Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 262

Faced with the sudden weightlessness, Setsuna and Shizuku instinctively reached out and managed to grab onto the dangling spider silk. Unlike Gitai, the three of them didn't fall straight into the endless abyss.

Hanging beneath the bridge on the spider silk, Shizuku was positioned slightly higher, while Setsuna and Yomi were clinging to the lower end of the silk.

One single delicate strand of spider silk was supporting the lives of all three. If the thread snapped now, they would all fall into that endless abyss just like Gitai.

"Shizuku! I'm going to throw Yomi up to you! Catch him first, then pull me up!"

Setsuna had one hand clutching Yomi's collar and the other gripping the spider silk, looking rather desperate.

Even with his feet dangling above a terrifying void, Yomi still hadn't regained his senses.

Yet Setsuna hadn't given up on him. He still wanted to bring him to safety.

But with only one arm, all Setsuna could do was throw Yomi up toward Shizuku, leaving Shizuku to pull him up.

"Do you hear me? Answer me!"

Setsuna's voice grew anxious. Shizuku, directly above, was merely gripping the spider silk tightly, hanging there like a tense sausage, showing no sign of reaching out to catch Yomi.

"Shizuku!"

He roared again. Finally, the dazed and lifeless Shizuku slowly lowered her head and looked down at Setsuna and Yomi clinging below.

Her gaze first met Setsuna's furious eyes, then shifted toward the vast, bottomless darkness beneath him.

This terrifying abyss was unlike anything she had ever seen.

During their first crossing, the spider web bridge beneath their feet had shielded their view, preventing them from fully grasping the depth of the abyss.

But now, suspended midair by the silk, with nothing blocking her vision below, she was confronted with the full, horrifying expanse of the void.

No living being could long remain rational while staring into such darkness.

Not even a ninja could hold their sanity against an abyss so deep even the big spider could not measure it with her own body.

Any being that locked eyes with it would slowly lose their reason, and then "slip" into the rift between dream and reality.

Perhaps sensing this truth, the last remnants of reason and the instinct to survive made her look up, grab the silk with both hands, and desperately climb upward, no longer looking down at the darkness or at her companions.

"Where are you going?"

"Come back!"

"Shizuku!"

Setsuna's shouts could no longer reach Shizuku as she climbed with all her strength.

She wasn't necessarily trying to abandon or betray her companions or her lord, she just couldn't spare the mental space to think about them.

In the face of absolute fear, her trembling heart could no longer concern itself with emotions unique to humans.

When you're fleeing for your life, do you care what you're stepping on?

No, you only care whether you're getting further away from danger. That's all.

That was Shizuku's state now. Her mind was already on the verge of collapse, and now she couldn't afford to make any moves that would hinder her escape.

"Shizuku!"

"Come back! Come back, I said!"

Setsuna's voice was now filled not just with anger, but also despair.

But Shizuku's survival instinct had made her ears deaf to the shouting, just like how she hadn't heard the wailing of Moryō when the disaster began.

When she finally grabbed the solid spider web above and placed her feet on the intact web bridge, the thread she had used like a lifeline finally reached its limit, and snapped.

It was only at that very moment, as she escaped danger, that Shizuku faintly heard Setsuna's desperate scream from below.

But the sound disappeared in an instant, devoured by the darkness before it could be fully heard.

Shizuku didn't look down at the abyss again. Her body trembling from exhaustion, she prepared to get up and keep running.

Just then, a drop of green liquid dripped from the unseen heights above and landed on the web bridge.

It immediately corroded the web, burning a hole thicker than a finger.

Why?

What kind of liquid could so easily corrode such a strong web?

She slowly looked up, and saw a glossy black shape crawling upside down across the crisscrossing spiderwebs above, like a lantern hanging from the sky.

No longer hidden after being released by its master, it revealed its eerie face. The deformed, gaping mouth on its shifting human-like face began to open slowly. The green liquid was dripping from insect-like mandibles near its mouth.

Why could its secretions melt these webs so easily?

Simple, because it was the one that wove them.

A final human scream echoed across the spider web bridge.

---

High in the valley, beside a narrow path, atop a towering ancient tree, Kagami suddenly opened his eyes.

All afternoon, he had seemed to be watching over the area, allowing Kakashi and Guy to relax.

But in truth, he had been monitoring Yomi and the Gang of Four through the spiders' eyes.

Just moments ago, through Spidey's vision he had witnessed the end of the last member of the Gang of Four.

So far, Moryō, Yomi, and the Gang of Four had all vanished completely into the Cavern of Y'quaa.

---

The search in the Land of the North lasted for three days.

During this time, many Konoha ninjas poured into the remote and desolate Land of the North, bringing a burst of liveliness to the area.

But no matter how many more ninja were dispatched, both Mōryō and the ninjas who resurrected him seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

This left Konoha's leadership utterly baffled.

On the other side, the escort team sent by Konoha had already successfully delivered the Priestess of the Land of Demons to the underground shrine in the Land of Swamps.

Their journey had been completely peaceful, without encountering any attacks from enemy ninjas, like a pleasant spring outing, smooth and uneventful.

The only, and also the greatest, obstacle they encountered was Shion's spoiled and temperamental personality, which greatly troubled Haku, the team captain.

After reaching the underground shrine in the Land of Swamps, Shion decided to practice her sealing technique and lifted the barrier seal, only to discover something shocking.

Mōryō's physical body had started to rot. Parts of the flesh had even begun to disintegrate.

Decomposition typically occurs when microorganisms break down organic matter. However, Mōryō was a demonic being from another world, and his body didn't belong to this world, so the microorganisms of this world shouldn't have been able to decompose it.

In theory, Mōryō's body should have remained intact for eternity in this world.

But now that his body was decaying, there could be only one explanation:

Mōryō's soul had vanished.

For some lifeforms, the soul is their core. Once the soul disappears, it's equivalent to true death.

This conclusion shocked everyone in Konoha.

This interdimensional demon, who once crushed multiple nations and left Konoha helpless, had died so quietly and unceremoniously?

Reviewing Mōryō's known movements: he was first resurrected by some group in the Land of Demons, then led his Ghost Army toward the underground shrine in the Land of Swamps.

But at the border of the Land of Demons, he suddenly turned north, abandoned his undead army after entering the Land of the North, and finally died silently somewhere unknown?

Based on all the intelligence Konoha had gathered, that seemed to be the full picture of Mōryō's actions.

This series of mysterious decisions left the top brass of Konoha completely unable to make sense of anything.

On the third day after discovering Mōryō's body had started to rot, Shion unsealed the barrier again, only to find that his body had completely disappeared, without leaving even a trace behind.

This confirmed that Mōryō was truly gone, with no chance of returning, dead in the truest sense.

As a result, Konoha began to gradually withdraw the large number of ninja stationed in the Land of the North.

As for the brown-haired, wolf-headed, three-toed humanoid discovered there, once dissected in Konoha, no particularly abnormal body structure was found.

Aside from a few external physical mutations, over 90% of the internal structure matched that of humans. Therefore, it was classified as a human variant rather than a creature from another world.

Tsunade speculated that this could be an indigenous race living in the Land of the North. Outsiders had no reason to disturb these locals, so no further investigation was conducted.

And just like that, the fearsome and overwhelming Mōryō vanished into the endless mountains of the Land of the North.

However, to avoid stirring public fear, and because even Konoha itself didn't fully understand how the Mōryō crisis had been resolved, the official narrative released to the public was that Konoha ninja had fought and completely annihilated Mōryō.

Note: completely annihilated, not sealed.

This meant the world was finally free from Mōryō's threat and no longer had to live in fear.

On the streets of Konoha, the villagers cheered and spread the good news that Mōryō had been utterly destroyed.

Before Konoha's public announcement board, Kagami and Haku stood silently, reading the victory notice about Mōryō's defeat.

All the ninjas involved in the mission had been instructed not to reveal the truth, that there had been no battle or bloodshed, so even Haku couldn't tell the joyful villagers that they had, in fact, done nothing.

As for Kagami, he was probably the only person in the world who truly knew what had happened with the Yomi, the Four Celestials, and the demon Mōryō.

But of course, Kagami was even less likely to speak of these secrets among secrets.

The two brothers squeezed out from the crowd. Kagami noticed that Haku looked pale, as if something was troubling him.

"What's wrong? Got something on your mind?" he asked directly, but Haku still looked a bit hesitant.

"It's... nothing."

"If there's something on your mind, just say it. We're family, right? What can't we talk about?"

Urged on by Kagami, a faint blush crept up Haku's face as he finally spoke the words he'd been hiding.

"The truth is... Shion seems to have confessed to me."

"A c-confession?" The sudden revelation left Kagami shocked.

"Yeah... just before we parted ways, she pulled me into a small grove and said to me..." Haku paused for a moment. "She said she hoped to see me again soon, and then..."

Discovering a different world line had Kagami extremely excited. He widened his eyes and pressed eagerly, "And then what?"

"She kissed me."

"On the face or the lips? Dry or... wet? Oh, was is steamy?"

"What are you saying!?"

Haku's blush deepened, and Kagami stopped teasing him.

Thinking it over, he figured that people in this world were still relatively conservative. A kiss on the lips was unlikely, so Shion must've kissed somewhere around the cheekbone.

Still, he hadn't expected Shion to confess to Haku.

What puzzled him, though, was that their journey had been so peaceful, with no danger or moments of heroism. Why would she fall for Haku?

He looked Haku up and down, and immediately had his answer.

Back in the Ninja Academy, Haku's good looks could rival, even surpass, Sasuke's.

Now, after years of growing up, he had become an undeniably handsome young man. For a girl like Shion, overflowing with youthful feelings, falling for him was almost inevitable.

Even in a quiet journey, there must have been plenty of interaction, both verbal and physical, so...

Just as he was thinking this, across the street, on the opposite side of the street, Jiraiya and Naruto walked by, one behind the other, carrying their travel packs.