Chapter 19: Eye of the Creator
Konoha.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Tonbo Tobitake's footsteps came to a halt as he reached the sector assigned to him by his superiors. He paused periodically to use his sensory ninjutsu, performing his duties with meticulous care.
Having experienced war firsthand, he didn't dare be careless, even with his knowledge of the original plot. The profession of a shinobi left no room for negligence; the probability of things going sideways was simply too high. He couldn't be certain that during this time of chaos, spies from other villages wouldn't be lurking.
In fact, he was certain they were. Every village had no shortage of spies like Kabuto. It was a reality dictated by the nature of the profession. However, after a full day of patrolling, Tonbo hadn't spotted a single enemy.
Down below, the residents had gradually begun to emerge from their grief, starting the arduous task of rebuilding Konoha. When he reached the Memorial Stone, he landed on a nearby tree branch. There, he saw Iruka sitting before the monument with a bouquet of white chrysanthemums, tears streaming down his face.
After watching quietly for a moment, Tonbo continued his patrol. There were too many people like Iruka. He only took a second look because the boy was a familiar face. Besides, if he remembered correctly, the Third Hokage would eventually come to comfort him; there was no need for Tonbo to intervene.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
While patrolling, Tonbo didn't forget to practice his Body Flicker Technique. With his high neural response time and learning capacity, he wasn't about to slack off on such a vital mobility jutsu. He started with the basic D-rank Body Flicker and moved on to various versions he had extracted from the memories of enemies from other villages.
From time to time, he crossed paths with other patrolling shinobi.
"Did he just give a hand signal?"
As one ninja passed him, Tonbo paused briefly to flash a signal identifying himself as an ally. Then, he vanished like a dark shadow. The patrolling ninja scratched his head, impressed—that Body Flicker was truly remarkable.
When night fell, Tonbo finally ended his shift and handed over his duties to the relief team. He headed to Ichiraku Ramen, where Ayame had already prepared a dinner filled with affection for him.
"Tonbo-kun, thank you for your hard work."
"Ah, it smells amazing! Ayame, your skills have already surpassed Uncle Teuchi's." Tonbo said with his mouth full of delicious ramen.
"You brat, are you looking for a fight? Don't praise one and bash the other," Teuchi grumbled, his ears twitching, though the smile never left his face. He seemed quite pleased with Tonbo.
"Yes, Uncle! Your skills are number one," Tonbo flattered him, though in his heart he added: Right behind mine. His own cooking skills were now quite advanced, barely trailing behind Teuchi's, thanks to his overwhelming learning ability.
Ayame leaned on the table, watching Tonbo with a smile plastered on her face. To her, he looked handsome even when he was eating.
After spending some sweet time with Ayame, Tonbo returned home.
His father, was busy with his craft—making straw and bamboo figurines. This was his primary source of income. Though he only had one hand, dried reeds and treated bamboo strips quickly transformed into a dragonfly in his grip.
Suddenly, Tonbo had a flash of inspiration. "Dad, teach me how to make those."
He had a new idea for a Genjutsu. His current "Mind-Reading" series of Genjutsu was powerful for a shinobi, but its weakness was clear: if an enemy broke one, they could easily unravel the rest. The principle involved a reverse operation of the Mind-Reading Jutsu to disrupt the chakra in the enemy's brain and nervous system. If an enemy lacked a nervous system or could isolate their neural transmissions, he would have to rely on Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.
He was confident in those areas, but his advantage wasn't as pronounced as it was with Genjutsu. Looking at the figurines, he thought about the Secret Technique he was developing. There was potential here.
Tosei frowned upon hearing this. "Why learn this? Is it for a gift for Ayame?" Ninjas already had so much to learn; why waste time on useless crafts?
"Eh, I didn't think of that, but that wasn't my goal. I have a new Secret Technique that is perfect for these figurines."
"What could these do? And when did you develop a Secret Technique? Why don't I know about this?"
"Dad, I just finished it recently. I haven't even had the chance to use it in actual combat yet."
"Well... alright. You've always had your own ideas since you were little."
Tosei finally agreed, as long as it was useful to his son. After finishing his explanation on how to weave bamboo and reed figurines, Tonbo immediately completed a perfect dragonfly. Wherever Tosei explained, Tonbo learned instantly. No second demonstration was needed.
Gradually, a cold sweat broke out on Tosei's brow. In less than an hour, Tonbo was already innovating, creating shapes that Tosei himself hadn't even mastered yet.
"Hey, this is actually pretty simple," Tonbo said, having a blast. To him, making these figurines felt similar in difficulty to making Ichiraku Ramen—very easy to pick up. In an instant, a bamboo figurine in the likeness of Ayame appeared in his hand.
"You brat, go play on your own! Stop bothering me!" Tosei quickly shooed him away, unable to bear the sight anymore. When he had first retired due to his arm injury and inability to weave signs, he had spent half a month just learning how to make the dragonfly.
Tonbo chuckled and retreated to his room. Looking at the figurine of Ayame in his hand, he began to weave hand signs rapidly to test his idea. A special type of chakra was refined.
He released it toward the figurine.
"Secret Technique: Eye of the Creator."
After the jutsu was cast, the Ayame figurine slowly shifted. Before Tonbo's eyes, it transformed into a realistic Ayame. She looked at Tonbo quietly but did not speak.
"It worked."
Tonbo continued to manipulate her movements. Within moments, the "Ayame" was moving around the room with the agility of a shinobi. In reality, this was a Genjutsu.
This was the Secret Technique he had developed: Eye of the Creator. A figurine subjected to this technique would manifest as a Genjutsu directly in the mind of the beholder. It didn't require disrupting the target's chakra; to the victim, what they saw was reality. It was as if Tonbo had created a form of life.
However, he needed to inject his own abilities into this entity; otherwise, it would have no consciousness and no combat instincts. That was the next stage of development. Essentially, it was a reversal of the Mind-Reading Jutsu—injecting his own combat experience and memories into the figurine through the Secret Technique.
It was similar to the Super Beast Imitating Drawing ability, but one used figurines while the other used ink. It perfectly aligned with the Yin Release property of "creating form out of nothing."
With Inoichi Yamanaka's careful guidance and his own immense talent, his unique Secret Technique was finally born. The next step was to organize his own memories and inject different thought patterns into different figurines. He also had to customize the memories based on the physical shape of the figurine.
These were still under development and not yet ready for combat.
"I'll just keep developing this. My work at the Analysis Team can't slack off either; whether I can have diverse combat logic depends on that."
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