At one point, a ritual was held in the village in which a brave villager would volunteer to become Black Shadow's sacrifice in order to protect the village. The last known volunteer was a girl named Aoi, whose true purpose was to find a branch from the Tree of Life to cure her sick mother, Tsubaki. The ritual is no longer in place thanks to Naruto Uzumaki, who made it his goal to save Aoi, defeat Black Shadow, and free the village from its nightmare.