Naruto: Call of Cthulhu

At this moment, Kagami was observing Itachi through the eyes of his spider.

Itachi, who was maintaining a running stance opposite the Black Pharaoh, was also observing his opponent. He was likely contemplating the Black Pharaoh's abilities.

They disturbed my harvest... Can Itachi defeat this man?

He didn't know, but he had no intention of using Itachi to kill the Black Pharaoh. His goal was only to obtain souls and observe the drama. Beyond that, he neither wanted to save anyone nor target anyone specifically.

Most of the living had already perished at the hands of numerous weird beings and Itachi himself. He even suspected that these beings were some kind of avatar of one of the Great Old One.

---

In the narrow alley, the Black Pharaoh stood motionless, as did Itachi.

He was analyzing what the two distorted air masses around the Black Pharaoh could be, but he noticed that without him initiating an attack, his enemy also didn't attack.

Typically, those with strange ninjutsu would choose to eliminate their opponent before they could analyze the weaknesses of their technique, wouldn't they? However, this man didn't do this. He just stood there silently, maintaining a haughty posture.

This feeling was as if the Black Pharaoh was the defender of an arena, the stronger party, while Itachi was the challenger, the weaker party. In this comparison of status, it was clear whose posture was loftier and whose pressure was stronger.

Realizing this, he felt even more displeased, but he didn't rashly attack again. Instead, he cautiously used the powerful observational ability of his Sharingan to assess the two distorted air masses.

When the Black Pharaoh's safety wasn't threatened, these two air masses barely moved. The weak distortion made it difficult for him to clearly see the almost invisible changes in the air.

Only when the Black Pharaoh was attacked would the air masses actively move, making the traces of distortion more obvious and easier to see the changes within.

So Itachi decided to conduct a probing attack first.

He drew a kunai from each of his leg holsters and threw them at the Black Pharaoh. Then, with hand speed that made one dizzy, he formed the hand signs for a classic ninjutsu.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

The kunai flew straight towards the Black Pharaoh's body. However, the Black Pharaoh didn't dodge, still standing in place like a living target.

But in the next second, the two kunai hit a distorted air mass one after another and fell to the ground. Although the kunai were dealt with, the subsequent attack was more troublesome for the Black Pharaoh.

A huge fireball pushed through the narrow alley towards him. Logically, if he didn't jump out of the alley, there was no way to avoid it. But he still chose not to dodge, because the fireball was blocked by something that looked like an air barrier in front of him.

The attack wasn't without result, as the flames revealed the outline of the air barrier. Itachi finally saw clearly the abrupt form that appeared in the flames.

It was a shape similar to a long snake, except this ugly 'snake' had a pair of enormous wings.

Earlier, when blocking the kunai, it wasn't that the kunai hit distorted air, but that these snake-like beings quickly flicked their tails at the moment the kunai arrived, knocking them down. As for the second Fireball Jutsu, two long snakes symmetrically spread a pair of huge wings, blocking the flames for the Black Pharaoh.

After the fireball's flames subsided, although these two winged long snakes were also covered in flames, the air distorted a few times, as if flapping wings, and extinguished the flames on their bodies.

Without flames on their bodies, the two snakes returned to an almost invisible state. This scene greatly shocked Itachi, as he had never encountered such a ninjutsu in his knowledge. Or rather, he could no longer distinguish whether these two snakes were ninjutsu or some kind of animal.

"There are forces in this world far beyond your comprehension, young Uchiha," the Black Pharaoh said, as if reading his thoughts.

In fact, it was normal for Itachi not to recognize them, because these creatures were not animals from reality, but more distant and fantastic beings. Flying polyps were just their appearance; Hunting Horror was their true name.

Hunting Horrors, black snake-like creatures with huge wings, also possessing bizarre and twisted heads and limbs with giant hooked claws. They were extremely agile, capable of making various quick reactive movements in the air.

They lived on a black planet, possessed some intelligence, could speak human language in a harsh and loud voice, but had no social structure or material civilization. More importantly, they were one of the attendants of Nyarlathotep.

When Hunting Horrors served as attendants to one of Nyarlathotep's avatars, the Black Pharaoh, two Hunting Horrors would become almost invisible, mercilessly hunting down anyone who dared to offend.

Itachi's repeated attacks had apparently offended the Black Pharaoh's dignity, causing the two Hunting Horrors to immediately flap their wings and fly towards him. Although he couldn't see their specific forms, Itachi could see the two distorted air masses rapidly approaching him.

This situation made him realize that if he didn't deal with these two troublesome snakes first, he couldn't get close to the Black Pharaoh at all.

And from the use of the Great Fireball Jutsu earlier, it seemed that flames could attack their bodies and possibly cause damage. It's just that ordinary flames were too shallow and couldn't stay attached to their bodies long enough to cause damage.

If that's the case...

Faced with the approaching Hunting Horror, Itachi suddenly lowered his head. When he raised it again, the three tomoe in his Sharingan had merged into a uniquely shaped shuriken.

The Black Pharaoh's posture shifted slightly. "Oh? The boy has some tricks left."

"Amaterasu!"

His eyes bled as he focused on the two air masses rapidly approaching him. In an instant, black flames attached to the forms of the Hunting Horrors. Although they were almost invisible near the Black Pharaoh, the black flames would appear on any object as long as even a slight trace of its existence was seen.

This process didn't require seeing the target very clearly or completely; as long as the target was a physical entity, it would be burned by Amaterasu.

Under the scorching of the black flames, these creatures let out painful howls. The sound was very harsh and loud, even making Itachi vaguely feel it was like a rough human voice.

Pain! So painful!

This was the howl of the two air masses' true forms, which once again put him into confusion.

Summoning animals?

Most animals summoned by jutsu possess intelligence and can speak human language, and their voices are even more pleasant to hear than these two snake-like animals.

But what kind of animal was summoned? Winged snakes?

Even if Itachi searched through all his knowledge, he couldn't identify what these beings were. And these two snake-like creatures slowly burned to a charred black under the black flames, revealing their visible state.

Finally, the black flames consumed all the skin and muscles of the snake-like creatures, leaving only their skeletons, which seemed to be something even Amaterasu's black flames couldn't completely burn.

Before completely consuming the entire body of the Hunting Horrors, the black flames would continue to burn, so the two skeletons covered in black flames just lay in the middle of the alley, burning silently.

Having dealt with the two invisible creatures beside the Black Pharaoh, he could no longer suppress his body's fatigue. He knelt on one knee, using one hand to cover his right eye, which was still dripping blood.

Amaterasu was a powerful eye technique that he gained in his right eye after awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan. Although it possessed extremely high physical attack power and the characteristic of not disappearing until the target was completely burned, it consumed a lot of chakra and placed a considerable burden on the body.

For the current Itachi, Amaterasu could only be used for an instant; if he wanted to use it for longer, he wouldn't have enough chakra.

Originally, he had intended to use this eye technique against his father, who also possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan. But unexpectedly, he was forced to use it on the Black Pharaoh.

Or rather, his Amaterasu hadn't even reached the Black Pharaoh; the two Hunting Horror burned to death by Amaterasu were merely his attendants.

In the narrow alley now, there were only two humanoid beings: the Black Pharaoh and Itachi.

The Black Pharaoh still stood haughtily, while Itachi could only kneel on one knee, making their relationship look like that of a supreme monarch and a humble servant.

Sensing this subtle feeling, the last stubbornness and dignity in Itachi's heart made him stand up again.

The Black Pharaoh watched him slowly rise, and nodded affirmatively.

"Very good. The final posture of one who bravely defies a tragic fate."

"Though futile, it is still commendable."

He was mocking the Uchiha clan, mocking Itachi's resolve to massacre his clan for the sake of Konoha again.

This made his inner anger reach its peak again, but his physical condition didn't allow him to launch another attack. He could only grip his sword a little tighter.

Then, he heard the scream of a young boy.

Sasuke!

At this point, he realized he had spent too much time here, and without noticing, it had already become the time for Sasuke to return home.

Itachi's plan was to let Sasuke see him killing their parents. This way, Sasuke would hate him, and this hatred would transform into his powerful motivation.

But now the plan had been completely disrupted by the appearance of the Black Pharaoh. The two strange creatures had consumed his only use of Amaterasu, and Sasuke had already returned home.

Moreover, he hadn't gone back to confront his father, so why would Sasuke, who had returned home, scream?

Could it be...

He immediately thought of the various bizarre deaths he had discovered in the Uchiha compound tonight, as well as Yusuke, who had used the Mangekyo Sharingan but didn't know what target he was attacking.

Adding to this the sudden appearance of the Black Pharaoh, Itachi finally realized that tonight's Uchiha compound was far more lively than he had imagined. Those Uchiha clan members who died so horribly were killed neither by himself nor by the masked man, but by the Black Pharaoh standing in front of him.

And he probably wasn't alone; otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible to kill the entire Uchiha clan so efficiently.

"Who are you people?!"

"Why are you doing this?!"

Why did the Uchiha clan members die tonight?

Was it for the peace of Konoha?

The Black Pharaoh maintained his haughty posture, not answering. And in the next second, Sasuke's miserable cries echoed through the night sky again.

Without another word, he ran towards the direction of the voice.