"Eh~ what's going on? Why do I keep dreaming about bumping into Ino in situations like that..."
Sakura woke up with her mind full of last night's dreams: the muscular physique, the wild physical impact, even Ino's shout was clearly echoing in her ears.
Reaching down with her hand, Sakura's face instantly flushed red. It's already been four or five days, and each time she wakes up, she encounters this situation.
"Should I find a time to ask Ino about it?"
The thought just popped into Sakura's mind before she shook her head, denying it with a blush; even with the best of best friends, it's impossible to discuss such matters with each other.
Then Sakura quietly got out of bed, somewhat sneakily took out a new set of clothes, and then went to the bathroom to take a shower, washing off the sticky marks on her body before putting on clean clothes.
After walking out of the bathroom, Sakura dismantled the sheets and threw them into the washing machine for cleaning.
After completing all this early in the morning, Sakura felt relieved to start making breakfast for Sarada. When the breakfast was ready, Sarada also happened to wake up, and Sakura quickly finished her breakfast and left home before Sarada.
Recently, the Konoha Ninja Village has been very busy, as if it has returned to the wartime alert period; all ninjas have a minimum standby time of twelve hours a day to guard against the advent of exotic beast disasters.
However, during the third time and fourth arrival, the Five Great Ninja Villages haven't encountered any anomalies, and they have sent out quite a few ninjas and confirmed with other small countries without finding traces of exotic beasts.
This made the Five Great Ninja Villages both relieved and anxious.
Although the exotic beasts haven't appeared within the Five Great Countries, they have definitely arrived in the Ninja World; next, these arriving exotic beasts must be found and killed.
Otherwise, if an exotic beast like the one in the first arrival surfaces once, it will surely pose a considerable threat to the Ninja World.
Uchiha Yoichi doesn't care much about these exotic beasts; the Sea Kings from the first arrival, despite their large size, would turn into life energy when encountering him.
Without special abilities, exotic beasts simply cannot deal with Yomi Tsu ze Watari, Uchiha Yoichi, whenever he uses this pupil technique, he is almost like a god.
During these days, Uchiha Yoichi had been attempting alchemy in the Kamui space, and also researched a bit about that unknown energy from the book hovering around; but he is not interested in magic, and there isn't an environment in the Ninja World to practice magic either.
However, the Annihilation Fog caused by the White Whale seemed to be found by Uchiha Yoichi, who used its horn and the most abundant magic-powered heart to make an elixir.
Consuming it can eliminate one's existence; eating a second one can counteract the effect of the first secret medicine, thus restoring one's existence.
The Annihilation Fog of the White Whale seems to be linked to authority, and its effect is so dominant that even after a Kamui Clone took one, Uchiha Yoichi overlooked his existence as a Kamui Clone.
Later, only when the Kamui Clone took the second one, was the Annihilation Fog's ability neutralized.
Uchiha Yoichi had only made three pills; after the Kamui Clone consumed two, the last one was kept by Uchiha Yoichi.
This type of elixir is ineffective, only useful for those who have been affected by the Annihilation Fog; in other words, it's a specific type of elixir. Now that the White Whale has been killed, the Annihilation Fog's factors are all in the White Whale's horn, making it impossible for anyone else to be affected by Annihilation Fog.
The only customer for this type of elixir left was Temari.
After returning from the Kamui space, Uchiha Yoichi didn't stay long before going to find Ino, expressing his desire to see the White Whale's corpse.
If you're going to fake alchemy, you'd better make it look convincing.
Once permitted, Uchiha Yoichi went to bring back some White Whale's body tissues, and this news was quickly learned by Temari, who then hurriedly came to Yoichi Pharmacy.
In the past few days, Temari was having a hard time; she didn't even have money, and although she wanted to go to the Nara Family to retrieve her bankbook, the Security Team's patrols were frequent these days, and if she got caught doing that, she might get locked up.
In the end, Temari had to borrow some money from Uchiha Yoichi to afford the inn, otherwise, she would have had to find a way to steal the bankbook from the Nara Family.
Arriving at Yoichi Pharmacy, Temari impatiently rang the bell on the first floor several times before Uchiha Yoichi came down from the upstairs.
"It's you! Why the rush? Are you here to repay the money?"
Uchiha Yoichi spoke to Temari in an unpleasant tone; he hated people rushing him incessantly, so he came down to ask Temari to pay back the money.
"Money... I'll definitely return it to you once I find my existence... This bit of money is nothing..."
Upon hearing the mention of money repayment, Temari's tone weakened instantly. She then couldn't help her anxiety and asked, "I heard you went to see the White Whale's corpse this morning. How was it? Any research done?"
"Your news is quite well-informed... Come upstairs and let's talk."
Uchiha Yoichi glanced at Temari, then spoke to her and closed the door, heading straight upstairs.
Temari hesitated for just a moment before following behind Uchiha Yoichi; in the past, as Shikamaru's wife, she would never accompany another man to a place like a bedroom, but now she just wanted to reclaim her sense of existence, and she'd been here once a few days ago.
Upon reaching the third floor, Uchiha Yoichi served a cup of tea to Temari and then sat down, saying, "There's a discovery that might be related to this White Whale, and it seems that Konoha is also having others research it. You can wait for Konoha's research results."
"Over there... I've already asked Shikamaru, and apparently, he's entrusted it to Orochimaru, but things don't seem to be going well there either, and Shikamaru he..."
Temari trailed off, lowering her head slowly. She had been visiting Shikamaru too frequently lately, and Shikamaru was also dealing with a lot of issues recently. Today she asked Shikamaru about managing Lu Dai's dietary issues, which directly caused him to snap at her.
From Nara Shikamaru's perspective, she was just a stranger using his wife's tone to preach to him, and this person wasn't even his wife.
So Nara Shikamaru, a bit angry, scolded Temari, telling her not to come looking for him again anytime soon and to stay put in Konoha.
Uchiha Yoichi didn't care about the conflict between Temari and Nara Shikamaru. To him, Temari wasn't as easy to handle as Lady Ino, but she was still good enough as a 'thirst quencher.'
"Although I benefited from some progress in alchemy research, the expenses were substantial, especially for purchasing the important body organs of the White Whale from the underground black market. That also cost quite a lot....."
Temari suddenly interrupted, puzzled, "Buying the White Whale's body from the underground black market? Wasn't that whale in Konoha?"
"It's said that by the time Konoha found it, the White Whale was already dead, and the corpse was incomplete. I don't even know how it got out; but the remains in the underground black market are too expensive, costing me quite a bit...."
Uchiha Yoichi casually lied, then changed the topic, continuing to speak to Temari, "Moving on, have you found the things I need? Without those, even if I find a solution, I won't help you."
"No, could I substitute something else? I can give you money, five million ryo... no, ten million ryo would be fine!"
Upon hearing this, Temari pleaded urgently. The items Uchiha Yoichi wanted were too rare, according to other pharmacy owners; even a two-thousand-year-old ginseng might not exist in the Ninja World, and if it did, it could buy up a dozen mountain ranges.
"I don't need money; tens of billions of ryo mean nothing to me. I could even present it right now; if you find what I need, I might even pay ten billion ryo for it, do you understand?"
Uchiha Yoichi chuckled dismissively, "Money is just useless waste paper to me, and I would trade this waste paper for the medicinal materials I need."
"But those things are really hard to find..." Temari anxiously explained, seeing hope slipping away because she couldn't get any returns to go back to how things were...
"That's your issue; I can't help for nothing. Everything requires a price."
Uchiha Yoichi took another sip of tea and continued speaking to Temari, "I might be able to develop a secret medicine to resolve this situation in about four or five days; come to me when you can gather what I want. But it'd be best to hurry, since the secret medicine is hard to preserve and loses potency in ten days or so."
"Ten days, how is that possible?"
Temari said with a troubled expression; according to those pharmacy owners, finding it within a decade would be rare, let alone ten days... it's impossible!
"You, are you just playing with me, not intending to give it to me at all?"
Temari, suddenly enraged, stood up and approached Uchiha Yoichi, grabbing his collar and demanding answers; in her understanding, a Yin Yang Master was someone with peculiar abilities but weaker in combat compared to a ninja, hence her blatant rudeness.
"There must be return for investment, and it's rather unreasonable for someone like you to just want from me without paying any price; we're not even close, so why should I help you for no reason?"
Uchiha Yoichi responded nonchalantly, unconcerned by Temari's actions, scrutinizing her instead; she was a strong and beautiful woman.
"Or, you could use another way to trade for this secret medicine with me!"
Upon hearing there was another way, Temari quickly asked, "What way?"
Uchiha Yoichi smiled, saying, "I haven't had any X life for a while, nor am I interested in going to the red-light district. If you're willing to keep me company for one night, I can give you the secret medicine for free... if not, then prepare the medicinal materials I need."
"You, you bastard!"
Upon hearing 'X life' and 'spend a night,' Temari immediately realized Uchiha Yoichi's intent. As Nara Shikamaru's wife, this bastard actually had such ideas about her...
"See if I don't punch you to the sky!"
Temari, already in a bad mood these days, couldn't hold back her anger when Uchiha Yoichi teased her, raising her fist to fiercely punch Uchiha Yoichi.
However, Uchiha Yoichi quickly drew a Command Spell in the air, which turned into Binding Power, immobilizing Temari's body.
He then took the opportunity to break free from Temari, stepping back a few steps and saying, "If you're unwilling, then forget it; it saves me the effort of refining the medicine. Your matters have nothing to do with me. If you don't want to do this, then please leave and don't come to me again!"