Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 41 Barrier Activation

As the smoke dissipated, Aburame Shisei's shadow clone disappeared from the spot.

Now that changes have been made, the strategy of spreading messages and confusing the public needs to be accelerated.

In the basement, Aburame Shisei received a message from his shadow clone and could only manage a wry smile.

Although these are his thoughts and ideas, he sometimes feels that he is quite fickle.

There are clearly more stable ways, there are clearly more gradual methods, but some things just make me feel uncomfortable.

As expected, my strength is too weak, so weak that I can't do whatever I want. I can't do whatever I want right away. I can only think, hesitate, and stop here.

In fact, setting aside the assistance of these insects, based solely on his own strength, Aburame Shisei was merely an ordinary Jonin with slightly better taijutsu.

This is based on strength alone; compared to conventional combat methods, he is even inferior.

At least most of the regular Jonin in Konoha master two chakra natures and are proficient in chakra transformation and nature transformation.

He has virtually no elemental attributes in his body, and even when he uses Earth Escape, he needs to coordinate with Earth-Building Insects.

Sometimes, he even wondered if his own cheat system was deliberately limiting him, restricting him to only using insects and preventing him from having any other development path.

But upon closer reflection, there's not much to learn from those basic Five Elements Ninjutsu—Five Elements Ninjutsu has an upper limit, and what appears later in the manga are Sage Techniques and advanced Taijutsu.

Since it's not very useful, not wasting time learning it can actually improve concentration.

Aburame Shisei sat on the stone table in the basement and pondered for a few seconds. Finally, he touched his chest and revealed the petri dish in his palm.

In fact, he had never used this thing to fight, let alone to replicate insects, as the cost was too high.

With the insects he currently possesses, it is virtually impossible for him to resolve all the troubles silently and without incident.

"So be it. It's just 300 years of primordial energy. We can always replenish it by killing more scoundrels in the future."

While the primordial energy accumulated over three hundred years was insufficient to cultivate insects capable of surpassing his current strength, it was indeed easy to cultivate insects that could improve the environment or possess highly functional abilities.

In the end, he hardened his heart, drew up the original energy, and selected the stinky bugs from the insects he had cultivated in the past to replicate them.

He didn't have many of these insects, only about a hundred, and they were extremely difficult to breed: each pair only laid eggs once a month, and only one or two eggs each time.

As the primordial energy of three hundred years was exhausted, more than three thousand stinking bugs were born.

"Go ahead, it's time to have some fun tonight."

Aburame Shicheng left the basement and went into the yard, letting the other insects, along with the stinky bugs, scatter throughout the village.

The tranquil night sky made the stars shine even brighter.

Under the night sky, outside Takigakure Village, Chief Shibuki was leading several elders to set up a barrier and adjust the seal.

Starting today, the leadership of Takigakure Village has decided, after deliberation, to activate the village's protective barrier and completely seal off the village.

That's right. Once the barrier is activated, it's difficult for ordinary people to enter or leave, and even genin (lower-ranking ninja) can hardly get through.

Only ninjas of Chunin rank or higher can forcibly break through the barrier, but this will immediately trigger an alarm, and the ninjas guarding the village will rush to the scene in the direction of the alarm.

In this way, they can completely isolate themselves from the outside world and prevent information from leaking out.

This is also a helpless move.

Just now, the elders inadvertently received a piece of intelligence that listed the names of more than ninety ninjas. Without exception, all of them were spies or had been spies.

More than ninety people, almost one-seventh of the village's total ninjas. That means that at least one in every seven ninjas is a spy. Such news would be shocking in any ninja village.

Takigakure Village is no exception.

The leader immediately ordered the complete sealing off of the village, and those ninjas who had not yet returned to the village were no longer to be waited for.

Because at this moment, the village is at a critical juncture of life and death.

"Lord Shibuki, the barrier on my side is now complete."

"Lord Shibuki, I'm all ready on my end as well."

"Very good. I presume you have all received the message from that mysterious person. Although I don't know if what he said is true or false, some things are better believed than not. Now, everyone, immediately follow me to Togo Shrine to protect our Tailed Beast!"

The leader of Takigakure Village led many elders to Togo Shrine in order to prevent spies from stealing the Tailed Beasts.

Of course, they were also preventing spies from releasing the tailed beasts if they failed to steal them.

Therefore, when necessary, they will also choose to kill the sealed tailed beasts.

In fact, the Seven-Tails played no role at all in Takigakure. It was not an aid at all, but rather a ticking time bomb.

After the death of the first Jinchuriki of the Seven-Tails, Takigakure could not find any suitable replacement. In addition, Kakuzu had defected and stolen the Earth Grudge Fear, causing Takigakure to decline completely. No one could subdue the Tailed Beast, so they had no choice but to seal it away.

They never expected that Takigakure Village, already in a remote corner, would still attract trouble.

Therefore, the lack of strength is the greatest original sin in the ninja world.

Meanwhile, shortly after the barrier was activated, spies from various ninja villages received anonymous messages:

The seven tailed beasts are sealed within the altar a hundred meters below Togo Shrine.

In addition, the security situation was also thoroughly investigated.

With such intelligence, even if they originally had no intention of stealing the hearts of the tailed beasts, they still took action at this moment.

"My lord, could this be a conspiracy by Takigakure?"

"Then who in Takigakure do you think has the ability to deliver intelligence to us silently?"

The hidden spies and ninjas shook their heads; they knew all too well the strength of Takigakure.

Our village does indeed have an organization that imitates the Dark Division, but it's merely copying the model; their strength is far inferior.

Moreover, Takigakure Village has long been infiltrated by various spies.

If it were done by spies from other villages, it would be somewhat believable. But why would spies from other villages share the information they had worked so hard to obtain?

Everyone was puzzled, but they didn't want to miss this opportunity.

These secret meetings took place in hidden corners throughout the village.

However, they were unaware that it was not far from them.

Whether underground, on pillars, beside leaves, or in cracks in walls... those insects they cannot see are gathering information about all of them and monitoring their every move.