Chapter 211: Choji's Training
Aside from her usual habits of drinking, gambling, and soaking in hot springs, Tsunade was preparing to research Wood Style. Meanwhile, Shizune was attempting to practice the Spirilization Jutsu.
This technique was originally Shizune's uncle's secret art. After being supplemented by Tsunade and ultimately completed by Ino, it was now somewhat different from the original version, but the ownership ultimately still lay with Shizune.
Ino attempted to teach Shizune the Spirilization Jutsu. After two tries, the results weren't optimistic. The difficulty was no less than helping Tsunade figure out Wood Style.
Shizune had a quiet, gentle nature, and her medical ninjutsu was excellent. Yet, like Tsunade, she lacked Yin-nature chakra. How the heck was she supposed to use Spirilization?
You need to cultivate Yin-nature chakra first before we talk about this.
Soon after, Tsunade left the village again, taking Shizune and Tonton with her.
Ino remained in the village to carry out missions.
She first rendezvoused with Team 10 to suppress a group of bandits who had wandered into the Land of Fire. Afterward, she temporarily teamed up with Tenten to purchase three million Ryo worth of ninja tools.
Ninjutsu and Taijutsu are incredibly powerful, and correspondingly, ninja tools are easily damaged. Some ninja, like Asuma, prefer to use their own chakra blades. Others, like Ino, like to probe a bit with ninja tools, but the outcome of a battle ultimately relies on their own ninjutsu. They don't have a great need for consumable ninja tools.
Shinobi clans had various conveniences; civilian ninja did not.
Most civilian ninja had to rely on kunai, fighting the enemy head-on like warriors.
Regardless of whether you came from a shinobi clan or were a civilian ninja, the village always had the obligation to provide various ninja tools. Jonin, Chunin, and Genin each had their monthly allotment of ninja tools. Whether you used them or not was your business; the village had to provide them.
During the Third Hokage's era, the oversight for these tasks was clearly lacking. Would the F4 embezzle such small amounts of money? Even the Ino–Shika–Cho clans didn't covet the profits from a few ninja tools. The higher-ups generally didn't pay attention to such matters. The departments responsible for distributing ninja tools sometimes handed them out and sometimes just fobbed people off. Civilian ninja were unwilling to bother the Hokage with such trivial matters, and many times, things were simply muddled through by the lower-level personnel handling them.
Jiraiya, being from a civilian ninja background, deeply understood this issue. As soon as he took office, he conducted inspections and found quite a few problems. The ninja tools in the warehouse were missing or severely damaged, forcing Ino and Tenten to purchase a batch from outside the village.
Raising funds, eliminating bandits, buying ninja tools, procuring military rations pills, buying winter clothes, buying summer clothes, training the village's Genin, teaching students at the Ninja Academy... After becoming a Chunin, Ino's mission difficulty level had clearly increased.
Her routine basically consisted of completing one or two missions, leaving the village to hang out with Tsunade for a few days, and then returning.
The advisors had quite a bit to say about this, especially the elderly advisor Koharu Utatane, who was particularly dissatisfied.
Ninja should obediently act as tools! How can they just come and go as they please? I didn't even have that kind of treatment back in my day! What do you think the village is? A hotel run by your family?
Jiraiya retorted in his usual soft-but-firm manner.
This is a personal order issued by the Third Hokage before his death. As his disciple and successor, I can't just overturn a former Hokage's command, can I? If you're dissatisfied, you can personally go and ask the old man Hiruzen. When you bring back his message in a dream, I'll revoke Ino's privilege to leave the village at any time.
The ninja world had experienced considerable turmoil following Orochimaru's Konoha Crush plan.
In the Hidden Sound Village, Gen'yūmaru had become the leader. Since this village was connected to Orochimaru, none of the Five Great Shinobi Villages had officially recognized their status yet.
In the Hidden Sand Village, Gaara, with the support of individuals like Baki and Chiyo, had become a candidate for the Fifth Kazekage. Konoha Village had also expressed support, but he still needed to build up his achievements and was currently busy taking on missions.
After three months of chaos, affairs in Konoha Village were gradually getting back on track.
One matter was consequently brought up on the agenda: the Chunin Exams.
The Chunin Exams weren't considered a major event. They were usually held twice a year. The exams Ino and her classmates participated in were in July, and another round would be held six months later, around late December.
In the original timeline, Tsunade only organized a round of exams in conjunction with the Hidden Sand Village around the time Naruto returned to the village. In that particular exam, all of Naruto's "Twelve Rookie 9" minus Naruto himself were promoted to Chunin, and Neji was even directly promoted to Jonin due to his contribution in rescuing the Kazekage, Gaara.
Jiraiya was not Tsunade, and Ino had brought back the much-needed funds for the village. Thus, the Chunin Exams were naturally put back on the schedule.
The Chunin missions Ino and Shikamaru had recently received were all focused on helping train Genin. The training subject was Choji, and the client, predictably, was Choji's father.
Choji had sufficient chakra, but his ninjutsu talent was honestly not great. The Akimichi family didn't expect him to become a ninjutsu master; perfecting his taijutsu was enough.
After Ino and Shikamaru's analysis, they unanimously agreed that Choji had enough strength, but his speed was severely holding him back. While they didn't expect him to become an agile fatty, he couldn't be that slow!
Ino's current speed stat was 7. Shikamaru seemed to be somewhere between 5 and 6. As for Choji... Choji's speed was completely unwatchable. Ino felt that even Moegi and Hanabi might be faster than him.
Speed wasn't just about running speed; it also encompassed reaction speed, instant acceleration, and other forms of expression.
Choji's Human Bullet Tank had immense impact power, but precisely because his reaction speed wasn't fast enough, when spinning, he could only move in a straight line and couldn't make timely adjustments. An enemy could easily dodge by simply jumping to the side. This weakness was far too obvious.
Shikamaru set up obstacle course shuttle runs for him, while Ino ordered a set of weighted clothing and made Choji run with the weights on!
"Run, Choji, run!" Ino ran ahead with a bag of potato chips, making Choji chase her.
The stats on the panel were just a benchmark; actual application depended on individual performance. Ino's normal running speed was comparable to Kiba's. If she also used some of Yugito's shifting and dodging techniques, even with the incentive of potato chips, Choji would be exhausted to death before he could catch her.
Now, she was suppressing her speed, occasionally using some techniques, maintaining a slightly faster pace than him. That was enough to help Choji train.
With the potato chips dangling right before his eyes, just a step away yet desperately out of reach, the fatty snorted hot air from his nostrils like a bull, being led on a merry chase all over the field.
When it was Shikamaru's turn, he was even harsher on his teammate. Shouting "Fat pig!" he would then start running.
Ino sat by the sidelines, took out paper and pen, and began writing a report.
The village intended for her to serve as the examiner for the second stage of the Chunin Exams. This required her to write down the exam content and format in a written report, which would then be submitted to the village for deliberation.
Originally, she was supposed to be the examiner for the first stage, the theoretical test. But Jiraiya felt that having the first stage test entirely staffed by Yamanaka clan members was simply too exaggerated, so he swapped her and Shikamaru. Shikamaru would handle the first stage, and she would be responsible for the second.
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on Patreon. with 30 advanced chapters available on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/GirlsLove1