Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 227

"It is currently known that the Shans have two methods of attack. The first method can be called the Neural Whip."

"This involved a form of technology unique to their species, which exerted mental suppression on intelligent lifeforms, causing unbearable pain to the target."

"The second method of attack could be described as a racial talent of the Shans, acquired through their worship of the Outer God, Azathoth. This manifested as a kind of phase technology."

"This technology could be likened to the time-space ninjutsu of us ninjas, allowing them to bypass spatial barriers over short distances and directly enter the skull and brain of a human."

"It was through this technology that the Shan previously entered Hinata's brain without causing any external tissue damage."

"Once inside the brain, the Shan resided within the host's brain, extracting their memories. Simultaneously, it implanted its own thoughts and fabricated false memories into the host's mind."

"During the day, the Shans were restricted by the interference of sunlight in our world and could not control the host. The host could still act according to their own will."

"However, at night, the Shan gained full control over the host's actions."

"After a period of brainwashing, the host ultimately succumbed completely to the Shan's hypnosis, acting according to their will even during the day."

"Hinata's case was considered very fortunate. We speculated that the Shan's body was too large, compressing the neural tissue and consciousness centers in her brain, preventing the insect from taking control."

"If the Shan had entered the brain of a normal adult, the situation would have been far more difficult to handle."

Upon hearing this, one of the participants, Hiashi, clenched his fists resting on his knees.

The Shan's abilities, while horrifying, bore some resemblance to the hypnosis-based genjutsu commonly employed by advanced ninjas.

However, Tsunade felt an inexplicable fear deep within her heart—a fear of another type of lifeform.

That lifeform was known as the Mi-Go.

Tsunade had once personally witnessed the Mi-Go's extraordinarily sophisticated human skin disguises. Even someone of her caliber as a ninja could not detect the disguise during close interactions. It was only through chakra detection that she noticed anomalies.

And now, there appeared a strange insect capable of infiltrating and controlling the human body. The horror of this was no less than that of the Mi-Go.

This was why the existence of such creatures could not be disclosed to the general public. If their existence were revealed, the populace would inevitably descend into panic.

People would start suspecting everyone around them of being a disguised monster, leading to chaos in Konoha and even the entire Land of Fire.

"Based on Hinata's memories, there were about thirty Shans that fled from their previous world to the Bikōchū Forest, excluding the three that have already died. This means the ship still carries at least thirty individuals."

"Their limited numbers appeared to be a weakness of the Shan in this world."

"Another point was that the sunlight in this world was not well-suited for the Shans, limiting their mobility during the day."

"Lastly, their physical forms were extremely fragile. If we could manage to physically attack their bodies up close, it should be relatively easy to kill them."

After listening to Shino, Homura nodded thoughtfully. "It seemed the most challenging issue was still their peculiar phase technology. As long as they had this capability, it would remain very difficult for our ninjas to approach their bodies."

"But it wasn't entirely without a solution," remarked Koharu, suggesting a potential way to deal with the Shans.

"Based on the experience from the recent Hinata incident, we could send thirty more ninjas into that structure during the daytime. The plan would be to deliberately attract the Shans into their brains."

"During the day, the Shans couldn't control their hosts' behavior. This way, the ninjas could walk out of the conical structure on their own, and Tsunade could perform surgery on each of them."

"That would allow us to eradicate all of the Shans."

Thud!

"Absolutely not!"

Koharu's plan was immediately met with a sharp rejection from Tsunade, whose furious table slam startled everyone present.

"Hinata's situation was already incredibly lucky. Performing thirty such surgeries? No matter how skilled Shizune and I are in medical techniques, there's no way we can guarantee all thirty would survive."

"Moreover, the Shans' phasing technique to enter a person's brain is not guaranteed. They might not even enter the brains as planned, or worse, abandon their current host to infest someone else. These are all possible scenarios."

Tsunade's strong and precise argument, coupled with her overwhelming presence, silenced Koharu. The elder mumbled meekly, "It was just an idea."

The meeting room fell into silence for a moment. Seeing that no one else had an alternative plan, Shibi spoke up.

"Therefore, I believed launching an assault on the Shans at this time was unwise—both in terms of risking our village's limited current forces and considering the minimal benefits we would gain."

"I proposed designating the Bikōchū Forest as a restricted area, barring access to both ninjas and civilians."

"We could revisit the issue and eliminate the Shans when Konoha had greater resources and strength."

Shibi's reasoning continued: "This plan had several advantages. The Bikōchū Forest was already a basin surrounded by steep cliffs. Ordinary people were unlikely to venture there, and aside from insect users, most ninjas rarely entered the area. Designating it as a restricted zone wouldn't result in significant territorial loss."

"Additionally, the Shans' conical structure was crucial to them. For the sake of potential escape, they were unlikely to stray far from it. Therefore, we didn't need to worry excessively about these insects spreading to other areas."

"As for reproduction, the Shans had extraordinarily long lifespans. It took hundreds of years for their larvae to develop into adults. This suggested that their reproductive rate should be quite slow. On top of that, this world's environment wasn't particularly ideal for them."

"Moreover, the larvae of the Shans couldn't use their phasing technique. Only the adult insects could awaken this ability through a ritual involving the worship of an evil god."

"Therefore, even if we left them confined in that forest for decades, the number of threatening adult Shans in this world was unlikely to increase drastically."

Shibi's plan was comprehensive and was met with unanimous approval from the council.

In the end, Konoha decided on the resolution regarding the Shan clan: designate the Bikōchū Forest as a restricted area and strictly prohibit anyone from entering it.

The tense meeting finally moved on to the next topic—the destruction of Hoshi.

Compared to the threat posed by the Shan, this event had even more severe consequences. However, due to Shikamaru's claim that the immediate threat had been neutralized, this topic was placed later on the agenda.

The Color Out of Space was similarly a mysterious extraterrestrial entity, but its existence defied reason far more than that of the Shan.

As a life form existing in the form of color, it left everyone present questioning its very nature.

If not witnessed firsthand, who could believe in the existence of something like the Color Out of Space?

"But Shikamaru confirmed that it was those entities that destroyed Hoshi. He received information from those colors in his mind the moment those beams left the ground."

"The Color Out of Space is a non-corporeal life form composed of colors imperceptible to the human eye. Its appearance causes biological mutations in local flora and fauna and ultimately absorbs all life energy in the affected area."

With this explanation, the presenting ninja switched to a large screen, displaying a set of photographs.

"These were taken by ANBU ninjas dispatched to Hoshi."

The photos revealed a dense forest with a massive, starkly visible gray-white barren patch. One corner of the patch featured a prominent crater, slightly lighter in shade.

"This is the current state of Hoshi."

At the sight of this photo, everyone gasped audibly.

To obliterate a village, or even an entire area, leaving no trace—it was a level of power beyond imagination.

"The area has now turned into a wasteland. Researchers in the village's labs analyzed soil samples collected by the ANBU and found that even the microbial life in the soil is virtually nonexistent."

"This means this land won't be able to support vegetation for decades."

At this point, even the staunchest skeptics were forced to accept that some extraordinary force had wreaked havoc in this area.

"According to Shikamaru, the Color Out of Space departs this world after fully absorbing all life energy, returning to the cosmos. In other words, the immediate crisis in this area has passed."

"However, our understanding of the Color Out of Space is limited to what Shikamaru has conveyed. We have no knowledge of its weaknesses. If it were to return…"

This was Konoha's concern. The Land of Bears, where the incident occurred, wasn't far from the Land of Fire. This time, the meteor landed in Hoshi, leading to its total annihilation.

But what if the next meteor landed in Konoha?

If the Color Out of Space detonated in Konoha, a densely populated area, it wouldn't just be hundreds of lives lost but at least tens of thousands.

Hence, with a mindset of preparedness and caution, Konoha's leadership sought to identify the weaknesses of the Color Out of Space and explore ways to destroy any that might already exist.

However, at this moment, Jiraiya was pondering something else entirely.

Since mysterious creatures began appearing in the ninja world, witnesses often seemed to instantly gain information about these creatures at the moment of contact.

Kakashi, for example, learned the complete history of the Elder Thing simply by seeing their murals in the ancient city.

While this might seem plausible in that context, other cases were harder to explain.

When Kakashi encountered the tunneling worm, he instantly gained comprehensive knowledge about it.

Similarly, during the incidents involving Hinata, Shikamaru, and the alien entities, both individuals exchanged memories with the Shan and glimpsed information about the Color Out of Space in the moment of the explosion.

Even Jiraiya had experienced something similar.

When he came into contact with the Dimensional Shambler, Jiraiya not only learned about it but also witnessed some terrifying and inexplicable scenes in its world.

Of course, this phenomenon wasn't universal. For instance, when Tsunade encountered the Mi-Go, she didn't gain any "insight" or information about them.

The knowledge about the Mi-Go came from interrogating a live specimen Konoha had captured.

Still, in most encounters with these alien entities, the human side seemed to gain a high probability of extracting information about these creatures.

It feels as though some unseen force is subtly guiding humanity!
This sensation, however, is something Jiraiya cannot fully confirm. He can only reluctantly call it "inspiration," akin to the flashes of brilliance he experiences while gathering material for his writing.

If this is the case, could there be a way to follow this "inspiration" and uncover more of these mysterious creatures?
While Jiraiya pondered how to discover more enigmatic beings, others in Konoha were already scheming how to "drive out wolves by summoning tigers."

One senior member of the ANBU suggested using one mysterious creature to defeat another. For instance, what if the Color Out of Space was released in the Bikōchū Forest? Wouldn't the beetle swarm be eradicated by the Color?

While the proposal was creative, it wasn't very practical, as no mysterious creature could be controlled by humans.

Another topic of debate was whether they should notify the other five major ninja villages about the existence of these beings. Almost everyone agreed that sharing this information freely was inadvisable.

The reasoning was straightforward: unless the other villages had witnessed these creatures themselves, they would never believe Konoha's claims. Moreover, even if similar incidents were happening in the territories of other villages, none of them had volunteered to share such information with Konoha.

In the end, as the five great ninja villages were not united, Konoha had no intention of giving away such valuable intelligence for nothing.

The final agenda of the meeting was a vote to decide the sixth Hokage.

This vote was suddenly proposed by Homura and Koharu, catching Tsunade completely off guard.

"Wait a moment! Why was I not informed about this beforehand?" Tsunade slammed her hands on the table.

Homura calmly explained, "In fact, we proposed two candidates for the Fire Daimyō's consideration: you and Jiraiya. The daimyō said both of you were suitable, so we decided to settle the matter through a high-level vote."

"Now, let the voting begin! All those in favor of Tsunade becoming the Sixth Hokage, raise your hands!"

The Konoha executives around the table raised their hands unanimously. It went without saying that figures like Hiashi and Shikaku supported Tsunade, as her leadership would ensure better treatment for their children.

Even the others raised their hands without hesitation, clearly having prearranged their decision.

Finally, even the two Konoha advisors, Homura and Koharu, slowly raised their hands.

"Unanimous approval! Tsunade is officially confirmed as the Sixth Hokage of Konoha!"

Homura loudly declared the result. The entire process took less than ten seconds.

Tsunade immediately realized she had been cornered. Fuming, she turned to glare at Jiraiya, who merely shrugged with a smug expression, as if to say, all's fair in love and war.

Thus, the decision was made. With unanimous approval from Konoha's leadership and the Fire Daimyō's endorsement, Tsunade was officially announced as the Sixth Hokage. A notice was posted in the village, along with the date of the inauguration ceremony.

On the day of the ceremony, however, two figures—one old and one young—quietly slipped out of Konoha's gates.

"Pervy Sage, where are you taking me for training?"

"Where the beasts are," Jiraiya replied cryptically, gazing into the distance.

"We'll go wherever they are."