Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 252

When Orochimaru read this section of the Necronomicon, he was utterly shaken.

The fact that the Sage of Six Paths' mother came from an extraterrestrial race that worshipped the supreme mother goddess Shub-Niggurath? And that this race came to Earth to sow the seed of their racial matriarch, Kusun, in order to harvest the power of their kind and restore the bloodline of their supreme mother goddess?

The legendary progenitor of ninjas was actually a "new human" born from the union of an alien race and Earth's humans? Orochimaru wasn't sure how accurate this theory was, but without a doubt, this was the greatest secret since the time of the Sage of Six Paths.

Even so, the author of the Necronomicon, Abdul, and his race still recorded it.

This indirectly indicated that the mysterious Abdul race was likely the oldest surviving human family on Earth, spanning from the First Age of Earth to the era of the Sage of Six Paths thousands of years ago.

It's even possible that somewhere in the ninja world today, a descendant of Abdul is still silently recording history!
It was this very Abdul who translated the various original versions of the Necronomicon into the language used today, and stored them across different parts of the ninja world.

However, after this point, the Necronomicon contains a historical gap.
It abruptly jumps from the time the Sage's mother severed ties with her race — just after the birth of the two Ōtsutsuki brothers — to the middle age of Hagoromo.

At least several decades of history are missing, with no record whatsoever in the Necronomicon.

Orochimaru had long grown used to this kind of situation, since the Necronomicon was not the work of a single person. It's possible that a particular Abdul died midway, halting the recording.

However, future authors might have supplemented the earlier omissions — Orochimaru would just need to continue searching for other volumes of the Necronomicon.

According to the Necronomicon, after reaching middle age, Hagoromo began traveling the world.

During his travels, he discovered strange beings hidden on Earth.

It turned out that humans were not the only intelligent life on Earth, and his mother's Ōtsutsuki clan wasn't even the first alien race to set eyes on Earth.

The Elder Things, Cthulhu, Cthulhi, Mi-Go, Flying Polyps... All of these entities had descended upon Earth in ancient, distant ages.

Moreover, Hagoromo met a man during his journey — Abdul.

The two became close friends, and through this connection, Hagoromo came to learn the history of various periods of Earth.

Eventually, Hagoromo realized that Earth had never been an ideal and safe home for humanity — that countless shadows from across the universe were watching this vast blue planet.

So Hagoromo created "Ninshū", a doctrine meant to protect frail humanity from these "evil outer beings."

A few decades after the founding of Ninshū, a follower of the sect presented Hagoromo with a beautifully crafted key they had found.

This key had a level of craftsmanship no human could achieve, with dense, vine-like engravings resembling ciphers — a mystical silver key.

Hagoromo was puzzled by it but sensed something extraordinary within. He brought it to his friend Abdul for identification.

With a single glance, Abdul recognized the key for what it was — the legendary Silver Key.

The Silver Key is both a manifestation of Yog-Sothoth — the One Who Is All — and a medium for contacting Yog-Sothoth's true form.

It holds incomprehensible magical power, scattered across dimensions and space-time by Yog-Sothoth, to lure intelligent beings to draw near to the Silver Key, and thereby seek knowledge from Yog-Sothoth.

In every time and dimension, only one Silver Key exists, yet the one in Hagoromo's hand was not the first time it had appeared throughout history.

The previous owner of this very Silver Key was Randolph Carter, a figure from the First Age.

Abdul recounted to Hagoromo the story of how Randolph Carter obtained the Silver Key and the vague, mysterious end to Carter's journey.

Through Abdullah's tale, Hagoromo came to understand the danger of the Silver Key.

Although the Silver Key is a key to the Gate of Truth, it is also a terrifying artifact that lures people toward madness, ultimately leading to the destruction of both mind and body.

So, Hagoromo made a decision: to destroy the Silver Key of this time-space, so that no one could ever obtain it again.

But the Silver Key was a creation of Yog-Sothoth, and possibly an embodiment of Yog-Sothoth itself. Even with all his power, Hagoromo could not destroy the key.

No matter how powerful Ninshū's techniques were, they could not leave a single mark on the key — let alone destroy it.

Since physical means were futile, under Abdul's guidance, Hagoromo used a powerful magical array to split the Silver Key's magic into three parts.

To ensure that future generations could never reassemble it, Hagoromo separated the three parts for safekeeping.

One part he entrusted to his dear friend, the only one in that era who truly understood the Silver Key's significance — Abdul himself.

The second part, Hagoromo sealed inside a specially created ninja tool called the Box of Ultimate Bliss. He placed within it a strange creature encountered during his journey to guard it and prevent anyone from retrieving the key.

The third part, Hagoromo personally hid away in a secret realm, one no ordinary person could ever reach. He never even told Abdul the exact location.

At this point, the record in the Necronomicon abruptly ends.

But these details explained the lingering questions Orochimaru had since obtaining his fragment of the Silver Key.

The first known owner of the Silver Key was Randolph, whom Orochimaru had learned about long ago in the Necronomicon.

The second owner was none other than the founder of the ninja world, the legendary Sage of Six Paths himself!

The reason Orochimaru's current Silver Key is only one-third of a whole traces back to Hagoromo's decision thousands of years ago — the one to divide the Silver Key into three.

And the piece Orochimaru obtained from the Necronomicon was exactly the third passed down from Abdul, who had received it from Hagoromo long ago.

It stands to reason that each successive Abdul passed it down through generations, until it was finally sealed within the pages of the Necronomicon — untouched for years, until Orochimaru found it by chance.

Everything connected at last! It was precisely due to the guidance within the Necronomicon that Orochimaru chose to stop laying low and make a high-profile return.

His goal, naturally, was the second part of the Silver Key, the one sealed in the Box of Ultimate Bliss by the Sage of Six Paths.

To achieve this, Orochimaru scoured ancient texts and collected vast amounts of modern intelligence. He even went as far as to create a jinchūriki by his own hand, just to acquire the enormous chakra needed to break the Box of Ultimate Bliss's seal.

His purpose was that long-cherished dream: the Silver Key!

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Orochimaru showed not the slightest bit of pity as he looked at the tightly shut eyes and trembling body of Yūkimaru. Instead, his face was filled with fanatic excitement.

Chakra slowly began to emerge from all five of Orochimaru's fingers before he suddenly thrust his hand toward Yūkimaru's abdomen.

Even though his fingers stopped just short of making actual contact, Yūkimaru let out a scream of agony.

A searing heat surged from Yūkimaru's abdomen into the nerves in his brain that sensed his body, and in the next instant, he felt as if his internal organs were being pulled out through his navel.

"Ahhh!"

His screams of pain echoed through the narrow chamber. Guren's eyes flickered, and she involuntarily took half a step forward—but was immediately blocked by Kabuto.

"Guren, what are you doing? Orochimaru-sama is performing a very important ritual. Surely you understand that?"

The words "Orochimaru-sama" in Kabuto's sentence had the intended effect, instantly quelling Guren's urge to act.

After standing frozen for a few seconds, Guren reluctantly stepped back and turned her gaze away from the screaming Yūkimaru on the operating table.

On the table, Orochimaru slightly released the sealing formula suppressing the Three-Tails. The icy-blue chakra inside Yūkimaru's body was slowly stripped away, drifting like wisps of thread through the air toward the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

The Box of Ultimate Bliss was a square-shaped container with four large human faces carved into its sides—Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Pleasure.

As Yūkimaru's tailed-beast chakra approached the box, the faces on it immediately changed—their eyes turned blood-red, and the rest darkened to blackish-purple.

"The chakra of a Jinchūriki truly is immense," Orochimaru murmured, smiling once again as he watched the chakra steadily flow from Yūkimaru into the box.

This meant he was one step closer to achieving his long-cherished goal.

Only when Yūkimaru's screams had stopped, and even his breathing had grown faint, did Orochimaru finally cease extracting his chakra and reapply the Four Symbols Seal.

Guren rushed forward to tend to Yūkimaru. At that point, neither Orochimaru nor Kabuto tried to stop her—their attention was now entirely fixed on the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Deeply embedded in the wall, the box began to spin rapidly. The four faces—Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Pleasure—shifted so quickly it was dizzying, eventually merging into a single, unrecognizable face.

As the box spun at high speed, the narrow underground room began to quake violently, and the box slowly started to rise toward the surface.

Orochimaru's eyes widened. He immediately turned and sprinted toward the exit with the fastest speed of his life. Kabuto followed right behind him, leaving the unconscious Yūkimaru lying on the table without a second glance.

In the shaking yellow light of the narrow chamber, only Guren remained, gently stroking Yūkimaru's face with concern.

By now, Yūkimaru was completely unconscious—only his labored breathing and the faint rise and fall of his chest showed that his life hadn't yet flickered out.

Like discarded trash that had lost its value, Yūkimaru was abandoned by Orochimaru in this collapsing underground chamber.

Though Guren had always known that Orochimaru viewed Yūkimaru as nothing more than a tool to achieve his ambition—a disposable instrument just like herself—she had chosen to remain silent, suppressing her maternal instincts deep in her heart.

But now, seeing the agony on Yūkimaru's face, Guren could no longer stay silent.

She had once been greatly indebted to Orochimaru and had vowed to devote her life to him, even if it meant being used as a mere tool.

But Yūkimaru was different. He was born free. He neither needed nor deserved to sacrifice himself for anyone.

Yet just because of his unique talent, he had to lose his original family and be forced onto a path he never wanted.

At this point, it seemed Yūkimaru had fulfilled what Orochimaru had desired.

Still, Yūkimaru was a Jinchūriki of the Three-Tails. If he survived, Orochimaru would no doubt try to squeeze out every last bit of his value.

Determined to free Yūkimaru from that fate, Guren resolved to give him a chance at a new life.

With that decision made, she cradled the unconscious Yūkimaru in her arms and fled the collapsing underground chamber at the very last moment.

On Orochimaru's side, the moment he saw the Box of Ultimate Bliss begin rising toward the surface, he immediately dashed out of the basement, with Kabuto following close behind.

Once they reached the surface, Orochimaru didn't head toward the center of the underground plaza but instead stood silently on a nearby rooftop, watching everything unfold.

Down in the plaza of Hōzuki Castle, the ground was littered with the corpses of both ninjas and guards of the prison. Smoke from battle still hung thick in the air.

"We won!"

"We survived! We actually made it!"

The ninja under Orochimaru's command erupted in cheers, celebrating both their victory over the legendary prison fortress of Hōzuki Castle and the simple fact that they were still alive.

Originally, this victory was expected to come more easily. But halfway through the battle, Orochimaru—their core and commander—mysteriously vanished, and for some unknown reason, their numbers began to drop rapidly.

As a result, the battle became increasingly difficult. From an expected survival rate of half, only less than a quarter remained in the end.

At the edge of the battlefield stood Rinji. As she scanned the survivors across the plaza, a hint of disappointment flickered in her heart.

To think that after killing so many of her own "allies," over thirty people still survived.

Earlier, Rinji, along with Kigiri and Nurari, had done little else but take advantage of the chaos to slaughter their comrades—yet somehow, this many ninja had still survived.

Just as everyone was unsure of what to do next, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble slightly.

People stumbled in confusion, and then the sound of rocks cracking and breaking drew everyone's attention.

In the very center of the plaza, a pale purple beam of light shot into the sky. Beneath the beam, a giant square box slowly rose from underground and came to a firm, unmoving stop on the surface.

"What is that?"

"Could it be Orochimaru-sama's reward for us?"

"Maybe it's some kind of treasure from Hōzuki Castle?"

"Or possibly a deadly trap?"

None of the surviving ninja dared approach it directly. Instead, they formed a circle about ten meters away, cautiously watching from a distance.

In the distance, Rinji stared at the strange box for a while, and then a sudden flash of insight hit her—she remembered something she had once read in an ancient text.

The Box of Ultimate Bliss—a tool created by the Sage of Six Paths, capable of granting a single wish to the one who opens it!

This was the Box of Ultimate Bliss!

Realizing this, Rinji sprang into action, sprinting toward the box at full speed. She shoved aside the hesitant onlookers and knelt reverently in front of the Box of Ultimate Bliss to make her wish.

"Box of Ultimate Bliss! Please grant my wish!"

"I wish to obtain the greatest power in this world!"

With arms spread wide, she shouted her wish with such force that her voice stunned everyone around.

But before anyone could respond, the Box of Ultimate Bliss… slowly began to open.

A deep darkness inside stared directly at Rinji, and within it, she saw a faint, shadowy figure.

Before she could figure out how the box actually granted wishes, that figure suddenly vanished.

The next moment, Rinji felt a sharp sweetness rise in her throat—she couldn't help but cough lightly.

"Blood?"