Aburame Tetsumaru was jolted awake by a high-priority signal.
After the all-night revelry that lasted until dawn, he had only just drifted off. He spent several minutes in a groggy, confused stupor before the realization finally clicked: this was the signal for the discovery of the "Giant Insects."
Tetsumaru was instantly alert, practically jumping three feet into the air. He immediately deployed several Shadow Clones to investigate the specifics.
They had finally found them! After a year of grueling excavation—expanding the scale of the Burrowing Worms to six thousand units and weaving a Subterranean Underground Network across half the Land of Wind—he had finally struck gold.
The "Giant Insects" in question were Giant Ants. They had been hiding within the ruins of an oasis that had been abandoned for centuries. No one in the Land of Wind even knew that the parched spring in that ruin had somehow recovered its flow.
The Giant Ants had monopolized the oasis, but their massive appetites had suppressed the growth of local vegetation, ensuring that from the outside, the area still looked like a stretch of barren yellow sand.
Through preliminary observations, Tetsumaru discovered that these Giant Ants were pure carnivores. Their primary food source was fish and shellfish carried by the underground rivers. They didn't even "eat" the plants they chewed up; instead, they used the mulch to farm a specific type of herbivorous bug in their underground chambers—a high-end delicacy reserved exclusively for the Queen.
This was it—the essential sample for the next stage of his Swarm's evolution.
Ultimately, Tetsumaru only dispatched two Shadow Clones to conduct the formal investigation. He didn't dare go himself, nor did he dare send more clones. The war was reaching its absolute climax; with the Kazekage barely thirty-five kilometers away, everything had to take a backseat to the campaign.
Furthermore, Tetsumaru was currently dealing with a massive technical headache that was draining his energy.
To maintain total surveillance over the battlefield, he had constructed nine Broodmothers and roughly seventy Relay Outposts across the Land of Rivers to establish a communication network for his swarm.
The infrastructure had worked flawlessly during testing, but the reality of active combat had exposed a fatal flaw: the system was literally exploding.
Once the fighting started, the insects began sending a constant stream of alarm data, while Tetsumaru was frequently broadcasting complex tactical commands. Because the biological signal system lacked any data-filtering or processing functions, every single "packet" was transmitted indiscriminately.
As a biology major, Tetsumaru had never considered the concept of "network overload." When the signal capacity hit its limit, the Broodmothers and Relay Outposts began to overheat. For a cluster of bugs, "overheating" meant dying—or, in the case of the weaker outposts, literally catching fire.
He was forced to keep Shadow Clones on a constant rotation for maintenance and reconstruction.
On the second day, ten outposts "burned out" and two caught fire. By the third day, the first Relay Outpost exploded. Since then, an outpost had blown up roughly every two to three hours.
Yesterday, a Broodmother inside the Land of Wind had detonated. Fortunately, the Suna ninjas were so preoccupied with Sakumo Hatake that nobody paid much attention to the localized "bug-splosion."
The overload issue was only getting worse, forcing Tetsumaru to keep nearly thirty Shadow Clones active just to handle repairs.
This didn't hinder his combat effectiveness—chakra volume wasn't his bottleneck—but the lack of output efficiency and burst power remained the ceiling on his actual combat level.
Discovering the Giant Ants now was truly awkward. Tetsumaru wanted nothing more than to drop everything, capture a breeding pair, and start his research immediately. But logic dictated he hold back. The life-or-death struggle wasn't over yet.
It's miserable, he thought. Screw it. If I'm frustrated, I'll just take it out on the Sand.
The thousand-plus Suna ninjas in the Land of Rivers had endured another sleepless night. After three days of what could only be described as "guerrilla psychological warfare," the Sand were losing their minds.
After the fireworks died down, the Suna forces had mobilized a massive search party to hunt the "Konoha brat," but predictably, they found nothing.
As the sky began to grey, the soldiers thought they had finally reached the end of the night's torture. Then came the Explosive Flight-Locusts.
The timing was diabolical. Tetsumaru struck during the guard rotation, exactly when the relief shift was groggy and the Kazekage had only been asleep for a few minutes.
Out of forty-plus giant locusts, less than ten were intercepted. The remaining thirty detonated within the camp, causing catastrophic damage.
The precision of the strike was so perfect that the Suna ninjas began to suspect there was a high-level mole within their own ranks.
By the time the mess was cleared, the sun was fully up. A new intelligence report arrived from the Land of Wind, and the exhausted Kazekage finally made the ultimate call: abandon all offensive plans and begin a total retreat.
"Yashamaru! Notify all squads immediately. Regroup at my position. We are abandoning all current objectives."
"Saya, send word to Chiyo. Tell her to return to the village immediately; High Jonin Kuangsha will take temporary command of the front..." The Kazekage paused, his voice heavy. "Tell Chiyo... her son and daughter-in-law have fallen in battle."
To maintain secrecy, the Kazekage had diverted troops from the southern army to form his strike force, but he still had to draw supplies from the village. Despite their best efforts to camouflage the logistics, the scale of supplying two armies simultaneously was too large to hide. The supply convoy had been spotted by the White Fang.
Under Sakumo Hatake's unified command, the Konoha deep-strike units had hammered the Suna supply lines relentlessly. At the cost of several dozen lives, the White Fang had finally pinned the convoy and its guards in a fortress 160 kilometers away from Sunagakure.
Last night, Sakumo and Orochimaru had launched a combined final assault. Two thousand Konoha ninjas had stormed the fortress, annihilating the final Suna supply unit.
This was Suna's last lifeline. Half a month's worth of food and munitions intended for Chiyo's army were gone. Over five hundred guards were slaughtered, with the survivors scattered.
All nineteen Jonin in the escort were killed. The commander, "The Vulture" Sashin, had been hunted down by Sakumo and, this time, his luck had run out.
Among the fallen were the master puppeteers guarding the fort—the son and daughter-in-law of Elder Chiyo.
The losses from that single night had ended any possibility of Sunagakure continuing the war. The village was empty. They had nothing left to fight with.
The Kazekage's focus was now on damage control: how to preserve the Land of Wind's interests and maintain Suna's status as one of the Five Great Hidden Villages while securing a "dignified" exit from the conflict.
But before that, there were two things he wanted to do. First: kill the White Fang. Second: lure out the "annoying Konoha ninja" in the Land of Rivers during the retreat and finish him off.
He needed to project strength... before he could talk peace.
After three days of grueling combat, Tetsumaru had lost over sixteen million insects, a massive number of Scythe-Mantis units, and over five hundred Explosive Flight-Locusts. However, this hadn't diminished his ability to monitor the battlefield.
Suna's massive consolidation was spotted instantly. You couldn't move over a thousand people without being seen by the "eyes in the sky."
Something big happened, but not on my end.
The Suna ninjas packed up their camp and began moving westward in waves.
They're headed back to the Land of Wind. Is it Sakumo-senpai?
The Kazekage wove a seal, manifesting an eye of sand and launching it into the high atmosphere. He soon spotted several Giant Dragonflies hovering at a high altitude. He stared at them for a moment before dispelling the jutsu and departing with his elite guard.
The Kazekage moved quickly, selecting a perfect ambush spot several dozen kilometers away. He gathered his personal guard and ten Jonin.
"That Konoha brat is definitely watching us. We set the trap here."
"This ninja is a massive threat, but he specializes in dealing with Genin and Chunin. This ambush will be composed entirely of Jonin."
"The moment he appears, surround him and kill him. No mistakes."
"Yes, sir!"
The dozen elite Jonin followed their Kage into hiding, weaving a "heaven-and-earth" net and waiting in silence for their prey.
...They waited for a long time. They waited for nothing.
Tetsumaru had no intention of pursuing them. He was busy.
He had lost sixteen million bugs over the last few days. During the heat of battle, he couldn't afford to be sentimental, but now he was busy recovering resources.
An average large insect contained about 20 grams of iron, 8 grams of copper, and traces of other precious metals. With sixteen million bugs, he could recover at least 300,000 kilograms of iron, 90,000 kilograms of copper, and several hundred kilos of precious metals.
Then there was the site of his battle with the Kage, which was littered with high-quality Iron Sand. These were top-tier resources.
With that much "money" just lying on the ground, why would he bother chasing the Sand? His mission wasn't to annihilate them, anyway.
Furthermore, the Suna retreat had caused the communication traffic to plummet. Tetsumaru used the breathing room to rush repairs on his Relay Outposts and Broodmothers to stabilize his network.
Finally, he dispatched more Shadow Clones to investigate the Giant Ants, preparing for the upcoming capture.
At nine in the morning, a messenger hawk arrived with fresh intel from Orochimaru. Tetsumaru was shocked to find that Orochimaru had reached the border of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Wind last night—barely sixty-nine kilometers away.
The report confirmed that Sakumo Hatake, at the cost of 47 Konoha lives, had wiped out the Suna supply unit. Sakumo had personally killed seven Suna Jonin, while his team eliminated over 130 Chunin and 400 Genin.
On Tetsumaru's side, he had secured four Jonin kills and nearly five hundred combined Chunin and Genin.
Sunagakure is finished.
Suna's average annual combat loss over the last few years was around two thousand. In just three or four days, they had lost over a thousand men—and nearly all of them were elites. It was a crippling blow.
The White Fang had taken out 22 Jonin in a matter of days. According to intel, Suna only had 173 Jonin left in total, scattered across three fronts and the village itself—meaning only about forty per location.
Losing this many in one go meant that the internal defense of Sunagakure might be down to twenty Jonin. Tetsumaru could only imagine the panic in the village; they were likely in an emergency mobilization, drafting retired or non-combatant clan members just to man the walls.
The war had lasted six or seven years. Any ninja worth their salt had long since been drafted. Those left were either inexperienced, disabled, or too old. Their combat effectiveness was highly suspect.
Given that the White Fang was literally at their front door, it was no wonder the Kazekage was rushing back.
At this point, victory was firmly in Konoha's hands. The Kazekage's efforts were mere death throes—at most, he could only make Konoha pay a slightly higher price in time and blood.
The rest was up to Orochimaru and Sakumo. Tetsumaru had no more business there; his insects weren't suited for the desert. Once they entered the Land of Wind, they would become "specimens" within two or three hours under the sun.
Still, a retreating army was a great opportunity to pad his combat record. Tetsumaru enthusiastically led Uchiha Hiro and Nara Yoshito, commanding a massive swarm to harass and delay the Suna forces.
By now, Tetsumaru had collected enough data and inspiration from the conflict that the millions of insects in the Land of Rivers were effectively obsolete models.
In other words, his thirty-four million bugs were "depreciated assets." He began squandering them with reckless abandon, seeking only to take down one more Suna ninja or delay them for one more minute, creating more openings for Orochimaru and Sakumo to finish the job.
The Suna forces felt a pressure unlike anything they had faced before. Panicked by the potential collapse of their village, they began a desperate breakout, abandoning all non-essential supplies and gear.
Once they ditched their baggage, the Suna army's speed hit the standard pace of a ninja squad. The main body of Tetsumaru's swarm couldn't keep up.
With that, Tetsumaru was officially out of moves. Aside from sending a report to Orochimaru, he could only watch as the Suna forces left the Land of Rivers and vanished into the great desert of the Land of Wind.
With the Suna army gone, Tetsumaru's mission was complete. He settled in to "fish" in the Land of Rivers.
He spent his time picking through the discarded Suna gear, recovering metal and meat from his bugs, and collecting the high-quality iron sand left behind by the Kazekage. He was having a grand old time—it was like picking up money off the floor.
He also began training his three disciples. After the war, Hiro and Yoshito would almost certainly be promoted to Chunin. Once that happened, Team 121's power level would be "over-budget," and they would likely be split up.
Hiro and Yoshito needed to improve quickly to handle Chunin-level solo missions or lead their own teams. However, their formal apprenticeship wouldn't end when the squad was dissolved; they could still seek out Tetsumaru for guidance or help.
"Hiro, what's wrong with your eyes?" Tetsumaru asked, looking at Uchiha Hiro with confusion. The boy's chakra flow was erratic and abnormal.
"Sensei, my Sharingan evolved!" Hiro closed his eyes and snapped them open, revealing the red irises.
Wait, what?
Nobody in the squad had died. In fact, Hiro was the only one who hadn't even been injured. How did he get an evolution without a near-death experience or a trauma-inducing tragedy?
That shouldn't be possible.
But looking into Hiro's eyes, the two black tomoe were spinning clearly. It was a genuine Two-Tomoe Sharingan.
"Tell me," Tetsumaru asked, genuinely curious. "When did it happen?"
Hiro scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Last night, while we were watching the fireworks. I was just... really, really happy. I wanted to see them more clearly, even clearer than before, and then my eyes felt hot. When we got back to the base, I realized they had changed."
"..."
So, the Sharingan doesn't strictly require the death of a loved one to break through. It just needs an incredibly intense emotional state.
"Hiro... when we get back, tell everyone it awakened the day before yesterday while you were being hunted by Suna ninjas."
"I understand, Sensei."
The three students were well-acquainted with Tetsumaru's cautious nature. They joined their captain in a synchronized chant:
"Being different is the greatest danger. In all things, be cautious, cautious, and cautious again!" (x4)
"Very good. And the second part?"
"Show off when you should, fight for what you must; keep it natural, keep it foolproof!" (x3)
"Excellent. Now I can rest easy."