Chapter 166: Special Training

Tonbo watched the three genin training below them at Training Ground Seventy-Seven.

"Something new to make up for their shortcomings?"

Neji, Tenten, and Lee were talented children. Teaching them would also give Tonbo an opportunity to gather information for Contact Evolution. The Byakugan made Neji's inheritance particularly interesting. Tenten showed aptitude for space-time techniques and ninja tools. Lee would contribute something as well.

Even without payment, the arrangement was worth his time. Perhaps he could persuade Guy to let him conduct an examination too. Guy's vitality was what interested him most. Training alone did not explain a body capable of enduring what his friend demanded of it.

"Exactly," Guy said. "I can teach combat experience, taijutsu, shuriken. There are other things I can't teach as well. I don't want to waste their abilities."

"No problem. I've just finished a new technique. This will give me a chance to see how useful it is for training."

Guy's eyes widened. "Another one?"

Tonbo seemed to produce new techniques whenever they met. Kakashi had created Chidori, and everyone agreed he was a genius. Guy remembered sparring with Tonbo and facing one unfamiliar application after another. It was becoming difficult to be surprised, yet Tonbo kept managing it.

"Developing ninjutsu isn't so different from your taijutsu," Tonbo said. "You spend time thinking about it."

Guy did not look convinced.

"Tell them to bring several changes of clothes. I'll teach them something and examine them while I'm at it. Your training could be placing a considerable strain on their bodies."

"You underestimate me. I have medicines for that. I wouldn't simply leave them to bear the damage."

Guy jumped down before Tonbo answered. Of course he had medicines. Tonbo knew that perfectly well; concern about the children's condition was a convenient excuse for gathering the information he wanted.

Talent alone had not produced Might Duy, Guy, and now Lee. Guy also studied medicines that could support his training. Shinobi with the means to do so used such preparations, Tonbo included. Their needs differed, but few serious training programs relied upon effort and nothing else.

Tonbo's own methods left him chiefly concerned with replenishing nutrition. Guy had to consider fatigue, hidden injuries, and recovery as well. His students also underwent examinations at Konoha Hospital. Tonbo had not forgotten any of that when he offered to check them himself.

Lee's fists struck the post twice more before Guy called for a halt.

"That's enough for today, my students."

Lee stopped reluctantly. "But we've only just started. Do we have a mission?"

He preferred this work to the low-rank missions they usually received. Training made the improvement in his body feel immediate.

Neji looked toward the branch. "Is it Captain Tonbo?"

"The Analysis Team captain?" Tenten searched above them. "The one who said girls could become Hokage too? Where?"

Tonbo was a village celebrity, like Kakashi. She wanted his autograph. More than that, she remembered the encouragement. It had given her another reason to work toward surpassing Tsunade and becoming Konoha's first woman Hokage.

"I invited him to teach you something different," Guy said. "He has a great many skills."

Lee brightened. Tonbo had told him that a person who could not use ordinary ninjutsu could still become an excellent shinobi. Meeting Guy had given him living evidence of the path he wanted to follow.

"Tonbo sensei is teaching us? That's wonderful."

Guy put a hand to his chest. "Lee, you'll make me jealous of my own guest."

"Guy sensei!"

Their enthusiasm threatened to become a conversation of its own. Neji interrupted before it could. "What do we need to do?"

Guy glanced at the time. "Go home and collect a few changes of clothes. It's noon. Be back here at half past."

The three obeyed, though none understood why the new training required spare clothes. Only after they had gone did Guy remember that he had not asked what Tonbo intended.

"What kind of training is this?"

"Courage," Tonbo said. "Something useful for them."

While working toward collecting information for Contact Evolution, he had also developed a genjutsu suited to training. At his present level, he could use it with ease.

Guy frowned. The Academy already taught courage. What shinobi could afford to neglect it? He was not thinking of the terror he had felt when facing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen; the students' training occupied him now.

At home, Tenten laid out her clothes and tried to guess what Tonbo planned. It would not be taijutsu. Guy could teach that without inviting another instructor. Genjutsu did not seem to explain a demand for several changes of clothes either.

She unrolled a storage scroll and sealed more than she had first intended to take. Whatever the lesson involved, it would be better to have enough.

Lee packed eagerly. He had heard that Iruka was Tonbo's student. If Tonbo could teach an instructor that capable, surely he could teach them well too. The uncertainty made him more curious, not less.

Neji considered the chakra he had glimpsed earlier. Tonbo had grown stronger since their meeting two years before. That much he could see, though he expected less from the lessons than his teammates did.

The Hyūga were Konoha's largest clan. Their training system was complete, and their techniques were their own. An outsider might help him with physical strength, traps, or shuriken; Neji did not expect anyone to improve upon the instruction that mattered most to a Hyūga.

He packed as Guy had ordered nevertheless.

When the three returned, Guy and Tonbo were waiting. Beside them stood an eagle as large as a house.