As Shisui approached his ho, he spotted several figures standing by his door.
Aside from Natsuhi, there were two n and another woman, all wearing the standard flak jackets of the village, their expressions far from friendly.
Shisui could clearly sense the hostility radiating from them—particularly from the tall man who had his hand resting possessively on Natsuhi's shoulder.
Natsuhi kept her head down, her face flushed with embarrassnt. "Shu-kun..."
"Natsuhi, who are these people?" Shisui stopped a few paces away, maintaining a polite, friendly smile.
"They're my teammates," Natsuhi introduced them. "Captain, this is Takigawa Shu, a childhood friend. Shu-kun, this is our team leader, Aoki. That's Shota, and this is Miwa."
Aoki sized Shisui up with a cold, condescending gaze. "So you're the one who just got back? Natsuhi spent all night in the woods feeding the mosquitoes waiting for you."
"My apologies, it was a total lapse on my part," Shisui said sincerely. "I was just about to find Natsuhi and treat her to lunch as an apology."
"No need," Aoki cut him off sharply. "We've received an ergency mission. We're leaving the village imdiately. Natsuhi, let's move."
Natsuhi bit her lip, looking at Shisui with regret. "I'm sorry, Shu-kun. The mission ca up so suddenly..."
"Don't worry about it, missions co first," Shisui waved it off. "Stay safe out there."
Aoki let out a cold snort, turned around, and led his team toward the village gates. Natsuhi hurried to keep up, but after a few steps, she looked back at Shisui, her mouth opening as if to say sothing, before simply waving goodbye.
Shisui shook his head and entered his house, carrying his new scroll. He didn't care about Aoki's hostility.
While his persona was a childhood friend of Natsuhi, he had no romantic interest in her, and it seed she already had soone. Good, he thought.
I should find a way to lock those two together permanently.
He set his forehead protector and scroll on the table. The priority now was consolidating his identity in Takigakure and using his Chunin status to gather intel.
Most importantly, he needed to finish the underground hive and breed his new information-gathering insects.
Three days passed in a flash.
Shisui's days were deceptively peaceful. By day, he tidied his small vegetable garden; by night, he manipulated his insects to excavate the earth beneath his floorboards.
After three days of labor, the first level—twenty ters underground—was carved out. However, due to the soil quality, any further digging risked a massive cave-in.
The Eroding Insects he had used—which could theoretically produce solid, sticky soil after consuming earth—had only differentiated about a thousand stable specins.
Their genetics were inconsistent. Initially, he had hoped to let them evolve naturally through cycles of feeding and breeding to create a stable strain over several years.
He wanted to save the "Primordial Energy" in his laboratory space for insects that could help him break through his current power limits.
But with his construction hitting a bottleneck, he had to use the "ergency fund."
He brought samples of earth and stone into his laboratory space, setting the evolutionary acceleration to 1,000x.
During this ti, he had to monitor the soil levels constantly; if the laboratory ran out of physical soil to feed the experint, it would begin consuming Primordial Energy to manifest more.
Soil was everywhere in the real world; he wasn't going to waste precious energy on dirt.
For another three days, Shisui barely slept. Above ground, a Shadow Clone maintained his daily routine, swapping mories with him every evening to ensure no local interactions resulted in a slip-up.
Even if the villagers weren't particularly observant, his caution was a hard-wired instinct.
After the equivalent of forty years of accelerated evolution, the insects reached their pinnacle. They were now a stable, hereditary strain.
He nad them: Earth-Construction Insects (Tsuchiken-chu).
These insects were three tis larger than standard Kikaichu, brownish-yellow, and moved slowly.
They lived primarily on soil, though they could survive on small amounts of chakra—though chakra alone was like water to them, whereas soil was food.
They could survive on "water" for a while, but eventually, they would starve. Fortunately, soil was plentiful.
After consuming Earth, the Earth-Construction Insects excreted a highly viscous rocky mucus.
It cooled rapidly and, once solidified, beca a building material with incredibly high resistance. Shisui discovered he could use his chakra to shape this mucus, accelerating or delaying the hardening process.
Even though he lacked a natural Earth-style affinity, by manipulating these insects, he could produce an Earth Style: Mud Wall with defense far superior to the standard jutsu.
With their help, he spent a day reinforcing the first level. It was now a 100-square-ter space, three ters high.
He built a small pond for his Floating Insects and planted bioluminescent flora to assist with oxygen production.
Furthermore, he caught several local fireflies. Tapping into the village's power grid would be an unnecessary risk, so the best solution was to breed his own light.
Using the knowledge of the Abura clan and the equivalent of fifty years of energy, he successfully bred the Luminescent Insects (Koushou-chu).
They were long-lived, easy to feed, and provided a steady, bright glow. Their diet was simple: fluorite or stones with trace radioactive materials.
The light they produced, however, was pure bio-energy, completely safe for his laboratory.
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