The Holy Lord

The moment the golden light flickered, Minato had already arrived on a small dirt mound several hundred meters away.

As for Uncle, who remained at the original spot, he had no intention of fleeing. Patrick Star leaped in front of Uncle, using his own stretching body to block the onslaught of magma.

The incoming magma, the moment it touched Patrick Star's body, converged and then melted directly into his lava-like form, which was emitting black smoke.

Did he absorb it...?

Seeing Uncle and Patrick Star picking up the bottles, jars, and dried geckos from the ground and stuffing them back into their bag, looking as if they were about to leave, Minato could finally no longer suppress his curiosity. He flashed over to them in a few movements, first offering a friendly smile: "This... old gentleman? Please, tell me, what exactly is the identity of those black-clad ninjas from earlier, and what was the power that allowed us to float in mid-air..."

Logically, outsiders like Uncle and Patrick Star who might pose a danger should be cut down as spies, or at the very least, dragged back to the Anbu for interrogation. However, because Minato had a relatively gentle personality, had a good first impression of the pair, and did not want to burn bridges, he was currently sticking to polite questioning.

But gentle as he was, Minato was not the type to let dangerous individuals slip away right under his nose, so...

He still had to be prepared for a fight!

Hiding his hand, which gripped a Flying Thunder God Kunai, behind his back, Minato asked his questions politely while keeping a close watch on the two to ensure he could react at a moment's notice.

"Aiya! The Shadowkhan have already obtained the first of the Twelve Talismans; if this continues, Shendu will return to the human world!"

Uncle did not answer Minato's question directly, instead complaining to himself. Minato immediately captured the keywords in Uncle's words and began to ponder them.

The final result was... uh... he had absolutely no idea what it meant.

"Then, old gentleman..."

Just as Minato wanted to ask Uncle something else, Patrick Star walked up, extended his round, chubby hand, and said with a somewhat dazed expression: "If you want to ask something, just ask Patrick Star! Uncle still has to prepare new spells."

Spells? Another term he had never heard of...

However, seeing how enthusiastic and non-hostile Patrick Star was, and listening to Uncle's complaints like "Aiya! My herbs were crushed by the Shadowkhan!" and "Aiya! And my hot tea!", Minato wisely chose to converse with Patrick Star.

"Lord Patrick Star, where exactly do those black-clad ninjas you call the Shadowkhan come from?"

Inside the Konoha forest, in a relatively wide clearing, Minato questioned Patrick Star while Uncle tinkered with spell materials on a tree stump.

"The Shadowkhan..."

"They are the minions of Shendu. They are formed from shadows; they neither need to sleep nor eat... and because their true form is shadow, they can never truly die..."

In other words... they aren't ninjas in the traditional sense... Minato frowned slightly, pondering the scene of the battle against the Shadowkhan. The shuriken they threw did indeed dissipate into black smoke after a while, and they couldn't be retrieved, as if they were reflections on the ground that could not be touched.

And the way they didn't care about losses as long as they achieved their goal—was it because life held no meaning for them...?

"Then, who is Shendu?" Minato continued to ask.

Don't let the Shadowkhan's mediocre individual combat ability fool you; their numbers were vast. Unless one was a "cheat-user" like himself—someone who had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique—it was likely that no one could withstand their war of attrition.

And the leader of this legion... must also be an extremely dangerous fellow.

"Shendu... he is..."

"He is a demon from the ancient era!"

Just as Patrick Star opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Uncle. Uncle packed all the bottles and jars into his satchel, slung it over Patrick Star's shoulder, and continued to explain in his raspy voice: "Shendu is a demon who ruled this continent ten thousand years ago, an emperor."

"He enslaved the people, lived in extreme extravagance, and was tyrannical by nature. He was a despot who committed every evil and was denounced by all the people under heaven."

"Later, the people, unable to bear the tyrant's rule, rose up. From among them, several warriors who mastered powerful Qi Magic emerged. Among them, the most powerful leader was known as a 'Saint Warrior'..."

"The Saint Warrior developed a special spell that separated the Twelve Talismans, which represented Shendu's twelve divine powers, and hid them across the world. Shendu's physical body was also sealed as a stone statue by the spell, until this very day..."

Although Uncle introduced the origin of the Shadowkhan with a serious tone, making it sound as if it were true, Minato remained skeptical. After all, even the story of the Sage of Six Paths from a thousand years ago was just a legend of unknown credibility, let alone Shendu from ten thousand years ago. If one were to flip through the history books of every village in the Ninja World, they would likely only find that no such person existed.

"However"... even though Minato believed Uncle's words were of questionable credibility, the group of Shadowkhan he saw today were real. Furthermore, Uncle's tone was very firm when telling this "story," and he had no reason to lie to him.

Seeing that Minato was mostly convinced, Qian Yu, far away in Konoha, couldn't help but "cackle": "He believes it! He believes it!"

Although Minato didn't seem to believe it completely, once the precedent for being hoodwinked was set, the rest of the operation would be much simpler, even if what Uncle said was too outrageous for Minato—more outrageous than the Sage of Six Paths having a mother.

What? You ask what about the remaining talismans and Shendu? Qian Yu indicated it was no problem. After his first ten-pull, the system unlocked a new function: as long as one unlocked a representative item or character from a certain world, one could perform a "Directional Wish." A Directional Wish would significantly increase the probability of pulling items from that specific world. Qian Yu didn't believe he couldn't pull a mere talisman or Shendu! At worst, he would just pay a little extra and buy them directly from the system store!

Back on the other side—

"Summoning Technique!" Taking advantage of the moment Patrick Star and Uncle stopped to gather herbs, Minato went behind a bush under the guise of using the restroom, bit his finger, performed the hand seals, and summoned a small, somewhat goofy-looking toad.

"Please, deliver this to the Hokage!"

Regardless of whether Uncle's "story" was true or false, it was necessary to report the presence of such a large group of black-clad ninjas lurking near the village. It would be best to discuss it with the capable individuals in the village to see if any other methods could be found to completely eradicate the Shadowkhan.

The small toad nodded, stuffed Minato's letter into its mouth, and with a "ribbit," vanished into white smoke. Minato immediately returned to Uncle and Patrick Star's group to lead the way.

By the time the three arrived at the gates of Konoha, the sun had completely set. The village was shrouded in night, and there were no civilians to be seen on the streets. After all, a light mist had begun to rise in the surroundings, and no one wanted to become the next prey of the "Fog Demon."