Chapter 171: Learning from Failure

 

Water fell from the cliff into the lake. Lee heard its steady roar a moment before a Water Dragon rose and caught him in its jaws.

He died before he could escape.

The illusion shifted. He was back in the forest before the waterfall, breathing hard, eyes bloodshot. The attack remained horribly clear in his mind.

"Another trap."

Paper bombs, snares, shuriken, hidden shinobi—he had lost count of how many had killed him. Even familiar traps found new ways to catch him. What frustrated him most was how much he was learning from them.

At first he had died almost at every step. Now he had defeated several enemy squads. Lessons from the Academy that had once remained explanations were becoming decisions he could make in a fight. He finally understood why Guy had asked Tonbo to teach them.

Shuriken came from the shadows again. This time Lee moved away from the route he would ordinarily have chosen. A log trap swept through that route instead.

He had learned one more answer.

Tenten's chain sickle cut through an opponent's neck. She braced her feet against a tree trunk, unrolled a scroll, and brought out a shield as shuriken flew toward her.

Metal struck the shield. One weapon burst and released purple smoke.

Her face paled. The chakra holding her to the tree failed, and she fell. The illusion twisted before returning her to the forest once more.

She was exhausted. She had died too often to count, yet repetition had not made it easy to accept. Guy's exercises had seemed excessive until she discovered what Tonbo called training.

What kind of man invented a genjutsu like this? It seemed better suited to tormenting an enemy than killing one.

Within the barrier, Tonbo maintained the Tiger seal. From time to time he freed a hand to swallow another specially prepared ration pill. He did not strictly need both hands, but the posture looked more professional.

Three cloudlike images hung before the instructors, showing the students at work. Guy stared between them, scarcely able to believe what he was seeing.

"This is the benefit you meant? Tonbo, you might put me out of work."

He sounded appalled and delighted together. He had hoped for instruction in resisting genjutsu, perhaps some help using Tonbo's techniques to improve the effects of recovery medicines. His own preparations worked, but they were less efficient than his friend's combination of medicine and ninjutsu.

Instead, his students were gaining experience in fights to the death without losing their lives. He had not imagined such training was possible.

"I improve my methods every year," Tonbo said. "You don't have to keep teaching everything the same way."

"Apparently not."

"And don't worry about your work. This uses too much of my strength for me to do it constantly. I'd have no time for anything else."

That was not the only limit. Dying too often in the mental world could damage the mind. Once the students became exhausted, they would need to recover before he could put them through the technique again. Continuing beyond that point would defeat the purpose.

Tonbo did not intend to become their permanent instructor in any case. Occasional sessions interested him. Performing the same duty endlessly did not.

"Keep watching for mistakes they don't recognize," he reminded Guy. "You'll need to explain those to them."

Guy was their teacher. Tonbo had come as a guest, and the work after the genjutsu ended belonged to the man responsible for the team.

"Understood." Guy hesitated, looking toward Lee's battle. "When they finish, could you put me in for a while? All those different opponents—I would like to try it."

"No. Your job is to help them correct their thinking, not join the fight."

Guy returned reluctantly to the images.

"One more thing," Tonbo said. "They owe me for the medicines. Tens of thousands of ryō a pill. They'll have to pay it back through missions."

He made the students' mouths open and gave them more of the secret medicine. The bodies receiving combat memories needed nourishment to support that process.

The idea had only just occurred to him. If he took the training to the Academy, he could have the Hokage cover the cost. Charging also gave him a plausible reason for providing the lessons. Even a shinobi famous for devotion to the village might attract questions if he spent a fortune training everyone for nothing.

Guy considered it. "That should encourage them to take missions."

The training was costly, and he knew his students were receiving more than the price of a few pills. He turned back to their battles and watched for weaknesses they continued to miss. When a student recognized a mistake and corrected it in the next encounter, he was quick to praise the improvement.

Tonbo collected their combat information as well: Neji's Gentle Fist, Lee's Strong Fist, and Tenten's handling of weapons. The earlier examinations had given him the structure of their bodies. Here he could study how they used them. Both kinds of information would feed his work.

The training continued about once a week for a month. By the end, the three had each experienced roughly a thousand deaths in the simulated battles.

They also owed a sum equal to half the payment for an S-rank mission.

Tenten settled her share as soon as she heard the amount. Tonbo wondered how her parents had come to entrust her with so much money at that age. Neji, for all the prominence of his clan, could not do the same. He would have to repay his debt gradually.

 

Lee became eager for missions. Whenever training ended, he asked Guy to apply for another assignment.

None complained about the cost. They had felt the change in themselves too clearly. In their view, Tonbo ought to have been the Academy instructor responsible for teaching combat.

After everything the illusion had thrown at them, they believed they were ready to defeat any enemy they met.