Chapter 161: Intelligence Network

Tonbo worked through the intelligence reports on his desk, sorting what he had learned from Konoha's channels beside information gathered through his own.

Years in charge of the Analysis Team had given him more than access to the village's reports. While developing his techniques, he had also built a network beyond its borders. A jōnin needed sources of his own. Money could buy them; influence and other means could secure what money did not. Tonbo had used his position and his genjutsu to place agents outside Konoha.

At home he was a husband and a father. Beyond the village, he remained a shinobi. He saw no reason to leave himself without a means of escape when he possessed the ability to prepare one.

His earlier memories offered no promise of safety after Kaguya. Other Ōtsutsuki might follow, and the fragments concerning Isshiki troubled him. He knew too little of what came after to trust that the fighting would end. Even if Naruto and Sasuke overcame the dangers he remembered, his family might still need somewhere to go.

Konoha was too often at the center of those battles. Once, leaving would have required him to consider only himself. Now there were Ayame, Tenyu, and Maki. A network that never served its purpose would cost him less than discovering too late that he had nowhere to send them.

Perhaps he was worrying needlessly. He would welcome being wrong.

Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Chiyo, and Ōnoki all maintained sources across the shinobi world. Tonbo had much to learn from the reach of those older shinobi. His own contacts already supplied useful reports on Gatō, the Land of Hot Water, and affairs farther from Konoha. More information gave him more to work with.

A report from a merchant caravan caught his attention. Read beside the other accounts, it suggested that the Land of Lightning was developing scientific ninja tools. There were signs that the work had already produced results.

It was a deduction from the merchants' reports, but Tonbo trusted it. The Land of Lightning had long excelled at such work. The weather instruments he used in his own research had been developed there; he had already benefited from their engineering.

Scientific ninja tools were not wholly new. The technology existed, though it had yet to mature into something used widely in ordinary warfare. His memories belonged partly to a later age, when such tools could make a considerable difference to a shinobi's strength. He could see the beginning of that change in the papers before him.

He kept the matter among those that required his attention. When he had finished sorting the reports, he submitted the important intelligence to the Hokage and left the Analysis Team.

On the mountain outside Konoha, Tōsei formed a seal with one hand and drew breath.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball."

A great ball of flame burst from his mouth. Birds scattered from the trees below. Tōsei stared after the fire, then looked down at his hand as though it had finally given him an answer worth hearing.

"I did it. I knew I had a talent for this."

Tenyu and Maki turned from their concentration exercises to applaud. "That was amazing, Grandpa."

Their father's techniques were more impressive, but neither child mentioned it. Tōsei had learned one-handed seals for Clone and now Great Fireball, and he was quite prepared to explain the significance of both achievements.

"Your grandfather has to set an example," he told them. Then he looked at Tonbo. "Well? I told you I could learn it."

Tonbo's eyes were shadowed with fatigue. Maintaining Assisted Reconstruction while his father practiced was taxing enough without Tōsei choosing a technique for the size of its flames.

"Who told you to practice Great Fireball? Do you know how much work that was for me?"

"I'm your father. Just tell me whether it looked impressive."

Tonbo let that question pass. "Next, Living Weave. You were a sensory shinobi. That may come more easily to you."

"All right, all right." Tōsei's eagerness survived the rebuke. He had wanted to learn that secret technique for a long time, and he shared the sensory aptitude on which his son's work depended.

The leaves fell from the twins' foreheads. If their grandfather learned Living Weave, he could do things for them even when their father was away. Meals, clothes, chores—there were so many tiresome tasks a technique might spare them.

Tonbo knew that look. He took up the thin practice switch and pointed it toward their fallen leaves. "Concentrate. Don't make me say it again."

"Yes, Dad."

They reset the leaves at once. Their father's effortless use of ninjutsu gave them a very good reason to learn. Neither wished to lose the chance through another scolding.

Tonbo had scarcely brought his family home when Jiraiya's invitation arrived. He went to meet him above the Hokage Rock, wondering what the Sannin wanted this time.

"You aren't going to ask for my genjutsu again, are you?"

Jiraiya cleared his throat. "Is that all you think I care about? I want your information on Amegakure. The Rinnegan, the abilities you encountered, and the unknown shinobi who uses space-time ninjutsu."

"The Third told you? He was very firm about my keeping quiet."

"I also want to fight you once," Jiraiya said. "I need some measure of the man you faced."

Tonbo's amusement faded. Jiraiya was concerned about the Rinnegan wielder, and Tonbo was the man who had fought him. Kakashi had spoken to Jiraiya before this meeting; the Sannin knew enough about Kakashi's strength to take his account of Tonbo seriously.

"A spar should be enough," Tonbo said. "Anything more could become dangerous."

He did not ordinarily seek out fights, but this was a request for intelligence from an experienced shinobi of his own village. As Analysis Team leader, he could hardly refuse it without reason.

Besides, unfamiliarity made his techniques especially troublesome. Perhaps even Jiraiya could be caught before he understood what was happening. Orochimaru had prepared for a great many possibilities when they fought. Tonbo was curious to see what this Sannin would do.