Yamanaka's Best Lie Detector, Ino
DISCLAIMER: Please only read this story if you're a nerd. Near the bottom of this story, I go paragraphs upon paragraphs about Yamanaka techniques that I invented... Who wants to read so many Jutsu descriptions?
I always loved the Yamanaka Clan. But this might bore you if you're reading a lot about mind-jutsus.
But the story itself is ... I'd say interesting, but I wrote this, ofc I'd say that. Potentially, Ino becomes everyone's worst possible enemy...and the canon/plot changes.
山中いの (=Ino)
START START:
山中いの
"It" hit her while she was in class. It wasn't anything physical. It was far, far worse.
Ino just happened to be staring REAL hard at Uchiha Sasuke, wondering what his entire life was like. He was ignoring all the girls, and preemptively rejected a few girls that were brave enough to get close enough to him, before they even opened their mouths to ask him on dates.
Ino wondered what would make Sasuke-kun accept a girl's confession? What was his type of girl? What sort of life did he live up to now, that would define his current taste in females, that no one else has seemed to cracked? If she knew how Sasuke grew up, she'd know the answers!
(In fact, how convenient it would be, if she knew the backstory of anyone she wanted, just by looking at them.
Well, there's no use dreaming without taking action!)
There's only one way to find out, as the Yamanaka heiress! Mind-reading!
Despite being only six years old, and the fact that her father held off on teaching her the Mind Transfer Jutsu until she reached her 11th birthday, Ino had sneaked around the Yamanaka Clan compounds to overhear her older cousins being taught the technique. They didn't really care that Inoichi's daughter was lurking around since she wasn't an outsider, and they didn't expect her to memorize what they taught and try to do it herself. She was a "baby." So she overheard bits and pieces, not the whole thing. Her six-year-old immaturity ignored the fact that the origin of the Mind Transfer Jutsu wasn't even meant for mind reading.
And so, she focused all her will and might, all her chakra, spirit, and concentration, on Uchiha Sasuke. (The rest of the class noticed Ino staring and concentrating on Sasuke, and attributed that to oogling, which they all did but not as obvious/shamelessly as Ino is doing.)
She prayed with all her might, as she did a bunch of random hand seals (She didn't remember which seal it was), but she felt her chakra inside her body guiding her, based on her desire to know. She did whatever hand seals 'felt right,' (this was actually ill-advised and dangerous, but she was six,) while mentally compressing her inner spirit and trying to send it outwards to Sasuke.
Remembering at the last minute what the seal was supposed to be, she finished off with an oval seal, and threw her soul out. But suddenly, everything went dark.
Ino looked around, felt nothing, saw nothing but pure blackness. She didn't even know which DIRECTION she was going; it was supposed to be Sasuke but she didn't seem to be moving forward or backwards. Damnit, is she dead for good? What happened to her real body? She tried to touch her own face but felt nothing.
She started crying aloud but heard nothing. All she could do is think. ... All I wanted was to find out how people grew up! I didn't want to "die" - but this, this is worse than death! Am I stuck here without all my senses forever until I go mad? Is this the 7th circle of hell?
"... I AM NOT LETTING THINGS END LIKE THIS," Ino screamed at the top of her lungs but couldn't hear her own sounds. She started weaving numerous hand signs again, and following her instinct, hoping that something, anything would work.
She did this for two hours, or maybe nine hours, she didn't know but she kept trying, thousands of combinations of hand seals. (Perhaps she'd been doing this for days, she lost track of time.) Surely, despite not having the knowledge, she'd hit something right. All new jutsu started by experimentation.
She felt she'd be going insane now. Ino finally stopped, feeling mentally tired, and blind... Then she resumed, and continued. She still wanted to get out of here... Even if this desire of her, takes an infinity amount of time... At least it's something to think about, over nothing... Or she could play God and invent mental worlds and mental characters, but her brain wasn't smart enough to retain those memories for consistency and it wouldn't keep her entertained for long.
At some point in this insanity, her entire vision went white, in a burning bright flash.
OWW- YAY FINALLY SOMETHING HAPPENED OR I'M JUST INSANE!
Then the view of the Academy Classroom was back in sight. Ino looked outwards, and sensed that she was back in control of her real body, and cried while thanking the Gods that she made it out of that Hell.
I am never staring at Uchiha Sasuke again! Ino resolved to herself, but snuck a glance at Sasuke's direction anyway.
Suddenly, she was smacked with a lifetime's worth of memories from Sasuke. Well, 6-years actually. She felt herself as a 1-year old Sasuke, eating some food, then 2-year old, learning to walk, then 3-year old, crawling after his older brother Itachi and age 4-5, trying to win the approval of his father while bonding with his mother, and 6-year old, which consisted of him rejecting girls in favor of training for his father's approval and being in this class...
It ordinarily wouldn't be that bad, but she was 6 herself! It felt like a lifetime!
Ino jerked her eyes away from Sasuke- "I JUST SAID I WASN'T GOING TO LOOK AT HIM, STARING AT HIM DESTROYS ME!"- her eyes wandered around the classroom, looking at other people.
It looks like only a few seconds passed in real life even though I was trapped in that empty Hell for possibly a million years! (It wasn't a million or her brain would die..)
However, Ino felt like she WAS Sasuke himself. She tried to pull together her jumbled thoughts, because being two people at the same time does not work. She tried to toss Sasuke's memories out of her mind, but it didn't work. You can't just erase all your lifetime's memories just because you willed it. Although in this case, Sasuke's life wasn't her life, yet she was stuck with his memories.
I DON'T WANT THIS ANYMORE. I DON'T WANT HIM ANYMORE. I HATE HIM. Ino conjured up a lot of hateful thoughts towards Sasuke to prevent her from losing her own sense of self, as long as she kept herself mentally as different from Sasuke as possible and anchored herself.
Suddenly, something else HIT her. Actually, 10 things hit her.
10 six-year-olds' lifetimes of memories, the same format as Sasuke's but more uneventful, entered her mind. That was too much and Ino tried her best not to care at all about their backstories, although it felt like she lived through these boring toddlers' lives. Ino averted her eyes, and stared at the table instead. Shit, I looked at 10 random classmates when I first came back to my senses.
"Ino!" The instructor called.
Ino didn't raise her head, she couldn't afford to grab more memories. "Yes?"
"What's the answer to question 36?"
Sighing in relief, she turned to her book and voiced the correct answer, without looking at him.
Satisfied, the instructor turned away and continued teaching, not commenting on how she didn't look up.
Whew.
...After that, for the remainder of the class session, Ino kept her head down and eyes downcast the entire time. The girls who revolved around her were confused.
山中いの
After class was over, the teacher dismissed the students and they all went to the schoolyard. Papa comes pick her up.
She dares to turn her head up, to look at her father's face. Suddenly, all of Inoichi's memories enter into Ino.
Ino freezes, lets out a silent scream, stumbles forward and clutches her head and falls to her knees and palms, and on all fours, she stares at the ground with blank eyes, as her mind processes the large amount of information.
"Ino?! What's wrong?" Inoichi quickly got on his knees and placed his hands on Ino's shoulders.
Ino was about to speak, but having all of Inoichi's lifetime of memories, she watched and saw Inoichi torture Konoha's war prisoners, and destroy brains and minds...
She watched Inoichi's torture scenes in graphic detail...and dark village secrets that Konoha would kill anyone who found out about without the proper clearance...
Ino was scared... In her own mind, held top-security-clearance of Konoha's secrets... if Inoichi found out that his mind was sabotaged by a six-year-old, even if it was his own daughter...
Six-year-olds could be exploited by the enemy...If Dad found out, his duty is to protect Konoha first and foremost and protect his daughter second. If he found out, he would lock up his daughter forever (or even kill her,) so that no enemy would find out and steal secrets from Ino, whose baby mind was easier to dig through than her father's.
This was Ino's fear, that her own father would do this to her (and she knew he COULD actually really do it, she holds all his CLASSIFIED, Hokage-only clearance, memories and now knew the true personality of her father, the Head of Konoha's Intel HQ and a partner to Torture & Interrogation.) While she knew her dad for only what, 6.5 years? (What if he makes another daughter, or son, and gets rid of her?)
Despite being only 6.5 years old, she knew this was BAD! Ino was crying but she tried her best to stop crying, wiping her tears.
"Sasuke-kun rejected me!" Ino wailed as loud as possible, despite never having asked Sasuke out. She cried a lot more, to try to cover-up her voice's shakiness from lying, and to cover up the fact that she had a burning headache.
In reality, her head was burning like crazy from all these memories of a 40 year old, and nine five-year-olds, and a bunch of random civilian adults. In reality, Ino was crying from all that massive flood of information.
(This effect, was the same effect that a future 12-year-old Naruto would get, when he dispells a large number of Shadow Clones. The headache from dispelling his clones and receiving those memories.
But these weren't shadow clone memories that Ino was receiving, these were lifetime memories of other people. Imagine if someone's clone dispelled, the memories instead of returning to that person's brain, entered Ino's brain. But those memories included the person's entire life, not just the short period of the clone's existence.)
It was so much information, so Ino was bawling. She didn't care that she was still in the schoolyard in front of all the other kids, she didn't care that all the girls who used to follow her around (because she was most popular) just heard her shout that she'd been rejected by Uchiha Sasuke. (She didn't care that after today, she'd stop being popular because of this outburst, well, probably.)
"Ino-chan, Sasuke-kun rejected you?" Inoichi patted her hair.
"Yeah, he even called me ugly!" Ino burst into more tears, rubbing her eyes as the waterfalls came out.
"I-" Inoichi hesitated. "I am so...sorry about that," he said awkwardly, despite being the master at psychology.
Ino sniffled. "I'll never go to school again. I don't want anyone to see my ugly face again!"
"No- Ino- you're beautiful. You're the most beautiful daughter a man could ever ask for. Please don't stop wanting to go to school because a stupid boy who's blind to your value, foolishly rejected you." Inoichi startled, and gently took Ino's hand. He didn't want Ino to actually stop attending the Academy; Ino was his only child and heir. "Come on, let's get you home."
"O-Okay Papa," Ino sniffled, letting her father pull her along to go home. She constantly kept her gaze downcast for the entire walk home. As they walked through the streets of Konoha and shuffled past normal people, she completely ignored ALL human beings, and only stared at her toes, for the entire walk home.
Well, at least now, I have an excuse to NOT LOOK AT ANYONE. I will pretend that my confidence is destroyed, and that my face is too ugly, so I'm too scared to look at ANYONE in the face, so I won't. Except my dad, since I already saw his face- I regret looking at him to begin with, but it's too late now... So looking at him some more won't drastically affect my brain...
Will people believe that I'm too scared to look at people because think I'm ugly? I used to be the most confident girl in the school...but now I have to act like I lost all my confidence. I can do it. I'm a Yamanaka, the best actress! In fact, being an unpopular loner is easier than being the Queen Bee of the Academy!
Ino thought these thoughts in a happy mental tone, although her heart felt VERY sad about this situation... She was an attention-seeker at heart, but now she can't do that anymore...
(And she's still feeling like a 40-yr-old man stuck inside a compulsive, immature body, combined with 10 other six year olds. 'Just great!' she thought sarcastically.)
Suddenly, her dad and her stopped in front of their house.
Ino's heartbeat increased. Her brain could NOT afford to process a lifetime of memories from ANOTHER ADULT; she can't look at her mom.
*She's going to ask why I won't look at her. But what excuse can I tell Mom? What if she tells Dad? Then I'm doomed!
Doomed no matter what I choose. Ugh, I'll just stick with the 'I'm Ugly' excuse.*
She went behind Inoichi as he unlocked the door, and tentatively followed him inside the house, staying close to him.
"Welcome home!" Ino's Mother called as she stepped out from the kitchen into the dining room where the two entered. The older woman stopped, seeing Ino tucked behind Inoichi's back. "Ino, what is wrong, why are you hiding behind your father?"
Ino did not say anything, and tugged herself closer to Inoichi.
"She was rejected by Uchiha Sasuke," Inoichi replied for her, looking down at the girl whose height was at his waist. The child continued to peer around her surroundings, while avoiding her eyes on her mom.
"Yes, but why is she acting like I'm the monster?" her mother's temper went off.
"You're not the monster! I'm ugly! I don't want anyone to see my face," Ino shouted quietly without raising her head.
"Ino, I'm your mother, I gave birth to you and raised you and stared at your face everyday, I'm not going to stop now."
Clack, clack, clack.
Her eyes widened, but she kept staring at the ground, refusing to look up at another adult.
Clack, clack. The sound of her mother's footsteps came closer to Ino.
When she saw the outline of her mother's feet, she just KNEW her mom was planning on FORCING her to look at her face.
Ino released her father's robes and ran with all her might across the house to the drawer that had the keys to her room. She grabbed the keys and instantly ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the house, and charged into her room. Then she slammed the door shut and locked the door.
"INO!" Her mom screamed, "YOU COME DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"
Ino thanked her lucky stars that her mother was a civilian, rather than a ninja. That woman didn't break the door down with chakra, but she smacked the door and beat the door loudly. BANG BANG BANG BANG.
Ino thought her mom could destroy the door with her bare hands even without chakra.
"My love, please stop!" Inoichi followed his wife upstairs and grabbed her shoulders.
The mother swung around with her fists violently, although it didn't hurt Inoichi too much (he was a shinobi.)
"You spoiled our daughter for her whole life, treating and calling her 'your little princess,' and now look what she's become! A spoiled brat!" She screamed, banging the door some more, until her fists started bleeding and she stopped to gaze at her bleeding.
Inoichi glanced at the tattered, but still safely locked, door, and could've sworn he heard some sobs from the inside the room, but now it's dead silent, perhaps she was trying to stay quiet.
"No dinner for Ino tonight UNLESS she comes out to the dinner table herself and EATS. In front of us." The woman said, as she stormed downstairs, to tend to her bleeding wounds.
Inoichi gulped, and then whispered through the door, "Ino, your mother loves you, please don't blame her tonight for what happened. She's...under a lot of stress recently." Hearing no response, Inoichi followed his wife downstairs.
The couple ate dinner in silence without their daughter. It wasn't normal.
Ino didn't get dinner that night.
山中いの
The next day:
山中いの
The next day, at 6AM, Inoichi stood next to Ino's door and gently knocked. "Ino, my dear daughter, please come out..."
Hearing no response, he contemplated using his shinobi skills to lockpick the door. "You have school today."
"I know dad," Ino's voice came out through door. "Is mom asleep?"
"Yes...she's asleep," Inoichi said. "Will you go to school if she's asleep?"
A beat of silence.
"...As long as she doesn't see my face, promise me," Ino said.
'What about the other kids?' Inoichi was about to ask, but Ino continued on.
"I can survive school because I will keep my head down all day, so my other classmates won't be able to see my face."
"...Oh." Inoichi's heart felt like breaking. He never knew that young girls were this sensitive when rejected by a boy, until he had a daughter of his own; he never realized young girls would get traumatized THIS badly, or it was just his daughter... "Okay.. Let's get you to school."
Ino unlocked and opened the door separating them, and Inoichi's heart clenched as Ino leaped into his arms and hugged him in a tight hug. He let his daughter onto his lap and hugged her back tightly.
Then, they got up and set off for the Academy.
山中いの
As Inoichi walked with Ino to the Academy, holding her hand, the older man looked down at her.
Before they made it to the school's front entrance, Inoichi stopped his daughter and led her to an empty, quiet street corner, near the school but still secluded from the businesses, stores, and would-be crowd. They were extra early. No one was around on the streets, as class officially started at 8AM. They were almost 2 hours early.
"Ino hun...as we were walking, I've been thinking about your condition...Are you really okay?"
At Ino's nod, Inoichi continued, "Please be honest with me. It's not the sign of being okay, if you want plan to hide your face to your fellow classmates. Are you really ready to go to school?"
Ino thought it's easy to hide her face from the classmates, but the adults? She didn't want to look at ANY adult, what if an adult like Mizuki-sensei forced her to look at him? Or even Iruka-sensei or the current Academy teacher, whose-name-she-forgot-sensei. She gulped. "Well, I'm not sure." A break from school would be ideal. "Can I take a break from school?" Wait, but her mom. "Wait, but I can't, with mom." She's even worse. "Let me just go to school, please!" At school, if necessary, I can cut class! Like Naruto does!
"You're scared of your mother," Inoichi stated.
Ino quailed.
Inoichi knew that forcing someone to look at their fear, was not the solution; it was akin to forcing a soldier suffering from PTSD to look at more gore.
"Ino, you...are my daughter. I will make sure...that your mother behaves...By today. So, you can come home safely tonight if you decide to go to school; or right now if you're not ready to go to school yet, you can come home with me right now." Inoichi hesitated. Talking would take too long. His wife was still a civilian, and he was a shinobi who was the leader of the Noble Clan specializing in mind techniques, he could do this... He was used to it.. "I will cast a genjutsu on her, so that she doesn't force you to face her... Will that work?"
Ino nodded eagerly. "Yes, please. Thanks papa." Well, as much as she felt weird about a Genjutsu cast on her own family member, her own mom, (weren't genjutsu supposed to be reserved for enemies?) she didn't mind if all that genjutsu did was stop her mom from forcing the matter of her looking at mom's face. Furthermore, she was surprised that her dad just dropped the solution into her lap. That was great luck, even though that was not coordinated and they were thinking different things. "Then Papa, can I take a few months off school?"
"Ino..."
"A week."
"Ino, if you agree that you will go to Therapy at the Yamanaka Mental Health Psychiatry Clinic, then you can take as long as you want, off school..." Inoichi noted her disappointment, and provided an alternative. "Or, judging by your expression, if you don't want to go, I can help you out myself. I just need to check your brain."
"NO! NOT MY SECRETS!" Ino wailed, and Inoichi assumed Ino's overreaction to her secrets being exposed contained of childish things like pranks and her baby-ish stalking Uchiha Sasuke, or kindergardener drama. What other secrets could a 6-year-old possibly have? "I'll go to therapy!"
"Alright," Inoichi consented, as the two turned and walked home. "I'll schedule your appointment to next week with Akatori Yamanaka."
...
As they returned to the Yamanaka Clan Compounds and made it back to their front door, Inoichi said, "Stay outside for a minute," and walked inside the house.
Ino stood at the front door of her house, and tried to think Well, my mind is still effed up! Dad is so nice to me right now because he thinks it's my crush towards Sasuke causing me to act this way, but his demeanor might fall apart if he finds out the truth. I'm on my own to find out a solution to fix my brain's headaches.
Ino basically thought these thoughts, but they weren't a single line of thoughts or a full sentence, but multiple messed up concepts and thoughts that she barely strung together. It was difficult to JUST THINK, but that was the gist of it.
I better find the cure, and fast. Before the therapy session in a week. That's my time limit.
Inoichi opened the door to the house. "Ino hun, I cast the genjutsu on your mother. So if you go inside, she will ignore you. It'll be safe now, I promise." He sounded sad.
Ino nodded, "Thanks dad!" Inoichi stepped out of the way as Ino entered the house, where a dish of breakfast was prepared for her.
Ino plopped down on the table and ate the breakfast. She heard her mother walk past her in the living room, but kept her eyes on the food. Her mother walked by her, and went to the bathroom, and shut the door.
So it really was true, for some reason her mother was ignoring her. That prevents the problem of getting an extra lifetime shoved into her brain from happening. Okay, good.
Ino ate the entire dish of breakfast desperately. Despite that the dish was filled with salads, spinach, and a large amount of plain vegetables and tomatoes, she was hungry and finished all of it, and drank the bowl of soup beside the dish next. Finishing drinking, she set aside her empty bowl and breathed. "Thanks dad."
"You're welcome, Ino," Inoichi smiled awkwardly. "Your appointment is next week because there's an empty slot by then. But, I'll do whatever it takes to move the appointment earlier for you, to see a psychologist earlier."
"No need!" Ino chipped. She was already beaming, perhaps not as stressed. "I can wait the week. After all, no one but you is going to look at my face."
Inoichi wanted to groan and chuckle at the same time, but couldn't decide what, so the noise he made was undescribable and strange.
"AHAHAHAHAahaha," Ino burst out laughing, and Inoichi slapped the table lightly, flustered despite being a grown man.
"Okay, okay, Ino. One week then. Yup, you'll definitely be alright, if you can laugh like that."
"Ahaha, yeah, sure, dad! I mean, I'm not mentally ill or anything! It's just my face that's the problem!" Ino grinned; she was making sure to repeat her excuse multiple times so that it sticks in his head and ensure that he suspects nothing else. This is perfect, my lie is working splendidly.
Inoichi smiled, and to her pleasure, Ino noticed her father's shoulders finally relaxing now; he'd been tense the entire time. "Ino, I have to go to work; there's still some 'customers' at the Intel HQ. Will you be alright at home by yourself...? I mean, with your mother as well? She'll be ignoring you, but when you're ready to face her again, come talk to me and I'll undo the genjutsu on her."
"Yes, father," Ino replied softly. Hmm.
Then she continued, "...But, dad, I don't want to fall behind my classmates, and that will happen if I end up taking a long time off school. I may be ugly and don't want to show my face to anyone, but that doesn't mean I want to fall behind my education. And while I can't study properly at school if people look at my ugly face because I'd be too humiliated, I can study properly if I read alone. And I don't want to be home-schooled by tutors because then the tutors can see me. So... Could you get me this year's Academy's worth of books...?"
"That'd be doable..." Inoichi answered. "But there's many concepts that you'd have to be in the Academy in-person to learn. And...the Shinobi Academy won't certify you as having completed the year, if you just read at home. You may have to repeat the year."
Ino hated the idea of that, but she'd say anything to resolve her problem for now. She'd figure out a better solution later. Now, her intention wasn't to get the Academy textbooks, her intention was to fix her brain problem! Her question about Academy textbooks, was merely to lead up to her next question, her real intention:
"I'll accept that. Since I won't have school, I'll be missing out on a lot of the practical applications from the Academy. Each day, I'll finish the lessons earlier than the other students, while missing out on the physical training that the students get from their Sensei, and the training from their obstacle courses and from sparring each other. I'll be falling behind everyone else, with extra hours to myself everyday that those classmates use to train with each other. All because of my face. I don't want to waste that time! So dad, will you let me study, in addition to the Academy's textbooks, our Clan's Jutsu?"
Inoichi shook his head, "It's too early for you." Wait until you're 11 or 12 and become a Genin.
"But dad! I won't actually do the jutsu, I'll only READ about them. Just the theories! Pleasee," Ino put on the most adorable puppy-eyed expression she could muster, and within seconds, Inoichi caved in.
"Alright, as long as you promise not to perform any of the Jutsus."
"I promise..." Ino lied, again.
Inoichi raised an eyebrow slightly suspiciously, but he figured that he'll spoil his daughter, and if anything happened to her brain, he was more than capable of fixing it. The Yamanaka Clan Library didn't have anything too dangerous in its archives. In fact, the Mind Transfer Jutsu, which was very dangerous, was not even written down on paper anywhere. It was taught verbally, passed down through the clan. Because papers could always be stolen.
At the library, all the concepts and what the techniques did were written down in the Yamanaka jutsu scrolls, but rarely were any information on HOW the techniques actually worked, was written on paper- but some still existed, just rare. (However, NONE of the scrolls taught HOW TO PERFORM any technique. There was simply a few about HOW THEY WORKED, and most that talked about what the techniques actually did. The purpose of this was for a young genin, or chuunin, to find a technique description from this library that interested him, and then seek out a Yamanaka Jounin to personally mentor him.)
It was safe to let his daughter wander the library. Even if she learned what some of the Clan jutsu did, there were no descriptions on how to actually perform them, given that these trademark secrets were Hiden techniques passed down orally. He handed her a key to the Clan Library's Archives.
"Take this, and prioritize your Academy studies. You can do additional research on the Clan's history at our library, after you're done with your Academy textbook lesson for that date, and learn about your clan's techniques. But your brain is too young right now, it would kill you if you try anything in practice," Inoichi exaggerated slightly. As Ino took the key and nodded, Inoichi pat her head. "Then, I'll get going. Your therapy session with Akatori is in a week, so sit tight, kid... And remember, you're a lot more valuable than you think, and it's the opinions of people who cherish you, that actually matter."
Inoichi looked at Ino's eyes fill with tears and her smile, and suddenly, all he could think about was, I'll kill that bastard Uchiha. He stood up from his dining chair, and walked to the exit of the door, and headed off to work. He was late, but it was important. At work, he used the excuse 'family emergency' for lateness.
山中いの
Ino's POV (point of view)
山中いの
Ino ran off to the Yamanaka Library to try to cure her newfound "mental illness."
To find a method to store massive loads of information, Ino searched through the secret Clan Archives.
She finds that there's a technique that allows you to store a load of memories in what's called "memory pockets," or "memory boxes," which you place inside your brain. That works, and that's how the rare, specialized Yamanakas memorize massive amounts of information, on multiple subjects (subjects as in test subjects, or prisoners.)
But, the majority of Yamanakas don't use this technique; when they're investigating Konoha detainees, they dig through the enemy's memories, and if they have a lot of time, the Yamanaka interrogator either reads all of the enemy's memories (either in-detail or as a cursory-skim) like reading a book without memorizing the enemy's entire life.
Then finding the information he needs, he lets it go. The enemy's memories only graced the Yamanaka's short-term memory, and a little bit of the long-term memory.
But, in order to store the enemy's entire lifespan's worth of memories in a Yamanaka's long-term memory, in a way that's retrievable whenever, the Secret Clan technique is called the memory box. These boxes take up a large amount of room, and only an S-rank Yamanaka can learn it. No one from the Yamanakas use the memory box technique because, the sheer amount of information in a single memory box.
Most clansmen would take years to learn the memory box technique; and once they have, the most advanced Yamanaka users can only create and fill up 2 memory boxes (of 2 different enemies) - and already feel like they have lived 3 lifetimes (their own lifetime, plus an additional 2 full lives of the enemy.) You can push for 3-lifespan-sized memory boxes, which is the most that a shinobi has ever done in all of history- in all legends, (an obscure history, at that.)
Because a lifespan (within a box) contains not merely memories, but emotions, personal thoughts, muscle memory, and feelings too. Too much information. You'd feel you were that person. Taking on more than 2 lives' worth of memories, and storing them within your brain, would make anyone have a sick feeling that they can't decide which version is supposed to be their real self, it's already difficult enough when taking on 1 memory box.
And the brain naturally cannot process that much information. That's why these memory boxes were created, to compress and store the memories of other lives, in a "box" to store within the brain.
Without the memory box technique, the Yamanaka who took on all the enemies' memories, would be overfloodeded with information constantly. His brain would feel like he lived two (or three) different lifetimes at the same time. He would most definitely not be able to figure out 'which self of his' is his true self. (Technically, he could, if he took one look at his current surroundings, and look at which life's memories matches his current surroundings the most.) But it would give massive amounts of painful headaches and confusion.
That's why the "memory boxes" separate the lifetimes' worth of memories into distinguishing boxes, so the user know who's are what.
That sums up the entire meaning of the memory box.
However, what's the point of all this information?
The Yamanakas never use the Memory Box Technique, because they have no need to. They simply read through a subject's memories, and once they retrieved the information they wanted, they move onto the next enemy subject. They interrogate hundreds to thousands of subjects per year; they have no need to long-term memorize an enemy's entire lifespan (when their adult brains can only contain 2.)
These enemies are usually prisoners, and if a Yamanaka didn't attain a needed piece of information the first time from the enemy's brain, he can come back at a later date to the enemy's prison and continue mind-delving.
The memory box technique, as a result, as never used; who memorizes someone's entire lifespan anyway?
Some wonder why was such a useless technique invented?
The Yamanakas suspected that there was a stalker in the clan, who invented the technique because he couldn't get the woman he loved, so he opted to somehow copy the entire lifetime's worth of the woman's memories, and store them all inside his brain, to revisit whenever he wanted; and he invented the Memory Box technique to make sure he didn't have to always live as the woman's memories, but to set aside her memories in the back of his mind to re-visit whenever he wanted to. To ensure that he didn't lose his own sense of self and forget that he wasn't actually that woman.
This was such an embarassing piece of history that the Yamanakas were ashamed it, so the existence of the memory box technique was never taught. Not to mention, it took up valuable brain space that was better off being used to study more important and powerful Jutsu.
The Yamanakas had almost, down the line, tossed such a useless (and unneeded, and shameful) technique out of the Clan Archives, but fortunately they didn't.
They preferred to preserve records for research purposes.
Ino felt she hit jackpot when she discovered this technique that everyone (understandably) deemed as "useless" and ignored, exists.
山中いの
On the edge of death, it was all she could do to focus on the book she plucked from the shelf of the library after hours of searching for any relevant books on this topic, and not the edgy feeling of the large number of lives within her. She felt like 11 people reading a book.
Her mind felt scattered all over the place, like she wasn't herself. She couldn't think straight, she vaguely felt she had lived through a bloody gruesome war, got married, started a family, and now have work to do. (Those were Inoichi's memories.) Luckily, Inoichi's war memories were not too bad, for Inoichi also found a way to contain and keep the bloodiest of the war memories out of his mind, to prevent PTSD- typical of the Yamanaka Head.
So Ino was not too traumatized from her father's war memories, but the weight of her father's memories from all his interrogations on thousands of enemies at the Torture and Interrogation Center- including torture scenes and mental destruction, and stuff from the Intellience HQ, and his knowledge of the highest secrets of Konoha- there was just too much information! Ino regretted looking at her father, of all people. He must have been the worst candidate possible, behind probably the Hokage!
She was a child, for kami's sake! She didn't know how to do the Mind Mazes that her father had countless amounts of.
But in the end, she was still her father's daughter, so she managed to shift out of that jumble of memories, somehow. It required a lot of thinking, but she managed to escape from the influx of her father's memories, along with the memories of 10 other civillians.
山中いの
And she managed to read through the book, and learn the Memory Box technique.
Finally figuring it out, she boxed Inoichi's memories in a compact box in her mind. One down.
With that, her brain felt a ton lighter.
The lifetime memories of everyone else she looked at, were rather simple. These were all civillians, who grew up in Konoha, conducted business, got married, had kids. They weren't shinobi, so they didn't go to war, but they worked in factories producing the weapons for the Shinobi Corps. Boring lives, which Ino was kind of grateful for.
She mentally compressed and contained those civillians' memories into memory boxes of their own.
Then she fell backwards.
All that was left in her head, were her own memories. And she still felt an excruciating headache in her head. Her brain was overloaded and she felt like she had no space to remember more stuff. Ino felt like she was 1000 years old, even though she was only seven!
Ino mentally slapped a black cloak over each memory box, to ensure that she completely does not think about those other 11 lives.
Then she sighed... She wanted to tell her father, but she did not want her father to know that she mentally watched Inoichi's more "private/sexual" parts.
Ino groaned.
She's just not going to tell Dad! She already managed to get this far without his help, she'll figure the rest out herself! Besides, being the Heiress of the clan, she had access to all these archives. The Memory Box technique was not a useful technique and only helpful as a reference for Yamanaka HISTORIANS, (no one ever uses that jutsu,) so Ino didn't need any clearance to access that book.
山中いの
The full-lifetime-memories-copy jutsu, which was a jutsu that copied a lifetime's worth of memories (and can only be used a limited number of times (2-3) due to the user's brain storage capacity,) WAS a classified technique that required clearance.
Only the main bloodline of the Yamanakas are taught this technique, although it was hardly ever used except for the emergencies.
There were actually two variations. The Copy-Lifetime-Memories Jutsu, which was a SS-rank FORBIDDEN jutsu that allowed you to copy the subject's lifetime memories. There were extreme drawbacks and side effects, that would make the user go insane, which would only be offset by the Memory Box Technique.
Thus, no one is ever taught the Forbidden Jutsu of "Copying Lifetime Memories," but on the off-case that they are taught this, they learn the Memory Box technique as well (which is a requirement to NOT going insane.)
And the simpler, A-rank version that everyone (who's a Yamanaka anyway) uses- when the situation calls for it: the Copy Memories Jutsu. This was merely A-rank, rather than Forbidden SS-rank.
Examples of cases where the Copy Memories Jutsu are used are listed below (and theoretically, the Lifetime-Copy-Memories Jutsu can be used in these cases too, but isn't):
Basically, the usefulness of this memory-copying technique is meant for rare, extenuous circumstances, due to the massive toll on the user's chakra.
The IDEAL situation, for a Yamanaka interrogator, was to be able to revisit a captured war prisoner whenever he wanted. When the interrogator can make multiple visits to the prisoner to mindwalk him, and can rest himself whenever he grew tired from the mindwalking.
However, not all situations allowed this advantage. For example, let's say you fail to capture the subject and keep them imprisoned to visit their mind whenever you wanted.
Then, usage of that Copy Memories Jutsu would be useful; you'd be copying a section of their memories, of your choice, to analyze whenever you wanted in your brain later on. (Or alternatively, use the Copy Lifetime Memories Jutsu with the supplemental Memory Box Technique, to copy their entire lifetime's memories and revisit this later. No one in their right mind does this.)
However, to copy the memories of an enemy, the Yamanaka would still require the enemy to be unconscious for 24 hours, and the Yamanaka would use up 80% of his spiritual chakra- if he had a large enough chakra pool, to mindwalk the enemy and copy the memories of his choice, not to mention the mental barriers and mind-traps the enemy may have set (worse yet, is copying these traps to your own brain.)
Thus, it's best if he didn't COPY the memories, but merely mindwalk the brain- which is what Konoha's T&I HQ does the most.
And more advanced, is the usage of the copy-lifetime-memories strategy, which required the highest-rank Kage-level Yamanaka, and still required the victim to be unconscious for 24 hours for the Yamanaka to copy his entire memories. And it would drain 90% of the Yamanaka's chakra.
These two jutsu (memory copy vs lifetime memory copy,) are essentially the same jutsu but different in levels of difficulty: one is an A-rank (and less content,) and the other one is an SS-rank and Forbidden, (and contains a lifetime # of content.)
.
Now, the usefulness of these jutsu would be this: the enemy subject, for whatever reason, cannot be captured, but is unconscious in front of the Yamanaka. (For example, a high-rank noble that Konoha wants to spy on, but not kill or get caught kidnapping.)
Alternatively, if the captured enemy is about to DIE within one day- whether due to injuries or illness or an internal time-bomb that the enemy's village set on their ninja.
Then, in that case, copying his lifetime of memories (Kage-level requirement,) or copying select memories (using the A-rank Copy Memories Jutsu) right before he died, would be smart.
.
These techniques were A-rank and above within the Yamanaka Clan, and have kept Konoha strong. But they still required the enemy being unconscious for 24, to 48, hours, at the mercy of the Yamanakas and their tools. They were also never taught, because they requried chakra levels of a Kage or Jinchuuriki. Furthermore, they weren't ever used, because there was simply no need to copy memories.
The interrogators only capture, torture, and interrogate, and mindwalk. They never needed to copy anything.
山中いの
Anyway, these were all of Ino's findings. Unfortunately, she read about the EXISTENCE of the Copy Memories Technique, but she couldn't find any information on how to actually do it. As to be expected.
Most likely, the "how-to" guide was not written anywhere.
Great, so how do I find out HOW I am doing what I'm doing? If I don't know how it works, how will I stop doing it unconsciously?
From what I experienced... if I look at ANYONE, even if I don't make eye-contact, I'll absorb all their lifetime memories, without their knowledge, even if I don't want to. And I can't stop it. This is supposed to be an SS-rank Forbidden technique, used only once or twice by Kage-level shinobi, and I'm doing it to EVERYONE I'll ever look at. My brain is going to explode.
I guess I'll thank the stars that the Memory Box technique is irrelevant enough that the instructions are written out in this book. Maybe they left this here to inspire us to study better, but I think... I'm saved...
山中いの
Ino managed to jumble these thoughts together, as she studied the Memory Box technique for 8 hours, trying to memorize and process it. She already attempted the Memory Box method earlier today (and she ASSUMED it worked,) as it definitely helped, but she needed to continue practicing and figuring it out to 'cure' herself.
She tried to make it work. Each hour, she brutally shoved each person's lifetime memories into each memory box. In the end, she created 10 memory boxes, and almost screamed of agony.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH THE LIMIT OF THESE DAMN BOXES, IN RECORDED HISTORY, IS THREE! I HAVE ELEVEN!"
She wondered whether she did it right! She would have started crying right that instant, but her brain felt significantly less muddled. In fact, she felt like herself again. Okay, I did it almost correctly the first time but hazily, and I did it correctly now too.
山中いの
Then she saw the time, and ran home- or rather, across several of the clan compound's streets towards her house within the center. How come Dad didn't come looking for me? I had time all day to study without interruption, and now it's late at night!
She reached the front door of the pouch, and knocked on the door. "Dad, it's me, let me in?"
The door opened, and she saw her father with baggy eyes. Inoichi didn't say a word and stepped aside to let her in.
But Ino... as she stepped inside, Ino waited 2 minutes, and Inoichi's 'recent life' flashed before her eyes.
She mentally watched, like a show, earlier today while she was at the library, what went on in Inoichi's Point of View. She watched his wife discover that a Genjutsu was cast on her, a verbal argument between the woman and him, a domestic abuse fight... That Ino quickly and sloppily 'boxed' to not look at. At the end of the day, she said she was going to "divorce" him and left the house. And after that, Inoichi had been sitting at his table motionless for a few hours...
During those hours that Ino was studying rather than coming home to comfort him. Ugh, I wish I knew, studying could have waited! ... (As painful as it was.)
Ino suddenly charged towards her dad and threw her arms around him. Dad didn't know that she knew. But she hugged him as tight as possibly, "I love you dad,"
Hearing that, Inoichi made a broken sound, he broke. His eyes filled with tears. He was down on the floor, and hugging Ino back tightly. "I love you too," he said, without mentioning what happened.
Inoichi was worried his daughter wouldn't understand, or realize what happened, and blame him. But he was going to tell her... "Your mother...she left for somewhere else...she's not coming back"
Ino cried. I already know that. But she didn't say that, and kept hugging.
At the end of that, she wondered to herself, I think, it's technically my fault that this happened...
If it were earlier, I would have been happy, because that saved my brain...But now, that I know the memory box technique, I could take on one more lifetime... 12 boxes, although the limit should theoretically be 3... maybe I could...Maybe I can't...
10 six-year-olds is 60 years of memories, plus my father who's 40, makes that 100-years, that's like 1 or 2 lifetimes... and the limit is theoretically 3. And mom's 40 too...which makes that 140 years. The limit is 3 lifetimes so it's possible to take on mom, although I'd rather not...
Well, it's a start... I'm going to find out a way to remove that limit, or I'll never be able to look at another human being again, after a certain limit.
But I'm on my own, in regards to finding out how remove the memory box limit. People will ask me why, but I can't tell anyone why.
No one must find out I can do this, or I'll be tortured, killed, exploited, or worse; I would know too much information I'm not supposed to if I looked at the Hokage...I already know too much from Dad's memories... There are men who are high-ranked in this village, who would do too many bad things...if they found out what I can do... I can't even trust the Hokage... or my own Dad... even though I adore him to no end right now...
From now on, I'll just keep my mouth shut...And figure out how to save myself.
山中いの
Fast forward 1.5 years later, after Ino managed to "raise" the limit of the Memory Boxes- which meant she could interact with more people again.
山中いの
Eventually, a year and a half later, when Ino returned to school, and saw Uchiha Sasuke again (after the Massacre) - Ino was traumatized and burst out crying. This was the third time that looking at Uchiha Sasuke has ruined her.
She lived through the Uchiha massacre and 24 hours of watching the gore and slaughter of family members, in Itachi's Tsukuyomi plane. She felt as though Itachi was slaughtering HER family. And she's sitting here in the middle of class, experiencing these vivid memories.
Ino forcibly and quickly compressed the memories into her little box, so that she didn't have to witness that. But she still mentally smelled the stench and saw the intesntines, and gross stuff of her loved ones.
Ino felt her insides feeling sick, and the nauseous smell- she allowed herself to suddenly vomit on the Academy desk.
Being a kind girl, and understanding Uchiha Sasuke's backstory, theoretically, Ino should have comforted Sasuke because his entire clan died. (In fact, most of the girls who crushed on Sasuke-kun, knew that he was the last survivor of the Uchiha, and found him really cool and had a dark past like a bad boy vibe. They all tried to comfort him too.)
But instead, and irrationally, she associated Sasuke with trauma. She hated Sasuke. He was a cursed boy of whom, whenever she looked him, (which she foolishly did often in the past because she, too, had a crush on him,) she'd face endless, excruciating torture- and not the physical torture- but some fucked up torture that she didn't comprehend- most people wouldn't.
And it was so difficult to explain.
So the entire class wondered why Ino never shot another glance towards Sasuke's direction again, and avoided him like a plague. She was thoroughly traumatized by him, not once, but three times. She would never look at him again.
The students in the class were ever-baffled, and wondered what Sasuke ever did to Ino, before remembering that rumor of Sasuke rejecting Ino. It might have been that. But for the rejected girl to get over her crush so fast, was slightly fascinating; most girls didn't. These were the thoughts of her classmates, completely out of the loop.
Ino, meanwhile, returned to her research.
山中いの
Years later, when she was called and placed on the same team as Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino's only thought was: "that's it, I'm going to die."
山中いの
THE END. [TO BE CONTINUED.]
山中いの
山中いの
Author Note: Hi! Thanks for reading this entire thing, you made it to the end! This story isn't TRULY over, there's so much potential on what Ino would think, and effects, when Ino "sees" other characters like Naruto, (which I plan on expanding on, hence if I were to continue this story, we won't start at the part I flash-forwarded to. She'd meet Naruto in class earlier that Team Assignments, and have a "reaction" for him too.) And what if Ino sees Itachi (and find out about the real reason behind the Massacre, but can't reveal how she gained the knowledge.) Or if Ino sees Tobi (while he's claiming to be Madara,) Ino can't say how she knew Tobi wasn't Madara... And how's she going to explain that that's Obito?
Just some ideas. I love all sorts of feedback, please leave comments on your thoughts and theories!
(Optional questions: What were your favorite parts of the story + what would you like to see more of?)
(P.S if I update this slow, it's b/c I'm writing Sakura's Glasses.)