Chapter 419: Immortal Zombie Mode
The Konoha ninja spent their New Year at sea.
Without a powerful tool like the giant turtle, and facing the Mist Village's island chain defense, the Konoha ninja could only fight their way through.
On an island called Red Spot Island, Mei Terumi was giving a pre-battle mobilization speech.
"Red Spot" was just a descriptor; in reality, the island was surrounded by red coral reefs and held an extremely crucial geographical position. Viewed from the sky, it looked like the gateway to the Land of Water.
"Behind us is the Land of Water, our homeland! Whether you like me or hate me, I only want to say one thing: if the Konoha ninja break through this line of defense, the flames of war will ignite in our homeland. Those of you who don't want to see that happen, pull yourselves together and prepare for battle!"
Mei Terumi stared intently at the coastline. Before long, tall masts came into view, followed by numerous warships of various sizes.
The sensory ninja transmitted the information. On both sides of Red Spot Island, two fleets of Mist ninja ships immediately attacked the Konoha ninja from the left and right flanks. Mei Terumi stared into the distance. Once the Mist gained the advantage in the naval battle, she would lead her elite ninja to charge across the water.
Ino's side also saw the attacking Mist warships.
"Lord Ninja, we have entered the silent sea route. There is no wind or fish here. If we continue to advance, the ships will lose all power," a pirate captain in her employ sent a messenger to inform her.
Shikamaru was a bit puzzled. He didn't understand naval warfare and had never heard of such a situation. A place on the sea with no wind? Seeing the fiercely attacking Mist warships, it didn't look like they were without power.
Ino, however, understood. Isn't this just the Calm Belt? Nothing new here.
Seeing Shikamaru frowning in thought, and knowing that this smart man was overthinking it, she said in a low voice, "It's probably the effect of a magnetic field. It's not a big problem."
As for why the Mist's warships could travel at high speed in a windless environment, the answer was soon revealed: they were using steamships!
Ino shook her head. Konoha had spent all its energy on internal strife. The Cloud had chakra cannons, the Mist had high-speed steamships, and they had nothing, still fighting with kunai and wooden boats!
It was only because this world had chakra and ninjutsu. If this were her previous life, Konoha, with its lack of progress and focus on internal conflict, would have been wiped out long ago.
She put on an uneducated expression and waved her hand grandly. "What steamships? I don't understand! Don't be afraid, who do you think I am? Get closer to them! Seize their ships!"
She was extremely generous, immediately taking out ten large chests filled with gold and jewels to motivate the pirates to fight.
But pirates with only a bit of ferocity were no match for ninja. She then turned to the warrior monks she had hired at a high price.
"Masters, you should have some understanding of me by now. My Yamanaka clan has the utmost respect for monks. For the glory of my Buddha, for the cleansing of this turbid world, please lend me your aid!"
One hundred and fifty warrior monks chanted Buddhist sutras, and wielding their precept blades and naginatas, they boarded the pirate ships to face the Mist ninja.
Next to be duped into fighting were the samurai and wandering ninja.
The majority of them were ordinary people, but there were a thousand or so who possessed chakra. They could definitely create some hindrance for the Mist ninja.
Shortly after the two sides engaged, Ino handed over command to Shikamaru.
"The rest is up to you. This clone of mine doesn't have much chakra. Just stall them."
"Alright, leave it to me."
If a brute like the Fourth Raikage knew how to use shadow clones to attack the Mist Village, there was no reason Ino wouldn't follow suit.
The Mist wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, but there was no harm in trying.
Ino left a shadow clone on the fleet as a mascot, while her real body called over Sai from Root and flew towards the Mist Village from the sky.
Sai's identity was semi-public due to the prisoner exchange. Danzo did not refuse Ino's request and agreed directly.
At this moment, Ino and Sai stood on the back of an ink bird, quietly bypassing two Mist defense lines and entering the Mist Village.
"Jonin Yamanaka, what are you planning to do? Set a fire?" Sai asked strangely. He had initially thought it was a reconnaissance mission, but now it didn't seem like it.
"You drop me off, then wait for my signal, and then pick me up. That's all."
"...Alright."
After entering the Mist Village's range, the ink bird was discovered by the Mist sensory squad. Gonbee, who was guarding the village, did not immediately inform Mei Terumi because they found that there were only two enemies. The great Mist Village, afraid of two enemies? Did you think you were Hashirama Senju?
The ink bird was shot down. Ino threw a special kunai to the ground and landed steadily using the Flying Thunder God. She controlled some plants to catch the falling Sai.
"Find a place to hide, then when I call you, draw that ink bird again to get me out."
"Understood."
"Wood Release: Wood Golem Jutsu!"
As Ino formed the hand seals, she controlled the Wood Golem to take a deep breath.
The Mist Village was the true Village of the Bloody Mist. The village was filled with the souls of the dead. With a simple scan, Ino could detect countless corpses underground—old people, children, men, women, all sorts.
As the Wood Golem inhaled, the ninja corpses that had not yet decayed were the first to be discovered by the Wood Release. The residual blood in their bodies was absorbed by the plant roots and quickly transported to the Wood Golem, followed by their internal organs, muscles, and bones. The absorption speed became faster and faster. The ninja corpses were just the tip of the iceberg. In a place unseen by all, countless vengeful souls became the Wood Golem's energy.
As more and more souls were inhaled, the bulging muscles on the Wood Golem's surface gradually withered, replaced by dull gray spots. Densely packed spots covered its entire body. From a distance, the Wood Golem now looked like a gray giant.
A string of Death God prayer beads hung around the Wood Golem's neck, and the Kumo-giri was tucked at its waist. Most importantly, its face... its face was covered by a Hannya mask, like that of a vicious ghost.
Ino still couldn't use her own Sage Mode. She didn't dare to rashly draw the violent natural energy of the world into her body. In her opinion, this was too dangerous.
Ninja didn't have the constitution of the sages from the three great sage regions. If something went wrong, there was no medicine for regret.
She took an alternative path. Referring to the Wood Golem's characteristic of being able to absorb external chakra indiscriminately, she researched a Wood Golem version of Sage Mode.
Natural energy covered a wide range. Did ninja count as being part of the natural world? To be precise, chakra originated from the God Tree, so ninja who used chakra did not count as being within the scope of natural energy; they were an external species.
Did dead ninja count? It was somewhere between counting and not counting.
So, Ino used the Wood Golem's chakra absorption characteristic as a basis, and used the souls of the dead as a bridge to absorb natural energy.
Because of the vengeful souls, ninety-nine percent of the absorbed natural energy was negative energy, and her Wood Golem had undergone a major transformation.
This was less like a Sage Mode and more like an Immortal Zombie Mode!
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