Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 194

At this moment, Anko felt as though something was being drained from her body, with her weight rapidly decreasing.

The sensation was akin to having all the blood in her body extracted by an enormous syringe—only this feeling was a hundred times more intense and was accelerating.

She immediately lowered her gaze to the five bone spikes embedded in her body and instantly realized that they were the culprits, absorbing something from her body.

Or rather, they were absorbing the Shoggoth within her!

This was bad!

For Anko, this was the real crisis, far more dangerous than the five piercing wounds in her body.

This was because, apart from her brain, every part of her body was composed of Shoggoth.

Even if her heart were pierced by a bone spike, the Shoggoth could instantly create a temporary heart anywhere else in her body as needed.

At this moment, her temporary heart was located in the most difficult-to-attack area: the back of her calf. A faint outline of a small heart could be seen under the taut skin of her calf.

Thus, even if she suffered injuries that would be fatal to an ordinary person, she could survive for a considerable amount of time—as long as her brain wasn't attacked, she wouldn't die in the short term.

Her brain, meanwhile, was protected by a specialized membrane crafted by Orochimaru. With an adequate infusion of chakra, this membrane could not only resist the erosion of the Shoggoth but also withstand substantial physical attacks.

Over the years, she had used the Reserve Seal she learned from Tsunade to store a vast amount of chakra. This chakra rendered the membrane extraordinarily strong—so strong that even Kimimaro's black bone spikes couldn't penetrate it.

However, things would be different if the Shoggoth within her body were drained.

Her ability to survive in her human form depended entirely on the Shoggoth. Without it, she would be reduced to nothing more than a human brain.

The extraction of the Shoggoth posed a fatal threat to her.

But what baffled her was how Kimimaro was able to extract the Shoggoth from her body.

Why was this happening?

"Surprised, aren't you?"

"I told you, I'm superior to you. Orochimaru-sama used the complete version of the Shoggoth technology on me! And you? You're nothing more than a failed experiment."

Kimimaro's face displayed a mix of smugness and fanaticism, causing Anko to grit her teeth in frustration.

Her body was a combination of a single human brain and a Shoggoth-formed body, a concept initially conceived by Orochimaru solely to provide her with a new body.

However, Anko's success convinced Orochimaru that the Shoggoth's capabilities extended far beyond simply forming a body.

Through continued experiments and development, he not only cultivated a Shoggoth with self-awareness but also, inspired by Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku, created an even more powerful entity: the Black-Bone Kimimaro.

The self-aware Shoggoth differed significantly from the primal Shoggoth within Anko. Orochimaru had used his own dark consciousness as a template, nurturing this new type of Shoggoth through prolonged hypnotic genjutsu.

The key difference between the new Shoggoth and the primal one was that the primal Shoggoth treated any unconsumable consciousness as its "master," while the new Shoggoth regarded such consciousness as its "host."

A primal Shoggoth would devour any organic matter, even the master's consciousness carrier, if left unprotected, without hesitation.

In contrast, the new Shoggoth, endowed with self-awareness, perceives its "master" as a "host." It still obeys its master's commands like the primal Shoggoth but independently evaluates choices that better benefit the host, rarely, if ever, consuming the host itself.

Because the "consciousness" within the new Shoggoth was derived from Orochimaru's pure dark side, Orochimaru could exert direct control over these Shoggoths to some extent. This ensures that anyone injected with them couldn't defy Orochimaru's will; if they attempted to, the Shoggoth within their body would immediately retaliate.

Of course, these advancements weren't achieved by him alone; the Mi-Go contributed to these accomplishments.

It had previously engaged in a brief war with the Elder Things. Although they fought to a stalemate, their admiration for technology led the Mi-Go to study the Elder Things' methods of hypnotizing and controlling Shoggoths.

By combining these ancient hypnosis techniques with his own, Orochimaru successfully imprinted his dark consciousness into the primal Shoggoth, granting it a "personality."

Using this new type of Shoggoth, he replaced Kimimaro's entire skeleton with it.

While Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku was incredibly powerful and beautiful, it was no longer deemed strong enough by Orochimaru. Additionally, the bloodline limit's side effects were rapidly depleting Kimimaro's life.

Orochimaru implanted the new Shoggoth into Kimimaro's body, allowing it to consume his entire skeleton and then reshaped itself into new bones.

This transformation resulted in Kimimaro's current Black Bones.

If this procedure succeeded, anyone could gain abilities similar to, or even surpassing, the Shikotsumyaku in combat power.

Orochimaru initially developed this host-friendly Shoggoth to replicate the Shikotsumyaku's capabilities and create an army of "Shikotsumyaku" soldiers.

However, so far, only Kimimaro had been able to endure the excruciating pain of having his bones consumed by the Shoggoth.

This agony was akin to countless dark mouths slowly devouring the bones and even the marrow—where the most concentrated and sensitive nerves reside—only to have the Shoggoth reshape and replace them.

This indescribable pain, like a million insects gnawing at the bones, cannot be alleviated by any anesthetic. When the process reached the spine, the subject inevitably awakens to endure unimaginable suffering.

Thus far, only Kimimaro has survived this ordeal, becoming the host for the new Shoggoth.

While Orochimaru's dream of mass-producing Shikotsumyaku soldiers remains unrealized, Kimimaro has gained immense power as a result.

Firstly, the Shikotsumyaku's side effects had disappeared. Extraordinary abilities always came at extraordinary costs; nearly all powerful bloodline limit harm the user's body in some way. Kimimaro no longer faced these drawbacks.

In terms of combat capability, the new Shoggoth, infused with Orochimaru's consciousness, was far superior to the primal Shoggoth.

For instance, the new Shoggoth reacted to transformations faster and more thoroughly. These transformations were controlled not only by Kimimaro's human brain but also by the Shoggoth's autonomous consciousness.

This enhancement made Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku far more formidable, allowing him to create complex structures and achieve feats that were previously impossible with the original ability.

Moreover, since the new Shoggoth possessed self-awareness, it didn't go out of control even when separated from its host's consciousness. Kimimaro could direct parts of the Shoggoth to leave his body and manipulate human corpses as puppets—such as the two "companions" from Kusa used in this mission.

Lastly, because the new Shoggoth incorporated Orochimaru's dark consciousness, it could transform into his snake heads to apply Curse Marks to others, as demonstrated earlier with Sasuke.

Orochimaru, viewing himself as a venomous serpent, gave this new Shoggoth a fitting name: Venom Shoggoth.

It could significantly suppress the primal Shoggoth's instinct to devour organic matter.

However, as a tradeoff, it had another attribute—it consumed primal Shoggoths.

The Venom Shoggoth exhibited an intense desire to devour unconscious primal Shoggoths, and Anko's body was originally composed of a primal Shoggoth cultivated by Orochimaru.

At this moment, under the devouring effect of the Black Bone Blades, visible depressions began to form on the surface of Anko's body—these were parts of her body being depleted.

Although her body could grow and expand the Shoggoth through consuming organic matter, this process was limited to a growth rate about ten times faster than that of normal human beings. Exceeding this rate would cause the Shoggoth to spiral into uncontrollable growth.

"Transform!" Anko's brain struggled to issue a command, and six black tendrils suddenly extended from her lower back.

These black tendrils, resembling spider legs, propelled her body off the ground, allowing her to escape the Black Bone Spikes.

After retreating a certain distance, she stabilized her body using the spider-like black tendrils, and the wounds on her body began healing rapidly.

This illustrated the difference between primal Shoggoths and Venom Shoggoths: primal Shoggoths were relatively slower in transformation.

Moreover, Anko had never trained in this aspect over the years, resulting in her combat proficiency with the Shoggoth being far inferior to Kimimaro.

However, since her body, apart from her brain, consisted entirely of Shoggoth material, her healing speed far exceeded that of Kimimaro, whose Shoggoth was limited to his skeletal structure.

Anko's current healing speed even surpassed Tsunade's Mitotic Regeneration. In mere seconds, a penetrating wound had completely healed, though this rapid regeneration also consumed a small portion of the Shoggoth within her body.

Kimimaro, standing dumbfounded, watched her heal swiftly, his eyes momentarily dazed.

It wasn't her healing that shocked him; it was that this form of Anko somewhat resembled Kidomaru from the Sound Four.

While he was in a daze, another voice spoke in his mind.

Go for it! Devour her!

The voice sounded like Orochimaru's, but deeper, raspier, and with a hint of madness—just like now.

Urged by this voice, six black bone spikes burst out of his wrists, blooming like flowers from beneath his skin.

Just then, a voice called out from nearby.

"Anko, are you okay?"

Both Anko and Kimimaro turned toward the source of the voice, seeing two ANBU ninja wearing animal masks standing atop the towering trees.

"I'm fine," Anko said with a faint smile, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth with her coat sleeve.

The two ANBU turned their gaze to Kimimaro and asked, "Is he an enemy?"

"You could say that. He's one of Orochimaru's people," Anko replied.

At her answer, the two ANBU wasted no time. Their bodies turned into two dark blurs as they used the Body Flicker to approach Kimimaro.

As expected of elite ANBU, they acted decisively the moment they confirmed the enemy, leaving no time for a reaction.

But as Anko saw the two prepare to attack Kimimaro, she immediately shouted, "Wait!"

Her warning came too late. Kimimaro blocked the swords of the ANBU on either side with the black bone spikes that had emerged from his wrists.

Simultaneously, the black bone spikes on his wrists retracted and reformed into bone spear-like weapons, spinning rapidly like drills as they clashed with the ANBU.

The two finely crafted steel katanas of the ANBU were instantly shredded by the spinning bone spears. Kimimaro then swung the bone spears left and right, striking the ANBU in their abdomens.

The ANBU combat uniforms were no match for the hardness of the bone spears. The spinning weapons tore through the ANBU, disemboweling them. Under the moonlight, their bodies painted two crimson arcs in the air.

The ANBU had misjudged Kimimaro's strength. The overwhelming power disparity turned their perfectly decisive attack into a fatal blunder.

He glanced briefly at the moon in the night sky. Hearing the fading cries of agony around him, he turned without a word and sprinted into the forest, disappearing from sight.

Seeing Kimimaro retreat, Anko felt an inexplicable sense of relief.

---

In the meeting hall of the Hokage Office, Konoha's upper echelon and representatives involved in the Chunin Exams gathered to discuss the events so far.

Representing Konoha were Danzō and Sarutobi, seated at the head of the oval conference table.

Hiruzen glanced at Danzō, who was sitting beside him. However, Danzō remained silent, his brow deeply furrowed, as if he had no intention of speaking.

Hiruzen then turned to Anko, who stood behind him, and said, "Please report the casualties from the second stage of the Chunin Exams in the Forest of Death to everyone present."

Anko slowly picked up the report in her hands and looked around at the grim-faced individuals seated at the table.

These were the jonin representatives sent by various villages, serving as their voices for the joint Chunin Exams.

She began to read out the casualty figures for candidates from each village.

When she reached a specific village, the face of its jonin representative grew noticeably darker, as the number of deaths far exceeded expectations.

Casualties in the Chunin Exams were not uncommon; losing five or six participants in a single test was considered normal. However, when Anko announced the total number of deaths, everyone in the room couldn't help but gasp.

"In summary, 78 candidates participated in the survival test of the second stage of the Chunin Exams. Survivors..."

"36."

When she announced this figure, most people at the table clenched their fists, glaring furiously at the Konoha representatives.

Among the 36 survivors, Konoha accounted for 18, Suna had 6, and Oto had 2.

This meant the other three villages combined had only 10 survivors!
This number included the 12 participants who were eliminated before nightfall.

Excluding these 12, the actual death toll overnight was 30 candidates!

While Konoha had yet to reveal the exact reason for the high number of deaths, dissatisfaction among the other villages had reached a boiling point.

The fact that Konoha had 18 survivors—despite having the largest number of participants—fueled suspicions. Villages like Oto had a higher survival rate proportionally, but this fact was conveniently ignored.

In their eyes, Konoha must have orchestrated something to ensure its victory by eliminating candidates from other villages.

However, due to Konoha's status as one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, the smaller villages dared not voice their objections openly. Combined with the agreements signed before the exams, they could only glare resentfully at Danzō, unable to openly oppose him.

But if a strong ally were to step forward to challenge Konoha, these smaller villages would immediately rally behind them to denounce Konoha.

That potential ally could only be Suna, another of the Five Great Nations participating in this exam.

At this moment, all the jonin representatives from the smaller villages turned their hopeful gazes toward the man seated directly opposite Danzō at the head of the table.

Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage.