Chapter 26: Rebellion, Asuma

Training Ground 98.

Three genin sat cross-legged, a single leaf stuck to each forehead, hands folded into the Tiger seal. Tonbo sat nearby with a copy of Barrier ninjutsu, Volume Seven, one of the standard texts for anyone in Konoha serious about the subject.

Learning never stopped being satisfying. There was always another principle to refine, another layer waiting beneath the first.

"Captain, is this actually going to make us stronger?" Iruka asked, straining to hold his chakra steady against the leaf.

"A capable shinobi has to focus instantly, read an enemy's intentions from the smallest details in the middle of a fight, and mobilize chakra the moment the opportunity opens," Tonbo said, not looking up from his book.

"I know why Iruka needs the practice," Mibu Shinobu said. "He didn't notice the pangolin tunneling under him during the training ground test."

"That was just carelessness," Iruka muttered.

"Focus, don't talk. Mibu Shinobu's right, though — that pangolin was loud enough underground. Pay attention to every direction, not just what's in front of you, and you'll catch what's coming from beneath your feet too. A shinobi stays alert to threats from anywhere. The Academy should have covered that."

Tonbo let the correction land, then added, "And remember what the Third said: where the leaves of Konoha dance, the Will of Fire burns eternal. Holding your chakra steady on a leaf is lighting that first spark. This is the Will of Fire, in practice."

That was all it took. All three redoubled their effort at once.

It really works every time, Tonbo thought, watching them strain. His own carefully engineered incentives had never come close to matching the effect of four words from the Third. In that department, at least, he had to admit defeat — the old man was a master of persuasion in a way even Naruto, in the future he remembered, had never quite matched.

He turned back to the manual, dense with detail on hand seals, chakra distribution, and the placement of barrier nodes. He was confident enough in his own trajectory to become one of the strongest shinobi the world would see once things properly got moving, but confidence in himself wasn't the same as confidence that Konoha itself would survive intact, or that he'd manage to stop Pain before the man unleashed whatever he had planned. Barrier ninjutsu offered a path around that problem — insurance, in case his own strength wasn't enough when the moment came. He'd already worked through the first six volumes and had no doubt he'd finish the rest before long, then start testing what he'd learned in practice.

Just in case, he told himself. Maybe by then he'd already be untouchable. But a shinobi who didn't plan for the worst case wasn't much of a shinobi at all, and he meant to plan for every one he could think of.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Watching the three of them again, he noted their focus was improving, but still slower to settle than he'd like — every stray breeze from outside the clearing was enough to pull at their attention.

Worth testing something, then.

He drew several sealing talismans from his pouch, fixed them to the trees ringing the training ground at four rough corners, and began working through the hand seals — a full minute's worth, longer and more intricate than anything else he'd attempted since arriving in this life, each seal building carefully on the last.

"Sound-Sealing Barrier."

The talismans linked through his chakra, and an invisible dome settled over the clearing. The wind died. The insects went quiet. Even the birdsong vanished.

Inside, the three noticed the shift at once, and their concentration sharpened along with it.

Tonbo watched the technique hold, weighing its strengths against its costs. Useful with several practitioners working together to reinforce it, versatile enough in its applications, but costly to maintain over any real stretch of time, and better suited to fixed defense or a controlled engagement than anything he could carry into open combat. The fragments of the future he retained had revealed little about Barrier ninjutsu beyond its occasional failure against a powerful intruder, which had always made the whole field look thinner than it deserved. This one, at least, held up rather well, and he made a note to refine it further once the three of them had moved past needing it as a crutch.

A month slipped by almost without him noticing. With the barrier as a training aid, the three made steady, visible progress, and once they'd settled into it properly, he let the technique lapse to let them keep building on their own. Their focus held now even mid-spar, and it showed in sharper ninjutsu, better aim, quicker reads on a fight.

Away from training, he'd settled a wedding date with Teuchi and Ayame at last: two years out, when he turned seventeen. For a shinobi's body, built to survive on twice the cell turnover of an ordinary life, that was hardly early by Konoha standards. It kept him in an excellent mood most days, one Iruka and the others noticed easily enough, even if none of them could quite place the reason for it at first. When they finally learned their captain had a fiancée, none of them quite believed it — not until he brought them along to Ichiraku one evening and they watched him and Ayame together, unmistakably fond of each other in a way no act could really fake.

It was on one such ordinary day that a summons arrived from the Hokage, calling the whole squad in.

Tonbo stood with Iruka, Mibu Shinobu, and Tessen Togekei before the Third, who looked visibly older than the last time they'd all stood in this office together, the weight of the intervening years showing plainly in his face.

"Hokage-sama," Iruka said, plainly pleased to see him.

Hiruzen smiled. "Iruka. I've read Tonbo's reports. Sounds like you're becoming a fine genin."

"Still far behind the captain," Iruka said, glancing at Tonbo.

Hiruzen nodded, then turned to Tonbo. "I have something important for you. I need it handled personally."

"Me?"

"I'm trusting you to find Asuma Sarutobi and report back what you learn. If you can talk sense into him along the way, better still."

"Asuma Sarutobi?"

The three genin exchanged confused looks. Sarutobi — could that mean he was related to the Hokage himself?

Tonbo went still. He recognized this part of the future, at least in outline — this was the point where Asuma had broken from Konoha entirely.

"My son," Hiruzen said with a heavy sigh. "Between my duties and my failures as a father, he grew more rebellious by the year. He used an overseas assignment as cover to disappear. Someone spotted him in the Land of Fire recently, so I need his location confirmed."

So that was the shape of it.