Ino felt that these empty boxes with the character "Fire" written on them were very problematic, a big problem, so she summoned her companions to come and see. "I'm not taking responsibility for this. Not only will I not take responsibility, I'll pretend to be clueless and shift the blame!"
Choji wasn't interested in boxes with the character "Fire" on them, unless those boxes contained food. "What? You said the boxes are empty? Why would I want to look at empty boxes? No way!"
Leaving Choji to guard the prisoners, Asuma and Shikamaru went to investigate.
"This is so troublesome. Should we just pretend we didn't see anything?" Shikamaru kept shaking his head and sighing.
Ino showed an innocent expression, waiting for the person who truly made the decisions to take the lead.
Asuma pondered for several seconds. The "Fire" character was too obvious; it was either the Land of Fire or Konoha Village. He had served as a Guardian Ninja for the Lord of the Land of Fire, and it was by seeing too much darkness around the Lord that he abandoned his naive youthful ideas and returned to Konoha Village.
He believed these empty boxes were likely related to certain officials or powerful figures in the Land of Fire. If exposed, it would be a huge pitfall, but he couldn't rule out Konoha Village's involvement either.
It was clearly a gold mine, and the refining method was very crude. Where was the gold now?
Whether it was exchanging gold for daily necessities or supporting Rogue Ninja to occupy allied mines, Asuma knew Danzo was capable of all these things.
At this moment, questioning Raiga Kurosuki would certainly be the best solution, but he really didn't want to complicate matters.
Just by seeing Kakashi constantly pretending to be clueless, he knew that being a little muddled was not a bad thing in the Ninja World.
"Cough, cough." Asuma coughed twice, knowing his two subordinates were intelligent and didn't need him to explain too much: "These things require further investigation. Let's report it and let the Village handle it."
The subtext was to let his father handle it.
"Alright, alright, we'll listen to Asuma-sensei."
"Mhm, mhm, Asuma-sensei is right."
All the empty boxes were burned by Asuma using Fire Release.
Danzo had committed countless evil deeds, and if they wanted to kill him, they could find a mountain of evidence. A few broken boxes were meaningless to keep.
If this matter was done by officials of the Land of Fire, it would be even more complicated, and a few boxes would still be useless.
Out of sight, out of mind. The best way was to burn them all. Even if Raiga Kurosuki exposed the matter later, Team 10 could say they didn't know.
Then came the division of spoils.
Asuma's biological father was the Professor of Ninjutsu; he could simply ask for any Ninjutsu he wanted. Even Ninjutsu of the Eight-Headed Serpent level could be obtained by his father, so he didn't care for the Ninjutsu collected by Raiga Kurosuki.
Choji also didn't care for these Ninjutsu. When have you ever seen Choji standing in the back, making hand signs with his carrot-like fingers, grunting and groaning? That would mean the end of the world was near!
Choji's "Hand Sign" stat was not just low, it was extremely low! It was comparable to Naruto and Lee. Naruto was taken by Jiraiya to "build a foundation" and trained hard for three years, his "Hand Sign" stat increasing from 2 to 3. And Choji? The Fat Man indulged in food for three years, and his "Hand Sign" stat dropped from 3 to 2!
Except for people like the Third Hokage and Granny Chiyo, whose physical stats plummeted due to old age and infirmity, Choji was the only Ninja whose single stat decreased instead of increasing over a three-year period.
Being able to master his clan's Secret Technique was a victory; he had no interest in Fire Release or Lightning Release.
Shikamaru selected several high-level Lightning Release and Water Release Ninjutsu. He didn't intend to learn them, but rather to copy them and take them back to enrich his clan's Ninjutsu library.
The Nara Clan's accumulation in Ninjutsu was far inferior to the Yamanaka Clan, who constantly spied on others' minds for secrets.
Of the five million paper notes, Asuma took two million, and the three of them—Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji—each took one million.
The remaining jewelry and jade, which would take too long to convert into cash, all went to Ino as she seemed very interested in them.
While they were dividing the spoils, Ranmaru kept tearing his sleeve to stop Raiga Kurosuki's bleeding. Ino didn't offer to use Medical Ninjutsu, fearing that her still-novice Medical Ninjutsu might accidentally kill Raiga Kurosuki. She just handed over some bandages and ointment.
"Thank you," Ranmaru said politely.
Ino smiled: "You don't hate us? You know our arrival disturbed your peaceful life."
Ranmaru's expression was very calm: "No hatred. Raiga has always said that dying on the battlefield is a Ninja's destiny. We can use violence to kill others, and others can naturally come to kill us. This is fair."
He bowed, then lowered his head and continued to clean the wounds of the unconscious Raiga Kurosuki.
Seeing a six or seven-year-old boy talking about destiny, Ino felt a ripple in her heart. Alas, this damned world!
There were nine members of the Kurosuki Family in total. Besides Raiga and Ranmaru, the other seven were minor henchmen.
After some questioning, it was discovered that one of the young men was Granny Sansho's grandson.
This guy felt that making curry rice had no future, and since the Kurosuki Family was recruiting thugs, he joined.
Without a word, they first gave him a beating, then educated him, and finally sent him back.
Shikamaru took him back to the Curry of Life Restaurant to find Granny Sansho, and also bought some food for Choji. For the Fat Man, as long as he had food, even the most severe injuries could recover.
Ino, meanwhile, went to rest under a nearby tree.
As the total amount of Chakra increases, the speed of what is commonly known as "mana regeneration" also quickens. For powerhouses like Naruto and Senju Hashirama, it's as if they have an endless supply of Chakra during battle. On one hand, their Chakra is indeed abundant, several or even dozens of times more than ordinary Ninja. On the other hand, their recovery speed is fast; a B-rank Ninjutsu might be fully recovered within a few seconds after being used.
Ino hadn't reached that level. After continuously releasing a bunch of B-rank Ninjutsu, she had consumed a lot of Chakra. In wartime, she would need to eat military rations to restore stamina, then forcefully extract energy from cells to recover Chakra.
This method is very damaging to the body, essentially overdrawing one's potential and physical health. Many Ninja, such as Uchiha Itachi, Sai's older brother Shin, and Hohzuki Mangetsu, developed terminal illnesses at a young age because they overtaxed their bodies too severely.
Kakashi was the same. To uphold his family's reputation, he went to battle at six years old. How many injuries did he sustain? How much potential did he overdraw? How many dark things did he witness? To still have 6 points of "Spirit" in the end, honestly, that's already a sign of extraordinary talent.
Ino would not exhaust her resources. She didn't need to overdraw her health to gain Chakra. She sat quietly in the shade, slowly recovering her stamina and Chakra.
Asuma wrote the mission brief, bundled it with the Lightning Blade sealing scroll, and then released the messenger hawk.
Team 10 stayed at Oxalis Mine that day, awaiting the Village's decision on Raiga Kurosuki, Ranmaru, and the entire incident.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 40 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!