Chapter 201: Turtle Island
Five gaping, bloody holes pierced Ino's abdomen, blood gushing outwards incessantly.
Yugito, on the other hand, bled from all seven orifices, her face turning black – a sign of severe poisoning. The Tailed Beast within her was suppressed by Flower Style, and her body had been pierced by hundreds of hyphae, injecting various toxins as if they were free. Now, aside from her eyeballs, her body had lost all sensation.
Tsunade still couldn't stand the sight of blood. Shizune set down Tonton and quickly ran over to treat them.
Shizune first assessed the injuries of the two, saying, "Yugito-san, your poisoning is very serious, but Ino's external injuries are also severe. I'll treat her first."
Yugito's mouth was numb from the poison, unable to speak. She merely moved her eyeballs twice to signal her understanding.
Shizune began by pulling out the sharp claw embedded in Ino's lower abdomen. Surprisingly little blood flowed out – she had nearly bled dry already.
Simultaneously, Ino had a thought, and all the white hyphae of the Titan Arum retracted, the flower petals slowly closing. The bodies of the two individuals and the flower, previously connected, were now completely separated.
Shizune used the Mystical Palm Technique to stop Ino's bleeding. The essence of this technique is to stimulate the recipient's own cell growth. While Ino's cells couldn't reach the level of a Sage Body, under external stimulation, they slowly began to heal.
Having lost too much blood, her stamina was nearly depleted, and she lacked the strength to stand. Shizune took her backpack and rummaged through it.
She pulled out seven or eight different antidotes one after another, but Ino shook her head at each.
It wasn't until Shizune produced a small box with a fresh, pleasant scent, more like cosmetics than an antidote, that Ino slowly nodded.
Ino's lips moved slightly, and Shizune quickly leaned her ear close to her mouth.
"The poison is very deep... This... can only... alleviate... a portion..."
Shizune nodded. "I understand."
Yugito's poisoning was severe. Even with this antidote, it would at best only alleviate the symptoms. Shizune would need to prepare more specific antidotes later.
After relaying the important details, Ino relaxed her body. Unlike the First Hokage or Naruto, who could rest for a moment and stand up brimming with energy, she couldn't. She allowed her body to slowly sink into the sea of flowers, using its vast life force to repair her body.
"Seal!"
Deep within the sea of flowers, she sealed all the Two-Tails' chakra she had collected using Flower World Descend. Quite a bit of the eerie blue Two-Tails chakra had been gathered – the chakra that scattered during the battle, the blue fire rat spheres, and the Tailed Beast arm Yugito had discarded at the end.
The chakra of the One-Tail, Two-Tails, and Nine-Tails had now all been collected.
The sealing jutsu drained Ino's last reserves of energy. Putting away the sealing scroll, she closed her eyes, gathering the life force of the Flower World to slowly heal her injuries.
Meanwhile, Shizune administered the antidote to Yugito. She began coughing violently, then vomited large amounts of thick, dark brown blood with a pungent odor. The smell was so strong it nearly overwhelmed Darui, who had come over to help.
As long as there was no bleeding, Tsunade had no issue treating Ino.
Yugito, as a Jinchuriki, recovered quickly once the majority of the toxins were expelled.
A day later, both of them had regained their ability to move.
Five days later, they fought again, and it was still a brutal battle.
Ino couldn't keep up with the high speed granted by Yugito's taijutsu and ninja techniques, while Yugito had no solution against Flower Style. This jutsu inherently countered Tailed Beasts. Against regular ninja, she and the Tailed Beast could fight at 150% of their strength, but against Flower Style? They couldn't even unleash 80%. The suppressed state caused by Flower Style, where the Tailed Beast was constantly listless, severely impacted her combat ability.
Yugito attempted to overwhelm Ino from the start with continuous attacks to prevent her from using Flower Style, but Ino's taijutsu wasn't that weak. Even risking injury, she could activate it. Once she used Flower Style, the battle devolved into a stalemate.
Neither could defeat the other. How should this result be considered?
"Let's go. Pack up your things. I'll take you to Turtle Island." The Fourth Raikage maintained his dignified demeanor. This draw was an acceptable outcome for him.
Yugito and Darui had to return to the village for missions, so the two female ninja left first. Killer Bee, having nothing else to do, was told to accompany them. The Fourth Raikage then led Tsunade, the other two, and the pig towards Turtle Island.
Turtle Island was a giant turtle nurtured by the Hidden Cloud Village for many years. How big was it specifically? You could think of it like Zunesha from One Piece. The giant turtle could be considered a slowly moving island, with its own ecosystem. The climate was somewhat like a subtropical one, but considering Turtle Island was an incredibly massive living creature, the temperature was more akin to its body temperature. The specific climate depended on the giant turtle's physical condition.
Turtle Island and Zunesha, Imu-sama's Rinnegan, Big Mom's 33rd child who strongly resembled Uchiha Madara... as soon as Ino set foot on Turtle Island, she felt her thoughts wildly diverging. When she found herself thinking about Chibi Maruko-chan's grandfather and One-Punch Man, she realized something was wrong and quickly tried to rein in her thoughts.
The more she tried to restrain them, the harder her thoughts broke free. She had to close her eyes, shut off most of her sensory abilities, and allow her somewhat turbulent mental energy to slowly calm down.
"What's wrong? Is she sick?" The Fourth Raikage's hoarse voice sounded appropriately.
Killer Bee, completely oblivious to the situation, started dancing and rapping again.
His peculiar rhythm only made Ino feel more annoyed.
"Concentrate your mental energy! Use the Yang Seal to first seal away the excess chakra!" Tsunade sharply commanded.
Ino sat cross-legged on the ground, continuously extracting chakra, converting it to the Yin nature, and then storing it within the Yang Seal. A visible layer of blue energy mist appeared around her body – an external sign of control issues. At the same time, it indicated that her chakra reserves far surpassed those of a normal person. Regular ninja simply didn't have problems with chakra going out of control; they meticulously conserved it. Out of control? Impossible!
Ino converted roughly thirty percent of her chakra before her mind felt calm again. She stood up, shook her head, finding the events happening here very strange.
"This island is a giant living creature," Tsunade explained. "According to my grandfather, the Second Hokage, its bio-magnetic field can affect ninja with strong mental energy. That's why I brought you here."
The Fourth Raikage gave a heavy "hmph," clearly displeased that the Second Hokage had secretly researched their Hidden Cloud Village's giant turtle.
Ino asked, somewhat boastfully, "Really? You didn't feel anything unusual at all? Like your thoughts were out of control? I felt like my mental energy was being pulled by some force, just spinning and spinning and spinning."
Tsunade pretended to look at the distant scenery, not speaking. Sister Shizune smiled and shook her head. Tonton nudged her with her hoof, meaning, "That's enough, don't show off your mental energy. You're going to get hit!"
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on Patreon. with 30 advanced chapters available on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/GirlsLove1