The souls of Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto truly couldn't be found. Ino estimated that it was because the two had no lingering attachments to the human world, no wishes or obsessions, and their souls had actively dissipated.
The other Uchiha Clan members were all defiant, practically having the word 'rebel' written on their foreheads. Their Summoning value wasn't high. Uchiha Shisui was different; he was a genius who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan during his lifetime. Both his soul and his body were very valuable.
Getting the eye from Danzo's side would be difficult, but the one from Itachi's side shouldn't be hard. As long as Shisui went, he would likely be able to retrieve it. Once he gathered his Mangekyo Sharingan from when he was alive, its value would be immense.
Ino didn't know if Shisui's soul was still present. Logically, with such a stubborn and persistent personality, and having died innocently at such a young age, he must still have some lingering regrets. As long as there was something on his mind, his soul wouldn't easily dissipate.
However, the Naka River is too long.
This river once served as the border of the Land of Fire, like the Chu-Han Contention. The Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan in the Warring States Period used this river as a dividing line: you were in the north, I was in the south. The two clans fought to the death on the river. When there was nothing else to do, Senju Hashirama would skip stones by the river, and Uchiha Madara would pee in it.
This river has accumulated too much bloodshed and vengeance. Many people died in the river, and most of the wandering spirits dissipated with the wind, but quite a few remained.
Ino used the Spirit Transformation Technique to search, but she couldn't pinpoint locations, so she could only ask one by one.
"Are you Uchiha Shisui?"
"Are you Uchiha Shisui?"
Asking like this made the workload too immense; too many Uchiha had died in this river.
The Senju Clan had relatively cheerful personalities, with a stronger Yang attribute. After death, they had no lingering wishes and dissipated after a few days.
The Uchiha, with their strong Yin attribute, were different.
Of the ten ghosts that died in this river, nine were Uchiha.
"Uchiha who?"
"Shisui what?"
After asking three confused ghosts in a row, Ino really didn't have the patience to screen them one by one. Yakushi Kabuto hadn't even found his body, so it must be hidden quite well. Anyway, Izumi has nothing to do right now, so here's a task for you: go find him.
After assigning the task to Izumi, Ino went to the laboratory beneath the Cross Guild warehouse.
She now had two very valuable corpses in her hands: one was the Fourth Kazekage's body, and the other was Kimimaro's body.
Ino immediately looked at Kimimaro's chest, where the Curse Mark was Orochimaru's Curse Mark of Earth.
She could sense that Kimimaro had died very thoroughly. Because of the modified Dead Demon Consuming Seal, there would be no Sealing Technique formula indicating the end of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal on his stomach.
The Curse Mark on Kimimaro's chest was still slowly absorbing Natural Energy from the outside world through a special technique, for the consumption of the Curse Mark itself.
Without external intervention, this Curse Mark would operate on its own for a very long time.
Ino used her knowledge of Sealing Technique and soul knowledge to study this Curse Mark.
Orochimaru pretentiously told Sasuke that he saw everything happening in the outside world through the Heavenly Cursed Seal within Anko Mitarashi. This was clearly bragging and trying to deceive Erzhuzi.
Even the Six Paths Sage's observations had blind spots and limits, so where did Orochimaru get the confidence to say this? If he could watch events in the outside world like a movie in a dark room, if he had subjective consciousness, why wouldn't he escape? The inability to form hand seals wouldn't trouble him.
Ino believed that the consciousness he left in the Heavenly Cursed Seal and Curse Mark of Earth was incomplete and in an unconscious state. It could passively collect some information mastered by the host, but it couldn't act subjectively. Only by releasing the Curse Mark and having his main consciousness descend, like a small program restarting the incomplete consciousness there, could it be considered true replication and rebirth.
It was replication, definitely not resurrection.
The Sword of Totsuka and the Shinigami's Seal are currently the pinnacle of Sealing Technique in the Ninja World. No matter how strong Orochimaru is, he cannot bypass the restrictions of Sealing Technique. His main consciousness or main soul must have been sealed. What comes out afterward is a clone, just like Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter, a memory copy from a certain period of his life.
This also explains why Orochimaru's personality became gentler after emerging from Anko Mitarashi's body, because he wasn't as evil when he left the Heavenly Cursed Seal in Anko Mitarashi.
Ino's Chakra was still a bit lacking, so she wasn't too eager to learn Sage Mode. Tsunade hadn't mentioned it, and neither had she.
She hadn't touched Kimimaro's Curse Mark of Earth, keeping it in a very early observation stage.
She extracted a large amount of blood and two finger bones from Kimimaro's body, preparing to study exactly what Shikotsumyaku was.
"Oh? That was fast," she had just finished preparing for the experiment when she noticed Tayuya entering the maximum active radius of her Spirit Transformation Technique.
She immediately sealed the laboratory, sealed the two extremely valuable corpses, concealed them, and used the Spirit Transformation Technique to bypass the Sensing Team's sensing barrier, then rushed out of Konoha Village.
Tired! So tired!
Tayuya ran non-stop, continually fleeing from the southern base.
Considering that Kabuto was a spy from Konoha, she didn't realize her thoughts had been slightly influenced, and she had been running towards Konoha these past two days.
To this day, she still didn't know why Kimimaro wanted to kill her. What did she do? It made no sense!
The Sound Four were all Ninja with severe imbalances in their skills. Her Taijutsu and strength were extremely poor. Having persisted until now, she was truly out of stamina and could only lean against a large rock to rest. Suddenly, she saw a silver flash of light before her eyes, then everything went black, and she knew nothing more.
Ino used the Spirit Transformation Technique to knock her unconscious, took over her body, shook her neck, and stood up.
Tayuya's physical condition was very weak. Prolonged use of Curse Mark Level Two had severely overdrawn her stamina and mental energy, which was why Ino easily took over her body.
"Just this?" Ino found Chakra in Tayuya's Chakra that was similar to the Shinigami's attribute. Through analysis, this Chakra came from the Summoning Technique.
Tayuya could summon three evil spirits called "Three Ogres." These three big, clumsy creatures, missing eyes and arms, should be the Shinigami's targets.
What would the Shinigami do with these three idiots? Ino really couldn't understand.
She sifted through Tayuya's memories and found that Orochimaru had made her sign the Summoning contract with the Three Ogres. As for where Orochimaru found these three guys, Tayuya didn't know.
"Orochimaru is really good at stirring up trouble. I'd call you the strongest..." Ino grumbled a few words.
It would be a bit of a loss to give the Three Idiots to Shinigami Old Iron like a snack right now. These days, it's all about playing the long game and reciprocity. She'd look into it later to see if she could split up the Three Idiots and send them one by one, and get some benefits from the Shinigami in return.
---------------------------------
If you'd like to read the next 70 chapters in advance, you can support me on Patreon.
I regularly post chapter previews there, so you'll always be up-to-date and won't have to wait too long.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
And if you enjoy the story, don't forget to give me a Power Stone. Your support really motivates me to continue translating!