Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 49 New Insect Species: Aluminum Iron Insect

"Yes," Kurosaki Ichiro replied without hesitation.

"Oh, why?"

Ryuji Ida already knew the answer, but he wanted to explore the secret behind it.

Do you really want to know?

At this moment, Kurosaki Ichiro's expression suddenly turned serious, as if if Ida Ryuji dared to agree, the next second would be a bottomless abyss.

Ryuji Ida's breathing quickened slightly, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to press the matter. Instead, he chuckled and said, "Since you're willing to be my bodyguard, you'll be working for me from now on. Don't worry, the price won't be low. You'll have everything others have—delicious food, fine wine, and beautiful women, as long as I can afford it."

"No need, just take care of my three meals a day."

"Alright then. I'm going to see some old friends later, do you want to come along?"

"it is good."

Deep within the bauxite mine, an insect nest.

Yu Nu Zhicheng's miner clone sat cross-legged in the center of the swarm, surrounded by mountains of ore.

Through Kurosaki Ichiro and Matsumoto's messages, it was learned that all the supplies sent by Ida Ryuji had arrived, and he also had a general idea of ​​the situation on the main side.

He formed a hand seal, creating a shadow clone. The shadow clone nodded, then proactively dispelled the spell, transmitting the information about this place back to his main body.

The swarm of insects in the mine had actually begun to differentiate several days ago. He named the insects that differentiated this time the aluminum-iron worms.

They can not only devour metal veins and produce pure, high-quality minerals, but they can also release lightning by ionizing themselves through friction.

However, the evolution of the insect swarm is not yet perfect. After each friction discharge, a large number of insects are electrocuted, and only a few can adapt to the current and survive.

The clone conducted numerous experiments here but still failed to solve the insect's resistance to electricity. This message was delivered precisely to lure the main body here, so that the golden finger could be used to complete the final guided differentiation.

Takigaku Village.

After the squad assembled, the village tasks were distributed as usual. Just as Morita had said, they were assigned patrol duties.

Aburame Shisei naturally wouldn't do such a meaningless thing himself—he had too many other things to push forward.

For example, continuing to dig deeper to construct a third layer of the insect nest laboratory; or conducting deep differentiation experiments on emotion-manipulating insects.

In addition, news came from his clone that he planned to go to the mine in a few days to complete the differentiation of the aluminum-iron worms in order to speed up the production rate.

As for adding lightning-style techniques, that's secondary; it doesn't represent a substantial breakthrough in his personal strength.

Day three of the patrol mission.

While patrolling the edge of the forest east of the village, You Nuzhicheng's team suddenly smelled a strong odor of alcohol.

Following the scent, they found Chunin Aoki slumped under a large tree, clutching an empty sake bottle, muttering incoherently, "Natsumi, I'm sorry... Takuya, it's my fault..."

Upon seeing this, Yuuki immediately ran over: "Senior Aoki, how did you get so drunk?"

Aoki looked up, his eyes vacant. "It's you guys... Natsumi, have you found Natsumi?"

Chuncao shook her head, unsure what to say. Several days earlier, they already knew what had happened in the village—all the missing ninjas were identified as spies. Although he didn't believe Natsumi was a spy, she had indeed disappeared in that incident.

"It's all my fault..." Aoki shed tears. "If I had been more alert that night, Natsumi wouldn't have disappeared; if I hadn't been distracted during the last mission, Takuya wouldn't have died... It's all my fault..."

He clutched the bottle and cried like a child.

Aburame Shisei watched silently. Aoki's chakra was in disarray, and his mind was on the verge of collapse. The tall man who had once been so hostile towards him was now nothing but a pile of mud.

"He'll catch a cold lying here. Let's take him home," Yushu said reluctantly. After all, he had been Summer's captain and lover; though not exactly friends, they were acquaintances.

Yu Nu Zhicheng nodded: "Let's take him back. It's also the patrol team's responsibility to take care of injured and drunk villagers."

The four of them helped Aoki up and took him back to his residence. It was a simple ninja apartment, messy and with bottles scattered all over the floor.

After settling Aoki on the tatami mat, the others left one after another, leaving only Ayame Shisei standing at a distance watching.

That night, he sneaked into Aoki's house with the telepathic insect. The snoring continued in the room; Aoki had slept soundly all afternoon.

He stepped forward and inserted an insect into Aoki's nasal cavity.

However, before he could form the hand seal, the insect died.

Failed.

The reason is simple: the insect cannot bear the pain of longing and memories.

Simply put, it was killed by human emotions.

The figure shook its head and then vanished.

In the underground laboratory, after receiving the memories, Shisei Aburame put down his scalpel and dumped the chopped insects into the trash can to destroy them.

"Heh heh heh! Am I trying to analyze other people's emotions, or am I trying to control my own?"

He covered his face and chuckled, "Sure enough, after every mass killing, I become a bit morbid. I really need to rest and return to a normal life."

He walked to the cage and looked at the summer sun and the male ninja sleeping in each other's arms.

Even though they were so deeply in love, a trace of pain and struggle would still show in their dreams.

He thought that was probably the remnants of his self and humanity.

Thinking about it carefully, he did indeed take his anger out on others a little.

He vented the emotions he felt, the emotions that arose in his heart for reasons he didn't know, on the person who happened to be there, who happened to make a foolish mistake.

"Perhaps, I was infected a little bit after all."

Aburame Shicheng formed hand seals, allowing the two to die peacefully in the swarm of insects. He then retrieved the pair of milky-white insects and imprisoned them in a compartment of a petri dish.

Perhaps one day, when he has calmed down and regained his rationality, these two insects will be taken out again for experimentation.

Looking around the laboratory again, listening to the chirping of insects, he suddenly said, "I feel like I'm losing my sense of normal life. So, starting tomorrow, I'll reintegrate into life as Takikawa Hide."

He left the laboratory and returned to his room on the ground. This was the first time he had peacefully fallen asleep in bed since the massacre.

Tomorrow will be another new day.

On the other hand, after the main body completely relaxed, the duration of the miner clone also reached its limit.

Before he vanished, he summoned the South City.

"I will be leaving temporarily for the next period of time. Your task is to clear out the bandits and spies within the territory of the Waterfall Country, bring the corpses back here, and throw them into the mine. Do not do anything unnecessary, and do not reveal your whereabouts."

Nan Shi knelt on one knee: "Yes, sir."

"Remember, this only applies to bandits and spies. As for the nobles and merchants you don't like, leave that to Heiji; he's the expert in that area."

"clear."