Chapter 164: Contact Evolution
Konoha.
The Ninja Academy.
The area was bustling with people. It was that time of year again: enrollment for new students.
This time, Tonbo Tobitake was here as the protagonist—the father of the new students—accompanied by Ayame. They each held a child by the hand.
Tianyu and Maki looked at the children their age surrounding them, their faces glowing with excitement. Finally, school was starting. There would be plenty of friends to play with, and more importantly, it meant they were officially embarking on the path of the shinobi.
"Grandpa, I don't want to go to school! I want to stay home!"
Just as they were soaking in the atmosphere, a voice rang out from the main gate. They turned to see a little kid wearing a long muffler—despite the heat—shouting at a very familiar figure.
"Konohamaru, how can you not go to school? You're a big boy now. If you don't go, Grandpa won't talk to you anymore."
Hiruzen Sarutobi held Konohamaru's hand, his face a mask of exasperation. He spotted Tonbo Tobitake, also leading children, and pulled the reluctant Konohamaru over. Today, Hiruzen wasn't wearing his Hokage robes, but simple, casual leisure clothes.
Tonbo turned to him. "Lord Hokage! Heh, Konohamaru has grown up, hasn't he?" Konohamaru was just as cute in person as he was in the anime.
"Who are you? I'm the Hokage's grandson! You should call me Young Master!" Konohamaru shouted, clearly displeased with Tonbo's casual tone.
"Blehhhh! Our 'Young Master' is afraid of school! How embarrassing!" Maki suddenly mocked him with a face.
Tianyu "educated" his sister: "Sister, we're in public. We have to give the Lord Hokage some face. Even though this Konohamaru guy acts like a three-year-old, we shouldn't say it out loud."
He then turned to Hiruzen. "Lord Hokage, I'm sorry. My sister was blunt. Her words were a bit harsh."
"..." After a moment of stunned silence, Konohamaru exploded. He pointed a finger at them, trembling with rage. "You jerks! This Young Master is going to beat you up!"
He lunged forward, ready for a fight. He might be young, but he could definitely sense the sarcasm dripping from their "apology."
"Hey, Konohamaru! They're your classmates, you can't fight," Hiruzen sighed, grabbing Konohamaru by his muffler. The boy's limbs flailed in the air, his eyes full of fury.
Smack!
Tonbo patted his children on the head. "Watch your mouths. Say sorry to the Lord Hokage and Big Brother Konohamaru."
The audacity of these two... they're getting so bold they're even talking back to the Hokage.
"Yes. Lord Hokage, we're sorry. Big Brother Konohamaru, we're sorry." The two became instantly obedient—the result of years of experience with Tonbo's "bamboo-switch-fried-meat" discipline.
"Hmph! Even if you call me 'Big Brother,' I won't forgive you!" Konohamaru huffed, a look of smugness returning to his face. He assumed they were scared of his status, just like everyone else.
"Haha, Tonbo, these two are certainly lively!" Hiruzen laughed, looking at Tianyu and Maki. Tonbo always bragged about how well-behaved his kids were; now it seemed they weren't so different from Konohamaru after all. For years, Hiruzen had worried his duties as Hokage made him a worse teacher than Tonbo—it was a relief to see they were all just kids.
"Indeed. Finally starting school... I hope they can become someone as great as you, Lord Hokage," Tonbo said politely.
Inwardly, he marveled at how fast time flew. His children were already school-age, which meant there was only one year left until Naruto graduated. It also meant the Fourth Great Ninja War was drawing closer.
"The Hokage? That title belongs only to me!" Konohamaru snapped, unhappy that these two might be competing for his dream.
"Oh? Look at that mountain. You think your face would look good carved up there?" Tianyu pointed at the Hokage Rock behind the Academy. The Fourth Hokage's statue looked particularly majestic, watching over the students below.
Konohamaru looked up, imagining his own head carved next to the Fourth's. "It looks great! How could it not look good?"
Ayame offered her own greeting. "Lord Hokage."
"The ceremony is starting. Let's go," Hiruzen nodded. The Academy gates opened, and teachers began leading the children inside. The parents watched from the outside.
Konohamaru, Tianyu, and Maki exchanged one last dirty look before turning their backs on each other and marching in.
"Hahaha, children really do have the most energy," Hiruzen smiled.
Tonbo replied: "Yes... the Third Generation is getting old, and I'm starting to feel old too!"
He was twenty-five. If you added his two lives together, he was over fifty.
"..." Hiruzen was momentarily choked for words.
Analysis Division.
"Contact Evolution."
This was the first-stage completed result of a ninjutsu Tonbo had been researching for over five years.
His hands were pressed against the corpse of a Cloud Ninja. The body was currently covered in branch-like neural patterns. A massive amount of information—far more than what he got from a standard Mind Reading Jutsu—flooded into his brain.
This wasn't just memory; it was raw data. In his mental space, using "HeartSteel 2.0" as a buffer, he rapidly processed the deluge of information, filtering out the noise and absorbing the essence.
In a single instant, data regarding the human body's four major tissues, eight major systems, eukaryotic domains, prokaryotic domains, DNA, chromosomes, and more were processed. His own nervous system absorbed the "superior" traits from the data, etching them into his own nerves.
Tonbo's body heated up slightly as the information was integrated, then returned to normal. To an outside observer, it happened in a flash because Tonbo had performed so many experiments that he already knew exactly which biological markers were useful to him.
"Stage one of my trump card is complete. Perfect. Now for stage two."
Tonbo was immensely satisfied. This would be his strongest "cheat" besides his mind.
Evolution.
To solve the problem of insufficient chakra and prepare for the future Otsutsuki threat, he had spent years on this concept. He wasn't a Jinchuriki, he didn't have a Sage Body, and he didn't possess the bloodline of Ashura. To achieve "chakra freedom," there were only two paths: modification or evolution.
Modification was Orochimaru's path. Tonbo didn't want to turn himself into a monster. So, he chose evolution.
True evolution meant developing Kekkei Genkai and slowly etching them into one's genetic code to change the constitution of the body. But that took generations. For example, Onoki's Particle Style had to be taught; it wasn't innate. It takes several generations of mastery before a nature transformation truly bonds to the DNA.
By using "Contact Evolution," Tonbo planned to bypass the centuries and rewrite his own biological destiny.
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