( Powerstones guys? 34 Ps... 😔)
"Damn, I wonder how you are so good with these predictions? I think you started working on this only a few months ago? You just studied some psychology and now you're able to predict people's behaviour," Ino whined.
She would be lying if she said she wasn't jealous of Shikamaru's learning capabilities.
"Well, it's really simple. You can predict how someone will grow or develop in a certain direction if you have knowledge about their current stats... Like, you could guess how much Choji's maximum eating capacity is if you know how much he eats currently and have previous data on how his capacity has increased," Shikamaru tried to give an analogy.
"Did you say food?" Choji looked at Shikamaru, who shook his head.
"But I don't think it's that simple."
"Yeah, it isn't. You would have to take into account various factors. It would be easier if we looked at the eating capacity growth of other Akimichi clan members."
"But wouldn't collecting such data itself be difficult, let alone calculating how two datasets are similar and all that stuff?" Ino asked, confused.
"Yup, it's not possible for a human brain to calculate so much data. Maybe we would need to create a ninjutsu technique to increase our computational capacity temporarily," Shikamaru said with a curious tone.
"Yeah, that would be possible then," Ino said while making another move.
"Wait, that didn't answer my question. Don't change the topic subtly," Ino loudly said, making Shikamaru wince.
'Women really are troublesome.'
Ino wouldn't be fooled that easily with such basic tactics.
"I wasn't really changing the topic. Anyway, the answer to this is approximation."
"What do you mean?"
"Basically, we can't find the exact answer, but by making some smart assumptions, we could get close to the correct answer."
"Really? How do we do that?"
"Systematically, by documenting all the information we have, making some deductions, then making some assumptions. I'll tell you the elaborate system later," Shikamaru yawned.
"Fine, I want to try that, at least a watered-down version if possible."
"You'll probably learn the whole system, seeing that you're good at guessing other people's intentions."
"Really?" Ino asked excitedly.
"Yeah, I'll write a manual later on the system I created," Shikamaru said while making another move.
"Thanks a lot!" Ino made another move.
"No worries. This way, I would be contributing to the clan. Anyway, what are the others doing?"
"Sasuke is training his hand signs? I'm not sure. He was just sitting by the dock, and Sora has been holed up in his room since last week, saying he's improving his high-yield aspect, which would increase his combat prowess. Do you have any guesses what that is?" Ino asked, wondering if Shikamaru could predict this.
"I don't know."
"Can you predict it?" Ino asked him.
"I don't have much knowledge about Sora, so my answer would be less accurate, I believe." Ino deflated at that.
"How accurate, in terms of percentage?"
"Hmm, around 70 per cent, I guess."
"What the fuck? How is that 'less accurate'?" Ino yelled in disbelief.
Choji stopped staring out of the window and looked at the two.
It seemed things were getting interesting, and he was missing some entertaining stuff.
Well, he would have to act as a mediator if Ino resorted to violence.
So, Choji got up from his position and sat down between them, parallel to the middle of the board.
"You're so loud, and you ask Sora where he learned to curse," Shikamaru had already put his hands on his ears.
Ino took a deep breath. "You already predicted my reaction, and you still did that. You probably predicted that I would recognize it too. What was the point of this? To make me realize the power of the system you use to predict people's behaviour and emotions?"
She definitely wasn't embarrassed about being the reason a cute kid lost his innocence.
Ino was a Yamanaka clan heir before she was a dumb fangirl.
She had a deep knowledge of how people's emotions worked and practical experience in applying that.
It's just that her emotional regulation hadn't reached the desired level for a Yamanaka.
Well, actually, the standard for that too is low, due to most of the Yamanakas suffering from mental problems.
Yup, you heard that right—people suffering from mental problems do go to Yamanakas.
But most of the mentally disturbed people are Yamanakas themselves.
This is due to the fact that they have to witness a lot of memories, and in first-person perspective.
It's similar to having multiple personalities or having multiple memories from different times.
Things could go wrong in multiple ways, like having a main ego and separate egos.
Also, if you have the skills to not let the memories of other ninjas affect you, like not changing even after witnessing a new life—which is very hard, even the Third Hokage can't do it—then you can reach a very high level in the power ladder effortlessly.
This is because the people whose memories you read, their skills will be transferred to you, at least partially, similar to Shadow Clone Jutsu.
But in this case, your talent doesn't matter, as the talent of the person you're reading memories from matters.
So, that's the reason the Yamanaka clan is considered one of the noble clans, and Inoichi Yamanaka is dangerous even when confronted alone.
It's actually funny that each member of the Ino-Shika-Cho clan heads is dangerous.
Choja is one of the strongest men in Konoha and is an elite jounin.
Shikaku is also good—you don't really want to fight a guy who would analyze you before you even ambushed him. He's also on the line between jounin and elite jounin.
Inoichi is also an elite jounin and has three nature transformations under his belt.
Not to mention Elemental Clones, which could use Mind Transfer during battle, making people pause, which is dangerous—their ability to break free of that pause depends on their willpower.
Their willpower in comparison to Inoichi's? It's in a league of its own.
Why do you think Kasumi was a legendary Yamanaka? She was the result of everything going right with the Yamanakas.
Back to Inoichi, many jounins, before even dealing with the pause, might be mind-raped and killed in a few seconds. Only experienced jounins and elite jounins have a chance to contest their mental power and maybe break free in a few seconds.
That time could be used by other elemental clones to kill the guy.
Only S-ranks could break free of such jutsu in a second.
Obviously, things would change if multiple clones simultaneously used Mind Transfer.
Heck, a low S-rank could be killed if Inoichi ambushed him.
Now, let's stop exploring the greatness of the Yamanaka clan and get back to Shikamaru.
"Maybe I knew that," Shikamaru smirked.
"Tch, anyway, I guess your standards are different. Which jutsu or part do you think he's working on?" Ino calmly asked.
"Maybe Shape Transformation or Rasengan. That's the only jutsu I can think of that would increase his capabilities in 7 days," Shikamaru shrugged.
"Is that so? Kakashi-sensei is just reading his novel while lying on a beach chair. He really is the definition of relaxed. I wonder why Guy-sensei calls him his rival," Ino made a move.
"Hmm, who knows what he's thinking while reading his book? You really can't get much information about Kakashi-sensei."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, experienced ninjas have some tendencies and habits they've developed to give away less information. The only person who gives less away than Kakashi-sensei might be my dad, and that's a close call. So, yeah."
"Damn, was Kakashi-sensei at some point in ANBU or something?" Ino said in a low voice.
"Yeah, that's actually in his Bingo Book. Have you not read it?"
"I've only read about the other great nations, not our village's ninjas," Ino rolled her eyes.
Shikamaru made it sound like she was slacking or something.
"Well, yeah, Kakashi has the second-best—no, now it would be considered the third-best record in the history of Konoha."
"Wait, really? What do you mean?" Ino and Choji looked at Shikamaru.
"You guys really are ignorant or something," Shikamaru sighed.
What would he do with these idiots?
"Kakashi became genin at 5, chunin at 6, and jounin at 12. He was under the Fourth Hokage's tutelage."
"Jounin at 12? Damn, that's our age. I feel like I've done nothing so far," Ino lamented.
"Well, that was wartime, so people had to mature faster. A prodigy under that pressure could either die or reach their maximum potential," Shikamaru shrugged.
"Who's the first and second person to reach certain levels?" Choji asked, already knowing the answer to one of them.
***
With this chapter, we have officially crossed 200K on Webnovel!
I didn't thought that I would ever make a fic which reach this milestone, I was wondering that I would drop it at one point or another, and that feeling strengthened when I started making my chapters completely by myself contrary to using Ai for outlines.
So, I would like to thank you guys for helping me achieve this dream as without your support, I would have dropped this fic.
What are the plans for future?
I would be releasing a new fic in December - January, and probably will TMHLU on hold then, BUT, this fic also has a chance to go on hold as TMHLU has surpassed this fic in powerstones for last 2 weeks.
So... you guys know what to do.
Anyway, I won't be able to handle more than 7 chapters per week due to my other commitments, so I can only have two fics ongoing at most.
I would be making a poll on patreon of which fandom to make next(end of this month, or next month), you can vote here now too, just for me to give an idea.
Black Clover
My Hero academia.
Naruto.
I am learning towards first two, but I might go for last one too. My aim is to make a fic which will be competing in top 20 of all time PS this time, so... yeah.
***
Join my Patreon to support me- p@treon.com/Desire96
20 advanced chapters are present there
Check out my other works too.