Chapter 168: False Surroundings

Tonbo formed the signs for Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings.

The strange bird found itself in a passage enclosed by walls. Fire raged beneath it. Ahead, a single light offered escape.

It discharged several sonic bursts without breaking the enclosure. Then it flew toward the light. To the shinobi on the eagle, it had simply abandoned its attack and begun following them.

Only then did Tonbo release Neji's foot. "Stay alert when you're outside the village."

Neji looked back at the bird and activated the Byakugan. Abnormal chakra moved through its brain. It appeared unable to see them at all, though it flew close behind.

Genjutsu had subdued it in one move. Neji expected he would have needed a long fight to defeat such an animal on his own. Lee and Tenten watched with undisguised admiration.

Guy raised a thumb. "That's Tonbo sensei's strength. And he is right about staying alert. This was a wild animal. A shinobi would have made the attack much harder to answer."

The three nodded. They would remember being caught unprepared.

"Does anyone want it as a summon?" Tonbo asked. "It's strong enough to be useful to a genin or chūnin."

The bird flew quickly, could carry a rider, and possessed a sonic attack. He explained how a summon could compensate for a shinobi's weaknesses. Some were raised by their partners; others were captured in the wild. This one could help any of the three.

Tenten studied its five legs and the organs beside its beak. "It's ugly. I don't want it."

"I want to become an excellent shinobi through my own efforts," Lee said. "With taijutsu. Relying on a summon would weaken my determination."

"No, thank you," Neji said.

"Then I'll keep it for my experiments."

That had been Tonbo's intention when he caught it. He had only offered because it might suit one of them. Their lack of interest left him with a useful subject.

Before long, the coast appeared. The eagle flew out over clear blue water and continued toward the deeper sea. Blue and green darkened almost to black beneath them. Waves rose and broke with a roar.

Guy's students exchanged looks. Had they come to train in the sea, or on some distant island? Neither seemed necessary when Konoha possessed perfectly good training grounds.

"Here we are."

Tonbo formed the signs for Living Weave. A giant whale broke the surface below them. Then he produced surfboards and handed one to each of his companions.

"Open Water Balance. You'll ride among the waves. It trains control, stamina, and concentration—and it makes you face fear."

He explained how to handle the board, then demonstrated. They watched him move among the swells, vanish behind a rising wall of water, and reappear as a wave threw him into the air. He landed and continued as though the sea had merely given him another path.

Tenten swallowed. The water beneath the board was too dark to reveal its depth.

"I thought you were going to teach us something new," she said. "Does this really count?"

"If a wave takes us under," Neji asked, "how do we survive?"

Guy looked at the whale. "That's why he made the big one. I'll show you."

His students were not the only ones frightened. A shinobi could use chakra to run across many surfaces, but the violent open sea was different from a training pond.

Guy jumped from the eagle onto his board. He adjusted his stance as Tonbo had shown him, trying to move with the waves. He lasted less than fifteen seconds.

A swell overturned the board and dropped him into the sea. Chakra did not let him stand on water that would not hold still. His students cried out as he disappeared.

The whale rose beneath him and pushed him back to the surface.

Tonbo returned to the eagle. "You can see why I brought it."

Guy lifted a thumb from the whale's back. "Excellent training. Keep going."

"Please watch me, Tonbo sensei."

Lee closed his eyes and jumped. He went straight into the water. Several seconds of tumbling in the current followed before the whale lifted him out.

Tonbo stared at him. "Open your eyes. You're supposed to face the fear. Keeping them shut will only get you killed faster."

"I'm alive."

Lee looked as surprised as he sounded. His head swam, and he could still feel the sea turning him over. Tenten noticed that he had jumped with his pack and all his clothes.

"Now I know why we needed changes," she muttered. "Though he might have taken his off first."

One after another, they went down to the boards. Guy urged them on. Lee declared that he would not give up, then disappeared beneath another wave. Tenten asked whether anyone had medicine for dizziness. A ten-second ride became an achievement worth shouting about.

Neji emerged from the water again with his hair plastered to his face. Whatever control he expected over his fate, the sea was doing its best to disprove it.

Once the exercise was underway, Tonbo turned to the captured bird. This training no longer did much for him. Contact Evolution offered a better use for his attention.

He placed his hand against its body. Branching nerves spread inward as the technique gathered information from organs and genes. He processed the flood, separating what might benefit a human body from what he could not use.

The two sound-producing organs deserved particular study. Their inherent ability was comparable in function to a shinobi's bloodline limit. Understanding how they generated sonic attacks might also advance his work on sound-based genjutsu.

Guy and the students could wait until their training ended. Exhausted bodies gave Tonbo a plausible reason to examine them as a medical shinobi and quietly collect more information. Even with the whale preventing drownings, several seconds in those currents could leave hidden injuries.

 

It was a useful explanation to have ready.