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Akio led the three kids out of the Hokage Building. They didn't return home to pack—everyone was already prepared. Without delay, they headed straight for Konoha's main gate.

"Happy now? I was originally planning to give you a combat mission, but it's turned into a training journey instead," Akio said with a smile.

Although he spoke casually, inwardly he was already considering adding some difficulty to their trip.

Kushina saw right through him. "Let's hope nothing unexpected happens this time."

The way she said "unexpected" was through clenched teeth.

Akio just smiled and pretended not to hear.

At the village gate, the group came across Jiraiya, who looked fully prepared to head out.

"What's this? Off doing research again, great author?" Akio teased.

Jiraiya nodded. "And you? Taking them on a mission?"

"Yeah. When your novel is ready to publish, don't forget to tell me. As your senior in the writing world, I could give you a few pointers."

Jiraiya scoffed in disbelief at Akio's writing skills, but eventually gave a reluctant nod without arguing.

After that brief exchange, Akio and his team took to the skies. Their destination was quite far—traveling on foot and by boat would have taken over half a month.

While flying would cut down on the fun of a long journey, Akio glanced at the marked locations on the map Hiruzen had given him and figured the island seemed far more interesting anyway.

And so, Akio and his three students crossed mountains and oceans, passed through crowds of people—and within just half a day, they arrived at their destination: Southern Red Province Island.

Although the oceans in the shinobi world weren't vast, there were plenty of small islands. On their flight over, they passed by several uninhabited ones.

"There aren't this many islands along the two sea routes to the Land of Whirlpools…" Akio muttered, glancing north.

Flying so openly made them easy to spot. Naturally, the shinobi stationed on the island for herb collection noticed their approach. Soon, four figures quickly closed in on them.

"Who are you?" one of the four demanded as they neared, all wearing wary expressions. None of the Konoha group were wearing forehead protectors.

These four had a rather "unique" style. Not only were they wearing forehead protectors with the kanji for "Commerce" (商), but each carried a basket full of herbs on their backs—and oddly enough, they all had what looked like… skateboards?

"A small nation really is a small nation. You don't even recognize the great Uzumaki Akio," he sighed dramatically and gestured for Kushina to step forward and explain.

"We're from Konohagakure. We'd like to gather some medicinal herbs on the island," Kushina stated confidently. She was never one to get flustered, unlike Akio's two disciples, who stood awkwardly behind.

The four traders exchanged glances. The leader removed the basket from his back and asked, "What kind of herbs are you looking for?"

As he spoke, he also took off his "skateboard" and flipped it over.

Akio took a look—and to his surprise, it was actually an abacus.

"No wonder the forehead protector says 'Commerce.' But this is just too…" Akio trailed off as something clicked in his mind. The top side of the abacus had rows of small rolling wheels—it was flat on the back.

While the lead shinobi waited for their answer, his vision blurred for a moment—the abacus had already been snatched by Akio.

Placing it flat on the ground, Akio stepped on it—it really could slide.

"What are you doing?!" the four merchant shinobi shouted, quickly pulling out kunai in alarm.

"Oh, nothing. I just lost interest in buying herbs. How much for one of these skateboards?"

"…"

In the end, the money Hiruzen gave them for herbs was spent on four skateboards—one for each of the Konoha team.

The four merchant shinobi stared at them like they were idiots. Akio didn't care. Hiruzen hadn't given him much money anyway, and he didn't plan to just buy herbs and leave. Several spots on the island seemed interesting—he intended to explore a bit.

He turned to the four shinobi and asked, "We're broke now. It's okay if we gather herbs ourselves, right?"

"Broke…" The merchants looked confused. No money, yet they all bought useless abacus skateboards.

"Go ahead, but please don't pull the herbs out by the roots," one of them replied.

Akio nodded. "Of course. 'If you don't cut the weeds at the roots, they'll grow again in the spring breeze,' right?"

A chilly wind blew by. The four merchant shinobi turned and left. From how Akio had snatched the abacus just now, it was obvious he was a very strong shinobi. And judging by his odd behavior… probably not quite right in the head. Best not to mess with someone like that.

Once they were gone, Akio turned to see all three of his students staring blankly at their new "skateboards."

"What are you spacing out for?" Akio demonstrated, sliding left and right. "Hop on—we're going herb-gathering!"

The two disciples obediently followed. Kushina looked like she deeply regretted joining this mission… but in the end, she had no choice. The four of them set off on a cheerful herb-gathering trip—or so it seemed.

It wasn't cheerful at all. Except for Konan, no one else could identify herbs. Akio started tasting them to figure out their properties, and Nagato followed his lead.

Within half an hour, Nagato had gotten food poisoning twice—he didn't have Akio's constitution.

Kushina, wisely, stuck close to Konan and focused on learning proper identification methods.

Akio, after eating too many herbs, began to look a little strange—not because he was poisoned, but because of what appeared before his eyes:

Medicine Making Lv1 (0/100)

"…It's not herbal identification? It's actually medicine making? Am I supposed to compete with the Akimichi Clan's soldier pills?" Akio shook his head and shelved the skill for now.

As they gathered herbs, the group wandered deeper into the island and came upon a cliff.

Akio was about to carry the three kids across when he spotted a wooden bridge not far away.

"Was this built by the herbalists?" he muttered, taking a few steps onto the bridge.

"Sensei, wait!" Konan's shout made him pause.

He looked around—nothing seemed dangerous. His face darkened. "Konan… don't tell me you've gone soft too…"

"No, Sensei! The ropes of the bridge are laced with numbing grass!"

"Numbing grass?" Akio blinked. He had heard of it before—supposedly, it could paralyze most shinobi.

He touched the rope with his right hand and felt a mild numbing sensation.

"…Even I feel a little tingle?" Akio frowned—then suddenly had an idea.

"You three, put your skateboards down. It's time for a special training exercise."

The kids got a bad feeling. Sure enough, Akio continued, "Try to use chakra to protect your bodies from the numbing grass as you walk across the bridge."

He looked down. "I'm not helping. It's just water below, but I doubt anyone wants to fall in."

The kids tried to refuse at first—but of course, Akio's will prevailed. One by one, they stepped onto the bridge.

Though they avoided direct contact, the effect still seeped through. Fortunately, each had coated their body in a layer of chakra. It slowed their movements, but they could advance step by step.

Akio squinted in thought. "Numbing grass… not a bad thing to have."

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