Chapter 140: The First Ambush

Kento activated the S-rank guarantee with blood and the seal carried beneath his shirt.

"Double the agreed reward," he said. "Protect the twelve candidates, Hagoromo Ki, and me until we reach Konoha authority. Rescue other survivors if doing so does not compromise that objective."

Tonbo checked the wording against the contingency contract prepared before the trial. "Accepted. You understand that I choose the route and may abandon property, records, or separated fighters."

"The clan can rebuild property if the children survive."

The sentence cost Kento something. Tonbo did not demand more.

Metabolic Recall had stopped the bleeding and restored enough coordination for supported movement. It had not repaired the puncture or replaced lost blood. Tonbo fitted a brace, gave Kento water and nutrient paste, then carried him back to the platform without forcing the injured leg to work.

The twelve candidates waited inside the barrier in full gear. Fear had made them quieter than discipline. Hagoromo Ki absorbed Kento's short account without visible collapse.

"The estate?"

"Compromised. Some exits worked. We cannot return."

Ki looked at the children and nodded once.

Tonbo divided supplies, destroyed nothing that could help later survivors, and left two woven moths to monitor the valley approach. The team descended by a narrow western route rather than the main road. Atsushi led through darkness with the Byakugan. Tsuyoshi and Gaku tested the wind for human scent. Shikyō seeded rear markers that could be abandoned without revealing the destination. They covered several kilometers before Gaku growled.

"People ahead," Tsuyoshi said. "Both sides of the road. Oil, poison, metal, wet cloth. More than ten."

Atsushi surveyed the forest. "Fifteen chakra signatures. Four on the ground, six in trees, five beneath concealment. No civilians within range."

The ambush occupied the quickest road south. Retreat would take the clients back toward Gale Valley and the larger force expected from the estate.

"We break through," Tonbo decided. "Do not resist the extraction."

Living Weave opened beneath the clients as a broad, armored burrower rather than the absurd shape Tonbo's older memories suggested. Its mouth enclosed Kento, Ki, and the candidates within a ventilated chamber. The construct descended below root depth, carried them past the initial kill zone, and stopped beneath a stone marker known to Tonbo's team.

Ki retained a release seal from the inside. Protection did not require helplessness.

Within the construct, woven ribs held lamps, water, and padded restraints for sudden movement. Small vents carried air through filtered channels to the surface. Atsushi could track the chamber through soil, and a cord linked its position to Shikyō's burrowing insects. The children disliked being swallowed by an unfamiliar creation, but Ki showed them the release seal and assigned each group a task: watch Kento, count breaths, check vents, and remain ready to emerge.

Tonbo formed hand seals.

Earth Release rolled the road and the first ranks of trees toward the hidden attackers. The ambushers scattered before the ground folded completely. Fire, water, wire, shuriken, and poison answered from both sides.

An Earth-Style Wall rose around the Konoha team. Water smashed against stone. Flame crossed above it. Purple vapor spread low, then Atmospheric Guidance produced a brief lateral current that kept the poison away without trying to control the entire forest.

"Atsushi, Tsuyoshi, advance. Shikyō, deny retreat. I support."

Tsuyoshi and Gaku became twin rotations of Fang Over Fang. Their path curved rather than charging directly at the strongest defense. A Grass rogue launched a fireball to force them aside.

Visual Distance Misalignment shifted his perceived angle.

The fire struck empty ground. Tsuyoshi and Gaku passed through the opening and killed the rogue before he could complete another seal. They separated immediately instead of remaining on a predictable line.

Atsushi threw three shuriken as though unwilling to close against ranged attacks. An Amegakure shinobi raised an umbrella that scattered explosive poison capsules. In his vision, Atsushi's hands expanded into enormous threats from both sides. He blocked the illusion. The real Gentle Fist touch landed between his guard and closed the chakra pathways serving heart and lungs. He fell before understanding how lightly he had been struck.

"Genjutsu! Avoid the captain's eyes!" the ambush leader shouted.

Tonbo did not require eye contact.

The ambush leader ordered two shinobi to attack the ground where clients had disappeared. Earth spears descended toward the hidden chamber. Tonbo felt the disturbance through Living Weave and redirected the construct laterally while raising a dense stone layer above it. Atsushi broke the attackers' concentration with air-palm strikes before the second technique formed.

The maneuver exposed Tonbo's divided attention. Three blades crossed his flank. Balanced Frame turned enough to let one scrape armor, while a woven plate caught the others. He did not pretend support made him untouchable. Every simultaneous defense reduced the precision available elsewhere.

Form Manipulation turned branches into false weapons and empty shadows into advancing bodies. Unseen Presence made Tonbo himself difficult to prioritize. The rogues spent attention distinguishing attacks that could hurt them from shapes designed to create hesitation. That hesitation belonged to the other three sensors.

Shikyō's insects had entered the ground before battle. They climbed boots, hid beneath collars, and consumed chakra in dispersed groups too small to notice. One enemy prepared a wide Fire Release and discovered his control failing halfway through the sequence. Atsushi reached him before he could retreat.

Another rogue suppressed chakra and hid below the overturned road. Gaku smelled the oil used on his wire. Tsuyoshi drove a kunai through the earth beside the scent, forcing the man upward into a cloud of kikaichū.

The ambushers had studied Hyūga and Inuzuka tactics. They maintained distance, used poison, and avoided straight approaches. Their preparation would have punished ordinary clan fighters. Tonbo's support removed the reliability of distance while Shikyō turned their defensive positions into traps.

Within moments, seven attackers were dead or unable to fight.

Tsuyoshi suffered a cut along one shoulder where an enemy wire changed direction after the genjutsu. Gaku barked a warning before poison entered the wound. Shikyō's insects extracted a trace for identification while Tonbo sealed circulation around the cut. Tsuyoshi remained mobile, but the injury removed Fang Over Fang from his safe options. The battle changed, and the team changed with it.

The remaining eight gathered around their leader. He was a broad man with old scars, jōnin-level reserves, and enough experience to recognize the mission had failed. Retreat entered his posture before he gave the order.

"Signal the others," he said.

A flare rose above the trees.

Tonbo let it.

Preventing the signal would conceal their location briefly. Allowing it would draw nearby cells toward a battlefield he had already mapped, while the clients traveled underground beyond the visible road. Either choice carried risk. Tonbo selected the one that reduced unknown enemies along the escape route.

The ambush leader saw no desperation on the Konoha captain's face and understood too late that the signal had been permitted.

Beside him, one rogue clawed at his throat.

Black insects emerged between his lips and beneath his mask. Shikyō directed the colony onward without celebrating the death.

The flare burned overhead, announcing the fight to every hostile team in range.

Tonbo released two woven moths to count who answered.