Chapter 149: Captain Tonbo

 

The official notice lasted two pages. The rumors required only an afternoon.

On Konoha's main street, residents repeated the confirmed facts: Itachi was an S-rank missing-nin, search teams were active, the barrier network was being changed, and the Military Police would reopen under mixed recruitment. Then uncertainty began improving the story.

Tonbo became the jōnin personally hunting Itachi across the country. Sealed Horizon became a barrier capable of protecting every building at once. A wartime report about Lightning Release turned into a duel with the Fourth Raikage. Someone connected his Iwa service with Ōnoki and decided Tonbo had survived Dust Release to the face.

The abandoned bandages attracted the worst invention. One rumor claimed they hid war injuries. Another said they sealed a dangerous dōjutsu. A third decided he had concealed his face to avoid recognition by enemy assassins.

A children's version gave him eight eyes beneath the cloth. A veteran corrected the number to two and then asserted both could see through mountains. Someone remembered Tonbo's rain test near the Kurama hill and credited him with ending a drought that had never occurred. Each story borrowed one true detail so the invention felt earned.

Tonbo heard all three while walking from the Tower to the Intelligence Division.

"I have never fought Ōnoki," he told a shopkeeper repeating the Dust Release account.

The man blinked. "How would you know?" Tonbo pointed to the official sketch posted beside the security notice.

Recognition changed skepticism into alarm. The shopkeeper apologized, then asked whether Tonbo could truly capture Itachi.

"A pursuit depends upon teams, intelligence, terrain, and what Itachi knows about us. No responsible jōnin guarantees a capture before contact."

It was not the answer people wanted. It was the only answer Tonbo would give.

He spent the next hour correcting stories faster than they formed. Communications clerks recorded recurring errors and added a public question sheet beneath the original notice. Sealed Horizon could protect a defined zone, not all Konoha. Tonbo contributed during the war but did not defeat a Kage. The bandages had been a privacy habit, not evidence of secret wounds.

The written corrections included what the campaign actually promised. Barrier posts were receiving independent backups. Temporary police patrols operated under mixed command. Root facilities were sealed for audit. Itachi remained at large. Residents could report suspicious orders through two separate offices. Repeating concrete actions made the invented feats less necessary.

Accuracy reduced some anxiety and disappointed everyone seeking a legend.

Recognition created ordinary problems as well. People stopped him for questions, thanks, complaints, and requests unrelated to the Uchiha. Two Academy students asked for signatures. A merchant wanted Sealed Horizon installed around a warehouse. A grieving Uchiha neighbor demanded to know why a celebrated sensor had not detected the massacre.

Tonbo answered the last person instead of escaping.

"I was outside the village and not assigned to the district. Konoha's systems failed. My current role does not change that."

The neighbor called the campaign an attempt to hide the failure behind a new face.

"That risk is why the published changes have deadlines. Judge whether they happen."

The conversation ended without gratitude. Public duty did not require every meeting to become admiration.

At the next corner, an elderly woman thanked him for speaking plainly and asked whether her Uchiha neighbor's shop would be seized. Tonbo directed her to the property trustee instead of guessing. A group of laborers asked whether the new police could search dormitories with the Byakugan. He explained the authorization rules adopted that morning. Questions revealed which protections had not yet been communicated.

At Ichiraku, Ayame established a family rule before the dinner crowd. Customers could discuss the notice. They could not question Tenyu or Maki about classified work, follow Tonbo home, or use the restaurant to arrange access to him. Tōsei placed the rule near the entrance in language polite enough to avoid starting arguments.

The twins enjoyed seeing their father's face on a notice until classmates asked whether he could defeat every missing-nin in the world. Tonbo taught them the same response he used: capabilities were conditional, missions belonged to teams, and rumors did not become family secrets merely because they sounded flattering.

At home, they practiced refusing questions without insulting the asker. "I don't know" was acceptable. "I cannot share that" was acceptable. Inventing an answer to preserve Tonbo's reputation was not. Ayame also gave them permission to leave any conversation and seek an adult if someone persisted.

Tonbo worried more about admiration than criticism. Hostility announced itself. Admiration invited access, photographs, favors, and secrets while pretending every boundary was ingratitude. Mibu Shinobu handled the attention less carefully.

At an izakaya after duty, he showed a colleague the old team photograph and announced that Captain Tonbo had taught him a technique derived from Living Weave. He omitted operational details but accepted every expression of surprise with increasing satisfaction.

"Can he defeat Itachi?" the colleague asked.

"My teacher can force a better decision before Itachi realizes the first one was wrong."

"That is not an answer."

"It is the answer an intelligence shinobi gives when he knows more than you."

Mibu believed in Tonbo and enjoyed the reflected status. Both could be true.

Togekei responded differently. When a patrol partner congratulated him for having a famous teacher, he named Iruka and Mibu as well and described the team systems Tonbo had used. Anko told him he was allowed to be proud without turning one person into the source of every success. Their conversation reached fewer listeners than Mibu's boast and contained more truth.

At the Academy, Iruka used the public notice as an intelligence lesson. Students separated confirmed claims, attributed reports, obvious invention, and questions requiring more evidence. Naruto placed the eight-eye rumor in "possible but unlikely" until Sasuke's empty seat reminded the class why the notice existed. Iruka used only the security response and stopped when discussion shifted toward speculation about victims.

Inside the Analysis Team, the title spread even faster.

"Captain Tonbo" had begun as a practical distinction between their current leader and older squad leaders. Hijiri Shimon released it into civilian conversation through friends who worked near the mission office. He expected the name to emphasize command experience without inventing a dramatic epithet.

Dokuraku Meguri watched him explain this achievement with growing concern.

"You attached a permanent public title to someone who dislikes being noticed," Meguri said.

"The village already needs a title. I gave them an accurate one."

Shimon had rejected several dramatic suggestions before releasing his choice. He refused names based on Tonbo's eyes, bandages, weather technique, and war record because each exposed methods or invited exaggeration. "Captain Tonbo" described work rather than myth. The judgment was defensible. Making it alone was not.

"Did you ask him?"

Shimon's confidence weakened. "It was already used privately."

"That is not the same audience."

"He will never know where it started."

A hand touched Shimon's shoulder.

"Is that so?" Tonbo asked.