Naruto: Call of Cthulhu

In a short time, two older figures entered the courtyard, accompanied by several ANBU and Root ninjas.

"Where are the survivors?"

"Here."

Danzo and Hiruzen entered the tea room, where they saw Sasuke still kneeling in front of his parents' bodies. He refused to leave them. The sight of Fugaku's and his wife's corpses caused even these two elders to gasp.

Fugaku's arms had been severed, while Mikoto's head had been completely cut off.

Could Itachi really have done something so ruthless? Though they knew who the culprit was, they were slightly shaken but chose not to speak it out loud.

Danzo wanted to approach Fugaku's body, but Sasuke blocked his way.

"Take him away to rest." Danzo said to a Rooat ninja.

The Root ninja immediately stepped forward to help Sasuke up, but the boy could barely move his legs and slowly walked out.

At that moment, another Root ninja entered the room, kneeling behind Danzo, and reported, "Lord Hokage, the bodies of the Uchiha clan have been counted."

"A total of 824 members of the Uchiha clan, and 822 bodies have been accounted for."

Danzo nodded at the report. "Hmm, plus the one survivor here, that leaves just one person."

"It's Itachi."

"Itachi hated and despised his own clan. He murdered Shisui and took his eyes. Then, he incited conflict among his people, ultimately leading to tonight's tragedy."

"I hereby declare that the culprit responsible for wiping out the Uchiha clan is Itachi!"

"From now on, Itachi is to be classified as an S-rank rogue ninja of Konoha. The combined forces of Root and ANBU are to track him down, dead or alive!"

Danzo's declaration surprised many ninjas, but no one dared to oppose him directly, as he was now the Fifth Hokage.

However, a childish voice suddenly rang out behind him.

"That's not true!"

"Itachi isn't the culprit!"

Everyone turned to look in the direction of the voice. Sasuke had turned around, his legs still unsteady. Though the Root ninja beside him tried to guide him away, it was like Sasuke was rooted. He glared at Danzo.

Danzo returned the same look of disdain but did not engage Sasuke. After a moment of silence, he glanced at the Root ninja assisting Sasuke.

"Didn't you hear my order earlier?"

"Take him away."

The Root ninja felt Danzo's pressure and didn't dare leave Sasuke there any longer. He forcibly dragged the boy out.

Despite being pulled away, he shouted, "My brother isn't the culprit!"

"Someone else did it!"

"My brother is innocent!"

Sasuke voice slowly faded as he was taken further away. Only then did Danzo clear his throat. "Send all the bodies of the Uchiha clan to Root."

"Yes, sir!"

At his command, the ninjas all left the room, leaving only him and Hiruzen behind.

"Danzo, isn't it too hasty to give such an order?" Hiruzen asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I think something is off about tonight. I've examined some of the bodies, and many of their deaths are hard to explain. Their causes of death vary greatly. Shouldn't we investigate this—?"

Before Hiruzen could finish, Danzo interrupted with a harsher tone.

"We agreed from the beginning that Itachi would be responsible for wiping out the Uchiha clan and take the blame. There can be no changes now."

"The Uchiha problem has been dealt with, and this matter is closed. No one is to investigate further, not even you. Now, I have to go and write a report to inform the Daimyo. I'll be leaving first."

"And don't forget, I am the Hokage now, not you, Hiruzen."

Danzo left, giving Hiruzen no chance to continue the conversation, almost as if avoiding the issue.

Many mysteries remained about tonight's Uchiha massacre. It was impossible for Itachi to have killed over 800 Uchiha in such a short time by himself.

More suspiciously, the Uchiha met their ends in various bizarre ways. Some were skinned or bore burn marks on their faces; others appeared to have died from sheer terror. A few were cut down with samurai swords, while several even had portions of their brains removed.

In short, the ways the Uchiha died were bizarre, and even Hiruzen couldn't understand how it had been done. But Danzo intended to turn a blind eye to all of it and abandon any investigation.

Danzo's reasoning was simple.

He didn't want to admit that there had been any failure in his plan. The Uchiha massacre had been his initiative, and if there were mistakes in such a significant operation, it would damage his reputation as Hokage.

Moreover, if it were discovered that someone from outside Konoha had interfered with the Uchiha massacre, he would not escape being impeached.

A ninja village being infiltrated and subjected to a massacre without the Hokage knowing would be a failure.

In short, Danzo did not want to admit to any mistakes in the Uchiha operation. He wanted to brush everything under the rug to protect his position as Hokage. He was, after all, trying to keep that position safe from Hiruzen's faction.

Though Hiruzen was no longer the Hokage and couldn't become the Sixth Hokage, his students were still alive. Previously, he had retired due to his age, but Danzo and Hiruzen were actually the same age.

So, if his faction could point out the mistakes in the Uchiha massacre and emphasize Danzo's old age, it could threaten Danzo's position as Hokage.

Thus, Danzo chose not to investigate and barred Hiruzen from investigating as well.

"Danzo, that stubborn old fool."

Hiruzen silently cursed him. Despite their long-standing power struggle, Hiruzen believed that the interests of Konoha should always come first. Yet, Danzo was willing to abandon an investigation into enemies possibly infiltrating the village just to secure his position as Hokage.

To Hiruzen, this was a foolish move. How could Danzo still be thinking about his own ambitions at such a critical time?

At that moment, a white-haired ANBU ninja knelt at the entrance of the tea room, reporting, "Sandaime-sama, we've found something unusual."

"Take me there."

Led by Kakashi, Hiruzen soon stood in front of two piles of black flames. The flames blocked the entire alley, forcing anyone passing through to detour to avoid being burned.

"What is this?"

"We found this while searching for survivors," Kakashi explained. "I tried using a Water Release jutsu to extinguish them, but it didn't work."

"I see," Hiruzen replied, although he didn't fully understand what these black flames were. However, they were clearly no ordinary fire released by a standard Fire Release jutsu.

"Let's try sealing them," Hiruzen decided. "Do you have a blank scroll and some ink?"

Kakashi nodded. Although these items weren't typical battle gear, as an ANBU captain, he often needed them for communication with the village during missions. He handed them to Hiruzen.

Hiruzen spread out the scroll and began writing, his brush strokes flowing quickly. Soon, the scroll was filled with complex characters, leaving only the center blank.

"Sealing Jutsu: Fire Seal!"

After performing the necessary hand signs, blue chakra emerged from the scroll, slowly wrapping around the black flames before drawing them back into the scroll. The word seal appeared prominently on the scroll.

As Hiruzen rolled up the scroll, he noticed Kakashi staring at it.

"Interested in learning?" Hiruzen asked.

Kakashi nodded.

"If you want, I'll teach you," Hiruzen offered, the scene reminding him of when he had taught the Sannin long ago. Back then, he had offered to teach this same fire sealing technique. Both Tsunade and Jiraiya had dismissed it as useless, while Orochimaru had shown interest. Out of stubbornness, Jiraiya also ended up learning the technique alongside Orochimaru.

Among the Sannin, both Jiraiya and Orochimaru had mastered the Fire Seal. Hiruzen had never expected this seemingly unimportant sealing jutsu to prove useful today.

After pocketing the scroll, Hiruzen and Kakashi finally got a clear view of what the mysterious black flames had been burning.

Two massive skeletons were on the ground, likely the remains of two giant snakes. If the snakes were stretched out, each would have been at least ten meters long. More surprisingly, their spines were connected to large, claw-like bones. These seemed to be not claws but wings.

Winged snakes in Konoha? Orochimaru?

As Hiruzen pondered the possibility, far away in a dark location, Orochimaru sneezed. But he quickly dismissed the idea of Orochimaru's involvement. These snakes not only had wings, but their bones were made of a crystalline, transparent material, far from any ordinary snake skeleton.

"Take these skeletons back to the ANBU for further research."

"Understood."

"And don't inform the Fifth Hokage about this."

"Understood."

Although Danzo had ordered the investigation to stop, Hiruzen planned to continue it secretly for the sake of the village's future.

The sole survivor of the Uchiha massacre was Sasuke. Based on his recent attitude toward Danzo, it seemed the boy might know something. However, Danzo's prohibition on further investigation made it difficult for Hiruzen to approach Sasuke directly.

To uncover the truth, he realized he would have to wait for Sasuke to grow older and learn more.

In the meantime, Sasuke needed protection. With this thought in mind, he glanced at Kakashi beside him.

---

Meanwhile, in a small room on the second floor of the Gekko Dojo, Kagami sat on the ground with closed eyes.

Thinking back on Aku-Shin Kage confirmed for him that these avatars could only be defeated, not destroyed. When defeated, they returned to the strange items, likely mediums to summon them to this world again.

"Or perhaps 'defeated' isn't quite the right word. These beings can't be killed but were dispersed," he mused.

With the Uchiha massacre having just taken place, he needed to observe the changes in the world's timeline using his powers first.

Since the task was complete, Kagami dismissed the Night Spider that was outside hunting.

Before the massacre, he planned to enhance his chakra reserves, which were tied to his rank. But he could hardly increase his chakra through training. His only option was to rank up, so why should he waste free souls?

Upgrading his rank also had the added benefit of gaining new abilities from higher beings.

He suddenly felt a surge of power. Oh, Spidey had ranked up.

At the same time, he used his multicolored vision. A sharp pain shot through his head, but he noticed it wasn't as intense as before. Perhaps the rank up had something to do with it.

It was just one entity.

"How is this possible?"

"It's him..."