Chapter 190: The Signal from Hot Water

Naruto entered the Hokage's office grinning.

Team Seven had finally received a higher-rank assignment outside Konoha. The old bridge builder waiting near the door looked over the three genin and mocked their age before Kakashi led them out.

"Come on, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. "We are wasting daylight."

Hiruzen watched the team leave with their client.

After a moment, he called an Anbu.

"Bring Tonbo. I have a mission for him."

They met on the roof of the Hokage Tower. Anbu guarded every approach, and Hiruzen raised a privacy barrier before speaking.

Tonbo arrived through Body Flicker.

"Has something happened?"

He already believed he knew the answer. His perception had followed Team Seven through the gate with the bridge builder. Hiruzen would worry about allowing the Nine-Tails jinchūriki beyond the village and want someone strong enough to protect him without disrupting the mission.

Recent research had made that concern understandable.

Tonbo collected chakra released during Naruto's training and studied it for months. Nine-Tails chakra carried an extraordinary vitality through its earth affinity. Even a fraction accelerated the repair of human wounds beyond Tonbo's Self-Repair genjutsu.

The healing did not resemble a medic rebuilding each damaged structure. The chakra pushed the body toward wholeness with the persistence of a living system restoring its own form. Tonbo could imitate the result through illusion and neural direction, but Kurama's chakra supplied actual energy and material force at the same time.

That was only one passive feature. Each tailed beast possessed abilities shaped by a different nature and structure. The Nine-Tails appeared able to draw chakra by joining its body to the negative energy present in the world. The same relationship helped explain why a tailed beast could eventually return after physical destruction.

If the pattern held for the other beasts, their apparent immortality was not resurrection from nothing. The world preserved the conditions from which their chakra could gather again. Destroying a body interrupted the creature without eliminating the system that produced it.

Tonbo lacked the earth affinity required to reproduce that entire system. With his Yin Release talent and enough time, however, he believed the theory could lead toward an artificial approximation.

Hiruzen's actual request had nothing to do with guarding Naruto.

"Years ago, the intelligence you brought from Rain helped us identify an organization called Akatsuki," Hiruzen said. "Anbu reports now place its members across several countries. I believe the masked man who summoned the Nine-Tails in Konoha belonged to it."

Tonbo's attention sharpened.

"Several years ago I placed a spy inside that organization. He has appeared in the Land of Hot Water. Retrieve his intelligence and learn Akatsuki's purpose."

Tonbo's careful assumptions collapsed at once.

"Itachi?"

Hiruzen confirmed the name.

The secret had been held so tightly that only the Third Hokage and the operative himself knew the full arrangement. Now Tonbo received the identification code, the expected meeting signals, and the precautions needed to avoid exposing Itachi to his partner.

The code could prove that Tonbo carried Hiruzen's authority. It could not force Itachi to trust the situation or answer while another Akatsuki member watched. Tonbo would have to create a moment in which information could pass as part of an attack.

Tonbo accepted the mission. Hot Water interested him for another reason: the hidden religion associated with the Shinigami and rumors of an immortality technique. A journey there might reveal more than Akatsuki's plans.

Hiruzen trusted Tonbo because the man combined loyalty with the ability to survive capture. Kakashi was formidable, but an enemy who took him alive might extract the mission from his mind. Tonbo's mental defenses and strength made that far less likely.

Sending a larger team would only increase the number of people who knew Itachi's role and the number of behaviors Kisame could compare. A lone specialist could approach as an enemy, fight, receive the intelligence, and leave behind a story Akatsuki already expected.

When the briefing ended, Tonbo vanished from the roof.

Hiruzen remained behind the barrier.

He hoped Akatsuki had not chosen a goal that would drag the great nations toward another war. Age had reduced whatever appetite he once possessed for testing Konoha against its rivals.

The thought led him back to succession.

For years he had delayed choosing a Fifth Hokage because the sudden death of Minato weakened Konoha's relationship with the Fire Daimyō. Stability required a familiar leader. Enough time had now passed that another transition would no longer look like collapse.

After the joint Chūnin Exams in two months, Hiruzen intended to raise the question with the village leadership.

The examinations would place Konoha before clients, rival villages, and the Daimyō at once. A stable event followed by an orderly succession could demonstrate continuity. Announcing a replacement before then might instead make every visitor search for weakness between the old administration and the new one.

He was tired.

Konohamaru had occupied more of his thoughts since the boy's rivalry with Tenyu and Maki began. The twins drove his grandson to train and gave him opponents close enough to reach. Hiruzen regretted how often the Hokage office had taken time from his family, but he could still hope the children forced one another toward something better.

Across Konoha's rooftops, Tonbo reconsidered the mission.

Protecting Naruto would have been simple. He could have followed Team Seven unseen, watched the expected fight, and removed any bodies that might later return through Edo Tensei.

Meeting Itachi under Kisame's observation was different.

Itachi knew Tonbo's genjutsu skill and would not casually allow him into a mental space where information might be exchanged. He was suspicious, controlled, and accustomed to carrying secrets alone. Tonbo needed to communicate Hiruzen's request without causing Akatsuki to question either of them.

A fight offered the best cover.

If Itachi attacked with genjutsu, their exchange could contain layers Kisame could not read. If he refused that contact, Tonbo could force physical proximity through the nerves. Both options were dangerous because Itachi would treat any unannounced intrusion as a possible attempt to expose him.

Tonbo's neural work had recently reached a small breakthrough. Filaments could now sever from his main network after entering another body. Contact with Itachi would let Tonbo leave a private channel and collect the physical information of one of the Uchiha clan's greatest geniuses.

He could not fight without restraint. Itachi's future clash with Sasuke remained essential to Sasuke's growth, and Tonbo preferred leaving the largest threats to the people whose power developed around them. The mission required enough violence to convince Kisame, not enough to destroy the operative Tonbo came to meet.

Kaguya and the threats beyond Akatsuki would demand Naruto and Sasuke at their strongest. Tonbo's own advancement did not justify removing every ordeal that shaped them. His task was to keep a necessary path from becoming an avoidable death.

At home, Tonbo told the family he would be away.

Tōsei raised his remaining hand and closed it into a fist.

"Go. I will protect the house."

Tonbo's relentless instruction had made his father an elite shinobi despite the missing arm. Tōsei could defeat most chūnin directly and punish a careless jōnin.

With the family guarded, Tonbo prepared for Hot Water.