Ninja Pot Shadow

If it were Kakashi's Team 7, they would have charged in recklessly without a second thought.

As a member of Team 10, Asuma, a former Guardian Ninja, repeatedly reminded Ino to protect the mission target during the mission, and Ino kept this in mind.

She started with the extremely powerful defensive move, "Water Release: Water Formation Wall".

A rotating wall of water blocked the three attackers. The three were dumbfounded and tried to poke the water wall with kunai, only to find that they couldn't break it at all. They couldn't find a way in any direction, so they were stuck, unable to move forward or backward, feeling inexplicably embarrassed.

These three were at most genin, no longer a concern for Ino. She asked Shibuki, "Wake up, stop shaking, hehe!? I'm calling you! Yes, yes, look me in the eyes, these three outside must be related to you, right? Do you want to live or die?"

Shibuki gritted his teeth for a long time: "They are all, all accomplices, villains, who covet our village... If possible, if possible, just knock them out."

"Row."

Ino did not object to her employer's request. After quickly forming hand seals, she unleashed a water dragon that swept the three attackers into the sky. After the water dragon dissipated, the three men fell to the ground like dumplings being dropped into a pot, their legs broken, and they immediately lost consciousness.

"Your technique is Water Dragon Bullet?" Shibuki was more knowledgeable than Ino had imagined.

"Yes."

"I also know this ninjutsu. Your hand seal speed seems...it seems really fast?"

Ino smiled without saying a word, and Shibuki, knowing that his words were somewhat taboo, lowered his head in embarrassment.

The two continued their journey, and that evening they arrived at a valley. Ino used a summoning technique to summon the chameleon Shuzaki, which was still in its Oni Castle form.

Shibuki was stunned as he stared at the enormous castle that had appeared out of nowhere, holding a cold rice ball in his hand.

On the way from Shouzaki Ridge to Taki no Kuni, Ino stuffed a lot of food and daily necessities into the castle, including firewood, rice, oil, and salt. She changed her clothes and then politely invited Shibuki to dinner.

"Alright, there are many rooms on the first floor. You can find one to rest in. I'll stay on the second floor. If you don't have anything else to do, hurry up and get some rest. We still have a long journey ahead tomorrow."

"Yes Yes."

Shemu found a room closest to the door.

As a ghost castle with a history of fifty years, Shuzaki has killed many passers-by and adventurers. The castle has many rooms, and Ino was busy cleaning up the skeletons in some conspicuous places, without cleaning them thoroughly and without leaving any blind spots.

Shibuki couldn't sleep at all in his room. He felt that the castle was eerie, as if something was watching him.

He mustered his courage and searched the room, eventually finding a skull under the bed that seemed to be grinning.

At night, the windows would occasionally make a clicking sound, and faint footsteps and sobbing could be heard from outside the door from time to time...

Given the choice, he would rather sleep in a tent in the wild than stay in this castle.

He wanted to go out, but couldn't find the door no matter what he tried...

The next morning, Shibuki, who had been tormented all night, crawled out of the castle and watched as Ino canceled the summoning jutsu.

As the village chief's son, he had some basic knowledge. He looked at the empty space where the summoning beast had disappeared and secretly calculated the size of the summoning beast and the chakra it had consumed.

The final result was an astonishing number.

The way he looked at Ino was like he was looking at a monster. Is this what a Konoha genin is like? Do all Konoha genin have this kind of strength? It seems that the actions of the Takigakure elders in leading the village to surrender were absolutely correct!

The two continued on their way, when suddenly Shibuki called out to her, "Wait! Wait a minute, please stop!"

The birds in the woods were startled by his voice. Ino first looked around cautiously, then used her senses to detect anything, and only after finding no problem did she turn back.

"Are you crazy? Why are you shouting so loudly?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Shibuki looked ashamed and it took him a long time to finally reveal his intentions.

"Actually, I went to Konoha to hire ninjas to protect me on my way back to Takigakure."

Ino nodded slightly, having already guessed just by looking at the ninjas chasing her on the road.

Shibuki was embarrassed: "I was thinking, what I mean is, since you seem pretty... pretty amazing, we shouldn't go to Konoha. Could you please escort me back to the village?"

Chapter 112 Takigakure Village

Shibukihara's plan was to ask Konoha for help and hire Konoha ninjas to help him resolve the rebellion in the village. He prepared a whole bunch of arguments for this, such as the traditional friendship between the two countries and the idea that if one of them is gone, the other will be in danger. He had already gone over these arguments in his mind several times.

This morning it suddenly dawned on me: why bother going to all that trouble? This person right in front of me seems to be the one who can solve my problem!

Shibuki is timid, but as the heir of a ninja village, he has been trained since childhood and has a good eye. When he saw Ino using "Water Wall" and "Water Dragon Bullet" with such ease and comfort, he could tell that this female ninja was much stronger than he had expected.

That led to the decision to change the task.

Ino remained silent for a moment. She didn't understand Tsunade's personality. Many of the older sister's actions seemed absurd. What if it involved some ironclad rule for ninjas on missions? She wasn't prepared to take the risk and refused outright.

"Yes, Lady Tsunade asked me to escort you to the village. She must have her reasons. Let's speed things up and we can talk about the rest later."

After traveling for two days, she eliminated all the enemies along the way and successfully brought Shibuki to Konoha Village.

The Third Hokage asked Shibuki a couple of questions, then asked Ino, "Shibuki is going to ask you to escort him back to Takigakure again. Asuma has taken Shikamaru and Choji to carry out a mission to eliminate mountain bandits. I've asked Kurenai to team up with you temporarily so you can deal with the rebellion in Takigakure together."

Kakashi's resume is not quite enough to qualify him as Hokage, and Kurenai, who has just been promoted to Jonin, is even less qualified to be an advisor.

The Third Hokage racked his brains to complete missions for her, and Takigakure seemed like the perfect fit for him.

He knew, though others might not. Ino was now far stronger than the average genin. With her ninjutsu and genjutsu combined, Takigakure simply couldn't stop them.

This was an officially assigned mission, and Ino had no reason to refuse. The mission involved Jonin from Takigakure, so it was classified as Rank A.

Not long after, Kurenai, who was full of enthusiasm for her work, came to meet Ino, and together with their employer, Shibuki, the three of them left Konoha Village again.

Kurenai felt she needed to clarify some things, so she asked Shibuki, "Shouldn't there be Jonin in Takigakure who are loyal to your father?"

Shibuki pursed his lips, seemingly unsure how to bring it up.

Ino, pressing for an answer, demanded, "Did they betray us?"

"...those who were loyal to my father did not betray him."

Ino thought she had found the answer: "Oh, so that means all those who were disloyal to your father betrayed you, and then the Jonin who were loyal to your father died in battle?"

With a mournful face, Shibuki struggled internally for a long time before finally replying, "...They have other missions, missions that are more important than my life."

What kind of mission is it? Ino hadn't paid much attention to Takigakure, but combining the information from the manga with some data about the Yamanaka family, a thought flashed through her mind, and she understood! It must be about Jinchuriki. Takigakure is the only village outside of the Five Great Shinobi Villages that has a Tailed Beast.

How many tailed beasts does Takigakure have? I vaguely remember it being a giant beetle?

Ino didn't have a strong impression of this tailed beast, but if she wasn't mistaken, it was probably a very weak one.

Rumor has it that when the Sage of Six Paths separated the Ten-Tails, Kurama cried his eyes out, while the other tailed beasts remained unmoved. Giant beetles and giant turtles, for example, had long since run off to play elsewhere. The Sage of Six Paths claimed that the chakra would be divided equally, but in reality, he gave Kurama a tiny fraction of the Ten-Tails' chakra.

Although the tailed beasts of Takigakure are not strong and the Jinchuriki are also weak, they are still a great weapon. When the village is in chaos, it seems reasonable to take them to another place to hide and find two Jonin to guard them.

……

They killed three waves of enemies along the way and rested for a night. Kurenai praised Ino's Oni Castle highly, saying that it could be invisible, that you could eat inside, and most importantly, that you could take a bath inside. This summoning beast was really amazing!

On the evening of the third day after leaving Konoha, the temporary team finally brought Shibuki to a waterfall that was not marked on any map.

Legend has it that Takigakure Village is hidden behind a waterfall, a secluded paradise far from the ravages of war.

Having arrived here, the first stage of the mission is considered complete. Through his observations along the way, Shibuki concluded that the female ninjas of Konoha looked down on their village's treasures.

He decided to reveal the truth: "There is a treasure in Takigakure called the Hero's Water..."

After saying that, he glanced at Ino and Kurenai's expressions out of the corner of his eye.

Neither of them showed any particular reaction.

Ino knew about this and nodded: "Yes, I've heard of it. I heard that drinking Hero's Water can increase chakra tenfold, but the price is that it will greatly reduce lifespan after the battle, and in severe cases, it can even lead to death."

In her view, this so-called tenfold improvement has its limits.

Choji's Red Chili Pepper Pill is said to be able to increase chakra by a hundredfold, and his performance against Jirobo was indeed invincible. However, three years later, Choji could achieve a similar effect without the Chili Pepper Pill, which shows that there is a ceiling to this kind of improvement.

Without the support of their family's secret techniques, the Akimichi family's Chili Pepper Pills died before their chakra could increase a hundredfold. The Hero's Water from Takigakure had a slightly lower cost, but it still shortened lifespan, which was quite serious.

Ino wasn't that desperate; she had more than enough chakra and had no interest in the water.

She answered frankly, without showing any covetousness.

Shibuki breathed a sigh of relief; he had made the right bet!

He clasped his hands together and pleaded again: "If I'm not mistaken, it must be the village's Jonin, Suihan, who covets the Hero's Water. He wants to capture me and force me to reveal the Hero's Water's location. I'd like to ask you to help me defeat Suihan."

When the village was mentioned, Shibuki seemed a little braver. He recounted all the information about the water pipe, including what ninjutsu it knew, its fighting style, and its achievements.

Speaking of which, Shuiyan was his teacher. His father tried to use the bond between teacher and student to restrain the ambitious Shuiyan, but unfortunately, not everyone values ​​such bonds.

After Shibuki's father died, this Jonin betrayed him.

Hong told Shibuki to hide so she could use her transformation technique to look like him and go in to eliminate the enemy, but Shibuki refused. At this point, he couldn't hide far away no matter what.

"That's fine, just don't go too far away from us."

The two exchanged a few words of advice, then followed Shibuki into the waterfall. They found a hidden cave entrance underwater, swam over a hundred meters, passed through two waterways, and emerged from the water to find a village nestled under a massive tree—Takigakure Village.

Ino carefully examined what appeared to be a giant tree, but was actually more like the remnants of a tree root. She activated her sensory abilities to detect that the tree's life force had completely disappeared; it was a dead object. However, perhaps because it was near the Takigakure Great Waterfall, some strange chakra remained within the roots.

It is because of the existence of this chakra that Takigakure produced something called the Hero's Water.

Ino was somewhat puzzled. Could this thing be the Divine Tree? Or perhaps a remnant of its roots?

Chapter 113 Suppressing the Rebellion

The Divine Tree isn't something that can be destroyed simply by knocking it down. Even after Kaguya Otsutsuki was sealed away, and until Ashura succeeded as leader of the Ninja Clan, some of the Divine Tree's roots continued to absorb the earth's energy throughout the world. The Sage of Six Paths' test for Ashura and Indra was to eliminate these remaining roots. The Divine Tree was so vast that its roots were spread across the entire globe. After the Ninja Clan era and the Warring States period, so many years had passed, it's not surprising that remnants still existed.

Ino initially thought that Hero's Water was inferior to Choji's Chili Ball, but after seeing this huge tree root, she changed her mind slightly.

Water might not be enough, but the value of this tree root is immense.

Ino didn't plan to snatch it herself, but rather to study it personally when the time was right and she had enough knowledge.

The village was somewhat dilapidated, with holes visible on the sides of some rooms and bloodstains on the ground. Even the laziest villagers wouldn't ignore these things. There was only one answer: the village had been attacked by traitors.

Because of their rapid journey, the sounds of fighting could still be heard deep within the village.

In this era where overpowered abilities aren't rampant and everyone is diligently performing hand seals, gathering intelligence on the enemy is the most crucial aspect of any battle, bar none.

They knew the enemy's intelligence, but the enemy didn't know theirs. They were prepared, but the enemy wasn't. In this way, they gained a 50% advantage.

Led by Shiki, the three arrived at the battlefield.

The civilians of Takigakure Village gathered in a large three-story building, where several ninjas were desperately defending against the enemy at the entrance.

Ino used her senses to survey the area and found that there were about two hundred civilians, mostly elderly people and children. There were also a large number of civilians in the northeast and southeast directions of the village.

Their timing for the rescue was perfect.