Sometime after same noon hour, three hundred miles, approximately four hundred eighty kilometers, to the northeast, in the Hokage office of the village that was hidden in the leaves, one of the strongest man had a very serious conversation with a mysterious figure.
- I am Hokage, that is concerning that you even dared to think about that! I won't tolerate if you mention something even remotely similar to that! You've done enough, even if you can pull that off, the risk of a new ninja war is just too big. Konoha just barely recovered from, from… uh… just go already…
- Fine… but remember Hiruzen, you will regret that later…
As the doors closed behind the figure, the Hokage picked up his pipe and was already on the verge of starting smoking when suddenly, he heard very familiar knocking on the door. He looked up and put down his pipe.
– Kami help me. He mumbled to himself.
– Come in, Shikaku. He said this time loudly.
The door creaked open. Shikaku stepped in altho he looked calm as always, his eyes showed worry. Hiruzen glanced up.
– Shikaku. What now? He said, you could feel how tired he was from his voice alone.
Shikaku closed the door behind him. He walked to the desk, hands in his pockets.
– Lord Third. We have an unusual… situation.
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair. - Go on.
- Strange creatures appeared across the land. They look like one of your pupil's experiment. It somewhat resembles lady katsuyu, but not a slug. They look more like some sort of slimes. Gel-like bodies with different colors, some are blue, some are green, purple or even pink. They're everywhere in massive numbers.
Hiruzen frowned. -Slimes? Like from sewerage goo?
- More like alive gelatin. They're not really aggressive. They bounce around, eat grass and don't attack by themselves, but if you poke one, it will fights back. They are also quite hard to kill. You need to use three or four c-rank jutsus just to kill one, but luckily the are quite slow and can only jump to move around.
-When did this started?
- Just recently, reports came in fast. Moreover it's not just Konoha, the whole country feels it, even neighbors, the repots state about same problem. And the logistics: farmers can't work, travelers get stuck, but bandits are having the best time of their lives…
Hiruzen nodded slowly. He thought about the implications. Kids might get hurt. - Any deaths or injuries?
-None, but it's chaos, people are panicking, some of them even avoid going out.
Shikaku paused. He pulled a map from his vest, unrolled it on the desk. - That's not all. The whole western border, about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) deep, suddenly changed, It's became overgrown. Thick jungle now. Strange creatures are everywhere: alive man-eating plants, huge aggressive bats, blood thirsty piranhas and dirt-green slimes.
Hiruzen studied the map. The border line marked in red. -How? What showed the investigation?
-Not much. Those who witnessed that say it happened suddenly. Like a jutsu of the first, but even bigger. No chakra trace we can find either. It is also too dangerous for civilians. The only option for them is to travel with escorts now. Standart teams with three genins and a chunin captain at least. Even then, it's probably tense.
Hiruzen stroked his beard. Danzo… What have you done and more importantly how and why... -Mobilize teams, I will assign tasks to investigate the jungle. I hope we have enough funds to do that right? In case of lord daime declines."
Shikaku nodded. – Yes, but we need to do something with slimes too.
Hiruzen looked at the paperwork tower. It seemed even taller now. – Genins will take care of that. More F-ranked missions I guess. I'll sign what you need.
Shikaku rolled up the map. - Understood. He turned to leave, when the door was already closing Hiruzen heard –Uhh, how troublesome…
The door clicked shut. Hiruzen stared at the papers. Another crisis. He picked up his pipe, lit it. A heavy wave of smoke curled up.