This gave Mrs. Nara a bit more confidence in her "parenting methods," and she often shared her wisdom with Mrs. Yamanaka. "Oh, my Shikamaru has already finished learning the Twelve Hand Seals and is now practicing his sealing speed... You can't just let the child do as they please with these things. They still need adult supervision and a little push. Children aren't very self-disciplined, after all."
Mrs. Yamanaka usually remained noncommittal—Ino didn't need a "push" at all; the little girl was very strong-willed!
Every morning as soon as she woke up, she would work her body into a flexible state, stretching all her muscles and bones, and she would repeat this once more before going to bed at night.
Every day, she would also use her heart to feel the Twelve Hand Seals, one by one, either repeating them or taking turns:
While other children pursued speed—how many seals they could form in a second—Ino pursued "perception."
Whenever a seal was formed, the invisible string of the meridians would vibrate under different forces, releasing Chakra. This Chakra would then follow the mystical internal-external relationships of the five elements, spreading throughout her body. It was as if a stone had suddenly been thrown into a calm pond, creating a ripple that would spread out ring by ring until it reached the edge of the pond.
Each time, Ino would "record" it. There was already a large stack of forms at home, accumulating a vast amount of her own data.
She had even recorded the patterns and organized a table showing the correspondence between the twelve seals—Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, and Boar—and the human body's twelve principal meridians, the Five Viscera and Six Bowels, and even the functions of the muscles, bones, skin, and hair.
Meanwhile!
Ino set another record:
"Baa baa!"
Ram—
Which is the Sheep.
Ino formed the "Ram" seal.
Her meridians vibrated like strings, shaking the power out of her body, spreading along the Small Intestine Meridian of Hand-Taiyang, and then reaching the surface of her body.
This layer of Chakra floated on the surface of her body for a moment and then dissipated as Ino released the seal.
Ram!
Ino formed the seal again.
The Chakra surfaced on her body, producing a slight deformation. However, the "deformation" appeared very abstract and irregular. Little Ino actually became long in one arm and short in the other, and the contours of her face were blurring and changing unsteadily... Without any instruction, Ino had actually taught herself the "Transformation Jutsu"—if this level could be considered "learning" it.
But—
Looking at a horizontal comparison of the same age group, this certainly counted as "learned," and Ino herself was quite satisfied with it!
Ino was actually very satisfied with being able to "transform" like this. She had her own ideas in mind—
Who said the "Transformation Jutsu" had to be turning into someone else, an animal, a plant, or a building to be called a Transformation Jutsu?
She used the "Transformation Jutsu" to utilize this characteristic to blur and cover her own body. Wasn't this also a form of Transformation Jutsu?
"The more sophisticated the transformation, the more fragile it is. Sophistication means needing finer and stricter Chakra control, making it easy for someone to break the Transformation Jutsu. But what about a crude one like mine? It's tough, durable, and not easily broken. The effect of the Transformation Jutsu also obscures my body, so that..."
Ino had already thought of a wonderful scenario:
By using the Transformation Jutsu to make her arm a bit longer, when she attacked, the opponent would try to block the hand and shuriken formed by the Transformation Jutsu ahead of time—which was just an illusion. At that moment, she could use a Kunai to create a spatial and temporal gap—this kind of spatial gap was undoubtedly very lethal.
Similarly, it could also be made a bit shorter... that would mean her hand had already attacked a vital spot, but in the opponent's vision, there was actually still a tiny bit of distance.
This bit of distance would cause the opponent's defense or parry to miss.
She could slit their throat in one go.
If the illusion formed by the "Transformation Jutsu" could also move actively while still providing the effect of obscuring the original body, then... this deception would become even more complete, and the effect would be more hidden and effective!
This was simply a method that wasn't afraid of being seen through. She could openly tell people, "I'm using the Transformation Jutsu," but the opponent would still be helpless!
It—
Wasn't about "I've seen through your Ninjutsu," but about whether "I" could make the correct reaction in a flash.
In battle, a split-second deception wouldn't even give someone time to blink, and all of this happened in the blink of an eye.
In a blink... there wouldn't even be time to activate the Sharingan or Byakugan!
"It's like how even if a person clearly understands that there are no ghosts in this world, they will still feel fear and imagine monsters to scare themselves after going to an abandoned, gloomy palace or a desolate mountain... A person's rationality can dominate normally, but it cannot dominate the moment!"
Ino thought of such a wonderful metaphor.
Yes:
"Knowing" and "doing" are two completely different things.
"Rationality" and "feeling" are also not connected.
When evening came, Ino stood with her hands behind her back, looking profound as she taught Inoichi Yamanaka and Mrs. Yamanaka her "top-secret technique":
"Inoichi Yamanaka, Yamanaka Nobuko... what I am about to teach you two is a secret among secrets; do not reveal it to others. And don't show off your skills; this is a secret manual that only the leader and the lady of the Yamanaka Clan can learn. Now, watch closely—Baa baa!"
Ram!
Ino turned into a blob. It was hard to say if this blob was a humanoid object or some other strange thing.
Inoichi Yamanaka and Mrs. Yamanaka looked at each other, both speechless, thinking, "Isn't this just the Transformation Jutsu? And why is this Transformation Jutsu so... abstract..."
When the two of them looked back, they found that the indescribable blob Ino had turned into actually seemed to have changed shape... "Eh? Was I seeing things just now? Or..."
At the third glance... it was different again.
"Changes in space, minute differences in time... you cannot see my body, and you cannot make an accurate judgment of me. You won't know if my hand is holding a Kunai, or where my hand is... Ignorant mortals—open your rusted, narrow minds."
"What is this?"
Inoichi felt his head buzzing.
"This is the highest mystery of Ninjutsu—deception. Using the characteristics of the Transformation Jutsu to obscure oneself. Because it doesn't need to be very precise, this kind of Transformation Jutsu isn't easily interrupted and can be maintained in battle—hiding one's movements and deceiving the opponent's eyes are not contradictory. Don't deceive for the sake of deception, but..."
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