"We're here, this is the place!"
Yamanaka Ino brought the two outsider civilians to the front of Yoichi Pharmacy and said to them, "This is the shop you're looking for, the pharmacy that recycles rare items."
It was actually a coincidence. Yamanaka Ino had gone to see off the Medical team led by Sakura, and at the village gate she ran into these two people asking directions. Once she heard they were asking about Yoichi Pharmacy, she simply brought them over on the way.
And Yamanaka Ino also had something to do here with Uchiha Yoichi. She'd received a request from Naruto; because it was Ino who helped push Uchiha Yoichi to tell them about the prophecy, Uzumaki Naruto assumed Yamanaka Ino and Uchiha Yoichi were very close.
The two of them really were very close, it's just that no outsiders knew.
As they entered, the crisp sound of a bell rang out, and Uchiha Yoichi quickly came down from upstairs.
Seeing Yamanaka Ino, Uchiha Yoichi smiled and said, "Lady Ino, long time no see...."
"We just saw each other the day before yesterday!"
Yamanaka Ino couldn't help吐槽 as she spoke. Her heartbeat had sped up a little when she saw Uchiha Yoichi, but with outsiders present she didn't show it. She pointed to the two civilian brothers from out of town and said, "They're here for you, they've got something they want to sell you."
"Is that so."
Upon hearing that, Uchiha Yoichi sized the two up and immediately noticed the bundle one of them was holding in his arms. It looked like a box, so he said to them, "Take it out and let me have a look. As long as it's real, I'll give you a price you'll be satisfied with."
"This is definitely a treasure chest. We tried all sorts of methods and still couldn't open it....."
The older brother spoke as he opened the bundle in his arms, revealing the chest inside.
With a single glance Uchiha Yoichi could tell this probably wasn't an item from the Ninja World. The writing on it didn't match anything from now or from a thousand years ago. There were also very shallow chop marks on the chest—looked like the two had tried to hack it open with an axe or something—but the exterior was too hard, so they'd given up.
"It really doesn't look fake...."
The exterior of the chest might be tough, but it couldn't block Spiritual Power. Uchiha Yoichi easily used his Spiritual Power to penetrate the hard wooden chest and sense the item inside.
"This is...."
After 'seeing' the item inside, Uchiha Yoichi's face instantly showed surprise: a flame-shaped skin, a spherical body, and one end of the stem was also shaped like a flame....
Isn't this the Flame-Flame Fruit from the Pirate World? The shape and appearance were identical—it couldn't possibly be wrong.
'For the Flame-Flame Fruit to end up in these two people's hands, then those few massive life auras that appeared last night were probably Sea Kings?'
Uchiha Yoichi thought to himself. If they were Sea Kings, he didn't need to worry. They were just large-bodied Sea Beasts with thick, robust Life Force—maybe a bit tough-skinned and fleshy—but they posed no threat to him at all.
The older brother of the pair spoke up, "Boss, do you want this chest?"
Snapped out of his thoughts, Uchiha Yoichi nodded and asked, "Yeah, I'll take it. How much are you planning to sell it for?"
"Two hundred... no, four million ryo!"
The older brother stated. With four million, he and his younger brother could live a good life.
"Sure, wait a moment."
After Uchiha Yoichi finished speaking, he quickly came back with a case, inside of which was four million ryo. He placed the leather case on the table and motioned for them to take it.
The two brothers carefully checked it over, then left with grins and words of thanks. They hadn't expected it to go so smoothly, and afraid that Uchiha Yoichi might go back on the deal, they headed straight back to their hometown after leaving the pharmacy, still worried he would change his mind.
After the two brothers left, Yamanaka Ino at the side couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked, "What's inside?"
"If I'm not wrong, this is the treasure that appeared together with that monster last night. I didn't expect it to land in my hands in a way like this—what a coincidence...."
After Uchiha Yoichi finished speaking, he controlled his Spiritual Power and pushed open the lock on the box.
As the box opened, the Flame-Flame Fruit inside was fully revealed before Uchiha Yoichi's eyes.
It was the first time Yamanaka Ino had seen such a strangely shaped fruit, and she immediately asked, "What is this? It looks like some kind of fruit...."
"It should be from another world. After eating it you might gain an ability related to flames, but there are drawbacks too.... Though you'd only know after you eat it."
Uchiha Yoichi actually knew, but he didn't reveal all the information he had. After all, what he was outwardly showing now was the image of using prophecy.
"It really has a lot to do with fire.... I didn't expect those two to take the initiative to sell it to you, that's too much of a coincidence."
Yamanaka Ino looked at the flame patterns on the Flame-Flame Fruit, feeling a bit emotional.
Then she remembered the friction between Uchiha Yoichi and Nara Shikamaru, and couldn't help sighing inwardly. She then spoke to Uchiha Yoichi in a gentle voice, "Hey, don't stay mad at Shikamaru. He's careful about everything he does. It might have been because of me before—he knew I wanted to ask you to summon a deceased person, so he probably misunderstood...."
"Lady Ino, I just don't want to go to the Hokage Office anymore. From now on, if there's any news, I'll leave it to you to pass it on."
Uchiha Yoichi shook his head. Then, seeing Yamanaka Ino's delicate face and smoking-hot figure, he wavered a little.
"Oh right, Lady Ino, you haven't seen my Alchemy Room yet, have you? Want to come take a look?"
"Alchemy Room?"
Yamanaka Ino's eyes lit up, a spark of curiosity rising in her heart, but she quickly caught sight of the undisguised heat in Uchiha Yoichi's gaze. Her face instantly flushed, her breathing quickened, and memories from before surfaced in her mind.
"Y-you're definitely thinking about that kind of thing! Idiot, it's broad daylight—get a grip!"
Yamanaka Ino, flustered and angry, gave Uchiha Yoichi a whack. Then she crossed her arms in front of her chest, making the ripe, full curves stand out in an even more perfectly tempting shape, and turned her head aside with a huff.
"Nothing like that. Showing you the Alchemy Room is secondary—mainly, I want to talk to you about the prophecy."
Yamanaka Ino's ears twitched, then she turned her head and asked, "Really?"
Uchiha Yoichi said seriously, "It's absolutely true, and it's not very appropriate to talk about prophecy here, so I wanted to invite you upstairs, Lady Ino..."
"Alright then, let's talk upstairs."
Feeling a bit shy inside, Yamanaka Ino said this. Although she had more or less guessed what might happen next, when she thought about the prophecy, she still decided to go upstairs with Uchiha Yoichi.
Uchiha Yoichi gestured for Yamanaka Ino to walk in front, then followed behind Lady Ino and headed up to the third floor.
Since they were going to talk about prophecy, the Alchemy Room obviously wasn't suitable.
When they reached the third floor and Yamanaka Ino saw Uchiha Yoichi close the door, she felt a little nervous, and with a trace of anticipation she opened her mouth and said, "Hurry up and tell me about the prophecy... what are you doing~"
Before she could finish, Yamanaka Ino was pulled over and directly wrapped into Uchiha Yoichi's arms.
"Don't, don't do this, talk about the prophecy first..."
"It's still daytime~"
Yamanaka Ino's resistance couldn't refuse Uchiha Yoichi. This lady whose heart was pure but whose figure was mature had already been seen through completely by Uchiha Yoichi.
Even though they'd only done it twice, Uchiha Yoichi already understood Yamanaka Ino's body inside and out.
Uchiha Yoichi blocked Yamanaka Ino's lips, and after a deep kiss, he leaned close to her ear, breathing hotly as he said, "Lady Ino, I've missed you so much. I'll definitely tell you everything afterward..."
"You were lying just now..."
Yamanaka Ino spoke, both shy and angry, her face flushed red, but it was already too late for her to resist now. After being brought to the large floor‑to‑ceiling window, her hands were pressed against the glass.
At the same time her legs were spread apart by Uchiha Yoichi, which made Yamanaka Ino panic. She hurriedly said, "Here? No, you can't, there are a lot of people on the street..."
Through the window, Yamanaka Ino could clearly see pedestrians walking along the road below. How could they do it here...
"Don't worry, Lady Ino, this kind of window is specially made. People outside can't see what's going on inside."
Uchiha Yoichi spoke in a soothing tone, while pressing down on Yamanaka Ino's waist, then reached his hand downward...
"Ah!"
On the thick glass, two flattened handprints appeared, and those two handprints moved up and down from time to time.
After a while, below the handprints on the glass, two soft, round imprints appeared as well...
xxxxxxx
Sliick! Sliick!
"Lady Ino, I'm about to..."
As soon as Uchiha Yoichi finished speaking, he held Yamanaka Ino in place, then slowly exhaled before finally letting her go.
"Cough, cough, cough!!"
As she sat up, Yamanaka Ino choked and started coughing violently. She hurriedly took the water handed to her and drank it down.
"You—you bastard, I told you to warn me beforehand!"
After Yamanaka Ino recovered, she immediately pounded Uchiha Yoichi hard a few times in shame and anger, venting over having choked just now.
"Sorry, Lady Ino, it was my first time, so I got a little too excited..."
Uchiha Yoichi said with an embarrassed look, and his acting quickly made Yamanaka Ino calm down.
First time? In this world, it really was his first time!
"Now you should talk about the serious business, honestly. Suddenly I feel like a female Ninja stealing intel!"
Yamanaka Ino snorted coldly. Seeing this, Uchiha Yoichi hastily pulled her into his arms to comfort her: "Even if you didn't do this, Lady Ino, I would still tell you. Love can't be mixed with other things, Lady Ino."
"Tch..."
"Let me tell you the latest prophecy I've learned. I used Yin-Yang Art to attempt another prophecy. After midnight tomorrow, time and space will overlap again, and a new disaster may appear. Whether it'll be a natural disaster or an Exotic Beast, I can't say for sure, but the timing is certain—once it's past midnight tomorrow..."
Uchiha Yoichi shared the intel with Yamanaka Ino. Revealing a bit more wasn't a problem. A single Sea Kings had already caused such heavy losses to the Hidden Mist Village; if they weren't prepared, he might end up becoming the destroyer of the Ninja World.
"I've also figured out some of the pattern behind these temporal collisions. Every three days, right after midnight, a time‑space overlap and collision will occur, and then disasters or Exotic Beasts will appear in the Ninja World. But treasures like the ones we obtained today will also show up."
After hearing this, Yamanaka Ino's face was full of shock. "Once every three days? How can the interval be so short?"
Uchiha Yoichi consoled her, "Time‑space distortions don't follow any rules. After about a month, the turbulent time‑space will slowly calm down, and then the Ninja World can return to normal."
"Then we still have to go through ten more of these!? No way, I have to go tell Naruto about this immediately."
Yamanaka Ino grew anxious and hurried to stand up, but when she suddenly rose, her legs went weak and she fell back onto the bed. Only after taking the Recovery Pill from Uchiha Yoichi and swallowing it did she quickly recover.
Rustle, rustle—after hastily putting her clothes back on, Yamanaka Ino turned around again and kissed Uchiha Yoichi, saying, "This intel helps a lot. This is your reward!"
With that, Yamanaka Ino left in a flurry. After she went downstairs and left, Uchiha Yoichi finally reached up to wipe his face and said, "I should've had Lady Ino rinse her mouth just now..."