9 Hope for the Clan's Rise

Ino pondered to herself: wasn't the Mind Body Switch Technique just a C-rank ninjutsu? Is it really that difficult? Does it really take three to five years to practice? She hesitated. If it really takes three to five years to master the Yamanaka Clan's secret technique, it would be a waste of time. 

Except for the three from the previous year, the rest of the Konoha 12 are all twelve years old this year. Naruto defeated Kaguya Ōtsutsuki at seventeen and got married at nineteen. Considering all this, she only had five years of training time. If she spent five years practicing a family secret technique with limited prospects, by the time of Infinite Tsukuyomi, she'd just have to lie down and accept defeat.

After carefully going over Inoichi's words twice in her mind, she suddenly realized that she had misunderstood. This cheap dad of hers was frugal with his words and wasn't clear enough. When he said "clan secret technique," he was referring to the entire set of secret techniques, not just the Mind Body Switch Technique alone.

"I want to learn."

She quickly decided. Her attributes were already several points higher than the original Ino's, so there was no reason she couldn't learn it.

Inoichi looked at her seriously, and she nodded firmly to show her determination. Going all out in her act, she even muttered softly, "I must defeat Hinata."

Yamanaka Rin soon left the room, leaving the father and daughter sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"The name of our clan's secret technique is the Mind Body Switch Technique. It's classified as a C-rank technique in terms of difficulty within the village, which is a genuine chūnin-level ninjutsu. But..." Inoichi paused.

"But what they don't know is that this rating is not accurate. The Mind Body Switch Technique is the starting point of all the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques, and its difficulty goes beyond what a C-rank ninjutsu can encompass."

Ino nodded. A clan's secret techniques are the foundation of the clan. No matter how strong the sense of belonging to the village is, they will not be handed over.

She even suspected that the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans probably only reported the names of their techniques, reporting them as C-rank when compiling the statistics, and called it a day.

Inoichi continued, "There were some derivative techniques from our clan's secret techniques, but we won't discuss those today. I'll only talk about the main part. Our clan's secret techniques start with the Mind-Body Switch Technique and have four stages in total. My talent and chakra capacity were not enough, my aptitude was dull, and my willpower fell short. Right now, I've only practiced up to the second stage, which is mastering the Mind Body Disturbance Technique."

She voiced her doubts: "Four stages? What are the two stages after the Mind Body Switch Technique and the Mind Body Disturbance Technique?"

As the conversation continued, Inoichi lost his initial nervousness when communicating with his daughter. To increase Ino's enthusiasm for learning the secret techniques, he spontaneously mastered the ultimate technique of gaslighting.

"Right now, the evaluation standards for ninjutsu in the Shinobi world aren't very accurate. But to give you an idea, if we judge based on difficulty, our clan's secret techniques, starting from the Mind Body Switch Technique up to the fourth stage, can be compared to the current C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank ninjutsu."

The idea that the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques could reach S-rank surprised Ino. Tonight's conversation with her father touched upon an area of knowledge she hadn't encountered before.

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

Inoichi smiled gracefully, leaving her in suspense: "I'll tell you when you complete the Mind Body Switch Technique."

Ino: "..."

Inoichi cleared his throat: "The Mind Body Switch Technique is the foundation of everything. It's considered a C-rank ninjutsu, which is usually for shinobi at the Chūnin level. However, our family's secret technique is at least half a level higher. Ino, you should be mentally prepared."

"Mm-hmm."

Inoichi pointed at himself. "Use your Sensing Technique to sense me; let me see the strength of your spiritual energy."

The Sensing Technique was not considered a secret and was widely spread. It was one of the few abilities that could slightly enhance spiritual energy. Ino had been training her sensing abilities for the past three months since she transmigrated. She now closed her eyes, placed her left hand above and right hand below, formed the "Ram" hand seal, and focused all her attention on Inoichi.

"Sensing!"

The fusion of the two souls made her spiritual energy surge. With her deliberate training, Inoichi immediately felt a powerful spiritual energy attacking his mind.

Ino's spiritual energy was scattered, insubstantial, and lacked focus. While she had more of it than most people, it still couldn't penetrate the mental defenses of Inoichi, a master of mind control.

"It's not enough; increase your strength."

"Put more effort into it. Your spiritual energy still can't harm me. Push harder!"

"Is this all you've got? At this rate, you won't be able to defeat the heiress of the Hyuga clan. Use more strength!"

Ino was speechless. She had just used Hinata as a pretext to learn the clan's secret techniques, and now poor Hinata was being dragged into the conversation again to spark her competitiveness.

She understood Inoichi's intention, and she gritted her teeth, imagining Hinata as Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, desperately squeezing out spiritual energy from the depths of her soul, attacking Inuzuka's mental defenses like a raging tide.

This was the first time Inoichi had to withstand his daughter's spiritual energy, and he couldn't help but feel dazed.

He never expected his daughter's spiritual energy to be this strong! While there was still a significant gap in quality, in terms of quantity, she had surpassed him.

One must understand that spiritual energy is very difficult to improve through training, and the current Shinobi world lacks effective means to enhance it, as it is purely innate.

Inoichi clenched his fists tightly, feeling elated!

While the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans are allies, and the camaraderie among the three families is indeed sincere, there was also competition within the three families to determine hierarchy.

Not to mention the Yamanaka clan; over a hundred years ago, they were the team leaders, but now, due to various reasons, their status in the alliance could be said to have fallen significantly.

The Akimichi clan might look unassuming, but they also had their own ambitions.

Akimichi Tori was a direct subordinate of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, renowned for his martial exploits. It was only because he died during the Nine-Tails incident that he didn't become a high-level advisor in the village like Shimura Danzo, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu.

As for the Nara clan, they were even stronger.

The current clan head, the fifteenth "Shika," Nara Shikaku, is the Jōnin Commander of Konoha. His strategic genius was renowned across the nations. When the Fourth Hokage was appointed, as well as when the Third Hokage returned to power, Nara Shikaku had the same authority as the three advisors in the village, with the right to recommend and vote for the new Hokage.

The Yamanaka clan, as the "Ino" part of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, had been in decline for too long, but today, Inoichi finally saw a glimmer of hope for their resurgence in Ino.