Out Of Nothing At All

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters (Ino, Lee, Tenten), titles (ANBU), or landmarks (Konoha).

Finally she made it into ANBU! After training for years and getting the utter tar beaten out of her on ten plus occasions, Ino Yamanaka had finally surpassed Sakura and made it to the ranks with Sasuke. The bliss of finally making it to the big times blinded Ino in a way that would make Sakura just dandy that Ino was in ANBU and not her: she was partnered up with Rock Lee. Rock Lee. Bushy-browed complete dork who falls all over himself Rock Lee. While Sasuke was sportting around a couple of cheeky "bimbos," as Ino puts it. Sure, she really did feel for him a few years back when there was a strong possibility Rock Lee would either die or never become a shinobi, but still! A girl has her limits, right?

"Okay, squad ten please come over here!" cried poor, pathetic Lee, waving his arms in the air to gain attention through the crowd of ANBU members figuring out their squads and missions. Ino sighed, and drug her feet over to the yelling nerd. "Ah, Miss Yamanaka! Glad you could make it!"

"Yeah," another half-hearted sigh, "I'm here."

"Heyy! Lee-kun!" Cried a female voice from behind. There was Tenten, waving her arm like her former team mate did just moments before. "Lee-kun! I'm in squad ten!"

"No way Tenten!! That's awesome!" He gave her his signature smile along with a friendly thumbs-up.

"Oh gawd, it starts..."

"Hey Ino," Tenten smiled. Now, Ino didn't have a problem with Tenten, not at all. But there was no need to encourage Lee, as far as she saw, and with her superior attitude, she saw plenty far.

"Hey Ten', how's it going?"

"Great! You two know each other! Let's get moving!" Lee marched proudly forward ahead of his female team mates. Tenten followed behind, admiringly blushing. Ino grunted, and truggedly followed.

Night fall came all too fast, and that was when things get tricky. Tenten looked over at Lee in his monkey mask through her cat mask, and at Ino in her fox mask.

"Alright girls, the enemy's base is right down this hill, inside that house."

House? Looked more like a castle, and with that Ino began to day dream. "Must be nice..." She snapped out of it when her two fellow ANBU members shot her some strange looks. "What?" They jumped from the tree branch where they were just perched upon, and started moving swiftly through the forest. It didn't take long before they were discovered by the hidden ninja and jumped. Lee thought quick on his feet, and lunged a few paper bombs at their mysterious foes, scattered screams and bodies disappearing in smoke. The group ran forward while their current enemies were fallen, heading straight for the base when disaster struck: Tenten stepped right into a mine. A rather small one in all fairness, but just big enough to deal some damage. She fell to her left side with a cry, and her friends came to her aid.

"Tenten!" Lee rummaged through his bag, trying desperately not to look at the bloody mess, but failing.

"Tenten, hold on," Ino allowed the blown up girl to rest her head in her arms, "Lee! In my bag, there's some flares; we need help!"

Mechanically, Lee dig there Ino's bag and found the flares. He lit them up, and setted them off while Ino ripped off some extra cloth from her outrageously big shirt and began to wrap Tenten's leg. Or what she could wrap. The explosion took most of her skin and flesh not only off of her right leg, but chunks were missing from her side and right around her arm pit. She had already passed out from the pain and loss of blood.

"Ino! I have a first aid kit-"

"That won't work Lee! The cloth isn't big enough and the medicines are only for scrapes and poison." She looked down at her poor shirt, half of it missing and the majority of Tenten's wounds were still open and draining blood. "Lee, you gotta rip off some of your shirt, she's bleeding fast." He did as he was told, and Ino went right back to work on her fallen commerade. In the distance they could hear the sounds of what they hoped were other Konoha ANBU coming to help, but the footsteps where still far away. Tenten began to come around, her head dangling from left to right on Ino's lap.

"Wh...what happen?"

"Hold on Tenten!" called Lee reassuringly, "The others are coming to help." From above she could see Ino, who's once white armor now a thick crimson working almost hypnotically with the best of her abilities.

"Ino..."

"Don't speak, just rest." Ino snuck her hand around the inside of her armor, desperate for more cloth, but nothing. She surely couldn't ask Lee for any, as he only had his pants left. "You're very lucky Tenten." she smiled down at her scared and shaken friend.

"..."

"That's right, not only did the land mine not take your leg and your life, but Lee here gave up his entire shirt to bandage up your wounds. Considering that's a pretty good omen, at least in my book, I believe you're gonna be just fine."

Tenten managed to produce a faint smile on her lips, then rested some more, her brow pressed against Ino's exposed arm. Lee looked over at Ino, red painted across his face. It was true, just in a split second Ino began to look at Lee in a different light, that he didn't always try to put on a circus act and be the hero just as his sensei, Gai, did. He was panicky at first, out of sorts, but he regained his composure and did exactly as Ino said. Okay, maybe this is painting a pretty elaborate picture, more elaborate than the case, but it was enough. It was enough to make Ino smile, though the twerp still bugged her to a higher power, and she still saw him as a geek. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, anything to her, their commerades came to the rescue and the moment passed.