Aburame Tetsumaru dressed in full gear, prepared to say goodbye to his father before heading to the Mission Center to officially end his leave and pick up some requests. However, when he knocked on the door, there was no response.
He knew Aburame Wafu wasn't actually asleep; the old man was clearly "playing possum" after last night's drinks, unable to face the emotional weight of another departure.
Tetsumaru chuckled softly. He gave the door three final, rhythmic knocks and turned to leave.
The Mission Center was located right next to the Hokage Building, and the area was bustling with constant foot traffic. Tetsumaru squeezed through the crowd, found the desk for leave registration, and successfully changed his status back to "Active Duty."
He then combed through the request boards, picking out four missions. All of them required traveling northwest and allowed for the completion report to be filed either at the Rain Country front-line camp or on-site.
While pulling the mission scrolls, he noticed one he had his eye on had already been claimed by someone else. He didn't bother arguing; in a manual operation system like this, wasting time to find the "perfect" replacement wasn't worth the delay.
By the time he finished his preparations, it was ten in the morning. Tetsumaru set off in a hurry.
As he reached the main gates of Konoha, a familiar figure appeared within the radius of his Secret Technique: Domain Field Barrier. It was his father, Wafu, who supposedly hated "sappy goodbyes."
The veteran Chunin was hiding atop a massive tree near the gate, carefully scrutinizing every ninja passing through. When he spotted Tetsumaru, he reflexively stood up from his branch, his hands nervously wiping against his vest.
Tetsumaru, seeing everything clearly through his barrier, felt a surge of warmth. After clearing the gate guards, he suddenly turned back toward the tree, flashed a sharp thumbs-up, and ran off laughing.
Up in the branches, Wafu exploded in a fit of mock rage. "That brat! Is he showing off? He's definitely showing off, isn't he?!"
The anger lasted less than twenty seconds before Wafu's expression shifted to one of smug pride. "The kid's already stronger than his old man. Guess I don't have to worry as much anymore. Hahaha!"
Several other older ninjas hidden in the same tree huffed in annoyance.
"Keep it down, keep it down! Don't blow our cover!"
"We get it, you're a proud papa. Now shut up."
"Shh! Quiet! My daughter's coming. Everyone zip it!"
Tetsumaru, who hadn't run very far yet, heard the entire exchange clearly. He was momentarily speechless. It turned out that specific tree was essentially a "Watching Tree" for fathers who wanted to see their children off without being seen.
Shinobi, he thought, are humans first and tools second.
The first mission was a bandit suppression—a simple task funded by a village near the main trade route. Frankly, these bandits had to be delusional. Did they really think they could rob a wealthy village located right on a major transit artery?
In the shinobi world, money buys ninjas. No group of bandits could survive a run-in with even a Genin squad. Attacking a village on a major road was a death sentence; the Daimyo's office would eventually fund a suppression force to keep the trade routes safe. It was pure suicide.
Tetsumaru met with the village head to gather intel. His height and sturdy build immediately gave the old man confidence; the village head spilled everything he knew while bowing repeatedly in gratitude.
It turned out the bandits had kidnapped the village's women and children, using them as "meat shields" to extort money and grain.
Hearing this, Tetsumaru's killing intent flared. Scum like this needed to be eradicated. He reassured the village head with a few brief words: "Don't worry. I'll bring them back."
Once outside the village, he tracked the bandits' trail. He released a group of Dragonflies to observe from an altitude of 1,300 meters, and within minutes, he had mapped out the bandits' movements.
The hardest part of the mission was the tracking, which was now trivial. Ten minutes later, Tetsumaru found the hideout—a crude camp with no walls and no sentries. Fifty or sixty ragged men were lounging around a cave entrance. A few of the sturdier ones held katanas or standard spears, while the rest carried farm tools.
Under the cover of Camouflage Butterflies, a tide of insects flowed silently toward the camp. The bandits didn't notice a thing; against a ninja, these men were utterly defenseless.
However, as the swarm reached the cave, Tetsumaru discovered a complication. Inside, alongside the hostages, were five guards whose gear was vastly different. Two of them were dressed in full shinobi attire.
A ninja presence meant this was no longer a C-rank mission.
The light inside the cave was poor, and even with the campfire, the shadows were deep. Furthermore, the bugs crawling on the ground had limited vision. Tetsumaru couldn't make out the design on the two ninjas' headbands.
He considered releasing a Ghost-faced Moth for better clarity, but the moth was too large; it was better suited for pitch-black environments where its size wouldn't be as obvious.
While he weighed his options, he overheard the leaders discussing their plans.
A man dressed as a ronin asked, "What do we do once we get the food and money? Do we build a permanent fortress here?"
He was immediately shut down by the ninja leader. "Idiot! How could we stay here? A Konoha ninja will be here within three days at most. We take the money and run to a remote region."
"But aren't you guys ninjas too?"
"Moron. We're small-country ninjas. How are we supposed to fight Konoha? They'll send a Chunin at the very least."
"What if it's just a Genin?"
"A Genin is even scarier. In the Land of Fire, if they send Genin on a mission like this, it means they're being led by a Jonin. We wouldn't even have a chance to run."
"If we weren't desperate, we'd never have come to the Land of Fire. This is the only place left with enough food and money to steal."
As the five men continued to bicker, Tetsumaru stopped listening. He had enough intel. His decision was made.
With a single thought, the earth outside the cave peeled back. Hidden Flight-Locusts launched themselves into the air, instantly piercing the throats of every bandit in the camp.
Simultaneously, eleven Combination Bugs took flight. After a two-second acceleration phase, they streaked into the cave. Executing a final mid-air adjustment, they detonated their propulsion sections, launching their "warhead" components—essentially kinetic slugs—at Mach 4 toward their targets.
The whistling sonic boom of the insects acted as the signal. On the ground, hundreds of Camouflage Butterflies flipped over to reveal Poison-Needle Beetles, though the backup was unnecessary.
The three ronin were killed instantly, unable to react. The two ninjas managed to parry one or two slugs, but Tetsumaru had assigned four bugs to each of them. The follow-up hits slammed into them, leaving them crumpled on the ground in a state of near-death.
Tetsumaru waited ten seconds. One ninja's vitals flatlined. The other stopped breathing, but his heart continued to beat with stubborn strength.
Tetsumaru didn't take any risks. A large scorpion crawled silently across the floor and delivered a brutal sting to the ninja's toe.
The ninja didn't feel the pain, but his instincts screamed danger. He rolled to his feet, only to be met by a waiting squad of Poison-Needle Beetles. A volley of needles riddled his body; seconds later, his heart was paralyzed, and he slumped back to the ground.
Tetsumaru patiently waited another thirty minutes. Once he was certain every target was dead, he commanded the swarm to clean up the battlefield.
Since these bandits were desperate enough to rob a roadside village, he hadn't expected much loot. He salvaged two decent katanas, four kunai, and about eight shuriken. The rest of the junk—broken swords, spears, and farm tools—along with a handful of copper coins, he handed over to the village head.
After completing the task, he instructed the village head to handle the paperwork to upgrade the mission rank. He emphasized that if he found out the mission was still listed as C-rank when he returned, he would come back to "discuss" the compensation in person.
By the time the hostages were returned, it was dark. Tetsumaru didn't linger; he ate a quick bowl of rice and hit the road.
He ran through the night, covering nearly eighty kilometers by midnight. Finally, he stopped, lit a campfire to boil water, and laid out a blanket to rest.
As the water reached a boil, the bubbling sound suddenly dipped—a telltale sign of a disturbance. At that exact moment, a shadow lunged out of the darkness, connecting with Tetsumaru's own shadow. Two ninjas leaped out, thrusting jitte into Tetsumaru's chest and back.
"What?"
"No!"
The "Tetsumaru" they had stabbed dissolved into a swarm of Kikaichu that scattered into the night.
"An Insect Clone! Since when—?"
Tetsumaru's tall silhouette suddenly appeared in the clearing illuminated by the fire. He lashed out with a vicious whip-kick toward the seemingly empty air. There was a thunderous crack, and a human figure was kicked out of the void.
The figure tumbled through the air and was caught by a fourth ninja emerging from the trees.
Tetsumaru stood his ground, facing the four newcomers.
The ninja who had caught the invisible attacker stepped forward and spoke in a low, cold voice. "Aburame Tetsumaru. You are suspected of spying on a secret Konoha facility. Surrender peacefully."
Tetsumaru looked at the four masked ninjas. Their masks featured intricate, swirling patterns—a deliberate departure from the standard animal masks of the ANBU. Tetsumaru knew exactly who they were.
"Shadow Imitation... and Transparent Release. You aren't ANBU. Who are you really? Where is your arrest warrant?"
"We belong to a classified agency," one of the ninjas with a jitte snapped. "Our authority supersedes the ANBU. We don't owe you an explanation."
He glared through his mask. "If you dare resist, you will be branded a rogue ninja. Every leaf ninja will be ordered to kill you on sight."
The leader's mask shifted slightly as he noticed the corners of Tetsumaru's mouth curling upward.
"Loose lips sink ships," Tetsumaru whispered. "The ancients were right."
Since they were playing for keeps, it was time for the swarm to feed.
Tetsumaru had stayed in this clearing for fifteen minutes. This environment was now undeniably his domain.
Within a thirty-meter radius, every blade of grass suddenly flattened. Hundreds of Flight-Locusts erupted from the soil. On the surrounding trees, the bark itself seemed to fly off; beneath the "bark"—which was actually Camouflage Butterflies—were thousands of Poison-Needle Beetles that unleashed a literal rain of toxic needles.
The four Root ninjas used Body Replacement in unison. The wooden logs they left behind were instantly shredded into toothpicks by the locusts and needles.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Three explosions rocked the forest. The thirty-meter radius was the exact distance Tetsumaru had calculated for a standard Body Replacement jump. In the un-flattened grass beyond that radius, he had pre-planted a field of Landmine Insects.
"One left. The Nara with the shadow secret art. A smart one, as expected."
Tetsumaru's hands blurred through seals as he aimed at a silhouette performing an aerial flip to clear the minefield.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!
A blast of compressed air slammed into the shadow, throwing the ninja off balance. He tumbled through the air, barely managing to catch a tree trunk. Before he could recover, the Nara ninja realized with horror that a swarm of Flight-Locusts was riding the wind toward him. He had nowhere left to dodge.
Minutes later, the four captives were injected with heavy doses of anesthesia and dragged back to the campfire. Their masks were stripped away. Tetsumaru no longer had any reason to play nice.
He hadn't killed them primarily because he had upgraded his Landmine Insects. He'd shrunk their size and increased their detonation speed tenfold.
While the blast yield hadn't decreased, Tetsumaru had packed them with more shrapnel while reducing the effective kill radius. He was no longer trying to one-shot a Jonin; he was looking for maximum incapacitation within a controlled area.
The three Root ninjas hit by the mines had lost their legs, but they were alive and stable.
"Want to tell me why you're hunting me?"
All four remained silent, eyes closed.
"I figured. Such a pain."
Tetsumaru forced their jaws open and pulled out their tongues. Sure enough, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal was there. Confirmed: Root ninjas.
He promptly severed their tendons and bound them tightly.
Well, they can't die here. Not on my travel route.
Tetsumaru had realized these four were following him while he was still in the village. He had intentionally traveled at night to see if he could bait out some intel.
To his surprise, they hadn't said a word until they stopped to rest, when they had whispered about their mission.
These four Root ninjas were on a "graduation exam." Their task: capture or assassinate a Konoha Chunin. Any random Chunin would do. By completing this task, they proved they were loyal only to Shimura Danzo—not to Konoha.
The Nara ninja leading them had suggested a sneak attack first. If that failed, they would arrest him in the name of Root. If that failed, they would retreat and file a report with fabricated evidence to brand the Aburame a rogue ninja.
It was pure malice. To be killed for no reason, or to be branded a criminal for defending yourself—a dead end either way.
It was more sickening than the "Bloody Mist" policy of Kirigakure.
A cold thought solidified in Tetsumaru's mind:
Shimura Danzo's Root is a ticking time bomb. It's a constant, random threat to my life. As soon as I'm strong enough, I need to put that man in the ground for my own peace of mind.
Since these Root ninjas were just looking for a random target, Tetsumaru had a plan. He would capture them, keep them alive, and move them far away from his intended path before finishing them off and destroying the evidence. If there were no bodies and no connection to his route, it couldn't be traced back to him.
If he hadn't overheard their plan, he probably would have been forced to run all the way to the Rain Country to seek Orochimaru's protection. His fate would have been at the mercy of the political maneuvering between the Third Hokage and Danzo. He might have been pushed into defection just to survive.
Regardless, these four were never going back to Konoha.
It just goes to show: silence is golden. Talking too much really does lead to trouble.
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