Hurry and Invite the Toad Sage

After parting ways with Kakashi, the three of them went to Ichiraku Ramen to celebrate completing their first mission.

They had originally planned to visit a barbecue restaurant, but stingy Menma deliberately brought up how the wild boar from this mission had died. The other two immediately lost their appetites and could only follow Menma to the cheap yet satisfying Ichiraku Ramen.

While waiting for their ramen to be served, the three chatted, naturally bringing up Kakashi's training suggestions from earlier.

Sasuke interlocked his fingers and rested the backs of his hands beneath his chin. "What do you think, Sakura? Instead of learning powerful offensive ninjutsu, you want to study medical ninjutsu.

"As far as I know, medical ninjutsu is extremely difficult to get started with. Not only do you need to master an enormous amount of theoretical knowledge, but it also places great demands on a ninja's chakra control.

"If you specialize in medical ninjutsu, Sakura, your strength will progress very slowly from here on out."

Sakura tucked several loose strands of hair behind her ear and smiled faintly. "If a team has a medical ninja, its survival rate will increase dramatically.

"Whether it's Sasuke or Menma, both of you are the type to get hurt whenever you act on impulse. I really can't feel at ease leaving you alone.

"Besides, I don't have a large chakra reserve to begin with. Rather than learning ninjutsu that I might only be able to use a few times in battle, I might as well study medical ninjutsu. That way, I may be able to stay away from the front lines in the future and become a full-time medical ninja."

Hearing Sakura's words, Sasuke fell silent. He thought she was willing to step into the background and become a medical ninja for the sake of the two of them, and that she had deliberately said those things so they would not feel guilty.

Menma, however, felt nothing in particular. He even found Sasuke's touched yet embarrassed expression amusing, so he kindly explained, "Don't be stupid. Sakura's just teasing you!

"If I'm not mistaken, Sakura, you chose medical ninjutsu because you simply don't think much of the ninjutsu Kakashi wants to teach you, right?"

"How could that be? Just hearing their names, they sound like powerful and practical ninjutsu. Besides, there are so many of them." Sasuke sounded doubtful.

"Think about it. You said those ninjutsu sounded impressive just from their names. Sakura is as thoughtful as she is—how could she choose medical ninjutsu without even hearing the specifics of those techniques? There can only be one explanation: she has the training methods for those ninjutsu, or perhaps she's already trained in them." Menma analyzed.

"Impossible. There are so many techniques. There's no way a Genin could master them all." Sasuke looked stunned, making it clear that he did not believe it at all.

Menma continued, "Think about it. Before you learn a ninjutsu, can you tell how much chakra it consumes just by hearing its name?"

Sasuke thought it over and suddenly understood. "That's right. How could you know how much chakra a ninjutsu consumes from its name alone? But Sakura just said her chakra reserves wouldn't let her cast many techniques in a single battle. That means either she already knows the detailed training methods and how much chakra they consume, or she's already mastered those techniques and tested them..."

At that point, Sasuke looked at Sakura as though she were a monster. "Don't tell me you've really already mastered those techniques?"

"Well, who knows?" Sakura said with her eyes narrowed into smiling slits.

Sasuke still did not quite understand. "Then you could have just told the truth and asked Kakashi for more advanced ninjutsu. There was no need to study medical ninjutsu."

"Do you think a single D-rank mission and some outstanding talent are enough to trade for powerful ninjutsu? What do you take Konoha's ninjutsu exchange system for?" Menma curled his lip disdainfully. "Kakashi is only our jonin instructor, not the teacher of our lineage. He has neither the obligation nor the authority to teach us powerful ninjutsu.

"Of course, Chidori is different. For one thing, it's a ninjutsu he developed himself. For another, his left eye came from the Uchiha, and he probably wants to trade teaching the technique to the young master of the Uchiha clan for more advanced methods of training the Sharingan.

"Of course, that's only my guess. I don't know what the truth really is.

"And do you think medical ninja are weak? You're wrong. A good medical ninja is often the strongest fighter on the team!"

"How could that be? It's universally acknowledged that medical ninja have weak combat ability," Sasuke retorted.

"Those are just mediocre medical ninja. Real medical ninja aren't weak at all!" Menma spouted nonsense with a straight face. "A real medical ninja only needs to learn the Bandage Technique and put all their other points into brute-force damage. As long as they kill the enemy before the enemy hurts their teammates, they can achieve the best medical results."

By then, Sasuke could hear the teasing in Menma's tone. He said disdainfully, "Hmph. By your logic, wouldn't that mean you don't even need to learn the Bandage Technique?"

"You do need to learn it. The Bandage Technique isn't for dressing wounds—it's for tying up teammates who are getting in the way and capturing enemies." Menma continued spouting nonsense.

Unbeknownst to him, Sakura across from him fell into thought after hearing his explanation of medical ninja...

Night fell. Inside the Hokage's office.

"...That was the situation. Does Lord Hokage have any further instructions?" Kakashi reported Team 7's completion of its first mission to Danzo. He gave a detailed analysis of Menma and the others' personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, then specifically emphasized Menma's exceptional talent for Wind Release chakra.

"Exceptional Wind Release talent? How rare," Danzo muttered to himself. He very much wanted to take Menma as his disciple, but his aging body and heavy administrative workload did not permit it.

"If that's the case, Menma's talent truly cannot be wasted. How about this? Although I don't have time to teach him personally, I can still guide him in his initial training. I'll make time over the next few days to organize my insights on Wind Release training. Once I've turned them into a scroll, Kakashi, give it to Menma.

"Also, Kakashi, go to Konoha's library later. There is a ninja frog in the documentary literature section. Jiraiya left it in Konoha for emergency contact.

"Take the Hokage's order and tell it, 'By order of the Hokage, return at once.' Have the contact frog return to Mount Myōboku and deliver a message to Jiraiya. Tell him to hurry back."

"Yes!" Kakashi accepted the order and vanished in a Body Flicker.

Danzo stood before the window, gazing at the lights of countless homes outside, as well as the dark street corners hidden beneath them. He muttered, "The tree wishes to be still, but the wind will not cease. Grow quickly, newly born ninjas...

"No, 'the tree wishes to be still, but the wind will not cease' isn't appropriate here. Change it, change it...

"The wind whistles bleakly, the waters of Yi run cold...

"No, no, still not right. That's far too unlucky. Change it again, change it again...

"Ahem. A mighty wind rises, the clouds soar...

"That still doesn't seem right. Damn it, are there no poems about wind that fit this occasion?

"Oh, I've got it, I've got it.

"A golden-scaled creature is no thing of the pond; once it gains wind and clouds, it becomes a dragon. Konoha's new generation, grow quickly...

..."