Slugs come in two varieties in the real world that I know of, terrestrial and sea. Either way, both are considered gastropods in the same overarching family as snails and mollusks. Some are able to produce various toxic substances and secretions stored in their body and released through nearly microscopic glands. These can include substances such as viscous mucous or even for the sea slug species notaspidean pleurobranchs a compound similar to sulfuric acid in its toxicity and defensive nature. To consume food they use their
You must be registered for see links
, which is a large tongue, compared to their body size, which is covered in numerous growths that resemble
You must be registered for see links
. In nature a sea slug can survive being cut in half, or damaged as long as the pericardial portions of the body are intact allowing it to regrow from significant damage. Slug senses rely heavily on tactile sensations and they have a very good sense of position thus allowing their foot, the term for their main body mass to move their body in various ways gliding across surfaces and allowing them to stick to various surfaces increasing their mobility.
Similar to their more developed relatives, the cephalopods, terrestrial slugs, and snails, such as Helix pomatia, slugs possess a highly developed sense of sight. Their eyes take the form of two retractable, light-sensitive optical tentacles allowing them to independently gaze at their surroundings. The optical tentacles are also used for smell. They are everse, developed by the body wall shaping like a bowl or later like a cup. The light-sensitive cells evolved from the former body wall cells, and are therefore pointing towards the light falling in from outside.
One very cool property of sea slugs, primarily the Aeolid cnidosac is the ability to repurpose cells from another creature. They take these cells called cnidosac from the species that it feeds upon adding them to their own body.
You must be registered for see links
are stinging cells most recognizable in the Box Jellyfish. This shows that slugs are very adaptable able to basically take in and repurpose cells they themselves are unable to create. Another example of this ability is the Lettuce Sea Slug, Elysia crispata. This slug, like other Sacoglossa, uses kleptoplasty, a process in which the slug absorbs chloroplasts from the algae it eats and uses these "stolen" cells to photosynthesize sugars. The ruffles of the lettuce sea slug increase the slug's surface area, allowing the cells to absorb more light. The largest variety of sea slug colloquially called a sea hare has a species the California black sea hare, Aplysia vaccaria that can grow to be as large as two and a half feet and weigh up to thirty pounds which is a massive size in comparison to their smaller brethren. Most sea hares have several defenses; in addition to being naturally toxic, they can eject a foul ink or secrete a viscous slime to deter predators. I'm bored now.
In the narutoverse and our rp Katsuyu is the only slug we've seen and she's shown a lot of the abilities I mentioned above from their real-world counterparts. However, she's shown abilities from both terrestrial and sea slugs. Including mucous production, acid production, regeneration, as well as other abilities like splitting her form and metal communication even if the last two aren't abilities from the real world. Slugs are summoned from Shikkotsu Forest and recently have had a Sage Mode added for them just like the rest of the canon summons.
I plan on playing heavily upon the acid producing and mucous producing abilities of the slug and then compounding their usefulness with both Salamanders, poison and the Naturalist Summoning specialty. This should allow for poison to become acidic in nature, and having it finally overcome the one neutrality/weakness I've had trouble with Earth Release.