The Aburame clan has been hiding their depth well.
Another new type of insect has appeared.
Has the Aburame clan been planning something new? They've actually abandoned their usual low-profile style.
Aburame clan: "That's slander! Aburame Shiken is Aburame Shiken, and the Aburame clan is the Aburame clan. Don't lump us all together!"
"Shiken, you're really devious."
Uchiha Kamito walked over carrying three heads in his hand.
His clothes were slightly dirty.
It seemed he had dealt with everything very easily.
Orochimaru, however, was already used to it.
Kamito always saved people so much trouble.
"You killed them. I captured mine alive. My contribution is bigger than yours."
"Come on! If you've got the guts, do it yourself. What ability is it to just rely on bugs?"
"You're actually telling an Aburame not to use insects? Do you even hear yourself?"
"Get lost."
Even though Aburame Shiken's tone was still icy cold, somehow it felt even more irritating than someone grinning and waving their claws around.
"Orochimaru-sama, according to your earlier request, do we also need to cut off the heads of the other three Rain ninja besides the leader?"
Aburame Shibi spoke.
Uh… do you think you're funny?
Now that we've captured them alive, does it really matter to me whether they die sooner or later?
Yamanaka clan: "Don't kill them! If they're alive, that's work for the Torture and Interrogation Department. If they die, that becomes our job. Our performance this month is already good enough—we don't need overtime."
Diagnosis complete.
Aburame Shibi looked a little stunned.
A qualified fighter.
But command responsibilities definitely shouldn't be given to him.
"Mission complete. Take these people and return to the village."
The remaining three looked at the four unconscious Rain ninja on the ground.
They still had to carry them?
If they'd known, they might as well have killed them.
The four Rain ninja: "Listen to yourselves. Is that even human language? Who knocked us out in the first place—have you forgotten? Besides, if you're too tired to carry us, just wake us up and we can walk ourselves. Be careful though—if you injure your fingernails while doing it, that wouldn't be good."
Uchiha Kamito turned around and left.
"Handle your own business. The people I killed are already dealt with."
Aburame Shiken and Aburame Shibi looked at each other.
Two pairs of sunglasses made the scene strangely comical.
Aburame Shibi quietly stepped back.
I didn't do anything. Don't try to dump this on me. I'm not Shikuro—I'm not someone who'll do whatever you say.
"Shibi, use that technique."
A ninjutsu?
If you'd said so earlier! As long as I'm not the only one doing the work, everything's negotiable.
After a brief discussion between the two—
"Insect Sphere Modification: Transport Technique."
If Gaara's sand can carry cargo, there's no reason flying parasitic bugs can't transport things too.
Gaara: "Plagiarism! Do you have any shame?"
Plagiarism? Were you even born yet?
Gaara: "..."
So it's not without reason that most people hate transmigrators and reincarnators.
Of course, if the transmigrator or reincarnator is yourself… that's a completely different story.
...
Konoha.
Hokage Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the mission scrolls in his hands.
Every evaluation was perfect.
Bandits completely eliminated.
Merchant caravans escorted safely.
Rogue ninja captured successfully—and alive at that.
Border intelligence gathered, and four Rain ninja attempting to infiltrate the Land of Fire were captured alive while three were killed.
The results were perfect too.
No matter how you looked at it, these were flawless mission reports one after another.
But why did he always feel like something was… off?
To dispel this strange feeling, Hiruzen Sarutobi began frantically assigning missions to these squads.
One week later.
Thirty-seven B-rank missions.
Perfect evaluations. Perfect results.
Yet the sense of wrongness seemed even stronger.
One month later.
One hundred ninety-eight B-rank missions.
Perfect evaluations. Perfect results.
But why did Tsunade's squad have such a high proportion of escort missions?
Tsunade should hate escort missions the most.
Tsunade: "I can earn money without even leaving the village. Bring me as many escort missions as you want—I'll take them all."
One year later.
One thousand twenty-three B-rank missions.
Twenty-five A-rank missions.
Perfect evaluations. Perfect results.
And he kept assigning more.
Bang!
Tsunade smashed the Hokage's desk in front of Hiruzen into pieces with a single punch.
"Old man, that's enough! I've been doing missions for a whole year—what more do you want?!"
The other three felt the same.
Every day it was the same routine: accept a mission, complete it, accept another mission, complete it again.
An endless cycle.
At first, the four of them thought the Third Hokage was investigating something.
Seeing how quickly the kids under them handled tasks and used ninjutsu, they also felt it was worth investigating.
After one week…
Not discovering anything was normal. They were together doing missions every day and still felt they hadn't fully understood them.
After one month…
Still investigating? Fine. They cooperated.
But now it had been an entire year.
You're clearly just treating us like pack animals.
Tsunade finally couldn't hold back anymore.
Even though escort missions didn't require her to personally fight, Konoha couldn't possibly have nothing but escort missions. She still had to lead teams outside the village.
Fortunately that was the case—otherwise the Hokage office might have been destroyed several months earlier.
Hiruzen Sarutobi awkwardly scratched his head.
These kids were just too useful.
They completed missions quickly and flawlessly.
They had single-handedly raised Konoha's reputation and performance.
This year alone, Konoha had already earned more than half again what it made last year.
No wonder that a year ago, when these four had just formed their squads, their leaders had taken them on D-rank missions nonstop.
It was just too good.
"Well… how about this. Everyone take a rest for a while. After some time, we'll continue working hard."
What?
You still want us to be beasts of burden?
This time Orochimaru spoke first.
"Sarutobi-sensei, the members of our squad are ready for promotion to Chunin. If you don't mind, I even suggest promoting them exceptionally to Special Jōnin."
With elite Chunin-level strength, plus special Secret Techniques or bloodline limits, they fully met the requirements for Special Jōnin promotion.
"The three members of Tsunade's squad—Senju Hideki, Inuzuka Ryoha, and Inuzuka Rinko. In my name, Senju Tsunade, I recommend them for the Chunin Exams."
As expected of Tsunade—acting first and reporting later.
The other three quickly followed.
"The three members of Orochimaru's squad—Uchiha Kamito, Aburame Shibi, and Aburame Shiken. In my name, Orochimaru, I recommend them for the Chunin Exams."
"The three members of Sakumo's squad—Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Akimichi Chōza. In my name, Hatake Sakumo, I recommend them for the Chunin Exams."
"The three members of Jiraiya's squad—Namikaze Minato, Hyūga Hiyasu, and Hyūga Hizashi. In my name, Jiraiya, I recommend them for the Chunin Exams."
"The Chunin Exams? But they only graduated a year ago…"
Bang!
A loud slam interrupted Hiruzen's words.
"You know their strength better than we do. Normally, genin need to graduate for at least two years, complete eight C-rank missions or more than one B-rank mission before promotion. If they haven't met the time requirement, the mission count doubles. How many B-rank missions did we complete this year? You know that yourself. We even did quite a few A-rank missions. To put it bluntly, even some Jōnin probably aren't as capable as our students. Whether they qualify as Chunin—you know better than anyone."
Cough, cough.
Taking a genin's commission cut while doing missions that only Chunin or even Jōnin should handle—how much money had Konoha earned?
How could he not know?
That was exactly why he couldn't bear to let them go.