Inoichi Yamanaka

is a jōnin-level shinobi from Konohagakure, and, alongside Shikaku Nara and Chōza Akimichi, is a part of an Ino-Shika-Chō trio.

Background
During the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, Inoichi and his team-mates assisted in the village's defence.

Personality
From what has been seen of Inoichi throughout the series, he has a calm and perceptive nature, generally staying calm under pressure. He is also very analytical being able to put together the information he had gotten from his interrogation to aide Shizune in uncovering the secret behind the Six Paths of Pain. He also has an indulgent and gentlemanly disposition.

Appearance
Inoichi has long blond hair reaching into his back, which he wears spiky on top and ending in a long ponytail, blue-green eyes and strong facial features, which include a well defined jaw line. In Part I, Inoichi is seen wearing the standard flak jacket over a black outfit, complete with hand-guards, forehead protector and a sleeveless red coat. In Part II, he wears the standard outfit of the Konoha Interrogation Unit, complete with a long black overcoat. During the Fourth Shinobi World War he dons the standard uniform of the Konohagakure shinobi.

Abilities
Inoichi, who is presumably the head of the Yamanaka clan, has shown himself to be a highly capable ninja. He is well-versed in all of his clan's secret techniques. During the Invasion of Konoha in Part I, Inoichi skilfully performed the Mind Body Disturbance Technique to make the invaders he encounters fight against their own allies without any self-control. Further proof of his skill was shown from his status as an interrogator during Pain's invasion. He was able to skilfully probe the mind of one Pain's Amegakure loyalist and go through his entire day of memories in mere seconds with the aid of a device, even though Pain had guarded it with mental blocks and traps. He has also shown the ability to communicate telepathically with other people. He is also skilled at tracking targets through their chakra trail, as long as the target's chakra signature stays the same.

Chūnin Exam Arc
Inoichi first appeared in the anime alongside his former team-mates during the Chūnin Exam festivals. They were sitting in a bar where Inoichi was being teased for having a daughter instead of a son.

Invasion of Konoha Arc
He appeared again during the invasion of Konoha, protecting the village together with Shikaku Nara and Chōza Akimichi. He uses the Mind Body Disturbance Technique to cause the invading shinobi to fight amongst themselves. Inoichi then says fighting alongside his team-mates Chōza and Shikaku reminded him of old times when they were renown across the nations. Chōza then remarks that they still were.

Invasion of Pain Arc
When Ibiki Morino proved unable to learn anything about Pain from Yūdachi, he called on Inoichi for assistance. He probed Yūdachi's mind, rapidly going through his memories before arriving at the revelation that Pain had requested of Yūdachi: dead bodies. Before he could think further on this, Ino arrived to inform him of Pain's attack on Konoha, and the village was soon afterwards destroyed. Shizune was killed in the chaos by the Human Path and, using the information Shizune had learned before her death, Inoichi realised that Pain was animating dead bodies in a manner similar to his own clan's mental manipulation techniques, thereby meaning the true Pain was in a remote location somewhere relatively close by.

While looking for Pain's real body along with Shikaku and a shinobi from the Hyūga clan, they ran into Naruto. Inoichi asked if Naruto had defeated Pain, to which Naruto answered that it didn't matter and stated that he had found Pain's true body while in Sage Mode. He asked them not to follow him, as he wanted to talk to Pain alone. Inoichi stated angrily that talking didn't solve anything, but, after a brief argument, Shikaku told Inoichi to just let Naruto go, to which Inoichi hesitantly agreed. Inoichi along with the rest of the village, were overjoyed at Naruto's return to the village.

Konoha History Arc
Inoichi is placed in charge of interrogating Hanare after she was captured and brought to Konohagakure. After seeing a memory of Kakashi Hatake as a child in her thoughts, he sends her over to him and see if he remembers her as their other methods of interrogation so far had failed.

Confining the Jinchūriki Arc
In the anime, Inoichi is seen attending the war council meeting that Tsunade calls alongside Shikaku. He later attends a private meeting that Tsunade calls in her temporary office as they discuss the impending war.

Shinobi World War Arc
Inoichi is placed in charge of the Intelligence Division. When Aoba Yamashiro returns, Inoichi questions him about his time on the Island Turtle saying it seemed as though they had a rough time. His first act within the war was to set up a barrier with Ao.

He later relays new information to the members of his division in the fields about the enemy travelling underground. After the alliance realises that the First Division was soon going to be overwhelmed by the enemies' forces, Inoichi relays the new battle strategy as created by Shikaku. He then reports that Shizune had also split up her division equally in order to better attend to the wounded allies.

Later on, he uses a variant of his telepathy by placing his hand on Shikaku's forehead. This allows Shikaku himself to telepathically contact Darui, Ino, Shikamaru and Chōji, telling them of his strategy to seal Kinkaku. After Kinkaku is sealed, Inoichi praises Ino's uses of the Mind Body Switch Technique as her use and release of the technique had increased greatly.

As the night drags on, Inoichi receives reports from multiple divisions that shinobi from the alliance were being assassinated and that they could not find the enemy. After being asked by Shikaku what the corpses look like, he reports that they all died from external wounds and not from methods like poisoning. After receiving a report from the Logistical Support and Medical Division it was revealed that it was in fact members of White Zetsu Army who had transformed into shinobi from the alliance and was killing other shinobi and causing chaos.

After Naruto and B are allowed to head to battlefield by A and Tsunade, Inoichi once again uses his telepathy to allow Shikaku to converse with them.

Trivia

 * 'Ino' comes from, meaning 'boar'. means 'one,' 'first' and is a common ending for boys' names, referring to the first-born son.  means 'among the mountains'. Wild boar are heavily associated with mountains in Japan and are even called the , because of the amount of meat they produce.