Chapter 228: Between Nations

Tonbo remembered the unpaid meals only after Sasuke, Boruto, and Karasuki had vanished.

Ayame had mentioned two customers who left without settling their bill. How was he supposed to explain that the offenders had returned to a future no debt collector could reach?

He would pay for them. The intelligence they provided was worth far more than a few bowls of ramen.

With the travelers gone, Konoha resumed its familiar rhythm. The Chūnin Exam continued, and the candidates who still had matches ahead trained with increasing urgency. Visitors from distant towns and countries poured into the village for the finals. Some wanted to see the last Uchiha. Others wanted to judge Konoha's strength before choosing shinobi for future missions.

Tonbo remained busy. He continued teaching Sakura and Ino while developing techniques aimed at Urashiki's known abilities. His greatest priority was still Forced Execution. If Urashiki arrived only after that technique was complete, Tonbo believed the threat would become far more manageable. The man was an Ōtsutsuki, but he had not absorbed a Ten-Tails.

At the Hokage Tower, a less distant threat arrived in writing.

Hiruzen stared at the Fire Country order. "Why must this happen now?"

"Because the opportunity will not remain open," Koharu said. "The capital has spent more than ten years arranging this plan. Its officials believe the conditions are finally right."

Homura nodded. "The operation will not consume much of Konoha's strength. The request is for Tonbo to lead one small support team. The daimyō's Imperial Guard will supply its own force."

The destination lay across the sea: Snow Country.

Its civil conflict more than a decade earlier had given Fire Country an unexpected opening. Officials had preserved ties with the deposed ruling family, watched the resistance develop, and waited for the surviving princess to reach adulthood. If they helped her return now, Fire Country might gain a valuable ally and favorable access to a nation ordinarily difficult to approach.

Hiruzen set the order on his desk. "This concerns control of an entire country. Is Tonbo's team and one Imperial Guard unit enough?"

"That is precisely why they requested him," Koharu answered. "He is the Analysis Team's best mind-reading specialist and has the strength to survive if the intelligence mission becomes combat. Snow already has a resistance that supports Princess Kazahana Koyuki. If the adult princess can rally them, the chance of success is high."

"Other nations may call it interference in Snow's internal affairs."

"Koyuki is the legitimate heir," Homura said. "She is using Snow's own financial resources to commission the mission. Fire Country is responding to her request rather than presenting a foreign claim."

Legal arguments would not prevent another great nation from exploiting the operation as a pretext. Hiruzen understood that wars did not require honest reasons. Yet most of Fire Country's senior officials supported the plan, and they were willing to risk members of the Imperial Guard rather than place every burden on Konoha.

The benefits were considerable. A friendly Snow Country could open trade and political cooperation across the northern sea. Konoha would gain new mission contracts, more routes for its shinobi, and access to resources that rarely entered Fire Country. From the capital's perspective, the return promised profit as well as friendship.

For Konoha, that mission market mattered almost as much as formal diplomacy. Clients currently forced to seek protection elsewhere could commission Konoha teams, and shinobi would gain work beyond the familiar borders of the great countries. Snow's industrial products might also pass south under favorable terms. Every page of the proposal described mutual advantage; every advantage depended on Koyuki actually defeating the uncle who had ruled in her absence.

The only serious question was whether their combined strength could remove Kazahana Dotō and place Koyuki on the throne.

Hiruzen drew from his pipe and released the smoke slowly. If strength was the sole obstacle, Tonbo made the answer easier.

"Tell the capital I will arrange his departure."

Koharu and Homura smiled. The scope of the old plan had surprised them as well. Someone in the Fire Country government had recognized the opportunity during the original Snow conflict and kept it alive for more than a decade.

After they left, Hiruzen opened every report Konoha possessed on Snow Country.

The oldest files described the coup that drove the princess abroad. Newer reports were less certain. They named scattered loyalists, factories under Dotō's control, and Snow-nin using equipment unfamiliar to most Konoha observers. A decade of distance had turned facts into estimates. Tonbo would be expected to separate the two before the Fire Country force committed itself.

Under other circumstances he would have sent Kakashi. Kakashi had operated there during the conflict and knew its terrain and enemies. Tonbo possessed greater analytical abilities, but familiarity could decide an international mission before raw strength ever mattered.

The Chūnin Exam made Kakashi unavailable. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura still required their teacher, especially now. Removing him before the finals would leave his students exposed at the worst moment.

Far below the village, a man in a cat-faced mask knelt before Danzō.

"Lord Danzō, the mission has been approved."

"Good. Now we wait for the opportunity." Danzō turned slightly toward the hooded figure behind him. "Orochimaru, do not disappoint me."

Orochimaru smiled. "Once my plan succeeds, you may become the next Hokage. Is that not the dream you have guarded all these years?"

Danzō truly would use any available means to reach his goal. He had managed to send one of Konoha's most troublesome fighters out of the village through an authentic international operation. Orochimaru had to admire the old man's thoroughness. Every official step looked legitimate; there was no loose thread he could seize and turn against his temporary ally.

"I look forward to your performance," Danzō said.

He departed without giving Orochimaru another promise.

The sannin watched him disappear. If removing Captain Tonbo were not necessary, he would have ended this unpleasant cooperation already. Danzō's methods were effective, but the man himself was intolerable.

At the training ground, Sakura smiled dreamily.

"Sasuke, will you go on a date with me today?"

"Of course," the illusion answered.

"You are so good to me."

Tonbo observed her in silence. He had barely strengthened the genjutsu, yet Sakura had embraced it without resistance. With her natural control, she should have broken free already.

Ino stood nearby with flushed cheeks, flirting with a handsome young man only she could see.

Neither illusion needed to threaten them. It only offered the future each girl wanted and waited for desire to suppress her suspicion. A violent genjutsu would have provoked resistance immediately; Sasuke's apparent affection made every inconsistency easier to forgive. That was the weakness Tonbo wanted them to recognize before an enemy found it.

"Without a romantic rival, would either of them work this hard?" Tonbo wondered aloud.

Their talent was excellent. Their priorities remained exasperating.

While the girls struggled against the illusions, he reviewed a sealing text. Sasuke had described Urashiki's fishing rod piercing a target and reeling away chakra. Tonbo could not permit that weapon to establish an unrestricted path into his body. Among his available disciplines, sealing offered the strongest answer.

Yakumo's tissue sample had already provided a useful clue. Tonbo once wondered whether material taken while her manifested genjutsu existed would disappear when the illusion ended. It had not. The sealed tissue remained intact after Yakumo herself vanished from that state.

The result mattered because Urashiki's line did more than wound. It carried away chakra, separated it from the victim, and preserved it for later use. If Tonbo could interrupt that transfer with a seal, he might trap the stolen chakra before it reached the vessel or isolate the weapon itself when it pierced him.

That did not solve the Ōtsutsuki weapon, but it proved that a suitable seal could preserve and isolate something after the technique supporting its original condition ended.

Tonbo turned the next page and continued designing his defense, unaware that the order sending him away from Konoha was already on Hiruzen's desk.