Barrier Capture

If he hadn't known, seeing this place that he instinctively rejected now, he didn't want to enter.

Who knew what would happen if he entered a place surrounded by this evil power.

Not only that, but he also stopped the Patriarchs who had already entered.

But those who hadn't arrived could be stopped, what about those who had already gone in?

Going in was impossible, so they could only send out their summoned beasts to deliver the message.

The summoned beasts weren't slow, and soon arrived beside the Third Hokage. After a brief exchange, the Third Hokage and his companions left their positions without hesitation and headed towards Hyuga Hiashi's location.

He was too careless!

He knew this kind of thing was extremely strange, yet he went to the scene without thinking. What if he encountered danger?

One thousand meters was nothing for the legs of a ninja.

"Patriarch Hyuga, what exactly did you see?"

The Third Hokage, upon arriving beside Hyuga, immediately asked.

Hyuga Hiashi truthfully recounted what he had seen.

Beside them, Uchiha Fugaku stared with his three-tomoe Sharingan, his eyeballs bloodshot, yet he saw nothing unusual.

The others also broke out in a cold sweat. They had actually walked into and out of such a dangerous place! Fortunately, nothing dangerous had happened; otherwise, if they had met with an accident, Konoha would be in danger.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the isolated small earthen house a thousand meters away, lost in thought.

Based on Hyuga Hiashi's description, the area around the small earthen house was indeed unusual, but he didn't know what had happened.

The most likely possibility was that after killing the merchant and one ninja, the entity had pulled the remaining ninjas into a subspace independent of this space. It was similar to the shadow space controlled by the Black Shadow Jinchuriki.

The problem now was, if the entity truly was in a subspace, where was it now? Was it still in the same place, or had it left and gone somewhere else?

"Hokage-sama, let me go. I can enter that place."

At this moment, an Anbu operative dressed in black and wearing an animal mask approached the Third Hokage.

"It hasn't left yet... You can enter there?" The Third Hokage murmured first, then asked.

"Yes, my abilities can tear open its space and enter it."

This Anbu operative was the Black Shadow Jinchuriki. He was originally just a normal Anbu member until he was chosen as the Black Shadow Jinchuriki and directly promoted to Anbu captain.

However, his Anbu squad was very special.

Because, strictly speaking, his squad only had him as a combatant, and he was someone who couldn't easily act.

His teammates were all experts in Sealing Jutsu, and their combat power was relatively low. This was because these people existed solely for the Black Shadow Jinchuriki.

The Third Hokage couldn't think of any other solution at the moment. "Alright, be careful. If you encounter any danger, return immediately."

As for the missing ninjas, he didn't mention them, perhaps forgetting.

"Yes."

Then, the Black Shadow Jinchuriki disappeared into his own shadow in front of everyone.

Seeing this, the heads of the various clans immediately realized who he was.

Barely a few breaths after the Black Shadow Jinchuriki disappeared, he reappeared.

Before he could even report what he had seen, several ninjas appeared and cast several seals on him before retreating.

"Hokage-sama, that guy is indeed still there. The captured ninjas are also still alive. Its space repelled me, so I didn't see much, only this."

"This is enough. Thank you for your hard work."

After speaking, seeing that the Black Shadow Jinchuriki had not left, the Third Hokage knew he had more to say.

"Say whatever else you have to say."

"Yes."

"I feel I can use my abilities to force it out, but I'm worried it will escape after coming out."

The Third Hokage's eyes lit up at this. As for the worry about it escaping, they could simply make more preparations.

Then he summoned the Barrier Squad and set up a barrier. The Sealing Squad was readily available.

After the barrier was set up, the Black Shadow Jinchuriki's Sealing Squad applied another layer of seals onto the barrier.

Seeing that the preparations were complete, the Third Hokage nodded at the Black Shadow Jinchuriki.

The Black Shadow Jinchuriki's shadow began to stretch and entered the barrier.

Suddenly, the space within the barrier began to distort visibly, and then lines that twisted like water plants in water appeared in mid-air.

Then, the distorted space began to return to normal, while those twisted lines became clearer.

Everyone saw that they were ropes, and on more than half of these ropes, rotting heads were hanging.

Even from hundreds of meters away, everyone seemed to smell the stench of corpses.

The shadow that had extended into the barrier began to retract. As it pulled back, it shook, and several people were shaken out of the shadow.

These were the missing ninjas. As for why there were only a few, everyone looked at the heads hanging inside the barrier and understood the answer.

Several ninjas reappeared and placed more seals on the Black Shadow Jinchuriki.

Danzō, subconsciously hiding in the crowd and concealed in the shadows, watched the somewhat weary Black Shadow Jinchuriki. He narrowed his eyes as if calculating something.

But the ropes were more important right now. He forced himself to focus his attention back on the deadly ropes within the barrier.

Ropes dangled from mid-air, with most of them holding heads. Some of these were fresh. Corpses lay on the ground, their blood beginning to spill and dye the earth red.

Even though the ninjas present were accustomed to seeing dead bodies, this scene sent a chill straight from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads.

As soon as the ropes appeared, they floated towards the heads of everyone outside the barrier, but were blocked by it.

Then, all the hemp ropes stuck to the barrier.

The heads hanging from the ropes, whether rotten or not, freshly dead or long dead, all stared at the Third Hokage and the others outside the barrier.

Being stared at by the dead was one thing; they had seen enemies they had killed stare at them with unwillingness even in death.

But to be stared at by eyeballs that were already maggot-infested and rotten to the point of being unrecognizable was a first.

Even though they were so rotten that the eyeballs themselves were indistinct, everyone outside the barrier felt the gaze from those decaying heads.

This put considerable mental pressure on them. After all, ninjas were still human and did not possess wills of iron.

Meanwhile, others were also under great pressure.

The ninjas maintaining the barrier were all deathly pale, looking completely drained.

The substitutes on the side quickly replaced them. But as soon as they became nodes for channeling chakra into the barrier, their faces immediately turned white.

"This... at this rate, I'll be drained in less than two minutes too."