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But there were simply too many Bizarre Creatures. Considering the casualties that capturing them would entail, along with their sheer numbers, they realized that Hidden Leaf Village's tens of thousands of shinobi might not be enough to capture and contain them all.

If even one or two slipped through, incidents like an entire village being wiped out might happen more than once.

If a Bizarre Creature were born within a city and was not brought under control in time...

Everyone present could imagine the consequences.

What was even more fatal was that nobles such as the daimyo were deeply wary of the shinobi's power. There were extremely few shinobi permanently stationed in major cities. Once a Bizarre Creature appeared, they would have no way to react and make the right decision in time.

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already evening. He looked once more at the clan heads still deep in discussion.

"Everyone, it's getting late. Let's stop here for today and continue tomorrow."

After an entire afternoon, they had only managed to establish a rough course of action. As for the details, there was no need to mention them. Besides, this was not something that could be resolved in a day or two.

The various clan heads exchanged looks, then left one after another.

In the end, only Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and the Third Hokage remained in the meeting room.

There were still some matters they needed to discuss.

Just then, a Ninja Crow flew to the window and began pecking at it with its beak, producing a series of loud thuds.

Hearing the sound, the Third Hokage's expression tightened. He looked at the Ninja Crow and abruptly rose from his seat.

He recognized this Ninja Crow.

"Sarutobi, has that thing appeared?" Danzo asked.

Seeing the Third Hokage's expression, then the Ninja Crow outside, Danzo immediately guessed what had happened.

"That's right," the Third Hokage confirmed.

"Let's go." Danzo was extremely interested in those Bizarre Creatures. Unfortunately, the Third Hokage had kept them under tight control and refused to let him touch them. This was the perfect chance to see just how formidable those damned things really were.

The group immediately set off for the outskirts, where the merchant had been placed.

The Third Hokage and the others made no effort to hide their movements. The heads of the major clans, still on their way home, naturally noticed them. After some thought, they decided to follow.

At that moment, in the small temporary earthen house on the outskirts.

The merchant had already awakened. He clutched the blanket in his arms, trembling all over as he muttered, "It's here, it's here..."

At the same time, he stared in terror at the gradually darkening ceiling.

Although Sealing Jutsu had been arranged around the earthen house and across its roof during construction,

those Sealing Jutsu had only been set up to buy time. No one had expected to capture that Bizarre Creature with them.

To capture these Bizarre Creatures, they still had to rely on the Sealing Squad.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

As the suddenly appearing rope began eroding the Sealing Jutsu on the roof, the surrounding shinobi immediately threw out ropes prepared in advance and covered in Sealing Jutsu, looping them around the hanging rope.

The specialized ropes that had ensnared it visibly turned black and became old and rotten, as though they had been left unused for ten years.

But it was not pointless. At the very least, they had caught it.

Just then, the shinobi holding the rope suddenly let go.

"What happened? Why did you let go of the rope?"

They had been so close. As long as they restrained the rope and let the Sealing Squad seal it away, the mission would be complete. Why let go at a time like this?

"Ahhh!!!"

A scream was the only answer.

Then, a shinobi dressed entirely in black was hoisted into the air by a rope.

Seeing this, the surrounding shinobi immediately drew their blades and tried to cut the rope, only to discover that it could not be severed!

Before long, the shinobi hanging in the air was strangled to death as the rope kept tightening around his neck. His headless corpse fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The surrounding shinobi were enraged by the gruesome sight. Ignoring everything else, they unleashed ninjutsu against the ropes when their blades proved useless.

Using ninjutsu felt satisfying, but it did not inflict even the slightest damage on the ropes.

The black-clad shinobi froze, their breathing catching. Before they could recover from their shock, the one or two ropes hanging from the sky multiplied into dozens, then hundreds!

At the same time, perhaps it was just an illusion, but the surroundings seemed to have become a little darker.

Even if the sun had completely set, it should not have been this dark, right?

But the ropes in the sky gave them no time to think. If they were caught by one of those ropes, they were as good as dead.

Their attention focused on evading the ropes, they failed to notice that it was not only the sky that had grown too dark. Corpse after corpse had appeared beneath their feet...

"Where are they?"

The Third Hokage and the others arrived first, only to find no one around.

"Hokage-sama, the merchant has vanished as well. However, we found bloodstains inside the earthen house. Judging by the amount of blood, the merchant is already dead."

The Third Hokage waved for the shinobi to withdraw, then looked at the patch of blood on the ground ahead. Apart from the merchant's blood, there was only that one patch, along with several segments of specialized rope.

Judging from the scene, aside from the merchant, one shinobi had also died.

But where were the people?

From the broken ropes, they had clearly fought that bizarre rope, and one shinobi had died. But why had everyone vanished?

This had already exceeded the Third Hokage's understanding.

Seeing such a bizarre situation, Danzo was also left speechless.

Although he disliked the Third Hokage, he knew something of his brainwashing ability. In other words, these shinobi could not possibly have defected. Much less defected as a group.

If that bizarre thing had escaped and they had gone after it, why had they left no clues behind?

From the scene, it looked more as though they had suddenly disappeared.

The Third Hokage had thought of that as well. It made him feel even more troubled. If that was truly the case, then that thing could instantly relocate more than twenty outstanding shinobi. That meant it might be even harder to deal with than he had imagined.

At this point, more than half of the clan heads arrived and stepped forward one after another to ask about the situation.

The surrounding Anbu immediately reported the facts.

For some reason, however, the Third Hokage felt that something was wrong.

"Where is the Hyuga Patriarch?" The Third Hokage finally realized what was off. Among the clan heads who had arrived, Hyuga Hiashi was absent.

Not only was Hyuga Hiashi missing, not a single member of the Hyuga Clan had come.

Perhaps the Hyuga Clan had been held up by something.

The Third Hokage did not dwell on it. Right now, figuring out what had happened at the scene was more important.

A thousand meters away from where the Bizarre Creature had appeared, Hyuga Hiashi had activated his Byakugan and stared solemnly toward the site.

Through his Byakugan, he saw an area not far away filled with an evil power.

The area enveloped by that power had a diameter of roughly five hundred meters. The Third Hokage and the others were currently standing at its very center.