The Aburame Clan in Konoha was holding a meeting. The Clan Head and seven Elders had gathered together for the rare occasion, discussing the clan's situation this year and a series of related affairs.
This was the second year since the war had begun. Many Aburame clan members had already died in battle, with the newest generation of shinobi suffering the heaviest casualties.
There was still no end to the war in sight, and several Elders were deeply worried by the severe losses.
"Too many young children have met with trouble. If this war keeps going, what will happen to the Aburame Clan?"
"This war is fiercer than the last one. Several of our Jonin have already met with accidents."
"There's no helping it. The war is growing larger and larger. There are more than four thousand people in both the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain. Against dozens of shinobi, our clan's secret techniques don't hold such a great advantage."
"This year's situation really is terrible. The Kazekage, Hanzo, and Chiyo are all far too threatening to the Kikaichū."
"No, the key is that those people have been active on the front lines all along. Nothing this outrageous happened in the previous war."
"The Land of Rivers is manageable. With that brat from the Hatake family there, Chiyo is being firmly suppressed and cannot make much trouble. But the Land of Rain has no pillar capable of holding things up. It would be wonderful if Lord Hokage could go to the front lines too."
"..."
The Clan Head hesitated before finally speaking. "Lord Hokage has his own difficulties..."
"Forget it. Don't talk about that." Elder Shihui cut him off directly. He disliked the Sandaime Hokage more than anyone, to the point where he could not even be bothered to mention him.
Aburame Shihui had grown older. His wrinkled face resembled dried tree bark as he said expressionlessly, "Today, we need to discuss how to help the children. I propose that we give them the secret techniques they are capable of learning ahead of time. At a time like this, we should stop holding things back."
The Clan Head exchanged looks with the other Elders. They were somewhat hesitant, and the atmosphere immediately turned tense.
This proposal directly targeted the conflict between the Aburame Clan's main branches and side branches. Though the internal conflict was not especially fierce, the division of interests remained very clear.
The Aburame Clan had three main branches, each of which inherited one advanced Kikaichū Secret Technique.
The Clan Head and one Elder belonged to the Kikaichū All-Purpose Enhancement branch. Three Elders inherited the Giant Insect Secret Technique, while the families of two Elders inherited the Poisonous Insect Secret Technique.
The Poisonous Insect was precisely the venomous insect controlled by Aburame Shikuro. He was currently researching the miniaturization of Kikaichū, and he had even chosen the name in advance: Micro Insect.
Once he succeeded, he would establish a fourth main-branch inheritance. Aburame Shikuro had become the acknowledged leader of the younger generation for more than just being the oldest.
As a genius who had become a Jonin at fourteen, his strength was the foundation supporting his position as the Aburame Clan's leader. But blazing a new path was the key factor in making everyone truly accept him.
The remaining two Elders were veteran Jonin from side branches. They had become Elders through their achievements and strength, representing the interests of the more numerous side-branch shinobi. Of the two, Elder Shihui held the greatest influence.
After all, Elder Shihui was stronger and more senior. In recent years, he had also produced Tetsumaru, who had opened a new path at the age of eleven and developed a new Insect Swarm system.
"Are you doing this for Tetsumaru?" To break the silence, the Clan Head deliberately spoke in a relaxed tone.
"Shouldn't I be?"
Aburame Shihui grew angry. He raised his voice. "Has Shibi already learned Insect Clone?"
"What about Insect Cocoon? What about Insect Wall Technique?"
No one spoke.
"We always say it is because main-branch children are more gifted than side-branch children. I admit that Shibi is talented and has a large amount of Chakra." Elder Shihui's tone dripped with sarcasm.
Indeed, ten-year-old Aburame Shibi displayed tremendous talent and considerable strength, but that depended on who he was compared with.
Before Aburame Tetsumaru, Aburame Shibi had only one advantage: his Kikaichū control was more refined. Yet even in a pure Kikaichū confrontation, he could no longer win.
Overwhelming force crushed all techniques. Aburame Tetsumaru's Chakra advantage had continued growing with age, and at eleven, it had finally undergone a qualitative change.
To begin with, his control over the Kikaichū was not poor. It was merely far inferior to geniuses such as Shikuro and Shibi. Through relentless practice, it had reached a passing standard. But with ten times the Chakra supporting him, each wave of Kikaichū he attacked with could no longer be blocked by Shibi mobilizing three or four waves of his own.
The gap in power between each side's Kikaichū waves had become so great that Aburame Shibi had to give everything he had and mobilize more than ten waves of Kikaichū just to barely withstand Aburame Tetsumaru's attacks. This was complete suppression, leaving him no room to strike back.
Moreover, Aburame Shibi was a standard Aburame Family shinobi. His Chakra was at the level of an outstanding graduate. Since he had to give his all every time he blocked an attack, just a few exchanges would drain his Chakra completely.
Thus, every claim about the excellence of main-branch children was reversed when it came to Tetsumaru.
He was the strongest challenger to Aburame Shikuro's leadership. Over the past year, because of the conflict with Shimura Danzō, the clan had sacrificed the interests of the side branches to protect the main branches, causing Aburame Tetsumaru to miss his promotion opportunity and severely damaging his reputation.
Ordinary clan members did not know about it, but the eight people present naturally understood it perfectly. Thus, when faced with Aburame Shihui's mockery, no one dared retort. Facts were always the most persuasive.
"I understand this war less and less, but I know it is far crueler than the previous war. If we continue clinging to the distinction between main and side branches, the Aburame Clan will have a hard time surviving this dreadful war."
Another side-branch Elder stood up and said, "I second the motion."
The other five Elders either looked around or lowered their heads to stare at their toes, waiting for the Clan Head to make a decision.
But their silence itself was tacit approval. They were merely giving the most stubborn Clan Head some face and a little more time to make up his mind.
"Fine. We'll proceed according to Elder Shihui's proposal." After a long silence, the Clan Head finally made up his mind. "Since we are making this decision, we will change things completely."
"Establish a set of reward standards. Every shinobi in the clan will obtain secret techniques according to those standards."
"That's more like it!" Aburame Shihui's old face blossomed into a smile like a blooming chrysanthemum. This had been his cherished wish for twenty years, and today it had finally come true.
The other Elders also smiled, each speaking up to praise the Clan Head.
The Clan Head suddenly thought of something and hurriedly added, "This applies only to secret techniques jointly owned by the clan. Secret techniques inherited by individual families cannot be made public."
"Of course."
"That goes without saying."
Everyone present was a shrewd old veteran. Only the Clan Head was young. They understood the necessity of keeping public and private matters separate.
The secret techniques inherited by the various smaller families within the clan differed from one another. They were the fruits of their ancestors' labor and belonged to private property. Making all of them public would undermine the motivation to research secret techniques.
In truth, the various secret techniques made public by the Aburame Clan had been developed in this very way. For secret techniques with outstanding combat effectiveness, the Clan Head would exchange clan assets for them with the Elders' approval, using them to strengthen the clan's shinobi.
After deciding to change, the Aburame Clan began taking action. They distributed suitable secret-technique training scrolls to clan members on the front lines and even arranged for them to return to the village to study.
This was a major transformation for the Aburame Clan. It would not only alter the clan's internal power structure but might even directly affect the choice of the next Clan Head.
Aburame Shikuro was specifically summoned back to the village to handle the matter.
"Insect Clone. Give that technique to Aburame Tetsumaru. He's gone on and on about it to me many times." Elder Shihui said to Shikuro, "That kid is stubborn. He never asks for the same thing twice, but he has brought up this technique over and over."
Aburame Shikuro smiled. "Tetsumaru knows when to advance and when to retreat. If he has asked several times, then he truly wants it. Let's choose that one."
"Besides, with his qualifications and abilities, he can learn every secret technique."
A few days later, Aburame Tetsumaru, who had been focused on working out his three moves, received the Insect Clone training scroll from Aburame Shikuro. The sudden happiness made him grin wide enough to show his back teeth.
So pies really could fall from the sky.
Right in front of Aburame Shikuro, he opened the scroll and swiftly skimmed through it before hurriedly putting it away.
"I'll learn it as quickly as possible, then destroy the scroll."
"Good. Make it quick. This is the front line, after all."
"Understood."
After all, this was the front line, where all manner of accidents could easily occur. If the training scroll were lost, the clan's secret technique could leak out. Others would certainly be unable to learn the Insect Manipulation Secret Technique, but exposing its core would let enemies fully grasp its weaknesses.
And that was not even the most dangerous scenario.
The most dangerous possibility was that the enemy knew its weaknesses while the Aburame Clan itself remained completely unaware.
The Aburame Clan was not the Uchiha Clan. They did not possess the Sharingan's talent, nor did they have so many exceptionally gifted shinobi. They even lacked competitors from whom they could learn. There were too few inheritors of Aburame Secret Techniques, so there were bound to be flaws caused by oversight and omission.
Aburame Tetsumaru happily memorized the entire three-thousand-word secret technique, then stuffed the scroll into his summoned Insect Hive and sent it back to the clan. He understood clearly that until he had completely mastered it, memory was never reliable enough.
People could misremember even an eight-digit number in daily life. How could they be certain they would not misremember a three-thousand-word instructional scroll?
Once part of such a lengthy text was forgotten, the mind would fill in the gaps by itself, but there was no guarantee it would fill them in correctly. The mistakes would only compound until no one knew what it might turn into.
He had obtained what he had long dreamed of, but he had no time to practice it.
After a period of preparation and recovery, the Rain Ninja and Iwa Ninja took advantage of the Suna Ninja's defeat to launch an attack against them, defeating the Suna Ninja with ease.
Konoha had been busy with internal struggles among the upper ranks and replacing commanders, and it had failed to notice this major development. Even Aburame Tetsumaru's squad had accepted a village mission to pursue rogue shinobi.
The new commander had only just taken office and had not even had time to familiarize himself with personnel when the Allied Shinobi Forces of Iwagakure and Amegakure attacked.
Amid the chaos, war missions were issued like snowflakes, along with every sort of confusion and conflict. No matter how the upper ranks solved their problems, the shinobi squads at the bottom had truly suffered.
The Aburame Squad received two consecutive missions: one to head east and deliver documents, and another to head north and conduct reconnaissance. After racing about for three straight days, Aburame Tetsumaru could only carry Kurama Yun on his back and run to camp to submit their mission report.
That was how things were on the front lines. Accidents could happen anywhere.
They were still among the fortunate ones. They had merely been pressed for time and gone three consecutive days without sleep.
Some squads received two missions simultaneously while in camp: one to patrol outside and another to guard the camp. Those were the ones left utterly bewildered, with no idea what to do.
The key was that there was no way to appeal. The commander himself was completely confused, so who had time to care about some insignificant Chunin squad leader? If you failed the mission, it was obviously because you were incompetent.
In fact, the commander's words did make sense. Clone Techniques really existed in the Shinobi World. Who told you not to know the Shadow Clone Technique?
When someone truly encountered such bad luck, all they could do was accept it, bear the punishment, and take the mission-failure record.
After three busy days came two consecutive days without missions.
Aburame Tetsumaru seized the chance to learn Insect Clone. The three thousand words on the scroll gave a detailed introduction to the secret technique's origins, application methods, practice methods, and many examples of its use in combat by previous generations.
Those combat examples in particular involved many secrets of the clan's predecessors. Being allowed to study them left Aburame Tetsumaru stunned. So my status has risen by quite a lot.
By combining those examples with the techniques, Aburame Tetsumaru could understand the reasons behind their usage methods. Only then could he deeply comprehend the various techniques described on the scroll and truly master them.
The Insect Clone Secret Technique was an excellent top-tier technique. Unfortunately, it had not been developed from the Shadow Clone Technique. Instead, it was a supreme secret technique formed by combining the Clone Technique with the Kikaichū Secret Technique.
"I thought I'd get the Shadow Clone Technique. I still need to find a way to exchange for it."
The Insect Clone Secret Technique had developed from the Clone Technique. It could fight, use Taijutsu and ninjutsu, and even endure a considerable degree of damage before vanishing. In this regard, it greatly surpassed the Shadow Clone Technique.
The problem was that Insect Clone was still built on the Clone Technique. It could not travel far, nor could it transmit experience and memories back. That was why Aburame Tetsumaru wanted the Shadow Clone Technique, because that technique might allow him to explore the Sea of Souls.
Now, whenever Aburame Tetsumaru fell asleep, he would involuntarily rise into the Sea of Souls. He had to sleep for an average of one-quarter of every day, yet he could do nothing during all that time. It had become a daily, unchanging confinement in a little dark room.
The key was that he could not avoid sleeping, nor did he dare sleep too little. Lack of sleep would leave him mentally exhausted, and that was far too dangerous on the crisis-ridden battlefield of the Land of Rain.
Therefore, no matter how unbearable being locked in that little dark room after falling asleep was, he could only endure it bitterly as long as it allowed him to fully recover his energy.
There was no helping it. Aburame Tetsumaru did not want to die, so he could only struggle with everything he had and push his efforts to the limit.
After learning Insect Clone, Aburame Tetsumaru still burned the scroll.
The information on the scroll involved the clan's predecessors, raising the consequences of its theft beyond what he could bear. To be safe, he burned it.
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