"Are they going to use the Perfected Lightning Lariat again? The current situation doesn't really suit it, does it? The massive size of the Human Boulder will absorb the impact of the combination jutsu."
Standing behind the Raikage, Darui—the Raikage's right-hand man—stroked his chin and offered his tactical opinion.
Darui was right.
The core of the Lariat lay in striking simultaneously from the front and back.
But against a massive creature, the distance was too great.
A simultaneous attack from both sides would just weaken the devastating impact into two awkward, separate tackles.
Despite the flashy name, the Lightning Lariat was essentially a blunt-force clothesline.
Its primary target was the bones within the human body. This made it fundamentally different from piercing jutsu like the Chidori.
However, against a massive, fleshy target, a clothesline would just sink into the layers of fat, never even reaching the bone.
To break through that kind of blubber, a piercing attack was way more practical.
...
Down below, Ino and Sakura were no fools and understood this perfectly.
That was why they didn't even consider spamming the Double Lariat.
Besides, the technique was way too lethal.
Against weak opponents, they could pull their punches and aim to just knock them unconscious.
But against two evenly matched opponents—especially an Akimichi built like a brick wall—controlling the force was impossible.
Hit too light, and they wouldn't drop them.
Hit too hard, and they might accidentally decapitate someone during a Chūnin Exam, which would be a bureaucratic nightmare.
Fortunately, they had other combination techniques.
"INO, IT'S ALL YOU!"
Sakura surged forward, her fists flying to intercept Akimichi Rianko's massive flaming strikes.
The core of this combination jutsu rested entirely on Ino.
Sakura had a role, but it didn't require any actual brainpower.
This was quite normal.
Why did it always seem like Naruto and Sasuke were the main duo in Team Seven, while Sakura felt like the third wheel? The reason was simple: Naruto and Sakura's roles were totally redundant.
Sasuke was the mechanic.
He developed new jutsu and had a massive bag of tricks.
Naruto was the brawler.
His left fist punched hard, his right fist punched harder, and occasionally he'd whip out a Rasengan just for the aesthetic.
And Sakura? She was also a brawler.
She lacked a diverse skill set, but her sheer physical numbers couldn't quite match a Jinchūriki's limitless stamina.
So while Sasuke's academic IQ might not match Sakura's, his ability to invent ninjutsu blew both of them out of the water.
After all, he was the reincarnation of Indra—the guy who literally invented hand seals.
Sakura might ace written exams, but she had zero talent for jutsu development.
This new combination jutsu, for instance, was 100% Ino's creation.
As Makoto pointed out to Tsunade, the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques required surgical chakra control.
Similarly, all of Tsunade's signature abilities—Medical Ninjutsu, Monstrous Strength, and Mitotic Regeneration—demanded that exact same precision.
Training in one naturally boosted the other.
Thus, as Tsunade's disciples, Sakura and Ino fell into two distinct categories: the brawler and the tactician.
Ino sprang into action.
"MIND BODY SWITCH TECHNIQUE!"
Without hesitation, Ino cast her clan's signature jutsu directly into the rolling Akimichi.
The previous attacks confirmed Rianko was the heavy hitter. As long as she was dealt with, the Sarutobi guy posed little threat.
"This is a two on two match, what can you do even if you control her?!" Sarutobi Umazane froze in shock when his teammate abruptly halted her flaming assault, but he quickly recovered.
The Mind Body Switch had a fatal flaw in combat without a team to back it up.
Ino couldn't stab her own controlled body with a kunai, because the damage would reflect back to her real body.
Nor could she just raise Rianko's hand to surrender.
In a tag-team match, a forfeit only counted if both team members surrendered simultaneously.
So, all Umazane had to do was stall for time and wait for Ino's consciousness to get booted out of his teammate's head.
However, was it really that simple?
Under everyone's astonished gazes, the possessed Rianko immediately began forming hand seals.
Her enormous hands locked into a very familiar gesture.
"What is she doing...?"
"MIND BODY TRANSMISSION TECHNIQUE: SECOND STAGE!"
It happened so fast that no one else had time to process it.
Only Sakura knew the plan.
The exact second Ino activated the Second Stage, Sakura was already charging forward with a glowing, chakra-infused fist raised high.
Her target wasn't Umazane.
Her target wasn't Rianko either.
It was... Ino's empty body!
BANG!
Ino's unconscious body was sent flying across the dirt by a devastating punch to the gut!
Simultaneously, the possessed Rianko coughed up a massive mouthful of blood.
Her consciousness snapped back into her own body, but before she could even utter a word, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and the giant kunoichi collapsed into the dirt, completely knocked out!
This was the unholy loophole Ino discovered by combining her clan's secret jutsu with her medical training.
The weakness of the Mind Body Switch was common knowledge.
If you hit the possessed enemy, the Yamanaka takes the exact same damage. It was essentially a reverse version of Hidan's voodoo curse.
Ino developed the Second Stage precisely to exploit this mechanic.
After invading the enemy's mind, she used her surgical chakra control to force the enemy's body to cast the Mind Body Switch again.
The target this time? Her own slumped-over body.
This forcibly dragged both her consciousness and the enemy's consciousness out of the enemy's body and stuffed them back into Ino's body.
At this point, the core rule of the jutsu kicked in again.
Any damage inflicted on Ino's body would now be synchronized and reflected straight back onto the enemy's body.
When Sakura landed that monstrous punch, Ino took severe damage.
If Sakura had punched Rianko directly, the Akimichi could have easily absorbed the impact with her thick layers of fat and the Human Boulder technique.
But when the blow landed on Ino's frail body, the damage transferred as a flat percentage!
Rianko took 100% of the internal trauma, bypassing her physical defenses entirely, and was instantly knocked out.
The severe shock broke the jutsu's connection, sending Rianko's unconscious mind back to her own battered body.
Before Sakura even fully retracted her fist, she flattened her hand, glowing with green chakra, and pressed it into Ino's bruised stomach to heal her.
She also sharply stimulated the nerve points on Ino's face to wake her up.
The moment Ino's eyes fluttered open, she immediately began circulating her own medical chakra to heal herself alongside Sakura.
Unfortunately, they hadn't been training under Tsunade long enough to store the massive chakra needed for the Byakugo Seal.
Otherwise, the recovery would have been instantaneous, and this voodoo tactic would be practically invincible!
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