Aburame Shio

Morning in the Hidden Leaf Village always carried a contradiction of chill and vitality. The sun had only just leapt over the horizon, spreading golden light across Hokage Rock, and the streets were already filled with the scattered sounds of shops opening and early-rising villagers going about their day.

Uchiha Narong straightened the brand-new Leaf forehead protector on his brow, making sure the metal plate that symbolized his status gleamed properly. Though the clan often met the so-called "Will of Fire" with a complicated silence, that did not stop Narong from feeling a subtle anticipation at officially becoming a ninja. He could finally go out and see the real ninja world.

He strolled toward the famed Ichiraku Ramen stall in the center of the village. At this time, Teuchi was still far from the calm ramen master he would become in the future. He was only a spirited young man, briskly preparing for the day's business under his parents' guidance.

Narong ordered a bowl of the signature chashu ramen. The steaming broth warmed his stomach and drove away the morning chill. As for this bowl of ramen that would run through countless legendary stories in the future, Narong's inner evaluation was rather objective: it tasted good, the broth was rich, and the noodles had a nice bite, but perhaps because his expectations had been too high, it felt "just okay," far from the miraculous realm of being able to make someone forget their troubles.

After breakfast, Narong headed straight for the Forest of Death on the edge of the village. According to the notice from the Ninja Academy, today would be the first meeting with their jonin instructor and teammates after graduation team assignments, and the location had been set at one of the entrances on the outskirts of the Forest of Death.

The air had already begun to fill with the forest's unique damp smell, a mixture of soil and rotting plants, hinting at the danger and mystery of this training ground.

When he arrived at the appointed place, he found that two people were already waiting there. One of them was a figure he could not be more familiar with—Might Guy, the guy who had carved hot-blooded passion and taijutsu into his bones. His iconic bowl cut, thick eyebrows, and eyes that always burned with flame-like enthusiasm made him impossible to ignore.

Guy saw Narong too and immediately broke into a radiant smile, waving hard. "Yo! Narong! Youth really does mean being on time!"

Narong nodded, acknowledging Guy's enthusiasm. His gaze then turned to the other person. It was a girl who looked somewhat slender and frail. Her ear-length short hair made her seem very neat, and her delicate face carried a quietness rare for her age, even something that could be called shy. She wore a well-fitted green bodysuit, seemingly for ease of movement.

Seeing Narong look over, she dipped her head slightly and greeted him in a soft voice. "Hello, Uchiha. I'm Amamiya Ren." After speaking, she took a small step back and quietly stood to the side, forming a sharp contrast with the energetic Guy beside her.

Narong quickly searched his memory and truly did not have any deep impression of this teammate named Amamiya Ren. During their time at the Ninja Academy, everyone's attention had mostly been focused on the geniuses of the major clans or on people with extremely distinct personalities like Guy. In his memory, she seemed to have always been silently practicing the basics of medical ninjutsu, introverted and not especially eye-catching. At nine years old, she seemed a little younger than her peers too, so it was no wonder her presence had not been strong. Still, since she had graduated and been placed on the same team, she had to have something outstanding about her, especially as a medical ninja, a role often indispensable to a team.

After the three exchanged a few simple greetings, they fell into a brief silence. Guy kept doing stretches, muttering about the trials of youth, while Amamiya Ren lowered her head and looked at the tips of her own shoes, who knew what she was thinking. Narong crossed his arms and leaned against a tree trunk, looking relaxed, but in truth maintaining the vigilance unique to the Uchiha Clan.

The moment the clock hand pointed to exactly eight, Narong's brow moved almost imperceptibly. He did not activate his Sharingan. Though it was sharp in sensing chakra, it was not his usual method of perception. What he relied on was an intuition toward subtle changes in the surrounding environment, cultivated through long training.

Just now, he had caught an extremely faint, almost imperceptible chakra fluctuation. Like ripples stirred by a breeze passing over water, it quickly disappeared into the background "noise" of the forest. This fluctuation did not come from a beast inside the forest. Instead, it carried a clear trace that belonged to a human and had been finely controlled.

"He's here," Narong said in a low voice, his tone calm, yet it instantly made Guy and Amamiya Ren beside him tense their nerves.

Guy immediately stopped warming up and took a guarded stance, his sharp gaze sweeping over the surrounding trees. Amamiya Ren also subconsciously clenched her fists. Though she seemed a little nervous, there was determination in her eyes as well.

What a simple and crude way to make an entrance. Narong thought to himself. Approaching with a hidden presence like this was undoubtedly a test of their alertness. He reminded them again, "Be careful. The other side is a jonin."

As soon as he finished speaking, in the open space ahead, the air seemed to distort slightly, and a figure silently appeared as if seeping out of the shadows.

The newcomer wore a standard Leaf jonin green vest over a dark high-collared bodysuit. Sunglasses covered most of his face, and what stood out most was his tall raised collar, which almost completely concealed the lower half of his face as well. His entire person exuded a calm, even gloomy air.

"Aburame jonin..." Narong immediately recognized Aburame Shio, their jonin instructor. After all, they had met during graduation season yesterday. He was a ninja from a secret arts clan who relied on Destruction Bugs for combat and reconnaissance.

Aburame Shio offered no opening words and even skipped his self-introduction. He only stood there silently, his gaze behind the sunglasses sweeping over the three genin before him. Then, without warning, he moved.

Battle erupted in an instant.

Aburame Shio's figure rushed forward like a ghost. His speed was not fast to the extreme, but it carried a suffocating precision and pressure. His target was Might Guy, who stood at the front.

"Leaf Whirlwind!" Guy shouted, charging up without the slightest fear. His taijutsu had indeed already reached a considerable level. This high-speed spinning kick was heavy and powerful, slicing through the air with a sharp sound.

However, Aburame Shio merely shifted his body slightly. His right hand shot out like lightning, not to block, but to land precisely on Guy's incoming lower leg, then guide and push with the momentum. Guy only felt a clever force pass through him. His center of gravity instantly fell apart, and he staggered several steps to the side against his will. The powerful kick was easily dissolved.

The instant Guy was led away, Aburame Shio had already completed hand seals with his left hand.

"Ninja Art: Insect Sphere!"

A small mass of black cloud-like mist surged from his sleeve, letting out a scalp-numbing buzz. It did not pounce toward Guy, but instead headed straight for Uchiha Narong and Amamiya Ren slightly farther back. This was a typical tactic for controlling the field and splitting the enemy apart.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" Narong reacted extremely quickly, completing the hand seals almost the instant the swarm appeared. He took a deep breath, his chest swelling, then spat out a fireball roughly one meter in diameter. Scorching flames rolled toward the swarm, trying to burn it to ash. This was the signature Fire Style ninjutsu of the Uchiha Clan. Even at the genin stage, the Great Fireball Narong unleashed was quite powerful.

However, an astonishing scene occurred. Facing the incoming fireball, the black swarm did not take it head-on. Instead, it scattered abruptly, nimbly avoiding the very center of the flames as if it had a life of its own. Although some insects on the edges were charred and fell, most of them were only forced back by the heat wave, then quickly gathered again in midair and continued pressing in with almost no loss of speed. Aburame Shio's control over his insects had already reached the level of moving them as easily as his own limbs.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" Narong did not hesitate, immediately casting a second ninjutsu. He tried to use Wind Style to feed the fire, or at least blow apart these troublesome insects. A powerful stream of air burst from his mouth, sweeping up dust and fallen leaves from the ground and mixing with the flames that had not yet fully dispersed, forming a barrier woven from wind and fire.

This time, the swarm seemed to be affected more severely. Its forward momentum was blocked by the strong wind, and the buzzing also became somewhat chaotic.

But Aburame Shio himself had already used the chaos created by the swarm and ninjutsu to silently close in on Narong's side.

So fast! Narong was startled. The other party's speed and grasp of timing far exceeded his expectations. He hurriedly retreated while using the Substitution Technique.

"Pfft!" Aburame Shio's knifehand chopped through, cleanly splitting a substitute log in two. The real Uchiha Narong appeared several meters away, a faint sweat on his brow. If his reaction had been half a beat slower just now, he would probably already have been hit.

"Ren! Watch out!" Guy had stabilized himself by now. Seeing that Aburame Shio's next target seemed to be Amamiya Ren standing in the rear, he immediately roared and charged again. "Dynamic Prelude!" He shot out like a cannonball, throwing a straight punch at Aburame Shio's back, trying to rescue Zhao by besieging Wei.

Aburame Shio seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Without even turning around, he merely took a light step to the side and dodged Guy's full-force strike at just the right moment. At the same time, another small stream of insects flew from his sleeve, wrapping toward Guy's hands and feet like ropes.

Guy hurriedly swung his arms to block. Though he knocked several insects away, a few still crawled onto his arms and calves. These insects did not attack immediately. Instead, they began absorbing Guy's chakra, making him feel a slight weakness and stinging pain, and his movements could not help stalling.

Facing the jonin who had suddenly turned toward her, Amamiya Ren's face went a little pale, but she did not panic. She quickly jumped back, ready to use the Substitution Technique at any time.

She did not take the initiative to attack. Instead, she took out a kunai and assumed a defensive stance. Her choice was very correct. Against a jonin whose strength far surpassed her own, rashly attacking was suicide. Holding a firm defense and waiting for support from her teammates was the wise move.

Aburame Shio's sunglasses seemed to glance at the kunai in Amamiya Ren's hand, and his movement paused slightly, as though he had some approval for her reaction, but his assault did not stop. His figure flickered, as if splitting into three afterimages that attacked Amamiya Ren from different directions. This was the effect of clones produced by high-speed movement. They were not solid, but they were highly deceptive.

"Left!" Narong's voice rang out in time. Though his Sharingan was not active, his dynamic vision and observation were still far beyond ordinary people's, and he instantly judged where the real body was. At the same time, he formed seals again. This time it was the simple "Ninja Art: Smoke Bomb." With a puff, a thick cloud of smoke exploded between him and Amamiya Ren, blocking the line of sight.

Aburame Shio's real body rushed into the smoke, but his movements seemed completely unaffected. Destruction Bugs could not only attack and absorb chakra, they were also excellent reconnaissance units. Smoke was no different from empty air to them. He only took two seconds to cross through the smoke, but those two seconds had already bought Guy time.

"Don't even think you'll succeed! The power of youth is limitless!" Guy roared, forcibly shaking off the insects on him that were sucking his chakra. Though the price was losing quite a bit of chakra, he used "Leaf Gale" once again, sweeping at the lower body and forcing Aburame Shio to leap and evade.

The battle continued like this for more than ten minutes. Aburame Shio remained at ease the entire time. He was like an experienced symphony conductor, while the three genin were musicians struggling to keep up with the rhythm but always half a beat slow. He rarely used powerful ninjutsu. Relying only on taijutsu, basic Clone Technique, and those elusive, versatile Destruction Bugs, he forced the three of them into a miserable state.

Against Guy, he used clever force and insect interference to dissolve his powerful taijutsu offense while constantly draining his stamina and chakra. Every fierce attack from Guy was either easily dodged, guided into empty air, or entangled by insects. The feeling of having strength but being unable to use it left him incomparably stifled.

Against Narong, he used speed and the swarm to suppress him, interrupting the rhythm of his ninjutsu and forcing him to constantly use the Substitution Technique and Body Flicker Technique to evade, consuming his chakra and spirit. Though Narong's coordination of Fire Style and Wind Style displayed decent tactical ability, under Aburame Shio's millisecond-precise interruptions and counterattacks, it was very difficult for him to form effective continuous attacks.

Against Amamiya Ren, it was mainly restraint and probing, occasionally applying pressure to observe her reactions and support ability as a medical ninja. Amamiya Ren remained on defense throughout. Several times, she tried to use chakra threads to transfer a small amount of chakra to Guy to ease his fatigue, but each attempt was interrupted by Aburame Shio using insects or feints.

The three of them also seemed unpracticed in cooperation. There was some tacit understanding between Narong and Guy, such as Narong using ninjutsu to create close-combat openings for Guy, and Guy also helping Narong out of trouble at critical moments. But Amamiya Ren's interaction with them was almost zero. She was more like an independent unit, trying to protect herself while occasionally attempting support, yet always finding it hard to enter the rhythm of the other two's fight.

Finally, during an attack where the three tried to surround him, Aburame Shio revealed a jonin's true strength.

First, he waved his hand as if casually, and a swarm several times larger than before surged out like a black tide, forcing Narong and Guy to defend with all their strength.

Immediately afterward, he himself moved at a speed far beyond what he had shown earlier and appeared behind Amamiya Ren in an instant, lightly tapping a finger against the back of her neck. Amamiya Ren's body stiffened. Her chakra flow was instantly cut off, and she slumped to the ground.

Almost at the same time, Aburame Shio's figure returned before Narong and Guy as if teleporting. Guy had exhausted a great deal of chakra because of the prolonged failed assault, and his movements had already slowed considerably. Aburame Shio struck him in the abdomen with a simple elbow, making him grunt and drop to one knee.

Narong tried to use Phoenix Sage Fire Technique to launch an area attack, but insects flying from Aburame Shio's sleeve swiftly formed a black shield, blocking all the fireballs. Then the shield scattered, turning back into a swarm that surrounded the panting Narong on all sides, buzzing but not attacking further.

The battle ended there. From start to finish, just over ten minutes had passed. All three genin were defeated. Aburame Shio's clothes did not even have any obvious creases.