The first person to experience complications with the internal insects was not, of course, Naoto.
Currently, the boy's physical senses were better than ever; he hadn't even realized a symbiotic creature resided within him.
Naoto remained as diligent and optimistic as ever, leading his two teammates in assisting the villagers—reclaiming wasteland, repairing hos, and paving roads.
His life was fulfilling and happy. Occasionally, Shisui would join him for sparring sessions, though these were less like "practice" and more like high-level masterclasses in Taijutsu.
As a result, the physical prowess of Naoto's squad skyrocketed. Even Arisuke, the weakest of the three, had reached the level of a Chunin in pure Taijutsu.
Naoto himself had broken through to the Jonin level in terms of physical combat.
However, because they never faced anyone but Shisui, they had no fra of reference for their own growth, believing themselves to still be re Genin or low-level Chunin.
The subordinate whose body had failed was Ichiro Kurosaki.
He was the earliest survivor of the insect egg transplantation. He had been implanted with an incomplete "Second Generation" egg, which Shisui had then artificially accelerated with ninjutsu.
The growth rate was ferocious—in less than a hundred days, the insect had reached its reproductive phase.
During this ti, Ichiro had served Ryuji Ida faithfully, assisting in several multi-million Ryo ore deals.
His strength had improved by leaps and bounds; with his refined swordsmanship and a few newly acquired tactical ninjutsu, he was capable of surprising and defeating most standard Jonin.
But a few days ago, his hunger had spiked uncontrollably. No matter how much he ate, he was never full.
His body began to swell and bloat, losing the lean silhouette of a swordsman and taking on the heavy, rounded appearance of an Akimichi clan mber.
Upon realizing his guard was failing, Ryuji Ida abandoned a deal worth tens of millions of Ryo and rushed him back to the Land of Waterfalls.
Yesterday, Shisui's Shadow Clone had smuggled Ichiro into the underground labyrinth. Although the insect was currently suppressed by drugs and a sealing scroll, Ichiro remained in a deep coma. The situation was grim.
Shisui hadn't originally intended to save Ichiro's life and strength, but Ryuji's desperate pleas—and Ichiro's proven track record—convinced him to try. More importantly, this was the perfect opportunity to solve the mystery of "Parasite Corruption."
Parasite Corruption was Shisui's term for a phenonon where his new breed—the Symbiotic Kikaichu—reached full maturity.
At that stage, the filants extending from the insect's body fused with the host's chakra pathway system, eventually expanding to the point where the insect's "veins" could actually replace the host's own chakra circulation.
But that wasn't the worst part.
Because these were artificially accelerated specins, their developnt was erratic.
In a natural cycle, the filants wouldn't just latch onto chakra pathways; they would extend into every blood vessel in the body.
By stimulating blood flow and secreting a unique substance into the host's tabolism, the insect helped the host rapidly absorb nutrients and convert them into cellular energy with extre efficiency.
This boosted the host's physical stats solely to provide a "better" environnt for the next generation of insects.
They had no intelligence; their every action was driven by a primal, evolutionary instinct to reproduce and refine their lineage.
Shisui had tried to "neuter" the insects by removing their reproductive systems. However, once inside the human body, these sterile insects beca inert.
Even when stimulated with ninjutsu, they lost all vitality within days, failing to release any of the beneficial pheromones that strengthened the host.
After death, their bodies would rot, causing catastrophic damage to the host's chakra pathways.
Attempting to kill the insects after maturity was even more dangerous. Killing a fully integrated symbiotic insect was tantamount to destroying the host's entire chakra system, leading to paralysis or death.
Inside the Level 13 Sealed Laboratory.
Luminescent bugs clung to the ceiling, casting a warm, silver-yellow glow across the room.
Shisui ford a series of hand seals, using the "Secret Insect Cocoon" technique to push the egg inside a captured Chunin to its absolute limit. In less than half a day, the insect reached adulthood.
The man's body initially entered a state of extre euphoria, but monts later, the insect began to feed in reverse, draining his nutrients until he started to shrivel.
Seeing his opening, Shisui's fingers glowed with a faint, ghostly blue light. He pressed them firmly against the man's abdon.
"Fūinjutsu: Ten-Finger Seal!"
This was an obscure B-rank sealing technique. It required no elental nature but demanded pinpoint chakra control, especially effective at binding unintelligent living organisms.
As his fingers touched the skin, black ink-like runes spread across the Chunin's belly, diving beneath the surface to bind the malford parasite.
"It's quieted down. Now... surgery ti to extract it."
Shisui donned a mask and rubber gloves, selecting a set of aluminum-alloy scalpels. He made a clean incision along the man's stomach.
Two hours later, Shisui peeled a fleshy, vascular mass of insect tissue away from the man's internals. However, the Chunin did not survive.
At the final mont of separation, the mature insect had perford a death-throe retaliation, releasing a highly corrosive, acidic substance that lted a part of its own body while simultaneously dissolving the man's internal ridians.
Shisui was not a professional dical ninja. Faced with such a sudden chemical reaction, he could only watch as the man was consud from the inside out.
"To think that a project ant to break human limitations resulted in such a lethal, symbiotic monster," Shisui mused. He commanded his Erosion Bugs to clean the table, leaving it spotless.
He brought over another preserved ninja corpse. This ti, he didn't start the experint imdiately. Instead, he flipped through his notes, searching for a new direction.
Symbiosis... integration...
He stood in silence for a long mont, a mory flickering in his mind. He recalled the secret scrolls of Takigakure he had skimd a month ago—the notes on the Earth Grudge Fear (Jigenryū).
The technique itself was supposedly lost. Not the scrolls describing its theory, but the actual living "Earth Grudge Fear" organisms that made the jutsu possible.
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