Chapter 250: The Dark

"This is troublesome."

Tsunade stared at the documents Shizune placed before her.

"Those are only the priorities," Shizune said. "You need to learn the office. Many more are waiting."

Shikaku looked equally tired. Tonbo had escaped far too quickly and left the chief strategist beneath an avalanche of unfinished work. At this rate Tsunade would hold the title while Shikaku performed the job.

"Handle them for now," Tsunade said. "I need to understand Konoha's current situation first. Once I am familiar with everything, I will take over."

She did not say when that familiarity would arrive.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune warned, "do not become lazy before the inauguration."

Tonbo had already returned to the Analysis Team. The moment his colleagues heard that he was their captain again rather than the Acting Hokage, the entire room relaxed.

"Continue your work," he told them, then left.

The figure in the office was a Shadow Clone. It would compile the intelligence gathered during his term, prepare the written report for Tsunade, and handle routine Analysis Team duties. Tonbo's growing chakra reserve let him use clones without leaving the original helpless if an enemy appeared.

The main body stood on an unnamed mountain behind Konoha.

"Nerve Distribution."

He pressed one palm to the earth. Branching nerves spread through the ground faster than the eye could follow, covering the test area beneath stone and roots.

"Transfer."

The Shadow Clone at the center blurred. Its outline lost the shape of flesh and became something difficult to describe, halfway between chakra and a body.

Then the clone burst.

Only the nerve network remained.

From a tree beyond the test, Tonbo's original body frowned.

"Transforming the body into chakra and emerging anywhere touched by the nerves is more difficult than expected."

Now that he had left the Hokage's office, his daily obligations no longer consumed every thought. His central goal returned to strength: he needed enough power to suppress an Ōtsutsuki when one finally appeared. Urashiki's continued absence made the urgency worse rather than better.

Tonbo wanted a rapid-displacement technique built from his own system. Contact Evolution already let his nerves spread through an area. If he converted himself into chakra within that network, he might vanish at one point and emerge at another.

Summoning and Flying Thunder God did not grow naturally from his techniques. The new approach did. Spiritualization could preserve thought and direct the transformed chakra while the physical body crossed the network.

The theory required several structures to work together: distributed nerves, conversion of flesh, soul control, a destination signal, and reconstruction without loss of identity. The destroyed clone proved the problem remained far from solved.

If even one stage failed, Tonbo might disperse his body without restoring it, emerge without part of his memory, or leave his soul separated from the chakra meant to carry it. A Shadow Clone made those failures inexpensive enough to observe. The original body would not enter the network until every transition worked repeatedly.

Forced Execution was farther still.

At the children's training ground, Konohamaru shaped chakra in one hand when Tenyu told him about Tsunade.

"The Fifth Hokage?"

His eyes narrowed, then relaxed.

"I do not care. I need to keep getting stronger so I can protect Konoha."

The succession no longer felt like an attempt to erase Hiruzen.

"She is one of the sannin," Maki said. "Aren't you curious?"

"I will become a legend too."

The chakra in Konohamaru's palm stretched like soft candy and shifted through several shapes. Tonbo's training had already improved his control. Facing Tenyu again, he believed he could win.

The inauguration filled the square beneath the Hokage Tower.

Tsunade stood before shinobi and civilians in the ceremonial hat. A gentle wind moved through the crowd. She removed the hat and faced them directly.

"I am Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage. From this day onward, I will protect Konoha."

Her eyes carried none of the boredom, drinking, or gambling that usually defined her free hours.

Cheers rose from the village.

"The Fifth has returned!"

"She is beautiful."

"I want to become a shinobi like her someday."

Many kunoichi looked at Tsunade as proof of what they could become. Tenten stood with Guy, Neji, and Lee, too excited to remain still.

Tenyu and Maki watched beside Tonbo.

Maki's gaze paused on Tsunade's magnificent chest. So this was what the legendary greatest kunoichi looked like. She immediately added that figure to her own future ambitions.

"That is the Fifth Hokage," Tonbo told the twins. "Do not call me Hokage anymore."

The scene felt familiar. Tonbo had witnessed Minato's inauguration, Hiruzen's return to office, and now Tsunade's. If he survived as intended, he would probably stand in the crowd for the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and every successor after them.

"In my heart, Dad will always be Hokage," Tenyu said solemnly.

"No. I do not want to be Hokage. The job is boring."

With Tsunade in office, Konoha returned to its old peace. Reconstruction brought visible vitality. Tonbo spent more time with his family, continued researching ninjutsu, and watched for any sign of Urashiki.

Ayame's pregnancy gave home a new anticipation. Tenyu and Maki argued about the future child while Tonbo's clones worked elsewhere. The contrast was exactly what he had wanted when he refused to let the Hokage's desk become his permanent life.

The calm felt like the peaceful era before the invasion.

Danzō did not share it.

Inside the Shimura compound, he considered everything that had gone wrong.

Only with the Hokage's authority in his own hands, he believed, could Konoha truly prosper. He had expected Jiraiya to fail to bring Tsunade back. Then Danzō would remove Tonbo from the temporary office and persuade the daimyō to appoint him.

Tsunade's return destroyed the plan.

According to Danzō's intelligence, she should have rejected Jiraiya. He had trusted another person's failure and lost the opportunity.

"One cannot place hope in others."

He felt the covered eye beneath his bandages and considered controlling Tsunade. After measuring the risk, he abandoned the idea.

Two figures appeared and knelt.

"Lord Danzō, we obtained the changes to each department's codes."

They offered a scroll.

Danzō needed Konoha's codes if he intended to operate as its hidden protector and future leader. Tonbo's acting term and Tsunade's succession had both altered the systems he once knew. Familiar channels now rejected him.

He opened the stolen intelligence.

The changes were substantial. Had Danzō continued using his old methods without checking, the new barriers and challenges would have exposed his network.

Several contacts he once considered permanent had become useless overnight.

"Do they intend to restrict me, or merely spies from other villages?"

The answer hardly mattered. Tonbo had changed the village deeply enough that even Danzō needed new intelligence before acting.

Captain Tonbo was indeed troublesome.