Chapter 531: Advancing into the Hidden Rain Village
Might Guy's initial plea was to Kakashi. As his best friend, Kakashi truly wracked his brain for some time.
But he couldn't come up with any good solutions. The Fourth Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode was a secret nintaijutsu that the Sharingan couldn't copy. Even if it could, that technique required an immense amount of chakra and an incredibly resilient body. The Lightning Release Chakra Mode demanded that chakra erupt from every tenketsu in the body; one only had to look at the Hyuga clan's Rotation to understand the extremely high aptitude required. Rock Lee simply didn't meet the criteria.
The remaining body-strengthening ninjutsu, including Tsunade's Monstrous Strength, all required extremely high chakra control. Since Lee couldn't use any ninjutsu, he couldn't even begin to learn them.
The same applied to Sage Mode; even if someone were willing to teach him, he wouldn't be able to learn it.
Shinnō's Cell Activation Technique required a healthy body, and Lee's body was anything but.
As for cybernetic implants... that would only be a greater blow to his spirit.
Hashirama's cells were also out of the question, unless Lee were to also receive a Sharingan transplant.
They went through every possible solution, and none of them worked.
In truth, the Akimichi clan's food-based conditioning method was relatively suitable for Lee. The body is the foundation. He had currently trained his body to a state of overdraft. Even if he rested and recovered this time, the moment he resumed training, he would once again deplete his core foundation. Only by keeping the energy in his cells in a constant state of abundance could this be prevented.
However, none of them mentioned this, and Ino acted as if she knew nothing about it.
Food conditioning was different from the Three-Colored Pills.
Even knowing the recipe for the pills was useless. Without the Akimichi clan's innate ability to store fat, anyone who ate one would die.
The Akimichi clan themselves didn't place much importance on this aspect.
The true foundation of the Akimichi clan's secret techniques was the art of extracting the maximum amount of energy from food. As their staunchest ally, Ino would not bring up the Akimichi's secret techniques for discussion just for the sake of Rock Lee.
Minato Namikaze had a good personal relationship with the portly Choza Akimichi; they had been teammates for a time. Of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, he was actually most familiar with the Akimichi clan.
After the meeting, he went to talk to Choza about the matter.
After a heartfelt discussion, Minato hoped the Akimichi clan could send someone to assist Might Guy in managing Rock Lee's daily diet.
There was no need for the Akimichi's secret techniques, just the everyday experience of the clan of stout men.
One look at the Third and Fourth Raikages was enough to know that a strong body was the foundation of a taijutsu ninja. Might Guy looked much more robust than his contemporary, Kakashi, whereas Rock Lee was simply too frail.
The Akimichi clan sent Choji's female cousin, a large and chubby girl, to take charge of Lee's diet. This was a mission personally assigned by the Hokage.
On one hand, adjustments were made to his diet—not to make Lee obese, but at least to make him less frail. On the other hand, Tsunade prescribed a treatment plan: take medicine when needed, and rest when needed.
Lee was only willing to take the medicine, not to rest. So, Minato, in his capacity as Hokage, issued a long-term mission to Team Guy.
Go find the Three-Tails!
The Three-Tails had likely been revived, but the Eastern Sea was too vast. A turtle-like Tailed Beast could hide in the ocean, and the seawater would block most sensory abilities. No one knew exactly where it was hiding.
Team Guy was sent out to search. If they found it, they could bring it back. With Might Guy's strength, fighting the Three-Tails shouldn't be a problem. If they couldn't find it, it would just be a vacation for them.
A month after Minato took office, internal consolidation was complete. The next task was to deal with external affairs.
Might Guy took Team Guy to find the Three-Tails.
Kakashi took Team 7 to the Hidden Waterfall Village. On one hand, it was for Naruto to communicate with the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki; on the other, it was to lure the snake out of its hole. Minato followed closely behind, wanting to see if the Akatsuki would take the bait.
The remaining problem was the Hidden Rain Village.
The Rain Village had harbored the Akatsuki. Regardless of their reasons, this debt had to be settled. Compensation had to be paid, apologies had to be made, and those who needed to be killed had to be killed.
The mission to sweep through the Hidden Rain Village and clean up the remnants of the Akatsuki was given to Ino.
Only Minato and a few other high-ranking officials knew that Madara Uchiha might have been revived. Minato was confident in his own abilities; even if Madara appeared before him, he could fight his way out with his son, not to mention with Kakashi's assistance. He wasn't worried about himself, and there was no need to worry about Guy's team either. If Guy were to encounter Madara now, it was debatable who should be more worried.
The Hidden Rain Village was extremely dangerous. If an ordinary ninja led the team and had the misfortune of running into Madara, it would be a suicide mission.
Although Ino was young, she had seniority, and she had proven her command and combat abilities on the battlefield. She was fully capable of handling this mission.
She would lead over three thousand ninja to the western front to join the Allied Shinobi Forces there and carry out the investigation and purge of the Hidden Rain Village and the Akatsuki.
Nagato had said that the battles of the great ninja villages brought disaster to the small ones. He was absolutely right!
The so-called investigation by the Allied Shinobi Forces was really an intention to turn the Hidden Rain Village upside down. Would there be accidental injuries in the process? Would misunderstandings arise? Forget others, even the ever-positive Minato Namikaze wouldn't care. The Hidden Rain Village had accepted the Akatsuki, which made them Konoha's enemy. And you're supposed to be positive towards an enemy?
Yahiko and Konan had essentially started their own faction. Thanks to Jiraiya, Konoha, and by extension the Allied Shinobi Forces, would no longer hunt them. But the others—the Masked Man, Deidara, Kakuzu, and the rest—were still on the rogue-nin list.
That afternoon, Ino led three thousand Konoha ninja toward the Land of Rain.
The five great ninja villages' tolerance for the Akatsuki was wearing increasingly thin. The Rain Village was situated at the border of three countries, a strategically vital location. Now that Konoha was willing to take the lead, the allied forces that had been surrounding the Land of Rain immediately handed command over to them.
After Ino arrived at the border of the Land of Rain and joined forces with the troops there, the number of Konoha ninja exceeded six thousand.
Following them were two thousand Cloud ninja led by Yugito, fifteen hundred Stone ninja led by Kurotsuchi, and the Sand and Mist villages each dispatched three jonin and five hundred ninja to the battle.
The total number of allied forces exceeded ten thousand. According to the tacit understanding among the villages, since Konoha had sent the most troops, Ino was the supreme commander of the allied forces.
As soon as she entered the command tent, Ino smiled.
"You Konoha have mobilized so many ninja. Is it really just to find the Akatsuki? I don't believe it!" the Third Tsuchikage's gruff voice questioned from within the tent.
Ino glanced at Shikamaru, who had arrived first. Shikamaru shook his head; he had no idea when the Third Tsuchikage had arrived in the Land of Rain. He had received no information about it.
He gave Ino a look, signaling her to be careful.
In battle, strength was what mattered. In normal interactions, however, one had to follow some established customs.
Ino was the supreme commander because she was Tsunade's disciple and the Fourth Hokage's junior, giving her enough seniority.
But her seniority paled in comparison to the Third Tsuchikage's. The old man was a Kage himself. Forget Ino, even Minato Namikaze wouldn't be able to command him.
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