Shikamaru frowned slightly, "It's not worth much money in total, why are you picking up these things?"
"You don't understand!" Ino waved her hand, "This is my way of dispelling the gloom in my heart, and it only applies to me! You all rest well, don't mind me!"
Shikamaru tilted his head and pouted, muttering a few words about "women being so troublesome."
Ino moved through the dilapidated mountain stronghold.
Gold cakes? Take them.
Pearls? Oh, they look pretty good, take them.
Paper money issued by the Land of Fire? All stolen goods, take them!
After a thorough search, Ino even found a whole box of gold bars. Their specifications and style were very standard, definitely not melted down by the bandits themselves.
Is this normal? She had never been a bandit, so she didn't know if this was normal or not. No questions asked, take them all!
She was short on money, very short on money!
To make a large pot, she had even planned to hire Kakuzu to cause trouble. Now she lacked nothing else, only money!
There was no reason to refuse gold that was delivered right to her.
The miscellaneous items were given to Shikamaru and Naruto as souvenirs, while she gladly accepted all the gold, gems, silver, and paper money.
The group escorted the village chief's granddaughter down the mountain, received the task completion receipt, and then handed over the captured bandits to the local authorities for imprisonment. It was expected they would be assigned to forced labor. Ino didn't bother with the bandit leader anymore.
They rested in the village for a day, then returned to Konoha Village to report the mission.
A week passed, and this peaceful little mountain village welcomed another group of outsiders.
They wore black robes and black hoods, appearing quite mysterious. After some investigation, the leader of the men was furious, "What? Baggy's gang was wiped out by Konoha Village's Ninja? Damn Konoha Village! How dare they provoke the Kurosuki Family! We must go back and tell the boss, the family's gold business cannot be ruined!"
After joining Team 10, Ino's student life was officially over.
Ninja not only needed to know Ninjutsu but also had to learn a large number of skills.
Kakashi seemed steady, but in reality, due to his experiences in childhood and youth, many of the missions he carried out were primarily assassinations.
Asuma was completely different from Kakashi. He had served as the Lord of the Land of Fire's Guardian Ninja, and with the Third Hokage's overt and covert care, many of his missions involved protecting important people.
As his subordinates, Ino and the others had to learn how to protect the mission target.
The incident during the bandit extermination, where they got so caught up in fighting that they forgot about the village chief's granddaughter, was a lesson. If the granddaughter had died, their mission would have been considered a failure, and exterminating more bandits would have been useless.
This time, it was purely good luck.
The mission target had no combat ability whatsoever. How should one protect him? Starting with Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet? The enemy might be killed, but the mission target might also be swept away.
Asuma's teaching to them was to run! First, take the mission target and escape. This was the most important thing: run to a safe place, and then consider killing the enemy.
"We are Ninja, not samurai. During a mission, the safety of the mission target is the top priority." Asuma held up a finger, "Hmm, suppose the mission target is the Lord of the Land of Fire's wife. You tell me, how should you escape with the mission target?"
Choji was eating snacks nearby; he didn't have to worry about such brain-intensive matters.
Ino and Shikamaru both frowned in thought.
Carrying the Lord of the Land of Fire's wife through the forest like a Ninja would definitely not work. Ordinary people didn't have Chakra, and their bodies couldn't endure such rough treatment.
"A carriage?" Ino tried to say.
Shikamaru corrected her, "Wrong, it should be a donkey cart."
Ino was dumbfounded, "A... a donkey cart?!"
There were horses in this world, but not just in the Land of Fire, horses throughout the entire world were no good. They were short, lacked stamina, had weak explosive power, and most crucially, had particularly volatile tempers, often kicking or even turning back to bite people. The horses here were all useless, which is why Shikamaru said to use a donkey.
The next day, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji began playing "donkey cart drifting" at the training ground.
"Turn, turn! Turn quickly, oh my god, ah—! Save the master!" Ino drove a donkey cart for the first time in both her past and present lives.
The donkey ran incredibly fast under her whipping, but the cart was destroyed and the donkey died just as quickly. In the end, the donkey cart crashed into a large rock. Ino used a Substitution Jutsu at the last moment, which saved her from perishing with it.
Choji was the best at donkey cart drifting, as donkeys really liked him. Shikamaru, who had experience raising animals, was second, and Ino's skill was the worst. It wasn't that she was bad, but rather that the donkeys seemed a bit afraid of her, perhaps thinking her 'underworld' aura was too strong?
Donkey cart drifting had to be learned, identifying poisons had to be learned, and various skills like disguise and infiltration didn't need to be mastered, but at least they had to be usable. It was basically the same training as for a secret agent, and Ino and the others had to learn it all.
After the bandit extermination mission, Asuma began special training for Team 10. In his opinion, this team was incredibly competitive: one practicing Water Release, one Secret Technique, one Taijutsu—good heavens! One would think they were about to go to war and participate in a Shinobi World War. They had just graduated; did they need to be so intense?
He had never trained like this when he was young.
The same internal competition also occurred in Team 8. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino were all very diligent, each burying themselves in hard training, with not a single one slacking off!
Driven by this atmosphere, Kurenai Yuhi and Asuma also felt embarrassed to be idle. With their juniors working so hard, was it appropriate for the two adults to spend all day strolling and walking the streets?
This batch of Genin didn't even need special training.
However, the Third Hokage strongly insisted, vaguely mentioning the Chunin Exams in six months, so he could only obey orders.
Asuma, who was skilled in Fire Release, became Ino's sparring partner.
Asuma wasn't Kage-level, but he was definitely an elite Jonin, with very balanced abilities in all aspects and no weaknesses. During the Konoha Crush, Asuma truly took down enemy Ninja with one punch each, a display of mighty dominance.
Training ground.
Asuma said, "Are you ready?"
Ino stood by the river, "Asuma-sensei, I'm ready."
The two stood ten meters apart and formed hand signs simultaneously.
Asuma completed his hand signs first. He took a deep breath, and Chakra gathered in his throat, "Fire Release: Great Flame Technique!"
This was a family Ninjutsu of the Sarutobi Clan. Excluding the Sharingan, the Sarutobi Clan and the Uchiha Clan were quite similar in terms of Fire Release.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
Ino's hand sign speed was slightly slower. She had already mastered the B-rank Ninjutsu, Water Formation Wall, but like Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet, the Second Hokage could simplify the Water Formation Wall's signs to two. She didn't have that ability yet. Her fingers blurred into afterimages as she channeled Chakra within her body, quickly forming four signs.
The Second Hokage's Water Formation Wall was different from other Ninja's Water Formation Wall. Other Ninja drew water from underground to form an upward-rising barrier of water. The Second Hokage's Water Formation Wall was much more flexible. Ino exhaled a curtain of water containing Chakra. The water in the natural environment merged with the water curtain, and then a silver band of water rapidly spun around Ino, the torrent transforming into a barrier with no blind spots, attempting to block the impact of Fire Release: Great Flame Technique.
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