Chapter 188: The Decoy That Worked

By morning, Naruto had put the training behind him. He arrived at the Academy ready to meet his team leader and found a room full of drawn faces and dark circles beneath people's eyes.

"What's wrong with all of you?"

Kiba stared at him. "Didn't yesterday bother you at all?"

He had spent the night expecting another attack. Every corner might conceal an enemy; every familiar person might turn out to be a disguise. His family had finally scolded him out of treating the house as another battlefield, but that had not given him much sleep.

Naruto looked as though nothing had happened.

"You mean when Uncle Tonbo knocked me down? That hurt for a while. But you didn't see that, did you? You'd already fainted."

The thought pleased him. Kiba, one of the Academy's best students, had failed to endure what Naruto had survived. Naruto had even been ready to fight again when it ended. Surely that said something about which of them ought to become Hokage.

Kiba scowled. Akamaru barked from his coat.

Naruto looked around the room and raised his voice.

"Did you all get killed so often you couldn't take it? No wonder you look like that. You're too weak!"

He laughed. Several classmates turned toward him together.

"That's enough. Get him."

His laughter ended beneath the answering blows.

At Ichiraku, Tonbo swallowed another dose of the special medicine and bent over his father-in-law's accounts. Ayame poured tea beside them.

The business had spread beyond the original shop. There were branches in other parts of Konoha and across the Land of Fire. They had not become a sensation everywhere, but most were profitable. A few less fortunate locations lagged behind.

It gave the family something solid to build upon. If Tenyu or Maki failed to prosper as a shinobi, there would still be a business to inherit.

Expansion brought problems of its own. Tonbo worked through the documents and bills one by one. Gangs harassed some shops. Elsewhere, competitors had hired thugs to make trouble for an Ichiraku branch.

For those disputes, he sent shadow clones to speak with the men responsible. Genjutsu made the conversations easier. He did not want the shops to depend forever on illusions that required him to maintain them, so he used enough of his power to make an impression and secure the gang leaders' goodwill.

Their cooperation tended to survive the end of the visit.

His own improvement continued while he worked. Naruto's physical information had opened further possibilities within Contact Evolution. Too little time had passed for all the changes to appear, but Tonbo could already feel that his body was becoming able to withstand more of them.

The boy's natural gifts really were exceptional. Gathering the information had been worth the effort.

A knock interrupted the accounts. Tenyu and Maki came in from school, both with bruised faces. They dumped their bags on the sofa and went to fetch medicine, looking thoroughly displeased.

They did not ask their father for help. Treating minor injuries was something they were learning, and today gave them practice.

Tonbo regarded them with considerable amusement. Other parents complained about these two often enough. It was a novelty to see them come home on the losing side.

"What happened to my little troublemakers? Someone beat both of you?"

"Konohamaru," Tenyu said. "He learned some new technique. I wasn't expecting it."

"He turned into this horrible naked man," Maki added indignantly. "I looked for a second, and he hit me."

Tonbo nearly laughed. So Konohamaru had learned one of Naruto's ridiculous transformations, and the twins had been too startled to defend themselves.

"There was a woman too," Tenyu said. "Just as ugly. How does the Hokage's grandson learn something like that? I'm getting him tomorrow."

"All wrinkles," Maki said. "Even worse than the Hokage."

They had not wanted to accept Konohamaru's latest challenge at first. Then he had become so insufferable that they decided he no longer needed the consideration due to a weaker opponent. His absurd disguises had surprised them, and he had made good use of the opening.

Tonbo was delighted. At last someone had given the two of them a little of what they so often handed out.

"What did I teach you? If you can end the fight before an enemy uses his technique, do it. Why stand there and let him finish?"

Maki lifted her chin. "He didn't get away with it. Jun was with us. Konohamaru's face looks just as bad as ours."

Her white fringe bounced as she nodded, suddenly pleased with the day's result.

"You lost. Jun winning doesn't mean you beat Konohamaru."

"You said a teammate winning counts as us winning," Tenyu replied.

Tonbo looked at him. His children had an excellent memory for anything useful in an argument.

"Besides, we were only careless," Tenyu went on. "Now we know what he does. We'll make a plan, and it won't work again."

He had thought of a counter almost as soon as Konohamaru hit him. Seeing the same foolish disguise a second time would not leave him standing open-mouthed.

Across the village, Konohamaru pushed open the door of his home and strode inside with both hands on his hips.

Asuma looked up from his preparations for the new team. His nephew's face was bruised, his grin broad enough to show the gap in his teeth.

"What happened to you?"

"I beat Tenyu and Maki. Both of them!"

"You look like the one who got beaten."

"That was their little rescuer. It wasn't them."

Konohamaru refused to let Jun spoil the victory. The boy had been infuriating, fighting without looking at the transformed faces. Otherwise, Konohamaru was sure he could have beaten him too.

Next time, he would have to deal with that.