Spirit Transformation Technique, Soul Possession Technique

The Hokage's Office was filled with smoke.

The Third Hokage leaned back in his chair, one hand resting on the desk and the other holding the pipe between his teeth. As he listened to Anbu Yoru's report, he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

When he heard that squad captain Baku suspected Kimura Yao had most likely been killed and made into a Human Puppet, the Third Hokage paused just as he was about to take a puff. Then he deeply inhaled again. A flicker of surprise crossed his calm eyes, followed by barely contained fury.

The Third Hokage had actually anticipated Kimura Yao's death long ago.

In fact, after hearing Minato describe what had happened with Kimura Yao, he had understood that the child had most likely already been murdered.

After all, if it had merely been genjutsu control, what valuable information could a child still attending the Ninja Academy possibly provide? There had been no need for it.

Only by disguising themselves as a child and using that identity as a stepping stone to infiltrate Konoha's ninja system could they obtain valuable intelligence.

So, the one Minato had encountered today had not been Kimura Yao, but a spy using a special Transformation Jutsu to impersonate him.

Yet the Third Hokage had never expected that Kimura Yao was not being impersonated by a spy, but had been turned into a Human Puppet after his death and controlled by someone else.

And that person had even brazenly continued attending the Ninja Academy.

This was simply a provocation against him and Konoha.

They had utterly disregarded Konoha—and him, the Hokage.

Unforgivable!

Once they found that spy, the Third Hokage would make them experience the power of Konoha's Anbu interrogation rooms. Only then could he vent the hatred in his heart.

As the Third Hokage thought this, Yoru went on to explain how Mushi had been unable to find any Chakra threads around Kimura Yao, as well as each of Baku's possible explanations for the abnormalities in Kimura Yao's body. Finally, he asked whether the Third Hokage wanted to expand the search for the spy or simply arrest him directly.

After hearing this, the Third Hokage's expression immediately turned grave.

He trusted Mushi's abilities. No matter how fine the Chakra threads were, they could not escape the perception of insects that specifically fed on Chakra.

If Kimura Yao were being controlled as a Human Puppet, there could not possibly be no Chakra threads.

If there were no Chakra threads, then he was not a Human Puppet.

If he was not a Human Puppet, then there were only two possibilities left.

Either the current Kimura Yao was still a spy using a Transformation Jutsu to impersonate him.

Or Kimura Yao truly was dead, but was being controlled by some unknown method unrelated to puppet masters.

Of those two possibilities, the first would be acceptable.

If it was the second, then things would become troublesome.

The ability to control the dead easily brought to mind forbidden techniques such as Impure World Reincarnation.

If the enemy had mastered a forbidden technique similar to Impure World Reincarnation, the threat they posed to Konoha would rise sharply.

Baku had said that Kimura Yao's body was currently very cold, seemingly like that of a dead person.

Furthermore, the insects could not sense any naturally leaking Chakra from Kimura Yao's body. This basically ruled out the possibility that Kimura Yao was alive.

No matter how special a Transformation Jutsu was, as long as the user was alive, it was impossible for them not to naturally leak even a trace of Chakra.

Therefore, the current Kimura Yao was most likely a corpse.

In other words, the situation had reached the second possibility the Third Hokage least wanted to see: the enemy had used an unknown method to control the already dead Kimura Yao.

The Third Hokage first ruled out Konoha's own Impure World Reincarnation as that unknown method.

This forbidden technique had been created by Second Hokage Tobirama. Only Konoha possessed it, and it was currently in his custody. He knew everyone who had ever seen it, and Kimura Yao could not possibly have been resurrected through Impure World Reincarnation.

Besides Impure World Reincarnation, the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Transfer Jutsu could likewise control a dead body, but it could only control corpses that had died very recently—let alone make one live for more than seven days.

So it could not be a secret technique like Mind Transfer.

What other secret technique besides Mind Transfer could control a corpse, allowing it to move and refine Chakra like a living person while also possessing the memories it had before death?

"Hmm... Wait, there really is one secret technique capable of that."

"The Spirit Transformation Technique!"

In an instant, a secret technique that had once been renowned during the Warring States Period surfaced in the Third Hokage's mind.

This secret technique had been collected by Second Hokage Tobirama and inherited by Konoha to this day. It was not strange for others in the ninja world to have inherited it as well.

The more he thought about it, the more the Third Hokage felt that Kimura Yao had likely been controlled by a secret technique similar to the Spirit Transformation Technique. (PS: The Spirit Transformation Technique here was created during the Warring States Period and was not exclusive to Konoha.)

The Spirit Transformation Technique could materialize a person's soul, then use a series of secret techniques targeting souls.

Killing another person's soul, taking their body, and reading their memories through soul-reading abilities were merely the basic capabilities of the Spirit Transformation Technique.

The Soul Possession Technique was the strongest manifestation of the Spirit Transformation Technique, and the ability the ninja who created it had most desperately wished to achieve.

The Soul Possession Technique, as its name implied, was an Immortality Technique that used the soul to possess another person's body, thereby keeping one's physical body eternally young.

If it was the Spirit Transformation Technique's Soul Possession Technique, then all of Kimura Yao's current abnormalities could be explained.

Kimura Yao really was dead, but only his soul was dead. His body was not, and the spy lurking in the shadows was now controlling it with their soul.

The reason Kimura Yao's corpse was cold was because the hidden spy's soul was adapting to Kimura Yao's body, making it feel as cold as a dead person.

This was a side effect unique to possession through the Spirit Transformation Technique.

Before the soul fully adapted to the body, the body would remain in an extremely cold state, like a corpse.

As for why no leaking Chakra could be sensed, that might also have been a side effect of the Soul Possession Technique.

The Third Hokage did not know the Spirit Transformation Technique, and there had been few people in history who did. Detailed information was scarce.

No... There were still several holes in this explanation.

First, a body possessed by a soul could not maintain high-intensity Chakra refinement for long during the adaptation period. Otherwise, it would worsen the rejection between the body and soul and extend the adaptation period.

Yet Minato had said that Kimura Yao had spent the entire day maintaining a state of rapid Chakra refinement. That clearly did not fit the behavior of someone in the adaptation period after soul possession through the Spirit Transformation Technique.

Second, although the Soul Possession Technique allowed someone to seize another person's body and continue living,

the possessed body would be completely bound by the possessor, and it would not live long.

This was because there would be severe rejection between the possessed body and the foreign soul.

That rejection was irreversible. The longer it lasted, the stronger it became. In the end, the physical body would collapse and die from the rejection, while the soul would naturally scatter and vanish as well.

During the Warring States Period, several ninjas who had performed Soul Possession had ultimately died within less than a year due to bodily rejection.

What the Third Hokage could not understand was what value Kimura Yao possessed that would make an expert proficient in the Spirit Transformation Technique give up their life just to possess him.

After all, any ninja capable of using secret techniques like the Spirit Transformation Technique would at minimum be an elite jonin-level powerhouse.

And they were different from other elite jonin.

Even against elite jonin of the same level, a Spirit Transformation Technique expert could instantly kill them as long as they could not block soul attacks.

Throughout history, those proficient in the Spirit Transformation Technique had all been renowned, terrifying figures in the ninja world.

Yet such a powerhouse had traded their life to possess a child, just for at most one more year of life.

Was it worth it?

With the Spirit Transformation Technique, whether it came to killing enemies or gathering intelligence, it was clearly far more useful than possessing a six-year-old child.

Why?

The Third Hokage set down the pipe in his hand, frowning as he failed to understand.

Putting himself in that position, he would not trade his life for one year as Kimura Yao.

It might have been worthwhile if the target were a famous ninja, such as one of his disciples, but a six-year-old child could not possibly come into contact with Konoha's core secrets.

Even his disciples did not actually have access to much.

So it simply was not worth it.

Unless they would not die after possession... Hmm, they would not die!

The Third Hokage muttered those words in his heart. His pupils suddenly contracted as he thought of a possibility.

Perhaps the Soul Possession Technique of the Spirit Transformation Technique no longer carried the side effect of bodily rejection and had truly achieved immortality.

Perhaps someone really had perfected the possession ability of the Spirit Transformation Technique.

It was not impossible. The Third Hokage had never dared underestimate the creativity of geniuses in the ninja world.

If... no, it had definitely been perfected.

Otherwise, there was no explanation for an expert with the Spirit Transformation Technique possessing a six-year-old child whose parents had both died and who had no exceptional talent.

Therefore, the Soul Possession Technique had definitely been perfected. It no longer carried the dangerous side effect of death from bodily rejection.

At that thought, the Third Hokage's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Who could resist longing for an Immortality Technique?