Chapter 88 Fungi and Undeath

Naruto stood in the balcony overlooking the lab below. Tables below with collected bodies of the dead. There were only three bodies, much less than Naruto had expected. In the center of the room was a metal coffin used to protect the clones from the poisonous gasses expelled from the corpse of Hanzo of the Salamander. He was difficult to obtain as his body continued to produce his poison even after death setting him back in the collecting. The tables next to him were what Naruto could almost call his kin. The Gold and Silver Brothers. Who even in death still held the chakra of the nine tailed fox.

Despite the small number of bodies the other clones had yet to get the others, though for now this would do. resurrecting them was not on the agenda yet, these three were not going to help willingly, even if they knew the full story it was hard to tell if they would do so. Unlike Zabuza Naruto only had stories and old documents to judge them, and thus far the evidence pointed to them being uncooperative. Either way their bodies still had there uses. The Gold and Silver brothers would prove to be quite interesting. If they gained the nine tails chakra, then it could be possible to repeat the process, making stronger ninja to fight the forces beyond mortal comprehension. Hanzo's poisonous body was at this point basically a farm, as the clones collected multiple canisters of poison. Despite it's usefulness, poisonous ninja were not on Naruto's agenda.

Either way more bodies were on there way, or in the process of being collected. Though Herbert was the one in charge of studying the bodies he was currently absent, apparently Dr. Shinno had come up with a breakthrough with his skin substitute. Meaning the time to seal away the Zero Tails was drawing near. The question was then who would become the first part of Project Jinchuriki. The available pool was small, and Naruto needed to trust whoever the leech would be sealed in. Despite Dr. Shinno being a great addition to the CDA, he was not trustworthy, not yet anyway. Konohamaru could not be used, for the decision would not truely be his, and Naruto was damned if he would condemn the boy hen he regained his body.

That left only two people. Sakura and Sasuke. He had yet to tell them about it, but Naruto was relatively sure Sasuke would agree to it. Despite dropping his status as an avenger, the habit of doing everything he could to become more powerful had not faded, then again old habits were hard to break. The question was what effect would becoming a Jinchuriki have with the curse seal present. Admitting Having multiple sets of chakra could destroy the boy, the fact that the seal only made chakra more potent when used rather than using an entirely new type made the possibility prospect sound in theory, though only in theory. It required more study.

Then there was the Akatsuki. The revelation that Obito was apart of the organization was an interesting one. After speaking with Herbert, it was decided that the member who was most likely Obito was Tobi. And with Wilbur as a member as well as the mysterious Hiruko, they were becoming a problem. Though so long as Naruto had Yagura, their plans were effectively moot. Though why stop there. There were other Jinchuriki, at the very least Naruto should warn them. It would be good to see if Gaara had changed at all since the exams, and his siblings were pleasant to be around, even if Kankuro was somewhat violent, though he was an individual who spoke his mind, which was an admirable trait. And Temari allowed an intelligent conversation to be had and her sharp wit at times kept the conversations amusing.

Then there was The Great Cult. The clones had difficulty spying on them as they were beyond secretive, and at any given time it was difficult to know where the leaders could be. They were an enigma, a puzzle to be solved before Naruto could figure out what to do with them. What was worrying was the Jashinist sects were not killing, and cults rarely calmed down, it was possible they were preparing for something big. The Cthulhu cult sect was usually quiet, worshiping Cthulhu as they sacrificed others. But it was the Yig sect that was the most active. Orochimaru was kidnapping ninja from all over the nations for his twisted experiments, the results of which were mostly failures, but it was the fact that his sound ninja had been seen around the nations, looking for someone or something. Naruto believed that they were searching for Sasuke.

Either way there were more problems than Naruto could deal with efficiently. So Naruto decided it was time to rid himself of a major one. Konoha was suffering under Danzo's iron fist. It was subtle, but slowly standards were risen for ninja, and as such less and less people were becoming ninja. So soon after the invasion replacing the ninja should have been Danzo's top priority. If anything the standards should be more lax, but for some reason he was doing the opposite. He was funneling the villages funds toward some secret project. It took a lot of digging to find out he was doing that, but no word on what this project was could be found. That did not stop Naruto from trying to figure it out.

The old phrase follow the money proved useful. Whatever was going on, all that was known was the funds were being sent to some project that required scientists, mostly chemists. It was not long before Naruto realized Danzo was trying to recreate the Reagent. With what he had, he could et close, but it would take him years, if not decades to figure it out. Though with what he had, he could put it to use. Despite being earlier than he wanted, Danzo was becoming more and more dangerous. To the point where taking him out now was worth the risk. So it was time to visit Minato. Once this was done, it would be time for him and Kushina to return to their own universe.

Naruto had kept an eye on Danzo long enough and he was officially despised by just enough of the populace, that his disappearance would not cause much trouble, it was not as much as Naruto hoped but it was to dangerous to leave Danzo to his own devices. But it always helped to be careful. Naruto walked to an area where multiple curiosities were stored until Naruto could figure out what to do with them, he took out a small canister with a bit of blood in it. Kabuto had it on him for his experiments and was using it to give his experiments there snake like features. The blood belonged to Orochimaru. Manipulation was never something Naruto liked doing, but to have the blame for Danzo's disappearance pinned on the Great Cult, it would only help. To be successful Minato would have to show up, grab Dazno and pour a small but of the blood in the area. This blood was taken long before Orochimaru's blood became snakes as it had after worshiping Yig, which would prove useful for further testing, the other sampled did however reveal much on the Snake Sannin's DNA, namely he was barely human even before he started to worship yig.

Naruto put a small bit of the blood into a vial and walked the halls to Minato's room. After telling him his plan Minato got everything set up, using a seal so he could put Danzo into a special cell across from Kabuto. Naruto handed the vial to Minato, who took it and nodded.

"You know what to do", said Naruto.

With a nod Minato dissapeared.

Danzo looked again at the corpses before him. They shuffled around. He sighed. Truly despite the necessity of this experiment for the good of Konoha, it did cause him some pain to do it to ninja of his own village. He hid it well, Danzo could add one more notch to the acts he committed in his life. He was a ninja, he had assassinated fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. All in the name of his village that he loved so much. He never questioned them, and he always did so dutifully, but it did not mean he had to enjoy it. Not that he would share that with anyone, he may have been human, but in his own eyes he saw himself as nothing more than a leader, one with access to tools to help in his ambition. His ROOT moved to the door opening it to put the latest failure in with the others. It was like the rest, violent and bloodthirsty and would attack anything living in it's sight.

He watched as the ROOT agents struggled to put the corpse in the room when a flash of light appeared. All stood ready for anything, what was not expected was for the Yellow Flash to appear before him. Even his emotionless ROOT stood in shock.

Near instantly The yellow flash took out Danzo's members before he grabbed Danzo's free arm and held it behind his back with a kunai to his neck. Danzo barely saw Minato drop some liquid on the floor, it wasn't hard to tell it was blood. Then Danzo disappeared with only an explosive tag left to take care of the agents left behind. Everything had gone as planed, Danzo was captured, and anyone who could have seen Minato was dead, with one exception it went off mostly as planed, the only problem was timing, which would make the usage of Orochimaru's blood meaningless. The gate where the failed undead bodies was left open.

The cold blackness of space is an unforgiving part of reality. So much of the universe in nothing. While planets and stars exist the vast majority of space is just that. Empty space. Though despite this the universe was positively teeming with for lack of a better word, stuff. Matter, atoms, energy, particles, light, water, stone, soil, and life to name a few. Though not all life is as we expect it to be. To give any other creature who through billions of years of evolution on their own world a form we can match to some creature we know on earth is simply put, nearly impossible. However, far in our solar system the cold world, called by man Pluto, bt called by them Yuggoth, there was a base of sorts. The base slowly trickled to life, not so much activating as it did reanimate. For the strange and curious beings that lived there built there homes and ships out of more than steel and wires. Living material was a popular building block for them for their strange bio organic technology. On the outside of this base creatures that were neither animal nor plant and yet both at the same time buzzed to life. Their form insectoid, with hints of fungi and mammalian traits. Membraned wings beat as they flew through the vacuum ignoring the rules put in place by the very universe they lived in by doing so.

Their heads glowed in forms of communication we could hazard to understand. Taking on hues and colors in their conversation oh so alien to us, and yet so familiar to them. Multiple limbs scaled the buildings as they repaired their home, having just awoken from some cold sleep by some unseen force more powerful than even these strange being could comprehend, for like humanity these beings were as insignificant to the universe as everything else, though they knew this fact they did not dwell on it, the mearly did as they willed, using a morality system more orange and blue than black and white. For these creatures had a different culture, different customs. Even between them there was much variation, as if these beings were gaining new mutations every generation. Though it best not to dwell on that. For they were awake, and they were drawn to some signal from the third rock of the nearby star. They spoke to each other in brilliant displays of bioluminescence as they prepared. The Fungi from Yuggoth, also called the Mi-Go had returned, and they had much work to do.

Back on earth the shambling beasts limped out of the door to the bodies of the dead ninja. They knelt don and bit into their flesh eating them until nothing remained. Hordes of the vile beasts resurrected by the imperfect Reagent crawled around the cramped halls, killing all in there way. Taking out ninja with only numbers, rage, and the tenacity never to stop chasing after the living. The undead experiments would occasionally be attacked, but even with wounds that would kill a normal man, they did not stop. Limbs would be cut off only to move on their own and attack anything with a pulse.

Those killed were consumed in fits of the need to sink their teeth into something, anything to rid their decaying bodies of some unnatural hunger that could not be satiated. The ninja underestimated the zombies, for though they were weak, they were difficult to kill, and as they moved the effects of rigor mortis lessened and the undead legions began to move like beasts. Running on all fours and clinging to the walls with claws of bone that had mutated into deadly weapons. The zombies destroyed every ROOT agent and dragged them into the room where they once were held. Creating a pile of bodies to serve as food. And the zombies ate. The flesh would last for some time, but eventually they would run out, and the village above would become a beacon calling to them under the prospect of more to eat.

The entrance to the base, that separated it from Konoha was left shut, as it usually was, but it was only a matter of time until someone came to see what had happen, and those who were not truly dead had the luxury of time, for though they still rotted, they would never stop moving unless killed permanently, and eventually freedom was but a certainty. The animalistic wave of the undead were loose in the base, more than five hundred walking corpses each with a hunger that could not be filled, even as their bellys bulged with rotting food that ruptured their skin and fell to the floor they continued to eat, for it was all they knew.