Danzo's raid on Hidden Sound Village was only half complete. Gen'yūmaru, who thought he was incredibly powerful, was nothing more than a pawn under the Konoha's elite Ninja's assault. His organized defenses were riddled with holes, and just as the Ninja Village was about to be annihilated, news of Jiraiya's succession as Fifth Hokage was delivered by a Yamanaka Clan Ninja.
Danzo exploded on the spot.
Calming down, he realized that when he tried to reason with the Third Hokage, he talked about rules, and when he tried to talk about rules, the Third Hokage acted like a hooligan. What was he to do next?
Generally speaking, older people tend to be more stubborn and inflexible. While this has its drawbacks, it also has its advantages, in that older people usually don't do anything too extreme.
Options like defecting from the Village or leading his loyalists to establish his own faction were completely outside of Danzo's consideration. Even if he died, he wanted to die in Konoha Village.
He thoroughly scoured Hidden Sound Village, obtaining a lot of Orochimaru's research data and some secret Ninjutsu. Afterwards, he immediately led his people out of the Land of Rice Fields and returned to Konoha Village.
The Third Hokage's physical condition could only be described as 'good for someone near their grave.' Looking at that photo, which seemed to be of Hiruzen Sarutobi when he was sixty, he recalled their last conversation.
"Danzo, you will regret this."
"Hiruzen, I am the Hokage!"
The words still echoed in his ears. Did he regret it?
Danzo's fighting spirit recovered quickly.
He had been tricked this time, but it didn't matter. As long as he was alive, there was hope. He had already served as acting Hokage, even if only for two days, that was a qualification. Next time! The next time the Hokage position became vacant, he would be the most qualified person to take over as Hokage.
When Danzo returned to the Village, he shut his doors tightly. When Jiraiya summoned him, he refused to leave his house, citing severe illness.
The pollen lingering in Konoha Village gradually subsided, and Ino began to examine her gains.
With such a wide range of influence and affecting so many people, the First Hokage took the blame very steadily. But precisely because he was the First Hokage, many people had little resentment, saying things like, "If it weren't for the First Hokage's Wood Release, Konoha Village would have been destroyed by Orochimaru," or "Pollen is better than a flood." The First Hokage's image became even more wise and powerful, and the blame on him lessened, resulting in her only gaining four 'blame points.' The Fourth Kazekage's corpse was a troublesome matter, and the Village took the blame for her. Perhaps because Orochimaru was the one who killed him, this corpse only gave her one blame point.
In any case, the Konoha Crush was another big harvest for her.
Following the First Hokage's teachings, she went to the river to practice diligently, skipping stones according to the Tips of "force," "half-squat," and "bounce." Her wrists ached, but she still hadn't cultivated Flower Release or Wood Release.
Ino was furious. No more practice, time to add points!
One blame point was invested, and Flower Release, which was a Bloodline Limit formed by the combination of Water Release and Earth Release, was lit up: Flower Release Lv1.
Another blame point was invested, Flower Release Lv2, and then it couldn't be leveled up any further.
She tried it out. Ninjutsu like Six-Petal Bloom, Twenty-Petal Bloom, and Flower World Advent could all be used. The power was certainly not as strong as the First Hokage's, as there was a considerable gap in Chakra and Ninjutsu levels, but as a supplementary means, or used unexpectedly in battle, the effect was still good.
Now that the Village's pollen incident had just subsided, she absolutely couldn't use these techniques in the Village.
With the remaining three blame points, adding to'Spirit' wasn't enough.
Ino felt that she didn't lack Chakra now.
The First Hokage thought Ino had too little Chakra, but in reality, the First Hokage thought everyone had too little Chakra. There was no comparison. At this current stage, Ino's 9 points in'Spirit' were already sufficient.
There was no need to save the three blame points, so she decided to continue improving her weaker areas.
One point each was added to 'Body,''Speed,' and 'Hand Seals.'
Through Tsunade's targeted training, the previous battles, and the Asura Chakra gifted to her by the First Hokage, Ino's'Strength' automatically increased by one point.
It rose from 3 points to 4 points.
The title of Yamanaka Wild Boar wasn't for nothing. Inoichi looked refined and spent his days in the office without much exercise, but in reality, his strength was similar to Asuma's. Ino's strength was low before simply because she was young. Now, with Tsunade's training methods and 1% Sage Body, her physical qualities in this area naturally developed.
No need to add points. In two years, her strength would catch up to Temari, who had natural superhuman strength.
Ino's final stats were Ninjutsu 10, Body 6, Genjutsu 4, Wisdom 8, Strength 4, Speed 7, Spirit 9, Hand Seals 7, for a total of 55 attributes.
In terms of Ninjutsu, she had Water Release Lv4, Earth Release Lv3, Wind Release Lv3, Yin Release Lv4, Yang Release Lv3, and Flower Release (Wood Release) Lv2.
'Genjutsu' was already a bit low. This item not only involved the proficiency of Genjutsu but also had an effect on Genjutsu resistance. Ino planned to find time to ask Kurenai-sensei about Genjutsu, try her best first, and then add points if it really couldn't be improved.
Shadow Clone training wasn't a case of the more the better, at least not for her. The physical and mental fatigue from Shadow Clones returning to the main body couldn't be avoided.
Ino now kept her Shadow Clones to four or less. She read medical books, practiced Medical Ninjutsu, practiced Earth Release, Wind Release, and Water Release, and tried to develop new Chakra natures. She kept her Shadow Clones' time fully scheduled.
When Jiraiya became Hokage, his old friend Shueisha immediately responded.
Shueisha and a certain flower shop jointly launched a promotional event.
The Third Hokage's epic masterpiece, the [will of fire] series of books, began to be discounted. Buy one, get three free; buy three, get ten free. A clearance sale!
Shueisha republished Jiraiya's early work, [tale of the gutsy ninja]. Buy one and get a 9.5-discount coupon for a certain flower shop.
Books by the current Hokage must be bought and studied carefully to understand his thoughts and ideas, in order to keep up with the leader and not fall behind.
Smart people like Hyuga Hiashi and Shikaku bought a stack, took them back to let their clan members deeply understand the new Hokage's ideology, and then asked their clan members to write down their insights after studying.
Even Advisors Utatane Koharu and Homura Mitokado disposed of the [will of fire] series of books that occupied three bookshelves in their homes, and each bought a new book.
Before he became Hokage, you could call him a hooligan, an asshole, whatever you wanted. You could even ignore him. But now that he was Hokage, everyone would have to work together, possibly for twenty years. So, it was essential to understand him and not view him with the same eyes as a junior.
The book he personally wrote was an important way to understand his personality and thoughts.
After the book-buying craze, a certain flower shop launched a new event: after purchasing the supreme gift package of ninety-nine flowers, customers would randomly receive one of the three Chinese characters: "since" (Ji), "Come" (Rai), or "also" (Ya). Collect all three characters, and you could go to Shueisha to receive a free copy of [sasukes youthful story] and an old edition of [icha icha paradise].
Both young girls and perverts were very interested in this event.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 70 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!