Chapter 529: Sakura's Mission
Tenten's persuasion had no effect. Ino could only look to Tsunade.
Tsunade stood by her judgment. "He must be stopped. His body is about to reach a breaking point. He needs to reduce the intensity of his training, or even rest completely for one to two months. If an administrative order doesn't work, then we'll find someone to tie him up."
Ino shook her head. Forget it, I'll think of something.
Tenten was very concerned about her teammate, Lee, and joined in the brainstorming.
Ino thought for a long time and finally had an idea. Her solution was to find a talk-no-jutsu master for the job.
Who was the talk-no-jutsu master of Konoha? None other than Prince Naruto!
Ino dragged Tenten along to find Naruto, only to discover that he had been arrested by the Konoha Military Police Force on charges of "provoking a disturbance."
The Military Police had originally been a department managed by Kakashi in a caretaker capacity. After it was handed over to Genma Shiranui, the department, in order to maintain peace in the village, had promoted a large number of young ninja to fill its ranks, and these young ninja were almost all staunch supporters of the Fourth Hokage.
Ino was completely bewildered as to why they would arrest Naruto.
As the village's intelligence chief, she had working relationships with all the departments in power. She immediately went to ask Genma.
"Senior Genma, what's going on? Why has Naruto been arrested?"
Genma, a senbon dangling from his lips, also felt he had a major headache on his hands. The situation was truly troublesome.
Many of the ninja in the Military Police were loyal supporters of the Fourth Hokage; they would naturally not make things difficult for Naruto.
The key to the problem this time came from Minato.
Minato hoped Naruto would settle down and be more mature. I'm the Hokage. If you don't watch your words and actions, you could easily send the wrong signals to the villagers and the other ninja.
Watch his words and actions? Could those four words ever be associated with Naruto Uzumaki? They were completely mutually exclusive!
Naruto hadn't lived with Jiraiya for three years, hadn't experienced Jiraiya's death. His mentality was even more erratic than in the original timeline. He simply couldn't comprehend Minato's good intentions.
He just felt, I used to graffiti the Hokage Rock all the time, and Grandpa Third never said anything. You haven't cared about me for over a decade, and now you're back and you want to control me? The more you tell me not to do something, the more I'll do it!
Iruka could have persuaded Naruto before, but now that Naruto's real father was back, it was no longer appropriate for him, the "godfather" and "honorary older brother," to get involved. The Fourth Hokage was right there; who was he to interfere?
Shion had returned to the Land of Demons, and Iruka, due to his reservations, couldn't step in.
Konohamaru, having been "Young Master Konohamaru" and seen so much over the years, and having experienced a sharp drop in status after his grandfather's death, understood some things. He had tried to reason with Naruto, but they ended up shouting at each other in the street.
The Military Police arrived on the scene and arrested them both.
Genma was vague, but Ino understood.
This was a show of authority.
The Military Police was, after all, a newly established department, and it was in charge of cases related to public order in the village. Seeing how many people the Uchiha clan had offended in the past, one could tell that this job could easily infringe on the interests of the so-called "powerful and influential."
Genma was having a hard time getting started. Just then, Naruto and Konohamaru conveniently caused trouble. As a trusted subordinate, he understood Minato's intentions.
He immediately arrested them both. The move was meant to show the villagers and ninja the new department's capability. We are fair and just. If you break the law, we'll even arrest the Fourth's son and the Third's grandson. Are you scared now?!
Once Ino figured out the ins and outs of the situation, she immediately turned to leave. There was no need for her to get involved in this mess.
"Boss! Me! I'm in here! It's all Big Bro Naruto's fault! Get me out of here!" Konohamaru shouted from behind the iron bars.
Ino waved her hand. "I'll have Moegi bring you a meal!"
Konohamaru: "..."
With the talk-no-jutsu master out of the question, Ino and Tenten tried to figure out who else could help with Lee's situation.
Tenten pressed a finger to her chin, thinking hard. "I remember Lee once said something about giving flowers to a girl. I asked him who, but he wouldn't say anything."
A light bulb went off in Ino's head. She didn't know who Lee was giving flowers to back then, but she did know he had a crush on one person: Miss Sakura Haruno!
Sakura, with her wide forehead and large head, was only about average in looks, and her style of dress was nothing to write home about. But the number of boys who liked her was truly staggering.
Never mind the "super simps" like Naruto and Lee. In the original timeline, Sai, who had joined Team 7, had a bit of a thing for Sakura. During the Great Ninja War, an unknown young ninja from the Hidden Stone Village had even given her a love letter. And then there was Sasuke, the reincarnation of Indra. Sakura's charm was simply invincible!
The two immediately went to the Konoha Hospital to find Sakura.
After hearing their purpose, Sakura was a bit hesitant. "You want me, me, to persuade Thick-Eyebrows? What am I supposed to say? I've barely spoken to him..."
She seemed very reluctant. "This just doesn't feel right. Thick-Eyebrows trains so hard, isn't that a good thing? I remember back in the Academy, Teacher Iruka used Thick-Eyebrows' hard work to motivate us, didn't he?"
Ino said seriously, "Hard training is a good thing, but anything in excess is a bad thing. People aren't machines; they need rest. Lee even wears weights in his daily life, which puts too much strain on his body. As a comrade, learning from Lee's spirit and persuading him to appropriately slow down his training intensity to allow his body to rest more fully are not contradictory."
"This is a judgment made by both Teacher Tsunade and me. You have to trust our professional abilities."
Sakura looked at Ino out of the corner of her eye. She trusted Lady Tsunade's medical skills, but Ino? Heh heh...
To make Sakura take the matter seriously, Ino "issued a mission" on the spot.
She took out a blank mission scroll, quickly wrote up a mission document, and then signed and stamped it. As one of Konoha's high-ranking officials, she had the authority to assign missions to ninja.
Sakura took the mission document with a bewildered look on her face. She opened it to read and couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"A D-rank mission? With a reward of 5,000 ryo?" She really wanted to say, You cheapskate! With the high cost of living in Konoha, what could 5,000 ryo even buy? She could earn more than 7,000 ryo helping farmers weed their fields and feed their pigs.
Fortunately, Sakura was good-hearted at her core. Ino and Tenten had painted a very bleak picture of Lee's situation, and Sakura wanted to help. The mission document only solidified her resolve.
5,000 ryo... I'll just think of it as a windfall!
Sakura nodded. "Alright, I'll do it. Where is Thick-Eyebrows?"
Ino gestured. "Follow me."
________________________________________
Get rewarded for helping with our community goals!
🎯 Reward for all: +1 bonus chapter at 100 Powerstones.
🚀 Tier Reward: Help us reach 10 members for +5 chapters on all stories!
🎉 And as a welcome, your first month costs significantly less!
🔥 20% CODE: GIRLSLOVE
👻 Join the crew by searching GirlsLove on (P). You know the spot! 😉