Aburame Tetsumaru once watched a short film that left a profound impression on him. The plot followed a man and his family struggling to survive after Earth was invaded by alien insects during a super-fog event.
The ending was a soul-crushing tragedy. The protagonist, having escaped his town with his wife, child, and father, ran out of gas in the middle of the mist. From the white void came the sound of massive footsteps and the terrifying roars of colossal insects.
Lost in despair, the man's father produced a revolver—a weapon useless against the insects' armor—and handed it to his son. To spare his family the agony of being devoured alive, the man shot them all. But when he turned the gun on himself, it clicked; he was out of bullets. He stepped out of the car, broken and alone, to face his fate.
But then!
As the mist began to thin, it wasn't a nightmare that emerged. It was the US military.
Through the dissipating fog, the man saw insects as tall as skyscrapers being toppled by missiles from F-22 jets. Their thunderous collapse and agonized shrieks were the exact sounds he had heard just moments before. Humanity had already wiped out the infestation; his town was the very last pocket being cleared.
The man let out a scream of pure, unadulterated anguish.
It was a tragedy of epic proportions.
Tetsumaru felt he understood that man perfectly today, for he was currently re-excavating the Broodmother he had personally poisoned.
Before leaving the Land of Rain months ago, he had made the painful decision to kill his first Broodmother to prevent an out-of-control infestation. Yet, within days of reaching the Land of Vegetables, he'd run into the Raikage and realized a Kage-level war was brewing. Terrified, he'd bolted back to the Land of Rain, only to find himself stuck with no way to leave.
Orochimaru had assigned him to lead the new graduates, which suited his desire to stay off the front lines. But that month of peace had just been shattered.
As the fires of war intensified, Shimura Danzo had stepped in and overturned the Third Hokage's policy of protecting the "fresh seedlings." Now, every squad—including those with new graduates—was being ordered into the offensive.
The Hokage, far away in the village, had made no comment on this change. Perhaps he didn't even know?
Regardless, it meant Tetsumaru was heading back into the heart of the Land of Rain. He was self-aware enough to know that after the way he'd tormented the Ame-nin, they would likely go into a homicidal frenzy the moment they caught wind of him.
Thinking about a mob of Ame-nin descending on him in a "righteous ganging-up," Tetsumaru wasn't nervous—as long as he had enough bugs, he could give them a "ganging-up" they'd never forget. But that required a steady, massive supply of insects from a Broodmother.
A Broodmother he had killed himself.
Truly tragic.
Having built one before, the reconstruction went much faster, even at half the original scale. Within nine days, the new Broodmother began churning out a steady stream of insects.
Stupid Ame-nin. It's time you remembered why you fear the swarm.
But what do I do with these three anchors?
Tetsumaru had a concern. His three Genin subordinates had improved, but they were still lightyears away from keeping up with his pace. More importantly, they lacked the ability to hide within the swarm. On a real battlefield, they would be glowing beacons for the enemy. Taking them to the front was essentially a death sentence.
Tetsumaru wasn't that cruel, nor did he want a reputation for getting his subordinates killed.
The problem was solved by Orochimaru.
While he couldn't openly defy Danzo's orders—since Danzo was the official High Commander—Orochimaru was a master of bureaucratic loopholes. He gathered his inner circle of smart ninjas and reworked the mission assignments and squad designations. They divided the Konoha forces into "Main Units" and "Support Units," funneling all the new graduates into the support roles.
Main units handled the fighting and the pushes; support units handled logistics, transport, and defense. Aside from Danzo, everyone was satisfied. And since everyone else was happy, they collectively ignored Danzo's grumbling.
Tetsumaru was pleased; his squad remained a Support Unit.
But this created a new problem: Support Units didn't see much combat. If they didn't fight, how was he supposed to use up his insects? The food required to sustain such a massive swarm was exorbitantly expensive. He couldn't afford to keep them idle.
Should I let them eat each other?
Tetsumaru had tried that before. It was a disaster. Prions in the shinobi world were far more virulent than on Earth. After insects engaged in cannibalism, the probability of contracting a prion-based disease was roughly 0.3%—an absurdly high rate. And once one bug was infected, it spread through the swarm like wildfire, jumping across species and wiping out his entire army in days.
So, the bugs had to be fed grain. They couldn't be allowed to hunt freely.
He eventually sought out Orochimaru for a solution. Orochimaru, buried in work, snapped at him: "Where is your brain? Get out and wait for your solo mission assignment!"
As Tetsumaru scurried out of the tent, Orochimaru's lips quirked into a smirk, and his eyes narrowed with a faint chuckle.
Jiraiya, sitting nearby, slapped his thigh and laughed. "You're getting meaner by the day, Orochimaru. You're taking a difficult mission that needs a specialist and framing it as if you're doing him a favor."
Tsunade smiled as well. "That's probably why you're the best fit for the Fourth Hokage. You certainly have the 'talent' for it."
Orochimaru rolled his eyes. He reached into the air and snatched a tiny flying insect. "Couldn't you two have waited five seconds? That Aburame brat heard everything."
"Huh?" Jiraiya's grin froze. "Hahaha! Well, how does that affect me? You're the one looking like a jerk, not me!"
Tsunade reached out, curious, and took the bug from Orochimaru. She held it in her palm. It was a dark grey flying insect with two pairs of transparent wings. When she held it up to the light, she realized the wings and carapace didn't reflect any light at all—they had been given a matte, non-reflective finish. It was a masterpiece of scout breeding.
"Don't bother," Orochimaru said, watching her examine it. "Tetsumaru is the type to always keep an ace up his sleeve. The bugs he lets loose in the camp are already obsolete models."
Jiraiya looked intrigued. "Oh? Has the Aburame clan developed a new secret art system?"
Orochimaru shook his head. "No. Tetsumaru's bugs are all over the place. He's experimenting with a dozen different paths at once with no focus. It's a mess."
"Anyway, I've had enough rest. I'm heading to the hospital." Tsunade stood up and stretched, her movement drawing a sudden, intense focus from the white-haired pervert across from her.
Wham!
Seconds later, Tsunade exited the tent with an air of lethal irritation.
Inside, Orochimaru straightened the documents scattered across the floor, righted his desk, and calmly returned to work. After a long silence, he spoke to the now-conscious Jiraiya. "You know, this isn't going to work. Tsunade will never accept a man as lecherous as you."
Jiraiya rubbed the bruise on his face, hissing in pain. "Nonsense! I am the Great Sage Jiraiya! I am peerless! One day, I will break through her defenses!"
Orochimaru shook his head. Poor, oblivious fool. He already knew a man named Dan Kato had made his move. But feelings were complicated—he barely understood them himself, so he wasn't about to lecture Jiraiya.
Tetsumaru walked back to his tent with a long face. A difficult combat mission was actually exactly what he wanted. His encounter with the Raikage had provided a surge of inspiration, and he had a mountain of theories he needed to test in the field.
Even though he'd gotten exactly what he came for, being "played" by Orochimaru still stung. Of course, it was just a mood; Orochimaru wouldn't skip out on the rewards just because he'd had a bit of fun at Tetsumaru's expense. That was part of his leadership charm.
Furthermore, a "sneaky" Orochimaru who made jokes was far more personable than Jiraiya's boisterousness. It showed he viewed Tetsumaru as one of his own.
To vent his frustration, Tetsumaru found his subordinates. He grabbed Yukimura and assigned him a "special custom" physical training regimen. As for the other two, they were still questioning his training methods, so he didn't even bother talking to them.
Two days later, the order arrived. Tetsumaru gave his three subordinates their instructions—ordering them to continue camp patrols—and set off alone.
As he left the camp and entered the forest, insects began to converge on him from all directions. The further he went, the larger the swarm grew. Eventually, Tetsumaru himself vanished within the living cloud.
By the time he crossed the border into the Land of Rain, the swarm was immeasurable. A grey-green tide flowed across the landscape like a flood. Wherever it passed, the world was drowned in grey-green. Aside from the thousands of skittering, flying insects, nothing else could be seen.
This was what the Zerg looked like in the games—a surging, unstoppable tsunami of chitin and wings that brought despair at a single glance. This, Tetsumaru thought, is what a Swarm should look like. This is my true combat mode.
Or so he hoped. Practice, after all, was the only way to test the truth. He wanted to see if he could make the shinobi world feel that same despair.
As the swarm neared the objective, Tetsumaru suddenly sensed a massive, terrifying array of chakra runes ahead. The intensity of the fluctuations was staggering. He immediately identified it as an S-rank Fire Style jutsu, coupled with a high-density Water Style.
Tetsumaru panicked, projecting a Konoha signature and frantically releasing his unique scent while ordering the swarm to retreat.
"Hmm? Is that... Tetsumaru?" Orochimaru saw the Konoha marker, but it wasn't until his snakes caught the familiar scent that he signaled Jiraiya to stand down. "That brat changed his style again. If we'd been a second slower, he would have taken a direct hit."
On the other side, Tetsumaru was covered in a cold sweat. He had recognized the jutsu: Fire Style: Toad Flame Bomb, the combination jutsu of Jiraiya and Gamabunta. Its kill radius was massive, functioning like napalm that stuck to everything it touched. It was one of the few large-scale techniques that perfectly countered a swarm. One hit would have cost him a fortune in insects.
"Lord Orochimaru, what are my orders?"
Orochimaru looked out over the endless tide of insects and smiled. "Hehehe. I originally thought I'd need more men. Now, it seems you can handle this better on your own."
The larger insects would heave their bodies up and down to assist their respiration. A single bug doing so was unnoticeable, but hundreds of thousands doing it in unison created a rhythmic, oceanic surge. The sound of their movements combined into a low, thrumming roar.
The Konoha ninjas present felt as if they were standing on the shore of a vast, grey-green sea—an endless horizon of white-capped waves and the deep, booming song of the tide.
Orochimaru looked away and gave Tetsumaru his instructions. "Your mission is to strike the Ame-nin's outer outposts. Clear them out. Be loud about it. Hehehe... though I suppose 'quiet' isn't an option for you anymore."
"The goal is to draw Hanzo out. Once he arrives, you withdraw."
"Understood. I'm moving out."
Tetsumaru dissolved into a cloud of Kikaichu, and the swarm began to move. In an instant, the calm sea turned into a tempest. The insects rose in waves several meters high, sweeping north toward the Ame fortifications.
"Can you see him?" one of the ninjas behind Orochimaru asked a Byakugan user.
The veins around the Hyuga's eyes were bulging. He squinted, scanning the horizon, but eventually deactivated the jutsu with a frustrated sigh. "No. There are too many insects, and they all have chakra signatures. The interference is incredible. Plus, there are several Shadow Clones moving through the swarm. I can't tell which one is the original."
"The ones you can see aren't him," Orochimaru said, walking over. "Look again. Try to find a 'blurry' sphere of chakra."
"A chakra sphere?"
"Yes. It's very large. Massive, even. But the edges will be incredibly indistinct."
The Hyuga reactivated his Byakugan and looked toward the swarm. "Indistinct? Massive?"
He saw the chakra of the insects, bubbling like boiling water. He shifted his gaze upward, searching... nothing.
Wait.
His eyes widened. There was a spherical chakra structure, but it was so vast it practically enveloped the entire swarm.
"You see it?"
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru. But it's... it's too big. What's the point?"
"It is massive, isn't it? Now think. If you were inside that sphere, what would you see?"
The Hyuga shivered as the realization hit him. "I wouldn't be able to see anything."
"Exactly. That is its purpose." Orochimaru licked his cheek, a look of fascination on his face. "The Great Image has no shape. My theory was right; he just needed a bigger scale."
"How does that boy come up with these things? Truly fascinating. I'm starting to want to crack his head open again just to see how it works. Hehehe..."