Human vs. Insect

After listening to Shibi Aburame, Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana exchanged a glance. They both saw a trace of unease in each other's eyes.

Ninja who could join a reconnaissance squad basically all had the ability to detect enemies from long range.

Though this type of squad had to constantly move at the very front of the battlefield, they could discover enemies in advance, which meant the squad had a strong ability to avoid combat.

But even so, the reconnaissance squads at the front had still suffered heavy losses. That meant the situation on the battlefield was far more brutal than they had imagined.

"It looks like you've already understood the situation at the front. To make sure you can survive on the battlefield for as long as possible, I'll do everything I can to teach you. But before that, I need to understand your strength," Shibi Aburame said.

"Teacher Shibui, are you going to spar with us?" Yamanaka Kizuki asked.

"If you spar with me, you'll be taken down in an instant. My insects aren't good at holding back, so the test I'm giving you is to hold out for twenty minutes under the assault of these one thousand insects. Of course, if you can kill these insects, that will also count as passing the test.

"One extra reminder: these one thousand insects will devour a person's chakra. With an ordinary genin's Chakra Amount, ten insects can drain them dry in one minute. Now, the test begins!" After saying that, Shibi Aburame patted the jar behind him, and one thousand insects flew out of it, heading straight for Uchiha Yuan and the others.

The instant the insects were released, Yamanaka Kizuki used the Mind Transfer Body Technique to connect the three of their minds.

"Yuan, what do we do?" Yamanaka Kizuki asked in the mental space.

"You two fall back first. I'll try using Fire Style. In theory, insects should all be afraid of fire."

Hearing that, Hyuga Asana and Yamanaka Kizuki immediately chose to retreat.

Uchiha Yuan activated his Sharingan and locked onto the swarm's flight path.

Once the insects flew a little closer, Uchiha Yuan quickly formed hand seals with both hands.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

A massive fireball burst from Uchiha Yuan's mouth, directly engulfing the incoming swarm.

From the Sharingan's perspective, Uchiha Yuan could clearly see that after the Great Fireball Technique struck the swarm, the insects on the outermost layer were instantly burned black.

But the scorched insects did not fall. Instead, they were grabbed by the other insects, which quickly formed a huge circle. Using the corpses of those charred insects, the remaining insects passed through the Great Fireball Technique and continued charging toward Uchiha Yuan.

Uchiha Yuan frowned. To be honest, how troublesome these insects were had somewhat exceeded his expectations.

Logically speaking, insects were all afraid of fire. After the Great Fireball Technique hit them, they should have been burned to death instantly, and their corpses should have been reduced to ash.

Some of the insects at the very front of this wave had indeed been burned to death, but their corpses had not been incinerated by the Great Fireball's high temperature. Instead, the other insects had used those corpses to isolate themselves from the heat and rush out of the Great Fireball's range.

The insects' corpses had not been burned away, which meant the insects themselves had a certain degree of fire resistance. And this behavior of using their companions' corpses to break out of the area wrapped in flames—Uchiha Yuan felt it should have been Shibi Aburame controlling them. Otherwise, insects absolutely could not have done something like this.

Since Shibi Aburame could control the insects remotely, then trying to wipe out all the insects was obviously unrealistic.

On top of that, the swarm was getting closer and closer to him. Uchiha Yuan no longer had time to use a second Fire Style. To avoid being stuck to by these insects, Uchiha Yuan decisively used Teleportation and jumped to Hyuga Asana's side.

When Shibi Aburame saw Uchiha Yuan's Body Flicker, the look behind his sunglasses showed a hint of surprise. Uchiha Yuan's Body Flicker Technique just now had truly been fast. Shibi Aburame felt that even if it were him, he would not be able to use such a fast Body Flicker.

The last time he had seen a Body Flicker Technique this fast seemed to be Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God.

"Interesting little brat," Shibi Aburame murmured to himself.

When Uchiha Yuan teleported to Hyuga Asana's side, he returned to the range of Yamanaka Kizuki's Mind Transfer Body Technique. Yamanaka Kizuki immediately asked in the mental space, "Yuan, how is it?"

"The effect of Fire Style was average. My Great Fireball Technique just now probably burned seventy or eighty insects to death. The remaining insects used the corpses of those seventy or eighty insects to rush out of the Great Fireball Technique's range."

"Then what should we do?" Yamanaka Kizuki continued asking.

"There are two ways. One is to keep attacking. Asana and I both know Fire Style. The two of us can use the Byakugan and Sharingan to look for openings in the swarm's flight, then adjust our angles with the Body Flicker Technique and attack the swarm with Fire Style.

"But if we do that, Asana's and my chakra will be consumed very quickly, and there's a high chance we won't be able to wipe out these one thousand insects, because Teacher Shibui can remotely control these insects.

"The other way is to stall for time. Teacher Shibui's test for us is to hold out for twenty minutes. If it's only a matter of not being touched by the insects for twenty minutes, then with the cooperation of the three of our bloodline traits and family secret techniques, we can still do it. What do you say?" Uchiha Yuan asked.

"Let's pass the test first!" Hyuga Asana answered.

"That's what I think too."

"Good! Then that's what we'll do!"

Communication in the mental space was extremely fast. The three of them formulated their battle plan, and only a few seconds had passed in reality.

After confirming their next objective, Uchiha Yuan, Hyuga Asana, and Yamanaka Kizuki began moving as a group.

Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana activated the Sharingan and Byakugan respectively, while Uchiha Yuan also opened his Mind's Eye.

The Mind's Eye's sensory range was five meters larger than Yamanaka Kizuki's current sensory range, so it could offer some help.

After that, under Uchiha Yuan's command, Hyuga Asana and Yamanaka Kizuki began using the swarm's flight paths to dodge.

Every time the insects were about to get close, Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana would take turns using Fire Style to forcibly make the swarm stop.

Yamanaka Kizuki, meanwhile, was responsible for confirming whether any stragglers had slipped through and were quietly approaching.

With the three of them cooperating with each other, twenty minutes quickly passed. Of the one thousand insects, Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana had joined forces to destroy half of them with Fire Style, but the two of them had also almost bottomed out their chakra by now.

Once time was up, Shibi Aburame called the insects back, then walked up to the three of them and said, "Not bad. Honestly, the fact that you held out for twenty minutes exceeded my expectations a little."

"Teacher Shibui, if you hadn't controlled the swarm, we might have had a chance to wipe out all one thousand insects," Yamanaka Kizuki said, looking unconvinced.

"I didn't control the swarm," Shibi Aburame said.

"You didn't control the swarm? Then how did the insects manage to use their companions' corpses to avoid the Fire Style?" Hyuga Asana asked in surprise.