Chapter 203: Ino vs. Ino
To Tsunade and the others, Ino sat motionless before the Truth Waterfall. However, within her mental world, a different, surreal scene unfolded.
She remained seated in place, the same blue sky and lush green grass stretching before her eyes. Then, under her gaze, a familiar figure emerged from the waterfall.
The blonde woman wore a purple sleeveless crop top jacket and mesh ninja pants. Her skin was fair, and her expression held a hint of arrogance.
This Ino who walked out of the waterfall was over ninety percent similar to her, the only difference being her eyes.
They were a pair of purple Rinnegan.
This version of Ino then waved a hand at the air, conjuring a Shakujo out of thin air. Her body trembled, and seven Truth-Seeking Orbs filled with overwhelming energy appeared behind her back.
The Ino seated in place was first stunned, then wore a look of utter disbelief: "...Well, I'll be. Is my future path really this wild? Did I just become a sage?"
Sage Ino gave a half-smile: "What do you think? I am you. Aren't these all your dreams? I've achieved those dreams. The future world belongs to me, and of course, to you too. Come, merge with me, join me, and become a higher existence of yourself."
Ino supported herself by the knees, stood up, and patted non-existent dust from her body: "Sounds plausible enough. Alright, seems pretty good. Come and absorb me, then."
Sage Ino remained standing in place, motionless.
Ino looked at her: "Why aren't you moving? Can't you, or do you just not know how? I've never actually seen a Sage. That's all just something my mind conjured up. Who are you trying to scare by looking like this?"
"I want to experience it, I want to see the view from a higher place," Sage Ino said, the superficial elements on her quickly vanishing. As she returned to her normal appearance, her eyes were filled with madness. Fiercely, she drew a kunai and lunged, stabbing violently towards Ino's throat: "So you must die!"
A crisp "Clang!" rang out as Ino, also holding a kunai in a reverse grip, parried the attack.
Having already discovered that ninjutsu couldn't be used in the mental world, she lowered her center of gravity and swept a leg towards her opponent's ankle. Catching a flash of fire out of the corner of her eye, she hastily withdrew her move and rolled to the side. She felt a heavy shove on her shoulder, and only then heard a loud "bang!"
"Master, the times have changed." The opposing Ino had taken on the appearance of holding a cross spear in her left hand and a firearm in her right. The flash of fire just now had indeed come from the muzzle.
"The times haven't changed!" Ino retorted, utilizing Yugito Nii's fighting techniques. Leaning her body back and using her left hand for support, she unleashed a rapid series of kicks with both feet, all landing on her opponent's lower abdomen.
The opposing Ino stumbled back two steps, hastily discarded the firearm, and swung the cross spear with a single arm, intending to unleash a powerful move on her.
Ino let out a scoff, instantly closing the distance and grabbing her opponent's throat with her left hand, pinning her against the rock wall. Then, she unleashed a rapid series of stabs towards the opponent's chest and abdomen: "What an idiot! How would I ever use this kind of long spear?! Do you even have a brain?!"
The opponent dissolved into black smoke and vanished, but less than a minute later, she reformed. This time, the madness in her eyes had transformed into arrogance – that same look Sasuke used to give Naruto in their early days.
"Ah—witness my Genjutsu, Mirror Flower, Water Moon!"
While sarcastically shouting, "What amazing Genjutsu!", Ino clamped down on the fake Ino's head with her legs and twisted forcefully to the side.
The fake Ino attempted to use "Thirty-Six Calamity Wind," but was met with a fierce kick to the groin before Ino finished her with a single knife strike to the throat.
After reforming into human shape, the fake Ino began shouting "Ultra Instinct." Ino promptly grabbed her hair, delivered a brutal knee strike to her face, then grabbed her head with both hands, gave a twist with a loud "crack," and broke her neck.
Ino absolutely refused to acknowledge that these utterly Chuunibyo-like figures were her dark side. She believed that this dark version of herself was simply too fixated on pursuing power. And since her actual brain had no concept of these 'techniques', the dark side could only shout out the names. How to actually perform the moves? Sorry, the main body had no idea either!
Each time she defeated a fake Ino, she felt her mental energy become a little purer. The increase wasn't significant, but it made her feel much lighter, as if layers of burden were being shed.
As she became purified, the fake Ino also seemed to shed her unnecessary baggage, becoming more fundamental for the fight.
The seven emotional avatars, representing arrogance, rudeness, pride, negativity, vanity, jealousy, and cowardice, were defeated. These emotions would naturally arise again in the future; after all, she was a living person, not an immortal being without desires. But in this moment, Ino was free from them.
She calmly watched the waterfall, waiting for her eighth opponent.
An Ino wreathed in thick, dark energy walked out from behind the waterfall.
Just one look was enough to know this one was serious; definitely not like the few jokers from before. The instant she saw this figure, Ino knew the emotion it represented: the malice within her heart, absolute malice – malice towards people, towards the village, towards the system, towards the entire world.
"Do I really harbor such intense malice towards the world?" Ino wondered. "I thought I was quite gentle usually."
Malice Ino extended a finger, pointing at her: "Hypocrite. You've worn a mask for so long, you don't even dare face your true self anymore. I despise you."
Never mind hypocrisy or not, defeating you is all that matters! Ino had a precise intuition: Nine represented the ultimate limit, but the final sliver of negative emotion in her heart could never be truly expelled. Defeating eight fake Inos would signify the completion of this heart-refining journey.
"Swish, swish, swish." She consecutively threw three shuriken. Even in the mental world, imagining such tools required consuming chakra. She didn't bother conjuring something outlandish like a nuclear bomb, choosing instead to use the most fundamental ninja tools to test her opponent.
Malice Ino opened her mouth wide. The immense malice was like a black hole, and a suction force appeared out of nowhere. Not only were the three shuriken pulled in, but the entire mental world began to distort around it.
Ino focused chakra into her right fist, then leaped high into the air, slamming a punch towards Malice Ino like a streaking meteor.
A large crater was blasted into the ground, the shockwave spreading outwards like a spiderweb in all directions. Malice Ino's black hole-like ability was interrupted. She pulled back and retreated, but Ino twisted her waist and swung her arm, smashing an elbow into her chest.
Malice Ino flashed diagonally to the right, dodging away. But Ino had already anticipated her move. Throwing her whole body forward, her shoulder slammed directly into Malice Ino's face.
Malice Ino embraced her like a lover, then opened her mouth wide. As if filled with countless fangs, she bit down hard on Ino's shoulder. The fangs pierced skin and muscle, and after biting down, she gave a savage jerk of her head, brutally tearing off a large chunk of flesh from Ino's shoulder.
Ino endured the piercing pain, pushing off with her feet. The two tumbled into a tangled heap, rolling uncontrollably across the ground like gourds.
She imagined the ground beneath her feet was the hardest metal in the world. Then, grabbing Malice Ino's head, she slammed it repeatedly against the ground.
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