A stampede of ten thousand mythical beasts thundered through Tetsumaru's heart.
He really hadn't expected that his "Mining Zerg," left unattended in the village for five months, would have developed to such an absurd degree.
The Burrowing Worms had grown significantly; the largest batch now reached a diameter of 40 centimeters—wide enough for an adult to crawl through. These worms had excavated a dense, crisscrossing network of countless tunnels about ten meters beneath Konoha, with the Mole Crickets adding a staggering number of intersecting branch lines.
Before leaving the village, Tetsumaru had considered that ninjas were a race naturally gifted at—and fond of—digging holes. Therefore, he had placed several "restraining orders" on the insects: no horizontal digging within ten meters of the surface, and no excavating hollow spaces larger than one cubic meter.
The problem was the sheer volume of tunnels. Through the Domain Field Barrier, which gave him a holistic view of the hive network, the areas the insects hadn't touched appeared as distinct cubes or cylinders of solid earth amidst the maze.
It was blindingly obvious what those were. He had inadvertently mapped out everyone's secret basements.
"You guys were a little too industrious," Tetsumaru muttered, covering his face with his hands. He realized his "restraining orders" hadn't been specific enough.
A secret chamber ten meters underground certainly wasn't an ordinary civilian cellar. They were, without a doubt, rooms housing significant secrets. If any clan decided to quietly expand their basement and stumbled into one of his 40-centimeter-wide tunnels, there would be no explaining it away.
His five-day "vacation" was officially ruined. He'd have to spend it all backfilling tunnels—at the very least, he needed a thirty-meter buffer from any sensitive zones.
But before he started the backfill, there was one thing to do. Since the holes were already there, it would be a waste not to use them.
Tetsumaru commanded the Mole Crickets to dig tiny, three-finger-wide holes into the restricted "cubes" to scout them out.
Voyeurism is a difficult vice to suppress. As he tunneled, Tetsumaru made a silent vow: Just this once. Only once.
Hmm, whose treasury is this? All gold. Can't touch that. Too risky.
This room is wrapped tight. It took forever to break in... and it's just high-quality ninja tools? Lame. No value at all.
Whoa, this one's great! It's full of scrolls and biographical records. Transcribing them isn't stealing; it's not like they're losing the original, right?
Empty.
Another empty one. Even the passage to the surface is clogged. Looks like a decommissioned bunker.
Holy... what the hell is this?
In a newly breached chamber, coffins were stacked row upon row. Each held a corpse. Crucially, these weren't simple wooden boxes; they were specialized containers reinforced with sealing and cryo-ninjutsu—high-grade ninja equipment. This wasn't something a normal citizen would possess.
He couldn't use the Mole Crickets anymore; they were too large. Tetsumaru mobilized thousands of cockroaches to swarm the room, spreading through every crack and corner. They soon found ventilation shafts and fanned out into adjacent rooms.
The Domain Field Barrier proved its worth. Through his "roach-eye view," Tetsumaru perceived every detail: data rooms, laboratories, training halls, a cafeteria, dormitories, a prison, and storage units.
It was a fully functional, self-contained base. He counted at least 120 adults moving about, and even thirty children under the age of ten.
A facility this comprehensive had to belong to an official Konoha institution. The Torture and Interrogation Force and the Intelligence Division didn't need this level of secrecy. The Sealing and Barrier Corps were too small—fewer than a hundred people—and were too understaffed to have such a massive concentration in one spot.
It couldn't be the ANBU, either. Officially, the ANBU had a roster of seventy, though everyone knew the real number was much higher. However, the ANBU only recruited experienced Chunin and above; they didn't take children who weren't even ninjas yet.
Therefore, this facility could only belong to one organization: Root.
Confirmation came quickly. The cockroaches encountered Kikaichu, and a large number of them were instantly slaughtered. Root had recruited Aburame ninjas.
Tetsumaru didn't dare linger. He immediately ordered the Mole Crickets to seal the holes and commanded the Burrowing Worms to block the larger tunnels. Now that he knew this was Root, he decided a fifty-meter buffer was the only way to sleep soundly.
Actually, make it a hundred meters, he thought. Root is still in its growth phase. Who knows where they'll decide to dig next.
Even after the tunnels were sealed, he couldn't relax. He set up "larva feeding stations" as early-warning outposts. The Mole Crickets would visit these spots periodically to replenish protein, which they would then use to feed the Gold-Eating Beetles and the worms.
If a ninja found a nest of plump, white larvae while digging a basement, they'd find it disgusting, but they wouldn't suspect foul play. Those types of grubs were a natural part of Konoha's ecosystem and were frequently unearthed.
If a feeding station was destroyed, the Mole Crickets would trigger an alarm. These alerts were recorded, allowing Tetsumaru to review them later and adjust his plans. In short, now that he knew where Root was, he would give them a very wide berth.
Reflecting on the data rooms and storage areas he'd peeked into, he hadn't seen anything truly damning—no jars of glowing red Sharingan, at least. It seemed "The Man with Many Eyes" hadn't started his purge of the Uchiha yet.
However, those first coffins had contained several "woodified" corpses. This was proof that the Hashirama Cell experiments had already begun. Thinking about it, it wasn't that surprising; the research might have been initiated by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, himself.
Note to self: Get cremated when I die, Tetsumaru thought. Being used for experiments is too gross. And if I get Reanimated... that's a fate worse than death.
After hours of laboriously filling the tunnels near Root, Tetsumaru spent the next day exploring other secret chambers.
He mapped out the Barrier Corps' hub, the Hyuga Clan's archives, the Uchiha's secret rooms, and countless other basements of unknown origin.
He marked the Barrier Corps' hub with extreme precision. Once he mastered Sealing Jutsu, he'd come back and install a "backdoor." It would make sneaking in and out of Konoha much easier.
The Hyuga archives were located dead center beneath the Hyuga estate. For safety's sake, Tetsumaru didn't dare linger. He sealed those tunnels immediately. The Hyuga had X-ray vision; many of his insects now had runes engraved on them, meaning they were no longer "transparent" to the Byakugan. He'd have to avoid their neighborhood entirely.
The Uchiha's secret room was beneath the remote Naka River Shrine. The stone tablet there was a famous "tourist landmark" in the shinobi world. Tetsumaru actually crawled in to take a look at the legendary artifact. Lacking a camera to commemorate the visit, his mischievous side took over, and he carved: "xxx was here."
Yes, exactly three "x"s.
He didn't dare sign his name, and the "xxx" was a deliberate attempt to mislead anyone who found it.
There were also a large number of smaller, unidentified chambers with no obvious landmarks above them. Some were well-maintained and clearly in use, so Tetsumaru left a few dormant insects behind to eventually identify the owners. He sealed the tunnels to those rooms; if he never found out who they belonged to, it wasn't a big deal. It was just a side project.
Other chambers were in total disrepair, likely forgotten by time. Tetsumaru simply tunneled in, cleaned out anything of value, and then backfilled the rooms along with his tunnels.
By the end of his five-day spree, Tetsumaru had gathered a significant haul: copies of over two thousand scrolls, four hundred rusted kunai, five thousand shuriken, and three high-grade tantōs. He also found a jar of ancient gold coins and several small crates of silver coins, with a total estimated value of three million Ryo. However, he had no way to sell them yet; if he melted them down, the value would probably drop to less than a million.
Still, it was a tidy little profit.
Soon, rumors began to circulate through the village. It was said that the Uchiha's restricted grounds had been breached. The Uchiha Clan Head, Uchiha Setsuna, was reportedly furious, though even after "turning the earth three feet deep," no trace of the intruder could be found.
When Tetsumaru heard the news, he just played along with the general consensus: It must be a rumor. The Sharingan is peerless at finding clues; if someone really broke in, they wouldn't have found nothing.
Internally, he thought: You'd need to dig a lot deeper than three feet, buddy. I backfilled fifty meters of solid earth.
He sighed. He hoped his little "graffiti" would serve as a wake-up call to the Uchiha—their "restricted grounds" weren't as secure as they thought.
To be fair, the Uchiha Stone Tablet lived up to its reputation; it was incredibly durable. To carve those few characters, Tetsumaru had to use acid, diamond dust, and corundum whetstones. It was a hell of an effort just to leave a warning: Don't believe everything you read on a rock.
Tetsumaru felt he had done enough to honor his friendship with Akira and Fueka. Anything more would risk attracting the attention of a certain "Battlefield Rose." The "Mad Uchiha" were best avoided; the further away he was from those lunatics, the better.
As Tetsumaru was packing his gear to return to the front, his father, Aburame Wafu, finally returned.
The scruffy older man gave his son—who was now taller than him—a big hug and tried to rub his stubble against the boy's face, only to be flatly rejected.
That evening, father and son went to a Yakiniku restaurant to celebrate. In the middle of a war, any time the family could gather in peace was cause for a feast.
"Son, I made a killing on my last mission. Order whatever you want! It's on me!"
"Don't brag, Dad."
"Eat up! Eat as much as you can!"
"You're not just using this as an excuse to hide some of your 'private stash' from Mom, are you?"
"Nonsense! Your mother is best friends with the Akimichi clan; if I tried to fake the bill at a BBQ joint, she'd know in five minutes."
"Heh, fair point."
The meat sizzled on the grill. Tetsumaru picked up a perfectly seared slice, dipped it in sauce, sprinkled it with spices and chili, and wrapped it in a crisp lettuce leaf. He took a deep breath of the rich aroma before stuffing it into his mouth and chewing happily.
Wafu ate like a man possessed before finally slowing down. He picked up a condensation-covered mug of beer, drained it in one go, and let out a long, satisfied burp.
"Ah! That's the stuff!"
He slammed the mug onto the table and popped another piece of meat into his mouth. He poured himself another glass, the bursting bubbles releasing the scent of malt and hops—a smell that made Tetsumaru's mouth water.
Not old enough yet. This is torture.
After they'd had their fill, Wafu settled the bill. Back at the house, they set up lounge chairs in the courtyard, brewed a pot of tea, and laid out some dried fruit and jerky for a night of idle chat.
The Aburame courtyard had one major perk: absolutely no flies or mosquitoes. Anything that dared to buzz by was promptly turned into a snack for the resident insects.
By unspoken agreement, neither talked about their specific missions. Even though Tetsumaru could smell the thick scent of blood, disinfectant, and styptic powder on his father, he didn't ask what had happened or check the wounds.
No matter how dangerous it had been, it was in the past. Talking about it would only cause unnecessary worry. As long as they were alive and healthy, nothing else mattered.
As midnight approached and the tea ran dry, Wafu finally asked about Tetsumaru's schedule.
"When do you head out?"
"Tomorrow morning. I'll stop by the Mission Center to pick up a delivery request heading toward the Rain Country to officially end my leave. Then it's straight back to report to Lord Orochimaru."
"Orochimaru?" Wafu looked surprised. "Is he... reliable?"
"Yeah. I've been under him for nearly three months now. It's been good. I've learned a lot about ninjutsu theory and traded for quite a few jutsu. It's a shame the clan can't use them."
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Wafu said, sounding a bit hesitant. "Elder Shiki once mentioned that now that the clan has more resources, we should start collecting more ninjutsu. We need to broaden the path for our youth; we shouldn't be restricted solely to the Secret Art of Insect Manipulation."
"What?" Tetsumaru blinked. "Is the clan actually considering reform? Is it that easy?"
He scratched his head. "I bet there's a lot of pushback, right?"
"Yeah, there are plenty of objectors," Wafu admitted. "But their resolve isn't that strong. No family can guarantee that every one of their children will have the talent to succeed as a bug-user."
Wafu continued, "The main worry is that even if we spend the money, we won't be able to get truly top-tier ninjutsu. We were too poor for too long and never considered the idea; we missed our best chance back when the Second Hokage was in power."
The rest went unsaid.
The ninjutsu Tetsumaru had obtained from Orochimaru were top-quality—enough to become the foundation of a clan's legacy. But Tetsumaru would undoubtedly demand an equal exchange of knowledge. What could the clan offer him?
Simply demanding it from him was out of the question. Doing so would shatter the clan's cohesion. In the worst-case scenario, it could cause the clan to split into several smaller families and spiral into decline.
Furthermore, the clan owed Tetsumaru. The money from the Sugar Ants was one thing, but last year, when the clan had to deal with Root, the branch families like Tetsumaru's had been forced to take the brunt of the danger to protect the "Main" line members like Aburame Shibi.
The secret arts taught this year weren't enough to make up for that debt. Tetsumaru was doing alright, but several other Aburame ninjas had died on intentionally high-risk missions before they could be compensated. The branch families were still simmering with resentment.
If the "Main" line wanted Tetsumaru's ninjutsu, they would have to offer something of equal weight—perhaps even the three "Main" line inheritances: the Kidaichu, Kiakuchu, and Kimichu.
But the "Main" line was clearly reluctant. They wouldn't be the primary beneficiaries of the exchange, and making such a self-sacrificing decision was difficult. And so, the discussion had stalled.