Shendu

In a flash of golden light, Minato had already arrived on a small hillock several hundred meters away.

As for Uncle, who had stayed behind, he had no intention of running. Chixing leaped in front of him and stretched out his body to block the encroaching lava.

The lava rushing toward them converged the moment it touched Chixing's body, then flowed straight into his smoking, molten form.

"Did he absorb it...?"

Seeing Uncle and Chixing pick up the bottles, jars, dried geckos, and unknown medicines scattered across the ground and pack them away, looking ready to leave, Minato could no longer suppress his curiosity. He flickered over to them and smiled politely. "Sir... may I ask what those black-clad ninjas were just now, and what the power that made us float in midair was...?"

Normally, outsiders like Uncle and Chixing, who might pose a threat, would be hacked to death as spies—or, at the very least, taken back to Anbu for severe interrogation. But Minato was mild-mannered, had a good first impression of the two, and didn't want to make things worse, so for now he settled for asking them amicably.

But mild-mannered or not, Minato wasn't about to let dangerous individuals slip away right under his nose. So...

He still had to prepare for a fight in advance!

Keeping the hand gripping his Flying Thunder God Kunai hidden behind his back, Minato asked his questions politely while watching the two, ready to respond at a moment's notice.

"Oh, dear! The Shadowkhan have already obtained the first Talisman. If this continues, Shendu will return to the world!"

Uncle didn't answer Minato directly, instead complaining to himself. Minato immediately picked out the keywords in Uncle's words and tried to make sense of them.

In the end, he came to one conclusion... Uh... he had no idea what any of it meant...

"Then, sir..."

Minato was about to ask Uncle something else when Chixing came over. He held out a round hand and said with a slightly dazed expression, "Ask Chixing whatever you want! Uncle still has to prepare a new spell."

A spell? That was another word he'd never heard before...

But seeing how friendly and unthreatening Patrick seemed, and hearing Uncle complain, "Oh, dear! The Shadowkhan ruined my herbs!" and "Oh, dear! And my hot tea!", Minato wisely chose to speak with Chixing.

"Chixing, where did those black-clad ninjas you call the Shadowkhan come from?"

In a wide clearing in Konoha Forest, Uncle worked on the ingredients for a spell atop a tree stump while Minato questioned Chixing.

"The Shadowkhan..."

"They're Shendu's minions, born from shadows. They don't need to sleep or eat... And since their true forms are shadows, they can never truly die..."

"So they aren't ninjas in the traditional sense..." Minato furrowed his brow slightly, recalling the battle against the Shadowkhan. Their shuriken had indeed turned into black smoke after a while, and couldn't be retrieved. They were like shadows cast on the ground, impossible to touch.

And they'd seemed completely unconcerned about their losses as long as they achieved their goal. So their lives meant nothing to them...?

"Then who is Shendu?" Minato continued.

The Shadowkhan weren't much in a one-on-one fight, but they were numerous. Unless you were someone like him, with a cheat technique—the Flying Thunder God Technique—you'd probably find it hard to withstand their relentless attacks, wouldn't you?

And the leader of this army... had to be a very dangerous fellow...

"Shendu... He is..."

"He's a demon from ancient times!"

Chixing had just started to speak when Uncle interrupted him. He packed all the bottles and jars into his shoulder bag, then slung it over Chixing's shoulder and continued in his hoarse voice, "Shendu was a demon who ruled this land ten thousand years ago. He was an emperor."

"He enslaved the people, lived in extravagant luxury, and was cruel and tyrannical. He was a despot who committed every evil imaginable and was condemned by all the people."

"Later, the people could no longer endure his tyranny and rose up against him. Among them were several warriors who wielded powerful Qi Magic. Their strongest leader was known as a 'Saint Warrior'..."

"The Saint Warrior devised a special spell that separated the Twelve Talismans, each representing one of Shendu's twelve divine powers, and hid them throughout the world. The spell also turned Shendu himself into a stone statue and sealed him away, where he remained to this day..."

Although Uncle spoke solemnly about the Shadowkhan's origins, making the story sound completely true, Minato remained skeptical. Even the story of the Sage of Six Paths from a thousand years ago was only a legend of uncertain credibility, let alone a tale about Shendu from ten thousand years ago. He could probably search through the history books of every ninja village in the Ninja World and still find no record of him.

"However," Minato thought, though Uncle's story might not be entirely credible, the Shadow Ninja he'd seen today were real. What was more, Uncle had spoken with such conviction, and had no reason to lie to him...

Seeing that Minato believed most of it, Qian Yu, far away in Konoha, couldn't help but laugh slyly. "He bought it! He bought it!"

Minato didn't seem completely convinced yet, but once you started pulling the wool over someone's eyes, the rest was easy. Even if Uncle's story sounded utterly outrageous to Minato—more outrageous than the Sage of Six Paths having a mother.

What? What about the remaining Talismans and Shendu? Qian Yu wasn't worried. After his first ten-pull, the system had unlocked a new feature: once you unlocked a representative item or character from a certain world, you could make a "targeted wish." A targeted wish greatly increased the odds of getting something from that world. Qian Yu refused to believe he couldn't draw a mere Talisman and Shendu! At worst, he'd pay extra and buy them straight from the system shop!

Back on the other side—

"Summoning Technique!" While Chixing and Uncle paused to gather herbs, Minato used going to the bathroom as an excuse to crouch behind some bushes, bite his finger, and form Hand Seals. He summoned a small, rather goofy-looking toad.

"Please take this to Lord Hokage!"

Whether Uncle's "story" was true or not, it was still worth reporting that such a large group of black-clad ninjas was encamped near the village. It would be best to discuss it with the experts in the village and see if they could find another way to wipe out the Shadowkhan completely.

The little toad nodded, tucked Minato's letter into its mouth, and vanished in a puff of white smoke with a "ribbit." Minato immediately rejoined Uncle and Chixing, ready to lead the way.

By the time the three reached the Konoha Gate, the sun had completely set. Night had fallen over the village, and there wasn't a civilian in sight on the streets. A thin mist had begun to gather around them, after all, and no one wanted to become the Fog Demon's next prey.