Carrying the wrapped statue, Kakashi returned to the bandit camp.
The floodwaters had seeped into the earth, leaving headless corpses strewn like fish stranded on a shoal.
A ninja's duty included cleanup. Kakashi couldn't leave these grotesque remains.
The head biting Aono Unkan's neck, sent for study, was enough. The rest must be destroyed.
Kakashi set the statue aside and gathered the bodies.
All were decapitated, their heads scattered. Collecting them took time.
Piling the corpses and heads in the camp's center, Kakashi formed seals, unleashing a massive fireball.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Cradling the statue, he watched the blaze consume the pile, reflecting on the mission.
Bringing back the monstrous statue was an unexpected gain, but the Mist renegade, Kisame Magake, had escaped. He'd failed to save his Konoha comrades.
The nine Mist assassins and two Konoha genin, enthralled by the statue, had likely fled with Kisame Magake.
What were their plans?
What was Cthulhu?
What lay behind it all?
Only when the corpses burned to ash did Kakashi, statue in hand, turn to leave.
Unseen, atop a towering tree, two pale figures perched on a branch.
"Hah, your cousin's head," one snow-white figure teased, holding a severed head aloft.
"That's your cousin's head!" the other snapped, swatting it away, though the first caught it midair.
"Careful! This is a vital research sample," the first chided.
"You dared to grab it. If that kid counts the heads, we're done. We can't be exposed yet."
"Relax, we've got intel. Obito will love this." The first waggled the head.
"Shame we couldn't snag the statue."
Moonlight revealed their bare, snow-white skin and identical faces, they were true kin.
"Let's take the head back," one said.
"Hold on," the other replied, turning. "By the way, there's a spider on your shoulder."
The first slapped it off, cursing. "Damn it! Why didn't you say sooner? I hate spiders!"
"I'm off!"
"Wait up!"
"White Zetsu…"
The affair was far more tangled than Orimaru had foreseen. His small act had drawn White Zetsu's gaze.
In this world, Orimaru feared one thing above all, and that was being linked to these unspeakable relics.
He knew three threats could expose his secret.
First, Black and White Zetsu's intelligence network, spanning the continent.
The forbidden book's whispers allowed him to place the statue remotely, reducing risk. But it wasn't foolproof.
Orimaru was immune to the relics' terror, a trait that could betray him if Zetsu noticed.
Their pervasive spying was a headache, but Orimaru's pact with Unknown Oldest God granted a superior edge, the Spider God's vision, subtler than Zetsu's, let him detect their presence.
As he had this time.
For now, he was beneath notice, but that could change.
Second, ninja mind-reading.
As a novice ninja, Orimaru couldn't shield his thoughts. A single read could lay bare his secrets.
Konoha's mind-readers respected allies, but enemy ninjas were another matter.
If captured on a mission and probed, his secrets would be a windfall for foes.
Even in peacetime, encounters with foreign mind-readers were possible.
He could never be taken alive.
Third, the Great Toad Sage's foresight.
His dream-visions were, in truth, glimpses of fate.
As a transmigrant from Earth, Orimaru risked being the Sage's target. Paired with mind-reading, his secrets would easily eb unravel.
"Damn these threats," Orimaru muttered, rubbing his brow.
In its terrarium, Little A glanced at him, its forelegs twitching before resuming its web.
"Right, keep watch," Orimaru said.
Little A needed no rest, its unblinking spider-vision sifting the world for threats, relaying vital insights to him.
This reassured him. A beastly god like Spider God's fragment was a fitting ally.
The statue's chaos was an experiment.
Infused with Cthulhu's essence via his pact, it wrought havoc on ordinary minds. The bandits, if exposed, became mindless husks, reliant on water, their forms twisted with Deep One-like traits—useless monsters.
Ninjas, however, reacted differently. Initially driven mad, those who regained sanity, like Kisame Magake, became Cthulhu's devoted followers.
Chakra, blending physical and spiritual energy, likely fortified ninjas' minds, letting them endure the relic's initial madness to serve its god.
Why Kisame Magake abandoned the statue, Orimaru didn't know.
Nor did he know where the renegade led his eleven enthralled ninjas.
But one thing was certain. Kisame Magake now championed Cthulhu's cause in the Land of Water, his every act bent to the Slumbering God's will.
(End of Chapter)