Chapter 386: Where Did These "Ugly Girls" Come From?
Kiba stood there trembling, feeling that the fact the three girls weren't angry made things even more unsettling.
But in reality, their lack of anger was perfectly normal.
Hinata, for one, was naturally shy and lacking in confidence. Being called ugly, she didn't dare say a word and could only lower her head in discomfort.
As for Sakura, well, it had already been mentioned that she had taken the compound and couldn't afford to get angry.
Even when she thought about teaching Naruto a lesson, she tried her best to remain calm.
Now that Sai had insulted her, she almost lost her temper, but immediately, images of the side effects flashed through her mind.
If those side effects were triggered, the parts that were supposed to develop softly would instead turn into hard chest muscles. At the same time, her voice would deepen, and her body would rapidly grow more muscular.
It was terrifying.
Thinking of this, Sakura quickly suppressed her anger and frantically recalled the time she and Ino guarded the Hokage's office and beat Sai, one of Danzō's subordinates, half to death.
Only then did her heartbeat gradually calm down.
As for Ino, there was even less to say, she didn't care about Sai's words at all.
Last time, she and Sakura had beaten this "lackey of Danzō" and handed him over to Morino Ibiki for interrogation. When the results were reported to Tsunade, Ino happened to be present and curiously asked a few questions.
That was when she learned that Sai… wasn't exactly right in the head.
At the time, everyone had assumed Sai was some kind of "kept boy" secretly raised by Danzō.
But after Ibiki's interrogation, and even a physical inspection, the conclusion was that Sai and Danzō had no relationship beyond that of superior and subordinate.
Sai simply had a skewed sense of understanding.
The strange scene everyone had witnessed before was the result of Sai's cognitive bias, leading to some bizarre misunderstandings between him and Danzō.
After learning this, Ino let it go.
After all, you couldn't stay angry at an idiot forever, right?
Later on, Ino saw her parents arguing at home. Her mother shouted as she snatched a book from her father, Yamanaka Inoichi, and threw it out the window.
Ino, who got curious, slipped outside and picked it up.
She discovered it was part of Kakashi's "Limited Tsukuyomi" series.
Though it was credited to Kakashi, as Tsunade's student, Ino knew some inside details.
The content of those books likely came from Tsunade.
She even occasionally saw Kakashi handing Tsunade envelopes filled with money, clearly royalties.
So the real situation didn't need further explanation.
Ino figured that since it was Tsunade-sensei's work, there was nothing wrong with her reading it as a student, right?
So she read the Limited Tsukuyomi series.
At first, it didn't seem like much, but once she got into it, she was astonished.
No wonder Tsunade was the sensei and she was the student.
No wonder Tsunade was one of the Legendary Sannin, the granddaughter of the First Hokage.
This was the gap.
Of course, what stood out to Ino was the setting in those stories where "everything is reversed compared to the real ninja world."
That gave her an idea.
Perhaps, in the eyes of idiots, what normal people consider beautiful is ugly, and what is ugly is considered beautiful.
So when Sai called someone "ugly", it actually meant they were beautiful.
In that case, why should she be angry?
But thinking this far, Ino came up with a plan.
Everything above was just her hypothesis based on those novels, she hadn't verified it yet.
"You say the three of us are ugly. Then what do you think of this person?"
Ino pulled out a photo from her clothes and pointed at one of the people in it.
The photo was taken after she and Sakura had participated in the Chūnin Exams and fought a 2vs2 match against Akimichi Rianko and Sarutobi Amane. Afterward, they exchanged friendly greetings and took a group picture.
The one Ino pointed to was Akimichi Rianko, whose size rivaled two Chōjis combined.
"How do you three ugly girls even have the nerve to take a photo with her?"
"What a pity. That lady has a wonderful figure, but her face is still a bit ugly. If she slimmed down, she'd probably end up just as ugly as you."
Sai shook his head as he spoke.
"..."
Ino instantly confirmed it, her theory was completely correct.
Akimichi Rianko might be plump, but Ino was certain that once she used the Akimichi clan's Butterfly Mode to slim down, she would definitely be very beautiful.
Yet Sai said she had a great figure but an ugly face.
It's completely ridiculous.
She was relieved.
Meanwhile, Sai continued with his work, beginning to seal the Second Hokage's "body part."
"This should be Impure World Reincarnation. Somewhere nearby, an Impure World Reincarnation ninja must have been attacked, leaving this part behind."
"Because of Impure World Reincarnation's immortality trait, any damage will automatically regenerate. That's why this thing keeps trying to fly back."
Sai had the other two sealing team members hold down the piece that kept trying to fly away. He personally pressed and kneaded it a couple of times to confirm the texture, then gave his analysis seriously.
Everyone else felt a chill run down their spines.
Not just the three girls, even Kiba and Shino shuddered.
"Impure World Reincarnation? Then it might not be an enemy. Should we report it to the Hokage and have her contact Amegakure or Otogakure Village?"
Shino adjusted his glasses and offered a suggestion.
"If it's Impure World Reincarnation, then maybe we don't need to seal it. We could just let it return and regenerate on its own, right?"
One of the sealing team members suggested.
"That makes sense…"
"Not necessarily."
Just as Kiba was about to agree, Shino interrupted him, "This thing appeared under Sasuke. It must be related to him. Even if we let it go, we should wait until Sasuke wakes up and ask what happened."
"What if this thing belongs to an enemy Sasuke encountered?"
That made sense.
Everyone realized that Shino was actually quite a capable strategist.
Especially Ino, who couldn't help but feel a bit emotional.
Shino's intelligence wasn't on Shikamaru's level.
But the difference was, Shino didn't slack off.
In fact, he was extremely diligent, always trying to make himself useful.
That was the difference between teammates.
Her former teammates, one embodied laziness, the other gluttony.
Since holding it down constantly wasn't practical, they simply stuffed the thing back under Sasuke and kept watch over him.
The group waited for Sasuke to wake up.
Sai even fed Sasuke another soldier pill.
A whole day passed, and he still didn't wake up.
After continuously exhausting himself, Sasuke was simply too tired, he had fallen into a deep sleep and hadn't recovered yet.
The soldier pills only served as a meal substitute; they didn't restore much stamina.
With no other options, the group set up camp to rest.
While resting, Sai and another male member of the sealing team each kept one hand on Sasuke.
This was to prevent Sasuke from accidentally waking up or rolling over and releasing the thing beneath him.
Late at night.
Sasuke finally began to wake up groggily.
He had a strange dream, he dreamed that he was skiing.
(End of this chapter)