Ninja Tool Throwing

After the First Shinobi World War ended, the village gained many orphans. It wasn't just civilian orphans; the ninja clans had plenty too.

Having an Insect Sister in the house didn't attract much attention.

It was enough to explain to the neighbors that she was a relative's child, and the clan would cover for them too.

Mimi found one of her usual robes and a new mask. Once she put them on Insect Sister, her identity as an insect couldn't be exposed.

Except if she happened to appear in front of a member of the Hyuga clan with the Byakugan activated.

That problem was easy enough to solve as long as she didn't run around.

The only trouble was that there was now another mouth to feed, and as expected, her appetite was enormous.

One person could eat as much as ten of Mimi.

Although her mother, Yumi, didn't say much, Mimi knew she was worrying about money.

The small inn they ran didn't earn much. In a ninja village like Konoha, the merchants who came and went were the ones hiring ninja to carry out missions.

Under the pressure of competition, they had to offer low prices and good quality.

As far as Mimi was concerned, it was only a matter of time before they went out of business.

They had nothing special about them, after all. They couldn't exactly put roasted insects made from the Aburame secret technique on the menu.

Their business would only become even worse.

Most of the traveling merchants chose the Hot Spring Inn. Not only did it have hot springs, but it also had cute girls.

Supporting Mimi wasn't a problem, but supporting a whole football team was another matter.

After Insect Sister emptied the household's food stores in a single night, Mimi decisively banned her from eating at home.

When she went to school, she sent Insect Sister to the Forbidden Forest to hunt for herself.

This wasn't a situation where she could afford to be softhearted.

During this process, Mimi discovered that Insect Sister especially liked licking honey.

Every beehive in the forest was fair game to her.

Her Exoskeleton was astonishingly hard, and the bees were completely helpless against her.

Mimi was forced to ban Insect Sister from raiding beehives.

At the rate she was ruining things, she would wipe out the bees sooner or later.

Who would pollinate the flowers then? How would the plants reproduce?

During class, Mimi could barely focus on the experiments. She kept watching Insect Sister's situation and worried herself sick.

Unexpectedly, Insect Sister basically didn't hunt living creatures in the wild. Instead, she stole prey that had already been killed.

From morning until afternoon, a group of unlucky dogs had already had their prey stolen by Insect Sister three times. After their first fight, they basically avoided her.

But Insect Sister still followed their scent and found them.

Then she knocked one dog out with each punch.

The dogs' bite force couldn't even scratch Insect Sister.

It was like playtime for her, and she easily drove the pack away.

If Mimi hadn't been unable to watch any longer, those dogs wouldn't have gotten a single hot bite to eat today.

So Mimi was still softhearted. She didn't confine Insect Sister to the house, merely issuing new bans whenever necessary based on her condition.

In Mimi's eyes, this child was quite Kawaii.

"Kawaii~" The little girl beside her looked at Mimi and asked, "What kind of insect is this?"

It was currently the kunai-throwing class at the Ninja Academy, and the one asking was Uchiha Osamu, who happened to be standing beside her.

"A moth," Mimi said calmly. "You have a good eye. As expected of an Uchiha."

Osamu brushed back her hair and spoke with a girlish air. "It's an insect I've never seen before. Surprisingly cute."

"Want to eat it?" Mimi said as the silkworm moth perched on her shoulder flapped its wings.

"No, thank you!" Osamu said with a dark expression.

"Don't mention it." Mimi responded politely.

"Are you deliberately trying to make me angry?" Osamu asked with a smile.

"Don't worry, I absolutely mean well." Mimi chuckled. "If you refuse to try something just because you're afraid, you'll never know how wonderful it is."

"Really?" Osamu asked.

"Want to eat it?" Mimi asked.

"It looks so cute. Eating it would be too cruel." Osamu said, "Still, you're much friendlier than I imagined. As expected, you won't know unless you try."

"People always judge by appearances." Mimi said. "What did you imagine I was like?"

Osamu thought for a moment, then turned and gave Mimi a sidelong glance before turning back and ignoring her.

Then she said, "Like this?"

"Do I need to imitate Tsunade?" Mimi snorted with a laugh and crossed her arms like Tsunade.

"Hee-hee." Osamu covered her mouth and giggled. "Tsunade is about to be driven crazy by you."

As deskmates, this was basically what her daily interactions with Tsunade were like.

"That's wonderful, then." Mimi said.

"Crunch!"

Not far away, Tsunade bit down hard on her teeth.

She glared at Osamu.

"Wow, how scary." Although Osamu said that, she didn't look scared at all. She grinned at Mimi and said, "Can you give me this kind of insect? I want to raise a puppy, but taking care of one is difficult. I'm afraid I won't do it well. An insect would be much easier, right?"

"Giving it to you isn't a problem, but you won't keep it alive." Mimi said.

"Why?" Osamu asked, puzzled.

"This kind of insect only lives for one day."

"Oh, I see." Osamu looked disappointed. "That's far too short."

"What is the point of living like this?" Osamu asked quietly, her face filled with sadness.

"To put it romantically, it came into this world to see this beautiful world once."

Osamu's eyes lit up at that.

"To put it cruelly, the moth itself is merely a tool. Its genes exist only to pass on its own genes."

"That really is..." Osamu said. "A novel way of putting it."

As a bloodline-limit ninja, she wasn't unfamiliar with the concept of genes.

But it was still the first time she had heard such a perspective.

"It gets complicated if I explain the details." Mimi said. "Want to hear them?"

Osamu decisively shook her head. "That's too boring. Don't you have any topics that are more like a normal girl?"

"Sorry." Mimi shook her head. "I'm not a normal girl, and I'm not interested in the things normal girls like."

"To be honest, neither am I." Osamu said. "They're always discussing which boys are handsome. I always feel like I have nothing to add."

"Who's the most handsome?" Mimi asked with some interest. None of the girls in class ever discussed such things with her. They could barely avoid her fast enough.

"Orochimaru-kun from the class next door." Osamu named someone who left Mimi surprised.

"Then who's the ugliest? Jiraiya?" Mimi asked.

"Of course you are." Osamu said. "Jiraiya-kun has a handsome side too."

"..." Just as expected.

Mimi laughed despite herself, though she was a little annoyed.

Forget it. She wouldn't stoop to arguing with a child.

If she wanted to refute her, she only needed to remove her mask. But she didn't want to. She would never remove it in this lifetime, lest boys come crawling over one after another and give her a headache.

"Are you angry?" Osamu asked.

"No." Mimi replied.

"You are." Osamu said. "You can't fool these eyes of mine."

"Shut up, idiot."

"Hee-hee-hee..." Osamu covered her mouth and laughed nonstop.

Mimi couldn't help laughing softly too.

"Mimi-kun, you're really gentle." Osamu said.

Mimi froze for a moment, not knowing how to respond.

"Aburame Mimi, you're up." At that moment, Ogawa-sensei's voice rang out.

Saved.

Mimi breathed a sigh of relief.

She stepped forward, took out a kunai, and tossed it with a flick of her hand.

Since it was her first time handling one, she missed the target without the slightest surprise.

She hadn't practiced, so this was normal.

"Zero points!"

In truth, Mimi had been serious. She hadn't been distracted at all.

This result...

Beneath her mask, Mimi raised an eyebrow.

It had only missed by a little, grazing past the target.

She found it somewhat unacceptable.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

In a situation where no one else in the class dared to laugh, Tsunade laughed without restraint.

Her laughter sounded like a gong.

"I'm dying!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

The main reason was those words, "I'm dying." Tsunade had always wanted to throw them back at Mimi.

Mimi silently walked back to the group.

Ogawa-sensei opened his mouth several times, wanting to speak but stopping himself. Then he called the next student.

"Don't worry. Shuriken Technique is very simple. I'll teach you." Osamu comforted Mimi.

"No need. I have absolutely no use for Shuriken Technique." Mimi gritted her teeth.

To be honest, Mimi really didn't need Shuriken Technique.

Even carrying shuriken felt like a waste of space.

If she merely wanted to force someone to reposition, a small swarm of insects was more useful than shuriken.

Osamu blinked at Mimi, then smiled. "Kawaii~"

Beneath her mask, Mimi curled her lip.

This child definitely had something wrong with her.