A warm breeze flowed over the village signifying the beginnings of another spring. She loved this time of year; the thousands of trees would blossom, flowers would reveal their beautifully marked velvet petals, and her family shop would finally reopen to the masses of Konoha.

"Yup, this is the life." Ino let out a contented sigh. "This winter has been a long one, that's for sure." She couldn't stand winter. Nothing grew! Everything was so desolate and dreary during the long, cold months. Although some found the pure white landscape beautiful, it only filled her with despair.

She was especially excited for the upcoming fireworks festival this year. She had heard quite a few rumors that her teammate, Shikamaru, would finally profess his love to her during the celebration. Of course she returned his feelings, but she couldn't help feel a little nervous. Not to say she hadn't had her fair share of men before, but Shikamaru was different. That difference was love.

Ino had never felt so attracted to anybody before. This attraction ran deeper than just physical appearances. Yes, he thought her troublesome and loudmouthed, but Ino didn't miss the smile that graced his features when she walked beside him. She felt a smile of her own form on her lips just thinking about him. His deep brown eyes…and the way he smelled…god he smelled good!

"Ino!" Her father, Inoichi, called from the lower level of the family flower shop.

Ino, startled out of her daydreaming, uttered a hasty "Coming!" and rushed down the stairs.

She had never seen the basement so disorganized. "Dad! What have you been doing down here?!" Ino accusingly pointed her finger at the mess. Her mother always kept the basement spotless, but now it was littered with ancient looking scrolls.

"I think I found a new mind body technique when I was in the basement." Inoichi had an excited grin on his face. Ino's father had always been a bit eccentric, but this was going a little far.

"Dad, we are IN the basement! And I've never seen these old scrolls down here before!"

"No the basement under this level. You know, the storage room?" Inoichi rapped his knuckles on the floor to emphasize his point.

"And you were planning on telling me this when?!" She couldn't help but feel a little hurt that her parents hadn't told her about this 'new' basement. She only lived there for 19 years for heaven's sake!

Inoichi was clearly getting frustrated. "Never mind that, now come look at this."

"Fine. But I want you to know that I'm offended." Ino answered with a huff. She wasn't that annoyed, really, but she just wanted to prove her point.

"Now, as I'm sure you remember the two mind body techniques I taught you?" Ino answered with a nod. "Good, because it appears there was a sister technique to complete the trio."

Ino was getting more than a little excited. The mind body switch technique had been exceedingly useful during her days as a genin. The more powerful sister technique to that, the mind body disturbance technique, had gotten her through a number of tough missions. "What's it called?"

Inoichi carefully traced his finger over the kanji. "The mind body split technique."

Ino's eyes went wide. "Can…can you teach me?" She didn't even know what the jutsu was supposed to do, but whatever it was, it must be powerful.

Inoichi was excited to finally teach his daughter a new jutsu. He was happy that his daughter was progressing to a point when she didn't need his help, but still…he missed those moments when her eyes would light up with a simple Genjutsu trick. "Alright lets see what we've got here."

************

"Wow…" Ino barely breathed the words.

"Wow is right."

The mind body split technique was truly amazing. Yes, it required a sizeable amount of chakra but the end result were more than worth it. Much like the mind body switch technique, the spirit would leave the body; however, that renders the body defenseless. The mind body split technique sends the spirit out to fight rather than the body.

This jutsu could win wars. Fighting the spirit is like trying to right a ghost; kunai can't cut a ghost, jutsu pass through without affect, and the spirit can see through Genjutsu. A virtually indestructible shinobi could be unleashed.

That is to say, it was not without repercussions. If preformed incorrectly you could be killed, or worse. If the user runs out of chakra while separated from the body, the spirit would simply vanish. Dying would be the preferred option.

"Ok, I'm ready. If anything goes wrong inject me with your chakra to stop the jutsu." Inoichi said. He was anxious to see if what the scrolls foretold were true.

"I'm ready when you are, dad."

"Here goes nothing." And with that Inoichi formed the needed hand signs and focused his chakra into the kanji written on the ground beneath him. He felt the beginning effects of the mind body switch technique, but only stronger. Much stronger. He felt his spirit start to separate, but the pain was beyond excruciating.

The torture didn't stop at just pain. His mouth had an awful metal taste, his ears were ringing with a horribly unpleasant sound, and he had the worst migraine of his entire life. Every one of his senses was overloaded with a tortuous pain.

"Dad! What's wrong?!" Ino watched in morbid fascination as her father writhed in pain. "Dad!" She had some experience as a medic nin. Given, she wasn't next in line for the title of master healer like her best friend, but she knew a thing or two when it came to healing.

Ino raised a glowing green palm to her father's forehead and started to search out the problem. She could tell by her father's increased heart rate that he would have a heart attack if she didn't stop whatever was causing the problem. Then she felt it. All throughout father's brain, the nerve endings were on fire. His sensory system was overloaded. And Ino knew she couldn't heal this.

Ino was beginning to panic. "Crap, crap, crap! What do I do?!" Inoichi was going into cardiac arrest when she had an idea. Maybe not the brightest one, but it was better than watching her father die a terribly painful death.

Forming the few necessary hand signs, she declared, "Mind body switch technique!"

And that was the last thing Ino remembered before passing out senseless on the floor.

Author's Note:

Ok so this is my first fanfic *loses nonexistent thousands of readers* and to tell you the truth, this was not my best writing! But I promise it'll get better! I basically just had to do this chapter so the story has a place to progress from. And yes, this is a Ino/Shika story even though they are not my favorite couple, I thought I would start with something easy.

A review would be VERY appreciated! If nothing else tell me if this story sucks so far! At least doing that is more helpful than doing nothing!