Tsunade planned to research Wood Release in between drinking, gambling, and hot springs, while Shizune tried to practice Spirit Transformation Technique.
This Ninjutsu was Shizune's uncle's Secret Technique, and after Tsunade's additions and Ino's final completion, it was already different from the original version, but the ownership ultimately belonged to Shizune.
Ino tried to teach Shizune Spirit Transformation Technique, but after two attempts, the results were not optimistic; this was no less difficult than helping Tsunade with Wood Release.
Shizune has a quiet and gentle personality, and her Medical Ninjutsu is excellent, but like Tsunade, she lacks Yin Style Chakra. How could she possibly use Spirit Transformation Technique?
You should first practice cultivating Yin Style Chakra.
Tsunade soon left the Village again with Shizune and Tonton.
Ino stayed in the Village to complete missions.
She first met up with Team 10 to eliminate a group of bandits who had wandered into the Land of Fire, and then temporarily teamed up with Tenten to purchase three million ryo worth of Ninja tools.
The power of Ninjutsu and Taijutsu is too great, and correspondingly, Ninja's Ninja tools are easily damaged. Some Ninja, like Asuma, prefer to use their own Chakra Blades, while others, like Ino, like to use Ninja tools to test the waters a bit, with the outcome of the battle still depending on their own Ninjutsu. They don't have a great need for consumable Ninja tools.
Ninja clans have various conveniences that civilian Ninja do not.
Most civilian Ninja have to use Kunai and fight enemies to the death like warriors.
Regardless of whether you are from a Ninja clan or a civilian Ninja, the Village has always had an obligation to provide various Ninja tools. Jonin, Chunin, and Genin all have their monthly quotas for Ninja tools. Whether you use them or not is your business; the Village must provide these Ninja tools.
During the Third Hokage's era, these tasks were clearly not supervised effectively. Would the F4 really embezzle such small amounts of money? The Ino–Shika–Choji also didn't care for the profits from a few Ninja tools, and the higher-ups usually didn't pay attention to such matters. The departments responsible for distributing Ninja tools sometimes distributed them and sometimes made excuses, and civilian Ninja were unwilling to bother the Hokage with such small matters, so many times, things were simply muddled through by the low-level handlers.
Jiraiya, being a civilian Ninja, understood this deeply. As soon as he took office, he conducted an inspection and found many problems. The Ninja tools in the storeroom were missing and severely damaged, forcing Ino and Tenten to purchase a batch from outside.
Raising funds, eliminating bandits, buying Ninja tools, purchasing military rations pills, buying winter clothes, buying summer clothes, training the Genin in the Village, teaching students at the Ninja Academy – after Ino became a Chunin, her mission level clearly increased.
She basically completed one or two missions, then left the Village for a few days to spend time with Tsunade, and then returned.
The Advisors had quite a few complaints about this, with the old woman Utatane Koharu being particularly displeased.
Ninja should honestly be tools; how can they come and go as they please? I never had such treatment back in my day. What do you think the Village is? A hotel run by your family?
Jiraiya retorted her, neither softly nor harshly.
This was an order issued by the Third Hokage before his death. As his disciple and successor, I cannot directly overturn the previous Hokage's command, can I? If you are dissatisfied, you can personally go and ask the old man, the Third Hokage. If you send me a dream message then, I will revoke Ino's privilege of leaving the Village at any time.
The Ninja World experienced considerable turmoil with Orochimaru's Konoha Crush.
In Otogakure, Gen'yūmaru became the leader. This Ninja Village involved Orochimaru, and currently, the Five Great Ninja Villages have not officially recognized their status.
In Sunagakure, Gaara, with the support of Baki and Yura, became a candidate for the Fifth Kazekage. Konoha Village also expressed its support, but he still needed to achieve accomplishments and was currently busy completing missions.
After three months of chaos, affairs in Konoha Village gradually returned to normal.
One matter was consequently put on the agenda: the Chunin Exams.
The Chunin Exams are not a major event; they are usually held twice a year. The Chunin Exams that Ino and her group took in July would be followed by another round in half a year, around late December.
In the original timeline, Tsunade only organized a round of Chunin Exams in conjunction with Sunagakure around the time Naruto returned to the Village. In that exam, all of the Konoha 12, except Naruto, were promoted to Chunin, and Neji was directly promoted to Jonin due to his Achievements in rescuing Gaara, the Kazekage.
Jiraiya was not Tsunade, and Ino had brought back the much-needed funds for the Village, so the Chunin Exams were naturally put on the agenda.
The Chunin missions Ino and Shikamaru had recently received were all about helping Genin train, and the training subject was Choji. The client, not surprisingly, was likely Choji's father.
The fatty had enough Chakra, but his Ninjutsu talent was truly lacking. The Akimichi Clan didn't intend for him to become a Ninjutsu master; mastering Taijutsu would be sufficient.
After Ino and Shikamaru's research, they unanimously agreed that the fatty's strength was sufficient, but his speed was a serious hindrance. While they didn't expect him to become an agile fatty, he couldn't be too slow either.
Ino's current speed was 7 points. Shikamaru's seemed to be somewhere between 5 and 6 points. As for Choji... Choji's speed was completely unwatchable. Ino felt that Moegi and Hanabi might even be faster than him.
Speed is not just running speed, but also reaction speed, instantaneous acceleration, and other forms of expression.
Choji's Human Bullet Tank had extremely strong impact force, but because his reaction speed wasn't fast enough, he could only move in a straight line when spinning and couldn't make timely adjustments. An enemy could dodge it by simply jumping to the side. This weakness was too obvious.
Shikamaru set up an obstacle course for him, and Ino customized a set of weights, making the fatty run with the weights!
"Run, Choji, run!" Ino ran ahead with a bag of potato chips, making Choji chase her.
The values on the panel are just a benchmark; actual application depends on individual performance. Ino's normal running speed was comparable to Kiba's. If she were to use some of Yugito's evasion techniques, even with the motivation of potato chips, Choji would die of exhaustion before he could catch her.
Now, she was suppressing her speed, occasionally using some techniques to maintain a slightly faster pace, which was enough to help Choji train.
With the potato chips dangling right in front of him, just a step away but impossible to grasp, the fatty snorted hot air from his nostrils, charging around the field like a bull, being led on a wild chase.
When it was Shikamaru's turn, he was even harsher on his friend, shouting "Fat pig!" and then starting to run.
Ino sat outside the field, took out paper and pen, and began writing a report.
The Village intended for her to serve as an examiner for the second stage of the Chunin Exams, so she needed to write a written report detailing the exam content and format, which would then be submitted to the Village for review.
Originally, she was supposed to be the examiner for the first stage, the theoretical exam, but Jiraiya felt that having all Yamanaka Clan members in the first exam was too exaggerated, so he had her swap with Shikamaru: Shikamaru would take the first stage, and she would be responsible for the second.
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