Ninja Pot Shadow

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Instantaneous Movement Technique

The scorching flames technique was like an overwhelming wall of fire, the flames raging fiercely against the water array walls.

The water flow visibly decreased significantly, but the Water Wall technique is inherently cyclical, and with the force of rotation, the missing portion was quickly replenished by the water flow in the natural environment.

Seeing that Ino wasn't struggling, Asuma immediately increased his chakra output, and the flames turned a deep red.

Ino didn't hesitate at all, and also accelerated the absorption and rotation speed of the water wall.

As the water wall rotated round and round, it did not thin under the impact of the flames; instead, it became thicker due to the addition of water from the natural environment.

Both of them should have a "ninjutsu" level of 9, meaning they have the same control over ninjutsu. Their "essence" level, which represents the total amount of chakra, is also similar, with Asuma being slightly higher, probably around 7. Ino is currently very close to 7. Their remaining hand seal level, ninjutsu level, and even the level of the ninjutsu itself are all about the same.

The Sarutobi clan's fire-style ninjutsu has its unique features. The Second Hokage's improved Water Wall is also an extremely powerful water-style ninjutsu, and most importantly, water overcomes fire.

The Second Hokage diligently practiced Water Release techniques, perhaps with the intention of using them to fight against the Uchiha clan...

Fire Release: Great Flame Technique was completely blocked by Water Release: Water Barrier!

Asuma increased his chakra output twice, but due to the fact that water counters fire, he was unable to break through Ino's defense.

Asuma's forte is taijutsu, while ninjutsu is merely a supplementary skill for him. Seeing that their ninjutsu skills are evenly matched, he immediately uses his strengths.

"Watch out!" He rushed forward in a flash.

After the two techniques collided, a large amount of water vapor filled the air. Ino didn't use the Hidden Mist Technique this time, nor did she intend to compete with Asuma in taijutsu. Her pathetic taijutsu was only good enough to go toe-to-toe with Sasuke at this point, but it would be a waste against an elite Jonin.

She inhaled deeply, ignoring Asuma who was rushing towards her for close combat. She channeled her chakra into water-attribute transformation and her hands began forming hand seals rapidly.

"Water Release: Exploding Water Wave!"

Her chakra transformed into a surging torrent of water that crashed down on Asuma, who was directly in front of her.

"That was a pretty good technique!" Asuma praised.

He saw the direction of the water flow, leaped into the air, treaded on the water, and continued his charge forward.

"The title 'Wild Boar of the Mountains' should really be yours!" Ino muttered to herself, crossing her index and middle fingers to form a cross, creating a "Ren" seal, and splitting off a shadow clone.

The shadow clone quickly formed three hand seals: "Water Release: Water Chaos Waves!"

Asma used no weapon; he sidestepped at an extremely clever angle, narrowly avoiding the turbulent water waves, and his attack speed remained almost unchanged.

Ino's shadow clone drew a kunai and stabbed it fiercely at Asuma's throat, but the difference in their physical skills was too great, and the shadow clone was easily dealt with by Asuma in less than a second.

Using the brief time bought by the chaotic water waves and shadow clones, Ino finally completed her last technique.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!" After completing fifteen hand seals in quick succession, a water dragon burst out of the water, carrying a surging impact, and with a long roar, it crashed straight into Asuma.

"This move is a bit rigid." Asuma commented and took two steps to the left, trying to dodge the Water Dragon Bullet. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Ino did not let go after releasing the Water Dragon Bullet, but instead held the last "酉" seal tightly.

Is this technique not finished yet?

Faced with a Jonin-level water-style ninjutsu, Asuma dared not take it head-on. He rushed several steps to the left, and Ino gave a soft shout. The winding water dragon, which had already missed its target, was controlled by chakra and turned back, making a bend before attacking again.

"This is Kosuke-senpai's technique, isn't it? Interesting!" Asuma finally got serious. He took out his chakra blade, wore it on his hand like a brass knuckle, clenched his right fist, and attached wind-style chakra to the chakra blade. Seeing the direction from which the water dragon was rushing, the light blue chakra was like a sharp blade. With one strike, he cleaved the water dragon in half from one-third of its length. Then, instead of retreating, he advanced and broke through the water barrier.

Ino immediately raised her hands in surrender.

I surrender!

Asuma sheathed his chakra sword, thought for a moment, and said, "Your water jutsu ability is really good, and your chakra seems plentiful. However, you need to strengthen your close combat skills. You can't just give up next time the enemy defeats your water jutsu, can you?"

For Ino, who aspires to be a cannon, she is well aware that her close combat skills are weak, but she has no choice. After entering puberty, her physical fitness is increasing every day, and it would be a waste to use a pot to add fuel before her physical growth reaches its limit.

Anyway, with the Pig-Deer-Butterfly combo around, it's fine to just stand there and fight like a turret.

Ino's strength lies in her teammates. She can add to her melee attributes after she has maxed out her ninjutsu, speed, and stamina attributes.

She humbly accepted Asma's guidance and did not intend to change it for the time being.

Asuma also knew that close combat skills couldn't be developed in a day or two; it required perseverance, diligence, and a lot of hard work.

He taught Ino a famous taijutsu technique called Body Flicker Technique to improve her survivability. Later, he combined it with many water-style ninjutsu techniques to develop a water-style Body Flicker Technique that was quite suitable for Ino.

Ino cannot use the Body Flicker Technique; her physical skills are not high, but it can be used as a means of escape in critical moments.

Asuma created a shadow clone to accompany Ino in her training on the Body Flicker Technique, while he himself looked at Shikamaru and said, "Come on, kid, attack me!"

Through the battle, he learned about the three men's strengths and then developed different training methods tailored to their individual characteristics.

The family's secret techniques didn't need his guidance, and he didn't want to break that taboo.

He focused his training on the weaknesses of the three individuals.

He didn't need to worry about Ino or Shikamaru. In his opinion, the former definitely deserved the title of a gifted individual. At least Asuma himself didn't have that kind of strength when he was twelve years old. In terms of talent, not counting the older generation and not familiar with the Uchiha clan, among the peers he had seen, perhaps only Kakashi could surpass Ino in terms of talent.

Shikamaru is also quite talented. This boy complains about trouble, but when it comes to actually getting into a fight, he won't admit defeat. He knows exactly what he should do and how to do it.

The real problem is Choji. Even with the motto "With great power comes great responsibility" as motivation, the fat man's mind is still not mature enough. He hasn't shifted his mindset from that of a student to that of a ninja. He doesn't quite understand why his comrades are working so hard. Most of the time, he just sees Ino and Shikamaru training hard, so he thinks, "I'll train hard too." This mindset is fundamentally wrong.

Asma wasn't his father, so he couldn't say many things to the fat guy. He just increased the fat guy's training intensity! "Go run laps! How many laps? Run until you can't run anymore!"

Chapter Sixty-Five: The Dream Fulfiller

During her free time, Ino also offered her suggestions to the newly formed Class 10.

"Asuma-sensei, do you think Class 10 is lacking something?"

Is there anything I need? No, I don't think so. I think I'm a little short on money lately; the flowers you sell are way too expensive! Asma was a bit confused by her question.

Ino asked seriously, "We're short of a medical ninja! Shikamaru was injured when we wiped out the bandits, and we could only do some simple bandaging. That's for dealing with bandits. What if we're dealing with ninjas? What if I get injured, Shikamaru and Choji get injured, or even Asuma-sensei in the future? What will we do then?"

Asuma looked at her seriously: "You mean... you want to learn medical ninjutsu? You want to learn so many things—water release, earth release, genjutsu, clan secret techniques, and basic taijutsu training. Even with shadow clones, can you learn all of that? Strictly speaking, having medical ninjas is a Chunin team's job. At the Genin level, it's very difficult for you to learn medical ninjutsu..."

Ino didn't speak, but her determined gaze told him, "I must learn! For my dream, for my bonds, for becoming a ninja as excellent as Tsunade, for all the messy things that will happen in the future, I must learn! Immediately!"

Asuma was immediately defeated: "Alright, alright, having a medical ninja in the team is indeed very convenient, but I don't know medical ninjutsu. Let me help you contact a ninja who is skilled in medical ninjutsu."

"Thank you, teacher!"

With the Yamanaka family's strength, they could actually go to Konoha Hospital and find a medical ninja to teach Ino.

However, for a long time, the Yamanaka family had kept its sphere of influence within the intelligence field. After the Third Hokage took power and the responsibilities of various departments within the village became clearer, the Yamanaka family's influence was basically limited to the Analysis Team.

Aside from the Yamanaka family's clan ninjas, such as Yamashiro Aoba and Tobitake Tobi, these ninjas were all subordinates of Inoichi. The Yamanaka family's power was already considerable, and they would not easily venture into areas outside of the Analysis Team.

Similarly, the Nara and Akimichi families are also very careful. If they overstep their bounds, they risk arousing the suspicion of the Hokage and his advisors. The Uchiha clan serves as a cautionary tale.

Asuma didn't have these concerns. He could contact not only the medical team, but also the Anbu directly. His father was the Hokage, so what was he afraid of?

Just one day later, Asuma brought Ino to Konoha Hospital and found a Jonin named Hanfang.

Hanfang is the leader of the Konoha Medical Class, and he is the same age as Asuma, both being 27 years old.

After Tsunade left the village, the medical team became a unit directly under the Hokage's command. Apart from the Nara family providing medicine to the medical team, the other ninja clans had very little influence in this area.

If a commoner ninja wants to enter the medical team, he must undergo a rigorous examination. Ninjas from ninja clans are treated equally. In this respect, the Third Hokage did indeed treat everyone fairly.

Hanfang looked at Ino's grades at school and said, "If you want to learn some medical ninjutsu, Yamanaka-kun, I would welcome it. However, considering that you still need to perform genin missions, this can only be considered an apprenticeship. How much you can learn during your apprenticeship depends on yourself."

There's no salary, and no one to teach us—Hanfang made that very clear.

Ino got in through connections, and since this is a hospital with busy work schedules, she was already being generous by being given an internship title. She had no reason to refuse.

"Okay, thank you, Dean."

"Okay, I'll have someone show you around." After all, because of Asuma's influence and knowing Ino's background, Hanfang added, "Being a medical ninja is tough, so you need to be prepared to endure hardship."

Considering that Ino might have some of the temperament of a ninja clan's young lady, Hanfang put in some effort to have a kind-hearted and seemingly gentle genin, Kabuto Yakushi, take Ino to familiarize herself with the environment!

Despite being somewhat prepared, Ino's heart still fluttered slightly when she unexpectedly saw this person's sunny smile.

Good heavens, this is the junior apprentice of the famous double agent Master Yuanzhen, who is also a double agent and a dream-fulfilling master!

She's no match for Kabuto Yakushi right now.

This guy's strength is about the same as Kakashi's.

Kabuto seemed to notice her surprise.

"Miss Yamanaka seems somewhat surprised to see me?"

Ino's imagined enemy was the clan that ate from large wooden barrels. Compared to that, Kabuto Yakushi was nothing. She didn't think she was part of Kabuto's mission targets. They were just having normal contact, and there was nothing wrong with that. She quickly adjusted her mindset.

"I'm sorry, senior, it's really...it's really..."

She hesitated, her tone stammering.

Kabuto felt he understood, and he laughed like a big boy: "You think I'm too old, right? It's true, I'm already 20 years old this year. I've tried for many years but still haven't passed the Chunin Exams. I'm still a Genin. Sigh, I really can't compare to you ninja geniuses."

His smile was bitter, as if he was genuinely annoyed that he couldn't pass the Chunin Exams.

Ino, being quite perceptive, asked, "Are the Chunin Exams difficult? Could you tell me about them, senpai?"

"Of course you can, but you're here today to learn medical ninjutsu, right?"

"Oh!" Ino feigned surprise, bowed slightly, and expressed her apology.

"Miss Yamanaka is very polite."

"You can just call me Ino, senior."

Strictly speaking, Kabuto Yakushi was also a member of the legendary "Konoha Genin," but he never became a Chunin in his life.

Kabuto Yakushi's current status is the same as Ino's; they are both interns at Konoha Hospital. They have no salary and no teachers. He also has his own ninja squad and goes on D-rank missions. According to him, he has participated in the Chunin Exams seven times in the past four years but has been unable to pass them. He can only do missions in his spare time and has already completed 163 D-rank missions.

Ino was full of admiration. "You actually managed to complete 163 of those messy, stupid tasks? Your patience is truly amazing!"

Kabuto's medical ninjutsu was actually not much worse than Tsunade's, but he still pretended to be a novice. When Ino was at Konoha Hospital for several days, he often just sat on the side looking at various medical cases. Sometimes the Chunin wanted him to try his skills, but he declined, saying that he was not capable enough.

Kabuto Yakushi looked down on the skill level of these medical ninjas; he was a true master.

He was more interested in the cases accumulated by Konoha Hospital over a long period of time, constantly drawing lessons from them to increase his knowledge base.

By linking theory with practice and then studying new theories through practical experience, Yakushi Kabuto has undoubtedly reached the next stage.

Ino, being a newbie, is no match for the veterans. Her current task is to learn, do more and talk less, and learn first before speaking.

Chapter Sixty-Six New Mission

Ino didn't hang around in front of Kabuto, and he didn't take her seriously either. The relationship between the two was that the head of the Hanfang Hospital asked Kabuto to introduce Ino to the hospital environment. There was no distinction between internal medicine and surgery in Konoha Hospital. There were very few medical ninjas, but there was a lot of work. If they didn't ask you, a genin who looked like you with low qualifications, who else would they ask?