Following the supply convoy at a slow pace, Aburame Tetsumaru silently calculated that there were now five Mother Hives in the Land of Fire and nine in the Land of Wind. However, the Land of Wind was too barren. Its Mother Hives could only meet the needs of the Mineral Insect Swarm and lacked the capacity to mass-produce troops.
The five Mother Hives in the Land of Fire could produce resources to create blade mantises and Explosive Locusts. The Explosive Locusts were ammunition, so they did not count for now. There were only thirty-one mature blade mantises at present, but in a month, production would reach forty-six per month. The total number of blade mantises would soon surge, taking another step toward the goal of an army of a million giant insects.
Six days later, Team 121 completed its escort mission. Tetsumaru took his three listless disciples back to their squad's camp to rest.
"Sensei, when are we getting a combat mission? I can't take this anymore!" Inuzuka O shouted irritably.
"We've done twelve escort missions in a row, back and forth, and nothing happened at all. It's so boring."
"This sucks. Building bridges was more fun. At least we fought three waves of Suna Ninja then."
"Let's switch missions, please, Sensei!"
"..."
The two troublesome boys complained back and forth.
Nara Yoshino said nothing. He could not even be bothered to roll his eyes, merely staring straight at his teacher.
He also wanted a different mission. Not having to build bridges had excited them at first, but two straight months of escort duty, doing nothing but running around, had become even more boring.
Tetsumaru sent the three disciples off to rest. The mission had been assigned directly to him, so there was nothing he could do.
They were all