Chapter 200: Home, with Consequences

Tonbo left the Land of Hot Water after obtaining the information he needed from the Jashinists.

He had no reason to remain in Yugakure. The mission had yielded more than he expected: Akatsuki intelligence from Itachi, the physical structures of Kisame and Samehada, a fragmentary reading of Susanoo, and evidence about the Jashinists' regenerative bodies and curse ritual.

Those pieces gave him a path toward the third stage of Contact Evolution. The work would be difficult, but difficulty had never been a persuasive objection to Tonbo.

Samehada showed him living integration, Susanoo showed him a stable external frame, and the Jashinists showed how a body could be driven into continuous repair. None supplied a finished technique. Together, they narrowed the questions his next experiments had to answer.

He stood upon the back of a great eagle construct as it climbed into the open sky. The Land of Hot Water receded beneath the clouds.

At the Konoha Academy, Kawabe Jun raised his practice sword.

"Rising Dragon Sword."

A yellow dragon coiled around the blade as Jun cut upward. The shining creature passed through Udon Ise's guard and drew his attention with it. Jun's real sword came from the angle hidden beneath the illusion and stopped at Udon's neck.

"Udon, you lose."

Iruka released the breath he had been holding. Jun had combined kenjutsu and genjutsu with unusual skill. More impressive, the boy had developed the technique from Tonbo's notes rather than through direct instruction. He might become a formidable shinobi if the early success did not make him careless.

"Next, Fūma Kōtarō against Ichinose," Iruka called.

Jun returned to the line beside Tenyu and Maki while the next pair entered the training ground.

His victory had lasted only a few breaths, yet he already replayed the angle in his mind. Udon had followed the dragon rather than the shoulders directing the real cut. Against an opponent who ignored the display, Jun would need a second variation.

"When is your father coming back?" Jun asked. "I want to show him my new ultimate move."

Tenyu frowned. "Why should he return early? You just showed the move to Udon."

"Your father will understand it better."

Maki glanced at the practice sword. "It did look impressive. But if Dad comes home, he will probably bring out the switch again."

Jun refused to believe her. "Captain Tonbo is gentle and considerate. You keep claiming he strikes you, but you are his children."

"That is exactly why he does it," Tenyu muttered.

He pointed toward Konohamaru, whose face was bruised and swollen. Before the practical lesson, Tenyu had used a genjutsu to make him misjudge the path and fall. Konohamaru caught the gesture and glared back.

Konohamaru touched his cheek and made a private decision. He would tell his grandfather the moment he returned home. Hiruzen had once let slip that every complaint eventually led Tonbo to discipline the twins.

This was not childish tattling. Ninja rule twelve was to collect intelligence and use it. Calling upon the power attached to useful information was therefore professional training.

At least, that was what Konohamaru told himself.

Tonbo appeared in the Hokage's office later that day.

"You are back," Hiruzen said. "How did the mission proceed?"

"Successfully."

Tonbo placed a scroll on the desk. It contained the information Itachi had provided about several Akatsuki members. Some had not revealed enough of their abilities for a useful assessment, but the known profiles were detailed.

Hiruzen took the scroll without opening it.

"Do not allow this intelligence to spread. If Akatsuki discovers its source, Itachi will be exposed."

"Understood."

"There is another matter. In three months, Konoha will hold a joint Chūnin Examination with Sunagakure and several smaller hidden villages. We must prepare our defenses against anyone who tries to use the gathering to cause trouble."

A joint examination placed far more pressure upon the host than an internal one. Foreign teams, daimyō, merchants, and observers would all enter Konoha while its forces were divided between security and the tests.

The village would have to watch its walls, protect the spectators, inspect the visiting teams, and still allow the examination to look like a fair display of skill. Any enemy who entered under another village's banner would begin inside the first defensive line.

Tonbo nodded. Another major event was approaching. He wondered how much the strengthened members of Naruto's generation would change its outcome. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and their peers had all developed beyond the paths Tonbo remembered. The visiting villages would face a different group of rookies.

Foreign teams might also expose him to physical information he had never encountered. He did not lack techniques so much as time to develop them, but unfamiliar bodies and bloodlines could still suggest solutions no amount of isolated research would produce.

After Tonbo left, Hiruzen opened the scroll.

His expression grew heavier with each page. Every identified Akatsuki member possessed an unusual ability and the strength to make ordinary pursuit suicidal. The final intelligence carried the greatest danger: Akatsuki intended to collect all nine tailed beasts for a project called the Eye of the Moon.

Itachi did not know how the plan would be completed. He knew only that success would transform the entire shinobi world.

Hiruzen remembered Jiraiya's search for the Child of Prophecy, the person the Great Toad Sage believed would bring a revolution to that same world. The two ideas might be unrelated, but the possible connection was too important to ignore.

"I must tell Jiraiya to investigate further," he said.

Tonbo changed into ordinary clothes before going home. He bought a bouquet of lilacs and approached the house with steps lighter than they had been for days.

"Ayame, I am home."

The door opened. Ayame rushed outside and threw her arms around him.

Tonbo caught her with one arm and kept the flowers safe with the other.

"What happened?"

She stepped down and pointed into the house. Tenyu and Maki stood in the hall with the uneasy expressions of children who had already heard the charges.

"I told them to hang the laundry when they returned from school," Ayame said. "They forgot again."

Tonbo had purchased a washing machine from the largest technology company in the Land of Fire, along with several other devices that made household work easier when he and Ayame were busy. Before that, he or his sister Fuyuki had often handled the washing with the Bathing Figure Technique. The children now needed only to remove the clean clothes and hang them.

"We were training," the twins said together. "We want to become shinobi like Dad."

Tonbo stared at them.

"So this is my fault? When I washed clothes, cleaned dishes, swept floors, and cooked, why did you never imitate that part? Now the machines do most of the work and you still talk back. Perhaps my switch has grown too dull."

A thin bamboo switch appeared in his hand. It was made to sting without breaking skin or bone, a threat the twins recognized immediately.

They swallowed.

Tenyu made one final attempt. "Then why have you never taught us the Bathing Figure Technique?"

Maki nodded with great seriousness, as if the omission explained everything.

Ayame folded her arms. Tonbo looked from the forgotten laundry to the two aspiring negotiators and understood that the mission had not truly ended until he survived this argument.