Chapter 170: Battlefield Simulation

 

A month after the incident at home, Tenyu and Maki appeared to have settled down at the Academy. Konohamaru knew better.

The pranks continued. He was certain who was responsible, but finding evidence had become another matter. The twins had taken their father's advice seriously and improved their methods.

Tonbo found himself summoned to the Hokage's office several times. Hiruzen, watching over his grandson, had caught the children at work. Each discovery persuaded them that they had overlooked some detail. They returned to the books in Tonbo's study and tried again, growing subtle enough that even Hiruzen did not always see how it was done.

It made little difference to their father. Hiruzen did not need proof to infer who had been responsible. Rather than rebuke the children, he sent for Tonbo.

Why not speak to them himself? Tonbo wondered. The Hokage was fond of children. Surely he was not taking revenge for all the times Tonbo had praised the twins' good behavior in front of him.

He left that question unanswered and went to Training Ground Seventy-Seven. Guy's team had a day free of missions, and he had come to teach again.

A month of Aerial Recovery, Open Water Balance, and Unstable Ground had changed the genin. Better concentration and control of their bodies made chakra easier to handle. With Guy's guidance, they had completed tree climbing and water walking without great difficulty.

Lee felt the difference in his taijutsu. He could settle into training more readily, notice faults in the way he applied force, and correct them with Guy's help. Learning had become faster.

"Tonbo sensei! What are we doing today?"

"Something new. The earlier exercises won't do as much for you now. This is the training Guy invited me to provide—the kind he can't give you himself."

"Then what was all that?" Tenten asked.

"Preparation. The basics."

She stared. If being dropped from the sky and thrown about by the sea counted as basics, what had they spent all those years learning at the Academy?

Even Neji had to admit the results. Lately he had thought less about fate and more about becoming strong enough to endure the next exercise. The Hyūga could not offer him training of this kind.

Guy smiled. "You've worked hard for them. Barbecue afterward, my treat."

Lee remained interested in the lesson. Tonbo took six kunai from his pouch, each with a sealing tag fastened to it.

"Battlefield Simulation. Think of it as a course of a thousand fights. I developed it for genin—a graduation benefit, eventually. Guy happened to ask just as it was ready."

Training the next generation made an excellent explanation for what Tonbo really wanted: information from their bodies. Ordinary shinobi could possess useful gifts too, as his own sensory aptitude demonstrated. Then there were Konoha's great families. A program for graduating students would bring all kinds of promising subjects within reach.

"A thousand?" Tenten asked. "You want us to kill a thousand shinobi? Only a few thousand from Konoha died in the Third War. Where would we even find them?"

Neji doubted that was precisely what Tonbo meant. He also doubted the truth would be entirely reassuring.

Lee looked delighted. "That sounds incredible."

"Guy, watch them carefully," Tonbo said. "Remember their mistakes so you can explain them afterward."

He threw the six kunai around the ground in a circle and began forming signs. Guy watched closely, eager to see another of his friend's techniques.

"Genjutsu: Battlefield Simulation."

Tonbo brought his hands together. Light passed between the tags as their chakra connected, raising a great illusory barrier. The three genin were still waiting to see what would happen when they sank to the ground together.

Neji found himself in a forest.

He had just been standing on the training ground. The sudden change suggested genjutsu, but the trees and earth looked entirely real. He activated the Byakugan.

Shuriken flew from concealment. Neji evaded them and found an Iwagakure shinobi behind the attack. The man's pockmarked face creased in a smile as he formed signs.

A kunai thrust from the ground toward Neji's lower body. He caught the wrist at the last moment and drove Gentle Fist chakra into the attacker. The man's head emerged from the soil; he coughed blood and went still.

An explosive tag ignited.

Neji realized his mistake too late. The blast killed him.

The forest twisted, and he stood in it again. He looked down at his hands and legs. They were whole. The memory of the explosion remained.

He had guessed the nature of the exercise when the first attack came. Now he understood what Tonbo's thousand fights might mean. Knowledge that it was genjutsu had not helped him anticipate a dying opponent's final attack.

More unsettling was the Byakugan's failure to expose the illusion. Usually he could find the abnormality. Here, the world offered his eyes no obvious seam.

Tonbo sensed his reaction from within the technique. He had used a barrier to strengthen the genjutsu and added features specifically to deceive the Byakugan. Collecting Neji's information had made that possible. Eyes of greater purity, or power approaching the Tenseigan, might be another matter; these eyes were the ones he had prepared for.

The opponents came from Tonbo's own experience and the many shinobi whose memories he had read. He had processed those experiences into fighters with different techniques, habits, and tactics. Between them, they could test a genin's abilities from many directions.

The technique also acted upon the body outside the illusion. Genjutsu induced it to acquire part of the corresponding physical memory—roughly thirty percent. For students at this level, that was a considerable gain.

Supporting that effect limited the passage of time inside the barrier. He could make it run at twice the rate of the world outside, no faster in the present form.

Tonbo considered future Academy classes. He could give each a graduation gift, improve their training, and collect the physical information he needed without revealing that purpose. It was an arrangement he found very satisfying.