Breakthrough Through Puppet Technique

The battle was over. Konoha had won; of the four Suna Ninja, three were dead and one had been captured.

Konoha had not fared well either. Eleven people from three squads had taken part in the battle. In the end, three were dead, two were seriously wounded, and everyone else had suffered minor injuries. Their casualties were even worse.

Guang Fushi of the Ueno Squad had been struck in the chest by a kunai. It pierced directly through his heart artery, allowing the poison on the kunai to spread into his heart. He died from the poison within seconds.

Might Duy had broken several ribs while fighting the jonin. His abdomen had been slashed open by Wind Release: Wind Cutter, but fortunately, the wound was shallow and had not damaged his internal organs.

Captain Tomita had been caught in the Suna Ninja jonin's Wind Release: Tornado Might, and his body had been torn apart on the spot.

The squad member swallowed by the puppet had been confirmed dead from the mechanisms inside it. His entire body had nearly been sliced to pieces.

The sole survivor of Tomita's squad had been struck by more than a dozen senbon. The poison was too deep in his system and had seriously damaged his internal organs. He would need at least half a year of recuperation to recover.

Tomita's squad captain had died in battle, and the entire squad had been virtually wiped out. It no longer existed.

Aburame Shikuroo released his Kikaichū and inspected every Suna Ninja corpse. He removed traps such as poison, venomous insects, Explosive Tags, senbon mechanisms, and the like.

Unlike the Kikaichū of most Aburame clan members, Aburame Shikuroo's Kikaichū looked like clusters of black mist. That was because these Kikaichū were extremely tiny, too small to trigger most traps, making them ideal for dismantling traps and conducting inspections.

For example, the Suna Ninja jonin had a tattoo on his chest that appeared to be some kind of Sealing Technique. If normal-sized Kikaichū like Aburame Tetsumaru's crawled over it, it might have been triggered.

After the battlefield had been cleaned up, everyone returned to camp with the corpses and prisoner. All three squads had suffered casualties, and they were not fit to carry out missions without resting and reorganizing.

The Suna Ninja corpses and prisoner were handed over to intelligence personnel, while the seriously wounded and their own dead were entrusted to medical personnel. Even the lightly wounded needed treatment.

The Aburame brothers had only suffered minor scrapes and bruises, so there was no need to waste medical resources on them.

The two brothers waited outside the medical camp for their teammates to be treated. They hurriedly exchanged a few words during the interval, then Aburame Shikuroo left in a hurry with his team members.

No one knew when they would meet again. Aburame Tetsumaru watched his cousin leave, feeling somewhat downcast. He was a little worried about his father.

Aburame Tetsumaru had already adapted to the battlefield in the Land of Rain, so he did not need to worry too much about his own safety.

Unlike the already-famous Aburame Shikuroo, Tetsumaru was still an ordinary genin without any remarkable achievements. Only his teammates, relatives, and friends knew a little about what made him special.

An ordinary genin, an ordinary squad, and an ordinary chunin captain—this was Aburame Tetsumaru's greatest camouflage.

For the next few days, the Ueno Squad would rest and recuperate. No further missions would be assigned to them.

Unless there was a major operation or they came under enemy attack.

"Peh, peh, peh." Aburame Tetsumaru immediately spat several times. He could not go setting his own death flags. It was a bad habit, and he had to cure it.

Two days later, the intelligence personnel had squeezed every last bit of information out of the Suna Ninja corpses and prisoner, and the rewards were issued. The mission had been classified as A-rank.

Normally, when three squads joined forces against a single jonin—especially when their own side had a jonin—the supporting squads' mission rating would be lowered. But the Suna Ninja jonin they had killed this time was Asasa, known as "Kamaitachi," and Fuyu, known as the "Three-Body Puppet Master." Both were famous figures, so all three squads received A-rank evaluations.

For Konoha, trading two chunin and four genin for those two enemies was an enormously profitable exchange, so it generously issued the full rewards.

Aburame Tetsumaru was very satisfied with his reward. Besides two hundred thousand ryo, he received permission to learn one C-rank ninjutsu. He immediately exchanged it for a Puppet Technique training scroll.

Aburame Tetsumaru was not interested in Puppet Technique itself. He was only interested in chakra threads, because they could solve a major problem.

After mastering Kikaichū, Aburame clan ninja usually chose cultivation and evolutionary paths that suited them. Shikuroo, for example, pursued miniaturization, aiming for nanoscale Kikaichū. Shibi followed the traditional path of colony differentiation, aiming to split Kikaichū into different types for healing, detoxification, attack, and so on.

Aburame Tetsumaru had chosen Kikaichū-assisted development. Using them as precision tools, he precisely regulated insect mutations and enhancements during hybridization experiments, cultivating combat Summoning Insects. His results included Camouflage Butterflies, Eye of Truth Snails, Locusts, Scout Dragonflies, Olfactory Moths, and more.

However, the original stock for these newly cultivated Summoning Insects had all been ordinary insects. Through mutation and implanted Kikaichū genes, they became first-generation Ninja Insects capable of devouring Chakra to strengthen themselves.

On one hand, they had not been cultivated long enough and were poorly compatible with the Aburame Secret Technique, making them less controllable than Kikaichū. On the other hand, like Kikaichū, they had to be carried close to the body.

Aburame Tetsumaru did not lack Chakra, but these Ninja Insects were too large. The number he could keep close enough to feed on his Chakra was too small, while Ninja Insects that could not access his Chakra were too weak in battle.

Thus, the Ninja Insects cultivated by Aburame Tetsumaru possessed many advantages, but their poor controllability and insufficient number of enhanced insects could not be solved. To most Aburame clan ninja, they were merely toys, incapable of creating a new insect-control school.

Only because Aburame Tetsumaru used his immense Chakra to boost the Aburame Secret Technique, along with microwave signals and pheromones to assist control, did these Ninja Insects gain practical combat value. Even so, their flaws remained significant.

He had long wanted to borrow puppet-control methods to make up for this weakness. Now, he finally had them.

Taking advantage of the squad's downtime, he immediately began researching.

"Remarkable. Truly remarkable, Shamon."

Aburame Tetsumaru looked at the snapped thin iron rod and could not help sighing in admiration.

The experiment he had just conducted was a chakra-thread strength test. He heated an iron rod as thick as his little finger, fixed one end to a steel frame, and secured the other with chakra threads. As time passed, the immense force generated by the rod cooling and contracting could do nothing to the three chakra threads. In the end, the iron rod snapped. This was far stronger than steel wire.

Chakra threads were the foundation of Puppet Technique. Suna Ninja puppets had no power source of their own and could move only when Puppet Masters pulled their puppet threads. Thus, the strength of chakra threads was of paramount importance. They had to drag heavy puppets and operate all kinds of mechanisms.

A Puppet Master's level depended on the strength and flexibility of their chakra threads. The greater the strength and flexibility, the fewer chakra threads were needed to control one puppet, the more puppets could be controlled, and the stronger the Puppet Master became.

A competent Puppet Master might need six or seven chakra threads to control a puppet. An excellent one needed only three, while a top-tier Puppet Master required just one.

Humans had ten fingers and could control ten chakra threads. Powerful Puppet Masters could control several, or even ten puppets. One person was equivalent to two and a half squads. How could that not be powerful?

The strength of the chakra threads far exceeded Aburame Tetsumaru's expectations—and far exceeded his needs. It was wasteful.

My little insects are all alive. They can jump and run around. They only need Chakra and orders.

Forget it. I knew from the start that I wouldn't be able to apply it directly. I'll analyze the chakra threads from the ground up.

Using Insight, Aburame Tetsumaru saw the structure of the chakra threads. Their intricate structure made him feel that the Second Kazekage was indeed a ninjutsu research monster, just like the Second Hokage.

A single visible chakra thread was divided into three inner and outer layers. At the core were six fine threads twisted together, somewhat like hemp rope. The middle layer was one exceptionally long fine thread tightly wrapped around the core. The outermost layer consisted of eight threads woven into a mesh that enclosed everything.

That highly complex structure gave puppet threads their extraordinary strength.

What Aburame Tetsumaru needed was only the six twisted threads in the middle. He would use these threads, responsible for transmitting Chakra signals, to connect himself to his insects. They only needed to transmit Chakra and command signals.

With a daily supply of Chakra, the Ninja Insects could maximize their combat ability. Once a command reached them, they could carry it out themselves. Even if the chakra threads were disconnected afterward, it would not be a problem. Put another way, this was a fire-and-forget weapon. High-tech indeed.

Hehehe.

Twelve days later, Aburame Tetsumaru happily controlled more than a hundred Locusts in the sky, arranging them into all kinds of formations before launching layered attacks. The sight was no less impressive than an A-rank ninjutsu: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

Ten days earlier, Aburame Tetsumaru had completed the disassembly and reconstruction of the chakra threads. It took him only two hours to successfully link them to his Ninja Insects, after which reality once again mocked his miserable talent for multitasking.

The reconstructed chakra threads were extremely fragile, but their consumption was very low. With Aburame Tetsumaru's Chakra reserves and control precision, he could produce more than three hundred of them.

But after connecting over three hundred little insects, Aburame Tetsumaru could not control them at all. Even if he wanted to send them charging in groups, there was no F2 key to press.

As a result, despite having a vast black swarm of insects, under Aburame Tetsumaru's command they could only move out three to five at a time, or two to three at a time. Their efficiency was worse than the Aburame Secret Technique.

What the f@M#$@ did all that anticipation and effort get me?

This was utterly ridiculous.

He had to upgrade. He had to upgrade his intermediate control tool. He needed an F2 key!

With his mindset shattered, Aburame Tetsumaru erupted with unprecedented passion. In the crude conditions of a frontline camp, he upgraded the third-generation Eye of Truth in only ten days, turning it into a big Snail with a brain.

By routing control through the Eye of Truth's brain, he could finally select a group of insects and issue them unified commands. It also solved the problem of insects being sent out and never returning.

Kikaichū could respond to Aburame Tetsumaru's secret technique commands from three to four hundred meters away, but the larger insects had a response range of only forty to fifty meters. Once they flew away, they completely went out of control.

After carrying out their final command, they were completely free. These brainless little insects acted on instinct, squeezing into cracks and tree hollows, burrowing anywhere dark and concealed. They were very difficult to find again.

Over the past half month, Aburame Tetsumaru had lost several hundred insects, including quite a few particularly valuable varieties.

Now, the new chakra threads could extend as far as 1,800 meters, fully ensuring effective command within a kilometer. Even the farthest-flying Locusts rarely attacked targets beyond five hundred meters, so the insects would remain under Aburame Tetsumaru's control.

After testing the new chakra threads' effects, Aburame Tetsumaru satisfiedly gave them a name: Summoning Thread.

Using Summoning Thread to link every insect and the third-generation Eye of Truth for overall control, Aburame Tetsumaru quickly developed a somewhat incomplete tactical system.

Among ninja, a tactical system was a rare thing, usually exclusive to elite jonin.

These ninja used some overwhelming advantage as the core of their tactics, supported by various ninjutsu or secret techniques, ensuring that they always faced enemies from a position of superiority and thereby gained crushing combat advantages over other ninja.

For example, Hatake Sakumo used his indestructible Kenjutsu as his tactical core, supported by his powerful Body Flicker Technique, absolute tactical rationality, and extensive experience in killing strikes. Against jonin, he killed with a single blow. His killing efficiency was so high that Suna Ninja were forced to issue an order: when encountering Konoha's White Fang, they could abandon the mission. Later, only the Yellow Flash earned that honor from Iwagakure for a second time.

The Sandaime Hokage built his tactical core around immensely powerful combined releases and thousands of ninjutsu, with the summoned monkey as support. No matter what opponent he faced, he could hold them off, suppress them with countering ninjutsu, steadily drive them into a corner, and finally end the battle with a combined release like the Five Releases Great Barrage.

Danzo... well, Danzo had no tactical system. His Vacuum-series Wind Release was powerful, but it lacked absolute destructive force and also lacked methods to restrain enemies or protect himself. When he held the advantage, he could not guarantee a kill; when disadvantaged, he could not endure.

That was why he pursued crooked paths like First Hokage cells and the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

His later record proved that Danzo was a strong contender for the title of weakest Kage. Even after mastering that shameless resurrection technique, he still died casually at the hands of Uchiha Sasuke. In the end, it was because his combat strength had never formed a system.

Using thousands of Ninja Insects with various functions as his foundation, and Summoning Threads for buffs and linked command, Aburame Tetsumaru could deploy a massive insect formation with a radius of one thousand meters at any time and direct more than three hundred insects to attack and harass.

He himself would never need to show his face. Any counterattack from the enemy could only target the insects, and the insects could be replenished at any time.

Aburame Tetsumaru estimated that, with his current scale of Summoning Insects, once deployed, he could ignore genin, easily kill chunin, and even contend with jonin for a while. He could even force back some jonin who were not skilled in large-scale ninjutsu.

Of course, jonin who had mastered large-scale ninjutsu were Aburame Tetsumaru's natural enemies. One of their techniques could wipe out more than a hundred insects. Facing such enemies would put Aburame Tetsumaru in an extremely awkward position. Replenishing his insects would expose his location, while failing to replenish them would quickly leave his battlefield cleared. In the end, he would still be chased down and beaten.

As for certain utterly overpowered ninja capable of casting ninjutsu that covered an area two kilometers wide, there was simply no way to deal with them. Once such a technique came down, Aburame Tetsumaru's survival would be entirely up to fate.

Setting aside a small number of jonin, this beyond-line-of-sight tactical system allowed Aburame Tetsumaru, with genin-level strength, to survive against jonin. As long as he had enough insects, he would never let the enemy see him.

He was overjoyed.