Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 208

Under Orochimaru's guidance, a still-shaken Sasuke was led through a hidden door within a mountain cave.

Behind the door lay a vast secret base filled with various experimental apparatus.

Standing before one of the machines was a pink, crustacean-like creature. Even when in a semi-upright stance, the creature was a towering 1.5 meters tall. Its body featured enormous wing-like or fin-like appendages and multiple jointed limbs resembling legs.

Where a head would typically be, there was instead a complex ellipsoid structure covered in numerous short tendrils.

This grotesque form quivered faintly in Sasuke's vision, its many limbs on either side of its abdomen moving with the dexterity of human hands as it operated various devices.

"Ah!"

Sasuke let out an involuntary cry. It was his first time encountering such an incomprehensible being, something beyond human knowledge. For a twelve-year-old boy, such a sight was impossible to face calmly.

"No need to be alarmed, Sasuke," Orochimaru said.

"It's a Mi-Go, one of our own. You'll be seeing it often from now on."

Orochimaru guided Sasuke to a seat and motioned for him to sit down. However, Sasuke's gaze never left the creature called Mi-Go.

Even though the Mi-Go had no eyes to impose the pressure of its gaze, the quivering of its tendrils intensified as Sasuke entered the space.

Almost as if compelled, Sasuke sat in the chair. Orochimaru placed his palm on Sasuke's forehead, entering his inner world instantly.

This was mind-reading, a technique that every interrogation ninja must master. Naturally, Orochimaru, who once sought to learn all the world's jutsu, knew it well.

But as Orochimaru attempted to scroll through Sasuke's memories, he immediately noticed a problem.

As expected, it was a seal. Someone had sealed Sasuke's memories.

Specifically, the memories of the night of the clan massacre had been locked away with a memory seal technique. This method was even more advanced than the one Orochimaru had previously used on Anko. It created the illusion of natural forgetfulness rather than the sense of a memory being forcibly sealed.

If Orochimaru were to forcibly break the seal, it might result in the complete erasure of those memories.

He speculated that Danzō had ordered someone from the Yamanaka clan to perform this seal, likely to bury any investigation into that night.

Sasuke's lack of mention of the event was probably due to the seal, which led him to believe he had merely forgotten. He only retained the memory that his brother was not the true culprit of the massacre.

What now? Should he abduct another strong Yamanaka to break this memory seal?

No, that wouldn't be necessary.

He withdrew his hand from Sasuke's forehead and left his inner world. Then, he called over the Mi-Go.

"You can extract his memory images, can't you?"

"Bzz-bzz-yes."

The voice came from an unknown orifice of the creature, speaking human language, though it was accompanied by a high-pitched buzzing sound that shocked Sasuke to his core.

"This monster can talk?"

Orochimaru chuckled faintly and explained, "Don't be biased. If ninja dogs can talk, why can't the Mi-Go? After all, they're a highly advanced extraterrestrial species."

Sasuke reflected on this and realized Orochimaru was right. He'd simply been deceived by the creature's grotesque appearance.

But then—"extraterrestrial"? What did that even mean?

At Orochimaru's command, the Mi-Go approached the chair, fastening Sasuke's hands and feet with straps. It then grabbed a massive syringe connected to a machine by tubing and plunged it directly into the base of Sasuke's neck.

"Ugh!"

A stifled groan of pain escaped as Sasuke's body spasmed briefly before going still.

The Mi-Go then began using its racial talent: hypnosis.

Next, it began to demonstrate its racial ability: hypnosis.

In the ninja world, mind-reading jutsu works by channeling chakra into the target's brain to access their memories.

Conversely, sealing someone's memories involved using chakra to isolate those memories, preventing any chakra—including the individual's own—from retrieving them.

However, as long as chakra wasn't used, those memories could still be accessed.

The innate ability of the Mi-Go species was precisely this: it could read others' memories and create dreamscapes within their minds through hypnosis.

Over the years, Orochimaru and the Mi-Go refined this ability further using brain containment devices and holographic memory projection technology, culminating in the creation of a specialized machine.

This machine can project the memories stored in a brain without needing to physically open it. With the Mi-Go's hypnotic ability, Orochimaru had effectively rendered even the tightest lips irrelevant.

While mind-reading jutsu could be resisted by countering the infiltrating chakra, hypnosis combined with direct memory projection was virtually inescapable.

This was because this method of memory retrieval bypasses chakra entirely, rendering even the most advanced memory-sealing techniques ineffective.

As a faint humming filled the room, Sasuke drifted into a deep sleep, and the memories in his brain began to play out like a film reel on the holographic projection.

The images flashed rapidly until Orochimaru commanded, "Stop." The Mi-Go obeyed, freezing the projection.

On the screen, he saw Sasuke running from a first-person perspective.

After a while, Sasuke reached his home, shut the door behind him, and began searching for his family.

When he found his parents, Fugaku and Mikoto, they had a brief conversation. Then, suddenly—Mikoto's head flew off!

Orochimaru's eyes widened in utter disbelief. Sasuke's perspective revealed no visible attacker, yet Mikoto's head inexplicably detached, rolling to the side.

Next, Fugaku tried to protect Sasuke while simultaneously battling an invisible enemy, only to lose both arms in succession.

Meanwhile, the figure in Sasuke's vision began to grow clearer and clearer.

It was a samurai clad in blood-red armor, with what appeared to be streams of blood flowing through the joints of the suit.

The towering figure was half a head taller than an average adult, and beneath the ox-horned helmet was a face composed of a swirling mass of dark shadows and wraith-like apparitions.

What was this thing?!

The first thought upon seeing a samurai would naturally be the highly skilled warriors of the Land of Iron. But the samurai in Sasuke's memory was clearly no ordinary samurai from there.

This creature wasn't even human!

"What is that thing?" Staring at the samurai in Sasuke's memory, Orochimaru and the group of sound ninjas were filled with astonishment.

If Sasuke's young age back then could have led him to mistake something imagined for reality, the scene in his memory was far too vivid to be incorrect.

The mysterious samurai had wielded his katana in a very ancient style. The two-handed grip, long abandoned in the era of ninjas, was still being employed by this warrior.

What was even stranger was that Sasuke, who initially couldn't see the samurai at all, had gradually begun to perceive him. What was the principle behind this?

And then there was the inexplicable shadow beneath the mask. According to common understanding, this was most likely an illusion, some technique used by the person beneath the samurai armor to conceal an unpresentable identity.

However, this theory was soon overturned.

Sasuke was saved by the arriving Itachi, and the two brothers fought together.

Like Sasuke, Itachi had also seemed to gradually perceive the samurai's presence without Sasuke's prompting.

Yet, the expression on Itachi's face upon seeing the samurai's true form was equally one of shock, as if he did not believe it to be any sort of illusion cloaking the samurai.

Itachi, a genius of the Uchiha clan and a master of genjutsu, would surely have seen through an illusion. If even he couldn't recognize it as such, then the samurai was likely not an illusion but a physical entity.

Although the samurai was terrifying in its appearance, once its physical form was exposed, its combat effectiveness was not particularly high.

The samurai clad in blood-red armor was incinerated by a single fire-style jutsu from Itachi. The sight of it struggling in the flames was unremarkable, resembling nothing more than an ordinary person consumed by fire.

The scene then shifted back to the tearoom, where Sasuke mourned his parents.

At one point, Itachi seemed to sense someone in the courtyard and rushed outside.

Sasuke clung to the doorframe and peered out, seeing a man in a resplendent yellow robe standing in the courtyard, speaking to Itachi.

The man was tall and imposing, with an aura of arrogance. His dark skin glimmered under the firelight, and his eyes, like the ruby embedded in the golden scepter he held, glowed crimson.

"What is your purpose?"

Itachi's question went unanswered.

Instead, the man's face displayed a mocking smile. His lips curved slightly upward, revealing white teeth, and even his crimson eyes morphed into downward crescent shapes, resembling sneering slits.

The power of that mocking smile surpassed even Orochimaru's sinister grin. The sheer intensity of its derision caused even Orochimaru, watching Sasuke's memories, to twitch slightly at the corner of his eyes.

The man turned and walked away leisurely. Itachi wanted to pursue him but was held back by Sasuke.

The memory ended, followed by some inconsequential fragments.

Itachi had decided to bear the sin of annihilating the Uchiha clan and left Konoha. Sasuke's testimony was not accepted by Danzō, and the memory itself was sealed by agents sent by him.

After reviewing Sasuke's memory, Orochimaru exhaled deeply.

The extraordinary man with dark skin that Sasuke had seen in the courtyard was likely the Black Pharaoh.

He was certain that such peculiar attire did not originate from any of the five great nations. It could only have come from a more remote region or a distant past.

Moreover, appearing on the night of the Uchiha clan's annihilation in such an impractical robe was, in itself, deeply suspicious.

However, since Sasuke had no further contact with this Black Pharaoh, Orochimaru couldn't glean much more valuable information from Sasuke's memory.

The only thing confirmed was that the Uchiha clan's demise was likely connected to the incarnation of an evil god mentioned in the Necronomicon: the Black Pharaoh.

As to why this incarnation of an evil god had wanted to exterminate the Uchiha clan, Orochimaru didn't know, nor did he have any grounds for speculation.

If one wished to uncover the truth, they would have to consult Itachi, who had had more interactions with the Black Pharaoh. However, as someone officially confirmed dead, Orochimaru had no desire to reappear in the public eye anytime soon.

Having been previously wanted by both Akatsuki and Konoha, Orochimaru now cherished this rare period of peace and had no intention of causing trouble for the time being.

As for the existence of the Black Pharaoh, while it intrigued Orochimaru, it was merely a passing interest. He did not plan to dedicate significant effort to studying this mysterious figure.

His primary goal remained the same: pinpointing the time predicted by the Great Toad Sage—the prophesied end of the world—and gathering all the Silver Keys before that moment arrived.

As for pursuing the Black Pharaoh, since he was the one responsible for the Uchiha clan's annihilation, Orochimaru figured it would be best to let the Uchiha themselves track him down. He would merely provide minor assistance when necessary.

Meanwhile, after the Mi-go lifted its hypnotic hold, Sasuke gradually awakened, tears still evident on his cheeks.

The hypnosis had tapped into the deep subconscious, replaying sealed memories in Sasuke's mind. He had just relived the memories that had been locked away.

"I remember now. I remember everything! It was that man!"

His eyes widened as he shouted. Unfortunately, he didn't even know the name of the man responsible for his clan's massacre and could only refer to him as "that man."

"That man is called the Black Pharaoh," Orochimaru interjected, stepping forward.

"He was the one speaking with your brother, and most likely the mastermind behind the destruction of the Uchiha clan."

"Itachi probably kept this from you because you were still young. He bore the burden alone to protect you."

"Perhaps it was even Itachi who asked Danzō to seal away your memories, ensuring you wouldn't get drawn into this matter."

"Years ago, when I was working alongside him in a certain ninja organization, he once asked me about this man's identity."

"It seems he never gave up his quest to uncover the truth behind the Uchiha clan's downfall."

Orochimaru's words were carefully chosen, aligning perfectly with Sasuke's emotional state and painting Itachi in a noble and protective light. This manipulation was part of his well-practiced art of persuasion, honed over years of deceiving and recruiting impressionable youth.

His true aim was to steer Sasuke toward pursuing the Black Pharaoh. As long as Sasuke became obsessed with this new goal, he would fall under Orochimaru's influence and control, becoming a powerful asset in his quest to collect the Silver Keys.

"Sasuke... As long as you continue your pursuit, one day you will find Itachi again."

"The two of you are walking the same path, and you are destined to meet at the same endpoint one day."

"Itachi kept these secrets to protect you, but he underestimated your potential."

"The power within you far exceeds what Itachi could have imagined. Under my guidance, you can fully unleash that power. Even he will have to acknowledge your strength."

A moment of silence hung in the air. Then, a deep, magnetic voice echoed from the shadows of Orochimaru's secret hideout.

"I'm already starting to find you all rather impressive."