By mid-August of Year 40, the Bio-Armor formulated from Katsuyu's cells was finally complete and ready for field testing.
Even though he had designed it himself and his Shadow Clones had built it with their own hands, the sight of the bucket of thick, viscous "batter" still made Tetsumaru's skin crawl.
"Are we... are we really doing this?"
"Cut the crap. You're the only one with a physical body. You want one of us Shadow Clones to go in? Besides, it's not like we haven't tried—they all exploded, remember?"
"Fine. Let's get it over with."
Tetsumaru released his Transformation Jutsu and shed his Armor Beetles, leaving only the helmet-style Eye of Truth on his head. Only then did he reach toward the "batter."
The mixture in the bucket consisted of "Artificial Colonized Cells" derived from Katsuyu through a series of complex biological modulations. As Tetsumaru's bare fingers approached, countless tiny fleshy buds sprouted from the surface, swaying as they homed in on his hand.
Tetsumaru couldn't resist teasing it for a moment. When his fingers pulled away, the buds quieted down; when he moved closer, they became "excited," stretching high and tensing up.
Finally, Tetsumaru tapped the Eye of Truth on his head. Confirming that his "Primary Brain Bug" was in peak condition, he steeled his nerves and plunged his hand into the artificial cells.
Instantly, the fleshy buds erupted. They coiled tightly around his arm, attempting to drag his entire body into the bucket. After a few seconds of struggling, the tall, imposing Tetsumaru remained standing firm. The artificial cells then formed over a dozen tentacles that wound up his arm, with dense rows of suckers appearing at the contact points to anchor themselves.
In just two seconds, the 212-centimeter-tall Tetsumaru was mostly covered, the mass of cells aggressively crawling toward his head.
Tetsumaru didn't resist. He stood still, experiencing the sensation of the bond. "This artificial stuff is still too feral," he noted. "Anyone else would have probably been thrashed half to death by now."
"The constriction during the full-body envelopment is definitely on the high side. It actually exceeded what a Shadow Clone can handle."
"That's strange. It didn't exceed it by much. It shouldn't have been a guaranteed collapse for the clones."
"Mark that down. It's a potential hazard we need to fix."
The Shadow Clones nodded fervently, scribbling notes at high speed.
"Ow!" Tetsumaru suddenly yelped. "Dammit! I just got bitten!"
"A bug! There really is a bug in the code! I told you so!" one clone shouted with inexplicable glee.
"Sss... that actually hurts," Tetsumaru said, grimacing. "My right arm is definitely bleeding. It bit right through my skin. No wonder the Shadow Clones couldn't hold—the sudden damage triggered a pop. Found the problem."
Because of the blood, the artificial cells became hyper-stimulated. Their color shifted from pale pink to a deep crimson, and they began to writhe violently, attempting to snap Tetsumaru's arms, legs, and neck.
"That's enough. If this goes any further, I'll have to use force to counter it. Let's begin."
Tetsumaru closed his eyes. The Eye of Truth instantly released thousands of neural filaments that plunged into the artificial cells. They pierced through the mass with surgical precision, spreading across Tetsumaru's entire skin surface before delivering a massive electrical discharge.
The cells, which hadn't cared about being pierced, were instantly paralyzed by the shock. They began to struggle, frantically splitting off a keratinized layer to resist the electricity while twisting to shake off the neural filaments.
Tetsumaru didn't let up. He flared ten of his specialized chakra filaments, extracting a massive volume of chakra to fuel the Eye of Truth. The current surged a hundredfold, shattering the cells' resistance.
From there, Tetsumaru continuously varied the intensity and frequency of the shocks, slowly domesticating the bio-matter.
Meanwhile, the four Shadow Clones worked in tandem. Two used secret techniques to assist the Eye of Truth in controlling the cells, while the other two rapidly applied Sealing Jutsu to the stabilizing mass, engraving chakra runes into the developing structure.
Gradually, the feral nature of the cells was suppressed. Under Tetsumaru's direction via the Eye of Truth, the cells began to differentiate, forming muscles, protective layers, and weapon interface structures according to the blueprints.
Once the internal structure was finalized and the Blood Covenant Summoning array was encapsulated, the suit began secreting a milky-white mucus. It coated him from head to toe, layer upon layer, thickening specifically over the head, shoulders, chest, and limbs.
Upon contact with the air, the mucus hardened rapidly, transforming into white plate armor. The "Equipping Phase" was complete. The Katsuyu Bio-Armor finally looked like a proper piece of high-tech biological gear.
However, the suit remained perfectly still. A Shadow Clone approached curiously, peering at it. "Any issues? Main Body, how do you feel?"
The armor began to tremble. Suddenly, with a series of loud cracks, several joint plates snapped. A fist slammed into the faceplate area, and a blast of pressurized air hissed out of the new crack.
Tetsumaru's voice finally muffled through. "Dammit! The joint locks jammed, and the air vents were sealed! I almost went out the back door on that one!"
"Who the hell miscalculated the clearance data?"
The four Shadow Clones shrugged in unison, completely unbothered.
"The new protein-based armor replaced the old chitin. Our tech isn't quite as godly as the Advents; it takes more than a few minutes to reach full hardness. Within twenty-four hours, it won't be hard enough to actually resist the Main Body's strength. No real danger."
Tetsumaru didn't bother arguing. Cursing out his own clones was just cursing himself—it was a waste of breath.
"Let's talk about the glitches."
"One: the breathing holes didn't stay open when the head was encapsulated. That's a bug; we can trace the code and fix it."
"Two: the initial viscosity of the protein armor was too low. During the hardening process, it dripped into the joint clearances. It basically welded the joints into a single solid piece."
"That's an easy fix. We'll just run some models to find the right thickness."
"Stop yapping and get over here. Mount the weapons. Let's move to the test phase."
Tetsumaru: "..."
As he produced more and more of these Shadow Clones over time, they were becoming increasingly independent—and increasingly difficult to manage. Every single one of them acted like they owned the place.
Once the Wrist-Blade Bugs, the Sonic Bugs on the face, the Jet Bugs on the waist and legs, the Wing Bugs on the back, and—most importantly—the Thunder Snake Bug heavy weapon on the chest were mounted, the Bio-Armor was fully armed.
Despite the damaged joint plates, everything was miraculously equipped. Tetsumaru shrugged. Might as well test it.
The right wrist was equipped with the Flowing Light Blade. Its cutting power was as impressive as ever.
The left wrist held the brand-new Vibration Blade. The sensation of swinging it was terrible—the blade tended to skip and slide off surfaces—but its piercing power was several times greater than the Flowing Light. It punched through a half-inch steel plate like it was paper.
Tetsumaru tried a few more slashes with the Vibration Blade, but it kept sliding. He couldn't help but wonder: Is the 'High-Frequency Blade' concept from the manga flawed, or is our vibration frequency just too low to be effective?
The sonic weapons, however, were a delightful surprise. Both the ultrasonic and infrasonic modes performed exceptionally well. The ultrasonic was a nightmare for hard targets, while the infrasonic pulverized soft tissues.
Furthermore, he could focus the sound at any point within a three-hundred-meter radius, causing instant destruction. He could even modulate the frequency on the fly to match a target's resonant frequency for maximum lethality.
After a few practice runs, Tetsumaru could accurately shatter shuriken in mid-air and knock down kunai. He even managed to snip a high-speed Gadfly out of the sky—a bug that flies at a staggering 98 km/h.
In addition to pinpoint focused damage, he could disperse the energy to create a massive debuff field, suppressing any creature with soft internal organs before picking them off one by one.
It was this weapon—developed from the Singing Cicada—that officially rendered the Flight-Locust obsolete, along with the Acid Bug set in his palms.
Tetsumaru was extremely satisfied. He was already imagining his next encounter with the Third Raikage. He wondered if the man's "hardness" extended to his heart, liver, and lungs. If not, he could always just vibrate the man's eyeballs out of his head.
The Lightning Style Armor can't possibly protect the eyeballs too... right?
The Jet and Wing Bugs also received passing grades. He had finally moved past the "Dash and Glide" mode of the Attached Insect Limbs and was officially capable of true flight.
But then came the biggest disappointment. As a substitute for a high-energy particle cannon, the Thunder Snake Bug was a total failure.
Tetsumaru didn't even bother writing an evaluation report. He just told the group: "Start over from scratch. Opening the chest armor is a huge risk to the pilot. If the main weapon can only destroy a man-sized rock, the risk-reward ratio is trash."
"The 'real' particle cannons in the source material can vaporize anything," Tetsumaru noted seriously. "Even if our version is a knockoff, we should at least be able to modify the terrain slightly."
A Shadow Clone stepped forward to shut him down. "There are only two things in the Shinobi World that fit that description: a low-end Storm Release or a high-end Dust Release. Main Body, if you can learn those, we can find a way to integrate them."
"Exactly! If you can learn those, we wouldn't even need to open the armor. We could just engrave the runes directly into the arm guards. Cross your arms and pew-pew-pew."
"Wait, wouldn't that just make me a rubber-suit Ultraman?"
"What's wrong with Ultraman? It's a bit chuunibyou, sure, but look at the utility!"
"True. It's not like the Main Body has any shame left anyway."
"Get out! All of you!" Tetsumaru shouted while struggling to peel himself out of the suit. "Scrap the main weapon for now. Get the rest finalized ASAP. I'll be back in fifteen days for another test. Let's get this model locked in."
"No problem. Cutting the main weapon saves a ton of work. But Main Body, why are you in such a hurry to finalize the armor?"
"Yeah, we're Aburame. Our thing is the Swarm, not power suits."
Because of the joint welding, almost all the intended release latches were stuck. Tetsumaru was straining with all his might and couldn't get it open. The clones finally stepped in to help dismantle it.
"We've hit a bottleneck in our numbers," Tetsumaru explained. "The Shadow Clone count is capped at 296. At this scale, the rate of clones dispelling due to chakra exhaustion or random accidents is starting to equalize with our production."
"I want to equip the Shadow Clones with the Katsuyu Bio-Armor. If we can find a way to extract chakra from the suit to sustain the clones—coupled with the suit's defense—you guys could operate indefinitely."
The four Shadow Clones stopped moving. A light called hope suddenly flickered in their eyes.
Tetsumaru continued, seemingly oblivious. "Once we solve the chakra extraction problem, we can initiate the Avatar Project. We'll use Katsuyu cells as a foundation to research true, physical external incarnations."
"I am the Swarm. I am Civilization," the four clones and Tetsumaru recited their creed in unison.
Once the "External Avatars" were complete, the Swarm could be governed by Tetsumaru's physical incarnations. There would be no need for an intermediate layer of "Overmind" insects.
Realistically, even an incarnation has a chance of rebelling. It wasn't zero risk, but it was infinitely more reliable than a manufactured alien intelligence.
Tetsumaru could maintain mental consistency through periodic "Soul Recalls." Initially, the recall interval would have to match the avatar's durability, but once the tech matured, he could set a recall once every century.
And if an avatar did manage to go rogue and run away? Let him go. As long as Tetsumaru achieved immortality, the "him" created by the Shadow Clone Jutsu would eventually come home.
Holy crap, he thought. When you look at it that way, the Shadow Clone Jutsu is god-tier. As long as you don't use them as disposable fodder, the potential is limitless.
Half an hour later.
"Can you get this thing off or not?" Tetsumaru asked impatiently. "If you can't, I'm just going to break out."
"Don't! Whatever you do, don't! If you break it, we lose a ton of data!"
"Just give us a bit more time. Don't rush us!"
Tetsumaru: (￣へ￣)
Six hours later.
"Hurry up! Seriously! Nature is calling!"
"What are you worried about? The Katsuyu Bio-Armor can handle waste processing. Just let it go."
"Exactly. We designed this with the pilot's comfort in mind. Don't worry about it."
Tetsumaru: (＊￣︿￣)
Twelve hours later.
"We're screwed. It's genuinely stuck. Let's just focus on extracting the data first."
"Good point. Save the data, then we can just smash the thing."
"Main Body, hang in there. We're moving as fast as we can."
Tetsumaru: o(￣ヘ￣o＃)
Twenty hours later.
"Everything is exported! Main Body, you can come out now!"
"Too late. I already tried. I'm stuck."
"..."
"Use the 'final' method. Don't tell me I didn't leave a back door for this."
"Fine. We can't hide anything from you anyway. We're all the same guy."
The Shadow Clones combined their strength to lug out a metal drum. They carefully unscrewed the cap and used a glass syringe to draw a bit of solution, squirting it onto the armor's joints.
Almost instantly, the protein armor began to bubble. Honeycomb-like pits appeared, followed by thick, dripping slime.
The pits spread rapidly across the white armor. The red "colonized" muscle beneath dissolved more slowly, but soon, the 3.3-meter-tall white armored giant was reduced to a red-and-white muscular mess.
Finally, the artificial cells dissolved entirely, revealing Tetsumaru. The four clones rushed in to help him take off the Eye of Truth, rinsing it repeatedly with fresh water to ensure the precious biological component wasn't dissolved as well.
After checking that the Eye of Truth was unharmed, Tetsumaru finally realized he was feeling a bit... breezy. His clothes had been dissolved into tatters. He stood up, naked and "unburdened" before his clones.
"Heh." Tetsumaru wasn't actually angry. He grabbed a lab coat from the wall, draped it over his shoulders, and walked out. Before leaving, he dropped a single sentence:
"I'm testing the next suit in ten days. Don't screw up again."
Once he was out of earshot, the Shadow Clones let out a collective sigh of relief.
"He's mad. He's definitely mad."
"Yeah. I thought for sure we were getting dispelled."
"Nah, the Main Body is too thick-skinned to care about that."
"He's probably just embarrassed."
"Bullshit. There isn't a woman within three hundred miles of here. Who would he be embarrassed for?"
"Well, he cut five days off our deadline. He wants to work us to death."
"Better get to it then. Time is tight."
"Yeah. Let's go."