Chương 542: CH_14.12 (542)

The ecosystem inside Aburame Shigeki's greenhouse allotment was meticulously controlled. The air smelled of damp loam, crushed leaves, and the sharp, metallic tang of insect pheromones. It was an environment engineered to advance their clan's hiden jutsu and nothing else. The importance of Shigeki's research was valued enough for his greenhouse to be placed in one of the most well-protected and fertile parts of the clan's land.

Aburame Resa stood at the secondary workbench, a clipboard in hand, logging the mortality rates of multiple batches of predator beetles collected from various clan members to check if the variant in wide use was still performing up to standard. Across the room, Elder Shigeki was hunched over his own desk, his calligraphy brush scratching a rhythmic, unhurried cadence against the pages of a thick ledger. The atmosphere was mundane, but Resa was proud to be trusted to work in a place of importance.

He glanced around the glasshouse, having memorised every inch of it from visiting it almost daily for the past few years. He dreamed of the day he would be honoured by being given his own greenhouse laboratory, so he could contribute to the clan under his own name and leave a mark. A soft tapping at the reinforced glass door broke the daydream. Resa set his clipboard down and crossed the floor, pulling the door open just enough to step into the antechamber.

A young Aburame attendant stood there, holding a tightly rolled scroll, sealed with the official red wax of the Leaf Mission Assignment Central.

"The village courier just dropped this for you."

"Understood," Resa said, taking the scroll. He waved the attendant away and stepped back into the greenhouse, snapping the wax seal with his thumb. As he unrolled the parchment, it was a standard B-rank dispatch. The village required a specialist for a four-day ecological survey and potential mercantile route analysis along the dense, overgrown forest in the east of the Land of Fire.

The mission parameters specifically requested an Aburame to track shifts in local wildlife and detect potential bandit risk through the use of their hiden jutsu. Resa was assigned to the mission, and he agreed that he was perfectly tailored for the assignment. He walked over to the desk to inform Shigeki that he would be needing leave.

"I've been assigned a mission, Elder," he said respectfully, placing the scroll on the table.

"A four-day-long ecological survey. They require an Aburame." Shigeki didn't stop writing or look at Resa.

"You may be absent for no more than a week," he replied with a flat tone, not bothering to read the scroll, merely giving it a dismissive wave of his free hand.

"Do not dawdle on the return trip. We have the next cycle's preparation to initiate, and the new feed mixtures require your swarm's collaboration." Resa bowed.

"Understood." He pocketed the scroll and felt a quiet satisfaction. He had become an integral part of Shigeki's workflow and even had the chance to become the second author on many papers over the past few years. He decided that once he returned from the mission, he would ask for a special grant for a study he wanted on a different topic that wasn't in Elder Shigeki's usual wheelhouse. He affirmed to himself that it was time he went his own way and made his own name. ———.

The quiet eastern gate of the Hidden Leaf Village was bathed in the pale light of early dawn by the time Resa arrived, his travel pack secured on his back over his flak jacket. Waiting just beyond the shadow of the massive gates were two shinobi. They wore standard-issue Leaf uniforms that bore some scuffs from active duty. Their light backpacks and personalised gear were signs of seasoned chūnin rather than recently promoted ones.

The shinobi on the left, a man with an afro haircut and a big smile, stepped forward.

"Aburame Resa," the man said, offering a firm handshake.

"I'm Juu, and this is Tobi." Resa looked at Tobi, who wore a mask along with a skullcap-style forehead protector that covered most of his face, only showing a pair of tired eyes with some dark circles.

"I specialise in tracking in woodland terrain. Tobi is proficient in Water and Earth Release. We will be working together for the survey and risk analysis."

"A pleasure," Resa replied. Internally, he already had a positive impression of Juu because very few were comfortable shaking hands or making any physical contact with an Aburame because of the hives inside their body. As they talked about the mission, Resa communicated with his bugs. It was an involuntary habit, a baseline security check ingrained through training. The insects tasted the air, reading the microscopic chemical markers, pheromones, and even chakra fluctuations of the duo before him.

The response was mundane. No spiked hormones or unusual perspiration to indicate nervousness. The only thing of note was that his shoikaichu, chakra-sensing bugs, were telling him that Tobi had huge chakra reserves, which was causing his kikaichū, parasitic giant bugs, to go crazy, eagerly asking him if they could have a feast.

This was surprising because he had trained them not to react like that, or else they would be jumping in the proximity of anyone with large reserves—which meant that Tobi had an exceptionally large capacity. He obviously told his hives to settle down. Good, Resa thought—his companions for the mission seemed like professional and competent folk.

"The plan is straightforward," Juu continued as Tobi pulled out a topographical map and pointed to a marked dense spot.

"We push east for four hours, rendezvous with some local shinobi who would serve as guides, do an initial sweep to familiarise us with the terrain and area today, and start the survey tomorrow. We distribute work, and hopefully, we'll be back in the allotted four days. Any questions or suggestions?" Resa asked for specifics.

"We will discuss the distribution of duties on the way there, but most of it will be decided after we do the initial sweep. Agreed?" Resa felt a genuine spark of professional respect for his teammates. Working together with strangers was always a toss-up that more often than not ended up in conflict. He had been on teams where no one volunteered for leadership and responsibility, leading to a waste of time and a lack of clear vision.

He had also been on a team where someone had hijacked leadership and had then forced their decisions on the rest of them. To be on a team where members worked together without unnecessary conflict was the dream of every shinobi. Stolen story; please report.

"Alright then. Let's move out," Juu said. A minute later, they rushed past the gates with Tobi leading the trio. ———. Resa was relaxed as the wind rushed past his face, carrying the scent of pine and morning dew. They had been cruising for the past three hours on roads and thick tree branches. He was correct in his first impression that this mission was going to be smooth going; his teammates were knowledgeable and collaborative.

Since they had left, they had discussed how they were going to tackle their task, and everyone had distributed responsibilities fairly. He was completely sure that the mission was going to go smoothly, and even if there were some problems, they'd be dealt with efficiently. Up ahead, Tobi suddenly raised a closed fist.

"Map check," he said casually. Resa dropped seamlessly from the canopy, his boots landing softly in a small secluded clearing near the river they had been following. For the first two hours, they had followed a trade route, but for the third hour, they had switched to following a river—which he thought was strange, but Tobi seemed to know what he was doing, and Juu seemed to trust him, so Resa did as well, not wanting to create conflict.

He sat down on the soft grass to rest and took out his water canteen to quench his thirst when he noticed that Tobi wasn't looking at a map and instead was whispering something to Juu as the two of them gazed at him.

"What is it? Something wrong?" They looked at him in silence for a moment before Juu retrieved a scroll and a token carved from white wood, both bearing the unmistakable crimson insignia of Hidden Leaf's ANBU.

"Aburame Resa… By the authority granted to ANBU, you are hereby detained for interrogation on the charges of committing crimes that have harmed the Hidden Leaf." Resa's mind went completely blank for a moment and remained rooted in the dirt before he stood up, which caused Juu to reach for his sword, prompting Resa to react and causing the hive to erupt out of his clothes.

Hundreds of bugs sensed the threat, ate the chakra he released, rapidly bred, and then poured from his sleeves and collar in a dense cloud of black chitin. The insectoid drone of wings drowned out the calm sounds of the river. Fight! His instincts screamed, his heart hammering frantically in his chest.

"You don't want to do that, Chūnin Resa," Tobi said in a calm voice. It only terrified Resa more. He tried to think it through. He was three hours away from the village. It was a long way back, which reduced his chance of escape, but if he crossed the threshold of the Aburame Enclave, ANBU would have to go through the clan to get to him. But if he fought here, they would tack on more charges against him, and it would be an admission of guilt.

There was a chance that they might use his attempt to resist arrest as an excuse to kill him. He didn't know what they wanted from him. The problem was that if he let them take him in, they would hold him for at least a few days, using their authority, and he would have no way to contact the clan for support. He was too far away from the village; he couldn't send a bug back home to alert them from this distance. He looked into Tobi's eyes.

There was a sense of ease and confidence in them that said any attempt to escape would be futile. Juu was at attention and tense as one would be at the prospect of combat, but not Tobi; he seemed utterly loose and relaxed. It terrified Resa. It was at that point that he remembered how his bugs had reacted to Tobi's presence and his chakra reserves, and his heart sank. His decision was quickly made.

Resa drew in a long, shaky breath and slowly, deliberately, eased his chakra, causing the deafening buzz of the swarm to pitch down before the black cloud of insects receded.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Resa said, his voice flat.

"But I will comply." They could only hold him for so long. As long as he kept his mouth shut, they would have to let him go or, at the very least, contact the clan. And keeping his mouth shut was what he planned to do. ———. The transit was short. They didn't take him back to the village, which Resa wished they would do because then he would have a chance to send back a message to the clan. He looked at the windowless block of earthen structure in the middle of a clearing.

It was clearly made using Earth Release ninjutsu, pulled directly from the bedrock and shaped into a building. Standing in the shadow of the building were three ANBU operatives; these ones were dressed as one would expect ANBU to be—white masks and their black and grey gear. They stared at him with their thoughts unknown to him. But all of them lightly bowed to Tobi, which told him that he was the leader. Resa was escorted down a narrow, torch-lit corridor and shoved into a small cell.

Before he could orient himself, he was forced into an earthen chair that was part of the building's structure. Immediately, the earth flowed beneath him and formed bindings around his torso, arms, and legs—securing him in the chair. One of the new operatives stepped into the cell with a medical syringe filled with viscous dark-maroon fluid in her gloved hand.

"Wait," Resa said, his stoic facade slipping completely as the operative stepped close.

"What is that?!" The ANBU didn't pause. Tobi grabbed Resa's shoulder, tilted his head to the side, allowing the operative to drive the thick needle into an artery. Resa hissed through his teeth, his body tensing. They had also slapped chakra suppression seals on him, which only let him circulate enough chakra to keep the hive fed. Otherwise, the hive would have eaten him alive from inside.

He could still send his bugs out, but it would be a desperate attempt, and he almost did in his panic before realising that it wouldn't do anything. Instead, he yelled: "I demand to know what you just injected into me!" The operative withdrew the needle, stepped back, and turned on her heel. Tobi and the others followed her out.

"Answer me!" Resa barked, his voice echoing off the stone walls. Tobi stared at him as he weaved hand seals to pull earth from the surrounding structure to seal the room, barring a rectangular hole to look inside. Tobi stared inside for a moment before stepping away. Resa sat in the dim light of a single flickering lantern mounted to the wall, his chest heaving. He waited for the poison to take effect. He waited for his chakra to seize, or for his muscles to paralyse.

But minute after minute ticked by, and nothing happened. His heart rate steadied. His breathing returned to normal. It was an intimidation tactic, he tried to rationalise—they wanted him to panic, break him before the interrogation. But he was going to hold out. For two hours, he sat in the cold, silent cell, waiting for them to return, but they didn't. He welcomed it, taking the time to plan his strategy, but it didn't matter when whatever they had injected finally took effect.

Resa gasped, his eyes widening, when he felt the bugs, which had been moving frantically inside his body since his arrest in response to his anxiety, suddenly turn docile within his body. Even if he were calm, his bugs wouldn't be as still as they were within him. He almost spiralled, thinking of the worst-case scenario, but immediately looked within himself and breathed a sigh of relief to see that they weren't dead.

Whatever he had been injected with was working as a relaxant made for Aburame bugs—as terrifying as that was, if there were anyone to possess something like that, it would be ANBU. The relief went as fast as it came because he realised that he was truly alone in the moment. His chakra was suppressed, and his bugs were sabotaged. He was powerless, far away from home, and had no way to contact help. It was only at that moment that it dawned on him how much things had been planned.

The ANBU had manufactured a fake mission to draw him out of the village and arrest him while bypassing the clan's political power and, buying themselves, at the very least, a four-day window where no one would realise he was missing. To his friends and family and Elder Shigeki, he was simply out on a mission.

And when they actually found out the truth, they would already be days behind on getting him help as opposed to if he was arrested in the village, where people would realise he was missing much sooner and get to work on getting him out faster. Resa was also sure ANBU would make it difficult for them to get to him when they did finally realise. Whatever they wanted from him, they were insistent about getting it—and that scared him.