Anko Mitarashi's troubles were obvious to anyone, but those were things she had to figure out and understand on her own. Only by clarifying them could she truly escape that whirlpool; if she couldn't, perhaps she would be forever lost.
No one could help her, and she didn't need anyone's help.
After Ino idled around the Village for a few days, Jiraiya gave her a mission.
In the Forest of Death, Ino saw Jiraiya and Naruto.
Jiraiya sighed repeatedly, pointing at Naruto with a helpless expression.
"You see? I heard Sasuke went to the front lines, and this guy has been pestering me to train him. As Konoha's Hokage, my time is precious, and his comprehension is too low. There's nothing I can do. Now, I can only ask you to train him."
Ino carefully scrutinized Jiraiya's expression.
"What? Is there a problem? Don't you use Wood Release? Naruto's training involves the Nine-Tailed, so your Wood Release can be used to suppress it. No problem, right?" Jiraiya said with a stern, very serious face.
Ino felt that such a serious Jiraiya was a bit off, but for a moment, she couldn't pinpoint the problem. Wood Release could indeed suppress the Nine-Tailed. In the original timeline, this job belonged to Yamato, but now Yamato was busy supervising Orochimaru, so the mission fell to her.
Logically speaking, there seemed to be no issue.
"Alright then, how exactly should we train? This is at least an A-rank mission, right? The Village still hasn't settled the final payment for the short sword Akisui I forged last time. Going to Sunagakure was definitely an S-rank mission, right? I even dealt with Sasori. The Village won't have to spend a fortune on antidotes and Chakra Blades. Isn't there any reward for that?"
She rattled off a string of questions like a machine gun.
The core message was just one: money! You need to pay me more!
Jiraiya wiped a cold sweat: "Yes, yes, definitely! Mm-hmm, I promise!"
"Alright then." Ino couldn't make the Fifth Hokage too embarrassed; she still had to show some respect: "So, how am I supposed to train Naruto?"
Jiraiya lowered his voice and said, "Aren't there talks of Perfect Jinchuriki? Let him try it, and when he can't bear it, just suppress him with Wood Release."
Ino was stunned. That's it? That's your training plan? Are you trying to fool a silly kid? That's too perfunctory!
Your disciple, Minato Namikaze, has been revived, so your hopes are back on your disciple, and you don't need Naruto, your 'grandson,' anymore, is that it?
"Hey! Pervy Sage! Ino! Can we start already?!" Naruto, seeing them talk endlessly, couldn't help but urge them loudly.
Jiraiya patted Ino's shoulder: "I'm leaving it to you; I trust you completely. I, an old man, am going back to handle official business! Ah, there's just too much to do."
Jiraiya walked steadily out of the Forest of Death with his hands behind his back. Once he was out of the forest, his expression immediately turned lewd, and he moved as if he were flying.
He pulled out a stack of photos of Kunoichi from Sunagakure from his pocket.
He scrutinized each one, occasionally commenting.
When he saw a photo of a yukata, his eyes went wide. This young girl was truly beautiful, and her innocent charm was exactly his type. Her name was lovely too! It reminded him of the pink-skinned girl at the bathhouse in Tanzaku Town; she also lived up to her name!
No Hokage understood the Anbu's patrol routes in the Village better than he did. Turning left and right, without alerting anyone, he easily left the Village, then headed to the Land of Rivers for research!
Ever since he accepted this crappy Hokage position, he had forcibly held back for a year. He simply couldn't take it anymore!
This time, under the guise of helping Naruto train, he handed over official duties to Tsunade and Shikaku, then immediately sold Naruto to Ino and secretly left the Village himself!
He walked on a country road, feeling more and more clever the more he thought about it.
Inside the Forest of Death.
Ino didn't know Jiraiya's scheme. She used Wood Release to make a chair and a table, then gestured to Naruto: "If there's nothing else, let's start when you're ready."
Naruto: "???"
Start what? Start from where?
Ino also felt a headache coming on.
Did all the intelligence of you two 'grandpa and grandson' go to Minato Namikaze? The coach doesn't know how to coach, the student doesn't know how to train, and now you're asking me, a passerby?
She could only recall the original plot.
It was definitely impossible to have Naruto enter Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode or Kurama Mode now; the Nine-Tailed wouldn't even acknowledge him. She could only try the Half-Tailed Beast transformation mode, which forcibly extracts Nine-Tailed Chakra.
In the later stages, this mode was completely useless, but in the early stages, it was a necessary path for a "Perfect Jinchuriki." Practicing it and getting familiar with Tailed Beast Chakra in advance wouldn't hurt.
"Let me think, hmm, I remember when you fought Zabuza and Haku in the Land of Waves, didn't you enter a particularly angry, particularly violent state? Let's train that today."
Naruto stood there like an idiot, thinking for a long time, but couldn't remember what Ino was talking about. Did that happen to me? I don't remember!
Ino scratched her face: "How should I put it? It's when your emotions are agitated, due to the unstable seal, a portion of the Chakra from that guy inside you will be absorbed by you. You need to use this power while remaining conscious. I can tell from your expression that you don't understand. It's okay, watch my hand."
While Naruto was still full of question marks, Ino used a genjutsu on him.
For Naruto, talking was useless; he had to experience it firsthand.
Ino didn't activate her Sharingan but used Konoha's traditional genjutsu, Tree Binding Death.
His vision blurred for a moment, and Naruto saw Sakura tied to a tree, looking so pitiful. Before Naruto could say anything, he saw Sakura being stabbed by various swords and blades, dying a miserable death.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto roared, and the dark red Chakra of the Nine-Tailed immediately burst out from his body, forming a Tailed Beast cloak.
"Good, remember this emotion, control it. Remember, you are controlling it, not it controlling you. Never mind, it's no use me telling you. You'll have to experience it yourself..."
Ino watched from the side. Whenever Naruto's sanity was about to be overwhelmed by the Nine-Tailed Chakra, she would swing a thick wooden stick and 'thwack' him on the head.
When Naruto was able to control the Tailed Beast Chakra, she would increase the intensity of the genjutsu.
Sakura, Kakashi, and Jiraiya took turns, but Sasuke was still the most effective! In the genjutsu, Sasuke dying once was equivalent to Sakura dying three times; the psychological stimulation was extraordinarily strong.
Naruto's Tailed Beast cloak, from Ichibi to Two-Tails, and from Two-Tails to Three-Tails, was all activated by the stimulation of Sasuke's "death."
Ino had seen Nii Yugito and Roshi's Half-Tailed Beast transformation, so she had some experience with it.
With Naruto's current physical condition and mindset, he could probably only reach the Three-Tails or Four-Tails level of Half-Tailed Beast transformation. In Uchiha Itachi's words, his capacity was limited to that.
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