During the meeting, Sarutobi Hiruzen revealed without concealment the appearance of the Bizarre Creatures, their traits, and their possible numbers.

At first, the clan heads did not quite believe it. But they trusted that Sarutobi Hiruzen would not joke with them about something like this, so they remained half-convinced and held an afternoon-long meeting on the premise that the Bizarre Creatures truly existed.

Yet after discussing the matter all afternoon, they found that the greatest problem was simply that they had too few ninja.

Although Bizarre Creatures were extremely dangerous, were tailed beasts not just as dangerous? They had still been captured and turned into strategic weapons by the Great Shinobi Villages.