Tens of poisonous needles shot out, flying toward the unsuspecting Jiraiya.
He was still entangled with Sasori's scorpion tail. Shit! I can't dodge!
However, just as the needles were about to hit him, Tsunade leaped forward from behind, swinging her arms left and right, knocking all the needles to the ground.
Looking closely at her arms, blue chakra extended from the tip of her middle fingers, forming blade-like shapes that covered her entire arms. It was these chakra blades that protected her arms, allowing her to easily deflect the needles.
"Chakra Scalpel."
Orochimaru squinted slightly, recognizing the technique. As precise as ever, Tsunade. You haven't lost your touch.
This was an A-rank jutsu that most high-level medical ninjas could master, but ordinary medical ninjas couldn't cover their entire arms with chakra the way Tsunade could.
The chakra scalpel was typically used by medical ninjas for surgery. Even though she had suffered from hemophobia for years and hadn't performed surgery in a long time, her skills in this area had not deteriorated.
Without her intervention, Sasori's surprise needle attack would have definitely worked.
Damn it!
Facing two of the Sannin at once, he realized he couldn't defeat them using only his Hiruko puppet. This puppet won't cut it.
He didn't want to reveal himself just yet, as Suna had never stopped searching for him and the Third Kazekage. He didn't want to create more trouble for himself because of Orochimaru's mess.
Damn it, do I really have to rely on this stupid snake's help?
"Orochimaru, are you not going to make a move?"
Sasori's tiny, bead-sized pupils glared viciously at him, who was standing behind, watching with a smile. Orochimaru simply returned the gaze with a smirk and then suddenly raised his arm, aiming at Tsunade.
"Striking Shadow Snakes!"
---
As the battle in the forest clearing intensified, a different scene was unfolding in a cave halfway up the mountain.
"Anko..."
"Your..."
"Your skin is so smooth!"
In the cave, Shizune had stayed behind to take care of Anko instead of joining the others in pursuit. But the moment she laid eyes on the 'reborn' Anko, she immediately noticed something was different.
After all, they had spent over a week traveling together with Tsunade, and the two girls were somewhat familiar with each other's bodies.
She had always thought her own skin was better than Anko's, but now she realized that her skin was nowhere near as flawless as Anko's.
Her skin now was perhaps the best Shizune had ever seen on any girl.
"Wow, it even feels amazing!"
Without hesitation, she reached out and touched her, marveling at the sensation.
Of course, if she knew what Anko's body was truly made of, she certainly wouldn't have been so eager to touch it.
"The fat on your legs, your waist, under your arms... it's all gone!"
"And..."
Her hands roamed freely, and as she assessed Anko's body, she also gauged her figure.
But when she reached Anko's chest, she was at a loss for words.
"What's going on?"
"Why did all the fat go there? You were already quite... endowed!"
"Why couldn't you share a bit with me?"
She could have accepted most other changes, but her chest size had always been her sore spot.
She had already noticed during their shared baths that Anko, two years younger than her, had developed better than she had. Now, after another month had passed, the gap between them had only grown wider.
"Damn it! Why can't you share some with me?"
"Shizune, please... don't..."
"I can't stand it! I'm so upset!"
"Stop it, it's embarrassing."
The two girls continued with their playful teasing, something only girls their age could truly indulge in. Shizune wasn't really trying to make fun of her. She just wanted to distract her from the trauma she had endured.
If they did nothing and just sat there waiting for Jiraiya and Tsunade to return, Anko would definitely start thinking about how she had been reduced to nothing but a brain inside a container.
No matter if she had fully recovered or not, that experience was undoubtedly painful. So Shizune used their teasing to divert her attention and keep her from dwelling on it.
Although she couldn't physically feel her touch, just the sight of Shizune's playful antics was enough to make her feel embarrassed.
Sensing her awkwardness and slight resistance, the Shoggoth within her tried to please her by turning her face from red to green. The green color spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears, becoming a deep, vibrant hue.
Shizune, exhausted from their playful banter, looked up and saw Anko's completely green face, screaming in shock.
"Ah!"
"Anko! Your face!"
"What about my face?"
Shizune quickly pulled out a small mirror from her waist and held it up to Anko. In the mirror, she saw her face had turned the green of lettuce, and the color was only deepening the more she looked at it.
The more embarrassed she became from seeing herself like this, the more intensely the green spread across her face. Her expression grew increasingly distressed, and Shizune, realizing it was best to stop, quickly took the mirror away.
"I feel like I'm not in control of this body," Anko said dejectedly as she lay on the operating table. "Something else... something unknown... is controlling my body."
"What should I do?"
Shizune gently patted her head and reassured her, "Don't worry, Tsunade-sama will definitely help you recover."
"Really?" Anko looked up.
"Of course. Tsunade-sama is the best medical ninja in the world—there's no illness she can't cure."
In Shizune's pupils, the green on Anko's face had already faded quite a bit. Though she comforted Anko, she was already starting to suspect something deeper.
Her green face likely wasn't due to any illness, but rather some sort of normal bodily reaction.
But why was that the case?
What exactly was Anko's body made of?
Even Tsunade believed it was impossible to reattach Anko's brain to a human body. Orochimaru would be even less capable of doing so.
So, what exactly did he use to create Anko's new body?
What kind of jutsu could create an entirely new body?
As she gently stroked Anko's hair, pondering the mystery, Heiji, from a distance, witnessed a completely different and terrifying scene—a sight born from the deepest, maddest dreams of the abyss!
---
Ah.
Where is this place?
In the deathly silence of the darkness, Heiji couldn't feel the presence of his own body. Helplessly, he scanned the darkness before him, his senses straining against the void. The absence of light was absolute, a darkness so complete it seemed to swallow even the concept of vision.
Where is this?
In the boudless darkness, there wasn't much to interrupt his thoughts.
In a daze, he felt as though his thoughts weren't quite real, like an illusion. Though he constantly questioned his whereabouts, he could never follow through with any real thinking.
Every time he was about to ponder the crucial question of where he was, his mind seemed to crash. It wasn't that he couldn't figure out where he was; it was as if his brain refused to answer the question. The very act of questioning seemed to slip away from him.
This wasn't like amnesia because even in cases of memory loss, the brain can still provide the refusal of an answer. But now, Heiji's questions felt like they sank into the abyss, leaving him to stare at the darkness like a statue.
After countless unanswered questions, his consciousness began to drift into a stupor, until even the darkness before him seemed unclear.
Ah~ Ah~
Two sounds, like a child babbling, echoed in the darkness, suddenly pulling his consciousness back.
What's that sound?
This time, his question received an answer, though not from his own brain, but from the meaningless murmurs in the darkness.
Ah, ah ~
Is someone there?
Is anyone there?
He couldn't pinpoint the direction of the sound, so he shouted his questions into the darkness and silence. His voice, or what he imagined to be his voice, seemed to be swallowed by the void.
Ah, ah~
This time, the response was two murmurs of varying length. The change in length indicated some sort of intelligence, like a special code. There's something out there. Something that can hear me.
Where am I?
Ah, ah~
Who are you?
Ah, ah ~
He asked two different questions to the murmurs in the darkness, but received the same patterned answers, which left him feeling frustrated. As a minister in the Daimyō's court, he had never been so disregarded.
Where are you? I'll come to you!
He shouted again into the darkness. Though he couldn't feel his body, strangely, he could still articulate the words in his heart, making sure the other voice in the darkness could hear him.
Ah~
This time, the response was a drawn-out sound, hoarse and unpleasant, but strangely, it allowed Heiji to sense a direction. The sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, yet he felt a pull towards its source.
Overjoyed, he prepared to move towards the source of the sound. But just as his thoughts were about to translate into bodily movement, he realized… I don't have a body!
Aside from his consciousness, he couldn't sense any part of himself that he should be able to control but couldn't.
Where is my body? Where is my body?
Where did you take my body?
Give it back!
Heiji screamed hysterically, but since he had no body, these weren't actual screams, only imagined sounds. Yet, the child-like voice in the darkness could hear these imagined sounds and responded. The knowledge that something could hear his cries only added to the surreal horror of his situation.
You.
You must let me see you.
After some unknown amount of time, a now slightly calmer Heiji made a strange demand of the voice. The firmness in his tone matched his status as a minister. What was more surprising was that the voice in the darkness responded in a tone of submission.
Ah~ ah.
He didn't know what it meant, but he took it as a sign that the voice had accepted his command.
Good. Let me see you.
Come on, let me have a good look at you.
In the next moment, his world was abruptly illuminated. The dark world was overtaken by light, leaving no trace of shadow, not even a hint of resistance from the darkness.
And in this light, he saw a grayish-white walnut with a faint pink hue. Even before he could demand more, his vision zoomed in on the walnut as if in response to his curiosity. The perspective shift was dizzying, like being pulled forward at impossible speed.
At close range, the walnut grew enormous, and its form was no longer that of a mere walnut. Its surface was complex.
It was… A brain!
The moment he saw the brain, the question that had stalled his thinking was suddenly answered. And that answer came flooding in like water through a broken dam, overwhelming his mind.
This is my brain!
I'm inside my own brain! I'm seeing my brain with my own eyes!
This bizarre realization was immediately accepted by Heiji, because it left no room for rejection. It was a thought forcefully injected into his mind, bypassing all logic and reason.
As he marveled at the surreal experience of seeing his own brain, the child-like murmurs once again interrupted his spiraling thoughts. The sound seemed to come from all around him now, no longer distant but intimately close.
His vision, now out of his control, shifted beside his brain. The movement was nauseating. After his view shifted, he saw what had been talking to him all along.
It was a massive black fleshy wall, stretching out to form an elliptical hall. In the center of this dark hall was his brain. And the fleshy wall wasn't smooth; it had rows upon rows of pitch-black mouths.
These mouths opened and closed irregularly, their teeth clamping together without a gap, but when they opened, Heiji saw the abyssal darkness within. The darkness seemed to stretch forever, like a void within a void.
Aside from the darkness inside the mouths, they had one other thing in common. As their lips and teeth collided, they produced the child-like murmurs.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
The deep, monotonous sound endlessly echoed in Heiji's mind like a maddening chant. It was no longer just a sound, but a physical presence, invading every corner of his consciousness.
This was literal — it was pouring into his brain, because the mouths were aimed directly at it!
In an instant, a series of terrifying thoughts and unspeakable beings surged into Heiji's mind. Images and concepts too vast and alien for human comprehension flooded his consciousness.
Mi-Go, Shoggoths, the Great Old Ones...
These indescribable entities shattered the last of his sanity. Even as he watched the Shoggoth's mouth pass through the final gap between it and his brain, gnawing hungrily, Heiji remained motionless.
He was a spectator to his own destruction, unable to look away, unable to resist.
In the end, he saw his brain swallowed by the blackness, and the world plunged into darkness once more. But this darkness was different, a void where not even thoughts existed.
It was the end of Heiji, the end of consciousness, the end of everything.
---
In the real world, Shizune was still comforting Anko.
Not far away, the white sheet covering Heiji's body moved with irregular bumps and ripples. The motion was subtle at first, easily mistaken for the stirring of a restless sleeper. But as the movements grew more pronounced, their unnatural nature became undeniable.
The Shoggoth had granted Heiji's request by creating an eye in the fleshy wall surrounding his brain, allowing him to see everything. It was a twisted fulfillment of his demand.
But after his mind was harvested by witnessing the Mi-Go extracting his brain and the Shoggoth, his sanity collapsed, leaving the Shoggoth unchecked. The creature, no longer constrained by Heiji's consciousness, began to reshape its form beneath the sheet.