Chapter 129: Preparations

Hiruzen read the Hagoromo contract twice before approving Tonbo's request.

"Your research remains secondary to the children," he said.

"Agreed."

"The environmental readings may not include defensive seals, private techniques, or identities of candidates."

"Those restrictions are already in the contract."

"I am repeating them because curiosity has persuaded better shinobi than you to interpret a boundary creatively."

Tonbo accepted the rebuke without admitting whether it applied. "Who will join me?"

"I will select three sensory chūnin. You leave in five days. The Hagoromo representative expects the team at the eastern gate before noon."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage."

Tonbo disappeared in a brief Body Flicker.

The office door opened almost at once. Konohamaru entered on tiptoe, followed by Ebisu wearing the exhausted expression of a tutor whose student had discovered stealth without discovering patience.

"Grandpa, who was here?"

"A jōnin requesting a mission."

"Was it the bandaged one?"

"Tonbo rarely wears the bandages now."

"Then the unbandaged one who used to be bandaged."

Hiruzen could not dispute the identification.

Ebisu adjusted his glasses. "Master Konohamaru, the Hokage's office is not a playground."

"I came to see Grandpa."

The simple answer softened Hiruzen's annoyance. Konohamaru's parents had died during a mission the previous year, leaving tutors and household staff to fill hours that family could not. Hiruzen loved the boy and still spent more evenings with reports than with him. No promise about the village made that absence invisible.

"You may stay until my next meeting," Hiruzen said. "But you sit quietly."

Konohamaru climbed into a chair and immediately asked what made the mission A-rank.

Hiruzen showed him an unclassified map rather than dismissing the question. "Danger, required skill, political sensitivity, and the consequence of failure all affect rank. This one protects children in hazardous land belonging to another clan."

"Why can't their own adults do it?"

"Because responsibility sometimes means asking for help before pride creates a funeral."

Konohamaru traced the road north with one finger. "Will the jōnin fight the wind?"

"He will try to understand it."

"That sounds less impressive."

"Understanding which danger not to fight is part of becoming Hokage."

The boy considered this and asked whether a sufficiently strong Fire Release could burn wind. Ebisu began an explanation of elemental interaction. Hiruzen listened long enough to realize Konohamaru had maneuvered both adults into giving him a lesson instead of sending him home.

The tactic deserved limited reward. He allowed the conversation until the meeting bell rang, then assigned Ebisu to teach basic map symbols during the walk back.

Ebisu wrote the sentence down. Hiruzen pretended not to notice.

At the Academy, a different intelligence operation had reached its conclusion.

Kiba ran beside his classmates while Akamaru rested on his head. "I found a counter to Eightfold Flavor."

Interest spread through the group faster than Iruka's pacing command.

Naruto scoffed. "You still don't know who invented it. That means your investigation failed."

"I found the information that keeps us from being hit. That is more useful than a name."

"I'll find both. Then everyone will know I'm better at intelligence."

Shikamaru looked toward Kiba. "The counter is Throat Guarding Technique, isn't it? Older students reinforce the chakra points carrying the taste effect before the sound pattern completes."

Kiba nearly stumbled. "How did you know?"

"My father knows the creator and refused to tell me. He called it an analysis exercise. That meant a counter existed and was accessible to students. The upper years stop fearing the whistle, so they must learn it before second year."

"That does not prove the name."

"I asked a sixth-year student during lunch."

Kiba pointed at him. "This is why you're my most dangerous rival."

"I do not want to be Hokage."

"Exactly what someone concealing his ambition would say."

Naruto inserted himself between them. "If Shikamaru is your rival, he's mine too."

"No," Shikamaru said. "To both of you."

Chōji offered Kiba one potato chip in exchange for the practice method. Akamaru barked until the payment became two.

"Throat Guarding isn't a full defense," Kiba explained. "You gather chakra around the throat and the nerves carrying taste before the genjutsu settles. If you react late, it only makes swallowing easier."

The name overstated its scope. The exercise had begun with Hyūga students mapping the pathway by which Eightfold Flavor carried sensation from chakra network to mind. A shallow reinforcement at three points introduced enough competing information to weaken the prepared taste. It did nothing against sight, sound, pain, balance, or a caster who changed delivery.

That narrowness made it suitable for students. They could practice one controlled shape without believing they had learned general genjutsu release.

"First-years don't learn ninjutsu," Sakura said.

"We refine chakra. This is a control exercise with one small shape."

Sasuke listened without speaking. He knew Tonbo had created Eightfold Flavor, but Itachi had warned that Tonbo rewarded gossip with inventive consequences. More importantly, revealing the inventor did nothing to stop the technique.

Kiba demonstrated while jogging. His chakra formed a thin, steady layer beneath the jaw. The effort disrupted his breathing after several steps, forcing him to release it.

"Practice while sitting first," he said. "If you become dizzy, stop."

Iruka had heard every word from the front of the group. He allowed the discussion because the students were turning dislike into chakra-control practice and because Kiba included a safety warning without prompting.

"Anyone using chakra while running without supervision loses the next practical period," he called. "Kiba, you will demonstrate the seated form after class. I will correct the instructions before anyone practices alone."

After dismissal, eight students remained. Iruka placed leaves against their throats and had them hold each leaf with chakra before attempting the defensive pattern. Shikamaru succeeded first and looked offended by the attention. Sasuke followed after reducing his output twice. Sakura formed the cleanest layer but could not maintain it while speaking.

Naruto flooded the exercise with chakra and launched his leaf across the room.

"Again," Iruka said.

"I used more than everyone else."

"That is the problem. Control is not a contest of volume."

Kiba sat beside him. "Imagine holding Akamaru without squeezing."

"I don't have an Akamaru."

"Imagine holding ramen without spilling it."

Naruto's second attempt lasted two seconds.

Chōji asked whether imagining food improved all chakra control. Shino replied that motivation and mechanism were separate variables. Their argument kept the group together until sunset.

Kiba's pride rose despite the correction. His first informal lesson had received official approval.

Naruto ran faster. "I'll learn it before everyone else."

"You haven't completed the leaf exercise," Sakura reminded him.

"Then I'll complete both tonight."

Shikamaru sighed. A technique intended to reduce punishment had somehow created more work.

At the Hokage Tower, Hiruzen selected Tonbo's team from active rosters: Hyūga Atsushi, Inuzuka Tsuyoshi with his ninken Gaku, and Aburame Shikyō. Their senses overlapped without depending upon the same evidence.

Atsushi's record showed restraint under pressure and one disciplinary note for challenging an unsafe patrol order through proper command channels. Tsuyoshi had excellent field tracking and a habit of reporting impressions before categories. Shikyō spoke little, maintained precise logs, and had recovered two missing genin during a flood by anchoring insects above the water.

None had worked together. That was a weakness Tonbo would have to resolve on the road rather than inside Gale Valley.

One read chakra through the Byakugan. One read the physical world through scent and a partner. One distributed awareness across insects.

If Gale Valley could hide a child from all four methods, the mission deserved its rank.

Hiruzen signed the deployment and added one private instruction to Tonbo's copy: report any spatial distortion immediately. The masked intruder had not appeared near Hagoromo territory, but repeated echoes inside Konoha made coincidence less comforting than it once had been.