"Don't you dare bully my dad!"
Two kunai flashed out of Ino Yamanaka's hands. She lunged after them like a feral kitten.
But she'd only just enrolled in the Academy—what could she really do?
SMACK—!
Kai didn't even bother to dodge. He backhanded her once.
Ino spun and hit the ground, sitting there dazed, one hand pressed to her cheek.
She was stunned.
A bright handprint bloomed on her pale face.
Inoichi's eyes went wide with rage.
"Ino! Damn it—she's just a child! You—!"
Kai raised a brow, looking at him like he'd said something hilarious.
"A child?"
He tilted his head slightly.
"Actually… I'm a child too."
Those few words made Inoichi freeze.
Only then did it hit him—properly—that the boy in front of him was barely ten.
Hadn't even graduated the Academy.
So when had everyone started forgetting that?
Yesterday?
Or… just now?
Inoichi didn't know.
He only shoved himself in front of Ino, bowing again and again like his spine had been snapped.
"I'm sorry, Lord Kai. We'll cooperate. We'll cooperate properly."
That slap didn't just send Ino flying.
It shattered Inoichi's pride.
Strong. Young. Reckless. Unafraid of consequences.
He suddenly felt like his brain had rotted for even thinking he could stall this monster.
Kai didn't bother replying.
His gaze lowered, and the system window flickered in his vision.
[Defeated: Yamanaka Ino. Attempting to copy trait…]
[Defeated: Yamanaka Inoichi. Attempting to copy trait…]
[Copy failed.]
Kai's expression didn't change—but his mood did.
Failure was rare now.
Two failures in a row?
Annoying.
He waved a hand dismissively and turned away.
If the Yamanaka didn't want to cooperate, fine.
There were other clans.
Aburame Compound
Deep inside the ancient, austere estate, the air was heavy.
Shibi Aburame sat at the head seat, face dark as still water.
Around him stood elite jōnin and chūnin, sleeves subtly shifting—soft, constant buzzing hidden beneath cloth.
"Clan head," a runner reported tensely, "the Uchiha Second Elder is still outside with his people. They demand ten years of mission-payment distributions and relief-compensation records."
Shibi's mouth curled.
"Still waiting? Then let them wait."
His fingers moved slightly. A dark green kikaichū crawled restlessly across his knuckle.
"Delay. Keep delaying."
"I don't believe the Uchiha would dare commit a crime that big—attacking a major Konoha clan."
"They already sparked outrage last night. If they touch us too, the others will panic—rabbit dies, fox grieves. Then—"
BOOOOM—!!!
A thunderous explosion cut him off.
At the front of the Aburame estate, the heavy alloy gate carved with insect patterns—
warped like soft metal.
Then burst inward.
Smoke and dust billowed up.
Through it, a small figure stepped in first.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The footsteps were light—just quiet crunching over shattered gate pieces and broken stone.
Behind him, Uchiha eyes glowed red in the haze.
They'd been waiting a long time.
Kai's voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the dust and panic like a blade.
"Shibi Aburame."
"The Konoha Finance Oversight Committee summons your clan to cooperate with the investigation."
"Are you coming out on your own… or do I have to invite you?"
Shibi's brows lifted, fury rising fast.
"Kai Uchiha! You dare destroy my clan's gate?!"
This was Aburame land.
Private ground.
And this brat just stomped in like he owned it.
Shibi's sleeve burst open.
A tide of dark green kikaichū poured out.
BZZZZZZZ—!
They formed a roiling cloud in front of him—thick enough to swallow light.
The sound alone made scalps crawl.
Some Uchiha instinctively shut their Sharingan.
Too many bugs.
Too dense.
Too nauseating.
Kai didn't flinch.
He tilted his head, almost amused.
"Force entry?"
"Since when was Konoha's ground carved into private property?"
He lifted his right hand—fingers spread—and slapped the air toward the insect cloud.
An air cannon.
PFFFT—!
The bugs surged forward immediately, devouring the compressed air like locusts chewing leaves.
In seconds, the attack was gone.
Shibi exhaled—relieved, and smug.
"So you really are young. You don't understand how nasty Aburame poison is."
His spine straightened.
"Leave now, Kai Uchiha. I'll cooperate with sorting the accounts."
"But understand this—this is the Aburame clan."
HUM—!
Behind him, dozens of jōnin released chakra at once.
More insect clouds bloomed, layered, weaving together until the air itself looked black.
The threat was crystal clear.
Kai's brows rose.
"Bugs?"
"Careful you don't poison yourself."
A formless ripple spread out from him in an instant—silent, wide, oppressive.
A hundred-meter sphere.
The Aburame insects were inside it.
Pop—
The insect cloud froze.
As if someone hit a pause button.
The buzzing died mid-air.
Then the swarm began to… break.
The glossy poison sheen on their shells dimmed, thinning, fading.
Worse—
when some bugs brushed other bugs, they began dropping dead.
Plop.
Plop-plop.
A rain of insects fell to the ground, twitching and dying.
Trait: Sensory Domain (Blue).
Ignore poison. Reduce/increase poison resistance within 100 meters.
The poison itself hadn't changed.
Their resistance had.
And when poison resistance collapses—
even a clan's own bugs can't survive each other.
Shibi's face turned pale.
He could feel it: his connection to the swarm was slowing, blurring—like numb fingers trying to grasp thread.
And his clan's insects… were killing themselves.
"What… is this?!"
"Did someone breed a poison king…?!"
He forced more chakra out, trying to yank the swarm away—
but before he could, Kai lifted his hand again, voice light as a lullaby.
"Come on."
"Show yourself, little darlings."
BZZZ—bzzzz—
A haze of purple, nano-sized insects rose up—so fine they looked like violet dust.
Then they surged straight into the massive dark green cloud.
Nano poison bugs.
Their side grows as yours shrinks.
In a heartbeat, the Aburame swarm collapsed like a sandcastle in a storm.
The kikaichū were torn apart—shredded into drifting gray ruin.
The Aburame's pride…
was reduced to a joke.
Silence.
The entire Aburame compound stood frozen—terror and disbelief washing over every face.
In that dead quiet, one question hung in the air like a curse:
So who's really the bug master now?
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