Chapter 173: Ino and Her Clueless Friend
Her somewhat unreliable father sounded a little worried. "Are you sure? Isn't it dangerous? Since the Third Hokage has already committed to using the Reaper Death Seal, maybe we should just..."
Some things were awkward to say, even between father and daughter. If the Third Hokage is determined to die, shouldn't we just let him? Why are you getting involved?
Ino didn't mention the Yin Seal; it was Tsunade's signature technique, after all, not something to readily share with the Yamanaka clan.
Even through their sensory link, she lowered her voice. "I need to see this Shinigami first. After that, perhaps we can try using the Mind Disturbance God Jutsu... If we succeed, the Yamanaka clan could achieve invincibility. Forever."
Only the main family line knew that beyond the Mind Body Switch and Mind Body Disturbance techniques lay the higher levels: the Mind Disturbance God and Mind Transfer God jutsus.
Inoichi quickly considered it. If this succeeded, the gains for the Yamanaka clan would indeed be enormous.
Even now, Ino's spiritual strength and mastery of Yin Release weren't quite at the level where she could substitute herself for a deity—the fourth stage was out of reach—but she was close to the third stage.
Before, they possessed a powerful jutsu but lacked a suitable 'god' to target. The thought alone was disheartening!
This was a perfect opportunity, and the target was the Shinigami—a being leagues beyond some trivial Flower God. If the Yamanaka clan could become 'friends' with the Reaper, the family's future cohesion would soar to unprecedented heights.
People's greatest fear is death and what lies beyond.
Imagine telling the clan members: we don't just have connections in this world, we have connections in the next one too! We have 'people' on the other side!
Wouldn't that alleviate everyone's fears?
This kind of operation could be done silently, without stirring dissent within the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. He quickly made up his mind. Do it!
Ino explained her plan. Currently, Shikaku was leading various ninja clans against squads of Sound and Sand village shinobi further away. Superficially, the battle looked quite fierce.
Gaara was attempting to rally more Sand shinobi, but Orochimaru's control over the Fourth Kazekage significantly weakened his appeal.
Half a minute later, Inoichi allowed himself to be 'injured' by a Sound ninja. Shikaku and Chōza quickly urged him to fall back and rest.
With the Yamanaka clan's elite forces engaged on the battlefield, Inoichi discreetly slipped away, heading towards one of the clan's secret underground bases.
There, Inoichi retrieved a special Konoha-made device designed to amplify a sensor ninja's abilities. It resembled a large pot lid. Placing it on his head and activating it boosted his sensory range immensely. He scanned the entire battlefield, pinpointing the locations of the Third Hokage, Orochimaru, and others, then linked his amplified perception directly with Ino's mind.
"I'm sending you the coordinates."
"Alright, I see them."
Ino couldn't use her own sensory abilities now; she had to rely entirely on Inoichi for targeting.
She formed the hand seals immediately, releasing the Yin Seal she had kept locked for a month. An immense surge of incredibly pure Yin-attribute chakra erupted.
Cold! The instant Ino released the Yin Seal, Inoichi felt a bone-chilling cold pierce his spirit through their connection. His daughter's proficiency in Yin Release was almost unbelievable.
He'd only read about this level in the clan's secret scrolls; it seemed to be a hallmark of mastering Yin Release. Thinking this, his confidence in their plan's success jumped another twenty percent.
Ino focused her mind, allowing the Yin chakra to completely envelop her, temporarily transforming her into a being attuned to the underworld—a feat possible with sufficient Yin Release.
Leveraging Inoichi's amplified senses and the Yin chakra accumulated over a month, she finally perceived the indistinct figure looming behind the Third Hokage.
The reason it was blurry was that she still wasn't 'otherworldly' enough.
She poured all the Yin chakra from the seal into the effort, but it wasn't enough. She began converting the Yin chakra within her own body, using the Yin Seal to purify it further, then cloaking herself in this refined energy.
At this point, every little bit counted.
Through his perception, Inoichi could only sense his daughter seeming less and less like a living person...
After reassuring her anxious father, as Ino delved deeper into this 'underworld' state, the image of the Shinigami sharpened in her vision.
Its face was withered, with two horns sprouting from its head. A short sword was clenched between its teeth. It wore white robes, and behind it floated six ghostly flames of varying intensity.
"I see it clearly now. That's the Shinigami," Ino confirmed.
Inoichi, sharing her vision through the sensory link, nodded mentally, acknowledging he saw it too.
"I'm starting," Ino declared. With Inoichi handling the targeting, she could perform the Mind Disturbance God Jutsu remotely on the Shinigami.
All her chakra, save for the minimum needed to maintain her consciousness, was channeled into the jutsu.
This was a genuine deity; she couldn't afford anything less than absolute focus.
As Ino rapidly formed the hand seals, Inoichi felt the temperature in the hidden base plummet further...
Back at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, the effect was even more pronounced. Ino had excused herself, claiming chakra exhaustion and needing rest in her room. Moments later, Shikamaru and the others noticed a thin layer of frost creeping across the floor. Nearby water pipes showed signs of freezing, and the indoor lights flickered erratically, as if a ghost had just passed through.
The hand seals took a full minute to complete. Outside, on the rooftop, the Third Hokage had already sealed the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, and the Fourth Kazekage. He was now locked in a desperate tug-of-war with Orochimaru. The Shinigami watched their struggle impassively, then suddenly seemed to sense something, its gaze flicking towards the direction of the Flower Shop.
It saw nothing. But before it could process the feeling, an overwhelming surge of pure Yin chakra slammed directly into its spiritual consciousness.
Mind Disturbance God Jutsu!
Ino felt as if she had rammed her own unprotected brain against solid rock. A violent backlash surged through her. Her head felt like it was splitting apart; thoughts, memories, and senses fragmented, spinning wildly in a void devoid of time and space.
Inoichi, connected to her, simultaneously coughed up a mouthful of blood and frantically checked on his daughter through their link.
Ino recovered almost instantly. "It's okay! I'm fine! This was just establishing contact, not a hostile takeover, so the resistance wasn't overwhelming... It absorbed my Yin chakra, took my offering. Now, it's my friend!"
The Yin chakra she had painstakingly accumulated for a month was almost completely depleted.
Clutching her head, Ino reeled from the brief, overwhelming influx of the Shinigami's vast memories. Her human brain couldn't process such information, automatically shielding her from most of it, causing her to black out for perhaps a fifth of a second.
After repeatedly assuring her father she was truly alright, she finally focused on assessing the results of her jutsu.
"How did it go?" Inoichi asked anxiously.
Ino thought for a moment. "I... don't know if you'd call it a success or a failure. It's definitely not the level of control the ancestors described. Right now, my connection with the Shinigami is..."
She struggled to find the right words.
"Here, I'll show you."
In the shared mental space, Ino began gesturing and 'talking' animatedly at the Shinigami. The Reaper just stared blankly back, giving no reaction whatsoever. Exasperated, Ino finally snapped, "Damn it, you blockhead!"
Unexpectedly, feedback came from the Shinigami. Ino focused, trying to decipher it. It seemed... it seemed the Shinigami had echoed something remarkably similar back to her... something like, "Damn it, blockhead!"