Chapter 106: Kiba

"Why call Genjutsu Reincarnation both a protection and a danger?" Tonbo asked. "A recurring specialist should strengthen the clan."

Murakumo looked at Yakumo's name in the open record. "The technique does not restore her without damage. Each return creates a fracture in her personality—an inner presence our records call Ido."

The presence developed beyond Yakumo's awareness. It acted through her power, injured people she loved, and accumulated fear and resentment until it could seize control. Destruction followed. Eventually Yakumo regained herself and destroyed Ido, but victory also weakened the reincarnation. Her identity faded, public memories thinned into legend, and the clan entered another interval of uneasy freedom.

Before hidden villages, even a dangerous return could deter enemies from erasing the Kurama. Inside Konoha, the same child became a threat to neighbors, records, and people who believed they had always known her. The family could neither refuse her existence nor trust the power meant to preserve them.

Tonbo left the compound with the old volume under one arm. Murakumo had given it to him because Inner Archive recognized the distortion and because Tonbo's work might eventually offer the clan a way to break the cycle. The book contained no construction method for Genjutsu Reincarnation. Its theories about joining illusion to physical consequence were valuable enough.

Inner Archive had justified its creation sooner than expected. Restoring an earlier arrangement of memory allowed Tonbo to rebuild the judgments that had been redirected. It did not make him immune to altered perception, but it gave him a stable point from which to discover that he had changed.

The defense also possessed limits. A restored memory did not automatically reveal which present conclusion was false, and constant comparison could trap a man in his past as surely as genjutsu trapped him in a lie. Tonbo would need external records, trusted witnesses, and release conditions that prevented Inner Archive from overwriting genuine growth. Yakumo's technique had taught him that certainty about one's own mind was the most dangerous illusion of all.

There was always another technique, another clan, and another dead researcher capable of making his best precautions look incomplete.

Dogs barked behind him on Konoha's main street.

The Haimaru Brothers raced beside a small white puppy while Hana and a younger boy pursued them. The three larger dogs caught Tonbo's scent first. They stopped so abruptly that the puppy continued several paces before looking back.

The Haimaru Brothers began retreating.

"What's wrong?" Hana asked. She followed their gaze and saw an apparently empty stretch of street. "There's no one there."

The boy lifted the puppy into his arms. Small red markings crossed his cheeks, and pointed canines showed when he grinned. "We won, Akamaru. They're frightened of nothing."

The Haimaru Brothers whined.

Tonbo released Unseen Presence and appeared beside Hana. "It has been a while. You have grown stronger."

She jumped. "Tonbo-sensei! Don't appear like that."

The dogs ran. Distance Dislocation curved their route without changing the street beneath their paws, and after circling Tonbo twice they lay down in resignation.

Akamaru remained in Kiba's arms and watched with round eyes. The puppy did not understand genjutsu, but he understood that three larger ninken had attempted escape and failed without Tonbo taking a visible step. Kiba noticed the same thing. His mockery lost some of its force, though not enough to produce caution.

"They noticed me before you did," Tonbo said. "Why do they look as if my lessons were unpleasant?"

One Haimaru Brother barked rapidly.

"He says your training was excellent," Hana translated, suppressing a smile, "and that he has already learned enough for the rest of his life."

"How gratifying."

Hana had not forgotten the months at Training Ground 98. Tonbo taught her to use the Haimaru Brothers as independent sensory partners, not extensions of her own attention, and forced her to develop answers to Eightfold Flavor. Tokuma's Throat Guard now protected her against Iruka's version, but Tonbo cast too quickly and through too many routes for that single defense to guarantee safety.

The younger boy studied Tonbo without sharing their caution. "Who are you? Why is your face covered? Did an enemy make you ugly?"

Hana's expression became sympathetic. The Haimaru Brothers covered their noses with their paws.

Tonbo crouched and placed a hand upon the boy's head. "You are Kiba, Hana's younger brother."

Kiba pulled away. "If an enemy did that, I won't let anyone damage my face when I become a shinobi."

"No enemy gave me these bandages."

"Then why wear them?"

Tonbo considered the child. Kiba possessed confidence without information, loyalty without caution, and no fear of a jōnin whom every dog present had advised him to avoid. It was a promising combination for entertainment.

"I have never suffered a defeat that mattered," Tonbo said. "The Third Hokage once regretted challenging my mind. The Fourth Hokage spoke with me as an equal. I entered the country where the Sannin earned their title, faced its ruler, and returned without a wound. Who would be capable of marking my face?"

Each claim contained enough truth to survive a child's questions. Hiruzen had endured Mind Reading Technique: Depression. Minato had spoken with Tonbo more than once. Tonbo had infiltrated Amegakure and returned physically intact, however close the Six Paths had come to killing him.

Kiba stared. The Hokage represented the highest strength he understood. A man who spoke casually of two Hokage and the Sannin's battlefield could not be dismissed merely because he wore bandages.

Hana knew where each claim bent the truth. She also knew none was entirely false, which made correcting her teacher difficult. Tonbo had fought Pain's Six Paths and returned from Amegakure after an infiltration that lasted months. If Kiba demanded proof, the honest account would sound less believable than the boast.

Then suspicion returned. "You're boasting. I'm four and a half, not a baby."

"A wise distinction."

Hana relaxed too soon.

Tonbo turned to her. "How have you been?"

"Training. We graduate in a year and a half."

"And the twins?" Kiba asked. "Hana said you stopped teaching because babies were coming."

"Tenyu and Maki are healthy. They are also remarkably well behaved."

"I'll look after them when I'm older," Kiba declared. "I know how to handle puppies, so babies should be easy."

"A generous offer. My children may become exceptional students, though. If their marks exceed yours while they are several years younger, accepting your guidance could embarrass them."

Kiba bristled. "My sister gets good marks. I'll do better than she does."

Hana looked away so her brother would not see her anticipation.

"Then let us test that confidence over lunch," Tonbo said. "I will pay."

"Free food?"

Akamaru barked in approval.

Tonbo led them toward a barbecue restaurant. The Kurama record could wait an hour. Research filled his days with dead minds, dangerous techniques, and futures he could not discuss. A loud child and three suspicious dogs were part of the life all that work was meant to protect.

Hana followed because refusing a free meal would not save Kiba from whatever Tonbo intended. The Haimaru Brothers kept her between themselves and their former teacher. Akamaru, too young to inherit their fear, wagged his tail at the promise of meat.

Kiba ran ahead, still unaware that lunch had already become a lesson.