In his past life, Aburame Tetsumaru belonged to the social class that was ruled. In this life, he was not only part of the ruling class but had been born into its ranks—even if his standing wasn't particularly high.
Until now, Tetsumaru had never looked at the world from the perspective of a ruler. Consequently, he had never truly understood the phrase: "Money is just the lubricant of power."
Being put through the wringer by Konoha's wartime rationing decree had finally driven that lesson home. Despite having over ten million Ryo in savings, he couldn't buy what he needed. There were simply no channels available.
What was he to do?
He tried pulling strings and utilizing his social network, which netted him a little over a hundred kilograms of metal—but it wasn't nearly enough.
Konoha's governance model was essentially a feudal system. Having money was far less useful than having power. In Konoha, a shinobi's power was directly proportional to their proximity and intimacy with the Hokage.
Take the three Hokage Advisors, especially Danzo. He certainly didn't have a purchase limit; otherwise, how could he fund Root? Look at the red-haired girl, Uzumaki Kushina—had she ever lacked supplies or study materials?
But that path required social maneuvering and time—two things Tetsumaru lacked the talent for. In the end, he decided the path of self-reliance was more his style.
Work with your own hands, and you shall have plenty.
Tetsumaru began filtering through his insect species, discarding those with low reproductive rates, poor metal accumulation, or low controllability. In the end, he settled on a trio of insects.
First were the Gold-Eating Beetles. These were wingless beetles that matured and reproduced rapidly, with an insatiable appetite for metals. They were about the size of a melon seed. Their carapaces were heavily enriched with metal to boost defense; remarkably, the metal in their shells existed as a pure elemental mixture, making them a high-quality resource that could be smelted directly.
Though he had borrowed the name of the spirit insects from Old Devil Han, Tetsumaru's Gold-Eating Beetles possessed zero combat capability. In fact, these poor things had to struggle just to stay alive; their shells were so heavy that their mobility and foraging abilities were abysmal. Raising them on a large scale would normally require manual intervention, but Tetsumaru had no intention of doing the grunt work himself. He decided to pair them with two other species.
The Burrowing Worms were segmented annelids resembling earthworms, with adults reaching two centimeters in diameter and forty centimeters in length. They were eyeless but possessed a keen sense of smell. They were expert tunnelers, and the mucus they secreted could harden to reinforce their burrows. Their only weakness was a weak bite; they couldn't handle solid rock. They could swallow small pebbles, but they had to navigate around larger stones.
Finally, Tetsumaru selected the Mole Crickets. These were the rock-breakers of the group. Beyond their shovel-like forelimbs, they possessed a hammer-shaped modified appendage capable of a "power strike" similar to a mantis shrimp, used to shatter solid stone. Furthermore, their saliva was highly acidic, allowing them to corrode particularly hard rock before smashing it.
The Mole Crickets were also responsible for logistics, crushing the excavated ore and transporting it back to the hive to feed the Gold-Eating Beetles.
Tetsumaru soaked the insect eggs in a specialized hormone solution and injected chakra and growth stimulants during pupation. After a process with a ninety-five percent mortality rate, he successfully bred a generation of giant-sized insects.
What Tetsumaru was most proud of was that he had successfully engineered "defects" into these three species—gaping biological flaws that made them easy to domesticate.
The Gold-Eating Beetles grew to the size of a thumb, but their six legs had shrunk by half. After their second molt, they lost the ability to walk entirely, becoming completely dependent on the Mole Crickets for food.
The Mole Crickets grew to the size of a palm. While their speed and power increased significantly, their metabolism skyrocketed. Their digestive systems became so fragile that they could only survive on artificially manufactured feed.
The Burrowing Worms became terrifying behemoths, as thick as a bowl and twelve meters long, but they lost the ability to reproduce through fission. Their eggs could no longer hatch naturally; they required a laboratory-controlled environment with constant temperature, humidity, and specific light cycles to achieve a measly two to three percent hatch rate.
Through simple domestication, these three species formed a coordinated "Metal Extraction System." They could mine even the lowest-grade ore at an incredibly low cost. Tetsumaru controlled them through hatching management, feed supply, and pheromone signaling. He dubbed this trio the Mining Zerg.
This was a resource stream completely controlled by Tetsumaru—a private asset immune to outside interference.
By the time his leave was half over, the Mining Zerg population had reached its intended limit: three hundred Burrowing Worms, 4,700 Giant Mole Crickets, and 15,000 Gold-Eating Beetles.
With his family yard as the epicenter, the Mining Zerg tunneled through the earth in a 400-meter radius, constructing a complex subterranean labyrinth reaching depths of five hundred meters with a total length of seventeen kilometers.
Fortunately, they struck a vein of hematite. Though the ore was of such low grade that it was considered worthless by standard mining practices, the Gold-Eating Beetles were able to extract seventy kilograms of pure iron from it every day—more than enough to satisfy Tetsumaru's needs.
Tetsumaru had no intention of letting anyone know about this metal income. His mindset was fundamentally different from the feudal-minded shinobi of the Ninja World; he looked at things from the perspective of a worker, and he was quite dissatisfied with the "rewards" he received for his contributions of ant-sugar.
Since you lot don't care about money, I won't tell you about this new source of wealth. I'll enjoy it all by myself.
Regrettably, he couldn't maintain that secrecy forever. Ultimately, Tetsumaru's personal power wasn't quite there yet, and his technical infrastructure was too narrow.
First, the molted shells of the Gold-Eating Beetles were a mixture of various metals and required smelting. To keep it secret, he would have to expand the furnace in his basement and spend days doing the smelting himself. Could one person handle seventy kilograms of smelting a day? And what would happen when the scale increased in the future? Where would he get the fuel?
Secondly, the massive amount of metal he was producing was ultimately intended for his summoning insects. When he eventually produced tens or hundreds of thousands of bugs, how would he explain where the material came from?
After much deliberation, he decided to take the shells to the Sarutobi clan for smelting and purification. They would take a cut, of course, but luckily, he no longer had to pay a single Ryo out of pocket.
With the supply of metal secured, the breeding and cultivation of his insects fell into a steady rhythm.
Tetsumaru finally allowed himself to relax for a few days. He enjoyed good food, slept in, and shared stories of the front lines with his father, Aburame Wafu, who was also home on leave.
Having been baptized by the battlefield, Tetsumaru could now fully appreciate his father's advice. As a veteran of two Great Wars, Wafu's experience was far deeper than his own. He spoke of the environments of various countries, the specialties of different ninja clans, the strengths and weaknesses of national armies, and the famous high-level shinobi of the era. Tetsumaru listened intently, taking detailed notes and memorizing everything.
Using his father's experience as a guide, Tetsumaru finally made a choice between the two techniques he had been debating: he chose Summoning Jutsu and temporarily shelved the Shadow Clone.
He had earned plenty of merit on the front, enough to redeem the C-rank Summoning Jutsu. He hadn't done it sooner because it was useless while deployed.
Summoning Jutsu is generally split into two types: summoning a blood-contracted beast or summoning an item. The jutsu itself is identical—the hand seals, formulas, and effects are the same. The caster performs the jutsu, senses the chakra of the target, and through resonance, teleports the target to their location.
A Summoning Beast has its own chakra and intelligence; it can recognize its contract holder and actively respond to the call. Summoning an item, however, is more complicated. It requires specialized preparation on the object itself.
One method involves items capable of holding chakra, like the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist. These can have a Sealing Jutsu solidified within them, allowing them to be summoned via a scroll, though usually only in one direction.
The second method involves constructing a massive Sealing Formula Array. By placing the objects within the array, they can be summoned back and forth like a spirit beast. The cost is astronomical, but it allows for two-way transport—similar to the Summoning: Rashomon.
Tetsumaru wanted to summon his insects to satisfy his unique logistical needs. As a swarm-style user, his control limit had reached four thousand insects, while his capacity for simple autonomous types—like Landmine Beetles—exceeded fifteen thousand.
Such a massive swarm could only be trained within the village. The total weight of fifteen thousand insects was over two hundred kilograms—double Tetsumaru's carrying capacity. He couldn't lug them around manually.
Fortunately, the Ninja World possessed the perfect black-tech solution: the Summoning Jutsu. If a ten-ton toad could be called at a moment's notice, a few hundred kilograms of insects were a non-issue.
What? Summoning requires massive amounts of chakra?
I'm sorry, but while I might not have as much as the blonde kid will one day, my biggest problem right now is having so much chakra that I don't know how to spend it all.
The issue was that while his summoning insects could consume chakra, their intelligence was near zero. They couldn't "respond" to a blood contract. The only solution was the second method: summoning a Hive. The insects would reside within the Hive, and Tetsumaru would summon the Hives themselves.
This required a significant investment to build the Sealing Formula Array. He then had to establish a specific contract within the seal and learn the modified Summoning Jutsu to match it.
This wasn't a project Tetsumaru could handle alone. He didn't have the connections to find Sealing Corps ninjas. Beyond the funding, the entire project had to be handled by the clan. Consequently, the Summoning Array would technically be clan property; he had to convince his father and the elders to build it, and he would have to pay a "rental fee" to use it.
This economic setup was the peak of feudalism; only a real-estate developer from Earth could look at it and smile with disdain.
After convincing his father, Tetsumaru paid another visit to Elder Shiki. He felt a bit embarrassed; in the few months he'd been back, he had asked the elder for favors every other week. It was becoming a bit much.
"The scale of the summoning array the Aburame want is massive!"
A Captain from the Sealing Corps scratched his head as he reviewed the blueprint scrolls. "It's going to cost a fortune."
The Aburame elders present let out a collective sigh of relief. If it could be solved with money, it wasn't a problem. Then, they paused, looking dazed.
"Wait... since when has our clan not had to worry about money?"
With the funds ready, the backing of the village, and all the necessary materials and expertise on hand, the largest engineering project the Aburame had undertaken since the village's founding was quickly greenlit.
First, they demolished several buildings in the clan's restricted grounds. Elder Shiki and the other elders handled the demolition themselves, laughing loudly as the old structures crumbled.
"I've hated this old shack for years! Finally, it's gone!"
Then, they brought in fifteen Earth Style specialists to excavate the earth, digging down a full seventy meters.
Next, they filled the pit with layers of massive stones carved with Sealing Formulas. The stack of stone was ten meters thick, leaving a hollow central space thirty meters long, wide, and tall. After setting the access tunnels, they capped the core space with another ten meters of stone. Above that, they built the clan's Secret Vault layer, a layer for general storage, and finally a training hall.
Once the ground was leveled, the basic structure was complete.
The Sealing Corps built the Summoning Array in the lowest level, while the clan ninjas handled the vaults. They hired ordinary village craftsmen to handle the two-story building on the surface, the perimeter wall, and the finishing of the underground training rooms.
After forty days of high-intensity construction, the project was finished. The Aburame clan had not only burned through their savings but had taken on seventy million Ryo in debt.
Within Konoha's power structure, the Aburame sat in the third tier; they had influence and connections, but they had always lacked a talent for business. For years, they had been hamstrung by a lack of funds.
Tetsumaru watched as Shiki and the other elders casually signed off on payments of hundreds of thousands or millions in front of outsiders, only to turn around and look utterly shell-shocked the moment they were alone.
He secretly used his Slimes to photograph the elders' dazed expressions, tucking the images away in a secret collection. If these were ever discovered before the elders passed away, Tetsumaru was fairly certain he'd be beaten to death.
In truth, various clans and merchant guilds in Konoha—and even throughout the Land of Fire—were actively looking for ways to lend money to the Aburame. The clan now had a net monthly income of over a million Ryo; everyone wanted a piece of the action. Thus, when the Aburame announced a major project and admitted they were short on cash, various power players jumped at the chance to provide money, labor, and technology.
What intoxicated the Aburame elders wasn't just "spending money like water," but the intoxicating taste of this newfound influence.
As the saying goes: Money is indeed just a lubricant, but the friction is hell without it.
Tetsumaru carefully placed the final Hive in its spot. Looking back, the thirty-meter square Summoning Hall from a few days ago was now unrecognizable.
The hall was now a circular space twenty-four meters in diameter and eight meters high. At the center was a six-sided stone pillar four meters tall, carved with countless sealing runes.
The middle of the pillar held the contract list; it already bore the names of thirty-five Aburame shinobi. The runes extended from the pillar to the floor, branching out like tree roots across the entire ground and rising three meters up the walls. Raised walkways were installed over the floor so people could move without stepping on the runes.
The floor was divided into three concentric rings for Large, Medium, and Small summons. At the center were twelve Large slots; in the middle were 360 Medium slots; and on the outer edge were a thousand Small slots.
Tetsumaru scanned the room. The center was empty. In the middle ring, only his eighty-four two-meter-tall Hives were present. The outer ring held about a hundred miscellaneous items—scrolls, swords, bundles of kunai, and various odds and ends.
Actually, forty of those half-meter Small Hives belonged to Tetsumaru as well.
He grinned. One of his Hives was packed with secret weapons; one was full of medical supplies and rations; another held ninja tools and research equipment. The remaining eighty-one Hives contained 1,150,000 summoning insects in hibernation.
This million-strong army consisted of nineteen species, covering six combat categories: scouting, camouflage, offense, defense, interference, and battlefield control.
These were the final selections after half a year of battlefield experience, with every impractical or redundant species weeded out. He proudly named these nineteen species the Legion Zerg—the second Zerg group after his Mining Zerg.
With a million insects ready to be called at any moment, Tetsumaru felt he had achieved his "small goal" of being able to survive an encounter with an elite Jonin or even a Kage—as long as he didn't run into a specialized AOE monster like a Jinchuriki again.
However, the million-insect army had wiped out his reserves. His home and the ranch now held only eggs and newly hatched nymphs; the next batch wouldn't be ready for another three months.
After securing the Hives, Tetsumaru left the restricted grounds. The Aburame "Forbidden Zone" now had a perimeter wall, a gate, and numerous guards; it finally felt like a proper restricted area.
His task for the rest of the day was shopping with his parents. They strolled the streets, had a feast, and he was set to go to the hot springs with his father.
Tomorrow, Tetsumaru would return to the Land of Rain. The war had entered a lull, but energy was building. The opportunity for a new clash was already beginning to ripen.
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