"What am I supposed to do with this?" Kurotsuchi stared at the scroll in her hand, completely bewildered. "I didn't say I wanted this!"
She had a vague feeling that something was off, but her body was heavily injured, and her vision went black before she fainted.
Ino emerged from Kurotsuchi's inner world and first picked up the scroll for training in Explosive Clay.
Deidara had already unsealed it, so she opened it directly to read.
The core of this technique was still Earth Release Ninjutsu, which meant it was completely countered by Lightning Release. Deidara's often-mentioned "Explosion Release" was actually just empty talk, much like Minato Namikaze's "Scorch Release: Halo Hurricane Jet Black Arrow Style Zero."
A great person? Even great people could spout nonsense and even transmit incorrect information. Uchiha Madara had lectured the Five Kage and many Ninja about his Eye of the Moon Plan, making it sound perfectly logical. Unfortunately, the entire thing was a product of Black Zetsu's manipulation. Luckily, he died after the battle; if he were still alive, how embarrassed would he be thinking about all the confident words he'd spoken?
Explosive Clay is a Secret Technique where varying degrees of Earth Release Chakra are added to specially prepared clay, causing it to explode based on the Chakra's concentration and properties.
Deidara used the mouths on his palms to consume the clay to save the steps of hand seals and shaping. Ino didn't need to modify her body, as this wasn't her primary combat ability.
She could prepare the clay in advance and, when needed, manually inject Chakra, form hand seals, and create Explosive Clay.
The difficulty of this Secret Technique lay in creating the special clay and in adding Earth Release Chakra to it. Seeing the incredibly complex Chakra circulation methods, she felt this Secret Technique was truly challenging.
After two attempts, the clay's ability to absorb Chakra was very poor; it couldn't be effectively shaped or detonated remotely. The Clay Bomb exploded as soon as it left her hand.
This definitely wouldn't work.
Her "Ninja," "Wisdom," and "Seal" stats were sufficient, but her Earth Release level wasn't high enough. Deidara's Earth Release was likely Kage-level (Lv5), while hers had just reached Jonin-level (Lv4).
She needed to add more points!
Fortunately, Earth Release was also a prerequisite for Wood Release, so she would have to increase it eventually.
She adjusted her stat allocation plan once again.
First, she would raise Earth Release to Lv5, then add a bit to "Seal," and finally diligently practice Water Release while accumulating points to add to Yang Release.
Circling back, the problem returned: the most important thing Ino needed to do right now was cause trouble!
Her relationship with Deidara was, well, those who know, know. If she didn't learn Explosive Clay, she felt she'd be doing a disservice to her current form.
The continuous point-generating sources from Naruto's graffiti and transforming into Jiraiya for peeping had disappeared. She urgently needed to develop a stable new source; she needed big pots, but small pots couldn't be cut off either.
In the short term, she couldn't see a more suitable scapegoat than Deidara.
She made a copy of the Explosive Clay scroll, which contained many of Deidara's insights. She put away the copy, tucked the original into Kurotsuchi's hand, and then carefully examined the unconscious girl.
According to Orochimaru's theory, there was an issue of compatibility between soul and body. His Living Corpse Reincarnation couldn't just randomly pick a passerby; the target had to be carefully screened.
When Ino spiritualized Kurotsuchi, she discovered that this girl, from her personality, speech, and Chakra affinity, had nothing in common with her in any aspect. Yet, this body was extremely compatible with her soul.
If Ino's body were to die, she could even fly over and, at the cost of severe damage to her spiritual body, merge with a part of the other person's personality to seize the body and be reborn within it.
Such a possession would come at a huge cost, but in a situation where there were no other options, it was like having an extra life.
"Beautiful, it seems we'll need to spend a few more days together..." Ino ordered the chameleon to continue hiding her body, while her spiritual body slowly sank into Kurotsuchi's inner world.
She didn't have an organ like the Sharingan, but whether it was the Sharingan, Genjutsu, or the Mind Body Switch Technique, even including the miraculous Kotoamatsukami, at their core, they were all Yin Release powered by mental energy.
If the Sharingan was automatic, she was manual now. She used her Yin Release ability to subtly, little by little, correct and change Kurotsuchi's perception.
The unconscious Kurotsuchi woke up a quarter of an hour later. She looked at the Explosive Clay scroll in her hand and it took her a while to recall what had happened before.
She felt that she was retrieving a Secret Technique for the Village, which was reasonable and perfectly fine.
Upon returning to the outpost built by Iwagakure at the border, she fell asleep as soon as she entered the room.
"Brother Deidara?" Drowsily, Kurotsuchi suddenly found Deidara sitting by her bed, looking at her.
They seemed to have returned to their childhood.
"Little Kurotsuchi, big brother is back!" Deidara reached out and touched her face.
This startled her considerably; she sat straight up from the bed in her sleep, looked around, and realized it was just her imagination.
The tent, her clothes, the Ninjutsu scroll, everything was the familiar environment.
A false alarm.
"Sigh, it must be the old man putting too much pressure on me. So annoying!" Kurotsuchi self-soothed. She stretched grandly, then lay back down.
Deidara's image involuntarily reappeared in her mind. She tried hard to forget that image, constantly telling herself that he wasn't her type, but the harder she tried to shake off these thoughts, the harder it was to fall asleep.
At first, it was just a blurry image, but with her thoughts, that image became clearer and clearer in her mind.
Was Brother Deidara a man or a woman? The image in her mind changed rapidly with her thoughts; one second it was a woman, the next it became a man. Her thoughts were constantly correcting, and the image in her mind was also self-adjusting, adjusting to match her impression.
"I am your brother."
"I'm your big brother."
"I am you."
A series of voices, indistinguishable as male or female, echoed in her ears. Kurotsuchi instinctively felt something was wrong. Something must have happened to her. Was she and Deidara really that close?!
A voice in her heart answered for her, "Yes, we are senior and junior disciples. Now the senior disciple has entered the junior disciple's body and merged. Isn't this a very normal thing?"
How was this normal? It wasn't normal at all!
Her consciousness struggled desperately, while the voice incessantly brainwashed her in her ear.
"This is very normal!"
"No, this isn't normal."
"This is very normal!"
"I still feel like something's off."
"This is very normal!"
After repeated corrections, she and the voice in her heart reached an agreement.
"Hmm, it's definitely normal!"
After accepting this impression of normality, no matter how Deidara changed in her inner world, she felt there was no problem with it.
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