Chapter 273: Sealing the Evil God
Ino successfully eliminated the evil god. Apart from the portion initially severed by the Water Severing Wave, the remaining giant rock was completely pulverized by the Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan.
Regardless of what kind of god this evil god was before, in Ino's eyes, this fellow was probably not dead yet.
The Jashin cult within the Land of Hot Water would likely resurface, and Hidan was probably unaffected.
Speaking of which, the only contact between the two sides was the brief moment of the two Ultra-Big Ball Rasengans.
The time was very short, but Ino had somewhat discerned something about the evil god's nature.
Life forms like the evil god were completely different from humans, somewhat similar to tailed beasts, composed of the malevolent thoughts of intelligent life. Now that it was eliminated, it would "respawn" after a period of time.
The price of its resurrection was its sanity. This fellow might not have even been an evil god initially; it was just too afraid of death, or had been killed too many times, and repeated "respawns" had erased its sanity.
If it had appeared in a peaceful, tranquil environment, it would have become a relatively gentle life form. Unfortunately, the ninja world was not peaceful; killing and hatred were everywhere. Surrounded by these negative energies, it couldn't control its instinct to absorb energy, and could only continue down the dark path of being an evil god.
The Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan nearly overturned the entire underground cavern. Ino used Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall to temporarily support the cavern, but it looked like it was about to collapse soon.
Not knowing how long it would take for the evil god to revive, Ino worried that it would seek revenge on her after "respawning." At that time, she would be in the open, and the enemy in the dark, putting her at a disadvantage.
Many fantasy works have provided solutions for dealing with such stubborn, unkillable, indestructible iron-headed foes: sealing!
Sealing had another advantage: if someone broke the seal, Ino would know.
She estimated that if the opponent didn't "respawn" on the spot, it would definitely come back to retrieve its power. Ino gathered the rubble contaminated with the evil god's aura, drew dense Five Elements Seals around it, and then used Earth Release to sink it underground.
After thinking about it, she still felt uneasy. She dug the rubble out of the ground again, inserted a kunai into the very center of the rubble, and wrote two lines of small characters on the kunai's handle: "Sakura Haruno sealed the evil god here! Those who tamper with the seal shall die!"
Looking left and right, Ino felt this was very secure. She sealed the rubble again and sank it into the earth.
The piece of the giant rock that she had cut off with the Water Severing Wave before the battle was not small. She sealed it directly into a scroll, preparing to take it back and see if her old pal, the Shinigami, needed this thing.
Ino dug Sakura out of the dirt, then found the pug Pakkun and Tonton. Afterward, they left the underground cavern with the group of dazed girls.
"Forehead girl, this mission counts as yours, but remember to give me the reward later!" Ino patted her clothes, covered in dirt, and specifically reminded Sakura.
She felt it was a huge loss; her three-month stockpile in the Yang Seal was gone in an instant!
Sakura pouted. Thinking of the might of Ino's Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan, she ultimately didn't dare to talk back. That giant chakra sphere didn't look like a ninjutsu a human could use at all; she was a little scared.
"Yo!" Kakashi squatted at the entrance of the cavern and greeted them.
Sakura was furious! Yo, my foot! Why didn't you come earlier!?
From Kakashi's perspective, the Jashin cult wasn't really a major enemy. An organization that kidnapped civilian girls was insignificant in the eyes of a ninja. It was just that Ino had made such a big deal out of it, which he hadn't expected.
Without Hidan, that spirited young man, the evil god wasn't much to be afraid of. Ordinary people wouldn't provoke it, and it wouldn't care about ordinary people. Ino was targeted entirely because the Shinigami's aura on her was too strong. If a normal ninja, like Sakura, had done the mission, there wouldn't have been so much drama. The cult leader would have been the final boss, and with a chunin's ability and a little bit of brainpower, resolving this incident wouldn't have been difficult.
After bidding farewell to Kakashi, Sakura, and Pakkun, Ino took a bath in her summoning castle and then returned to the inn.
She recounted the truth about how the Jashin cult used genjutsu to make civilians see the deceased.
"So it was all a lie?" Shizune was quite disappointed. "Lady Tsunade is so pitiful."
Suddenly, Tsunade emerged from a corner: "Where am I pitiful?!"
Tsunade was already of this age, not a young maiden. Why would they pity her? However, since things had come to this, the three of them and the pig still formally sat in the room for a meeting. Tsunade suggested going to a hot spring, but was refused by a stern-faced Shizune. The meeting would be held in the room! And they would wear clothes!
"Lady Tsunade! You must pull yourself together! The village's situation is not good right now. Both the Fifth Hokage and the village need your strength!" Shizune's tone was quite heavy, her eyes wide. Tsunade subconsciously shrank her neck, as if their roles had been reversed. At this moment, Shizune was the older sister, and Tsunade had become the younger sister.
Ino and Tonton sat upright, looking as if they were attentively listening to a leader's speech.
Tsunade muttered softly, "I don't want to either... but I just have hemophobia. What can I do?"
Shizune, usually a very gentle woman, looked at her with immense pressure at this moment: "I think Lady Tsunade is just escaping! Uncle has been dead for many years. He definitely wouldn't want to see you like this now. Stop being decadent! Okay?"
Whatever she said, Tsunade nodded, but to completely reverse the psychological trauma caused by hemophobia was still impossible. Her talk-no-jutsu level wasn't high enough!
Angered, Shizune stood up and dragged Ino out of the room.
"Huh? What are you doing?"
"Come with me!"
Ino was completely bewildered, not knowing what her fair-legged senior apprentice-sister wanted to do.
The two of them went to a secluded spot, and Shizune said with particular determination: "Now, only the deceased Uncle can persuade Lady Tsunade. I must return to the village immediately and implore the Fifth Hokage to give me the learning scroll for Edo Tensei."
Ino quickly interrupted her: "Edo Tensei is a forbidden jutsu. Lord Jiraiya won't give it to you. Besides, that jutsu seems very difficult to learn."
Edo Tensei was not just ordinarily difficult to learn. Back then, Orochimaru studied it for several years and experimented countless times before he improved upon the Second Hokage's foundation and barely mastered the jutsu.
Shizune said with hope: "If I can't learn it, isn't there still you?"
"Ahem, ahem, ahem, ahem." Ino coughed twice. For her senior apprentice-sister's great kindness, she could only...
Forbidden jutsus involving souls, like Edo Tensei, always came with a price in her view. Souls that had already entered the Underworld couldn't easily return to the world of the living. Without paying a huge price, this jutsu couldn't be activated at all.
She didn't want Shizune to pay these prices, and she herself didn't want to use this jutsu.
She hesitated, "Actually, I've now developed a summoning jutsu..."
"Shizune pressed on: "Can you summon my uncle?""
"No, I can summon the Second Hokage."
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