Ninja Pot Shadow

Ino nodded. Family secrets are the foundation of a family, and no matter how strong their sense of belonging to the village is, they will not hand them over.

She even suspected that the three families of Pig, Deer, and Butterfly might have simply reported the name of the secret technique, and when compiling the statistics, they might have just reported a C-level and considered it done.

Haiyi continued, “There are some derivative techniques in the family’s secret arts, but I won’t mention those today. I’ll just talk about the main part. Our family’s secret arts start with the Mind Transformation Technique and have four stages. My talent and capacity are not enough. I am dull-witted and weak-willed. I have only cultivated to the second stage so far, which is the Mind Disorder Body Technique.”

Ino felt a chill run down her spine upon hearing the word "capacity," which was portrayed in a very distorted way in Naruto.

No way?

Does our family's secret cultivation also require testing of "potential"? And I still have the chance to be a dutiful daughter? ...

Yamanaka Inoichi showed no intention of testing her "capacity" on the spot, which relieved her.

She voiced her doubts: "Four stages? What are the two stages of the Mind-Turning Technique and the Mind-Disrupting-Body Technique?"

After talking more, Inoichi no longer felt the tension he had when he first communicated with his daughter. In order to increase Ino's enthusiasm for learning secret arts, he mastered the art of drawing cakes without a teacher.

"Currently, the standards for judging ninjutsu in the ninja world are not accurate, but generally speaking, judging by the difficulty of learning, our clan's secret techniques, starting from the Mind Transfer Technique and going up to the fourth stage, can be compared to the current C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank ninjutsu."

The Yamanaka family's secret techniques can reach S-rank? Ino felt that tonight's conversation with her father had touched on a blind spot in her knowledge.

"What are the names of the secret techniques in the last two stages?" she asked.

Hai Yi smiled elegantly, keeping everyone in suspense: "I'll tell you when you've mastered the Mind Transfer Technique."

Ino: "..."

Inoichi coughed and said, "Mind Transfer Technique is the foundation of everything. It's a C-rank ninjutsu, which is at the Chunin level and very difficult to learn. Our clan's secret technique is at least half a level higher to learn. Ino, be prepared."

"Uh-huh."

Hai Yi pointed at himself: "Use your perception to sense me and let me see the strength of your mental power."

Perception ability is not a secret technique, but it is widely spread and is one of the few abilities that can slightly enhance mental strength. Ino has been training her perception ability for the past three months since she transmigrated. At this moment, she closed her eyes, put her left hand up and her right hand down, and formed a "未" (wei) seal, focusing all her attention on Haiyi.

"Perception!"

After the two souls merged, her mental strength increased dramatically. With the added training, Haiyi immediately felt a massive mental force impacting her brain.

Ino's mental energy is scattered, superficial, and lacks the means to control it. Even though it is much more abundant than that of ordinary people, it cannot break through the defenses of a master of mind control like Inoichi.

"Not enough, increase the intensity."

"Push harder! Your mental strength can't hurt me yet, push harder!"

"Is that all? You can't defeat the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan with this. Use a little more force!"

Ino was speechless. She was just using Hinata as a pretext to learn the clan's secret techniques, and now, in order to arouse Hinata's competitive spirit, poor Hinata was dragged out again.

She understood Inoichi's purpose. At this moment, she gritted her teeth, imagined Hinata as Kaguya Otsutsuki, and desperately extracted spiritual energy from the depths of her soul, attacking Inoichi's mental defenses like a tidal wave.

This was the first time Haiyi had resisted his daughter's mental power, and he was truly bewildered.

I never imagined my daughter's mental strength would be so strong! There's still a big gap in terms of quality, but in terms of quantity, she's already surpassed him.

It's important to understand that mental strength is very difficult to improve through training. Currently, there are no effective methods to enhance mental strength in the ninja world; it's entirely innate.

Hai Yi clenched his fist; he was happy!

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio are allies, and their camaraderie is truly genuine. However, they are also competitors, and there is a hierarchy among them: upper, middle, and lower.

Leaving aside the Yamanaka family, who were the team leaders over a hundred years ago, their status within the alliance has declined drastically due to various reasons.

The Akimichi family are all fat. They seem unassuming, honest, and simple, but in reality, they all have their own ulterior motives.

The fourteenth generation, Akimichi Torifu, was a disciple of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. He was renowned for his military exploits and was famous far and wide. He died during the Nine-Tails' attack. If Akimichi Torifu were alive today, he would definitely be ranked alongside Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane as a senior advisor in the village.

The "deer" is even stronger.

The current head of the clan, the fifteenth "Shika," Nara Shikaku was the leader of the Jonin team in Konoha Village. His reputation as a strategist resounded throughout the country. When the Fourth Hokage was appointed and when the Third Hokage returned to power, Nara Shikaku had the same rights as the three advisors in the village, including the right to recommend and vote on the new Hokage.

The Yamanaka family, who have been "pigs" for too long, finally saw a glimmer of hope for a resurgence in Ino today.

Chapter 10, Level 1 and Level 2

Haiyi had never taught his daughter, but he had taught his genin subordinates. He knew that he couldn't let his daughter become proud at this time. He was excited inside, but he still spoke in a light and casual tone.

He thought for a moment and said, "Hmm...not bad. It's barely enough to meet the prerequisites for cultivating the family's secret technique. Let's start cultivating the Mind Transformation Technique today."

Ino had a serious expression, her hands on her knees, and she sat up straight.

Haiyi raised a finger: "The Mind Transfer Technique is a secret ninjutsu that uses the user's mental power to seize and occupy the target's body. Once successful, the outcome is immediately decided. This secret technique of the clan has obvious advantages, but it also has disadvantages. First, it requires a special hand seal method. Second, once the body is occupied, if the body is damaged, the user will also be damaged. Finally, the attack range of this technique is also very limited."

Worried that his daughter might back down, he quickly changed his mind: "Of course, this is because the Mind Transformation Technique is still in its early stages. Once the Mind is in a state of mental chaos, these problems will no longer exist."

Hai Yi coughed and said, "Let's try the first stage of cultivating mind transformation, which is to concentrate our attention."

It was clear that he had been preparing for this day for a long time. At this moment, he unsealed the scroll he carried with him and took out five cards from it.

What is this?

The card was covered with a lot of irregular lines. Ino glanced at it, and just one glance made her feel uneasy, as if something was about to jump out of her heart.

She knew perfectly well that these were just random lines, nothing "indescribable." She looked at Haiyi, waiting for the explanation to follow.

"The Ino-Shika-Cho alliance is over two hundred years old, but the history of the Yamanaka family can be traced back to the Ninja Sect period before the Warring States period." It's clear that Inoichi is very proud of his family's history.

Konoha Village is powerful? The village is only 60 years old. The Senju and Uchiha clans were awesome, but they're all gone now. The mountain village is still there! That's the advantage: only those who survive to the end can have the last laugh.

Ino gave him a strange look, wondering what her cheap father was thinking.

Ino laid out the five cards one by one, and immediately noticed the problem: the first card caused her the least annoyance, while the last card caused the most.

"Without specialized training, a ninja's mental strength is loose and lacks power. To break through the enemy's mental defenses, our mental strength must have sufficient penetrability. Look at these five cards in turn. If you can clearly see the image and text in the center of the card, you pass the test."

Inoichi then took out a bowl of a cool, savory ointment and handed it to Ino: "Apply it to your temples, then remember the mantra I told you: Nourish yourself internally, be quiet and without emptiness, originally hidden and bright, illuminate your form internally... When the upper part is closed, it is called existence; when the lower part is closed, it is called non-existence. Non-existence is offered to the upper, for the gods reside above..."

Ino applied the ointment to her temples, and two seconds later she felt a surge of energy. Most of the distracting thoughts in her mind dissipated. The incantation that Haiyi spoke was very soft and sounded ordinary, but with the ointment and her current state of high concentration, it seemed as if something detached from the material world was gathering in her brain.

The meaning of the mnemonic was completely incomprehensible, and Haiyi did not provide any explanation, but Ino still managed to glean some inexplicable insights from it.

She picked up the first card, and countless intricate yet extremely simple lines converged before her eyes.

At first glance, due to visual distortion, she even felt that the lines on the card were rotating at an irregular speed.

When her mind is full of distractions, looking at this kind of thing can be very confusing. But now, having temporarily forgotten about shifting blame, taking the blame, and smashing someone's window, her mind was clear. With her gaze focused on the center of the card, she quickly found the answer.

She stated definitively, "It's the word 'enlightenment'."

Hai nodded, signaling her to continue.

The first four cards seemed relatively easy, but the fifth one was particularly difficult. Inoichi was quite nervous, while Ino squinted, wishing she had Byakugan or Sharingan. She stared intently at the center of the card, but the more she tried to see clearly, the blurrier it became, and her mental energy was being consumed at an extremely rapid pace.

In less than thirty seconds, she felt a dull ache in her temples, an outward manifestation of overuse of her mental energy.

Haiyi offered a word of advice: "Don't focus on one point. When the image is swirling, don't resist it; let it flow naturally."

After watching for a full five minutes, Ino kept reciting the incantation to keep her mind calm and suppress the boiling feeling in her brain. Just as the drug's effects were wearing off, her mental strength was about to drop to the critical point, and she was about to faint, Ino finally completed her mission.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "I see it clearly now, it's the character for 'god'."

Hai laughed heartily. He was very satisfied. His daughter's talent was even greater than he had expected. Back then, it took him a month and a half to pass this test. Each time he failed, he needed to rest for ten days to recover his depleted mental strength. He failed three times in total. On the fourth time, he resorted to self-harm, cutting seven or eight wounds on both arms. He fought desperately and only managed to pass the test by sheer luck.

Ino seemed to be struggling when she got through this, but in reality, the boiling and fatigued states were the brain's self-protection mechanisms. She hadn't reached her limit. As an expert in mind manipulation, Inoichi still had that kind of insight.

Ino breathed a sigh of relief; she had almost given up just now.

She had misjudged the situation. She originally thought that the Yamanaka family's secret techniques were ultimately ninjutsu, so she would add points to ninjutsu. But what happened? This first test had nothing to do with ninjutsu, nor with the Eight Ninja Skills. It was more like a test of mental strength and soul power.

After calming down, the more I thought about it, the more something seemed off.

This mountain family gave her the impression of "you practice martial arts, I cultivate immortality," and their art style was rather strange...

"Let's rest for ten minutes, then continue with the second step of our training."

"Okay." Ino's cheeks and neck were covered in sweat. She didn't bother to wipe it away. She sat cross-legged and used meditation to restore her mental energy.

According to her guess, the next step will most likely be to take advantage of the current emptiness of mental energy to carry out intensive training, which is not a new trick.

Ten minutes later, Ino brought Ino a stack of books that was over a meter high, leaving her completely dumbfounded.

What's going on here? She flipped through a few pages and found the book's contents obscure and difficult to understand; there were some words she didn't even recognize.

"What is this?"

Haiyi didn't mince words: "Read books, read quietly, and concentrate. Don't rest tonight, finish reading these books."

Ino's eyes darted around twice, and she roughly understood that the key at this stage was not the book, but the ability to concentrate.

She has the mind of an adult, not a child, and she has enough self-control.

Ino sat down at the desk, picked up the top book, and started reading from the first page.

Chapter Eleven: A Grand Versailles Scene

Ino is reading attentively.

Haiyi sat a meter away from her and watched.

Rino Yamanaka reappeared and poured a glass of water for her husband and daughter.

She tugged at her husband, seemingly wanting to give Ino a quiet environment to read, but Inoichi gently shook his head. No, resisting distractions is also part of the training.

Instead of leaving, he pulled his wife aside and watched together.

He would stay with his daughter as long as she read, and he would be overjoyed if she could read all night long through sheer willpower.

Madara Uchiha has a problem where he can't urinate if someone is standing behind him, and Ino is quite nervous now. With two grown men sitting behind her, the feeling of being watched is very clear.

Resist mental distractions and physical fatigue, and then continue reading diligently.

The auxiliary effects of the medication have completely worn off.

Ino knew she had to overcome the difficulties at hand. She focused all her attention on the words, ignoring the physical and mental discomfort, and slowly entered a state of relative selflessness.

Inoichi and Rino sat quietly, with only the rustling sound of Ino turning the pages of her book filling the room.

……

The next day.

Even though he hadn't slept all night, Yamanaka Inoichi still went to the Jonin meeting full of energy.

The Yamanaka family is not one of those families in fantasy novels that takes statistical work to the extreme. It is impossible for them to record that "the 59th generation patriarch learned the Mind Transfer Technique in 7 days and 12 hours, ranking 322nd" or "the 88th generation patriarch learned the Mind Transfer Technique in 5 days and 11 hours, ranking 145th".