"Kid, what are you doing here?"
Tonbo glared at Seishi, silently willing him to explode.
Seishi, oblivious (or pretending to be), raised an eyebrow. "It's the Hokage's inauguration day. Everyone is happy. The night market is lively. I'm just taking a walk."
"But I didn't expect you to actually have a girlfriend."
His words made Ayame blush furiously. She tried to pull her hand away from Tonbo's grip.
"I... I'm not..."
"Hmph. What does it matter to you if I have a girlfriend?" Tonbo tightened his hold on Ayame's hand, turning his gaze on his teammate. "If you keep bothering me, next time we spar, I'll show you the definition of pain."
Tonbo wasn't wearing his bandages. His bare face, usually handsome, was twisted into a scowl that reminded Seishi vividly of the Hell Viewing Technique.
"Tch! Fine! I'll go find one myself! I don't want to talk to you anyway!" Seishi retreated quickly, disappearing into the crowd like a smoke bomb.
"That was my colleague, Seishi. He talks too much," Tonbo explained to Ayame, his expression softening instantly.
"Um... Tonbo-kun is right..." Ayame murmured, still flushed.
She was still stuck on his words: "What does it matter if I have a girlfriend?"
The mood had shifted. The innocent playfulness was gone, replaced by a shy, electric tension. Ayame became timid, reserved, completely unlike her usual cheerful self.
Behind them, hidden in the shadows of a food stall, Seishi watched with narrowed eyes, employing S-rank stealth techniques for a D-rank purpose.
"Damn it, showing off his love right in my face! Just because you're a Chunin doesn't mean you're special!"
Next time, I'll find a girlfriend and flaunt her in front of you. I swear it!
Seishi vowed revenge.
But the date was just an interlude. Life—and death—went on.
Days later.
Tonbo sat in Room 404, the Mental Amplifier humming.
His consciousness traveled through the neural pathways of a captured Kiri Chunin.
Assassination. Espionage. Standard intel.
Then, a fragment.
A convoy. Heavy guard. Moving through the Land of Bears. A "package" sealed in a human vessel.
Tonbo's heart skipped a beat.
He analyzed the timestamps. It was recent. Two days ago.
He pulled the helmet off, his face pale.
The Land of Bears. The Mist. A human vessel.
It was Rin.
Madara's plot was in motion. They had turned Rin into the Three-Tails Jinchuriki and were herding her toward Konoha to unleash the beast.
Tonbo grabbed his gear and sprinted to Inoichi's office.
Knock! Knock!
"Enter."
Inoichi looked up from a stack of files. "Tonbo? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Captain Inoichi. Urgent intel," Tonbo said, keeping his voice steady despite his racing heart. "I extracted a memory from the Kiri prisoner. Two days ago, a Mist elite unit moved a high-value asset through the Land of Bears toward the Fire Country border."
"Go on." Inoichi leaned forward.
"Given the current state of Kiri—the loss of the Seven Swordsmen—I suspect this is a retaliation strike. But Konoha is at its peak strength with the Fourth Hokage. A normal attack would be suicide."
Tonbo took a breath. "I deduce that the 'asset' is likely... a Tailed Beast. Or a human bomb meant to detonate inside our walls."
He presented the analysis carefully, framing his foreknowledge as logical deduction.
"A Tailed Beast?" Inoichi's eyes widened.
He reviewed Tonbo's report. The logic held up. If Kiri wanted to hurt Konoha now, they needed a nuke.
"Write this down. Wait for summons."
Inoichi grabbed his cloak. "I'm going to the Hokage."
Tonbo watched him go, sinking into a chair.
I did what I could, he thought, staring at his hands. But it might already be too late.
Kakashi was likely already on that mission. Madara was pulling the strings.
Hokage's Office.
"Lord Hokage. Critical intelligence."
Inoichi slammed the report on Minato's desk. He relayed Tonbo's findings and his own corroboration.
Minato scanned the document. His blue eyes turned icy.
Rin. Kakashi. The Land of Bears.
"Damn it!"
Minato vanished in a yellow flash.
"Assemble the Anbu and the Sealing Corps! Follow my chakra signature!" his voice echoed in the empty room.
The Forest, Land of Bears.
Chirp!
The sound of a thousand birds screaming cut through the rain.
Lightning bathed the clearing in harsh, blue-white light.
Kakashi's hand, wreathed in electricity, punched forward.
Squelch.
It didn't hit an enemy. It went straight through the chest of the girl who had jumped in front of his attack.
Rin.
"Ka...kashi..."
Behind a tree, hidden in the shadows, a single eye widened in horror. Obito Uchiha felt his world shatter.
Swish!
A yellow flash tore through the air.
Minato materialized in the clearing, kunai in hand, ready to kill.
He stopped.
The scene before him was a nightmare. The cratered earth. The dead Kiri ninja.
And Kakashi, kneeling in the mud, holding Rin's lifeless body, his hand stained with her blood.
"Kakashi."
Minato's voice was broken.
Kakashi looked up, his Sharingan spinning wildly, tears mixing with the rain.
"Sensei... I... I killed Rin..."
Konoha.
Tonbo sat on the roof of his house, watching the rain.
He didn't need a report. He felt the shift in the air. The heavy, suffocating grief that settled over the village later that night.
The mission was a "success." The Three-Tails plot was foiled. Konoha was safe.
But the cost was absolute.
"Running away isn't enough," Tonbo whispered to the dark sky. "The plot armor protects Naruto and Sasuke. It doesn't protect the extras."
"I can't rely on Talk No Jutsu. I can't rely on Nagato changing his mind twenty years from now."
"I need to survive the Shinra Tensei."
He clenched his fist.
"Kakashi's tragedy proves it. Accidents happen. Madara happens."
"I need more than just tricks. I need power."
But he had limits. No bloodline. No Tailed Beast.
Kekkei Genkai are out of reach. Synthesizing something like the Ketsuryugan is biologically impossible for me.
So... Secret Techniques (Hiden).
Like the Nara's shadows. The Akimichi's expansion. The Yamanaka's mind arts.
"I need to develop a Hiden style that amplifies my Genjutsu. Something that makes illusion reality."
Tonbo stood up, the rain soaking his bandages.
"I will not be a casualty."