After hearing Shibi Aburame's words, Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana exchanged glances, both catching a trace of unease in each other's eyes.
To become part of a reconnaissance squad, a ninja typically needed long-range enemy detection skills.
These types of squads, while constantly operating at the forefront of the battlefield, had strong capabilities for avoiding direct combat, thanks to their detection abilities.
And yet, frontline recon teams were still suffering heavy losses—which could only mean the situation on the battlefield was even more brutal than they'd imagined.
"Looks like you understand the situation at the front. To give you the best chance of surviving a bit longer in battle, I'll teach you everything I can. But first, I need to assess your strength," Shibi Aburame said.
"Sensei, are you going to spar with us?" Yamanaka Kagetsu asked.
"If you sparred with me, you'd be instantly defeated. My insects aren't good at holding back. So your test will be this: survive an onslaught from these 1,000 insects for 20 minutes. Of course, if you can kill them all, that counts as passing too.
"One more thing: these 1,000 insects consume chakra. A typical genin's chakra reserve would be drained by just 10 of them within a minute. Now then—begin!"
As soon as he finished, Shibi tapped the gourd on his back. A swarm of 1,000 bugs flew out and headed straight for the trio.
The moment the bugs were released, Yamanaka Kagetsu used Mind Transmission Technique to link the team's minds together.
"Yuan, what do we do?" Kagetsu asked in the mental space.
"You two fall back. I'll try Fire Style. Logically, bugs should fear fire."
Upon hearing that, Asana and Kagetsu immediately retreated.
Uchiha Yuan activated his Sharingan to lock onto the insects' flight paths.
Once the swarm got close enough, Yuan quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A massive fireball erupted from his mouth, engulfing the incoming insects.
Through the Sharingan, he clearly saw that the outer layer of bugs was instantly scorched by the flames.
But oddly, the charred bugs didn't fall. Instead, they were caught and carried by the others, forming a circle around the fireball. Using their scorched comrades as shields, the surviving insects broke through the flames and continued toward Yuan.
Yuan frowned. These bugs were tougher than expected.
Normally, insects were vulnerable to fire. After getting hit with Great Fireball Jutsu, they should have been instantly incinerated into ash.
In this case, the bugs in front were indeed burned to death, but their corpses remained intact. The other bugs used those bodies as insulation against the heat and breached the fireball's range.
The fact that the corpses weren't reduced to ash implied these bugs had a certain fire resistance. And the use of comrades' bodies as shields—that had to be Shibi Aburame's doing. No way regular bugs could do that on their own.
If Shibi could remotely control the swarm, then trying to wipe them all out was clearly unrealistic.
And now the bugs were getting too close. There was no time to unleash a second fire jutsu. Yuan immediately used Body Flicker Technique to leap to Hyuga Asana's side.
Shibi, watching behind his sunglasses, was slightly surprised. Yuan's flicker was extremely fast—faster than he himself could manage.
The last time Shibi had seen a Body Flicker this fast was probably Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God.
"Interesting kid," Shibi murmured.
As Yuan re-entered the range of Mind Transmission, Kagetsu asked mentally, "How did it go, Yuan?"
"Fire Style is only moderately effective. My Great Fireball took out about seventy or eighty bugs. The rest used their bodies as cover and charged through."
"So what should we do?" Kagetsu asked again.
"There are two options. One: keep attacking. Asana and I both know Fire Style. With her Byakugan and my Sharingan, we could look for weaknesses in their flight formation and coordinate angles of attack using Body Flicker and jutsu.
"But that would burn through both our chakra reserves fast. Plus, since Shibi-sensei is controlling them, it's unlikely we'd be able to wipe all 1,000 out.
"Option two: delay. The test is to survive for 20 minutes. If we just avoid getting touched, we might manage that using our dōjutsu and clan techniques. What do you think?"
"Let's focus on passing for now," Asana said.
"I agree," Kagetsu added.
"Alright, let's do that."
Mental communication was fast. All this planning took just a few seconds in the real world.
With their plan in place, the trio huddled together into a tight formation.
Yuan and Asana activated their Sharingan and Byakugan respectively. Yuan also opened his mind's eye—a perception ability with a range about 5 meters greater than Kagetsu's.
Under Yuan's direction, Asana and Kagetsu began dodging the insects based on their flight trajectories.
Whenever bugs got too close, Yuan and Asana alternated fire jutsu to force the swarm to stall.
Meanwhile, Kagetsu made sure no stray insects slipped through their perimeter.
Thanks to their teamwork, 20 minutes passed quickly. Together, Yuan and Asana burned through half the swarm with Fire Style, but their chakra was nearly depleted.
At the mark, Shibi called back the insects and approached them. "Not bad. Honestly, I didn't expect you to last the full 20 minutes."
"Sensei, if you hadn't been controlling the bugs, we probably could've taken them all out," Kagetsu said defiantly.
"I wasn't controlling them," Shibi replied.
"You weren't?" Asana was surprised. "Then how did they use their dead comrades' bodies to avoid the fire?"
(To Be Continued...)