Chapter 213: The Earth Release Curse Mark
Uchiha Fugaku's and Uchiha Mikoto's souls truly couldn't be found. Ino speculated it was because the two had no lingering attachments to the human world, no wishes or obsessions, and their souls had simply dissipated on their own accord.
The rest of the Uchiha clan members had unruly, stubborn personalities, practically with the word "Rebel" written on their foreheads. Their summoning value was low. Uchiha Shisui, however, was different. He was a genius who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan during his lifetime. Both his soul and his body held significant value.
Retrieving the eye that Danzo had was challenging, but getting the one Itachi had shouldn't be difficult. As long as Shisui himself went, getting it would likely be straightforward. If she could gather the Mangekyo Sharingan he had possessed during his life, the value would be immense.
Ino wasn't sure if Shisui's soul was still present. Logically, someone with such a stubborn, focused personality, who was also so young and died so innocently and tragically, surely still had some lingering regrets or unresolved feelings. As long as there was something weighing on his heart, a soul wouldn't easily dissipate.
However, the Naka River was simply too long.
This river had once served as a border, like the Chu-Han border, for the Land of Fire. In the Warring States period, the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan used this river as a dividing line. You were in the north, I was in the south. The two clans fought fierce battles on the river. When there wasn't fighting, Senju Hashirama would skip stones by the riverbank, while Uchiha Madara would urinate in the river...
This river had accumulated far too much bloodshed and hatred. Many people had died in its waters. Most of the lone, wandering spirits had been scattered by the wind, but quite a few still remained.
Ino used the Spirilization Jutsu to search, but she couldn't pinpoint his location. She could only ask them one by one.
"Are you Uchiha Shisui?"
"Are you Uchiha Shisui?"
Asking like this made the workload immense, and there were far too many Uchihas who had died in this river.
The Senju clan members generally had more cheerful personalities, with a stronger Yang nature. They had few lingering wishes after death and dissipated within a few days.
The Uchiha, who had a very strong Yin nature, were different.
Of the ghosts who died in this river, nine out of ten were Uchiha.
"Uchiha who?"
"Shisui what?"
After asking three confused ghosts in a row, Ino simply didn't have the patience to identify them one by one. Yakushi Kabuto hadn't even found his body, so it must be hidden quite discreetly. Anyway, Izumi has nothing to do right now. I'll give you a mission – you go find it.
After assigning Izumi the task, Ino went to the laboratory beneath the Cross Guild warehouse.
She currently held two very valuable corpses: one was the Fourth Kazekage's body, and the other was Kimimaro's body.
Ino's eyes immediately went to Kimimaro's chest. The curse mark there was Orochimaru's Earth Release Curse Mark.
She could sense that Kimimaro was definitively dead. Because it was an altered version of the Reaper Death Seal, the sealing jutsu formula wouldn't appear on his stomach upon its completion.
The curse mark on Kimimaro's chest was still slowly absorbing natural energy from the outside world through a special jutsu formula, using it to sustain the curse mark itself. Without external intervention, this curse mark would continue to operate for a very long time.
Ino used her knowledge of sealing jutsu and souls to study this curse mark.
Orochimaru had boasted to Sasuke that he could see everything happening in the outside world through the Heaven Release Curse Mark on Mitarashi Anko. This was clearly a brag, an attempt to mislead Sasuke.
Even the Sage of Six Paths had blind spots and limits to his observation. Where did Orochimaru get the confidence to say such a thing? If he could truly watch events like a movie in a dark room, if he had subjective consciousness, wouldn't he have found a way to escape? Being unable to form hand signs wouldn't be a challenge for him.
Ino believed that the consciousness Orochimaru left within the Heaven and Earth Release Curse Marks was fragmented and in an unconscious state. It could passively collect some information the host knew, but it couldn't act subjectively. Only by releasing the curse mark, allowing his primary consciousness to descend – acting like a small program restarting the fragmented consciousness there – could it be considered a true 'copy and rebirth.'
It was a copy, absolutely not a resurrection.
The Sword of Totsuka and the Reaper Death Seal were currently the pinnacle of sealing jutsu in the ninja world. No matter how strong Orochimaru was, he couldn't bypass the restrictions of sealing jutsu. His primary consciousness, or rather, his main soul, must have been sealed. What emerged again was a copy, like Tom Riddle in Harry Potter's Chamber of Secrets – a memory copy from a certain period of his life.
This also explained why Orochimaru's personality became gentler after emerging from Mitarashi Anko's body. It was because when he left the Heaven Release Curse Mark on her, he hadn't yet become as twisted as he was later.
Ino's chakra was still a bit short, so she wasn't in a huge hurry to learn Sage Mode. Tsunade hadn't mentioned it, and neither had she.
She hadn't touched Kimimaro's Earth Release Curse Mark yet, keeping it in a very early observational stage.
She extracted a large amount of blood and two finger bones from Kimimaro's body, preparing to research exactly what the Shikotsumyaku was.
"Hmm? That was fast." Just as she finished setting up her experiment, she noticed Tayuya entering the maximum range of her Spirilization Jutsu's activity.
She immediately sealed the laboratory, secured the two highly valuable corpses, covered everything up, used the Spirilization Jutsu to bypass the Sensory Division's detection barrier, and then rushed out of the Leaf Village.
Exhausted! So tired!
Tayuya hadn't stopped running since escaping the southern base. Considering Kabuto was a spy from the Leaf, she hadn't realized her thoughts had been subtly influenced, causing her to run towards the Leaf Village for the past two days.
Even now, she didn't understand why Kimimaro wanted to kill her. What had she even done? It made no sense!
The Sound Four were all ninjas with severe imbalances in their skills. Her Taijutsu and physical strength were extremely poor. She had persisted until now, but she simply had no stamina left. She could only lean against a large rock to rest. Suddenly, she saw a flash of silver light before her eyes, then everything went black, and she knew nothing more.
Ino used the Spirilization Jutsu to knock her consciousness out and occupy her body. Shaking her neck, she smoothly stood up.
Tayuya's physical condition was very weak. Prolonged use of Curse Mark Level 2 had severely overdrawn her stamina and mental energy, which was why Ino was able to easily take over her body.
"Just this?" Ino found chakra similar in nature to the Reaper's within Tayuya's chakra. Through analysis, this chakra came from Summoning Jutsu. Tayuya could summon three malicious ogres known as the "Three Ogres." These three blind, armless simpletons must be the Reaper's targets.
What would the Reaper want with these three simpletons? Ino truly couldn't figure it out.
She sifted through Tayuya's memories and discovered that Orochimaru had made her sign the summoning contract with the Three Ogres. As for which obscure corner Orochimaru found these three guys in, Tayuya didn't know.
"Orochimaru really knows how to stir up trouble. I'll call you the best..." Ino muttered to herself.
Giving the Three Simpletons to her pal the Reaper like snacks right now seemed like a waste. These days, it's all about long-term planning, about give and take. She would think about whether she could break the Three Simpletons apart, send one at a time, and perhaps get some benefits from the Reaper in return.