Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 259

In the dense forest flanking the narrow mountain pass, a filthy, disheveled, and grotesque corpse lay on the ground face-up. To humans, this corpse embodied the very essence of ugliness, so much so that even in death, it presented its most repulsive form.

This humanoid creature was entirely covered in brown fur, with especially thick and lush patches on its back and chest. Its chest fur was stained with blood. Its protruding upper and lower jaws were slightly agape, revealing beast-like fangs. Shifting focus to the creature's hands revealed that they were not the coordinated five-fingered hands of a human, but rather animal-like three-toed limbs.

Each of the three thick digits bore claw-like nails sharp as blades. The nail beds were packed with black grime, making for a revolting sight.

"Is this thing human?"

"Hard to say."

Even the nearby ninjas couldn't bring themselves to classify this hideous creature as human. However, it wore a woven outfit made from animal pelts and scraps of cloth, something only sentient beings with a sense of shame would wear.

Kakashi stood before the corpse, staring at it for a long time, a strange expression gradually surfacing in his eyes.

"Have you found any other bodies besides this one?"

"Not for now. But we've discovered many footprints and bloodstains nearby. They seem to belong to creatures similar to this one."

Hearing the report, he fell into deep thought.

The Land of the North was called a country, but it didn't have a centralized authority. The name was just a general label outsiders used for this wild and untamed land. Even someone as well-traveled as him had never been here before, nor had he seen what the people of this region looked like.

Could it be that the people of this country looked like this?

He couldn't make sense of it, but the eerie feeling in his chest reminded him of previous encounters with bizarre creatures. That feeling made him vaguely sense that these beings were anything but simple.

"Take this body back to Konoha for examination."

"Yes!"

Two ninjas picked up the suspicious corpse using a body bag and carried it back along the path they came from. At that moment, Guy stepped forward and asked, "What should we do now?"

"Hmm." Kakashi paused in thought and replied, "Judging by the scene, it appears that Mōryō's army had a conflict with the local creatures of the Land of the North, prompting him to abandon his army."

"Mōryō abandoned his army? Is that even possible?"

Guy was doubtful. Mōryō's powers were primarily centered on controlling his puppet-like terracotta soldiers. For him to abandon them would be like Guy himself giving up taijutsu, essentially crippling himself.

But Kakashi spoke again with conviction, "It's very likely. The mountainous terrain of the Land of the North isn't suited for large troop movements. Bringing the Ghost Army along would severely hinder progress. But that only proves that Mōryō's destination lies somewhere within the Land of the North, and he's in a great hurry to get there. I just can't figure out where exactly he's going."

Guy nodded. "Now that Mōryō is operating in smaller groups, moving through dense mountain forests, and we have no reliable maps, tracking him is going to be extremely difficult. We still have to try. Even though Mōryō is now moving in the opposite direction from his physical body sealed in the underground shrine of the Land of Marsh, I can't shake the feeling that he's plotting something even bigger."

"All units, listen up!" Kakashi suddenly shouted, and the twenty or so ninjas still searching the area immediately paused and turned to await the commander's next order.

"Split into pairs and begin your search from this point as the origin, spreading out within a 180-degree arc to the north. If you discover any trace of Mōryō, immediately send one person back here to report. Under no circumstances are you to engage without permission."

"Yes!"

With Kakashi's command, the ninjas quickly and wordlessly paired off, coordinating their search directions before heading into the dense forest. Just as Kagami was about to randomly grab someone to form a team, Kakashi stopped him.

"You don't need to go out searching. You, Guy, and I will stay here, that's enough."

"Kakashi, aren't we going out to track Mōryō?" Guy asked, confused.

"If any of the search teams find something and send someone back to report, the ones guarding this location must have enough strength to respond and support as needed. Also, since Mōryō left his undead army behind, he's likely to return for them eventually. So we need people strong enough to deal with that possibility staying behind here." After explaining to Guy, Kakashi turned to Kagami and said with a deeper meaning in his tone, "I can tell, Kagami, you've been hiding your true strength, haven't you?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Kagami tried to play dumb, but Kakashi averted his gaze and continued in a seemingly casual tone, "Ever since Itachi returned to Konoha, I started to suspect. Back when I was in the ANBU, I worked alongside him. He was, without a doubt, the genius of the Uchiha clan. Yet when he returned, you were able to hold your own against him without a scratch, that tells me your strength isn't far below his. And back then, you and Itachi were the only two granted special permission to graduate early from the Ninja Academy. You shouldn't be living such an average life now."

In fact, after the incident involving Itachi's return, he had secretly looked into Kagami's background. What he found was astonishing, Kagami had a 100% mission success rate over the years, never failing once.

There was also an incident years ago, when Kagami and Itachi served as genin under Yuki. During a mission to escort tribute gold, even Yuki nearly lost his life, and both Itachi and Yugao were rendered unable to fight. Yet Kagami alone managed to repel the enemy, which was highly suspicious.

However, bloodline tests showed that Kagami's body didn't carry any special inherited traits or bloodline limit. Moreover, he always emphasized teamwork and collaboration in his mission reports, attributing success to group effort, which prevented him from gaining further promotions.

Being a chunin at eighteen wasn't considered weak, it was average by Konoha's standards.

But Kakashi knew Kagami's strength was far beyond what a typical chunin possessed. As for the reason Kagami was hiding his true power, Kakashi didn't assume it was for any malicious purpose. Perhaps he simply avoided fame, yielded the spotlight to teammates, and remained humble and cautious. These could all be reasons why Kagami chose to remain in the shadows.

After all, Konoha had seen a similar case: Kosuke, the "strongest genin."

Though he remained a genin his entire life, Kakashi knew that this man had mastered the techniques of multiple Hokage and was no weaker than an elite ninja. So he decided to respect Kagami's choice, to let this hidden trump card remain within the village, ready to be played when the time truly called for it.

Like now.

---

On the narrow mountain path, Kakashi sat on a rock flipping through his copy of Icha Icha, while Guy, with nowhere to channel his youthful energy, busied himself lifting and moving a massive stone ball shaped like a terracotta warrior, engaging in a completely pointless back-and-forth exercise.

A little farther away, Kagami stood atop a tree branch, quietly observing Kakashi. Just earlier, Kakashi had pointed out that Kagami was hiding his true strength, which gave Kagami a slight scare. However, he only mentioned it in passing and didn't press for details about which part of his power was being concealed or why he was doing so. Unless they are extremely close comrades who need to coordinate tactically on a daily basis, it's considered basic etiquette among ninja not to pry into each other's jutsu or abilities.

Considering the strong trust shared among comrades from Konoha, Kagami believed that Kakashi wouldn't assume malicious intent behind his hidden strength. And certainly, he wouldn't go so far as to connect his concealment with the series of bizarre and supernatural events occurring in the world. After all, most of the strange happenings in the shinobi world lately were clearly supernatural in nature, no rational person would think a few individuals were behind all of them.

There was neither evidence nor logical reason to do so.

He shook his head, pushing away these distractions, then looked down at the bloodstains beneath the tree. These stains clearly hadn't been left by humans. Though they appeared human at a glance, they didn't quite fit the classification of the human species.

The creatures that left them, humanoid beings with three toes, covered in brown fur, and bearing wolf-like heads, were known as the Voormi.

The Voormis were originally enslaved by the Serpent People. However, after the Serpent People fractured due to their worship of Tsathoggua, the Voormis gained their freedom and began to regard themselves as the chosen race of Tsathoggua.

Of course, the Voormi's strength alone was still somewhat lacking, and Moryō's army was no pushover.

---

Freed from the burden of the Ghost Army, Moryō's movement speed increased dramatically, making it impossible for the Konoha ninjas to track his whereabouts.

Guided by the map, Yomi and the Gang of Four dashed swiftly through the jungle, heading toward the marked location without hesitation.

Eventually, what appeared before them was indeed a cave.

"This is the cave?"

This was a cave located beneath the cliffs of a mountain peak. The entrance to the cave was narrow and inconspicuous. If they hadn't already known their destination was a cave, Yomi and the others wouldn't have thought there was anything special about it.

After surveying the surroundings once more and confirming the map, Yomi and the Gang of Four slowly entered the cave.

It was a completely natural cave, with no wall lamps or furnaces, an absence that gave them a subtle sense of unease. Such a primitive and wild cave could easily be mistaken for the den of a beast. How could it possibly be a place that could contain the body of a wraith?

But since they had come this far, it wouldn't make sense to stop here without pressing onward.

In the pitch-black darkness, where one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face, Moryō controlled Yomi's body and continued forward. For a being like Moryō, who didn't rely solely on sight to perceive its surroundings, this posed no difficulty.

The Gang of Four's eyes also quickly adapted to the darkness, allowing them to move through the cave with ease.

From the moment they entered, the cave floor had been sloping downward, and the air was filled with a suffocating stench.

This foul odor came from various side chambers branching off from the main cave, each one carved directly into the cave walls. Just peeking one's head slightly inside would reveal an even more intense stench.

There was likely something living in these side chambers, and there was every reason to believe they were the same werewolves that had attacked the Ghost Army in the jungle.

Just as Yomi and the others were advancing along the main tunnel of the cave, a shrill beast-like screech echoed from one of the side chambers.

Moments later, a humanoid creature, one that resembled the werewolves outside, rushed out from the side cave and attacked Yomi, who was leading the group. However, before the creature could lay a hand on Yomi, two of the Gang of Four, Gitai and Shana, restrained it by its arms, while Setsuna wasted no time in snapping its neck.

"This must be the lair of those savages."

The creature whose neck Setsuna had broken bore some female human-like features, it appeared to be female.

This closely resembled the division of roles in human society: males go out to fight, while females stay behind at home.

And since Yomi and the Gang of Four were ninjas, their speed far outpaced that of the male werewolves who had left their nest. Thus, they had essentially exploited a window of opportunity and returned to the werewolves' lair ahead of them.

"Forget these things. Keep moving."

"Yes!"

Yomi had no interest in these creatures. What he truly cared about was Moryō's physical body.

As they ventured deeper into the cave, the side chambers along the walls abruptly came to an end, and the main passage began to slope downward even more steeply.

At this point, the air was thick with the acrid scent of minerals, and the Gang of Four had to hold their breath as much as possible, minimizing the number of breaths they took. At last, they descended the slope and arrived at a dim underground hall.

Here, they saw the first reliable source of light so far.

From the rocky dome ceiling of the underground hall, a faint glow radiated outward, causing Yomi and the Gang of Four to momentarily forget whether it was day or night aboveground. Judging by the depth they had descended, they were now in a realm that should have been pitch-dark and suffocatingly oppressive.

And yet, for some unknown reason, the area was filled with an unnatural dim glow. All around them were howling wind tunnels and dangerous chasms.

The natural environment here defied everyone's understanding, even Yomi, who had devoted the past six years to the study of reviving Moryō, couldn't guess the origin of this strange realm.

Yomi knew the place where Moryō's physical body was sealed was an underground shrine, and even that underground world had been awe-inspiring. But compared to this place, that shrine was like a child's nursery, pure and unblemished.

Standing within this dark underground hall, Yomi felt as though taking just one more step forward would bring him into another world entirely.

Just as the group was lost in this strange atmosphere, a large bat suddenly swooped out from the shadows of the underground hall. It flew over their heads and into the cave directly ahead. Only when this fearsome shadow disappeared into the darkness of the passageway did the group snap back to their senses.

"This way," Yomi said.

He followed the bat's direction and moved toward the forward tunnel.

He believed it was his own decision, but in truth, it was neither a random instinct triggered by the bat nor a conscious choice of his own.

From the moment he entered this underground demonic abyss, his will and thoughts were no longer his own. He had stepped onto a path shrouded in darkness, a path he was destined to walk. Even if the road ahead was obscure and uncertain, his fate had already been sealed.

As they passed through the next tunnel, the path behind them grew steeper. Even for ninjas, they now had to use chakra to cling to the ground and advance cautiously.

Along the way, countless underground halls and unfathomable cliffs emerged at their sides.

In those vast underground spaces, enormous, shadowy shapes would occasionally appear, dark, terrifying silhouettes that resembled either gigantic beasts ruling over the subterranean world or massive reptilian creatures. But these shadows only appeared for a brief moment before vanishing without a trace, leaving the group unsure whether they had seen living beings or merely the outlines of giant stones.

Beneath the cliffs on either side lay an underground sea that churned with black foam. As the bubbles popped, they made soft gurgling sounds, like whispers trying to lull the listeners into a dreamlike trance.

Through all this, everyone was experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime sensory spectacle. It was a visual and auditory feast unlike anything they had ever known.

Finally, the group arrived at the edge of a cliff so wide even ninjas couldn't leap across it. Yomi and the Gang of Four came to a halt.

Yomi stepped to the edge and looked out, only to see a massive spider web stretched across the bottomless chasm.

Thick gray spider silk, as strong as rope, crisscrossed into a web-like structure. The web's two ends were anchored securely to the cliff's edges, suggesting it was stable.

There was no man-made bridge in sight. This spider web seemed to be the only way to cross the abyss and reach the other side.

But just then, Shizuku extended a trembling hand and pointed to a dark corner of the web sprawled across the chasm.

"T-That… What is that?"

Her voice trembled as much as her hand. It was hard to believe that someone, who could kill without batting an eye, would show such raw terror so openly.

The others followed the direction of her finger.

There, within that unnaturally dark corner of the web, a shadowy figure lurked, half-concealed in the dim light.