On the other side of the wooden bridge, the three children slumped on the ground.
The wooden bridge is only less than thirty meters long, but it took them half an hour to cross it, especially the relatively weak Konan. If it weren't for Masahiko's slight gravitational help, she wouldn't have succeeded.
"Sure enough, as rumored, the paralyzing grass can affect even a Jonin." Nagato and Kushina can barely count as Chunin, though.
"If you touch it without Chakra, even I will feel it, so I think I better get rid of it." Masahiko directly took off the grass entangled on the bridge's ropes with his hands.
After he personally sealed all the paralyzing grass into a scroll, Masahiko walked forward, followed by three children with satisfaction.
"How was it? Do you feel better now?" Masahiko smiled, "This was a great learning opportunity. From now on, you will always be psychologically prepared if you ever encountered someone who uses the paralyzing grass."
Nagato and Konan immediately agreed, and Kushina sighed helplessly. She saw Masahiko saving the scroll in his pocket, and had a bad premonition for future training.
Masahiko turned to say something but noticed that they were still tired. He sensed their state, then he squinted his eyes, "Ten minutes to rest, then we will continue."
"Sensei, there should be Crimson Newts in the stream here, shouldn't we catch a few?" Konan asked in confusion.
Masahiko's face stiffened, "living salamanders, I remember that… What kind of herbal medicine uses a living fire belly Chinese newt?"
"Is it for the Military Rations Pill…?"
Masahiko's face sighed inwardly, "Thank god that I've never had to eat those pills before… it feels a little disgusting, Choji can really eat anything…"
"Since it's a living thing, let's grab it when we come back. Let's go to see the dangerous area marked on the map first, The Hell Valley… the name is really powerful and terrifying."
Konan hesitated, but still didn't say that she didn't want to die… She was also a little bit resistant to things like salamanders.
After resting for more than ten minutes, the three recovered. Although they still felt stiff, they could already walk smoothly.
After two kilometers, they came to the "Hell Valley" area marked on the map.
"A cave?" Masahiko frowned and walked inside with the three children.
The cave wasn't too deep; only less than a hundred meters ahead, they saw a swamp.
"It's said that the Elixir Mud here is very effective for healing bruises, cuts, and sprains. Let's get some." As soon as Masahiko finished speaking, he noticed some blue steam spraying out in front.
"This is…" Masahiko suddenly looked shocked. He has been in this world of a hundred years, and this was the first time he sees such a thing…Toxic Gas!
Frowning, Masahiko quickly stopped Nagato and Konan, who wanted to step forward.
The gas's toxicity isn't low, and even he wasn't sure that he can inhale more than a few breaths without being poisoned.
The gas should be colorless and tasteless under normal circumstances. Since it's blue, it means that the gas is impure and may be easier to burn or even explode."
Masahiko hesitated for a while, smiled, then explained to the three children a little about the characteristics of gas… not that he didn't want to talk more and look cool, but he didn't know much.
"Special Training Part 2. Find a way to collect the mud, but be careful!"
After saying these words, Masahiko stepped back a few meters, then observed the three children using their brains.
Nagato was the first to make a trial. He used multiple shadow clones and they rushed to the toxic gas. Although the "casualties" were heavy, finally, one of them reached the Elixir Mud's edge. Before he could even get happy, he went "puff," by the mud's corrosive power.
Masahiko was taken aback too, "This thing is corrosive, how would they make healing medicines out of it? Is Hiruzen playing tricks on me…?"
Later, he thought that it might not be impossible. There should be a way to use it. He almost couldn't help but adding a few points to the Pharmaceutical Skill.
"No, I can't waste my points…"
After they learned the pattern, Nagato used the Shadow Clone to test. This time, one of the clones passed successfully and collected some marsh mud after he sealed it in a scroll, but…
The ground suddenly trembled, and a behemoth suddenly emerged from the ground and directly ate Nagato's shadow clone with the sealing scroll.
Masahiko was stunned from a moment. It wasn't a surprise that it appeared, after all, he had already sensed it earlier. But what this monster looks like…
"Is this the ancestor of the newts?" Masahiko felt a sudden chill.
"Okay. Special Training Part 3! Go and grab the ancestor of the newts, and sell it to Konoha. We should be able to sell this for a good price…"
Masahiko whispered at the end. But the size of the monster was not much smaller than the cave itself. The three children were fighting under challenging conditions. They had to fight the Newt BOSS, avoid the swamps, and use Wind Release to blow away the poisonous gas from time to time. For a while, the danger was all around them.
"This isn't going to work." Masahiko frowned and took a few steps forward, "You don't need to worry about the gas, I will keep it away from you, as long as you hit this big newt hard!"
This time the three children could finally move freely and focus on the battle.
Compared to when they went to the sea, Nagato and Konan have made a lot of progress. However, during the battle, Kushina was the one facing Newt BOSS face to face and leading the team.
The newts' BOSS, seemed to have noticed that the situation went sideways, so he tried to run into the ground, but almost crushed his skull in the process because Masahiko had secretly used Earth Release to reinforce it.
"Huh, got you!" Masahiko shouted.
The battle continued, and after resisting a few Ninjutsu, he tried again to run to the cave's exit but was kicked back by Masahiko.
Ten minutes later, it stopped the struggle and surrendered its life, making an end to this frustrating battle.
As soon as the three children breathed a sigh of relief, they heard Masahiko say, "Hurry up and collect some of the Elixir Mud, this cave will collapse in two minutes!"
Going through such a large-scale battle, the cave would have collapsed if it wasn't supported by Masahiko's repulsive force.
Just after collecting the mud, they watched the cave collapse little by little from the inside out.
"Run!" Masahiko yelled.
The three children were taken aback, then hurriedly rushed out of the cave.
Like a warehouse exploding in a police movie, the three "protagonists" run toward the exit in slow motion, and every time they crossed a small distance, it collapsed behind them. The moment they went through the exit, the cave behind them collapsed, and the shock wave launched the three of for a few meters.
Masahiko walked with a smile toward the three children, who were still lying on the ground and smiled, after a while, they raised their head to find that the giant salamander was also there behind him, but none of them knew when he managed to grab it.
"Well done, this trip and our special training ended perfectly."
Kushina, who was covered with mud, clenched her teeth, then said, "Grandpa, I just wanted to know… how did the cave collapse part by part until we reached the exit."
Masahiko scoffed, "Well… I'm not sure! When I go back, I will look it up in the geological books."
"Huh? Even Sensei doesn't know?"
Boom!!
She endured it for days now, but Kushina had enough of Nagato's naivety and knocked his head severely…