Tomu's Story
"Yamanobe Tomu!"
The auburn-haired boy leaned his chair forward, before standing up and lazily making his way down the steps from his desk to the floor of the classroom. There were some sporadic giggles in the class, per usual, at his unusual appearance. His mottle green cowboy hat and ever-present guitar strapped to his back.
The teacher, Umino Iruka, crossed his arms and gave the young boy a stern look. He was dressed in the traditional green fatigues and vest of Konoha chuunin, and over his short brown hair was a dark blue bandana. His tanned face held a horizontal scar across his nose, which belied a stern but genuinely benign personality. He tapped his foot.
"Exactly why have you failed to turn in your homework, again?" Tomu blinked.
"But I have done my homework, Iruka-sensei."
"Then where is it? You were supposed to cite an example of a B-rank jutsu!" Iruka growled.
Tomu shrugged. "It's easier just to show you." The laughter began again. Tomu Yamanobe? Lazy to a fault? Able to use an advanced jutsu?
Iruka sighed, rubbed the scar over his nose. "Tomu, I really don't see how you could do such a technique."
"Then don't see. Listen," Tomu explained confidently, pulling his guitar from his back and making a few handseals. Iruka recognized some of the seals (and the glowing of Tomu's hand) far too late.
"Wait Tomu-!"
The chord seemed to reverberate through his very bones. He was blasted back by an intense pressure wave, as the rest of the children in the classroom shrieked, covering their ears. A few seconds passed before the sound tapered off into silence once more. Iruka blinked, sitting against the wall.
Every child had been knocked to the floor, every window in the classroom opened, and every paper and scroll missing. Tomu grinned, and made the victory sign.
"Cool huh? I call it Gitar Shokkuueibu, Ittou! Took me a week, but I managed to create it! Do I, like, get extra points for that?"
And that set the tone for the rest of Tomu Yamanobe's ninja career. Lazy, yet brilliant. And somewhat bizarre as well. By the time he was ten, he'd made chuunin. Most ninja didn't make chuunin until they were in their early to mid teens. By that time, he made special jounin.
After that though, he didn't advance in rank. He did his missions, played at Konoha concerts, hung out with his best friend Piito, and walked about as carefree and easily as he had the day he could walk.
He wields his guitar with the same skill as a samurai with his blade, his enemies falling in silent screams from his strokes. He can bring silence with his instrument, allowing his team to get through an enemy's defenses with ease, or he can lay waste to those same defenses, soundwaves blowing apart walls and men as he stands there, a virtual god of rock and roll.
And yet, after every mission, after every enemy has been slain and the client saved, he plays a song for the dead. Then he bows, and heads back for home.
He is friends with Ibiki Morino, Konoha's best torture and interrogation expert.
No one knows why.
Translations:
Yamanobe - Mountain field, more or less.
Gitar Shokkuueibu, Gentou - Guitar Soundwave, First Position