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The link is also in the synopsis
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It all happened very suddenly.
Aburame Shibi sat across from Shino on the tatami floor of their home. Both father and son had stoic personalities and didn't speak much unless necessary. Both wore blackout shades and high-collared outfits that covered the most expressive features of their faces, but they didn't need to see each other's faces to understand each other.
"Why is a jōnin teacher so important? They can't teach me our clan's hiden jutsu after all," Shino asked.
"Shino… a jōnin has forgotten more about being a shinobi than you have ever learned," Shibi said in a calm and collected manner. "Even just an opportunity to observe how they conduct themselves is valuable. They might be an outsider who doesn't fight like us, but that is a good thing."
"What might you mean, father?"
"If our clan members only learn from ourselves, rejecting any external input, eventually all of us will be fighting similarly. If one of our enemies figures out a weakness while fighting one of us, they would've found a weakness in all of us. You and I may use the same bugs, but I want you to use them in your own way."
"You want me to reject your teachings?" Shino asked, confused. He didn't know anyone better at their clan's hiden jutsu than his father.
"No. I want you to learn from me and everyone else, but instead of just leaning on what came before, you must add something of yourself in how you command your hive until it becomes special in a way unique to you. Learning from a jōnin whose experiences are distinct from ours may teach you things we may not consider."
Shibi gazed at his son. Time had passed in the blink of an eye. It felt as though it was only yesterday when he was holding his infant son in his arms, but now, he was about to become a shinobi. It made him wonder if he had spent enough time with Shino, who would now become increasingly busy with his life as a shinobi. He should be happy about it, but couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness in there as well. But he understood that all of this was part of being a parent.
Shino bowed. "I understand, father."
A rare smile appeared on Shibi's face. "Good… I'm proud of—"
The sound of rushed footsteps grew closer until the sliding door of the living room opened a bit too strongly. Shibi's close aide stood outside the threshold, his breathing lightly laboured.
"Clan head, it-it's…"
"Take a moment to catch your breath," Shibi said calmly. For his aide to rush into his home rather than sending a message via the house staff meant that it was a matter that required his immediate attention.
The aide took a moment to gather himself. "Clan head, it's the ANBU; they raided one of our facilities," he said sombrely.
———
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Greenhouse Twenty-Seven was a suffocating place because of its ambient humidity. On the main floor, hundreds of glass terrariums housed the pale beetles that had become the saviours of the Land of Fire's chakra-infused agriculture industry. But thirty feet below, in the reinforced sub-basement, the true crop was being harvested. There, three Aburame breeders meticulously catalogued the breeding cycles of the chakra-pest.
One of the breeders looked up at the basement ceiling. "What is that commotion?"
"Hmm, commotion?" Another one of them looked up. "Oh, I hear it."
They stopped working as the commotion got louder. They exchanged worried looks as they heard the sound of yelling and stomping footsteps through the ceiling.
"I'll go take a look."
One of them headed towards the staircase to the main floor when a sharp metallic creak pierced their ears. The reinforced steel doors of the sub-basement ruptured inwards, ripped off their hinges by an overwhelming force. The Aburame breeders flinched as the door slammed into the far wall with a deafening CRACK and watched in fear when tentacles, the colour of the deep ocean, rushed forward to catch the bent steel before it could fall down the stairs.
Through the dust came an ANBU, tentacles attached to his back. The light from the space outside the staircase cast long shadows that stretched down as he walked down the stairs, each of his steps echoing in the basement.
The Aburame breeders froze for a moment because, in the years they had been working in Greenhouse Twenty-Seven, not once had anyone they weren't expecting walked down those stairs. Their entire operation was supposed to be secret, and any unexpected presence meant risking that secret leaking, something they were repeatedly told couldn't be allowed to happen.
The lead breeder didn't try to fight. He spun, lunging for the intricate trigger for the red incineration seal painted on the back walls. It was the kill-switch that would burn the room, the illegal chakra-pests, and any evidence that could be used against the Aburame. It wouldn't solve their problems, but it would give the clan enough space to plan and manoeuvre against any attack coming for them strategically.
He took exactly one step.
The ANBU weaved hand seals and dipped his hands into two water tentacles, pulling away two large globes of water. Before any of them could react, he threw them across the room, needling them perfectly through the pillars.
They stuck to the two breeders in the back of the room on their heads. Instead of splattering like water balloons, the globes retained their shape. Water enveloped their heads and their necks.
The panic was instant as their air supply was cut off, and the liquid plugged their noses and mouths. They clawed at the water to get it off their faces, but the water was sticky and viscous like glue or sap. It was not only sticking to their faces, but it also retained its shape no matter how much or what they tried. They couldn't see properly as light unevenly refracted through the thick liquid. In an instant, their hives exploded out from their bodies, attacking the water globes to no avail. The moment the bugs made contact with the water, their bodies got stuck like they were in a sticky insect trap.
In reality, both of them were capable of escaping from the water globes, but the panic from the threat of worsening suffocation stole their ability to think properly. They couldn't breathe, see, hear, or scream. They were going to die.
The last remaining breeder who had volunteered to go upstairs looked on at the horrifying scene as his clan members struggled in silence, clawing at their faces and necks while their hives tried to help in vain.
He turned around to look at the ANBU to see the tangle of tentacles descend on him. In an instant, his torso, limbs, hips, and neck were under coils of water. He pushed and pulled on them, but couldn't move anything against the bizarrely strong tentacles as though they were not water but wires drawn from coiled steel.
On instinct that had been beaten into his bones, he commanded his hive to attack his assaulter.
From halfway on the staircase, the ANBU-nin raised his hand as one did to knock on a door with their knuckles and then flicked his wrist. The breeder's eyes almost popped out of his sockets as an invisible force hit his chest like a wrecking ball. He wheezed and coughed as he struggled to inhale the air that had been knocked out by the blow. Suddenly, his feet left the floor as the tentacles hoisted his body up before repeatedly slamming him into the bent steel door until he was unconscious.
The other two breeders soon fell limp to the ground from being suffocated. The ANBU snapped his fingers, and the water globes fell from around their heads before they could die from suffocation; the water, now normal, spilt and ran to the drain in the middle of the floor.
A quick pair of footsteps descended down the stairs to reveal another ANBU. He looked at the situation in the sub-basement and relaxed.
"Further orders, lieutenant?"
"I want a fūin-nin to disable that and preserve it to be used as evidence." Lieutenant Ratel pointed at the incineration seal in the back of the room. "How's the situation above?" he asked as he gazed at the row of soil beds with overhead heat lamps. There were hundreds of chakra pests wriggling in the chakra-rich soil.
"We have a handle, sir. It'll be over shortly."
"Good. Have someone take them to the black site promptly," Ratel said, pointing at the unconscious Aburame lying across the floor.
———
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"Which facility?" Shibi asked, getting up from the kneeling position on the cushion resting on the tatami floor.
"Greenhouse Twenty-Seven," the aide replied.
"If I'm correct, that's where we breed our pale beetles," Shibi said after a moment of thought. The management of the greenhouses wasn't under his direct purview, and he had been keeping an eye on them through internal audit reports. He tried to recall if there was anything out of the ordinary in the latest audit report on that particular greenhouse, but if his memory served him well, it was running well.
But then why would ANBU raid one of their greenhouses?
"Is this serious, father?" Shino asked. Though there wasn't a hint of worry in his face or tone, Shibi could tell that his son was concerned. It had to do with the urgency with which his aide had arrived at their home.
"I'm sorry, son. We will continue our conversation sometime later," Shibi said, keeping his voice even-keeled. Letting one's emotions take over didn't do good in any situation. He wanted to teach Shino by being an example. "As to answer your question. You must always remember this: even if it may not seem like it, it's always serious when ANBU is involved."
Shibi left with his aide and arrived at the greenhouse to see it populated by ANBU operatives and staff. On the way, he was joined by more Aburame shinobi. He was spotted quickly and was stopped as he approached the building by an operative.
"My apologies, Lord Aburame, but unless you have authorisation, we can't allow you on the premises."
"It's my greenhouse, ANBU-nin. I have the authorisation," Shibi said.
"ANBU authorisation, sir."
Shibi stared him down. The operative was polite but firm. He was respecting his position as the clan head, but wasn't acting subservient as many did to appease him. From that, Shibi was able to deduce that the operative believed that he wouldn't get in trouble from denying him, because even if operatives had ordered it, they were sometimes willing to bend the rules considering his position as the Aburame clan head.
"Very well. I hope you have the correct permissions to do this, operative. Otherwise, I'd take into account every minute you have been trespassing and violating my property."
The operative called over a staff member who presented them with a warrant. Shibi read it and felt something twist in his gut when he saw the contents of the warrant. It was a strong warrant signed that gave ANBU a wide scope of authority, signed by a procurator whom Shibi recognised as someone who wouldn't sign this level of power if they didn't think ANBU could justify it.
Shibi walked to the Aburame group that had gathered near the greenhouse.
"What happened?" he asked the people, and they told him about the raid and the missing people who worked at the greenhouse. He guessed that they had been arrested and taken away for interrogation.
"Get me the past few audit reports on this greenhouse. I want the auditor and greenhouse manager in front of me as soon as possible," Shibi said, looking at the greenhouse. Every Aburame greenhouse had strong protection under the well-enforced hiden jutsu laws that were respected even by ANBU, who were known to bypass the law often.
"Contact Seinpachi; I want to know what this is all about. Also, figure out where they took our people and start the efforts on getting them out." Times like this were the reason why clans invested so heavily in maintaining presences inside ANBU.
As his people began to move, he turned his attention back to the greenhouse. He raised his hand and released a small batch of insects from his body. Even if ANBU said that the greenhouse was sealed, it wasn't going to stop him from looking inside to see what they were looking for.
"Clan head!" Just as Shibi was about to order his bugs to infiltrate, another one of his clan members arrived in a hurry. "ANBU are arresting our men. I received multiple reports that they picked up both members and affiliates."
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