Changing Positions

"Tonbo, the higher-ups are counting this as an A-Rank Mission for us. You really are my lucky star!"

Dokuro Kei laughed heartily as he spoke to Tobitake Tonbo.

Hearing this, Tobitake Tonbo was quite satisfied as well.

During wartime, recorded missions could be exchanged with the village for money, ninjutsu, or other ninja resources once the war missions concluded.

An A-Rank Mission, by going market rates, started at at least a million ryō.

One could buy a hundred or so Explosive Tags with that.

It was just that the war had to end first, and all current resources had to prioritize the fighting.

That was not all; discovering the enemy was one mission, and reading memories was yet another, so Tobitake Tonbo had also scored a B-Rank out of it.

According to the memories, this troop was a decapitation squad sent by Iwagakure, targeting Konoha's logistics.

Intelligence Divisions, corpse retrieval squads, Torture Divisions, Analysis Divisions, Medical Corps, and so on were all logistics and also their targets.

Fortunately they discovered them early; if it had been any later and they had fought an unprepared battle, the losses would have been huge.

"Oh, Captain, is there anything else?" Tobitake Tonbo asked.

"Haha, there actually is."

Dokuro Kei smiled, then turned solemn.

"According to the intelligence from reading the enemy's memories, we can't be certain whether the other side transmitted information back to the Analysis Division's base, so we need to change positions."

Hearing this, Tobitake Tonbo also turned serious.

"Understood."

"Mm, get ready. We leave tonight."

After giving his instructions, Dokuro Kei hurried off to the next location, presumably to notify the others.

As for Tobitake Tonbo, carrying a trace of worry, he first used sensory ninjutsu to scout around, confirming that there were no enemies within a one-kilometer radius, before he finally felt at ease and released the seal.

He was dead set on holing up and working at the Analysis Division to contribute to Konoha, and absolutely must not let the enemy discover their base.

Nighttime.

Under the moonlight, shadowy figures darted through the forest.

The concealed chakra signatures of the ninjas were so hidden that even passing birds didn't sense anyone going by as they tended to their chicks in their nests.

Tobitake Tonbo was among them.

One of a ninja's most fundamental and important qualities: breath concealment.

While watching anime, he hadn't felt much about it, but when actually using it, he could truly feel that a ninja really was an assassination profession.

Hashirama and Madara were simply two warriors flying the banner of ninjas.

From the movement of the Analysis Division plus the escorting ANBU ninjas, it was clear that everyone's breath-concealment foundation was top-notch, their movements completely silent.

Even Sheng Shimon, who was also a Genin, did a great job.

At that moment he actually wondered, how on earth did Naruto graduate?

Was it really because of the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique?

It was probably because of politics—they needed him to graduate; otherwise, mere Multiple Shadow Clone Technique shouldn't have met the baseline for becoming a Genin.

To put it bluntly, even he right now had plenty of ways to deal with Naruto's shadow clones, though that was partly because he had the advantage of prior intelligence, he thought with confidence.

According to the characteristics of shadow clones—that after a clone dissipated, the experiences would be transmitted back to the main body—it was actually quite easy to solve.

For example, he could invert the Mind Reading Technique, transmitting his own painful thoughts into the shadow clones, so that even if the shadow clones dissipated, the pain would not disappear.

Mind Reading Technique: Pain.

These past few days, in order to survive in the war, he had also racked his brains to make himself stronger.

And since he possessed no Kekkei Genkai and his chakra was only at the level of an ordinary Genin, in order to maximize his personal strength, aside from using Nature Transformation with different affinities, he also developed his own combat style based on his advantages.

Sensory and mental aspects were his strengths, so his focus lay right there.

Mind Reading Technique: Pain was the utilization of the manifold sufferings of numerous ninjas obtained through mind-reading, collecting them and sealing them within his mind in the form of ninjutsu.

Finally, in the form of Genjutsu, he would transmit the information of pain into the enemy's heart; all he had to do was catch the enemy's momentary opening and drive a kunai into their heart to finish it.

This was a synthesis of pain: the body, the spirit, the death of family members, the passing of friends, the agony of being tortured, the murder of a loved one.

Tobitake Tonbo knew that powerful ninjas probably couldn't be controlled for long, but ninja combat was inherently mobile combat, and a single instant was enough.

That's right, his advantage was the mind; being a sensory ninja after all, the path to strength he planned for himself was Genjutsu.

The ceiling of Genjutsu in the anime was the Sharingan, and aside from the Sharingan, the highest Genjutsu practitioners for anyone else were Kurenai Yuhi and her old man Shinku Yuhi.

It felt like other people's Genjutsu lacked any real spectacle, but he was confident in his own talent and felt he should be able to arm-wrestle with Itachi Uchiha.

Worst-case scenario, handling a Jōnin should still be fine, or he could play it even safer and just let the Child of Prophecy take care of the enemies.

Swish, swish!

"We've arrived. Everyone make camp, quickly."

"ANBU guards and sensory ninja patrol the surroundings; make sure not to let the enemy receive any intelligence."

"Yes."

Swish, swish!

Following the command of Yamanaka Inoichi, the head of the Analysis Division, everyone moved in an orderly manner.

Tobitake Tonbo, as a sensory-type ninja, was also assigned to an ANBU squad to conduct patrols and searches.

A few days had passed since the camp relocation, and the Analysis Division was back on track.

Tobitake Tonbo also clocked in for work every day, practicing ninjutsu, taijutsu, and developing and learning genjutsu when he had nothing to do.

Much of it was learned during the process of reading minds, and after his integration and organization, he came up with a set of his own training methods.

This was also one of the jobs of the Analysis Division. If they read an enemy's ninjutsu that Konoha did not possess, or optimizations like simplified hand seals, they could report it to Konoha and receive rewards.

His chakra was also progressing faster and faster. From the beginning, when casting three Earth-to-Steel Techniques consumed almost all his chakra, he could now cast five in a short time.

Spiritual energy, physical energy...

A month passed, and Tobitake Tonbo grew very fast. There was a reason they said it was a time of war; the accumulation of spiritual energy could not be compared to that of Naruto's era.

His chakra was getting more and more abundant, and maintaining a long-duration battle was no longer a problem.

And this month, through reading the memories of different enemies, he also roughly knew where the camp was.

The border of the Land of Fire, behind the front lines.

A place very close to the front lines.

No wonder there were enemies whose memories needed to be read every single day.

This also made Tobitake Tonbo panic, terrified that an enemy would pop out of nowhere. His scheduled sensory ninjutsu never stopped.

One had to know that the offensive of Iwagakure at this time was quite fierce, waging war against both Konoha and Kumogakure simultaneously, and extremely fiercely at that.

Even though their side currently had a complete medical technology system, as well as outstanding ninja like the Yellow Flash, Oroclimaru, and others.

They still showed signs of exhaustion in the Third Shinobi World War.

It made Tobitake Tonbo want to run over and beg Tsunade and Jiraiya to come back quickly, terrified that there might be a discrepancy with the plot in the anime—wouldn't that be the end of him!

It was worth noting that in the memory of an enemy, he saw a white-haired figure using Lightning Release, as well as the appearance of Minato Namikaze.

Beside them was also a boy wearing goggles, along with a beautiful girl with a Dora hair style.