Solving the Problem

With the successful retrieval of the One, Two, Three, Seven, and Eight-Tails, the remaining four great ninja villages—the Hidden Stone, Hidden Mist, Hidden Cloud (though the Eight-Tails was seized, the Cloud possessed no other tailed beasts; this refers to the other villages), and the relatively weaker Hidden Waterfall (the Seven-Tails was lost, though the other villages were unaware)—fell into unprecedented panic and vigilance.

They might not have fully understood the specific methods of the Sasuga organization, but the successive disappearances of jinchuriki and the vanishing of tailed beast chakra were undeniable facts. Almost immediately, every village made the same decision: to completely hide their remaining jinchuriki.

The Four-Tails jinchuriki Roshi, the Five-Tails jinchuriki Han, the Six-Tails jinchuriki Utakata (if he survived), and even any potential substitutes or secret weapons were transferred to top-secret locations unknown to anyone, protected by layers of barriers and traps. Conventional reconnaissance and infiltration methods became almost entirely ineffective.

The Sasuga organization's tailed beast retrieval plan encountered a massive obstacle.

Base, Research Hub.

Facing the dilemma before him, Orochimaru was not discouraged; instead, he revealed an excited smile full of challenge.

"Hiding them? Hehehe... how naive." His long tongue licked the corner of his mouth. "The vast and unique chakra of a tailed beast is like a lighthouse in the dark; no matter how well you hide it, you cannot completely isolate its faint resonance with natural energy."

For the next three months, Orochimaru practically lived in the laboratory. He mobilized the vast resources of the Sasuga organization, combining the mysteries of sealing arts obtained from the Book of Sealing, energy sensing technology derived from researching the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and partial data on the essence of chakra provided by Uchiha Sakuya's Eighty Gods Mirror, to conduct frantic development.

The laboratory benches were piled high with various precision sensors, rune tablets, and energy cores. The light of failure flickered from time to time, and explosions occurred occasionally. But Orochimaru was tireless.

Finally, on a night filled with various wires and flowing energy, a peculiar device about the size of a briefcase emitted a steady hum. Its front featured a complex, multi-layered concentric sensing disk, with a special crystal embedded in the center capable of producing a super-strong resonance with tailed beast chakra. On the side was a screen capable of displaying vague energy orientation and intensity readings.

"It is finished." Orochimaru's hoarse voice carried a hint of exhaustion, but more so, fanaticism. "Hunting Fang—the tailed beast energy detector. It can capture the extremely faint, specific spectral signals leaked by tailed beast chakra within a hundred-mile radius and provide a rough orientation and distance. Although it cannot pinpoint the exact location, it is enough for us to map out a search range."

At almost the same time, in the weapons workshop on the other side of the base.

Uchiha Sakuya was also facing a dilemma of his own. A frontal assault on a heavily guarded restricted area of a ninja village was clearly unwise, and stealthy infiltration was inefficient and carried high risks. He needed a means to eliminate guards, break barriers, and even directly suppress jinchuriki from a distance, efficiently and unexpectedly.

Traditional kunai and shuriken had limited range, and large-scale ninjutsu were prone to alerting the enemy. He needed a brand-new weapon.

For three months, he utilized the extreme insight and creativity of the Eighty Gods Mirror, combined with various energy compression and projection techniques learned from the Book of Sealing (such as certain principles of Wind and Fire Release), and inspiration gained from modern technological weapons (perhaps from observations during missions or Orochimaru's data), to conduct countless designs, simulations, refinements, and trial-and-error tests.

Finally, on the workbench before him lay a sleek and peculiar metal creation.

Its entire body was a dull, dark gray to avoid reflection. The design was not that of a traditional ninja blade or kunai, but rather a complex mechanical structure with a grip and a slender barrel. The grip was ergonomically designed, with miniature chakra conduction and pressurization runes engraved inside. The interior of the barrel was as smooth as a mirror, lined with extremely fine Wind-style chakra acceleration rails.

The core of the weapon lay in its firing mechanism and ammunition. It used specially crafted metal projectiles engraved with miniature sealing formulas, which could be injected with chakra of different natures (such as Lightning Release for armor-piercing, Fire Release for detonation, or Yin Release for interference). When in use, the projectile was inserted into the barrel from the rear, and the user injected chakra into the grip; the internal formulas would instantly generate a highly compressed, controllable stream of chakra, acting like an invisible firing pin to "blow" the projectile out of the barrel at an extremely high initial velocity!

The range far exceeded that of a shuriken, the speed was faster, the sound was quieter (depending on the regulation of the chakra airflow), and various tactical objectives could be achieved by switching to projectiles with different attributes.

Uchiha Sakuya picked up the weapon that had consumed three months of his heart and soul and walked to the testing range.

He aimed at a special target a hundred meters away and inserted a standard steel ball projectile. He injected chakra.

Whoosh—! A slight sound, like silk tearing, cut through the air! The hard bullseye in the distance was instantly pierced! The destructive power was concentrated, and the penetration was extremely strong!

He switched to a projectile engraved with an Explosion Release rune.

Bang! The distant target exploded violently!

He switched again to a projectile engraved with an illusion rune.

After hitting the humanoid target in the distance, the energy readings around the target instantly became chaotic.

Perfect.

Uchiha Sakuya looked at the weapon in his hand and named it: "Handgun."

Taking the meaning of "firearm in the hand," it was concise and appropriate.

He immediately issued an order to mobilize all the base's resources, utilizing rare metals and chakra-conductive materials scavenged from various countries, to begin mass-producing the Handgun and various types of specially attributed projectiles.

Soon, the core members of the Sasuga organization and those strictly trained orphan warriors were each issued four standard-issue Handguns and corresponding ammunition pouches.

Two were typically worn in holsters on the thighs for quick drawing. One was hidden at the small of the back as a backup. One was hidden in other locations (such as inside a sleeve or on a calf) according to personal preference.

Simultaneously, high-intensity shooting training and tactical coordination drills were conducted. These children, who had struggled on the edge of life and death since they were young, had extremely strong learning abilities; they quickly mastered the techniques of using the Handgun and combined them with their own ninjutsu to develop various unexpected combat tactics.

The combat power of the Sasuga organization underwent a qualitative leap due to the deployment of the Hunting Fang detector and the Handgun. From a group of experts relying on bloodline limits and forbidden arts, they began to transform into a more modernized, professional, and well-equipped terrorist organization.

The net to hunt the remaining tailed beasts had been quietly cast. With "eyes" (the detector) and "fangs" (the Handgun), Sasuga would become even more covert, efficient, and lethal. The ninja world's attempts to hide the tailed beasts appeared pale and futile in the face of absolute technological and military superiority.