The Workload Was Terrifying

The discovery of Ninjutsu Bugs opened up an entirely new field.

Aburame Tetsumaru's gains after crossing over were not actually research achievements, but discoveries.

Sugar Ants, Slimes, all kinds of strange bugs, including Ninjutsu Bugs, were all native products of the Shinobi World. Aburame Tetsumaru had merely unearthed them. His only research achievement was the knowledge of Chakra Meridian adjustments.

Anything involving Chakra in the Shinobi World could be called a miracle, full of things that defied reason.

The water created by Water Release—did that not violate the conservation of matter?

No. Once Chakra's influence was excluded, matter was conserved. Aburame Tetsumaru had verified it through experiments.

Even more supernatural phenomena that Aburame Tetsumaru did not know how to verify had been made possible through ninjutsu: the spatial transfer of the Summoning Technique, the mass expansion of the Butterfly Clan Secret Technique, the reversal of death through Impure World Reincarnation, and so on.

On Earth, once one delved into the microscopic world, the rules of common physical sense ceased to apply. All kinds of bizarre situations could occur.

Aburame Tetsumaru knew and was certain that Chakra was what lay between all the rational and irrational things in the Shinobi World. How it worked was the greatest secret of the Shinobi World.

Everything was easier said than done. Aburame Tetsumaru could manipulate Chakra with ease, but he had no idea where to begin in researching its essence, until Ninjutsu Bugs were discovered.

Strange-shaped channels formed inside Ninjutsu Bugs. Once infused with Chakra, they directly activated ninjutsu. Tetsumaru named these shapes Chakra Runes.

Chakra Runes were three-dimensional and complex. Since they could activate ninjutsu without hand seals, there had to be a connection between runes and hand seals.

Aburame Tetsumaru instinctively believed that Chakra Runes were the key to studying the Shinobi World's greatest secret.

But breeding Ninjutsu Bugs was extremely difficult. Too few samples meant discontinuous data.

He changed his approach and turned back to hand seals, first needing to prove whether hand seals and Chakra Runes were related.

One year later, Sunagakure.

Second Kazekage Shamon was critically ill. He had been bedridden for over half a year and had no choice but to consider the matter of a successor.

Under Shamon's leadership, Sunagakure had only dipped its toes into the war before withdrawing early. Many ninja in the village, as well as the Daimyo, were dissatisfied with this, but no one could change the policies of the strong-willed Kazekage.

Shamon was a wise leader. He established a Ninja Academy after Konoha's example, promoted all ninja fairly, and suppressed the great clans. He was also a genius no less capable than the Second Hokage. In response to the Land of Wind's sparse population, he developed Puppet Technique; by researching the One-Tail, he developed Magnet Release and a series of Sand Manipulation Techniques.

Because of his policies suppressing the great clans and refusing war, Sunagakure's elite ninja resisted him, forcing the Kazekage to personally handle far too much work. He finally collapsed from illness last year. Shamon had been too exhausted.

This tough, bald, tattooed man had trained a large number of outstanding Puppet Masters, including Monzaemon and Chiyo. The strength of the Suna Ninja had multiplied several times over since he took office.

The harsh desert environment had shaped a people whose strengths were diligence, endurance, and perseverance, but whose weaknesses were a lack of foresight and impulsiveness.

The great strength and abundant reserves accumulated with such effort by the Second Kazekage had left all the village's ninja and civilians restless, desperately wanting to obtain land and water through war.

Shamon's greatest regret was that he had failed to cultivate a qualified successor.

Sunagakure's finest Puppet Master, Monzaemon, was a technical fanatic who cared about nothing but puppets and battle. He also understood nothing about human relationships.

His two disciples would not do either. Chiyo believed Puppet Masters reigned supreme, and her narrow-mindedness was too severe a flaw. Ebizo was too weak and indecisive, completely unsuitable.

The most ironic thing was that Sunagakure's strongest puppet force had no suitable leader. The next Kazekage had to possess enough martial strength to subdue the Puppet Masters.

This hard requirement eliminated too many Jonin with leadership talent, but there was no other way. Otherwise, Sunagakure's division, or even civil war, could not be avoided.

There was only one candidate for Third Kazekage: that child who had mastered Magnet Release. He came from a great clan and could be accepted by all of Sunagakure's factions. His formidable strength, coupled with the traits of Magnet Release, was enough to suppress the Puppet Masters.

Shamon smiled bitterly. There was no room for choice. He could only hope that this child could rise above his great-clan background, unite every side of Sunagakure, and win the next war.

Yes, the next war.

The entirety of Sunagakure, even the entire Land of Wind, desperately wanted war. Only Second Kazekage Shamon opposed it. But how could he truly oppose war? He only opposed wars without clear objectives.

The objective of war in Shamon's heart was not which enemy to attack, but what benefits could be gained through war. Most crucially, those benefits had to be enough to end the war.

If one did not consider how to end a war before starting it, one would sink into an endless mire. No gains could truly be secured, while costs would be invested without limit. Being dragged on until one could no longer fight and was forced to stop meant taking a loss.

As a genius, Shamon could not understand his compatriots. Why did these fools insist on making a losing deal?

Two days later, Second Kazekage Shamon died of illness. Before his death, he did not designate a candidate for Third Kazekage.

After Shamon's death, Sunagakure had no more voices against war. Starting a war had become the inevitable trend.

After fierce competition, Chiyo lost the contest for Kazekage. The Sand Manipulation ninja who possessed the Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai displayed traits that completely countered Puppet Masters, received the support of the great clans, and ascended to the seat of Third Kazekage.

With the new Kazekage taking office, Sunagakure's style suddenly became aggressively domineering. It built fortresses in the north to contain Iwagakure, massed troops in the east while eyeing the Land of Fire, and watched the Land of Tea and the Land of Bears hungrily from the south.

Sunagakure had lain low and built up its strength for twenty years. Its accumulated power was astonishing, and this time it was displayed in full. Iwagakure, Konoha, and Kirigakure all felt tremendous pressure and began intensifying their war preparations.

In the spring of Konoha Year 30, as Sunagakure displayed its strength, the situation grew increasingly tense. Everyone knew war was unavoidable.

A wave of early graduation swept through Konoha's Ninja Academy. Aburame Tetsumaru saw off fully half his classmates, leaving Class A and Class B with only twenty-nine students even after merging.

After school, Aburame Tetsumaru ignored the looks from his classmates and teachers and went home on his own. His focused research into Chakra Runes had yet to yield a breakthrough, but his accumulated knowledge had given him the ability to predict ninjutsu. Using ninjutsu to employ deceptive tactics in front of him was nearly impossible.

His Chakra reserves were growing even faster. The boosts brought by the Chakra Grand Circulation and continuous Meridian adjustments were becoming increasingly powerful.

But repeatedly refusing early graduation had affected his reputation as a genius. Doubts arose within his clan and the village, and rumors that he had cheated even began quietly spreading.

Aburame Tetsumaru did not care about any of those rumors. Besides his normal training, he spent an extra five hours every night researching runes. The dark circles under his eyes had grown two sizes worse from exhaustion. Where would he find the energy to care about his reputation?

As long as he remained first in the exams and defeated every opponent in the official tests, he would not lose his genius title. At most, people would question him because his opponents were too weak.

He returned home, ate dinner, cleaned up, washed and hung the laundry, then chatted with his parents to help digest the meal.

At eight that night, Aburame Tetsumaru went to his newly built stone house and began boiling water.

The boiled water had been created by someone using Water Release. The steam was sent through a series of pipes and valves into the Cloud Chamber. Aburame Tetsumaru entered the room and shut the door.

The Cloud Chamber was completely empty. Transparent windows covered its walls, ceiling, and floor, and behind those windows were Slimes with recording capabilities.

Aburame Tetsumaru put on a respirator to prevent his breathing from affecting the density of water vapor in the Cloud Chamber. Then he turned a valve in the corner, adjusting the rate of steam intake and the temperature within the chamber.

Very soon, the water vapor in the Cloud Chamber reached its saturation threshold. At that point, the air inside was completely transparent, without any white mist. But even a slight change in air density would cause the vapor to condense, forming trails of white mist.

On Earth, cloud chambers were used to display the paths of high-energy particles.

Aburame Tetsumaru, meanwhile, used the white mist's ability to reveal forms to display the images of Chakra Runes.

Everything was ready. The testing began.

Boar, Rooster, Boar, Dog, Ox. Nothing happened.

Boar, Rooster, Boar, Dog, Tiger. Nothing happened.

Boar, Dog, Rat, Dog, Boar. Suddenly, a three-dimensional pattern formed from lines of white mist appeared before Aburame Tetsumaru—a pattern full of orderly beauty, a new Chakra Rune.

Aburame Tetsumaru was drenched in sweat from the heat, but when he saw that he had gained something, he smiled happily.

After his excitement passed, he confirmed that the image had been recorded. Then Aburame Tetsumaru continued forming hand seals, exploring the next rune that might exist.

With the Cloud Chamber put into use, research into Chakra Runes officially began.

Aburame Tetsumaru calculated the number of hand seal combinations. With twelve hand seals, there were 132 two-seal combinations. Practicing those was one of Tetsumaru's daily exercises. Mastering all 132 combinations would allow him to adapt to every hand seal.

There were 1,320 three-seal combinations. One point needed explaining here: in the Shinobi World, the same hand seal was never used twice in succession.

There were 11,880 four-seal combinations. That was already outrageous.

When Aburame Tetsumaru calculated the number of nine-seal combinations, it took him a full five minutes to get the result: 95,800,320 combinations. He felt awful.

Just looking at that number was enough to make one dizzy. Even Uchiha Itachi, with the fastest hand seals in the Shinobi World at seven seals per second, would need 188 days to perform every nine-seal combination once—and that was without eating, drinking, resting, or sleeping.

Despair.

After calculating the result, Aburame Tetsumaru immediately crossed out all combinations with more than five seals. They were far too unrealistic. The total number of combinations with five seals or fewer was around 180,000, which was still something he could work toward.

Over the past half year, he had completed rune exploration for one-seal, two-seal, three-seal, and four-seal combinations. What he was currently working on was the final five-seal exploration.

Every single one-seal combination could form a rune, but their corresponding ninjutsu effects were the weakest. Starting from two seals, not every combination could form a rune. Among over sixteen thousand four-seal combinations, only seventy-four could produce runes, less than five-thousandths of the total.

That extremely low ratio greatly accelerated the verification process, but it also made the process increasingly tedious.

If this had been his previous life, Aburame Tetsumaru would have quit long ago.

But his several near-death experiences before crossing over had reshaped the transmigrator's personality, giving him the temperament most suitable for scientific work, as well as sufficiently solid scientific knowledge.

As long as there were discoveries and results, tedious work would not make Aburame Tetsumaru impatient. Acquiring new knowledge gave him an endless sense of accomplishment.

At one in the morning, Aburame Tetsumaru completed the verification of four hundred five-seal combinations and extinguished the stove.

Tonight's harvest had been good. He had obtained two runes, recorded their patterns through thirty-six Slimes, copied them into his notebook, and finished the day's work.

Drenched in sweat, Aburame Tetsumaru pushed open the stone house door and entered the main house, only to discover that both his parents were sitting in the living room.

Aburame Tetsumaru looked at the clock in the living room. That was right, it was two in the morning.

Because the family's financial situation had improved, his father mainly took care of their ant business and no longer carried out missions. His life had therefore become regular, and he went to bed early and woke early every day.

His mother had successfully been promoted to Chunin. Not only was she teaching three students, she also had to work at the hospital during the day. She was extremely busy and usually went to sleep before ten, trying to get as much rest as possible.

It looked like they planned to have a talk with him today.

Aburame Tetsumaru sat across from his parents, picked up the teacup his mother pushed over, and took a sip... plain water.

This Shinobi World was truly strange. Children were forbidden from drinking alcohol and tea, but not from smoking. It even encouraged killing and early romance.

Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp. After draining the cup, Aburame Tetsumaru spoke. "I'm ready."

"Tetsumaru, you've been staying up late for over half a year now."

"Mm."

"Is there really a need to push yourself this hard?"

"Yes."

"You're only nine."

"War is coming. Can I avoid the battlefield?"

"Ninja all have to go to the battlefield." Speaking from the perspective of a Konoha Ninja, Aburame Kazekazu answered with common sense.

"That's why I need to become stronger as quickly as possible."

"..."

Aburame Kazekazu fell silent, while Aburame Aiko's eyes reddened.

Aburame Tetsumaru took off his sunglasses and turned them over to look at his reflected face in the lenses. The dark circles under his eyes had become so severe they seemed permanent. Still, he did not look like Sunagakure's little Panda. He looked more like Scissor Seven, with only the lower rims of his eyes blackened.

After putting his sunglasses back on, Aburame Tetsumaru sighed impatiently. "You two, have you not considered that I've also been making time for you these past six months?"

"Huh?"

"Time to make me a little brother, or maybe a little sister."

Aburame Kazekazu: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

Aburame Aiko: ╰(°▽°)╯

It would be best if it were a bratty little brother. Once you two start a new game, will you still have time to manage me?

"Get out!!"

Aburame Tetsumaru shrugged and went upstairs to sleep, leaving the two flustered adults behind.

Then, at his own door, Aburame Tetsumaru silently counted to thirty, took off his shoes, and crawled back toward the stairway on all fours without making a sound, peeking into the living room.

Aburame Kazekazu & Aburame Aiko: (￣3)(ε￣)

Having been force-fed an entire stomachful of affection, Aburame Tetsumaru became even more careful and silently crawled back to his room. If he were discovered now, he would definitely be strung up by those two embarrassed adults and given a joint beating until dawn.

Before drifting into sleep, Aburame Tetsumaru calculated his progress. At a verification rate of four hundred combinations a day, he would need 440 days to finish. There was not enough time.

War would most likely begin by graduation. Genin had to join teams and carry out wartime missions, and he would not have so much time to focus on research. Starting tomorrow, he had to increase it to five hundred combinations a day. Only then could he finish before graduation.