Jokichi took the mission form to the movie theater to meet with the client Sandayu, discussed some things to note about going to the Land of Snow for a while, and then left.
The filming crew they were staying with still had to shoot scenes in Konoha for a month. The official departure was a month later.
Jokichi wasn't in a hurry either, heading home to prepare.
He forged Guy's hair into an item.
Without any surprises, another Limiter Switch bracelet was forged.
The two Limiter Switch bracelets couldn't be fused to upgrade.
Because the Limiter Switch bracelet itself was only used to open the Eight Inner Gates of the human body. Even if upgraded, it would still just open the 8 gates, which was meaningless.
Besides, one of these things was enough.
Having more was meaningless. Even if he wanted to give it away, it depended on whether the person could withstand the side effects of opening the Eight Gates.
Casually tossing the item into the system space, Jokichi looked at the remaining two items.
A green bodysuit, exactly the same as the one Guy gave him.
A red heart that looked like burning flames.
[Hot-Blooded Bodysuit: This is an outfit with magical power. Wearing it will make your spirit more hyped, your body more resilient, and able to endure higher intensity training.]
[Heart of Protection: This is a heart with magical power. After absorption, it will increase your resolve to protect, even if it means burning your life force to do so.]
The Hot-Blooded Bodysuit and Hot-Blooded Headband were identical items, so there was nothing to say.
That Heart of Protection, on the other hand, could be paired with the Sword of Protection.
However, burning one's life force in order to protect...
If one possessed something more precious than life, then sacrificing one's life to protect it wouldn't matter.
But what Jokichi wanted to protect was his own future.
He hoped everything in his future would go his way and everything would be as he wished.
But all of this required being alive to enjoy. If he sacrificed his life to protect these things, then everything would be meaningless.
Therefore, even knowing that absorbing this thing would enhance his strength, he still tossed the Heart of Protection into the system space without hesitation.
He worried that after absorbing this thing, he might get hot-headed over certain matters and do things that violated his original intentions.
Just like the Hot-Blooded Headband back then.
At this time, the system prompt sounded in his mind again.
[Ding! Detected special materials "Hot-Blooded Headband" and "Hot-Blooded Bodysuit", which can forge the special item "Burning Scarf". Do you wish to forge?]
It was forging a new item, rather than a fusion upgrade.
Jokichi's eyes lit up, and he immediately nodded.
"Forge."
The next second, a dark red scarf that seemed to be burning with flames appeared in his hand.
[Burning Scarf: Tie it on, and your energy will become more vigorous, your body more resilient. Your body will be able to endure higher intensity training, and your physical potential will continuously break through with every extreme training session.]
Reading the system's explanation, Jokichi fell into deep thought.
Guy and Lee were different.
Although Guy also specialized in taijutsu, his body wasn't as resilient as Lee's.
He had only reached his current level by continuously breaking through his physical limits during extreme training sessions.
Whereas Lee, because of his strong physical resilience, could endure higher intensity training.
Although he had been getting steadily stronger, he had never broken through his own limits.
You could say that Lee's physical potential was stronger than Guy's.
Compared to the Hot-Blooded Bodysuit and Headband, this scarf merely added the function of breaking through physical limits.
And this function undoubtedly came from Guy breaking through his physical limits time and time again during his childhood training.
"What a pity."
Jokichi shook his head regretfully.
If this were a world where physical strength could pierce the heavens, then this scarf would be an artifact among artifacts.
Unfortunately, this world had no special body-tempering cultivation methods. A human body relying solely on high-intensity training had a limit no matter how much it was exercised. Guy breaking his limits time and time again only resulted in this current level.
Without the enhancement of the Eight Inner Gates, his physical stats wouldn't hold much of an advantage over other Jonin either.
After forging the items, Jokichi sought out Ryohei.
He had joined the Anbu and forged the illustrious reputation of Dual Sword Ryohei.
Jokichi gave the Horcrux to Ryohei, telling him to keep it close at hand.
His chakra was already injected into the Horcrux. Before he died and resurrected once, no one else could inject chakra into it.
And with Ryohei's strength, no matter how dangerous the missions he executed were, they were nothing to Jokichi.
A situation where he would instantly run into danger and get killed right upon resurrecting wouldn't occur.
Having finished all this, Jokichi went to hang out with Ino.
Once he returned from this mission, he would be leaving to travel and train.
By then, they wouldn't see each other for two or three years.
Unfortunately, the village was currently severely understaffed, and Team 10 had been on missions constantly.
Jokichi didn't want to disturb her, so he left silently.
He prepared to find Naruto to eat BBQ, but Naruto had followed Jiraiya to go find Tsunade.
He wanted to tag along too, but he was stuck with the Land of Snow mission on hand.
Although he knew this trip to find Tsunade would definitely bring them back before the departure for the Land of Snow mission.
But the others didn't know that.
Furthermore, the Third Hokage precisely didn't want him to leave the village during this period, so how could he possibly let Jiraiya take him along to find Tsunade.
Helpless, Jokichi had no choice but to go train.
He had pretty much learned all of Konoha's ninjutsu and forbidden jutsu. His training this time was for a ninjutsu that Konoha didn't have: adding chakra nature transformation to the Rasengan.
With the talent bonuses of Minato and Kakashi, plus Naruto's training experience from the anime as a reference, his training progress was a thousand miles a day.
Time slowly slipped away, and soon a month had passed.
It was time to depart for the Land of Snow.
Jokichi packed his bags and headed to the movie theater.
However—
"She ran away?"
Looking at the thin, middle-aged man wearing small glasses in front of him, Sandayu, Jokichi had a stunned look on his face.
At this time, he finally remembered that Fujikaze Yukie had psychological trauma regarding the Land of Snow, constantly running away and not wanting to return to that country.
"Alright, I'll go bring her back."
Jokichi sighed and went to search the various bars.
He faintly remembered that Yukie had hid in a bar to drink.
After some searching, he finally found her before sunset.
Yukie was a woman around 20 years old, with shoulder-length black hair, wearing a pink knee-length down jacket, and sporting highly fashionable bracelets and earrings.
When Jokichi entered the bar, this woman was slumped over the bar counter, clutching an empty glass in her hand.
He noticed a man wearing a hoodie walking towards Yukie.
However, after noticing Jokichi walk in, he pretended to be a drunk customer, wobbling unsteadily past Yukie's back, and then walking towards the exit.
A spy from the Land of Snow, huh...
Jokichi glanced at him, pretending not to know.
Just as the two brushed past each other, he suddenly launched a kick into his stomach.
"Bang!"
The man was kicked into the wall, and five kunai followed closely, pinning his clothes and pants firmly against the wall.