Research Report

This really was unexpected.

As far as she knew, because the Hidden Leaf Village had prepared in advance, even though Bizarre Creatures had been appearing nonstop over the past two years, the situation remained under the village's control so far.

But Hinata had been wrong this time. Although these Bizarre Creatures had not caused much unrest, due to this world's backward transportation and communications, entire populations of some remote villages had been slaughtered by them, with no one discovering it for months.

Yet the number of deaths increased every day. Over the past two years, nearly a tenth of the people in every country had died!

Other than natural disasters, this was the first time such a massive death toll had occurred.

This caused the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire no end of distress.

The deaths of his subjects were one reason, but more importantly, after learning of the Bizarre Creatures' existence...

He was terrified that one might appear in his residence and kill him in his sleep.

Because of this, the Feudal Lord repeatedly pressured the Third Hokage, demanding that he deal with these endlessly appearing Bizarre Creatures as soon as possible.

But what good solution did the Third Hokage have for dealing with these Bizarre Creatures?

Yet he could not ignore the Feudal Lord's orders. The Hidden Leaf Village's main source of funding came from the Feudal Lord.

If the Feudal Lord cut off their funding, the Hidden Leaf Village would only be able to make money by taking commissions. But how much could commissions earn?

Recently, the Third Hokage felt especially sleep-deprived, but what gave him an even bigger headache was how quickly his hair was falling out. At this rate, he might go bald.

After discussing it with Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, Shimura Danzō, and the others, they decided to teach the students how to deal with Bizarre Creatures this year.

It just so happened that this was the time when the younger generation of the major clans began attending the ninja academy.

What surprised Hinata was that before school began, her father had not told her the ninja academy would teach them such things.

Using her Byakugan to observe the students in the classroom, she saw shock written across all their faces. Clearly, they had not known what their teacher would be teaching today either.

After the students had initially digested what he had said, Iruka spoke. "All right, students."

"Do you have any questions?"

One student raised his hand.

"Yes, you. Go ahead."

"Teacher, are Oni truly immortal?"

"Yes. We have tried every method available, but have not found a way to kill Oni."

The classroom immediately erupted into an uproar, because in their understanding, nothing was immortal.

After the student who had asked the question sat down, Shikamaru raised his hand.

"...Go ahead."

Shikamaru stood up. "Teacher, aside from sealing, are there any other ways to deal with Oni?"

Iruka fell silent for a moment.

"...There are, but I do not recommend that you use this method, nor will I teach it to you."

"Because it is a dead end. Once you use this method, it will cause irreversible damage to your body. In severe cases, it can even kill you!"

Shikamaru: "..."

Shikamaru had not expected Iruka's tone to be so grave, and it frightened him somewhat. No matter how smart he was, he was still only a child. Though children in the Shinobi World matured early...

The rest of the time passed as the students and Iruka exchanged questions and answers.

Soon, it was time for school to end.

As Hinata left the school, she saw her father waiting for her in front of the school gates.

Hinata: "Father."

Hyuga Hiashi smiled. "Mm, Hinata, what did you learn at school today?"

Hinata glanced at her father. This was the sort of question parents usually asked after their child's first day of school.

There was nothing wrong with the question itself, but her father definitely did not know what the teacher had taught that afternoon.

If he knew, he definitely would not have asked.

"Father, has our Hyuga clan ever captured an Oni? Aside from the one two years ago."

Hyuga Hiashi, who had been taking Hinata home, paused briefly before continuing onward.

"We will discuss that question after we get home."

"Oh."

The entire way, Hyuga Hiashi remained very silent.

After returning to the clan compound, Hyuga Hiashi brought Hinata to his study.

"Since you asked that, it means the school has already told you about those creatures."

"But how can you be sure that what we captured two years ago was an Oni?"

Hinata pointed to her eyes. "Father, my eyes may be able to see more than yours can."

Hyuga Hiashi stared at his daughter's Byakugan. After a while, he continued, "In that case, you should be able to see whether our Hyuga clan has truly captured any Oni."

"...Only one."

Hyuga Hiashi was not surprised to hear that.

"That is right, only one. Every Oni possesses extremely bizarre abilities, some of which are practically impossible to counter. One is the only number of Oni the village permits each major clan to possess."

"Oh."

Hyuga Hiashi raised an eyebrow. Normally, should she not be asking why?

"Ahem, Hinata, tell me: why does the village only allow each major clan to possess one Oni?"

Hinata: "Because they are afraid."

"The village fears that if the major clans possess too many Oni, they might develop dangerous thoughts."

Without even looking, she knew the number of Oni under the village's control might exceed the combined total held by all the major clans.

"As expected of my daughter, you are right. But that is not the only reason. Another reason is that the village can no longer control any more Oni, so it can only hand them over to the major clans for safekeeping."

Over the past two years, whenever the village captured an Oni and brought it back, Hinata had known. Her eyesight was simply that good.

After two years of accumulation, there were already more than twenty Oni Jinchuriki in the village. That did not even include the Oni kept in certain underground laboratories.

More than twenty seemed insignificant compared to the tens of thousands of ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village.

But the ninja who knew how terrifying these Oni were had no doubt that if they went berserk, the entire Hidden Leaf Village might be destroyed.

Therefore, every Jinchuriki was accompanied by a Sealing Squad.

They were there both to constantly repair the seals and to stop the Jinchuriki if anything went wrong.

"What the school taught about Oni may not have been complete. These are the village's research reports on Oni. Take a look."

Hyuga Hiashi took several documents from a bookshelf beside him, then left.

Hinata looked at the documents on the desk. In the past, she had seen a series of experiments conducted on Bizarre Creatures in a laboratory.

Coupled with the Bizarre Creature she possessed herself, she had some understanding of them.

But for various reasons, she had only practiced how to use the power of the Bizarre Creature in her possession and had done little research into them.

She was very interested in the research reports on the desk.

But after reading them, she was somewhat disappointed.

Because the Hidden Leaf Village did not know much more about Bizarre Creatures than Hinata did.

Some of the experiments seemed to Hinata like a complete waste of time. Moreover, the reports contained more experiments concerning the Jinchuriki who sealed Bizarre Creatures.