The Eye-Nose-Ear Team

"What kind of weird squad name is the Eye-Nose-Ear Team?"

Inuzuka Gai voiced his doubts, and Aburame Tomohiro looked at Hyuga Shinichi in confusion.

"Look, I have the Byakugan, so I can see a long way. That makes me the 'eye.' Gai and Black Charcoal have very sharp noses, so they're the 'nose.' Tomohiro, you've bred a special kind of bug, haven't you? It can hear sounds and transmit them to you over a distance, so you're the 'ear.' What do you think? Pretty good, right?"

Gai's keen sense of smell came from his clan's secret techniques, as well as the training he'd done himself. And that brought them back to something Hyuga Shinichi had brought home from a mission: an unidentified medicinal herb.

Once, Gai had caught the strong scent of something Shinichi had brought back. When they took it out, they found it was a medicinal herb. Shinichi gave it to Gai, who brought it back to his clan.

After studying it, the Inuzuka Clan discovered that applying and ingesting the herb over a long period, combined with their secret techniques, could heighten the sensitivity of the user's sense of smell.

The drawback was that, at first, the nose became extremely sensitive. They had to wear specially made masks to dull their sense of smell and gradually get used to it.

Once they adapted, they could use chakra to control the sensitivity of their sense of smell. The herb worked on Ninja Dogs, too, so the Inuzuka Clan recorded it in their clan's secret techniques.

Aburame Tomohiro, meanwhile, had bred a special kind of bug, inspired by a conversation he'd once had with Hyuga Shinichi.

Shinichi had told Tomohiro about ant pheromones, as well as what he'd read online in his previous life—that ants could communicate through sound.

When Shinichi used his Byakugan to observe the ants Tomohiro was raising, he did indeed spot a special, spike-shaped structure on the upper side of their abdomens. When an ant rubbed it with its hind legs, it produced a faint sound of a certain frequency.

Using these observations, Tomohiro combined them with his clan's secret techniques to breed a bug capable of transmitting sound. He named it the Sound-Stealing Bug. Like the Secret Technique: Kikaichū, it was a bug used for reconnaissance.

The Sound-Stealing Bugs came in two types: a queen and workers. The queen stayed in Tomohiro's ear canal, while the workers could send the sounds they heard back to her, allowing Tomohiro to hear them through his clan's secret technique.

The drawback was that they couldn't transmit over long distances. Their maximum range was a little over three hundred meters. Beyond that, the sounds they transmitted became intermittent.

The Aburame Clan later learned about them, saw their benefits, and recorded them in the clan's secret techniques.

At present, Tomohiro was the only one who had managed to breed Sound-Stealing Bugs, and their survival rate was very low. He had one queen and four workers. Two were tiny crawling bugs that could dig and move quickly, while the other two were small flying bugs that could fly fast.

After learning that Shinichi was behind these developments, both clans invited him and the Hyuga Clan's senior members to visit. They seemed poised to become an alliance of clans like Ino-Shika-Cho.

The matter also reached Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. After considering whether the idea was viable, he gave it his full support.

After all, the three clans' combined abilities would make gathering intelligence much easier, and the importance of intelligence went without saying. What's more, their combined offensive and defensive capabilities were no weaker than Ino-Shika-Cho's. The village would gain another powerful team.

The three of them could now be called the first "experimental squad" of their three clans and the village.

"It's a pretty lame name, but it does fit our squad."

"I don't mind."

"Woof!"

"Good. The First Eye-Nose-Ear Team is officially formed. Now for our first mission: escort our target to the Land of Iron and return safely to Konoha."

As the sun sank completely below the horizon, the merchant caravan set off. The Eye-Nose-Ear Team sat atop a carriage, resting while keeping watch for any danger that might appear.

They ran into trouble at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Iron. A band of rogue samurai, now bandits, appeared in the middle of the road and on both sides of the caravan. The Eye-Nose-Ear Team had noticed someone following them as they crossed out of the Land of Fire, but hadn't tipped them off, letting them continue.

"What do you think, Shinichi?"

"Gai and Tomohiro, can you handle the people on both sides? I'll take care of the ones up ahead."

Since Hyuga Shinichi was the "eye," he was also the squad leader and made the decisions.

"Hahaha, no problem. I've been wanting to stretch my legs after such a long trip. Black Charcoal, get ready to fight."

"Woof!"

Black Charcoal was now as large as an adult wolf. His fearsome fangs bared at once, and he let out a rumbling growl like a tractor starting up. Some of the more timid samurai began to tremble.

"Come out and stretch your legs, Earth Centipede."

The ground in front of Aburame Tomohiro split open, and a red-headed centipede the size of an adult boa emerged. Venom dripped from its foremost pair of legs, while Kikaichū began crawling out of its body, frightening some of the samurai.

Watching his two teammates attack, Hyuga Shinichi felt as if he were playing a Pokémon battle.

Shinichi shook his head, put the thought aside, and faced the leader of the rogue samurai blocking their path.

"Lay down your weapons now, and we won't kill you. We'll detain you and hand you over to the Land of Iron."

"You little brat, you haven't even grown hair yet, and you're already running your mouth! Oh, you're from the Hyuga Clan, too. I've never cut down someone with a Kekkei Genkai as enviable as yours. Men, attack!"

With that, he drew his samurai sword and charged at the head of his men.

"Honestly, you could've had this the easy way. Wind Style: Vacuum Blast!"

Hyuga Shinichi braced both hands at his waist, like he was charging up a Kamehameha from his previous life. As the samurai closed in, he unleashed a blast that sent their leader flying behind the crowd. His chest was mangled, and it was impossible to tell if he was still alive. The remaining force sent several more samurai tumbling backward.

"Damn it! That power's definitely not from an ordinary jutsu. The brat can't use it again and again. Let's all attack together! This caravan must be carrying plenty of money. We'll be living it up for a while once we get our hands on it!"

One of the rogue samurai, second in rank only to the leader, shouted. His words encouraged the men who had been thinking of backing down.

Seeing this, Hyuga Shinichi sighed and drew the Listen-to-Wind Sword from his back.

"Wind-Riding Sword Technique: Wind-Cutting Slash!"

A greenish-blue slash shot forth. Several samurai tried to block it with their swords, but they and their weapons were cut in half at the waist. Shinichi then charged into the crowd with his sword, sending out one powerful slash after another. Each one drew a spray of blood.

Inuzuka Gai and Black Charcoal used Gatsuga to charge into the crowd, then activated the Four Legs Technique, concentrating chakra in their limbs. Their bodies took on a beastlike form, increasing their traction and attack power as they fought through the crowd together.

Aburame Tomohiro stayed where he was and controlled his Kikaichū to attack the samurai. The giant red-headed centipede called Earth Centipede burrowed back and forth beneath the ground, keeping some of the samurai scrambling to respond. Those struck by it were poisoned and lay on the ground foaming at the mouth.

Before long, the three of them had dealt with all the rogue samurai. Hyuga Shinichi was the first to finish, capturing several of the men who were too weak to keep fighting.

Inuzuka Gai also took care of his opponents, leaving some of the samurai badly injured. The men Aburame Tomohiro fought weren't so lucky—not one survived. They were either bitten to death by Kikaichū or poisoned by Earth Centipede.