Chapter 499: Hinata's Discovery
Ino used the Spirit Transformation Technique to slowly absorb the ocular power. The Mangekyō Sharingan's power was another ultimate expression of Yin Release chakra. She had always been a bit worried about the final step of achieving her Kekkei Mōra; if she could integrate Yin Release chakra into her bloodline beforehand with the help of the Mangekyō, it would be much more convenient.
Lately, she had been extremely focused when absorbing the ocular power.
Itachi and Shisui were truly the best of friends. Both of their Mangekyō were illusion-types, and their ocular powers were very similar. When Ino absorbed the power, she felt almost no resistance. The two powers, as if carrying their respective souls, blended together as smoothly as milk and water.
Ino suspected that if Sasuke hadn't existed, those two probably could have created a pair of Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan together.
Her entire mind was immersed in the Mangekyō's ocular power, using it to carefully comprehend the relationship between Yin Release chakra and the five elements, along with Yin and Yang.
Hinata had returned to her habit of physical training. Ino had previously thought that her training alone was ineffective and had suggested she find a few partners to spar with. Unfortunately, Hinata didn't have many acquaintances.
In the end, she had to ask Tenten for help. As Neji Hyuga's teammate, Tenten often sparred with him and had a good understanding of techniques like the Thirty-Two Palms and Sixty-Four Palms. She was the perfect person to point out Hinata's shortcomings.
From Ino's perspective, Hinata was lacking in every area. She had so many weaknesses that Ino didn't even know where to start. Tenten, who often trained with Neji, was able to give more targeted feedback.
"Eight Trigrams Palms... Revolving Heaven!" Hinata spun like a top at high speed, her hands forming an iron wall that deflected all the ninja tools Tenten threw at her.
Tenten was briefly airborne. After she had used up all her tools, she immediately said, "Don't stop, keep attacking me!"
Hinata frowned. The high-speed rotation was making her a bit dizzy, but she gritted her teeth, put strength into her arms, gathered her chakra, and quickly struck out with a palm toward the air!
"Eight Trigrams... Vacuum Palm!"
Tenten didn't even bother to dodge, because the palm strike had missed.
It was off by about half a meter.
Tenten landed on the ground and said, "This is where you're not as good as Neji. Neji can hit me with a Vacuum Palm after a high-speed rotation. You still need more practice."
Hinata nodded emphatically.
After a five-minute rest, she tried the Rotation and Vacuum Palm combo again, but she still couldn't overcome the dizziness, and the palm strike went wide again.
Thwack! The Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm hit a target in the corner of the training ground.
The sound that came back from the target was a bit off, but Hinata lacked confidence and wasn't sure if her judgment was correct.
Tenten followed her gaze but didn't see anything wrong. "What is it?"
"...It's nothing. Let's continue."
After finishing her training for the day and returning home, Hinata took a quick wash and then took out her yarn to continue knitting a scarf for a certain someone.
Ino had once laughingly talked about Konohamaru's large scarf, saying that the older Konohamaru got, the shorter his scarf became. The speaker had no intention, but the listener paid attention. She had remembered this and would take out her knitting from time to time to relax.
As she knitted, she calmed down and thought about the strange sound she had heard during training. The more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong.
Hinata was an ordinary person. If her intelligence were measured by the "Wisdom" stat, it would be around a 6. During training and combat, her intelligence dropped below her usual baseline, perhaps to a 4. But when doing housework, she often performed exceptionally well. At those times, her "Wisdom" could reach an 8.
What was the level of "Wisdom" 8? Gaara of the Sand and Shino Aburame were at about that level.
Putting down her knitting needles, she hurried to the training ground.
She went to the target that had made the strange sound and took a closer look. Then, she removed the metal target and was horrified to find a dense network of jutsu formula wires buried inside the post.
"Byakugan!" Disregarding the village rule about not using the Byakugan casually, she followed the wires down. Explosive tags! Buried half a meter deep in the dirt beneath her feet were three explosive tags.
She continued to follow the wires.
In this not-so-large training ground, there were eighteen explosive tags. The numerous wires then left the training ground and entered the commercial district.
Under the eaves, inside the walls, in the spaces between the floorboards, every five or six meters, she could see the embedded jutsu formula wires.
These wires were like a spiderweb, covering more than half of Konoha.
The Konoha Hospital, the academy, the movie theater, several warehouses that Hinata knew of—all the buildings within her sight had explosive tags hidden inside them. This wasn't a few hundred or a few thousand, but over ten thousand, maybe even a hundred thousand! If these explosive tags were detonated, Konoha would instantly be engulfed in a sea of fire!
Hinata was stunned. She clamped her hand over her mouth, afraid that her voice would alert the mastermind and cause them to detonate all the explosive tags prematurely.
What should she do?
Find Ino? Ino wasn't even at home.
Hinata's social circle was actually very small. Or rather, a fifteen-year-old girl's circle was only so big. She didn't have access to many of the higher-ups.
She ran panickedly toward the Hokage building. In the simple values of many of Konoha's residents, if you had a problem, finding the Hokage was never wrong.
When she arrived at the administrative building, the main gate was closed. At this time, Jiraiya had just finished burying Itachi Uchiha and was drinking alone.
Unable to find the Hokage, Hinata was sweating with anxiety.
What should she do? Who could she find to solve this?
It was already late at night, and the lights in the village were becoming fewer and fewer.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Suddenly, a slightly gruff voice came from the shadows behind her.
Hinata turned and found that she recognized the person. It was a village advisor, the old hag that Ino always said had nothing better to do than nitpick—Koharu Utatane!
"Advisor-sama!" Hinata quickly bowed.
Koharu Utatane looked her over. "It's late. Why aren't you sleeping? What are you doing at the administrative building?"
Koharu had absolutely no faith in Jiraiya's administrative abilities. Plus, as an elderly person, she was a light sleeper. So, she had wandered over to take another look at some of the documents Jiraiya had handled during the day, afraid he had missed something.
She had just come out of her office when she ran into the sweaty Hinata.
"I... I!?" Hinata was so nervous she couldn't speak. The main problem was Ino. Ino was always badmouthing Koharu, and after hearing it so many times, Hinata had started to form some ideas of her own.
Hinata stammered for a while before finally getting her thoughts in order. "Advisor-sama, I found explosive tags under the training ground. I found many, many explosive tags!"
"What?!" Koharu was greatly alarmed.
She didn't believe Hinata would dare to come and deceive her in the middle of the night. If it were Ino, she probably would have dared. But Hinata? Hmph, the old woman didn't think the young girl had the guts.
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