Ninja Pot Shadow

After a quick glance, Dou said goodbye.

Ino was left behind to assist a few medical ninjas.

The Third Hokage did a good job in the medical field. The village subsidized the hospital every year, so even ordinary people could go to the hospital for treatment at a reasonable cost.

In a Western fantasy setting, how many priests who possess divine magic would be willing to cast healing spells on ordinary people?

What happens outside the village is none of our business; the happiness index of the villagers of Konoha is actually very high.

Many ordinary people are also willing to settle in Konoha Village.

For the next few days, Ino followed a Chunin named Mitsugu to do odd jobs. Mitsugu was a key member of the hospital, with superb medical skills and rich experience, but his personality was a bit too straightforward. In the original timeline, during the Chunin Exams, it was this man who said that Rock Lee could no longer be a ninja.

Ino had limited time, but she studied very diligently, making the most of every spare moment to learn, starting with chakra control and stimulating cell growth, little by little.

Medical ninjutsu is different from the Five Elements Release techniques and clan secret techniques. It requires a lot of knowledge. Because of this, Ino had to cancel the shadow clones she used to practice Water Release and Earth Release at home and bring them all to the hospital. One clone read books, another practiced chakra control, and the main body followed the medical ninjas, looking around and learning medical ninjutsu little by little.

She didn't have high expectations for herself. Before becoming Tsunade's apprentice, she only needed to learn the basics of medical ninjutsu. She felt embarrassed to become an apprentice when she knew nothing and was completely clueless.

Which doctoral supervisor would be willing to teach elementary school students? Starting with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division? Tsunade is broad-minded and tolerant; if she's willing to teach from scratch, that's her business. Ino feels that's inappropriate; she plans to learn on her own first, learning as much as she can.

Medical ninjutsu is difficult to learn and master. In the original timeline, Tsunade was able to take Sakura as her apprentice, partly because of the bond between Sakura and Naruto and Sasuke, but also because she was indeed suited for this profession.

Ino is not as talented as Sakura in this area.

Under Tsunade's tutelage, Sakura took a full three months to complete the first step of medical ninjutsu, which was to revive a dying fish. Ino, without a master teacher, progressed even slower.

In her hands, the fish died one after another, without any sign of recovery.

What to do if the fish die? Konoha Hospital is not a profit-making organization, so it's impossible for them to provide a large number of fish for you to practice with every day. Director Hanfang bluntly stated that the hospital's budget is limited, and Ino herself has to pay for these fish.

She bought the fish that had been killed and then sold it to Choji. She certainly wouldn't make a profit, but at least she didn't lose money.

……

Inside the famous "Yakiniku Q" barbecue restaurant in Konoha Village.

After Class 10 was established, this place became the stronghold of the 16th generation Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

Asma, sitting in his seat, kept glancing at his wallet. Since taking charge of Class 10, he had noticed that his wallet was getting thinner at a visible rate.

He was the Jonin leader of Team 10, and his girlfriend Kurenai Yuhi was the Jonin leader of Team 8. It was only natural that the two teams would have a meal together.

Asuma finds himself awkward because his subordinate Choji has a big appetite, and his girlfriend's subordinate Hinata has an even bigger appetite, always insisting on paying the bill.

Good heavens, if he keeps eating like this, he probably won't have the money to get married!

Using his girlfriend's money? Going home to ask his village chief father for money? He can't bear the shame!

If he could take on A-level or S-level missions, he wouldn't be short of money. But every day he's leading the 10th Squad to weed and feed pigs while doing D-level missions, and then going out for barbecue... He's really running out of money.

After much deliberation, he heard that Class 7 had taken on another C-level mission, so he took advantage of his trip home to ask his father, the village chief, to give Class 10 a C-level mission as well. The money wasn't much, but it would at least help him recover some of his losses, and allow him to go shopping with his girlfriend and buy a couple of bouquets of flowers from the flower shop in the mountains.

He wasn't simply relying on connections. When he applied for a C-rank mission from the village chief's 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. A simple D-rank mission simply doesn't offer any room for improvement. If Team 7 can take on a C-rank mission on their own, Team 10 can too."

The Third Hokage thought about it. He had a good understanding of his son's abilities. He was indeed not as good as his three disciples, but he was much stronger than an average Jonin.

"Alright, come to my office tomorrow and I'll see if there are any suitable assignments for Class 10."

The next day, Team 10 finished their garbage-collecting task early, Ino recalled all her shadow clones, and the four of them went to the Hokage Building together.

The Third Hokage carefully selected a scroll and handed it to Asuma: "This is a request from the Land of Rivers. A gold mine was discovered in the Oxalis Mine. The Land of Rivers is a friendly neighbor of our Land of Fire. Recently, officials from the Land of Rivers heard that because of the gold mine, a group of ronin calling themselves the Kurosuki Clan have taken over the mine and are enslaving the local villagers to mine."

Your mission is to investigate the whole matter thoroughly, eliminate these 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 group were much more normal. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio were quite reliable and considered relatively proper ninjas. The Third Hokage briefly explained the mission for fifteen minutes, then waved his hand, indicating that they could go and carry out the mission.

As Choji walked out of the Hokage Building, he asked his friends, "Where is the Land of Rivers? Why are we assigned missions to foreign countries?"

Shikamaru usually dislikes trouble and finds even a few extra words tiring, but he's incredibly devoted to Choji, his friend.

He immediately explained, "The Land of Rivers is to the west of the Land of Fire, sandwiched between us and the Land of Wind. It is a buffer zone between the two great powers. Since we are currently allied with the Sand Village of the Land of Wind, this commission may be given to the Sand Village, or it may be given to us."

Choji's chubby face showed a look of understanding but not quite, but he quickly put his doubts aside, opened a bag of potato chips, and happily started eating.

Ino heard that Team 7 had taken on a mission to escort an old man to the Land of Waves.

At this moment, she was more relaxed. She studied the mission scroll and map for a while, and then asked Asuma, "Teacher Asuma, I think the oxalis mountain where this mission is located is very close to the place where we wiped out the bandits with Class 7 last time."

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Curry House of Fate

Asuma looked at the map carefully. They weren't exactly close, one being in the Land of Rivers and the other in the Land of Fire, but both were located in the same mountain range.

He thought about it carefully: "It cannot be ruled out that there is a connection between the two, but there is no need to worry too much. Even if hostile ninjas appear, we can handle them. I believe you are all excellent ninjas."

Ino pursed her lips, feeling that what she said was inappropriate, but she didn't take it too seriously. Asuma was very strong, and she was being a little paranoid. Zabuza should be in the Land of Waves at this time, and it was impossible for him to travel all the way across the Land of Fire to the Land of Rivers in the west to cause trouble.

Even if these ronin were colluding with the previous bandits, so what? Just kill them.

It's a pity that Pakistan and Dongfeng were sent to do forced labor, otherwise we could have obtained some intelligence by asking them.

The four went back to pack their belongings, and an hour later they met at the village entrance.

Every time Ino arrives at the village entrance, she greets the gatekeepers, Izumo Kamizuki and Tetsuo Koko, to become familiar with them.

Regardless of whether your "old buddy" is Danzo's illegitimate son or not, it's always good to maintain a good relationship.

Konoha Village has suffered so many disasters, but look at these people? Nothing ever happened to them from beginning to end. The two of them stood at the gate every day, like gatekeepers, and as a result, they lived peacefully until Boruto. That's real skill, you can't argue with that.

Izumo and Tetsuo greatly admired Asuma, somewhat like fans seeing their idol.

Ino couldn't understand where their admiration came from either.

The tenth squad wrote down the departure time, number of people, and destination on the registration form next to them. After the four of them signed in turn, they left Konoha Village.

……

After traveling through the mountains and forests for two days, Class 10 emerged from a thicket and entered the territory of the Land of Rivers.

Last time they went to wipe out the mountain bandits, at least they were on a mission in their own country. This time, they were going to a neighboring country, so they had to be careful a lot. Not only did they have to be careful of all kinds of ninjas, but they also had to hide their tracks. Asuma aside, for Ino and the other two, this journey through the forest while remaining on guard was already quite arduous. Fortunately, Choji had learned some decent cooking skills from the old man Kosuke, so he could prepare some hot food for the four of them in the wild, so they wouldn't have to eat dry rice balls.

As they walked, Choji suddenly became excited. He pointed ahead and said, "Asuma-sensei! I smell curry! There must be a place to eat up ahead, let's go check it out!"

Ino and Shikamaru sniffed it, but couldn't smell anything.

The four walked along a country road, and soon they saw a two-story wooden house at the intersection. Just like in many places in Ino's previous life, there was a circle drawn on the side of the wall with the character "拆" (demolish) written inside. This wooden house also had a large circle on the side of the wall with the character "命" (fate) written inside.

"Asuma-sensei, this is it! The curry smells so good!" Choji exclaimed excitedly.

"Then let's go in and rest for a while." Asma was very understanding. He lifted the curtain at the door and went in first.

Choji followed closely behind, and Shikamaru put his hands on his head and went inside as well. Ino looked around and saw that there was only this wooden house in the middle of nowhere, which seemed a bit strange. She followed him in cautiously.

Inside the house was a kind-looking old woman. As people get older, their reactions become a bit slow. It wasn't until the four of them stood in front of the counter that she noticed strangers had entered the house.

Ino was very vigilant and carefully examined the old woman, not missing a single detail, including her height, weight, chakra, facial skin, and calluses on her palms.

Asma patted her on the shoulder, then shook his head and smiled, indicating that she didn't need to be so nervous; she was just an ordinary old lady.

"Who are you?" the old lady asked.

"Passing travelers."

Although the four of them were clearly wearing Konoha ninja headbands, Asuma was lying through his teeth, and the old lady didn't notice anything amiss.

"You must have had a long journey! Come and try the unique curry rice from Mingzhi Curry House!" The old lady was very hospitable. Without saying a word, she invited them to sit down and quickly brought out several plates of curry rice for them to try.

Without any wariness or suspicion, with a kind smile, the old lady seemed completely unafraid that the four of them were bad people.

Ino couldn't help but ask, "Hello, Grandma, may I ask... how should I address you?"

The old woman was quite unaccustomed to her refined way of asking questions. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Everyone in the village calls me Grandma Shanjiao. You can call me that too. I used to make the best shanjiao when I was young! But I only realized in my later years that curry is the best food in the world!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Choji nodded in agreement. He thought everything edible was a delicacy.

The old woman talked on and on about the food, her words disjointed and incoherent. She would repeat herself three or four sentences after saying something she had already said before.

Ino squinted. "Grandma Sansho? You wouldn't happen to be related to Hanzo the Salamander, would you? But... at this point in time, Hanzo the Salamander seems to be dead already."

"I'm starting!" Choji, who was already starving, simply called out and picked up his spoon to eat. He nodded happily as he ate, as if it were very delicious.

Asuma didn't eat right away. He sat by the window, lit a cigarette, and seeing Ino's suspicious look, he smiled but didn't say anything.

Staying vigilant is a good thing, but knowing how to distinguish friend from foe and how to minimize physical and mental exhaustion also requires experience. This girl still has a long way to go.

Ino waited for about two minutes, and seeing that Choji had already started eating his third plate, she figured the food wasn't poisoned... so she picked up her spoon and took a small bite.

"Ugh!—!" The carrot was still being chewed between her teeth when an extremely hot and spicy sensation rushed down her throat and into her stomach. Ino felt as if she had swallowed a mouthful of fire, burning from the inside out. Her fair face instantly turned bright red, and the curry rice was so spicy that her ponytail stood up.

"Water, water!!!" He took out his water bottle and gulped down three or four mouthfuls before he could suppress the spicy taste.

After just one bite, a thin layer of sweat appeared on her forehead. This stuff is way too spicy! Is this even edible?

She looked at Choji.

Choji: "???"

Wow, foodies are fearless, huh? You can actually eat something this spicy?

Her gaze was too fierce, and Choji chuckled awkwardly, "Haha...haha...a little spicy."

Is this just a little spicy? This is extremely spicy! This so-called "Curry House of Life" is truly a deadly place!

Hearing the commotion, Grandma Sansho rushed over to ask, "Guests, is it not spicy enough? I'll definitely increase the spiciness a hundredfold in the next batch, I absolutely won't ruin the reputation of Life's Curry House!"

Ino waved her hands repeatedly, "Thank you! This is already very spicy! You should keep the 100x spicy one for yourself."

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Surge of Chakra

Shikamaru, who was standing to the side, took a small bite and found it quite spicy, but he still forced himself to eat. Asuma also ate a small portion of the plate as if nothing had happened.

Ino isn't incapable of eating spicy food; it's just that after transmigrating, she ate bland meals at the Yamanaka family's house for almost half a year, and now that the food has suddenly become so strong, she finds it a bit hard to handle.

After being mentally prepared, it didn't feel so spicy when I ate it again.

After eating a third of it, she was surprised to find that the curry rice was indeed very invigorating. After walking through the forest for two days, her body, which had been somewhat tired, recovered by more than half, and the total amount of chakra in her body even slightly increased.

Can this curry rice increase the chakra limit? Ino's own chakra is very close to 7 points of "essence", but due to her physical talent and the large amount of secret medicine she has taken, she has developed considerable drug resistance. Her body is always just a little short, and her chakra has not yet broken through that limit.

She looked at the bright red curry rice, took two deep breaths, and ate!

Worried that her stomach had limited capacity, she asked Grandma Sansho to make her a plate of curry rice that was twice as spicy.

After finishing the double-spicy curry rice, she still felt it wasn't quite enough, so she gritted her teeth and shouted to Grandma Sansho, "Grandma, give me four-spicy curry rice!"