Hello! This is a new story centering our favorite, Yamanaka Ino!

This is indeed NaruIno! I don't think there'll be much side couples!

x-x-x-x-x – Separating scenes

Flashback / Dream start

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Flashback talking / Dream talking"

Reference/ definition/ explanation at the bottom*

Author speaking

"Voice in Ino's head speaking"

"Ino speaking to voice in head"

Anyway, time for the storeh!

My name is Ino Yamanaka. Right now I have black flat hair, and black eyes. Now, I didn't always look like that. I'll tell you how. It all started when…

x-x-x-x-x

I let out a big yawn.

Yesterday Shikamaru, Choji, and I had gone on a mission, and I am still very tired.

Yawning again, I rubbed my eye.

I then climbed out of bed and began to strip for my bath. I remember what happened on that mission yesterday and I feel so dirty from it.

Flashback

Shikamaru was handing out orders to Choji and me, and as we worked hard to accomplish them, some guy came out of nowhere and attacked us. Shikamaru was already busy with his shadow possession and I couldn't see Choji, so I figured it was my turn to attack.

"Mind Transfer Jutsu!" I yelled and did the hand signals for it.

I was too caught up in my own business in someone else's body to notice my disregarded body fall into a nearby lake...

End Flashback

"Oh." I groaned. Now it made sense why I felt like crap. I fell into that black water yesterday – wait, black? Isn't that kind of dirty water bad for me or something?

Which got me thinking… how did I get home?

I shrugged. Shikamaru and Choji probably carried me here.

I left my thoughts to go put on a towel to take a bath, when my door was knocked.

"Ino your teammates are here!" My mom called. I heard her footsteps leave my door. So much for a bath.

Instead I went to my closet, ready to put on my regular purple clothes, when I saw none of my regular clothes were there.

I ran to my door and yelled, "mom where are all my training outfits?"

"In the wash, dear." She yelled back.

I groaned again. Time to make something up.

I ended up going with an orange t-shirt and blue shorts. My kunai pouch was hidden nicely by the shirt.

On the way out of my room, I took a quick glance at myself in the mirror.

Was that? – No, it couldn't be.

I thought I saw myself with a darker shade of blonde than I'm used to.

I thought I saw myself with hair a hair color that I usually have when my hair is wet. Was it just me or were my eyes darker now? Anyway, I shook off the thought and walked out of room, down the steps of my house, and out the door.

There I saw Choji stuffing down chips and Shikamaru looking bored, as usual.

"What took you so long" they both started to say, then stopped when they saw me. It was starting to get awkward with them staring at me. Did I have some spinach in my teeth from my healthy breakfast?*

"Hey guys… what's up?" I asked hoping they would stop staring at me like they were.

That snapped them out of it. "What happened to you!" Shikamaru was the first to yell.

"What are you talking about?" I asked coolly. I know my hair and eye color were different, but was it really that much of a big deal? It's not like it's all that noticeable. I hope.

"Your hair!" They pointed to my hair, "Your eyes" they pointed to my eyes, "your clothes!" they pointed to my clothes.

"?" The expression was probably on my face right now.

"You have to see yourself!" Choji yelled, before both of them took m hand and dragged me to some clothes store.

Inside of it, I looked at myself in a full length mirror. My jaw almost hit the floor.

My hair, that was dark blonde when I last saw it, was now dark black! A very dark black! I think it's longer too, because the hair sticking out of my headband was now reaching my chest, and my ponytail was reaching my mid thigh.

My eyes looked different too. When I leaned in, I noticed they were now hazel blue.

Not just that, but my clothes were different too. My orange shirt had green color spreading like a rash, leaving some orange spots. This made my shirt look like mold was spreading on it. My blue shorts were turning purple.

My skin also looked sort of pale.

When did this all happen?

I looked at Shikamaru and Choji, hopeful that they had answers.

Shikamaru was scratching his chin, while Choji continued eating his chips. It looks like they calmed down.

"Excuse me sir, no eating in the store." A store hand said to Choji. Then we all left.

On the street, I questioned them, "GUYS! Why are you acting so calm about this!"

They both looked at me. "It's a pretty good look on you." Shikamaru said first.

Then Choji spoke. "What's the big deal? You look better like that anyway."

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Some friends you have" A voice inside of my head said. I just shook it off; Ino Yamanaka does not hear voices.

"I'm really here. The question is, are you?" It said again. And again, I ignored it.

"You want proof, I'll give you it." "You want proof, I'll give you it." I heard two voices speaking, and then I felt myself blacking out.

Everything in the world seemed to slow down, and then freeze. Shikamaru was frozen in the middle of letting out a big yawn. Choji was about to put a chip in his mouth. A man at an ice cream shop was caught in between giving a little girl a scoop of ice cream in her cone. A bird was frozen in the sky.

"What's going on?" I asked. My voice echoed so much it was hard to hear. When I spoke, I could see yellow rings going off in the direction I just spoke in. They got smaller until the echoing stopped, then they disappeared.

"You don't believe me now?" The voice asked. It was then I realized that the voice was behind this.

"What did you do?" I growled ferociously. This time red egg shaped blobs came from the direction I spoke in, and slowly floated away. Again, it wasn't until the echoing stopped that the ovals disappeared.

"I'm going to show you how much power you have. You think you're weak, don't you?" The voice asked. My cheeks burned. How did it know that?

"You and I share a mind." The voice said.

"What?" I gasped. Pink cubes darted from where I spoke.

"You heard me. You think you're weak. You think that, just because you're not on Uchiha Sasuke's team you're weak. You think you're not as smart as Haruno Sakura. You're insecure." The voice said. Suddenly I felt bad about myself. The voice was right. I always think that way. I'll never be strong enough to match Sasuke in a training battle. I'll never compare to Sakura. Sure, her forehead is big, but at least she has one guy that likes her. Not one boy under this sun likes me…

"Stop thinking like that!" the voice snapped. "You might not have a tractor sized forehead like Haruno Sakura, but you have me!"

There was a sudden pang in my head. The pain grew to my whole body. It felt as if I were on fire! My stomach churned. Hair was being forced out of my head!

I groaned. It was unbearable!

"Kid, listen to me!" The voice said. It was hard to focus with all the pain. "Kid! You have to listen! It's the only chance you've got!"

"I'm listening! I'm listening!" I yelled, ignoring the echo. Shapes were probable flying around right now, but if listening to the voice was my only shot, I was going to listen!

"You have to fight the pain!"

"How do I-" I inhaled deeply in record time, "do that!"

"Focus! With all your might! Imagine yourself pushing away a force of evil!"

So I did. I thought away from the pain and focused. I imagined myself pushing away some demon. I used all my might. I pushed, and pushed. With all the screaming I was doing, you'd think I was giving birth.

"Push, Emiko, push!" I think saying the name Emiko set something off inside me. Suddenly my eyes shot open and, in my mind, I pushed the horrible demon away into a pit of darkness. Then the pit closed and the ground shook.

I let out a shaky sigh. Now that the pain was finally over, I had a question for the voice in my head.

"Emiko?" I asked. I ignored the turquoise shaped circles that flew where my voice went and the echo.

"W-what?" If I didn't know better, I'd say the voice in my head just stuttered.

"Who is Emiko? You called the name 'Emiko' when I was pushing. Suddenly there was a burst of power. I want to know what you did." Those words sounded surprisingly tough, seeing the position I was in.

The voice in my head sighed. "You fell into a lake with black water right?" It questioned.

"Yes. Why?"

"That lake holds a background." I was getting impatient.

"Get on with it, already!" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. I could see the giant red blobs flying to the direction it my voice was going in, and though I couldn't see it, I was sure the voice inside my head had smirked.

"I would tell you the background of the lake, but that is not why I called you here."

"So it was you!" The red blobs were there again.

"Who else could have?" I shrugged.

"That's enough. I've wasted enough time."

When I was silent, she decided to continue talking.

"It's time." it suddenly declared, as if discovering something.

"Time for what?" I asked, not even looking at the turquoise rings that flew from my statement.

"Time to show you what I brought you here for!" The voice snickered.

How was it?

*Let's just pretend Ino ate breakfast…

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6 pages!

Words: 1,749