Unexpected Discovery

The practical combat class was a complete mess and couldn't continue, so school was let out early.

Led by Aburame Tetsumaru, the group of seven rented a training ground in the village for extra practice. It was nearly dark by the time they finally sat down to rest, drink water, and chat.

"I'm graduating early."

Uchiha Fūka had a blade of grass between his lips as he spoke casually.

"Why aren't any of you saying anything?" Fūka demanded irritably after his attempt to play it cool fell flat. The six friends lying beside him stayed silent.

Hyuga Tokuma rolled his eyes. Having already awakened his Byakugan, he said disdainfully, "I'm going with you."

"We'll go together next year," Dogboy and Ino-Shika-Cho answered together.

"..."

"I'm planning to stay another two years and graduate on schedule," Aburame Tetsumaru replied casually.

"Huh? If you, the top student, aren't applying, then Tokuma and I would be embarrassed to graduate early."

Uchiha Fūka made a huge fuss, drawing Hyuga Tokuma's displeasure. Still, he didn't snap back.

The others all found it strange that Tetsumaru didn't intend to graduate early. Traditionally, the ones who graduated early were always the undisputed top students of their class.

Since Tetsumaru, the unquestioned number one, refused to graduate, they truly would feel a little embarrassed doing so themselves.

Aburame Tetsumaru turned over and sat cross-legged, clasping his hands beneath his chin as he seriously explained things to his friends.

"Our family situation isn't the same as yours."

"Senju Nawaki graduates this year, and Lord Orochimaru has already accepted him as a disciple. As two of the three great clans, the Uchiha and Hyuga families have to make a show of strength to preserve their reputations.

"They can't compete in quality, so they'll flaunt quantity instead. That's why you two, Tokuma and Fūka, have to graduate two years early."

Uchiha Fūka and Hyuga Tokuma's eyes widened. The two little kids had never imagined that being required to graduate early would have anything to do with an upperclassman two years older than them.

Aburame Tetsumaru said to Inuzuka Tsuyoshi, Yamanaka Yu, Nara Kaya, and Akimichi Daito, "Your graduation next year is probably related to war."

"The war ended several years ago. Konoha already has more ninja than it did when the Nidaime was still alive, and the number is still rising rapidly. Once our class graduates, there'll be five hundred more Genin."

"I'm guessing the other four Great Ninja Villages are also seeing large numbers of Genin entering service at once."

"There are too many ninja. This isn't the number needed for missions. It can only be preparation for war."

"On top of that, prices have risen so much these past two years that it's irritating. Do you remember the insane price hikes before the last war? The rising prices should be because the ninja villages are stockpiling war supplies and daily necessities."

"The shadow of the Second War is getting closer. The more supplies they stockpile, the greater the cost of storage and maintenance becomes. By the end of next year, the cost of preparing for war will exceed the cost of buying supplies."

"So I conclude that war will break out in the second half of next year."

Half the group listened thoughtfully, while the other half looked like they were hearing a heavenly book. Only Nara Kaya was utterly stunned. He had understood everything, and he was thoroughly shaken.

The Nara clan had always produced Hokage advisers, while also serving as staff officers across countless departments. If the clan simply pooled the information held by its members, it could uncover Konoha's secrets.

Nara Kaya knew that war was approaching because of the Five Great Ninja Villages' collected military intelligence, but he had never imagined that someone could infer the course of war from prices.

Yet Aburame Tetsumaru's deduction was even more convincing. As military organizations built around mercenary structures, money held decisive power in ninja villages—more authority, in some ways, than even the Hokage.

If preparations for war were causing expenses to exceed income, while starting a war could ease the economic problem, then the great ninja villages would certainly demand war from top to bottom. No individual could stop such a tide.

Nara Kaya calmed himself and nodded. "That makes sense. If we graduate next spring, we can adapt to real combat before the war begins and form teams with real coordination."

"Several of my younger brothers, aside from Shibi, will apply to graduate early next year. What about your families?"

Everyone nodded together. Hyuga Tokuma said, "That's right. Next year, every Branch Family member in the Hyuga clan from third grade onward will graduate early."

After a moment of silence, Nara Kaya simply asked for everyone, "Tetsumaru, why do you want to wait another two years?"

"Because I haven't found my path."

"A path? Your ninja way?" the straightforward Inuzuka Tsuyoshi asked.

Aburame Tetsumaru shook his head. "No. A path to becoming stronger."

"You all know that most of my current strength lies in Taijutsu. My talent doesn't match my clan's secret technique, and I don't have much of a future with the Insect Manipulation Secret Technique."

"As an Aburame ninja, fighting with Taijutsu and a bunch of random Ninjutsu I figured out myself is practically a joke."

"What ninja nowadays can reach the pinnacle through Taijutsu alone? Even the Gentle Fist needs the Byakugan's support to be powerful enough."

Hyuga Tokuma nodded. After awakening his Byakugan, the power of his Gentle Fist had soared, greatly narrowing the gap between himself and Aburame Tetsumaru. He understood the Byakugan's effects deeply.

Of course, Aburame Tetsumaru knew that Konoha did have a Taijutsu capable of reaching even greater heights, but the Eight Inner Gates—a path of decades of accumulation for one brilliant instant—suited him even less.

"I need time to find a path that suits me."

"..."

The topics of life and war were too heavy. No one spoke, and they quietly let the wind wash over them.

After a long silence, Aburame Tetsumaru broke it. "Oh, right. I recently found some particularly interesting insects. Let me show you."

Aburame Tetsumaru stood up, brushed grass clippings from his clothes, stretched his body, then pulled out a beetle from his robes and let it cling to his right thumb.

Then he snapped his fingers and flung out a wind blade, striking the trunk of a large tree ten meters away and sending wood chips flying.

Wind Release: Wind Arrow

Just a D-rank Ninjutsu—pah, it was cast without hand seals!!

All six of them jumped to their feet. A hand seal-free Ninjutsu!

"How did you do that?"

Nara Kaya stared intently at the beetle on Aburame Tetsumaru's finger. Its shell had split open, white smoke rising from it, and it was already dead. That hand seal-free Ninjutsu had definitely been connected to the beetle.

Aburame Tetsumaru explained seriously, "Last year, I heard one of our clan Elders tell the Nidaime's legendary story. I learned that the Nidaime only needed three hand seals to use Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu. A normal Water Dragon Jutsu requires forty-four hand seals, so I had a question: are hand seals necessary to cast Ninjutsu?"

"No, they aren't," Nara Kaya answered immediately. They had just seen the proof. Of course they weren't necessary.

"Right, they aren't necessary."

"That's right. Lots of Jonin use fewer hand seals for their Ninjutsu than other people."

The friends all chimed in to support the point. Revolutionary discoveries often had countless scattered clues; they simply had never been linked together. Once the answer was known, all kinds of evidence became easy to connect.

"Tetsumaru, you're amazing."

Aburame Tetsumaru chuckled. Casting without hand seals, forming seals with one's eyes, forming seals with one hand, forming seals with one's feet—powerful ninja in the future all had tricks for bypassing hand seals.

Any truly top-tier ninja had never obediently formed seals the normal way.

Except for the honest Kisame Hoshigaki.

In the real Shinobi World, there had to be ninja who had developed all sorts of techniques to reduce hand seals. But on one hand, discoverers would deliberately hide them; on the other, people didn't have a god's-eye view and couldn't identify protagonists or supporting characters in advance.

People received too much information, much of it repetitive, much of it wrong, and the useful information was incomplete and difficult to extract.

The plot, however, was real and reliable information—one of a transmigrator's greatest cheats.

"This past year, I painstakingly researched the true relationship between hand seals and Ninjutsu, and in the end..."

"You figured it out!?" x6

"Of course..." Aburame Tetsumaru raised his eyebrows.

"No." His eyes instantly turned dead like a fish's, so obvious that even sunglasses couldn't hide them.

"..."

(°ー°〃)(°ー°〃)(°ー°〃)(°ー°〃)(°ー°〃)(°ー°〃)

The six classmates immediately surrounded Aburame Tetsumaru and gave him a vicious beating.

(￣ε(#￣)☆╰╮o(￣皿￣///)

"Go die, you bastard!"

"I knew it. This bastard is just that awful."

Yamanaka Yu kicked him twice, then sensitively noticed that something felt wrong beneath her foot.

She sighed, pulled a hammer from behind her back, and swung it at Aburame Tetsumaru's head.

With a bang, Aburame Tetsumaru turned into a log.

"Tch, his Transformation Technique is really good."

"When did he do it?"

"I didn't notice at all."

Aburame Tetsumaru stood outside the crowd and answered with a grin.

"I really haven't figured out the relationship between hand seals and Ninjutsu, but while searching for the answer, I found some special insects."

"After being washed over by large amounts of Chakra, most insects die. But a few survive. From those, I select the ones with the best appearance and breed their offspring."

"After repeating this selective breeding for more than ten generations, I finally got these mutated beetles, which can naturally trigger Ninjutsu."

"The problem is that raising several hundred insects might not produce even one successful mutation. And I don't know what Ninjutsu an insect can trigger. It dies the instant it triggers one, so it isn't practical."

Yamanaka Yu raised her pale little hand. "Wait a second. You don't know what Ninjutsu will appear?"

"Right."

"Then that Wind Arrow just now..."

"Oh, I got lucky this time. It happened to be a perfectly ordinary offensive Ninjutsu."

(°ー°〃) x6

The expressions on their faces gradually turned ugly. There were many Ninjutsu, but low-rank Ninjutsu contained plenty of bizarre effects. In other words, it might have triggered strange Ninjutsu effects like confusion, frenzy, excessive sweating, incontinence, and so on.

Uchiha Fūka couldn't help questioning him.

"It's not that serious. So far, I haven't found any C-rank Ninjutsu, and there are some signs that can roughly identify them."

As Aburame Tetsumaru explained, he took out six insects.

"The more symmetrical and glossy an insect's shell is, the higher the rank of Ninjutsu it can trigger. The color, pattern, and shape of the shell match the nature of the Ninjutsu."

"Anyway, they're only useful for research. You can split these Ninjutsu Bugs among yourselves and play with them."

The six friends swarmed forward and divided up the insects, cursing as they did.

"You're using us as test subjects again, and you're only giving us one each."

"Exactly. Last time, you said the Alarm Crickets were a gift, but after we used them for a while, they became something you sold. You made so much money."

"You're making us advertise them for you. Give each of us a few hundred more, or we'll use every one of them right here."

Aburame Tetsumaru felt that these little brats really were elite seeds from ninja clans. He had only let something slip once, and they had already figured out his sales strategy.

"Pah! A few hundred each? Keep dreaming. I told you, raising several hundred insects only produces one mutant."

What? Aburame Shibi had some, and Aburame Shikuroo had even more.

This great man knew nothing about that.

He hadn't given them any.

Ask again, and he wouldn't give them even this much.

A triple warning against low standards.

After they had played enough, the friends carefully put away the insects they had received and dispersed to return home.

As they left, they couldn't resist taking their insects back out to admire them. The bugs were simply too beautiful, with balanced bodies, glossy shells, and two huge black bean-like eyes that were unbearably adorable.

Aburame Tetsumaru often said that looks were combat power. The insects he produced always looked excellent, whether their functions were practical or not. Quite a few had been taken as pets or decorations.

The Ninjutsu Bugs were a major discovery by Aburame Tetsumaru, one entirely outside his plans.

Using Insight, he could observe strange Chakra pathways within their bodies. Whenever Chakra flowed through those pathways, it triggered Ninjutsu without any need for hand seals.

Were these strange pathways the underlying structure of Ninjutsu? What was their relationship with hand seals?

Aburame Tetsumaru's curiosity was nearly exploding. He vaguely felt that he might have caught Chakra by the tail, perhaps even found the hope of truly building an Insect Swarm.

And now he was supposed to graduate and go do some boring missions?

What a joke. He wasn't short on money, and he certainly didn't need some damned proof of himself.

Aburame Tetsumaru didn't tell his friends about the real discovery because he had no way to explain how he had made it. The darkness within Konoha was not to be trifled with.

The Shinobi World ran deep.

Aburame Tetsumaru carefully maintained his reputation, keeping the right amount of attention and the right pace of improvement while silently preparing more trump cards.

Two days later, Uchiha Fūka and Hyuga Tokuma took their early graduation examinations and passed smoothly.

Afterward, Uchiha Fūka and Hyuga Tokuma were each assigned to ninja teams and became busy with missions. Gatherings with their friends would become increasingly rare in the future.

After seeing off his two friends, Aburame Tetsumaru became even more excessive in class, progressing to openly skipping school.

Domoto Daibutsu was furious about this, but the school had long since been defeated by Aburame Tetsumaru's grades. A mere Chunin Teacher could do nothing about the bad student who ranked first in the entire grade.