After dinner, Inoichi's expression was grave, and Yamanaka Rino, who had been cheerfully chatting with Shikamaru's and Choji's mothers during the day, silently cleared the dishes without a word.
Seeing their expressions, for a moment, Ino even thought that one of them had been diagnosed with a terminal illness—or perhaps she herself had! After Inoichi realized that he could communicate normally with his daughter and that she hadn't fallen into the usual traps of love or unrequited crushes like most girls, their family began to shift toward a more traditional dynamic of a strict father and a nurturing mother.
Books like How to Communicate with Your Daughter were no longer on the reading list. Inoichi often played the role of the strict father.
Ino was fine with this. A grown man tiptoeing around his words, afraid of triggering her rebelliousness, was unnecessary. She thought it was better for him to act normally.
Inoichi cleared his throat and asked, "What are your thoughts after experiencing such an intense battle for the first time? You've had two days to rest. Have you reflected on the fight? What would you do differently next time? Have you thought about it, Ino?"
Truthfully, Inoichi was quite satisfied with his daughter's performance. It was common for first-time fighters to be too nervous to move, like Sakura, who neither attacked, defended, dodged, nor ran, but simply stood there screaming "Naruto!" at the top of her lungs.
Many ninjas performed poorly in their first battles, barely able to utilize half of their full potential.
Take Uchiha Itachi, for example. He was considered "exceptional," right? Yet even he was completely disoriented the first time he killed someone.
Of course, a twelve-year-old Ino couldn't be compared to a five-year-old Itachi, but female ninjas generally performed worse than their male counterparts in their first battles.
Women's minds are naturally more delicate, and they tend to instinctively recoil from scenes of bloodshed and life-and-death struggles. Few female ninjas achieve high accomplishments or remain active on the frontlines for long. At this point in time, Tsunade and the Legkage [1]hadn't yet risen to power, and the only female Kage in the entire ninja world was Mei Terumi from the Hidden Mist Village.
There were both societal and personal reasons why female ninjas often settled into domestic roles after marriage.
Originally, Inoichi had estimated that while Ino's overall abilities were strong, her mentality wasn't as hardened as Sasuke's, who had lost his entire family. He thought she was likely to lose. To his surprise, she had won!
Though he was pleased, he couldn't show it. His expression remained stern, hoping his daughter would gain a clear understanding of the situation.
"Do you know how many mistakes you made during the battle?"
"I have some idea."
Ino nodded. Her original imaginary opponent wasn't Sasuke, but she had mentally simulated battles before.
In her mind, she would start with the Hidden Mist Technique to obscure vision, then use the Water Prison Technique to control the enemy, and finally finish them off with either the Water Disruption Wave or the Mind Body Switch Technique. She had rehearsed this sequence in her head countless times, aiming for simplicity and brutality. At the time, it seemed foolproof, but in practice, it didn't go as planned.
There were too many unexpected factors in the battle, and as the fight went on, she herself became disoriented! "I wasn't calm enough in the battle. My strength is actually higher than Uchiha Sasuke's, but I missed many opportunities," she thought, lowering her head. "My fighting spirit isn't as strong as his. I lack the courage to fight to the death, which made me appear restrained in many situations."
Inoichi nodded. "Good, I'm glad you can recognize your shortcomings. As a student who hasn't graduated yet, you've actually done quite well. But... you are the heir of the Yamanaka family, having received the cultivation of family resources, so we can't judge you by the standards of a Ninja Academy student."
Ino didn't argue and listened attentively.
Inoichi took out two scrolls under her curious gaze.
"You are well aware of the alliance between our family, the Nara family, and the Akimichi family. We three fathers have fulfilled our mission. The fifteenth generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho Formation wasn't glorious, but it didn't disgrace our ancestors either. The future belongs to you. Your battle with that child from the Uchiha family was treated as homework for Shikamaru and Choji to write their insights. Would you like to see what they wrote?"
Since you've already taken them out, you must want me to see them.
"Yes," Ino nodded.
Inoichi handed her the scrolls. She first picked up the one with the character "food" on the surface, which was written by Choji Akimichi. The content of the scroll was minimal, as Choji had been lazy, writing each character very large.
Ino quickly scanned it. Choji, the chubby one, wasn't particularly strong in academic subjects, but he wasn't weak either, at least at an average level. In the scroll, he first analyzed the mistakes Ino made in the battle, such as insufficient strength and not having enough stamina, then turned to himself, saying he also needed to strengthen his training, and so on.
Overall, this summary was decent, with no flaws, but also no highlights.
Ino set aside Choji's scroll and picked up Shikamaru's.
"Huh?!" As soon as she unrolled the scroll, she felt a vein pop on her forehead.
Wow, Shikamaru, who always says "What a hassle" or "Too troublesome," had written a scroll that was a full ten meters long, densely packed with characters.
Isn't this just internal competition? Why so much resentment? The laziest guy in the world actually wrote this much?!
Shikamaru started his analysis from the moment Sasuke tied wire to his kunai and Ino used the Substitution Technique to dodge.
He listed twelve major mistakes and forty-five minor ones she made in the battle, with countless small detail errors.
Ino's face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot. She skimmed through the text, constantly unrolling the scroll to read more. The entire scroll was filled with her shortcomings in the battle, with only one sentence at the end: "If I encounter Sasuke, I definitely can't beat him. I'll use taunts to lure him into a trap."
Ino checked the back of the scroll—nothing more!
This guy wrote about himself in just one light sentence, but when it came to Ino, he wrote tens of thousands of words, making it seem like a thesis.
She flipped back to the beginning and read every word carefully.
She spent half an hour reading, and neither Inoichi nor Ino disturbed her.
To be fair, as the future Shadow of Fire's advisor, Shikamaru's analysis was spot on.
Ino had enough magnanimity to accept that she hadn't done well. If someone pointed it out, she would correct it next time, and that was fine.
She just felt... "Do you think Shikamaru's analysis is too harsh?" Inoichi asked.
Ino shook her head and then nodded: "Anyone can talk. Later, arrange a match between Uchiha Sasuke and Shikamaru, and then I'll write the post-battle analysis. I bet he won't do better than me, hmph! Actually, it's not that I'm petty. I'm broad-minded and never hold grudges. But I still feel so annoyed! I just think, I think people aren't machines. It's impossible to consider every factor in a battle. Is there really someone like that? Someone who doesn't make a single mistake in battle?"
"There is."
"Ah? Who?"
"The Fourth Hokage."
[1] I believe this is a joke about Kurotsuchi, who becomes Tsuchikage in the future.