Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 369 EVOLUTION

The world we were on was basically a swamp. At least everything we had seen so far was a swamp. Reminiscent of the marsh that I had run in during the Hunter Exam in HxH, we had found more than the Cthulhu monsters to worry about. Large eel-like monsters in pools we had stepped in one only to be electrocuted. Another snake monster tried to strike at us from behind a rock, but Nibi was quick enough to dodge and kill it.

We found a small cave soon after that. It wasn’t built into a large rock that was above the ground, but an actual underground cavern. The entrance level with the swamp floor, it went straight down. Curving up after a straight drop it was just big enough for the 2 of us. It didn’t appear anything was living in the cave anymore. A few bones scattered on the hard rock, they were mostly very old. 

“You saved my life,” I said to Nibi. She was breathing heavily on my lap. Even the tailed beast had struggled to run so far and long. “I am going to use an Evolution I just got, okay?” The cat’s eyes didn’t give anything away, but I thought her Haki sent an affirmative. 

She began to grow in size. Once she got to the size of a small horse she stopped growing, but instead of shrinking again like usual, she stared at me. Her big eyes studied me for long seconds as she blinked slowly. Her blue fur actually glowing for a moment. I felt something pulse inside of her from her Spiritual Energy. 

“Finally,” she said, startling me. 

“You can talk?” I asked.

“I could always talk,” she growled as she began to shrink again. Her mouth not moving with her words, the words simply sounded from her direction. She had a deep voice, that helped to attribute to how old she was. I gulped as she moved to sit on me and stare up at me. “God you’re stupid.” 

“Uh…sorry,” I said, unsure which part she was talking about. 

“I’ve never been attached to such a lustful man before. Is that all you think about?” She asked, annoyance in her voice. 

“Uh I hav-had this skill, the Chikyugi. It was basically-”

“A Sharingan in your balls, I understand,” she said. Yawning widely she looked around. “What kind of mess did you get us into here?” 

“How much do you know?” I asked. “About my challenges and all that.” I could say challenges, I guessed pets were different from summons since I wasn’t able to explain things to Hancock until I used the Companion Item. Nibi wouldn’t exist in Naruto World without me, unlike Hancock who would, Nibi must have had more permissions. 

“You go to different worlds, fuck who you want, fight sometimes, and always have a bunch of drama around you,” she said. “I’m aware. I’m also aware you never called me for one of your Challenges. Why is that?” 

“Because…I don’t know. You were always attached to a person. Forced to do whatever they did. You and I didn’t talk. I didn’t want to assume you would be on my side.” 

“No, I decided to come along with you. You should have known I was on your side,” she said, upset but not overly. “You tried your best to save Yugito. She appreciated it, and she was my friend.” Yugito was the Jinchuriki I had saved from Akatsuki. The most recent holder of Nibi, I had failed to save her at the last fight of Naruto World. 

“Sorry about not being able to save her again.” 

“It’s fine,” Nibi said. “I’m used to it. But you are my holder for now, Weston. You have to get your head out of your ass.” 

“I know,” I said. “Which…part?”

“Your head.” 

“No, which part are you talking about?”

“You died,” she hissed. “Did you know I had the option to leave you then?” 

“You did?” I asked, surprised by the admission. 

“Yes, when you died in that challenge, I was offered to be reborn back into my original world. But I decided to stick it out with you. In hopes you would wise up.” 

“I would love that,” I said, annoyed. “But I would love some help too. I didn’t grow up with all this fighting. I’m learning on the fly. How could I have done better?” I had memories of fighting from all my other lives thanks to Memory Meld, but for some reason it still felt alien to me.

“I have no idea,” she said. “Maybe don’t fall for stupid traps. I’ve spent a lot of time in your status screen. I don’t get the sense of everything, but I know enough to see that you could have done better. If I am going to risk my life for you, then I expect more effort on your part.”

“Yeah,” I said, biting my lip. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Just…I don’t know. I swear I’ll bring you out more. Please help me. I really need it. Especially here.”

“Yes,” she said, looking around the small damp cave we were in. “You really got into it this time. How long until we can leave?” 

“18 hours,” I said. 

“Fine. Let’s hold up here and talk,” she said. Curling up in my lap she relaxed. Leaning against the jagged rock I tried to stabilize my thoughts. I had so many questions that I didn’t know where to start.

“Where is Hancock?” Nibi asked. 

“Uh, with my main body. I split a little while ago, and she is with the other me. I lost chakra at that point.”

“I noticed it was gone in you. Very dumb. Chakra would be useful here,” she said.

“I was able to awaken it in people with my Chikyugi…Is there any way you could awaken it in me?”

“I don’t know of any method to do that. The rabbit goddess ate the fruit and all of her descendents had chakra. I had assumed there wasn’t a way to give it to humans,” she said. 

“Not even like pushing some into me?” I asked. 

“No, your…genitalia is special I assume. That Chikyugi power you had with the chakra pathway to your penis, that was something I have never seen before.” 

“Damn,” I agreed, annoyed that I had lost it. “What else can we do?” 

“Ask the true question,” Nibi said, annoyed. 

“I…can you and I link like you did with Yugito?” I asked. This was the true reason I had wanted her as a summon. Naruto had become exponentially stronger when he fused with the kyubi. Now that she could talk I was a little too nervous to ask. If we could fuse together somehow I could be transformed into a nuclear powered chakra machine. That’s what I wanted.  

“If you had chakra, most likely. Current you… I don’t know. It might kill you,” she said. 

“Or awaken chakra in me,” I said, hopeful. 

“Doubtful,” she said. “My chakra is pure, far more pure than yours, and yours was the purest human’s chakra I have felt. Mine would almost be volatile to you. Have you seen a Jinchuriki turn into a tailed beast?” I thought back to the Naruto Manga. Naruto’s skin would burn off when the 9-tails chakra leaked out. I nodded. “It can be dangerous, but we can try.” I sighed but felt a little better about my situation. It would be a huge boon to have almost limitless chakra to use. 

“What other skills do you have?” She asked.

“I um, got a Fusion skill, an electricity/healing ability, and a new Timeflow one,” I said. “I don’t know them all too well though.” 

“Then you need to begin training,” she said. “This cave will not do for us. We need some higher ground.”

“It’s good for now.”

“Did you see the size of those tentacle beasts? If one of those tentacles stepped on this cave we would be crushed,” she said getting up. “You’re running us this time.” She jumped up to sit on my shoulder. Grumbling, I groaned and moved down from my small perch. I dipped under a protrusion of rock and came to the vertical shaft of the cavern. 

Grabbing small handholds my body struggled to pull itself up. Every movement was a challenge to use the required strength. I was already exhausted but pushed through, adding Nen strengthening where I could. When we came out of the shaft to the dim sunlight there was still fog everywhere. 

“Any idea where to go?” I asked. As soon as I did we heard a loud screech from far off. 

“Not that way,” Nibi mumbled. I nodded and moved the other way. This new world had grayish green grass. All the water I had seen was the color of mud, and I gave every pool of water a wide berth as I walked us away, just in case of monsters. Struggling with even walking I was sweating soon enough. 

“How did we get here anyway?” Nibi whispered. 

“My dad and I, we were looking into this group called Children of Cthulhu,” I said. “How they let their group be called COC, I don’t know. They thought the end of the world was coming, and wanted to be the ones to cause it. Summoning a giant beast called Cthulhu.” 

“That was the beast we were attacked by?” 

“No, Cthulhu is much taller and scarier than that. Picture a human with an octopus face. So monstrous that the top of his head touches the clouds when he is standing. What we fought was like a little brother of Cthulhu.” 

“Let’s pray he doesn’t have a big brother. Even at my full strength I would have struggled with a monster like that,” she said. I nodded, me at full strength would have had trouble as well. I could have done it, but it would have taken a lot. 

“Start running,” Nibi said. 

“What? Something chasing us?”

“No, but you need to train this body,” she said. “Start running.”

“I’d prefer to wait. If we leave here and go to another world, I should get my World Lasting Physique. Before that all training is useless,” I said. 

“No training is useless,” she hissed. “You want my help or not? Do as I say.” I grumbled but began to jog. My breath came in heavy as I did. 

As the squish of the marsh under my feet became the only noise around us, the thick fog kept the sound trapped with us. Breathing heavily we moved quickly as I forced my body to speed up. If I was going to train I might as well get serious about it. 

“Do you mind…if I call you by your real name?” I asked through a ragged breath. 

“No, you haven’t earned that,” Nibi said. 

“But I know your name…” 

“And have you earned it?” She asked, eyeing me. Her dark eyes bore into me. I let out a sigh and shook my head. I really had neglected her for a long time. I had to do better. Better all around, at everything, no more mistakes. We continued on, dodging monsters as I ate away the miles. 

—

We eventually left the swamp and found a small outcropping of mushrooms. The mushrooms were ginormous and I dug into one for somewhere to sleep. Every muscle in my body aching I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the soft gooey center of the fungi. 

The next day I risked a small fire. My Inventory full of food stuffs and water. Even Nibi ate some food, though she didn’t need it. After that she made me train my body, then show her my Fusion, Spark, and Timeflow. Forcing sections of the mushroom to fuse back together I played with the power more throughout the day. Eventually the notification came. 

That was 2 Weakness Eliminators I had earned in the world so far. Which was more than needed. I used them both. 

I didn’t know what Time Lag was, but it sounded bad. I chose Nen Impurities, which made my lifeforce pulse for long seconds, getting brighter then dim back down to normal. After that I used my 2nd Weakness Eliminator on Spark Degradation. I planned to train all of my abilities of course, but for now they were the ones I was most accustomed to. As I finished checking my body for any changes I prepared to World Escape but received another quest. 

“Holy fuck,” I said in utter awe. 

“What?” Nibi asked, bored as she sat beside me. 

“I got probably the single best quest reward I thought possible,” I said. I had received Bonus Challenger Slots from quests, but never an ability. “It’s going to be a bitch to kill one of those tentacle monsters.” 

“But you must,” she said. I nodded, chewing my lip. I had hoped to focus on other worlds, but this was far too good of an opportunity. 

“World Escape,” I said reluctantly. 

Once back in the Red Room I looked around. “You have to be DC,” I said to the 4 o’clock door. I just needed to hit the 3rd world and get my World Lasting Physique, then I could train to go back to Invincible. But as I moved for the doorknob I received a new notification. 

“Fuck,” I said. There were only 5 doors available. I guessed that the Manga cleared doors were not counted since they were crossed out. 5 had to be the original allotted amount. I didn’t know why the Manhwa had a 1 next to it though. Did other Weston do something special to allow another door? 

“Double fuck, they did this on purpose so you can’t get World Lasting Physique in 2 Halls without clearing a world, or whatever the hell other Weston did to get an additional door,” I said. I thought back to the Manga Hall. I had opened, High School of the Dead, Gantz, Naruto, One Piece, and My Hero Academia. I didn’t open One Punch Man until after I had cleared Gantz. 

“Goddang it,” I mumbled. I hadn’t opened the rest of the worlds in the Manga Hall until after I had cleared High School of the Dead. Unsure how many doors were added when I cleared a world I pulled up my Status Screen. 

I had some nice new skills, and the Ability Challenger Slot would be a huge help. Grinding my teeth I thought it through. 

“I don’t know for sure that I have to open 3 doors for World Lasting Physique,” I said. “Maybe if I go far enough in one of these worlds I will get a quest for it.” I nodded, praying that I would get it eventually. “On the bright side, other Weston is stuck in the worlds he opened.” Neither of us could leave until we beat a world, or received a quest reward to open more. 

“Fine,” I said, looking to the Invincibile world door. “Let’s fucking do this. Time to stop playing around. Train, and get the hell off this tentacle porn nightmare.” Taking in a deep breath I stepped into the room, ready to get serious. I regretted it of course. I should have headed to one of the Smut worlds to empty my balls first. Cursing, I knew it would be a while until I made myself leave again. I had to get World Lasting Physique or all my effort would be in vain. It was time for a helluva training arc.