Chapter 559: The Rōran Ruins
To travel ten days or half a month with the treasured tool Plough, Ino's own chakra could provide the necessary energy. But to jump twenty years all at once? Her chakra was simply not enough.
She couldn't tell anyone in the village about this. How could she explain it? "Hey, I have a super-treasure that can travel through time?" Did they think things weren't chaotic enough already?
Ino left a shadow clone in the village to gather information while her main body left Konoha, crossing the Land of Fire, the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Frost, and the Land of Lightning. Finally, she headed to the northeast of the Land of Lightning, a forbidden zone for humans, a desert of civilization, and also the place where Yin-Kurama rolled around and played happily.
Ino had a spiritual imprint on Yin-Kurama, and she quickly found the lazy creature sleeping in a cave.
"Wake up, old Nine, stop sleeping! I need you for something."
Yin-Kurama was groggy from sleep. Seeing her at his doorstep, he looked weak and listless.
Ino immediately saw the problem. "Has it gotten this serious? Is something wrong with Yang-Kurama, and it's affecting you too?"
Yin-Kurama was sluggish. His usually silky fur had no luster, and his nine tails drooped like nine rags.
He was too embarrassed to say that he had been playing when a huge wave of fatigue had suddenly washed over him.
He shook his massive head. "I don't know. I just feel tired, extremely tired..."
Ino had no intention of nursing a patient. She took out the treasured tool Plough. "You recognize this, right? A treasured tool of the Ōtsutsuki clan. I need to go back twenty years to help Naruto solve a predicament, but I'm just a poor little ninja. My chakra isn't enough, so, hehehehe."
Yin-Kurama pouted unhappily. I'm this sick, and you still want me to use my chakra to charge a treasured tool? Doesn't your conscience hurt?
Ino kept urging him. Eager to overcome his weakened state, Yin-Kurama had no choice but to shakily place a paw on top of the Plough.
Ino had originally set a time limit of twenty years for the travel. The Plough's journey was round-trip, so she didn't need to worry about the energy for the return. However, thinking that she wouldn't be traveling alone this time and would have to bring back Minato and the others, she knew she would need even more chakra.
She directly set a time limit of forty years.
Then she signaled to Yin-Kurama. "Let's begin."
The last time she traveled a thousand years, it had exhausted the chakra of Hashirama Senju and a large number of Uzumaki clan ninja. This time, she didn't need to go back so far. In Ino's opinion, with Yin-Kurama's chakra reserves, he should be able to complete the charging.
And it turned out to be so.
The Nine-Tails' chakra was indeed immense! Even split into two, its chakra reserves were still a lot larger than the other Tailed Beasts. She didn't know how the Sage of Six Paths had distributed the chakra back then...
Although Yin-Kurama was sickly and kept muttering things like, "Why does it need so much chakra?", "How much longer?", and "Hey, my chakra is running out!", he ultimately helped the Plough finish charging.
With Yin-Kurama's chakra reserves, after charging it with "forty years' worth of power," he was extremely weak. When Ino said goodbye, he just waved a paw, too tired to speak.
Ino returned to the village and dispelled her shadow clone.
Shikamaru was still assisting her, currently using her name to requisition various supplies needed for the desert expedition from the village.
Konoha Village dispatched a ninja army of five thousand for this military operation.
Koharu and Homura were very direct: if Minato returned, everything would be as usual. If he didn't, or if they found out the Hidden Sand was involved in some foul play, they would annihilate the Hidden Sand Village first!
Within this army, the number of ninja directly under Ino's command was as high as one thousand two hundred.
This included four hundred Yamanaka clan ninja, three hundred former Root ninja, and over four hundred of her subordinates from the Intelligence Division.
The former Root ninja had been recruited as Ino's private army. A private army also needed salaries, daily training, supplies, and weapons, all of which cost money. Danzo, as the Third Hokage's old partner, could use the village's accounts, a typical case of using public funds to support his own subordinates.
Ino hadn't had this privilege before. The three hundred-plus former Root ninja had to be paid out of her own pocket for their missions. This time, she had volunteered, and Koharu's opinion of her had changed somewhat. It was a certain degree of recognition. She hinted that the salaries of these ninja could also be transferred to the village's accounts.
The Nara and Akimichi clans dispatched a total of six hundred ninja. To rescue their clan head, the Akimichi clan sent over four hundred of their stout members.
The Aburame clan also sent over a hundred ninja.
Sasuke, concerned for Kakashi and Naruto's safety, actively requested to join the battle.
Sakura hesitated for a moment and also joined the medical team in the main force.
Temari swore that she was willing to stay behind as a hostage. If anything happened to Minato, Konoha could take her life. Ino brought her along as well, appointing her as the army's guide.
If something really happened to Minato, would killing you be the end of it? Don't be ridiculous. Your life or death would be completely irrelevant at that point.
The army gathered their supplies, completed the departure procedures that evening, and marched overnight to the Rōran ruins in the Land of Wind.
Temari had previously sworn that the Hidden Sand was willing to assist the Konoha ninja in searching for and rescuing the Fourth Hokage.
The result was that the Hidden Sand Village was in a state of utter chaos, with conflicting orders coming from multiple sources. Assist? Not a chance.
Ino gave the order: "Ignore the Hidden Sand. Head directly to the Rōran ruins."
Temari led them to the Rōran ruins.
As far as the eye could see, only ruins remained.
The endless wind and sand had almost completely buried all traces of this ancient kingdom. Due to environmental degradation, the residents had long abandoned this land and migrated to more habitable places. Let alone Konoha ninja, even a Sand ninja like Temari didn't know where the people of Rōran had gone. There were too many small countries like this in the desert; no one cared about their life or death.
Ino used her sensory abilities to search the area. Deep underground, she could indeed sense a massive source of energy. To be more specific, this was likely primitive natural energy that had not yet been decomposed and transformed by the God Tree. To put it more fantastically, this was probably the last bit of the planet's will left after resisting Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
It was violent, unconscious, and highly exclusive.
In Ino's perception, this thing was completely incommunicable. Like a volcano, it had erupted once and then withered. Want another eruption? You'd have to wait.
Ninja from the Inuzuka, Aburame, and several Hyuga branch families joined the search and rescue efforts.
The stout members of the Akimichi clan, lacking such skills, helped clear the ruin-like site, trying to find any clues left after the explosion.
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on Patreon. with 50 advanced chapters available on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/GirlsLove1