(The two pictures at the bottom are to give a visual reference for what the adult Toboe looks like the left one being just normal and the right one being his formal attire which is what he enters the council room with)
The rain softly fell creating a light pit-pat sound against the window pane at the hospital. Despite the dreary conditions outside, the family inside couldn’t be happier as their first son had just been born. The mother held a small child in her arms softly cooing to him as the child cried relentlessly. The father sat down in a chair beside them and smiled, marveling at his wife and newborn son.
“Well Atoli, what should we name him?” the father asked gently touching his child’s cheek.
She smiled at the child, “How about Toboe?” she let out a small laugh, “It fits with the way he’s crying.”
The father smiled and nodded, “Toboe Hibamoro…I like the sound of it.”
The couple relaxed back as Toboe began to doze off. “I can’t believe you’re even awake after that. It sounded pretty bad in there.” The father said, finally having some time to talk with his wife.
“Oh Tsumori, you know us Nadeshiko women are a lot stronger than you give us credit for.” Atoli smiled in response.
“I give you plenty of credit Atoli,” he said laughing, “I find it more unbelievable you thought I was strong enough for you.”
She laid back cradling Toboe in her arms, “Narrowly or not you did win fair and square, traditions said I had to marry you and it helps that you’re not bad looking either.” She gave a soft laugh.
Tsumori laughed in return and exchanged a quick kiss with her before sitting back down as Atoli laid back drifting off to sleep. After a day of rest Atoli and Tsumori took their son home and began settling in for the next chapter of their lives. They proceeded along happily as the next few months and years passed by with no major events to speak of. Toboe learned to walk and talk, his first word was water which was no surprise since they lived on an island and had a beachfront house, and went through all the progressions a normal child would. Their family couldn’t be happier, but things drastically changed when Toboe was around 4 years old and civil war broke out amongst his country.
Toboe was pulled roughly along by his mother as they ran from their home. Atoli and Tsumori were devastated as they watched their house burn down. The strife wasn’t supposed to reach Nadeshiko Village, they were only outliers and had no sentiment invested in either side. No one was even all that sure how it rose to violence, but both Atoli and Tsumori knew this was no place to raise their son anymore. They boarded a nearby merchant ship headed for the Land of Fire.
It took a few days for the ship to arrive in harbor and they slowly disembarked, scared and afraid of where to go. The first priority was food, they hadn’t eaten since leaving Nadeshiko and Toboe couldn’t last much longer. Tsumori ventured further into the town as Atoli and Toboe sat down at a nearby well, bringing up the pail in hopes there was some water. Unfortunately there was none, the well was as bone dry as the cracked and peeling earth beneath them.
“Mom…where are we going?” Toboe managed in a soft whisper as he leaned against his mother, snuggling up close to her.
She sighed and put an arm around him, “I don’t know Toboe…”
“Why can’t we go home?” he looked up at her.
“Because those bad people are all around and your father and I want to keep you safe.” She smiled kissing his forehead as Tsumori came back.
“There’s a caravan headed to Konohagakure, but we have to hurry.” Tsumori said as he helped Atoli up.
She nodded as she picked Toboe up, who had fallen asleep. They trudged along and snuck into the back of one wagon, quietly watching out the back and took in their new surroundings. Konoha was large enough that they would be able to find a job, but still things wouldn’t be easy for them. They arrived at their new home a few hours later and stood at the gates, in awe of the size of Konohagakure. It was a rough assimilation at first, but they eventually settled in and Toboe was enrolled at the Ninja Academy once he turned 5 and both Atoli and Tsumori had gotten multiple jobs to support themselves.
The few months passed by very stressfully for Atoli and Tsumori. Their residual tensions began to rise as the toll of their jobs and raising a child had begun to reach their boiling points. The stress was made worse as they constantly hid their rage up in front of Toboe, not wanting to upset him or distract from his studies. He had quickly become a quite proficient ninja and received special recognition from the Hokage himself.. Toboe was truly happy once again because he didn’t know about the coming storm.
On Toboe’s 6th birthday he went to class as usual, playing and celebrating with his friends, and his mother took the day off to decorate. Tsumori, his father, had said he was going out to collect supplies but he never came back. The only notice she ever got was a note delivered to her a few hours later stating that Tsumori was leaving for a better job to help out the family. The hidden truth, however; was that Tsumori was never coming back and when that realization hit Atoli she lost the will to live. She forced herself to smile through Toboe’s party, but it all rapidly deteriorated from there.
“Mom…where’d Dad go? He wasn’t at my party.” Toboe asked as he helped his mother clean up.
“He had to work an extra shift Boe,” she said taking some plates from him, “Go out and play you shouldn’t be cleaning on your birthday.
He smiled brightly continuing to help, “You’re the one that needs to play Mom, you look tired. I can do it.”
She began to protest again before being interrupted by Toboe, “It’s fine really. I’m a big kid now!”
Atoli laughed a full and real laugh too, as she patted his head, “You’re going to make a great husband someday.”
Toboe smiled some more as the finished cleaning. The rest of the day came and went and ended with Toboe opening his present, a brand new set of training clothes for the Ninja Academy. The next morning he donned his new clothes and set off for the Academy as his mother stood in the door way waving him off. Atoli walked back into her home and sat down on the couch, her breathing slow and labored. The exhaustion had caught up with her and, in contrast, she couldn’t catch her breath. She slowly drifted off, “…got to get to…work for…To...Tobo-“were the last hushed words spoken before her eyes closed and her breath was slowly stopped.
Her death went unnoticed for the majority of the day and subsequently, Toboe remained oblivious to it as he made his way back home. When he entered she appeared just to be sleeping in her chair, so he let her be and sat down beginning to read a book he had borrowed. He kicked his legs back and forth, tapping his heels against the base of the chair, occasionally glancing up at his mother to check on her. After an hour or so he got up and set his book aside then gently tapped his mother and waited for a response. A few seconds passed before he utilized a more forceful gesture and audibly asked his mother to wake up.
“Mom…are you playing a game or something?” he asked innocently tilting his head as the door opened behind him.
“Atoli wh-“said the man who was cut off by Toboe’s shushing.
“Sorry Mister, Mom’s sleeping we have to be quiet.” Toboe stated firmly.
The man took a second to collect himself, as he was a little startled at child hushing him, and looked at the pair. After a brief moment he let out a gasp as his eyes realized what he was looking at, Atoli was dead. Being older he noticed the lack of movement and the fact that her chest wasn’t moving…which meant she wasn’t moving at all. The man did all he could to fight back the tears for the fact that Atoli was dead and that Toboe was so young and innocent he had been watching his mother for these past hours without even realizing it. Looking down into Toboe’s pure blue eyes the man was shaken to his core at the scene and kneeled down trying his best to explain this situation to the child.
“I…I’m sorry but she’s dead.” He said looking away.
“What?” he asked laughing a bit, “That can’t be, she’s just tired that’s all.”
“Come on son…I’ll find someone for you to stay with.” The man said reaching for Toboe’s hand.
“No, that’s ok. I’m sure Mom will wake up soon.” Toboe said walking away from the man and sitting down.
The man quietly left after that, finding it better to let the kid enjoy his fantasy for a little while longer. It only became real to Toboe when the man came back that night with a few other adults to help begin the preparation for her funeral. He sat in his chair and watched them collect her body and try to explain it all to him again. The words fell to the ground, never quite reaching Toboe; he sat in a stoic silence staring at the floor. The men were a bit unsettled at Toboe’s reaction, the lack of tears and crying, there didn’t seem to be any sort of sadness on his face, it looked more along the lines of someone who had known that death was coming and was merely waiting on its arrival. When the actual day of the funeral came he took his chair in the front row and maintained that same sullen demeanor.
After that day more than a few of the adults around the town came and offered to take Toboe in as a foster child, but each time he politely refused them and remained on his own. The teachers as well began taking it easier on Toboe and in response he worked even harder and demanded he be treated harsher, that he didn’t deserve anything special. For the rest of his student years he continued to strive towards perfection and began to quickly progress through the ranks. He graduated from the academy a year later at age 6 to become a Genin and a mere 2 years later becoming a chuunin.
Toboe began to receive high accolades and special attention from the Hokage. He even began to scare some of his comrades as he was noted for his ruthless nature and cold-hearted nature. A lot of the others began to suspect him of being mentally unstable because he took a little bit too much joy in eliminating his targets. The hidden truth was that Toboe actually hated having to do it, but always reverted back to that stoic and unhinged state to make himself less vulnerable. Toboe was highly gifted as a shinobi as shown by his constant promotions and honors. He was even appointed, personally, to become the personal bodyguard of Shodai Hokage, Akihiro Teruyoshi.
Once appointed the position everything began to slow down a little bit. Toboe had begun settling down into his own home for once, moving past living transiently throughout apartments. He had even started tinkering with technology, creating random little inventions. Outside of being with the Hokage, Toboe spent a lot of his time holed up in his workshop.
“So what is it again you do in that home son?” the Hokage asked one day as he and Toboe traversed the town.
“Oh just random things Hokage…nothing major” Toboe responded.
Akihiro laughed, “Well it sounds major with all the noise you make and the fact you’re covered in dust every morning.”
“Hah, I just don’t clean up after myself Hokage.”
“That’s why you need a woman son.” He laughed, patting Toboe’s shoulder as he began coughing softly.
“You feeling okay? We can head back to the office if you’d like.”
“Heh,’ Akihiro said smiling, “I know those cold-hearted rumors about you aren’t true, you have quite the soft spot for older folk.”
“Just taking care of the only man that took care of me.” Toboe said as he smiled and helped the Hokage on his walk.
Toboe spent the next years months like that; daily conversations and walks with the Hokage as Akihiro’s health slowly deteriorated. He was almost always at Akihiro’s side and the Hokage even began calling Toboe “son” more and more often, giving Toboe a stable father figure. Townsfolk’s opinion of Toboe began to change as the softening of his personality showed drastically. The best showing of this was when a few of the children came to him with an injured wolf pup. They hoped, since Toboe was the village’s only medical ninja, that he could heal the pup and save it. And that he did, of course, and adopted the pet as his own, naming him Akihiro after the Hokage. Toboe suddenly had what felt like a real family and the support of others around him. This new reputation was founded by Akihiro and his illness had set up Toboe for another devastating tragedy at Akihrio’s death. However, when the Hokage eventually did pass, at the age of 74, things progressed quite differently.
The funeral came and went with Toboe adorning his stoic nature again, even as he gave the eulogy. The elder council was beginning the search for the Nidaime Hokage and Toboe took his chance to seize power. He knew it was a bold and risky move since he was only 19, but no one else was suited to take over the position.
“I’ve heard some rumors about a prominent ninja from the Grass country.” the council woman stated, “Maybe we can get him to take over.”
“Is it really best to get an outsider to do this? What about some of our senior shinobi?” the council man returned.
“None of them are interested, too big of shoes to fill the said.” She said sighing distastefully.
“Well neither one of us wants to say it but what about-“ he began before Toboe entered and cut him off.
“Appoint me as the Nidaime Hokage…you know it’s right.” He stated boldly and firmly.
“But you’re so unkempt boy!” the council woman stated rather rudely.
She was referring to the fact that Toboe rarely cut his hair, ending up with long hair past his shoulders, but that’s the only unkempt part of his appearance. The rest of him was actually very well put-together; he wore very fine and elegant clothing, lent to him by the former Hokage, and was generally well mannered. These were all traits the Shodai Hokage had taught him, but his current formal look was for this occasion only.
“Listen! I was the personal student of Shodai Hokage, Akihiro Teruyoshi! That makes me the most sensible candidate for Nidaime Hokage.” Toboe said approaching them, “I’m sure the Hokage left something about this in his will.”
“Well that’s the thing,” the council man began, “We can’t find the will.”
“Then until then I’ll assume the role of Hokage and if the will states otherwise I will step down!” Toboe stated as the council man and woman agreed.
Nothing was ever found to overturn his ascension to power and Toboe remained Hokage until the present day. He became a quick favorite among his people as he was kind and gentle-hearted and takes good care of his students, often going to extremes for them. However, the few people close to him, as in the few servants he keeps and mandatory guards, claim it's only an act and say Toboe is a bit unhinged and insane due to finding his mother dead, along with being so close to the first Hokage then having to watch him die as well. The villagers disbelieve the rumors as Toboe chooses to continue the traditions and standards set by Shodai Hokage, whose name meant Bright and Shining Justice, and Toboe hopes to make Konohagakure a beacon of that very nature. A goal that will certainly prove difficult with his love for explosions and conflict, but all things he does is in the name of good.
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