Not long after, Asuma, Shikamaru, and Choji, three strong young men, finally managed to lift the semi-conscious Rock Lee and carry him into the Curry of Life Shop.
Rock Lee, who had been in extremely low spirits, took a bite of the curry rice, and instantly, a spark of life returned to his eyes. With a determined expression, he devoured the entire plate of curry rice.
Only then did he look around.
"Ah! It's Asuma-sensei! Thank you for saving me!" He bowed deeply at a perfect 90-degree angle, his gesture full of sincerity. Asuma, who had been sitting there with a cigarette in his mouth, quickly stood up to return the gesture.
Then he turned to Ino, his eyes first filled with confusion, then excitement: "You must be the Yamanaka-san who defeated Uchiha Sasuke, right? I heard you were the top of your class! That's amazing! Neji mentioned your name to me—Yamanaka Ino, the genius ninja! If I can defeat you, I'll have the right to challenge Neji, right? Great, I'm going to challenge you!"
Ino covered her forehead. She knew something like this would happen.
Just as she was trying to figure out how to brush him off, Rock Lee asked Granny Sansho for two more plates of curry rice.
While eating, he muttered to himself, "Today's training must be completed today. If I can't do it, I'll jump rope three thousand times... Mmm! So delicious! Challenge... Mmm, delicious, delicious. Next time, I'll definitely challenge you! Granny, one more plate!"
After devouring three large plates of curry rice, which were said to be ten times spicier than usual, his face turned bright red from the heat, yet he didn't drink any water.
Mumbling something incoherent, he dashed out of the room just as he had come, sprinting off into the distance.
Anyone who didn't know better might have thought he had skipped out on the bill.
Ino glanced at the direction he was heading, then looked up at the sun and quickly shouted, "Hey, if you keep running west, you'll reach the Land of Wind! Turn back! Turn back!"
Her voice was a bit soft, and the distance was too great. Rock Lee didn't catch what she said.
The muscular young man turned around, raised his right arm, and gave a thumbs-up, completely missing the point: "Thanks for the support! I'll keep working hard!"
Thanks, my foot! Ino facepalmed, watching helplessly as Rock Lee continued running westward. Damn it, our Hidden Leaf Village is to the east! What are you trying to do? Are you planning to go ahead and kick Gaara to death? Rock Lee ran incredibly fast, but his stamina was already depleted. He didn't get far before his speed dropped. Asuma caught up with him and brought him back to the Curry of Life Shop.
He needed rest and to replenish his energy, but the Curry of Life Shop clearly wasn't the right place for that.
They couldn't just leave him, but during a mission, it was crucial to avoid unnecessary complications. Team 10 couldn't abandon their mission to accompany Rock Lee, as doing so would violate a slew of ninja regulations. What to do? They'd have to call someone to take him back to the village.
Asuma, who knew Might Guy and Rock Lee well, scratched his head, wrote the situation on a scroll, and sent it off with a messenger hawk. Then he stayed in the curry shop, waiting for the village's response.
With nothing else to do, Ino bought two fish from Granny Sansho and continued practicing what she called the "Resurrection of Salted Fish Technique," a beginner-level medical ninja technique.
The two fish quickly died under her ministrations. Where she fell, she lay down—resurrection was out of the question.
Ino complained a bit about the difficulties of medical ninja techniques before continuing her practice.
Granny Sansho was mainly focused on making curry rice. Since there weren't many live fish in the kitchen, she asked Shikamaru to go fishing by another river, and the fish he caught were handed over to Choji to prepare for dinner.
The Ino-Shika-Cho Formation began to coordinate: Shikamaru fished, Ino was responsible for "finishing off" the fish, and Choji borrowed Granny Sansho's kitchen to cook them. The next morning, Rock Lee's teacher, Might Guy, arrived.
"No problem! I'll take this fool back to the village. Don't worry, nothing will go wrong." Might Guy flashed what he thought was a charming smile, his teeth gleaming, before raising his arm and giving a thumbs-up to the four of them. He then hoisted Rock Lee over his shoulder like a sack and dashed off without a moment's delay.
It had to be said, he ran incredibly fast. It had taken Ino and the others two days of non-stop travel to get from the village to the Land of Rivers. Considering the time it took for the messenger hawk to fly back to the village, the code-breaking team to decipher the message, and finally for the news to reach Might Guy, subtracting all these delays, it seemed Might Guy had completed the entire journey in just two or three hours.
His reassurance put Asuma at ease, and Ino felt even more relieved.
Joking aside, who was Might Guy? He was the King of Taijutsu! The man Madara himself had called the strongest in body techniques.
The four of them bid farewell to Granny Sansho and headed for the Oxalis Mine.
In truth, the mountain wasn't far from the Curry of Life Shop. From the shop, they could see the mountain, but as the saying goes, "the mountain looks close, but the journey is long." It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that they found the mission's client, a local official from the Land of Rivers. However, the official didn't provide much information about the Black Hoe Clan.
Team 10 arrived at the small village at the foot of the Oxalis Mine by evening.
The first impression upon entering the village was one of decay. The air carried a burnt smell, and the villagers looked emaciated, like a group of walking corpses.
"Stay alert. We might already be in the enemy's sight," Asuma said.
Not just Ino and Shikamaru, but even Choji drew his kunai, looking around with heightened vigilance.
Ino closed her eyes and formed the "Mi" hand seal.
"Sense!"
She used her sensing ability to search for chakra reactions within the village. The result was quite surprising—the village seemed entirely ordinary. Aside from the four of them, there wasn't a single person with a chakra reaction.
Ino searched again and said, "Asuma-sensei, this is strange. My sensing ability didn't detect any chakra reactions in the village or around the mine."
Asuma asked, "Do you think this mission doesn't involve enemy ninja?"
Ino hesitated. Of course, she hoped the mission would be as simple as possible, and she had confidence in her sensing ability. But the current state of the village still felt off.
No enemies at all? That seemed too good to be true.
She tried to voice her reasoning: "No, I think there's a chance enemy ninja could appear. Their sensing ability might be stronger than mine, which is why they're suppressing it."
Asuma smiled. "Staying vigilant at all times is the right answer. I agree with your assessment. This village and the Black Hoe Clan aren't simple. Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru really enjoyed the feeling of strategizing against the enemy. He quickly devised a plan: "The enemy is in the shadows, while we are in the open. If we assume our movements have already been exposed, they definitely won't want us to escape and bring more Hidden Leaf Village ninjas here. Let's withdraw from the village! If the enemy pursues us, we'll set an ambush and eliminate them. If they don't follow, we'll return and investigate the village in secret."