Malphegor
patreon
Naruto: Cthulhu: Ch. 191
🕑 Added 2024-12-29 01:35:00 +0000 UTCUnlike other groups, Gaara's team did not panic at the wailing sounds of the Haunter of the Dark at the start.
Or rather, Temari and Kankuro were a bit panicked, but they were even more terrified of Gaara, who was far scarier in their minds.
Compared to the fear of the unknown or the possibility of monsters roaring, Temari and Kankuro were much more afraid of their own younger brother, Gaara, who had a "monster" living inside him.
Unlike others who fled recklessly, Gaara, who rarely exhibited normal human emotions, did not panic like the others. Instead, he stayed focused on the Chunin Exams, even at a time like this.
"We'll move slowly toward the tower and ambush other teams with scrolls along the way."
He gave his orders in a low voice, then carried his sand gourd and walked ahead by himself.
Temari's uneasy gaze swept around the surroundings. In her ears, the strange wailing sounds and human screams echoed from every direction.
These screams were particularly miserable. They didn't sound like ordinary battles but one-sided terror and slaughter—far beyond just one or two teams.
This only deepened Temari's unease. She rarely displayed girlish behavior, but now she clasped her hands together.
"Shouldn't we forget about the Chunin Exams for now?" she asked tentatively.
But Gaara did not answer. Instead, he turned his head and gave her a piercing stare.
In that gaze, Temari felt an unmistakable intent to kill.
Yes, Gaara actually exuded killing intent toward his own elder sister. It was as if, if Temari said one more word, the sand from his gourd would emerge and crush her body.
Terrified by his expression, Temari immediately fell silent, stepping half a step back, one hand instinctively moving toward the fan on her back.
However, Gaara did not press the issue. He merely glared at her before continuing forward.
Temari glanced at Kankuro, who could only return a helpless smile, indicating he was just as powerless.
As they moved forward, the trio finally encountered the source of the haunting cries.
On the other side of a clearing in the woods, the three saw a tall black figure clinging to a towering tree, slowly emerging from the darkness into the moonlit clearing.
At that moment, the form of the Haunter of the Dark left the trio deeply shaken.
Even though they were over 30 meters away from the giant, they still had to tilt their heads slightly upward to fully see its face.
This black figure, despite lacking defined facial features or bodily details, clearly resembled a giant humanoid. It had a distinct torso, limbs, and a head positioned atop the torso—a faceless black giant.
Black fluid-like material moved continuously and irregularly across the dark lines of the giant's body, but occasionally, spike-like protrusions of black protoplasm bubbled to the surface.
"What is that thing?!"
Standing at the back, Kankuro was the first to exclaim in shock. Although he often dealt with puppets—terrifying objects to most people—he immediately showed fear this time.
Beside him, Temari stared unblinkingly at the "black giant" before them. This eerie form also surpassed her understanding.
The black giant, with only the vague outline of a human face but no features, emitted continuous wailing sounds. These sharp noises echoed endlessly in her ears, leaving an indelible impression in her mind.
At the front, Gaara, likely due to his skill at managing his expressions, didn't show an overly dramatic reaction. His lips parted slightly, his eyes widened just a bit, and he too stared at the giant in the distance.
While the trio remained frozen in shock and fear, unable to act, the Haunter of the Dark charged toward them.
With a distance of over 20 meters between them, it could not yet attack with its limbs and had to get closer.
The Haunter of the Dark began running toward the trio in a humanoid posture. However, it seemed dissatisfied with its speed in human form. Mid-leap, its front hands morphed into two beastly hooves.
Simultaneously, the trio witnessed additional tentacles, arms, and claws sprouting from the shapeless black mass of its body.
Although these appendages retracted in an instant, it gave the trio a full understanding of the monster's shapeshifting abilities.
As it ran, the half-human, half-beast form continued to emit wails like some demonic entity from another world. The terrifying sound grew louder and more deafening as the distance closed, almost splitting their eardrums.
Instinctively, Temari and Kankuro reacted by covering their ears in pain, unable to bear the overwhelming sound.
Standing at the front, however, Gaara did no such thing. The sand imbued with his mother's love could assess the situation and actively provide protection. Even against this sonic attack, the sand automatically sealed off his ears.
With a thought, he commanded the sand from his gourd, which erupted like a massive yellow dragon from the narrow opening, rushing toward the half-human, half-beast Haunter of the Dark.
The enormous sand dragon split into smaller sand dragons mid-flight, striking the Haunter of the Dark's body like a series of powerful iron fists.
Throughout the attack, Gaara stood with his arms crossed, exuding confidence in his ability, as though he didn't even deign to unfold his arms.
But then, something shocking happened. His sand attack struck the Haunter of the Dark's black form as though hitting a waterfall. The sand passed straight through the amorphous black substance.
Not only that, but the sand failed to carry away any of the black material or disrupt the monster's form.
In mere moments, the black figure, briefly slowed by the attack, fully reassembled and charged toward Gaara at full speed.
Realizing the danger, he no longer held back. Raising his arms, he summoned a massive surge of sand from his gourd.
The sand moved in waves, engulfing the half-human, half-beast form from all directions, rapidly encasing the entire black figure.
"Sand Coffin!"
The massive yellow sand wrapped the Haunter of the Dark's body, forming a sand shell with only a few gaps through which the black mass could faintly be seen.
But even those small gaps were quickly sealed, creating a completely enclosed sand barrier.
Having learned from the earlier failure, Gaara wasted no time. He clenched his suspended hands into fists, causing the sand barrier to compress instantly.
"Sand Burial!"
With Gaara's combination technique complete, the wails within the sand finally fell silent. Temari and Kankuro lowered their hands from their ears, relieved.
"So that's it? I thought it was some terrifying monster, but it wasn't much after all," Kankuro said with a nervous laugh, trying to mask his earlier fear.
Temari rolled her eyes at him. Who was it that screamed in terror just now?
But just as the two began to think the crisis was over, Gaara, standing at the front, remained solemn, his gaze fixed on the sand barrier formed by the Sand Coffin and Sand Burial.
From the gaps in the sand, droplets of black liquid began to seep out, accompanied by splashing sounds. It was as if some massive creature was wading through water!
It oozed through the gaps in the yellow sand, pooling together on the surface of the sandy mounds like freshly squeezed orange juice. It gradually fused on the ground, reforming into a tall, humanoid figure of darkness.
At the same time, the Haunter of the Dark closed to within twenty meters of Gaara and his group.
Suddenly, three tendrils extended from its waist, left elbow, and right palm, shooting toward Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro at lightning speed.
The tendrils moved so quickly that Temari and Kankuro couldn't react in time, and their bodies were tightly ensnared. Only Gaara remained untouched, as his sand provided an absolute defense.
As the tendrils approached his body, a spherical shield of sand formed around him instantly.
The tendrils coiled around the sand shield, and Gaara could hear the sound of the sand being scraped and dislodged under the tendrils' pressure.
Despite the strength of the tendrils, they couldn't breach Gaara's sand shield in a short time. Even if they did, he still had his sand armor protecting him. However, through the sand eye he had hovering above, he saw that Temari and Kankuro were in increasing pain.
The tendrils had lifted their bodies high into the air, seemingly preparing to slam them to the ground.
Gaara manipulated his sand to form a massive sand hand, shaping it into a blade to slash at the tendrils holding Temari and Kankuro.
But things didn't go as expected. This time, the tendrils weren't severed but were instead pressed to the ground by the sand blade. The thin tendrils appeared bent under the pressure of the giant sand hand, but their movements remained unaffected.
The front ends of the tendrils continued to lift Temari and Kankuro, poised to hurl them to the ground.
At this critical moment, several fireball-like projectiles scattered through the air and struck the tendrils of the Haunter of the Dark, exploding upon contact with the black material.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
In the fiery explosions, the tendrils made of black substance disintegrated. The severed ends lost their connection to the main body and fell to the ground as ordinary black goo, freeing Temari and Kankuro from their grasp.
The rescued pair, along with Gaara's sand eye, turned toward the source of the fireballs. On the other side of the forest stood a blue-clad figure.
It was Sasuke from Konoha!
Standing beside him were a pink-haired girl and the loud-mouthed Naruto, who had been annoyingly vocal during the first written test of the Chunin Exams.
Seeing Sasuke and his group arrive to help, Gaara and Kankuro looked shocked. Temari, however, blushed deeply. She had admired his handsomeness during their earlier encounters in the village, and being saved by him now stirred her feelings even more.
However, the Uchiha didn't immediately speak to them. The Haunter of the Dark hadn't been defeated yet.
The severed tendrils transformed into black liquid that rapidly flowed back toward the main body of the Haunter of the Dark, reabsorbing into its form.
Apparently enraged by the pain inflicted by the flames, the faceless entity let out an earth-shaking roar toward the sky. Suddenly, six more tendrils sprouted from its body, lashing out toward Gaara, Sasuke, and the others.
Seeing this, Sasuke quickly formed a series of hand signs, unleashing his most powerful Fire Style technique at the moment.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
A brilliant stream of fire erupted from Sasuke's mouth, shooting straight toward the massive body of the Haunter of the Dark.
The flames struck the entity, forcing it to make humanoid movements as it raised its tendrils to shield itself. But the effort was futile. The black substance making up its body melted rapidly like chocolate under intense heat. The towering, ten-meter-high giant collapsed into a pool of black sludge in an instant.
The black sludge seeped quickly into the ground, vanishing without a trace.
As the fire receded, Sasuke felt a wave of dizziness, his body nearly collapsing to the ground.
Fortunately, Naruto and Sakura were nearby and rushed to support him.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said with concern.
"I'm fine, just overused my chakra a bit," Sasuke replied, forcing a small smile and trying to appear unfazed.
In truth, Naruto's team had already encountered another Haunter of the Dark before arriving here.
At that time, Naruto had used shadow clones to distract the tendrils of the Haunter of the Dark while Sakura, overwhelmed, resorted to screaming. The situation had been dire. Sasuke had attempted his Fireball Jutsu, but the humanoid Haunter of the Dark easily evaded it with a twisting movement of its body.
At that critical moment, Sasuke recalled his brother Itachi's wise words: "No matter how powerful someone is, they have a weakness. If you find it, you can defeat them in one strike."
He deduced that while the dark entity didn't avoid kunai or shuriken, it had actively dodged the fireball. This indicated that its weakness was fire.
With that realization, he used his most powerful fire technique, the Dragon Flame Jutsu, and successfully destroyed the Haunter of the Dark.
Later, as the trio moved onward, they discovered Gaara's team under attack by another Haunter of the Dark. Driven by a sense of righteousness and the belief that saving a life was a noble deed, they decided to intervene.
However, the repeated use of fire techniques had left Sasuke's chakra nearly depleted.
By this time, Temari and Kankuro had also come over to thank them for their help.
"Um... thank you for stepping in," Temari said.
"This favor won't be forgotten by Kankuro of the Sand Village," Kankuro added.
Although neither team yet knew that the Chunin Exams had been suspended, and they were technically still competitors, Temari and Kankuro weren't shameless enough to betray their saviors.
Gaara, however, stood at the back with a sullen expression, showing no sign of gratitude.
This irked Naruto, who pointed a finger at Gaara and shouted, "Hey! What's with your attitude? Sasuke saved your teammates, you know!"
Gaara scoffed, turning his head away and responding coldly, "Those two are useless. They weren't worth saving."
"What?!"
"What did you just say?"
"They're your teammates!" Naruto's anger flared even more at Gaara's dismissive attitude. However, Temari and Kankuro, accustomed to Gaara's behavior, hurriedly tried to calm Naruto down.
"Let it go, let it go…"
While the two teams were in the middle of this "friendly exchange," a shadowy figure hidden among the trees observed them intently.
"Finally, I've found you… Uchiha Sasuke."
