Chapter 307: Miss Maki
"Of course. I've treated many patients in Konoha." Ino, feeling no moral pressure whatsoever, opened her mouth wide and began to boast about her medical theory—a theory that sensed the changes in time, geography, human emotions, plus the transformations of yin, yang, and the five elements, which could be named the "Great Sorrowful Anthem of Heaven and Earth's Intercourse of Yin and Yang."
You don't understand medical ninjutsu, do you? If you don't, this is easy.
Temari heard a whole bunch of new terms and thought it sounded impressive, but as for what specifically made it impressive? She had no idea!
The Sand Village's poisons and puppet techniques were extremely powerful, but their medical facilities seemed a bit crude in Ino's eyes. The village provided no subsidies, and the wards only contained some injured ninjas; not a single villager was in sight.
She had deep feelings about this. Medical ninjutsu was something that required a lot of practice! Her current medical skills were stuck in an awkward middle ground, and the root cause was the lack of opportunities to practice.
The Sand Village offered even fewer chances to practice.
They certainly wouldn't show her their real secrets. She did a quick, superficial tour of the facilities, and that was that.
Temari was busy with work and didn't have time to wander around with her. Considering Ino was Tsunade's disciple and had fought Kitsuchi to a draw, making her by no means a nobody in the ninja world, Temari found another Jounin to continue showing her around.
"Being a Jounin is so busy," Ino said sarcastically.
Temari lifted her chin with considerable pride. That's right, your big sister here is a Jounin. If you're not happy about it, come and fight me.
When the female ninja who came to accompany Ino announced her name, Ino had to quickly cover her mouth and then pinch her own thigh hard, terrified she would burst out laughing.
This female Jounin had large eyes and a sharp chin, around the same age as Kakashi and Shizune.
Unlike the unique attire of Temari and Kankuro, the female Jounin wore the Sand Village's traditional white headscarf and brown flak jacket. On her cheeks, she wore purple face paint, symbolizing passion and courage.
"Hello, I am Maki."
Ino suppressed her laughter; this woman's name was just too funny.
She even deliberately asked one more question, "Just Maki? What is your surname?"
Miss Maki smiled and said, "My teacher brought me back to the village. I am an orphan; I have no surname."
The Yamanaka clan had conducted detailed investigations on many of the Sand Village's Jounin beforehand, and her file was among them. At this moment, Ino pretended not to know, extracting information as if making casual conversation.
"And your teacher was?"
Miss Maki's mood involuntarily sank, and her answer was off-topic. "My teacher passed away many years ago."
"Sorry, I didn't know."
"It's alright."
Miss Maki's teacher was the renowned female ninja of the Sand Village, Pakura, user of the "Scorch Release" Kekkei Genkai.
Pakura had performed meritorious service for the Sand Village, completing so many missions that the village couldn't pay her rewards in full. Furthermore, her high prestige posed a threat to the Fourth Kazekage's authority. So, what was to be done? If this had happened in Konoha, it would certainly have been "Will of Fire" brainwashing! The Sand Village didn't do that.
Their method was simple and brutal: they tricked their own great general and meritorious subject, sending her to be killed by the Mist Village.
A powerful female ninja, wholeheartedly dedicated to the public good, did not die on the battlefield but was betrayed by her own compatriots, dying tragically in an enemy ambush.
Pakura's life was a perfect illustration of the saying, "Today's heroic soul was yesterday's Great Wall."
Konoha had done foolish things that were like cutting off its own limbs, such as forcing the White Fang of Konoha to his death and massacring the Uchiha clan. The Mist Village had carried out the Bloody Mist Policy. But all of these had their reasons, at least they could be roughly explained. Konoha had never intended to kill the White Fang, only to tarnish his reputation.
The Sand Village's act of killing its own meritorious subject was simply too heinous. The village already had few elites, and yet you still do this? Who would be willing to risk their lives for you in the future?
Ino's words carried a trace of spiritual energy. She said, somewhat bewitchingly, "I heard of Lady Pakura's great fame when I was a child. Miss Maki, could you tell me more about her in detail?"
Miss Maki greatly admired her teacher and was not entirely ignorant of what had happened back then. Now, facing Ino's bright eyes, she felt as if she were seeing a friend of many years, and the frustration in her heart finally found an outlet.
She began to recount the merits her teacher had established. Pakura's record on the battlefield was extremely glorious, and there were simply too many stories to tell.
During the Third Great Ninja War, the most dazzling ninja was undoubtedly the "Yellow Flash," Minato Namikaze. After him came the Fourth Raikage and his sworn brother, Killer B. The fourth was Pakura. At that time, Kakashi could only be said to be emerging, still a considerable distance from dominating the battlefield.
For such a famous female ninja to die by her own village's treachery was truly lamentable.
"Every time my teacher completed a mission, I could see the fatigue on her face, but she would still force herself to train with me..."
The more Miss Maki spoke, the sadder she became. Ino offered timely comfort. "Don't be sad, your teacher is watching over you in the Pure Land." "The dead are gone; the living must carry on."
Her comfort was like pouring oil on a fire. Although Miss Maki did not agree to defect, her words were already filled with extreme dissatisfaction with the Sand Village leadership's actions.
Ino timely threw in some questions, probing from the side, and managed to find out a great deal of intelligence about the Sand Village.
Most crucially, she found out the location of Chiyo and Ebizō's hidden residence.
Ino and Miss Maki strolled through the area designated for them in the Sand Village. Even so, she could feel many hateful stares.
It could be that their friends or relatives had died at the hands of Konoha ninjas, or it could simply be that they felt Konoha was rich while the Sand was poor. The air was thick with hostility. Many people, when referring to Gaara, didn't call him the Fifth Kazekage but used "that monster" instead.
This hostility was particularly evident during the exam.
Ino and the other insiders were secretly conducting various investigations and defections. Including herself, they had all underestimated the Sand Village's hostility.
Of the sixty Genin, fewer than half passed the written exam. That was still acceptable; after all, the ones who came this time were not the elite.
But after the second exam ended, even she was somewhat furious.
The second exam was held in an area called the Desert of Death. In this competition, Konoha lost a full nineteen Genin—not injured, not disabled, but vanished, with neither the living nor the dead to be found.
In the vast Gobi desert, with its harsh environment, various poisonous insects and ferocious beasts, plus the hostile Sand Village ninjas, these nineteen Konoha Genin had "vanished" into thin air.
They had no prior knowledge that the second exam would be this brutal.
Kakashi stormed into the Kazekage's office; he needed an explanation. The situation was tense, swords drawn, just a hair's breadth away from a fight breaking out.
Gaara had a splitting headache. He personally went into the desert to search, but only found two bodies and a young ninja who had lost his right leg.
Having lost a leg, this person could no longer be a ninja.
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