Naruto: Call of Cthulhu

Bloodshot veins covered the whites of Tenjin's eyes, and the twisted smile on his face stretched his mouth to an unbelievable degree. The handsome features inherited from the Uchiha clan were now barely recognizable, losing their human-like appearance.

In his trembling hand, he still clutched the kunai that had stabbed his comrade, showing no sign of remorse.

Yusuke quickly shoved the boy aside, pulling out the kunai from his lower back, and angrily stared at gim, who was still in a state of extreme excitement.

"Snap out of it, you fool!" Yusuke hissed. "Can't you see what you've done?"

Just then, a voice of a young girl echoed from around the corner of the street again.

"Hey, what's wrong with you boys? You shouldn't be fighting over a girl like me."

"You know, both of you can come together. I can give you the greatest pleasure."

"Come out..."

"Come out!"

The girl's last shout was not the voice of a human, but the howl of a monster, sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard it.

What kind of jutsu is this?

However, Tenjin, with a smile still on his face, struggled to stand as if he wanted to go toward her.

Seeing this, Yusuke finally realized that the boy had completely fallen under the technique of the woman.

When? Was it when she first spoke? Or even earlier? Was it because he saw her face?

Is it a genjutsu? Or something else?

But there was no time to figure it out. His wound was bleeding, and approaching footsteps on the street forced him to act quickly.

Switching his blade to his left hand, he grabbed Tenjin, who was trying to walk away, as if he were a baby chick. Then, Yusuke dragged him by the back of his collar and charged around the corner of the street.

Using Tenjin's body as a shield, he avoided looking directly at the girl, ensuring he wouldn't fall under her jutsu.

When he was halfway down the street, he pushed Tenjin with all his strength toward the direction of the girl, then sprinted to the other side of the street, disappearing into the night.

I'm sorry, Tenjin. But it's you or both of us.

And just like that, he escaped without choosing to fight, leaving the boy to fall right into the arms of the girl. The girl smiled sweetly and wrapped him in her embrace.

It was only when Tenjin stood close to her that he realized the girl was much taller than him. His head was level with her chest, just below her collarbone.

She's even more beautiful up close. She's perfect in every way.

His hands grasped her, his eyes staring blankly ahead, his head resting under the girl's chin. The girl, too, welcomed his actions, gently caressing his head like a mother, laughing softly, "Good boy. Take it slow~"

"It's all yours."

Her every smile and gesture made him even bolder. He looked up at the girl's face, "Can you take off that fan?"

"What's wrong?" she asked.

The girl had been holding a black folding fan the entire time, even in their current embrace, using it to cover part of her face.

"It's in the way," he said, pouting like a child begging his mother. A woman of such irresistible charm could make any strong man turn into a helpless boy.

"I can, but you better not regret it," the girl said.

Tenjin shook his head firmly. "I won't regret it. I could never regret anything about you."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the girl snapped the fan shut. With the sound of the fan closing, the colors in front of Tenjin's eyes began to blur and distort.

What's happening?

Like steam rising from intense flames, the girl's skin started to tremble slightly, and the once flawless surface turned dull and rough, becoming an ashen gray.

What's happening to her? Is she hurt?

Not only that, but he felt the body he was holding swell. Within seconds, his arms could no longer wrap around her waist. His hands were now buried deep within folds of enormous, fleshy mass.

The overwhelming pressure made him desperately try to pull his arms free, but he realized he could no longer move. Behind him, the girl's once soft arms had transformed into thick, octopus-like tentacles, tightly wrapping around his small frame.

At this moment, it wasn't Tenjin embracing the girl—it was the girl embracing him.

Her once lush lips had morphed into a massive maw lined with rows of razor-sharp, spiral-shaped teeth, hovering hungrily over his head. The girl was no longer the beautiful maiden. She had revealed her true form—the Bloated Woman.

The Bloated Woman often appeared to men as a captivating, alluring girl, her eyes casting a spell that enchanted men, trapping them in her charm. But this alluring image was merely an illusion created by her black fan.

Once the fan was closed, her true form—a 500-kilogram grayish humanoid creature—was revealed. She had six enormous tentacles capable of holding any man who had been bewitched by her, preventing escape.

Finally, she would open her massive maw and devour the man's head, sucking out his brains.

"Ahhh! Let me go! Let me go!" Tenjin screamed as his beautiful fantasy shattered before his eyes. He struggled frantically, pushing his chakra to its limits.

But against the nearly half-ton Bloated Woman, his strength was as feeble as a child's. The more he struggled, the faster he sank into the swamp of fat.

"Hey, didn't you ask me to take off the fan?" The sickly sweet voice of the girl echoed from the Bloated Woman's tooth-filled mouth, but her tone suddenly shifted, becoming a genderless, monstrous voice.

"Do you regret it now?"

Upon hearing those words, Tenjin lost the last shred of his sanity. His body went limp, giving up the pointless struggle. His eyes drifted helplessly to the slightly blood-red ground beside him.

Huh? Why is the ground red?

Oh, that's right—today is a blood moon.

Squelch!

The next second, darkness swallowed his vision entirely.

---

On the streets of the Uchiha district, Yusuke was still running frantically. But he couldn't move too quickly because his lower back had been seriously stabbed.

"Damn, that was right around where my kidney is," he muttered through gritted teeth.

While he scanned his surroundings, Yusuke caught a glimpse through a shop window and noticed several people hiding inside the building. He immediately became cautious, quietly slipped into the shop while gripping his kunai, and held it against the neck of the last person in the group.

"Don't move!"

At that moment, the two people squatting by the window finally reacted and turned to look at him, realizing they were all familiar faces.

"Hachidai?"

"Vice-Captain Yusuke?"

He quickly sheathed his kunai and asked, "Why are you still here? Didn't you go to the clan leader's house?"

"And why are there only three of you left?"

He glanced around the shop. Including himself, there were only four people in total, which meant the others were likely dead.

"We ran into a troublesome opponent."

Hachidai moved aside, and Yusuke stepped forward to look out the window. He saw a figure slowly moving in the center of the street. It was a tall humanoid creature with no skin.

That was the strange part because skin is essential for any creature, as it protects the delicate internal tissues of the body. Losing large portions of skin would normally result in death, either from infection or the slightest external harm.

Yet, this skinless being wandered the streets as if nothing were wrong.

The red muscles and faintly pulsing veins became even more terrifying under the blood-red moonlight, creating a deeply unsettling scene.

"What kind of monster is that?"

"No idea. It was already roaming there when we arrived."

"Why didn't you force your way through?"

"Well..."

Before Hachidai could respond, Yusuke noticed scattered bodies in the shadows of the street. These people were dressed in Uchiha clan ninja uniforms, but their arms and heads were missing skin, leaving their raw tissue and muscles exposed to the air.

At that moment, the skinless creature seemed to hear something, its head turning sharply in another direction. Then, its body twitched at an impossible speed.

In an instant, the creature transformed into a blood-red blur and rushed into a nearby residential building. Soon, a scream echoed from inside the house. A civilian broke through the second-floor window and stood on the ledge. Without much thought, the panicked civilian jumped to the ground, where the bones in his legs shattered on impact.

"Aah! Help me! Someone, please!"

But the civilian didn't stay down, driven by the primal urge to survive. He gritted his teeth against the excruciating pain and began crawling blindly forward.

At the same time, the skinless creature emerged from the second-floor window, standing motionless in the dark room. The third eye embedded in its forehead began to glow with a scarlet light. As the light touched the civilian, the skin on his body began to disappear rapidly, as if fog on glass had suddenly evaporated in the warmth.

Underneath the rapidly dissolving scalp was a bloody skull. As the skin peeled from his hands, thin layers of muscle and pale bone joints were exposed. Without skin, even the smallest breeze would feel like an unbearable pain of flaying.

As his lips vanished, the civilian could no longer scream properly, only managing hoarse, raspy gasps from his throat. His body twitched uncontrollably, the itching and pain overwhelming him as he rubbed against anything he could reach.

"I've seen many die, but never like this. It's inhuman," Hachidai whispered.

Eventually, the Uchiha civilian died in utter agony, leaving behind only a mutilated mess of flesh and limbs. The skinless creature became a blood-red blur as it returned to the center of the street, continuing its slow patrol.

Yusuke slowly pulled his gaze back from the window. He couldn't believe that such a creature existed in the world.

This skinless humanoid moved incredibly fast. While it wandered slowly without a target, it could reach near-blurring speed when in full motion. Additionally, the third eye on its forehead emitted a crimson light, and any human exposed to it would have their skin rapidly dissolve.

The creature also seemed to have keen hearing. It had apparently detected the sound from that civilian's house, then rushed in to pull him out. At that moment, Yusuke realized something.

"We're so close to the skinless one right now—why didn't it hear us talking?"

"Sousuke's barrier blocks enemy senses, including hearing, within a certain range. Thanks to him, we haven't been detected yet." Hachidai said.

"But his jutsu can only cover a fixed area and can't be moved."

Sousuke, the ninja Yusuke had earlier held a kunai to, spoke up. "I can maintain it, but we can't move far. We're trapped here unless we risk exposure."

"By the way, Vice-Captain Yusuke, what happened to Tenjin?" Hachidai suddenly asked.

"Uh..."

Yusuke hesitated. "He... he fell under some kind of jutsu. A woman's voice lured him away."

He explained the situation, but omitted the part where he had pushed Tenjin towards the girl. Instead, he claimed Tenjin had gone to her on his own.

After listening, the Uchiha ninjas' expressions turned grim. They had their suspicions, but it was no longer important.

"Another loss. How many more before this night is over?" Hachidai asked tiredly.

"We can't dwell on it now. We need to focus on survival."

Now, the group of four had only one goal: to make it through this last street and reach the Uchiha clan leader's house.

After a brief rest, the group prepared to move.

One of the Uchiha ninjas bandaged Yusuke's back. "It'll have to do. We don't have time for proper treatment," he said as he listened to Hachidai describe the earlier battle, where more than a dozen ninja had attacked the skinless creature.

"We thought we could overwhelm it quickly since there was only one. But no matter how many of us cut it, we couldn't kill it. Several ninjas were hit by the light from its third eye and lost their skin."

"In the end, only three of us survived."

"How many attacked it?" Yusuke asked, trying to gauge the creature's strength.

"More than a dozen..."

Hachidai didn't go into further detail, not wanting to relive the horror.

Yusuke mentally summarized the skinless creature's abilities.

It was incredibly fast, had acute hearing, and remarkable vitality, but its physical strength was only equivalent to that of an ordinary ninja. Its sole method of attack was the light from the third eye, which dissolved human skin.

"We can't stay here forever. The barrier won't hold indefinitely," Sousuke warned, glancing nervously at the window.

"But stepping out there is suicide. You saw what it did to that civilian," Hachidai countered.

"We've faced impossible odds before. We can do this," Yusuke said, trying to rally the group.

"We just need to avoid letting it see us."