Ino wasn't parading in front of Kabuto, and he didn't take her seriously. Their relationship was simply that the Kanpo Dean asked Kabuto to introduce Ino to the hospital's environment. Konoha Hospital didn't differentiate between internal medicine and surgery. There were few Medical Ninja, yet there was a lot of work. If not for her, a Genin who seemed to have low qualifications, then who?
After a quick look around, Kabuto quickly took his leave.
Ino stayed behind to assist several Medical Ninja.
The Third Hokage had done well in the medical field. The Village subsidized the hospital every year, so even commoners could receive medical treatment, and the fees were not expensive.
In a Western fantasy setting, how many priests with divine powers would be willing to cast healing spells on commoners?
While they couldn't control those outside the Village, the happiness index of Konoha Village residents was actually very high.
Many commoners were also willing to settle in Konoha Village.
For the next few days, Ino assisted a Chunin named Shield. Shield was a backbone of the hospital, with excellent medical skills and rich experience, though his personality was a bit too straightforward. In the original timeline, during the Chunin Exams, he was the one who said Lee would never be a Ninja again.
Ino had limited time, so she learned very diligently, seizing every opportunity, starting from Chakra control and stimulating cell growth, learning bit by bit.
Medical Ninjutsu was different from Five Nature Transformation Techniques and family Secret Techniques, requiring a vast amount of knowledge. For this, Ino had to cancel the Shadow Clone training Water Release and Earth Release at home, sending them all to the hospital. One read books, one practiced Chakra control, while her main body followed the Medical Ninja, observing and learning Medical Ninjutsu bit by bit.
She didn't set high demands for herself; before becoming Tsunade's disciple, she only needed to learn the basics of Medical Ninjutsu. She would feel embarrassed to become a disciple with a completely blank mind.
What kind of doctoral supervisor would be willing to teach an elementary school student? Starting from addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division? Tsunade had a broad mind and was magnanimous. If she was willing to teach from scratch, that was her business, but Ino felt it was inappropriate. She planned to study on her own first, learning as much as she could.
Medical Ninjutsu was difficult to learn and master. In the original timeline, Tsunade took Sakura as a disciple partly because of Sakura's bond with Naruto and Sasuke, and also because Sakura herself was genuinely suited for it.
Ino's talent in this area was not as good as Sakura's.
Under Tsunade's guidance, Sakura took a full three months to complete the first step of Medical Ninjutsu's getting Started, which was to revive a dying fish. Ino didn't have a renowned teacher, so her progress was even slower.
Under her hands, fish after fish died, showing no signs of revival.
What to do when the fish died? Konoha Hospital was not a for-profit organization, so it couldn't provide a large number of fish for her to practice with every day. The Kanpo Dean bluntly stated that the hospital's funds were limited, and Ino would have to pay for these fish herself.
She bought the fish she killed and then sold them to Choji. She definitely didn't make a profit, but at least she didn't lose money.
Inside Konoha Village's famous Yakiniku barbecue restaurant.
After Team 10 was formed, this place had become the stronghold of the sixteenth generation Ino–Shika–Choji.
Asuma, sitting in his seat, occasionally glanced at his wallet. Ever since he became the leader of Team 10, he noticed his wallet was visibly thinning.
He was the Jonin leader of Team 10, and his girlfriend Kurenai Yuhi was the Jonin leader of Team 8. It was natural for the two teams to have meals together.
His subordinate Choji was a big eater, and his girlfriend's subordinate Hinata ate even more. Asuma, who always had to rush to pay the bill, became awkward.
Heaven help him, if he kept eating like this, he might not have money to get married!
Use his girlfriend's money? Go home and ask his Hokage father for money? He couldn't bear that shame!
If he could take A-rank and S-rank missions, he wouldn't be short of money, but he spent every day leading Team 10 on D-rank missions like weeding and feeding pigs, and then they went for barbecue... He was really running out of money.
After much thought, he heard that Team 7 had taken another C-rank mission, so he took the opportunity to ask his Hokage father at home if Team 10 could also get a C-rank mission. The money wasn't much, but at least it would help him recover some funds, and he could occasionally go shopping with his girlfriend or buy two bouquets of flowers at the Yamanaka Flower Shop.
He wasn't simply relying on connections. When he applied for a C-rank mission from his Hokage father, he was very confident: "Ino and Shikamaru's excellence is obvious to all, and Choji's strength has also grown rapidly under their influence. Simple D-rank missions really offer no room for improvement. If Team 7 can take C-rank missions independently, Team 10 can too."
The Third Hokage thought about it. He was quite familiar with his son's abilities. While Asuma couldn't compare to his three disciples, he was significantly stronger than the average Jonin.
"Alright, you all come to my office tomorrow. I'll see if there are any suitable missions for Team 10."
The next day, Team 10 finished their garbage collection mission early. Ino recalled all her Shadow Clones, and the four of them went to the Hokage Building together.
The Third Hokage picked and chose, then handed Asuma a scroll: "This is a request from the Land of Rivers. A gold mine was discovered in the Oxalis Mine earlier. The Land of Rivers is a friendly neighbor of our Land of Fire. Recently, officials from the Land of Rivers heard that due to the gold mine, a group of Ronin calling themselves the Kurosuki Family had occupied the mine and were enslaving local villagers to dig for gold.
Your mission is to investigate the entire matter, eliminate this group of Ronin, rescue the villagers, and return the gold mine to the Land of Rivers."
Compared to problem children like Naruto and Sasuke, Ino and her team were much more normal. Ino–Shika–Choji was very reliable, considered quite regular Ninja. The Third Hokage briefly explained the mission details for fifteen minutes, then waved his hand, signaling that they could go execute the mission.
Walking out of the Hokage Building, Choji asked his companions: "Where is the Land of Rivers? Why are we doing a mission for a foreign country?"
Shikamaru usually hated trouble and found speaking too much tiring, but for his friend Choji, he was exceptional.
He immediately explained: "The Land of Rivers is west of the Land of Fire, sandwiched between us and the Land of Wind. It's a buffer zone between the two great powers. Because we currently have an alliance with the Hidden Sand Village in the Land of Wind, this request could have been given to the Hidden Sand Village, and naturally, it could also be given to us."
A look of partial understanding appeared on Choji's chubby face, but he quickly dismissed his doubts, opened a bag of potato chips, and happily began to eat.
Ino heard that Team 7 had taken a mission to escort an elder to the Land of Waves.
At this moment, her mindset was quite relaxed. She studied the mission scroll and map for a while, then asked Asuma: "Asuma-sensei, I see that the Oxalis Mine, the location of this mission, seems very close to where we and Team 7 annihilated the bandits last time."
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