Research Report

This is truly unexpected.

As far as she knew, Konoha had made preparations in advance, and even though Bizarre Creatures had been appearing non-stop for the past two years, they were still under Konoha's control.

But Hinata was wrong this time. Although these Bizarre Creatures hadn't caused much of a disturbance, and due to the backwardness of transportation and communication in this world, some remote villages had their entire populations killed by the Bizarre Creatures, with no one discovering it for months.

But the number of deaths increased day by day. Nearly 10% of the people in various countries had died within these two years!

It's important to note that, apart from natural disasters, this was the first time such a large number of deaths had occurred.

This greatly worried the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

The death of his subjects was one reason, but more importantly, the Daimyo learned about the existence of the Bizarre Creatures.

He was afraid they would appear at his residence and kill him in his sleep.

Because of this, the Daimyo repeatedly pressured the Third Hokage to quickly deal with these continuously appearing Bizarre Creatures.

But what good method did the Third Hokage have to deal with these Bizarre Creatures?

However, the Daimyo's orders could not be ignored. Konoha's main source of funding came from the Daimyo.

If the Daimyo cut off the funding, Konoha would only be left with taking on missions to earn money. But how much money could they earn from missions?

Recently, the Third Hokage felt he was particularly sleep-deprived, but what troubled him even more was that his hair was falling out rather quickly. If this continued, he might go bald.

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

Coincidentally, this was the time when the younger generation of the various noble clans began attending the Ninja Academy.

To Hinata's surprise, before starting school, she hadn't heard from her father that the Ninja Academy would teach them this.

Through her Byakugan, she saw that all the students in the classroom looked shocked, clearly they also didn't know what the teacher was going to teach today.

After the students had initially processed what he had said, Iruka said, "Alright, class."

"Do you have any more questions?"

A student raised their hand.

"This student, please speak."

"Teacher, are Oni truly immortal?"

"Yes, through various methods, we have not found a way to kill Oni."

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

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

"...Please speak."

Shikamaru stood up. "Teacher, besides sealing, are there any other methods to deal with Oni?"

Iruka was silent for a moment.

"...Yes, but the teacher does not recommend you use this method, nor will he teach you this method."

"Because it is a dead end. Once this method is used, it will cause irreversible damage to your body, and in severe cases, it can even lead to death!"

Shikamaru: "..."

Shikamaru didn't expect Iruka's tone to be so stern; he was a little scared. Despite his intelligence, he was still just a child. Although children in the Shinobi World were very precocious...

The rest of the time passed with the students and Iruka exchanging questions and answers.

Soon, it was time to get out of school.

As she left the school, Hinata saw her father waiting for her at the school gate.

Hinata: "Father."

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

Hinata glanced at her father. This was a question most parents would ask their children after their first day of school.

The question itself was fine, but the problem was that her father definitely didn't know what the teachers had taught this afternoon.

If he knew, he definitely wouldn't have asked this question.

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

Hyuga Hiashi, who was walking Hinata home, paused for a moment before continuing to lead her home.

"We'll talk about this when we get home."

"Oh."

All the way home, Hyuga Hiashi was very silent.

Upon returning to the clan compound, Hyuga Hiashi took Hinata to his study.

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

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

Hinata pointed to her eyes. "Father, what my eyes see may be more than what you see."

Hyuga Hiashi stared at his daughter's Byakugan. After a moment, he continued, "If that's the case, then you should be able to see whether our Hyuga clan has captured an Oni or not."

"...Only one."

Hyuga Hiashi wasn't surprised to hear this.

"That's right, only one. Because each Oni's abilities are extremely bizarre, some even being completely unsolvable. One, this is the only Oni that the village allows each major clan to possess."

"Oh."

Hyuga Hiashi raised an eyebrow. Normally, wouldn't the question be why?

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

Hinata: "Because they're afraid."

"The village is afraid that if the major clans possess too many Oni, they'll have wicked thoughts."

Without even looking, it was clear that the number of Oni controlled by the village was likely more than all the major clans combined.

"As expected of my daughter, you're correct. But that's not all. Another reason is that the village can no longer control more Oni, so they can only hand the Oni over to the major clans for safekeeping."

In the past two years, Hinata knew every time the village captured an Oni and brought it back. It was because she had sharp eyes.

After two years of accumulation, the village now had over twenty Oni Jinchuriki. This didn't even include the Oni stored in some underground laboratories.

Twenty-something, it seemed insignificant compared to the tens of thousands of ninjas in the entire Konoha.

But the ninjas who knew how terrifying these Oni were had no doubt that if these Oni went berserk, the entire Konoha could be destroyed.

Therefore, each Jinchuriki was accompanied by a Sealing Squad.

This was to constantly repair the seals and to stop the Jinchuriki if they acted strangely.

"Regarding Oni, what's taught at school might not be complete. These are the village's research reports on Oni, take a look."

Hyuga Hiashi took out several documents from a bookshelf nearby and then left.

Hinata looked at the documents on the table. She had previously seen a laboratory conduct a series of experiments on Bizarre Creatures.

Coupled with the fact that she herself possessed one Bizarre Creature, she had a certain understanding of them.

However, for various reasons, she had only practiced how to use the power of the Bizarre Creature she possessed, and her research on Bizarre Creatures was limited.

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

But after reading them, she felt somewhat disappointed.

Because Konoha's understanding of Bizarre Creatures wasn't much greater than Hinata's.

Some experiments, in Hinata's opinion, were a complete waste of time. Another point was that the reports focused more on experiments concerning the Jinchuriki who sealed the Bizarre Creatures.