Chapter 37: Barrier Technique: Inverted Golden Bell
Konoha
"Them? They're alright. They've barely managed to become Chunin. I'll be impressed when they hit Jonin," Tonbo Tobitake replied.
Talent really does dictate a person's life. Tonbo felt that in terms of ninjutsu—excluding certain forbidden techniques—he wasn't inferior to the Third Hokage. But even though he had carefully summarized his knowledge and taught them with absolute sincerity, the growth of the three youngsters could only be described as "fairly fast."
They weren't geniuses. Ordinary Jonin was likely their ceiling.
"Still not satisfied? They're only fourteen; they have plenty of room to grow! Unlike me—I'm seventeen and still just a Chunin. I doubt I'll ever reach Jonin," Shimon lamented.
He looked at Tonbo. This was a true genius. Whether it was his own learning capacity or his ability to teach others, Tonbo was top-tier.
"Let's stop talking about that. Cheers to your return to the Analysis Team!"
Clink!
The two drank happily. Tonbo was truly content; this was what life in the Naruto world should be like. A wife, friends, a boss, a father, disciples... he didn't have to worry about the scheming and infighting at the top. Plus, the Analysis Team was low-drama; no backstabbing colleagues to watch out for. The work was simple: read memories, report them.
They laughed and chatted until Ayame arrived, grabbed him by the ear, and dragged him home.
Tonbo's House.
"Drinking again? Do you even want to come home?" Ayame crossed her arms, looking at him seriously.
"Haha, just catching up with a colleague. It's necessary maintenance," Tonbo joked.
For some reason, after getting married, Ayame's personality had shifted slightly. In certain aspects, she was no longer just a girl, but the matriarch of a household. Unlike other wives who stayed the same, Ayame seemed to have been influenced by him; she was becoming quite different from the norm.
Suddenly, Ayame's face flushed slightly. "Tonbo-kun, we still have to do that 'immoral' thing today."
"'Immoral' thing?"
Tonbo looked at her slightly tipsy face and immediately understood. Honestly, if you want a child, just say so!
In an instant, they were behind the bed curtains, focused on continuing the bloodline.
Training Ground 98.
Swoosh, swoosh!
Kunai split into six directions, piercing specific spots around the training ground: trees, the river, the earth...
"Barrier Technique: Inverted Golden Bell."
Tonbo wove his hand signs—over a hundred of them, at incredible speed. Chakra surged out of him, and the seals attached to the six kunai began to resonate. A massive golden bell manifested, shrouding Training Ground 98.
As he formed the final seal, the golden bell flipped.
Silently, the entire training ground vanished. All that remained was a massive, empty stretch of flat dirt.
A bird hidden in a distant tree watched the sudden disappearance of the landscape, its eyes wide with shock.
Caw! Caw!
It cried out and flew away, leading a flock that left behind a few droppings in their panic.
Beneath the surface level of reality, an ethereal golden bell had formed—one only Tonbo could see. Inside that bell was the entirety of Training Ground 98. The hills, the rivers—everything was perfectly intact, without a scratch.
"After two years of work, this barrier is finally complete!"
Tonbo felt the environment around him. To him, there was no difference; he was still standing in the center of the training ground, the river was still flowing, and the trees were still growing. Only the boundary of the barrier existed. Outside of that boundary, the world looked like a flat wasteland. From the inside, it looked as if the sun was still shining and water was still running normally.
This was the technique he had meticulously researched—a spatial barrier to protect his family against Pain's ultimate moves. It was a spatial-type barrier; without special abilities, it was impossible to strike the inside from the outside. As for whether Space-Time ninjutsu like Flying Raijin or Kamui could enter, that remained to be seen.
Kamui likely couldn't, as the user would lack the coordinates. Flying Raijin might work if a mark was placed inside, but how many people could pull that off?
The only drawback was that he could only make the barrier this large on his own. Covering all of Konoha would require the approval of the Hokage and those two village elders—which was impossible. The Third was too indecisive; he'd have to wait for Tsunade to take office before suggesting it.
"The disturbance came from here."
As he was thinking, a voice reached his ears. Three figures approached from a distance. When they saw the empty, barren land, they were stunned.
The training ground was right here. How did it just... vanish? But the flat dirt told them this was no illusion.
Uchiha Police Force? Tonbo thought. He wondered if the insight of the Sharingan could see through it.
Shisui Uchiha crouched down, rubbing the soil between his fingers while scanning the surroundings.
"What's the situation? Did someone practice a jutsu here?" one Uchiha asked.
"Judging by the looks of it, someone used a massive Earth Style jutsu to level the area?" another guessed.
Shisui shook his head. "No, this wasn't a standard ninjutsu."
"Sharingan!"
His eyes snapped open, the three-tomoe Sharingan spinning within. He scrutinized every inch of the training ground, searching for clues. His brow furrowed. At the edge of the flat land, the river seemed to enter another space and then flow out from the other side.
Shisui walked to the boundary to see how the water was passing through. It looked as if the river had always been there, flowing normally.
"A Genjutsu?"
Shisui had absolute confidence in his eyes, yet he found it hard to believe this was an illusion. He tried to disrupt his chakra flow to "release" it. Nothing changed. The other two Uchiha tried the same.
"What exactly is going on?"
The three huddled together, frowning in silence.
"Could it be an infiltration by spies? But why make such a scene?" The birds being startled was enough for a ninja to deduce that something significant had just occurred. They were baffled.
Shisui made a quick decision. "Go back and report this to Lord Hokage."
"Why report to the Hokage? Patrolling Konoha is the business of our Police Force!" one Uchiha snapped. To them, this was a matter for the Uchiha to solve alone.
"Uchiha's business is the village's business," Shisui said sternly.
The clan was becoming increasingly radicalized. As Shisui watched his kin, every action and word dripped with resentment toward the Hokage. It made him deeply sorrowful.
"Tonbo-kun, I brought your lunch!" Ayame walked onto the training ground carrying a bento box.
What met her eyes were three fierce-looking Uchiha and a familiar environment that had been wiped off the face of the earth. The smile vanished from her face. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at the three men.
"You're from the Police Force... where is my husband?"
A terrible feeling gripped her heart. Had Tonbo been arrested by the Police Force? She knew he had been researching some kind of ninjutsu. Thinking this, the tears began to fall.
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