Two years ago, Aburame Tetsumaru finally cracked the code for utilizing the Swarm. Commanding hundreds of thousands of ninja insects, he had swept through six Ame outposts and eliminated over a hundred Rain ninjas—including two Jonin. Even for the Land of Rain, losing two Jonin was a staggering blow to their records.
Following that, Tetsumaru executed several more combat missions, harvesting heads by the dozens or even hundreds. Even the performance of the Hidden Stone's elite didn't hold a candle to his efficiency.
And then, Tetsumaru was put on ice.
The order came directly from the Third Hokage. Under the guise of "protecting vital combat assets," Tetsumaru was barred from performing independent combat missions.
Both Tetsumaru and Orochimaru knew that was just corporate speak. The real reason was simple: Tetsumaru was not of the Hokage's direct lineage. He was not supposed to shine too brightly.
Ten years from now, the "Yellow Flash" would rack up records far more exaggerated than Tetsumaru's, yet one didn't see the Hokage "protecting" that vital asset by benching him.
Orochimaru had once told Tetsumaru that if he were allowed to go all-out with the Swarm as his foundation, they could drive the Sand and Stone out of the Land of Rain within three months, forcing Hanzo to bow his head and retreat from the war entirely.
Tetsumaru agreed. With Orochimaru organizing the logistics and the regular army, a million insects paired with four thousand Konoha shinobi acting as the backbone could effectively be viewed as a fighting force of forty thousand ninjas.
Unfortunately, the Hokage couldn't accept that outcome.
Victory on that scale would create a Tetsumaru with massive public prestige. Behind him stood the formidable Aburame Clan, which was already a pillar of the village; above him was his commander, the Hokage's own disciple, whose reputation was already soaring.
It was an awkward political position. Tetsumaru was technically "one of their own," so suppressing him too harshly would destabilize the Hokage's own power base. Yet, because he wasn't part of the "Inner Circle," Hiruzen could never fully trust him.
More importantly, such a victory would create an Orochimaru whose prestige rivaled or even surpassed Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang. Orochimaru was only in his twenties, yet his ambition, methods, and personal faction were already significant. If his legend hit the stratosphere now, it would disrupt the transition of power.
Having finally found the "right" way to play the Swarm, Tetsumaru was deeply frustrated at being stopped before he could truly enjoy it. He was also troubled by the lack of data. Without actual combat, how was he supposed to facilitate the "survival of the fittest" among his insect species? Was he supposed to just guess which mutations worked?
He had briefly considered defection, but after weighing his personal strength against the combined might of Konoha, he "followed his heart" and accepted the arrangement.
So what if I have to lie flat? he thought. I'm good at that. Besides, I'm rich in this life. Slacking off is actually quite comfortable.
As his contact with Orochimaru grew more frequent, he began to understand exactly what Hiruzen Sarutobi was thinking.
The Third Hokage was a man of soft character. He was impressionable and prone to compromise, often accepting faits accomplis. However, he had two bottom lines that could not be crossed: first, the interests of Konoha; and second, the political balance within the village.
While the Hokage believed the first point was his priority, in practice, his judgment on "village interests" was often fuzzy, whereas his perception of "political balance" was razor-sharp. Consequently, the second point effectively took precedence.
This was why he suppressed Orochimaru and his subordinate, Tetsumaru. At the end of the day, Hiruzen didn't want anyone threatening his position—not now, and not ten or twenty years down the line.
The Hokage moved to suppress Orochimaru, but the man who truly kept him up at night was Sakumo Hatake. As the White Fang slaughtered his way through the Sand ninjas in the Land of Rivers, his prestige reached dangerous heights.
The Land of Rivers front relied entirely on Sakumo. Benching him would mean abandoning that theater. Thus, some "tactical genius" in the village proposed a solution: the Hokage began frequently redeploying Sakumo to "put out fires" across every front, hoping the travel time would drain his momentum and slow his accumulation of fame.
It was a catastrophic miscalculation. By sending Sakumo to every crisis, the man simply racked up brilliant victories and legendary prestige on every single battlefield he touched. The name of the "White Fang of the Leaf" soon echoed not just through Konoha, but throughout the entire shinobi world.
The Hokage learned his lesson from this failure. Ten years later, he would use the exact same "firefighting" method to catapult the "Yellow Flash" to fame, successfully bypassing an Orochimaru who had become too independent to be a puppet.
Tetsumaru realized that in the Hokage's eyes, "political balance" meant "whether I can control the situation." It had nothing to do with actual equilibrium.
Now, Orochimaru had been suppressed for two years, while the attempt to suppress Sakumo had failed. What would the Hokage do next?
Naturally, he would use Orochimaru to replace Sakumo, letting his disciple win the final victory in the Land of Rivers to share in the glory. By agreeing to Tetsumaru's transfer, the Hokage was more or less letting him act as the vanguard for Orochimaru's arrival.
Currently, Sakumo Hatake was on mandatory leave back at the village—a stalling tactic that would only work for a few months. Therefore, they were all destined to converge in the Land of Rivers within the year. That would be the moment Konoha launched its final decisive strike to kick the Sand out of the war for good.
Tetsumaru collected his mission scroll and his formal appointment as a Tokubetsu Jonin squad leader before bidding Orochimaru farewell.
He found Yukimura Saburo, who had already finished his promotion paperwork. The boy was now wearing a Chunin flak jacket; a Chunin's headband was identical to a Genin's, so there was no need to swap it.
After comparing notes, it turned out Yukimura had also received a captain's appointment. He was set to take over a squad whose previous leader had been severely wounded two days prior and sent back to the village.
Yukimura had also looked into the fate of their two most recent teammates. They had been reassigned to the Defense Corps. The transfer orders didn't specify which squad they'd be in.
This was a "bad" transfer. Because Tetsumaru hadn't been consulted, the two were being moved as "blank slates." When the Defense Corps commander saw ninjas arriving like that, he would immediately mark them as "unimportant cannon fodder."
Yukimura and Tetsumaru shared a shrug and said nothing. In the Land of Rain, over two thousand of the four thousand Konoha ninjas were treated as cannon fodder. The two newcomers were neither old friends nor particularly likable, so there was no reason to stick their necks out.
More importantly, those two lacked common sense. Proactively helping them would likely result in resentment rather than gratitude. It simply wasn't worth the effort.
Returning to their quarters, they found the two Genin still there. Tetsumaru announced the dissolution of Squad Aburame. The two rookies looked stunned, staring at him in confusion.
Finally, Tetsumaru's conscience got the better of him. "Stop gawking. Pack your gear and report to the Defense Corps immediately. The sooner you get there, the better."
The four tents were assigned to "Squad Aburame." Now that the squad was gone, the four of them had different destinations, and this plot of land would soon be assigned to someone else.
The four gathered their personal belongings, packed their bags, and said their final goodbyes.
Tetsumaru and Yukimura had been teammates for three years and possessed a high level of unspoken understanding. Without a word, they took different paths through the camp and arrived at the canteen at the exact same time.
They shared one last meal, exchanged contact information, and discussed their respective networks. It was mostly Tetsumaru introducing his friends to Yukimura, ensuring the boy had people to turn to in a crisis. They talked until dusk before finally parting ways.
The next morning, Orochimaru personally came to see Tetsumaru off. Tetsumaru was genuinely flattered, offering a string of perfect, ninety-degree bows.
However, once they reached a secluded area, Orochimaru spoke up. "Ah, I still can't help myself. Curiosity is such a burden. I was hoping Tetsumaru-kun would be kind enough to answer one question."
Tetsumaru: o(一︿一＋)o
I knew it. No way he'd be this nice if there wasn't a catch.
"There's no need for that face," Orochimaru said coaxingly. "Look, I've kept your secret regarding the runes perfectly, haven't I? But I heard a rumor that someone is planning to hand over high-level ninjutsu to their clan... they just haven't settled on a price yet."
Tetsumaru: Σ(°△°|||)︴
Dammit! Is the clan full of holes? Who leaked that?
"Actually, I don't mind," Orochimaru said, his face shifting into something more reptilian and cold. "Really."
Tetsumaru: "..."
"I just want to know... what direction have your insects evolved in?"
"I won't ask for a demonstration. Just a general direction would satisfy me. You wouldn't want to leave me unsatisfied, would you?"
Hehehehe...
That low, raspy chuckle... Orochimaru, you're definitely threatening me, aren't you?
"Giant insects," Tetsumaru blurted out. "Body length: five meters. Weight: five hundred kilograms."
With that, a sullen Tetsumaru prepared to use a Body Flicker to escape, but he was intercepted by Orochimaru's right hand, which had transformed into a massive python.
"Hmm. An unexpected but logical path," Orochimaru mused, a look of fascination on his face. "Since Tetsumaru-kun has satisfied my curiosity, I shall give you a piece of advice as payment."
Tetsumaru hurriedly said his goodbyes and practically fled, clutching the "advice" as he vanished into the trees.
Three years. Finally, the map was changing. He was finally leaving the miserable Land of Rain.
The Second Shinobi World War was characterized by the widespread use of poisons, especially in the Rain theater.
The Sand's Puppet Brigade had made their debut, using poisoned weapons to compensate for their puppets' lack of raw power, making life miserable for the Stone, Leaf, and Rain.
This was followed by the rise of Hanzo of the Salamander, who ruled the battlefield with his legendary toxins, eventually culminating in the "Toxic Wasteland" incident.
But ninjas are adaptable. To survive, they pulled out every trick in the book.
The Rain ninjas used Salamander venom to create "poison-vs-poison" antidotes. The effect was mediocre, but as locals, they had excellent rain-gear production, leading to the mass distribution of high-grade gas masks.
The Stone ninjas had deep pockets. Carrying three vials of antidote was standard gear; for a major battle, they'd carry ten, and it was standard practice to down two of them before the first kunai was even thrown.
Chiyo of the Sand and Tsunade of the Leaf each displayed peerless medical expertise, and their antidotes improved by the day.
Eventually, ninjas on the Rain front could fight inside Hanzo's toxic clouds for minutes at a time. Even an Iwa-nin with basic medical skills could last five minutes.
For Tetsumaru, the effect was: When the number one and number two powers fight, the number three gets crushed. As general poison resistance skyrocketed, the first casualty was the effectiveness of Tetsumaru's insect venom.
Four years ago, a single dose of his neurotoxin could one-shot a Suna Chunin. Now, a Genin with seven or eight toxic wasps stinging him would just scream in pain; he wouldn't actually go down.
This led to a sharp decrease in the Swarm's lethality. Combined with the enemy's growing familiarity with his tactics, unburdened Jonin were becoming harder and harder to kill.
Since he was already "shelved," Tetsumaru had pivoted. He stopped focusing on lethal toxins and began researching disabling and crippling agents to give his swarm a tactical edge.
But it was a stopgap. In war, killing the enemy is the only true victory.
Thus, Tetsumaru returned to the Gigantism Project. A larger body naturally possessed more physical power and could store the chakra required for more complex rune arrays.
It took him two years, but he finally solved the two great hurdles: Nutrition and Respiration.
The digestive problem was solved first: high-density feed. By creating a specialized "slurry" of sugar and oil with thousands of times the caloric density of grass, a single two-kilogram injection into the insect's stomach could sustain it for nearly a week.
Respiration was trickier. Initially, every giant insect had to carry oxygen tanks, but you can't go to war like that. A single tank only lasted a few hours, and under the metabolic stress of combat, that time dropped to less than fifteen minutes.
Worse, oxygen produced via electrolysis wasn't cheap. A swarm relies on being cost-effective; the cost per unit cannot increase indefinitely.
The breakthrough came last year. Tetsumaru's Insight ability had progressed to a resolution of 5 nanometers. He could now vaguely distinguish DNA macromolecules. With a tool comparable to an electron microscope, he was finally able to replicate the genetic technologies of his previous life.
His biological research leaped past "Hybridization" and straight into Gene Splicing. Using chemical tools to break and recombine genetic sequences, his mutation and selection efficiency increased by hundreds of thousands of times. He could now modify an insect's parts as if he were playing with Lego bricks.
Body too small? Clip the gigantism genes from a larger specimen and stack them. The optimal combination was easy to find.
Mandibles getting in the way of liquid feeding? Clip the tubular mouth-parts of a butterfly.
Not fast enough? Clip the genes from a bombardier beetle and create chemical propulsion.
Propulsion means you don't need legs? Deleted.
Don't need wings either? Deleted.
Antennae useless at high speeds? Deleted.
Eyes on the side make targeting hard? Relocated to the front.
Keep the wing covers? Yes, they act as flight control surfaces.
Respiration still weak? Hmm... no natural template for that size.
Wait, I have an idea. Modify a symbiotic parasite to act as a biological lung for the host. If one isn't enough, I'll stack thirty-six of them.
Wait, symbiotic organisms are a great idea. Let's stuff the giant locust's head and thorax with Landmine Insects. Set the detonation to "impact." As long as I pack enough of them in there, the blast yield will be legendary.
Finally, two weapons beyond the imagination of the shinobi world were born:
1. Giant Locust Missiles: 5 meters long, weighing 35kg. Range: 4 kilometers. Massive destructive power.
2. Scythe-Mantis: 6.4 meters long, standing 3.5 meters tall, weighing 125kg. The first true giant combat insect.
Everything was perfect. But he had no chance to test them.
Without real combat, there was no data—especially regarding controllability. Tetsumaru was particularly worried about the Locust Missiles; he was terrified they might pull a U-turn and hit his own people.
It wasn't a joke. The missiles were, at their core, biological organisms. And life is a miracle. To survive and propagate, life always finds a way to create the unexpected.
And "unexpected" miracles were usually bad news for Tetsumaru.
Thus, he desperately wanted to be "unshelved." He had proactively applied for the Land of Rivers front because a decisive battle was brewing there, and Orochimaru was destined to lead it. Only then could he finally let the Swarm off the leash and see what his giant children were truly capable of.