The newly grown hand still utilized his own cells; it remained skinny and skeletal, looking like nothing more than skin and bones.
Just as Ino thought he had completed his physical restoration, Old Slug clenched both fists tight and let out a hoarse, exhausted roar.
"Ah—! Ah—!"
His body expanded as if someone were inflating a balloon, and his originally shriveled muscles regained a bit of fullness.
"Eh? This move is a bit interesting."
Ino floated in front of him. Slug was a pure combat-type Namekian. To have not been beaten to death by Frieza after so many years, he certainly had to possess some unique qualities.
Against him, it was impossible for Frieza to have fought using "100% Energy"; he wasn't worthy. Slug roughly belonged to the level Frieza described as "I only need to use 50% energy to turn you into cosmic dust." In this Namekian's prime, his battle power was less than half of Frieza's. Now that he was old and frail, the gap was even wider.
Ino estimated that the aging Slug's battle power was around 10 million at his limit.
However, as Slug frantically overdrew his life force to grow his body to over five meters tall, she felt the opponent's aura suddenly strengthen by a large margin. As Slug's body became massive, many of his moves changed accordingly.
He roared like a giant and charged forward. Upon entering attack range, his knees bent slightly, and he thrust the sole of his foot forward to kick Ino.
"Too clumsy. You survived all those years relying on this kind of move?"
The opening was simply too large. Ino guessed the opponent should have a follow-up move, so she immediately used repulsive force to push herself backward.
With one kick, Slug smashed a giant hole in the spaceship's wall. His massive body shattered the wall and crushed numerous subordinates. Seeing Ino retreat, he abruptly accelerated, changing his forward thrust into a centerline front kick.
Ino did not retreat this time. Instead, she struck his ankle with a knife-hand chop. With his body enlarged and his defense significantly increased, this strike didn't cause much damage.
"Hahahaha—" Old Slug laughed loudly, seeming to greatly appreciate the enemy's helplessness against him.
His laughter was still echoing inside the spaceship when Ino's gaze suddenly became firm. She instantly burst out with full power. Regardless of whether it was Super Otsutsuki 2 or not, with a 13-fold power increase, her battle power had already climbed to a level Old Slug could not imagine.
The old Namekian didn't see the enemy's movements clearly at all; he only felt a streak of golden light flash before his eyes. His chest was pierced, leaving a blood hole the size of a washbasin. It went straight through, front to back, and the edges of the wound were cauterized by high-heat energy.
"What? How is this possible!"
The power within his body drained rapidly, and his mind went blank. It was as if his spine had been extracted. With a plop, he fell to his knees, staring sluggishly at the golden figure before him.
"For the sake of the Namekians, die!"
Ino held her right hand upright, a massive field of golden energy rising in her palm. After charging for a mere two seconds, she fired a shockwave. Resembling a gigantic golden lightsaber, it pierced through the evil Namekian's skull in a single strike. The shockwave continued diagonally downward, destroying all structures in its path and ultimately piercing completely through the spaceship.
Slug's face was filled with disbelief as his body became shriveled once more. At this moment, he finally realized one thing: his doomsday had arrived.
"You're too old. Running around at such an age—you're looking for death. Hmph!"
Ino clenched her five fingers into a fist. Dozens of energy balls surrounded the dying Slug, then simultaneously converged toward the center and detonated a tenth of a second later.
With the flagship destroyed, the remaining grunt soldiers were completely no match for her. Having dealt with Slug's gang, there were no longer any blind fools coming to compete with her for the Super Dragon Ball. Ino estimated the other party didn't know about the Super Dragon Ball either; they were just unlucky enough to run into her while staking out territory.
She clapped her hands, turned around, and returned to the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce.
*
A marine creature, ten times larger than an Earth hermit crab, slowly poked its head out to observe the wooden house on the beach from a distance. With its intellect, it was hard to understand what kind of thing "Wood Release" was. It only knew that there had been weird noises crying out from there all night last night. Do you people have some kind of mental illness? Not sleeping in the middle of the night—it was simply too noisy!
The sea breeze swirled into the room, making the door curtain rustle softly. Tops and skirts were piled on the coat rack by the bed, shoes were to the side, and a few pieces of underwear were scattered on the floor.
Ino casually threw on an outer garment and walked to the window to admire the sea, which was filled with a peculiar charm.
She couldn't help but rub her waist. Good heavens, she had studied the physics problem of friction generating heat, and heat generating moisture, all night long. To verify the scientific theory, she had really given it her all.
Fair white arms wrapped around her waist. "Are you leaving? Is Hinata waiting for you at home with a meal prepared?"
"Ah... this..."
Ino scratched her cheek, her gaze drifting. For a moment, she didn't know how to explain. No matter what she said, it would be wrong!
Karin smiled like a fox that had successfully stolen a chicken. "Just teasing you..."
Pilaf's technology was still a bit inferior to Bulma's; the process of finding the first Super Dragon Ball had been somewhat difficult. There were simply too many messy rays and magnetic fields in the universe.
The Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce had initially only delineated a rough area, then searched planet by planet. It had to be said that there was a bit of luck involved in Deidara stumbling upon it by mistake.
Everything is hard at the beginning. Having found the first one and successfully recorded the unique energy reaction of the Super Dragon Ball, finding the subsequent ones would be much easier.
Following the current administrative regulations of the universe, the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce provided economic and material compensation to the indigenous people, then hired the Galactic Patrol to relocate them all. The interior of this planet was a Super Dragon Ball; for the natives to live here generation after generation, their bodies would inevitably be affected by the Super Dragon Ball's energy. This was definitely not healthy.
A company specializing in planetary towing received a large order from the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce. They dispatched fifteen spaceships to push and pull, moving this big treasure—which looked like a primitive planet but was actually a Super Dragon Ball inside—away.
Ino wasn't worried about the Seventh Universe side; she was worried about the Sixth Universe. How were they going to find the Super Dragon Balls over there?
*
While Karin was full of enthusiasm searching for the Super Dragon Balls, Ino first went to Grand Kai's Planet to take a shower. After ensuring she wouldn't leave behind any scent that might affect family unity, she returned to Konoha.
It was the weekend.
The two old consultants, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, showed no intention of resting for the weekend. They arrived early at the Administration Building and began processing official duties. Danzo actually wanted to go to work, but he had no shift to work anymore; the old generation's King of Scapegoats just sat quietly in the office.
When the elderly work so hard, the young cannot just slack off.
Ino wanted to sleep in at home, but Hinata got up early in the morning to prepare a lunch bento for her, and the two children were also shouting "Go for it!" to her. Helpless, she was forced to open for business. Full of exhaustion, she carried her lunch box and went out to work.
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