"Is no one coming?"
"Everyone, don't be so shy. Let the teacher demonstrate first."
"My name is Ogawa Katsu. I like sake, I hate war, and my ideal is to be an excellent teacher."
"Does everyone know how to introduce themselves now?"
"Who wants to go first?"
Encouraged by Ogawa, someone soon began their self-introduction, and the atmosphere in the class seemed to return to normal.
Miki, standing in the hallway, wasn't focused on the self-introductions in the classroom. While seemingly spacing out, she had actually entered another perspective—that of an insect.
Through a mysterious connection, Miki was using the insects' perspective to control swarms of Kikaichu far away in the Konoha Forest, capturing rare or special insects.
This was a wonderful perspective.
It was like experiencing the control of insect swarms firsthand.
Unlike her clan members, who needed secret techniques to control Kikaichu, and still couldn't do it as easily and freely as Miki.
With just a thought, all the insect swarms within her range would act according to Miki's will.
It was as if Miki herself was the insect swarm.
Rather, the current Miki was like the master and brain of the insect swarm.
The insect swarm was Miki's hands and feet.
At this moment, the self-introductions in the class caught Miki's attention.
"Tsunade. I like gambling, I hate losing money, and my ideal is to win money."
This was a very beautiful little girl with light yellow hair tied in a high ponytail.
Tsunade, huh?
Miki's lips curled into a smile under her mask.
At this time, she hadn't yet begun her Medical Ninjutsu training.
Medical Ninjutsu was essential in her plans.
"I am Jiraiya! I like older sisters, and what I hate is—"
The current Jiraiya looked incredibly stupid.
He clearly looked like one of those particularly annoying brats.
No need to waste time on him for now.
However, Orochimaru didn't seem to be in the class.
This was someone Miki was determined to make 'friends' with.
But there was no need to rush. There was still plenty of time.
"Yume Miji! Come in and introduce yourself."
Hearing this, Miki walked into the classroom, looked around, and said, "Yume Miji. I like insects, I hate people, and my ideal is the sea of stars."
She truly was a strange child.
The teacher nodded and said, "Do you know you were wrong?"
Miki nodded.
Seeing Miki's obedient look, the teacher said, "Will you do it again next time?"
"Definitely next time," Miki said bluntly.
She showed no sign of fear at all.
The teacher's head buzzed. After a long silence, he waved his hand, signaling Miki to sit back down.
What could he do? What else could he do? He could only feel despair!
"Teacher..."
A little girl from the Hyuga Clan weakly raised her hand, looking as if she was about to cry.
"Speak!"
"Can I not sit with Aburame-san?"
The Hyuga girl was already crying, looking at the teacher with tear-filled eyes.
"Is there anyone willing to sit with Aburame-san?"
A silent pause fell over the entire class. Even the boys were unwilling to sit with someone covered in insects.
Seeing this, the teacher's head began to ache.
At this moment, a little girl said she wasn't scared at all, and offered a solution, "Teacher, she can sit with me."
The teacher's eyes lit up as he looked at the blonde little girl who spoke.
As expected of the First Hokage's granddaughter, Tsunade Hime of Konoha.
Such courage was beyond ordinary people.
Miki couldn't help but look at Tsunade Hime. Given her personality, she didn't seem like the type to gently and thoughtfully help someone out; she must have had another motive.
"Yume Miji, you can sit with Tsunade Hime."
Miki walked up to Tsunade Hime, and Tsunade Hime stared intently at Aburame the whole time, looking very interested.
Children, after all, it's not strange for them to have any peculiar thoughts.
Ignoring Tsunade's gaze, Miki sat down naturally.
Miki wasn't interested in the current Tsunade.
At least, not until a year later would Miki show some interest.
At that time, if nothing unexpected happened, the Three Shinobi would all be taken as disciples by the Third Hokage.
"You're very strong."
Tsunade whispered.
Miki glanced at Tsunade. At this stage, where most people hadn't even learned the Three Body Technique, Miki, who already knew her clan's secret techniques, might very well be the strongest in the class.
As the First Hokage's granddaughter, she had some discernment. Not even half the class, but only a few, had mastered Chakra manipulation.
The crying Hyuga girl was one of them, a genius at this age.
"But I'm stronger than you, hmph."
The blonde princess snorted and turned her head away, no longer looking at Miki.
"Dying of laughter, but not completely."
As she spoke, a crunching sound came from Miki's mouth.
Hearing this, a vein popped on the teacher's forehead on the podium, and he took a deep breath.
Tsunade, on the other hand, sniffed, a faint, sweet scent lingering at the tip of her nose.
This smell was truly fragrant.
She snorted disdainfully in response.
The teacher on the podium ignored Miki's actions and began the formal lesson.
The day's studies ended uneventfully; the school did not teach Shinobi training.
As soon as school was out in the afternoon, Miki headed straight for the forest.
Her Chakra control training, involving walking on water and climbing trees, had already finished half a year ago. She smoothly traversed rooftops and tree trunks, arriving at her secret little base.
Calling it a base was a bit of a stretch; more accurately, it was a dim cavern.
Besides candlelight, the light source also came from glowing green flying insects.
Dark and damp, such an environment was difficult for humans, but ideal for insects.
Strictly speaking, this was an insect nest, with interconnected passages leading to various hidden spots on the surface. In terms of ventilation, the entire cavern was not stuffy.
The passages were filled with flying Kikaichu, their dense swarms creating a deep sense of revulsion and fear. A normal person, even a normal Shinobi, would lose the desire to explore after one glance.
Safety and concealment were not a concern, and besides, there was nothing valuable or illicit there.
According to the plan, this place was to be developed as a laboratory. It took half a year for the Kikaichu swarms to excavate a two-hundred-square-meter hollow fifty meters underground.
Currently, only the main structure was complete.
The main hall was piled with experimental subjects captured by Miki, while the side room was a resting place.
Aside from tables, chairs, cabinets, and a bed, there was nothing else that seemed superfluous.
On rows of standing shelves, glass bottles and wire cages were neatly arranged, containing experimental subjects.
Various insects, small animals, and plants, most of which were already dead, had been preserved, either soaked in preservatives or made into specimens.
Not just for collection, the cells of these little darlings were not completely dead, and might be useful one day.
The entire cavern, surrounded by dim yellow and eerie green light, looked very much like an evil lich's secret operating room.
It was terrifying, creepy, and hellish.
It wasn't that Miki didn't want to make it brighter or more sci-fi; it was simply that Miki had no money.
To be precise, Miki, who had just turned six this year, had no money at all.
Not just the furniture and glass bottles, but every single item here was painstakingly scavenged and collected by Miki through her insect swarms.
"Experiment begins. Record: infection progression test."
Holding a burning candle in one hand, she pulled out a small cage with the other.
The cage contained an adult black cat, not a Ninja Cat, but a stray wild cat.
The black cat in the cage was already on its last legs, seemingly about to die at any moment.
Miki found paper and a pen and quietly watched the black cat.
At a certain moment, the fear in the black cat's mind suddenly vanished, replaced by a sense of calm.
"Infection complete, 100% progress, mind linked."
This was one of the manifestations of Miki's abilities: she could establish a link with her insect swarms, perceive their thoughts, and freely control their actions.
The prerequisite was infection.
Through repeated experiments, it was confirmed that besides insects, animals and plants were also susceptible to infection.
"Currently, the subject's emotions are stable. The infection period is 366 hours. Compared to the infection experiments on ants (6 minutes), mice (11 hours), and kittens (16 hours), it can be confirmed that the larger the body size, the slower the infection progression. This may be related to the number of cells in the subject."
As she spoke, Miki made a note.
"However, the difference in infection time between adult cats and kittens is too disparate. Even if an adult's cell count is two to three times that of a kitten, such a vast difference should not exist."
"There is reason to suspect other important influencing factors."
"For example, mental resistance."
Insects are not only small but also have simple brains, so they can be easily infected and controlled by Miki.
Young animals are naive, and as for adult cats, frankly, they are quite intelligent, on par with a human child of 2 to 3 years old.
"Above, further observation is needed."
"Currently, Chakra creature subject infection testing is still lacking."
Miki did have one subject that could barely be considered a Chakra creature.
Kikaichu.
But the problem was that it wasn't entirely so. It consumed Chakra, but did not produce Chakra itself. Through continuous observation and experimentation, Miki had discovered that this little creature would digest Chakra and convert it back into life energy to sustain its survival.
It was a very peculiar creature.
It could itself serve as an excellent Chakra conductor material.
Miki turned to look at the other experimental subjects on the counter; other experiments were also underway.
This was an application of another manifestation of Miki's abilities.
Through infection, she could plunder and replicate target genes, then re-optimize and combine them.
In other words, evolution.
Or mutation.
Overall, the manifestation of her abilities was very similar to the Zerg in StarCraft.
Miki instinctively realized this almost immediately after discovering her abilities.
And the finished product already existed; the snacks Miki ate in class were an example.
Essentially, they were a type of honey pot insect built on the Kikaichu template, with an extremely short lifespan and no larval stage. Under the Birth of Chakra, they were born as adults.
After absorbing and storing enough food, the cherry-sized honey pot that bulged from their abdomen would automatically detach, and the adult insect would then die.
They ate almost anything, and their preservation effect was exceptionally good.
One could say they were delicious, juicy candy beans.
It was just that the processing method might be a bit hard for people to accept.
While gaining experience, Miki had already modified several varieties based on this foundation.
The next step was to make them gigantic.
However, Miki's current plan was to make the Kikaichu swarm ant-like.
That is, to achieve a'superorganism' state.