Kakashi was still confronting Kitsuchi on the front lines, and Jonin class missions were being assigned by Shikaku.
The main task was to guard against Iwagakure and the Hidden Cloud Village, which might launch an attack.
Iwagakure's style remained consistent.
The will of stone! It was like a rock blocking your doorway.
No fighting, no retreating, no surrendering; a group of Iwagakure Ninja used Earth Release on the border, turning the Land of Rivers into a "Land of Walls," with thick city walls on all sides.
No matter how strong Kakashi's Lightning Release was, he couldn't just charge in.
He could only lead the Konoha Ninja to build defensive lines alongside them.
You build the Maginot Line, we build the Siegfried Line; who's afraid of whom?
Unless the Third Tsuchikage personally entered the fray, Kakashi's abilities were more than enough to hold off Ninja like Kitsuchi and Akatsuchi.
Konoha Village had also made many secret deployments; Homura Mitokado secretly visited the Hidden Mist Village three times to discuss an alliance between the two sides. Progress was smooth, and apart from some details, the major framework had basically been agreed upon.
Konoha was confident in fighting both Iwagakure and the Hidden Cloud Village simultaneously.
Yin Kurama and the Mangekyo were more important to Ino than fully mastering the Flying Thunder God.
Living stakes were secretly collected, and Dojutsu Power of the Sharingan was also steadily increasing with Shisui's Mangekyo.
The Sharingan couldn't follow the Byakugan's path of accumulating small amounts to eventually become a giant Tenseigan; it could only take the elite route.
If it wasn't the Dojutsu Power of a Mangekyo Sharingan, absorbing it would be a form of pollution for her.
The Dojutsu Power level couldn't be too low.
Ino set her sights on the wall of Sharingan Obito had collected. Would Uchiha Fugaku's Sharingan be among them? She remembered that this Uchiha Clan leader should have also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
She didn't know if it was destroyed or taken by Itachi. Ino thought the chances of Obito getting it were low, but she felt she should still try; there was no loss anyway.
"Izumi, can you still not sense your own eyes?" she asked Uchiha Izumi at the old Uchiha residence.
Izumi was becoming increasingly detached. From Ino's experience, her obsession was rapidly disappearing. Things like Itachi and the future of the Uchiha Clan were slowly fading in her heart. When she no longer had any attachment to this world, it should be time for her to return to the Pure Land to rest.
Ino applied her sensory abilities to Izumi, and the detached female ghost casually searched the surroundings.
"No, I haven't found anything, little Ino."
"Never mind, you go rest first. I'll think of other ways."
Arasaka Company was still methodically constructing factories and research labs on the small hill.
Before Ino crossed the desert, the Village sent Shiranui Genma to the Land of Snow and brought back all their Chakra armor manufacturing technology.
Stealing others' technology and Secret Technique carried no moral pressure for a Ninja Village; whoever was stronger was right.
Facing Konoha, the Snow Ninja certainly had no room for negotiation.
With capital, manpower, and technology invested, Ino transformed all the gelel stone in her possession into Sandevistan Mk.2. Besides the Fat Prince of the Akimichi Clan, a total of forty Konoha Ninja were secretly equipped with Sandevistan Mk.2, achieving what Ino called the ordinary person's limit of 7 speed.
For her, who possessed the Sharingan and currently had a "speed" of 9, these Ninja were as slow as snails, but on an ordinary level, this speed was already very fast.
The forty Ninja were organized into an assault squad by Shikaku, led by Shiranui Genma. In the future, this squad would undertake more raid-type missions on the battlefield.
Utatane Koharu, who was in charge of business Docking between Konoha and Arasaka Company, hoped they would produce more Sandevistan Mk.2. Ino had no good solution for this; a clever wife cannot cook without rice. Without gelel stone, relying on a Ninja's own Chakra points to drive Sandevistan Mk.2 was too damaging to the body. They could only wait for the search and excavation in the Southern Continent.
Two months ago, the Daimyo's brother, Enichi Kyū, dispatched a fleet to the Southern Continent. The Yamanaka Clan and Nara Clan both sent some Clan Ninja to accompany them. Yamanaka Sōten, a Jonin from the Yamanaka Clan, was the leader, and he was probably there by now.
To what extent had they mined? No one knew.
There were no telephones in the Ninja World.
Eighteen years later, Kaminarimon Iburi's son, Kaminarimon Denki, used hot air balloons as base stations, which allowed Konoha Village and Tanzaku Town to achieve real-time communication.
Orochimaru also developed a biotechnology product similar to a Den Den Mushi around this time: the Den Den Snake.
These were all things of the future; currently, such technology didn't exist, and everything had to wait.
Both Shikaku and Utatane Koharu were full of anticipation for Sandevistan Mk.2, hoping this weapon would reduce casualties among Konoha Ninja. As the financier, Daimyo's brother Enichi Kyū also didn't want the fleet to have any accidents.
The day after Ino completed Naruto's preliminary training for half-Tailed Beast transformation, Yamanaka Sōten's messenger hawk finally returned to Konoha Village. The letter stated that the fleet had mined a large amount of gelel stone and was currently on its way back.
Not wanting to trouble two masters with one task, the Village gave Ino the order to go and meet the fleet.
Coincidentally, Tsunade had received a "big job."
A former acquaintance, a rich sucker, introduced her to a big financier. Now, the big financier came to Konoha Village, entrusting them with escort duties.
The big financier came from the Land of the Moon, a southern island nation.
Due to the turbulent situation in the East Sea, Prince Mangetsu and his entourage from the southern Land of the Moon sensed that something was wrong and immediately sent a request to Konoha Village, hoping that Konoha Ninja would escort them back to their country.
Whether it was dangerous or not was another matter; the mission's reward was as high as eighty million ryo!
Prince Mangetsu generously stated that if they encountered danger on the way, he could even add more money!
Seeing the Fat Prince waving money and using his "money power" while constantly shouting "more money," even Ino thought he was indeed very wealthy. Her own money had been completely taken by Rino and Hinata, and she was currently very poor. What more was there to say? This mission was accepted!
Ino was responsible for killing, sensing, and healing; Shikamaru was responsible for strategy; Choji was responsible for appearances, as the client was also a Fat Man, so having a Fat Man on their side would make for better common ground.
Finally, Ino and her two teammates took on this mission.
Jiraiya thought about it and, considering that missions in the Ninja World were usually in teams of four, having three people go out was a bit against the rules. As for adding Asuma? That was completely unnecessary.
After much thought, he added Sakura, who had been idle, to the mission roster.
Having a female character in the mission would make communication more convenient. What about Ino? Ino was currently a human nuclear bomb; who goes to negotiate while carrying a nuclear bomb? Gandhi, the peace envoy?
Sakura currently had nothing to do, so it was a good opportunity to give her a mission. This mission wasn't dangerous, and even if it was, it didn't matter. Ino was going, so the enemies should be the ones who felt it was dangerous.
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