Black Shadow Sealing

Before Hinata could react, her bedroom door exploded into pieces.

Before the shattered door could even hit the ground, a figure darted in, grabbed Hinata, and carried her out of the room.

The person who had come was Young Miss Hinata's father, Hyuga Hiashi.

"Are you all right, Hinata?"

Hinata stared blankly at her father, who was holding her. She had not even seen when he had arrived.

Come to think of it, she had only noticed someone approaching the person in her room after hearing the sound.

Hinata blinked hard. It felt as though she were standing in complete darkness without any light, trying to observe her surroundings with ordinary eyes.

Naturally, she could not see anything.

Hinata stretched out her tiny hands, clenched them into fists, then relaxed them. She could not even make out the shape of her own hands!

Hyuga Hiashi did not notice his daughter's little movements. Or rather, nearly all his attention was focused on the Black Shadow that had suddenly appeared in the room.

Although Hyuga Hiashi had not gone outside, his Byakugan had been monitoring the Black Shadow all along.

After seeing the Black Shadow disappear, he had not deactivated his Byakugan. Instead, he had swept his gaze across the entire Hidden Leaf Village.

He needed to determine whether the Black Shadow had truly left the Hidden Leaf Village.

But he had never expected the Black Shadow, which had already vanished, to suddenly appear in his daughter's room with a swoosh.

That instantly put him on edge.

Why had this Black Shadow appeared in Hinata's room?

But there was no time for careful thought. He had rushed to his daughter's room at top speed and rescued her.

As for the little thief who had sneaked into his daughter's room, he did not care much. Just a petty thief.

Compared to that, the Black Shadow, which he was glaring at with bulging veins and a pair of Byakugan, was far more dangerous.

That almost tangible energy, seemingly filled with malice toward all life, constantly assaulted his nerves.

Even though the Black Shadow merely wandered around the room like a headless fly, it still placed considerable pressure on Hyuga Hiashi.

As for the unlucky fellow who had sneaked in to abduct Hinata, he now did not dare move at all.

With the bizarre Black Shadow in front of him and the Hyuga Patriarch glaring at him with his Byakugan behind him, he had no idea what to do.

The moment he had sneaked in and seen the Black Shadow besides his target, the situation had already slipped beyond his control.

Even worse, the Hyuga Patriarch had arrived as well!

He was as good as dead.

"But this is fine. At least I can carry out Plan B."

Then his sacrifice would not be completely meaningless.

With that thought, the man in black gradually relaxed, as though he had given up resisting.

Even as the shadow beneath his feet slowly swallowed him, he did not struggle violently.

Hyuga Hiashi watched helplessly as the Black Shadow's shadow devoured a person alive, yet he did not stop it.

First, he did not know that person, and someone dressed entirely in black clearly did not look like a good person. Second, he needed to learn what the Black Shadow was capable of.

Hyuga Hiashi had achieved his goal, at least. He now knew the Black Shadow's shadow was dangerous, so the little thief's death had not been in vain.

However...

Being swallowed by a shadow... was it a coincidence?

Hyuga Hiashi glanced at his daughter. That death was exactly the same as what she had described earlier.

The moment the thought arose, he crushed it. If he chalked everything up to coincidence, he would not live long.

"Father, don't be deceived by its appearance. Its body is constructed the same way as its shadow."

Hyuga Hiashi's pupils contracted.

Come to think of it, within his field of vision, both the Black Shadow's body and its shadow looked like a child's crayon drawing—blurred and indistinct, with only a rough outline.

The Black Shadow's entire body, along with the area around its shadow, was shrouded in a thin layer of black mist that he could not see through no matter how hard he looked.

That was also why he had kept staring at the Black Shadow instead of striking it with a set of Gentle Fist techniques.

His daughter's warning made him feel immensely fortunate. If he had acted rashly and attacked with Gentle Fist, he probably would have been done for.

But after his relief came another problem.

He could not use Gentle Fist, and the Hyuga Clan was not proficient in ninjutsu. How was he supposed to fight this thing?

Just then, the Hyuga Clan guards finally arrived. They positioned themselves in front of Hyuga Hiashi and Young Miss Hinata.

"Don't go near it. Gentle Fist doesn't work on it. You'll be swallowed."

Gentle Fist was useless against it, and they were not particularly skilled in ninjutsu either. What could they do? Wait!

A sharp gleam flashed in Hyuga Hiashi's eyes. "Use Sealing Jutsu!"

"Quick, who among you knows Sealing Jutsu? Seal it away with Sealing Jutsu!"

In the Naruto World, Sealing Jutsu was practically a bug. From roadside grass to Otsutsuki Kaguya, the progenitor of Chakra, everything could be sealed with Sealing Jutsu.

Even some storage scrolls bore traces of Sealing Jutsu.

Since they could not fight the Black Shadow, why not just seal it?

Hearing her father's words, Young Miss Hinata would have shouted, Exactly! if the timing had been appropriate.

Although Sealing Jutsu was indeed the best method so far for dealing with the Black Shadow, the Hyuga Clan was simply not proficient in ninjutsu.

It was not that they could not learn ninjutsu. Rather, with the Byakugan, the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist was what suited them best.

They only needed to casually learn one or two ninjutsu as support. There was no need to devote too much effort to them.

Fortunately, the Hyuga Clan had a fairly large population, and there were still several clan members who knew Sealing Jutsu.

By the time the Hyuga clan members skilled in Sealing Jutsu arrived with their tools, the Black Shadow had already wandered from the house into the courtyard.

No one dared approach within a twenty-meter radius of it. Everyone kept their distance.

The Black Shadow seemed to possess little intelligence. As though it had not noticed the danger, it was foolishly sealed away by several Hyuga clan members who knew only rudimentary Sealing Jutsu.

Although the Black Shadow had been sealed into a scroll, the scroll was visibly turning black.

Anyone could tell that the seal would not last long. The Black Shadow would likely break free within a minute.

Seeing this, the Hyuga clan members who knew Sealing Jutsu hurriedly reinforced the seal.

After a frantic scramble, the scroll's seal had been reinforced countless times. With the seal on the scroll, the Black Shadow would not be able to escape for at least half an hour. It was not that they did not want to reinforce it further—they simply had no Chakra left!

Though they only had half an hour, it was enough.

"Someone, take this scroll to Hokage-sama. Tell him we have captured the Black Shadow and leave it to Hokage-sama to deal with."

Hyuga Hiashi summoned a Branch Family ninja and ordered him to take the scroll sealing the Black Shadow to the Hokage's Office Building.

He could leave this hot potato for Hokage-sama to worry about.