A Crude Mother Hive Was Better Than None

Under cover of darkness, Aburame Tetsumaru carried the four Root Ninjas on his back and ran twenty kilometers. Together, the four ninjas weighed a full two hundred and forty jin. It was no small task, and it nearly exhausted him to death.

By a small stream, Aburame Tetsumaru tossed down the four completely unconscious Root Ninjas. After setting traps, he moved far away and killed them one by one. Only after confirming that their deaths had not triggered any follow-up methods or traps did he return to burn the bodies. He carefully scattered the ashes into the stream and let them drift away with the current.

He should cultivate some kind of evidence-erasing insect in the future, one that could eat everything clean, without even leaving bone fragments behind.

After finishing all that, Aburame Tetsumaru changed locations, took off his clothes and burned them to ashes, then disguised the spot as a buried campfire. Only then did he feel at ease returning to the original resting place.

By then, dawn had already broken. Ignoring his physical exhaustion, Aburame Tetsumaru hurried onward. He had to reach the camp at the scheduled time. Keeping everything normal on paper was far more reliable than trying to clear himself after falling under suspicion.

On the third day, Aburame Tetsumaru arrived at camp on schedule, wrapped up all his remaining assignments, and went straight to report to Orochimaru.

Orochimaru had become busy by then. The commander had shoved a mountain of paperwork onto him in an attempt to tie him down. Yet during the exchange of documents, the ninjas unexpectedly discovered that Orochimaru's judgments were precise, his suggestions reasonable, and his plans easier to carry out. Three months of paperwork had instead displayed his capabilities to every ninja.

When everyone considered you dependable, you had won their hearts.

Aburame Tetsumaru watched groups of ninjas line up to see Orochimaru as he calmly dealt with their problems one after another.

If someone had no idea where to begin a mission, he would find similar past cases and offer advice. If someone lacked supplies, he could give them a clear answer directly and even point out who was responsible. If someone had completed a mission but failed to find the target item, he would have them bring out all the spoils and expose the item's disguise on the spot.

Water benefited all things without contending, and thus nothing under heaven could contend with it.

Orochimaru had placed himself in the role of serving the Konoha Ninjas, presenting himself as the servant of every Konoha Ninja. The commander was completely out of options. Any scheme, open or hidden, was useless, because Orochimaru was employing an open strategy.

By earnestly serving everyone, using credibility and ability to earn their recognition, he would naturally gain the authority to serve them. Only then could trust and obedience reach their ideal peak.

As Aburame Tetsumaru looked at Orochimaru before him, he could not help feeling moved. This Orochimaru was soft yet grand, meticulous yet decisive. Though his affinity with others was somewhat lacking, his leadership and charisma were unmatched. He truly was an excellent candidate for Yondaime Hokage.

What kind of charisma Little Sun Namikaze Minato possessed was still unknown, but he likely could not truly surpass an Orochimaru like this. It was simply that sixteen years later, Orochimaru had already changed.

No matter what, however, Orochimaru in this perfect state was not invincible.

That was because he did not possess an independent power structure. He was a subordinate under higher authority. Even if he did everything perfectly, he could not stop that greater power from crushing him with a casual backhand.

Under that senseless suppression, Orochimaru became twisted and defected, yet he went on to live another extraordinary life and even laughed last. He truly was an unparalleled genius.

"My lord, I have returned."

Only after the crowd had dispersed and Orochimaru had finished a cup of tea did Aburame Tetsumaru slowly step forward and bow.

"Mm, you have improved greatly. If you had not deliberately revealed it, even I would have found it difficult to notice your presence. How did you do it?"

"The great elephant has no form."

"Oh~~, so it is the ultimate yet orderly dispersal of Chakra? What a fascinating idea." Orochimaru's eyes lit up, and he could not help licking his cheek. "Sometimes, I truly want to pry open your skull and see whether the structure inside is different from everyone else's. Otherwise, how could you have so many marvelous ideas?"

"..." Aburame Tetsumaru genuinely did not know whether he was joking. After all, this was Orochimaru. Opening someone's skull seemed perfectly normal for him. "Please do not joke like that, my lord."

Hehehehehe.

Orochimaru seemed to have truly been joking. He laughed happily for a while, then instructed, "I have nothing else for you at the moment. Remain on standby for now."

"Yes."

"If you acquire any new and fascinating knowledge, come find me whenever you wish. I still have plenty of things to trade."

"Thank you, my lord."

There was one benefit to being Orochimaru's subordinate: he was not busy. Orochimaru was highly goal-oriented. He would not act casually, nor was he like certain leaders who could not stand seeing their subordinates idle. As long as you could step up when it mattered, what you did normally was up to you.

Orochimaru himself was already very busy and had no time to manage discipline, uniforms, morale, or anything of the sort. He would only offer sufficient rewards plainly and directly.

This intelligent man was especially flexible in how he rewarded people. Adults supporting families received money. Idealistic young people received encouragement and opportunities to prove themselves. With Aburame Tetsumaru, he conducted equal exchanges of knowledge. He had keenly sensed Tetsumaru's pride and thirst for knowledge.

No wonder this fellow could casually gather a faction around himself. With such sharp instincts and flexible, targeted investment, he would be unstoppable when winning people over.

Squatting inside his tent, Aburame Tetsumaru focused intently on engraving runes into an insect.

All Chakra Runes were three-dimensional, so they could not be inscribed onto an insect's surface. They could only be carved inside its body. That required careful piercing, then weaving insect threads into the proper shape and securing them before finally circulating Chakra through them for inspection.

In forty seconds, the rune had been inscribed into one insect. This was the thousandth insect: a locust engraved with Wind Release acceleration runes, capable of triple jumping speed and double final attack speed.

That engraving speed was genuinely not slow, but Aburame Tetsumaru did not want to keep going. It was too tiring, too irritating, too mechanical. Especially that mechanical feeling—it meant the process could be automated.

And there were still so many insects that had yet to receive runes. Aburame Tetsumaru also wanted to inscribe two runes into an insect, three, or even more. His ultimate goal was to develop them into a Sealing Rune Array.

There were also research plans for giant insects, farmer assembly plans, dirt dog assembly plans, spit assembly plans, and so on and so forth. Too many. Far too many.

Aburame Tetsumaru needed more help. He needed to free himself from tedious repetitive labor. He needed to work from a higher level, planning and arranging the overall layout rather than being trapped in this endlessly repetitive work.

A thousand words could be condensed into one sentence: he needed to build a Mother Hive, even if it was only a rudimentary one.

What could a Mother Hive do?

In games, a Mother Hive could expand Creep, gather resources, breed Larvae, research technology, and hatch advanced units.

Aburame Tetsumaru wiped away his drool. Even if it could only help him inscribe runes automatically, it would save him an enormous amount of time. He brought his hands together and formed the Wu hand seal. "Release!"

After Aburame Tetsumaru's head swam for a moment, it transformed into an enormous fully enclosed helmet. He removed the helmet with both hands, revealing his true face. Other than his slightly pale complexion from prolonged lack of sunlight, he looked no different from his appearance under the Transformation Technique.

"I cannot openly establish a mechanized automated factory for now. I can only solve the problem of automated production through intelligence. Then I will develop a Brain Bug branch from the Eye of Truth."

Casting aside the irritating engraving work, Aburame Tetsumaru selected a site near the camp, dug underground, and began cultivating the Mother Hive.

First, he separated the Eye of Truth's functions and retained only the Brain Bug portion.

The main body of this intelligent insect was nothing but a brain, so its development required vast amounts of energy, and high-density energy at that. First, he had to raise a large colony of Sugar Ants to provide sugar.

Then mineral-gathering insects excavated a sufficiently large underground space to house the ever-growing Brain Bug.

Defenders were indispensable—not against ninjas, but against predatory insects. The Brain Bug could not even move on its own. If some insect truly attacked it, it could only wait to die.

Once the Brain Bug had matured, Aburame Tetsumaru began adding Larva reproductive glands and related organs. Next, he grafted an exoskeleton onto the Brain Bug's body, which stretched more than three hundred meters, to reinforce it. Using those exoskeletons as a framework, he grafted on over a thousand spider legs as tools.

Each of those many limbs and organs had to be connected to blood vessels and nerves one by one. Any limbs that died from failed connections also had to be removed individually. The workload was immense.

Fortunately, Aburame Tetsumaru possessed the Kikaichū, a super tool. Combined with the holographic perception of the Secret Technique: Domain Barrier, he finally integrated each separate life system into the Brain Bug's body.

The next task was programming the Brain Bug's work. There were only three tasks: first, breed Larvae and pupate them into the various Ninja Insects required; second, inscribe runes into newly born Ninja Insects; third, cultivate the heritability of runes and attempt to pupate insects born with runes already embedded.

Finally, the entire system was tested and confirmed to be functioning smoothly. All work was complete.

Aburame Tetsumaru followed the underground passages, inspecting one chamber after another. He watched insect eggs being laid, carried by Mole Crickets into incubation chambers, hatch into Larvae, automatically move into pupation chambers to await orders, and then be assigned by the Brain Bug for pupation.

Then, the tireless Brain Bug controlled hundreds of insect limbs to inject the pupae with Nutrient Solution, Growth Hormone, and minerals.

The pupated locusts, Combination Insects, dragonflies, Landmine Insects, and Camouflage Insects entered their respective production lines according to instructions. On those lines, the Brain Bug directed its tentacles to thread insect threads through every insect, weave them into shape, secure them, and finally activate them.

The insects successfully activated left the production lines. Those that failed died immediately and were sent away to be processed into feed or Nutrient Solution.

The entire Brain Bug operation maintained a relentless 007 work schedule. Even though the success rates for hatching, pupation, and engraving were each far from ideal, the overall production capacity still satisfied Aburame Tetsumaru immensely.

After struggling for so many years, he had finally become a capitalist exploiting insect labor.

The results of Orochimaru's two months of instruction were truly extraordinary, though it was not all Orochimaru's credit. He had merely filled in the final missing link Aburame Tetsumaru lacked.

Nothing could be accomplished all at once. Every undertaking consisted of many steps and different components. Every step had to be completed, and no component could be missing, or the task would fail.

Previously, due to his lack of Chakra and ninjutsu knowledge, Aburame Tetsumaru had been forced to improvise with knowledge from his previous life and the Insect Manipulation Secret Technique. He had no idea how many compromises he had made along the way, and countless inspirations had been abandoned out of necessity.

The Mother Hive concept had been brewing for at least two years, but it was an enormous project. The steps and components it required exceeded insect cultivation by three or four orders of magnitude. There were so many missing links that compromise could not possibly make up for them. He had simply had no way to begin.

Now that the Chakra knowledge link had been filled in, even though it was not perfect, Aburame Tetsumaru still completed a bankrupt version of the Mother Hive within forty days. The technology point for Mother Hive construction had finally been unlocked.

Although it would not produce the same qualitative leap in combat power as Chakra Rune engraving, Aburame Tetsumaru's Insect Swarm development had officially begun. This was the difference between zero and one.

Before this, Aburame Tetsumaru believed that he would eventually use the Insect Swarm to dominate the Shinobi World, but he could not determine when that would happen. Most likely, it would be like the practical application of fusion reactors on Blue Star—always fifty years away.

Now, Aburame Tetsumaru could say with certainty that in as little as ten years, or at most thirty, the Insect Swarm would leave the cradle of the Shinobi World, step into deep space, and conquer the Star Sea.

After sealing twenty thousand enhanced insects into the Insect Hive and dismissing the summoning, Aburame Tetsumaru returned to camp in high spirits. From now on, he only needed to come by regularly to collect the insects.

When he returned to camp, he found that Orochimaru was gone. Checking his mission records, he discovered that he had been slacking off on the battlefield for two months. That was a bit of a problem.

The records on paper would not be easy to alter. This lengthy gap in his missions could become a small problem if anyone investigated in the future. He needed to work seriously for a while and add more mission records for himself.

After taking several harmless patrol missions, Aburame Tetsumaru began busily farming missions.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, while Aburame Tetsumaru was on patrol, he suddenly received Orochimaru's emergency summoning signal. He immediately abandoned his mission and rushed over. Along the way, he encountered several groups of ninjas—some of Orochimaru's people, as well as Anbu and Root personnel.

The closer he got to the destination, the more ninjas there were. The atmosphere between them was wrong as well, heavy with mutual hostility.

Something big had happened.

When he arrived, many ninjas had already gathered around Orochimaru. The Anbu and Root Ninjas wore masks, making their expressions impossible to see, but the ordinary ninjas all had dull eyes and trembling hands and feet.

Without any courtesy, Aburame Tetsumaru shoved aside an Anbu Ninja who tried to stop him and flashed to Orochimaru's side. Yet he saw that Orochimaru, usually wise and decisive, wore an expression of bewilderment, helplessness, grief, and rage.

Three steps in front of Orochimaru, a corpse leaned against a broken tree trunk. Its chestnut hair was matted with blood and black ash, but the face was still recognizable. It was Nawaki. Senju Nawaki.

Aburame Tetsumaru's eyes widened as he stared him up and down in disbelief. He instinctively lunged forward to examine him, but a Root Ninja wearing a mask covered in intricate patterns stepped out, Kunai in hand, and blocked him.

The man seemed to be loudly berating him about something.

In his state of extreme shock, Aburame Tetsumaru could not hear a word he said. He had even lost the ability to think. Instinctively, he knew Root was the enemy, and enemies should be knocked down.

Tetsumaru stretched out one hand. In an instant, countless shrieks rang out. Locusts leaped from his body, Scorpions launched themselves from the ground, and Combination Insects took flight in the distance.

Most deadly of all were the Poison-Stinger Beetles that flipped out from his wrist cuff, firing venom needles at the mask only a foot away.

Fortunately, this was a public setting under countless watchful eyes. The last shred of reason in Aburame Tetsumaru's heart stopped him from killing. He merely drove the Root Ninja away with a relentless barrage of attacks, approached Nawaki's body, and examined it.

It truly was Nawaki himself. The life signature was correct. More importantly, he was genuinely dead.

This was bad. Something huge had happened.