Chapter 1: "Just A Little Girl"

By: Trading Yesterday


A beautiful moon is ignored as the Sand Kingdom is set ablaze by invading warriors of the Leaf Kingdom. Cries and screams of women and children can be heard all throughout the main city. The defending warriors are giving their all to fight and protect the people.

Teams of medics are scattered throughout the area to help as much as they can.

"Please calm down, sir" A blond haired medic tries to comfort as she struggles to heal the panicking wounded man.

"Ino! You worthless weakling! Hurry up and we still have a lot of ground to cover!" their medic team leader shouts harshly at her. A grinning pink haired girl who had already finished healing her patients stood beside him.

"Y-yes sir!" Ino responds nervously as she finishes up bandaging the wound and follows the other medics to the center area.

"Damn it! Do these stupid Leaf warriors have nothing else better to do?! Attacking us in the middle of the F*cking night!" Their leader spat.

"Don't worry father, I'm sure the palace warriors are on their way." The pink haired medic smiled.

"Of course. At least I can count on someone like you, Sakura, unlike some people." The team leader states as he looks at Ino's direction. Ino bows her head in shame as to how much he looks down on her.

Why is it like this? Ino's father, Inouchi Yamanaka, was once a great and respected warrior of the sand kingdom. But all that changed when it was found out that he was harboring an enemy from the Leaf kingdom when she was still very young. Inouchi was then seen as a traitor for he wouldn't give up the identity of that person and was later executed for treason in public and in front of the poor 5 year old Ino. Ino was then sent to live as a medic with her cruel uncle and his daughter, Sakura.

"Don't worry about it, Ino. You must understand that these kinds of situations are very critical and so father can be a little strict. To me, you're actually doing fine for starters." Sakura smiles as they stood atop the roof of a building in the center area.

"Thanks a lot, Sakura" Ino cheers up slightly at the words of her only friend. Since her father's reputation stuck with her, Ino didn't have many friends. She was a total outcast until she recognized Sakura as both a friend and somewhat a sister.

"Alright we need to buy some time and help as much as we can until the royal palace warriors arrive. Do your best!" the leader orders as they nod in unison before dispersing. Ino following Sakura.

"Can't you hurry it up?! The enemy is almost closing in on us! You're probably doing this on purpose, traitor!" the warrior shouts at Ino who is already pushing herself to the limit using her chakra to heal the gaping slash made by a sword on his leg.

"Please stop saying that" Ino whispers.

"You need to try and balance out the chakra in your hand so that it could spread evenly and heal much faster." Sakura advices Ino as she places her hand over Ino's balancing the energy and completely closing the cut.

"Thank you, Sakura" Ino smiles weakly feeling very much helpless.

They were to leave the area when suddenly…

"Bring it! I'm not scared of you!" Ino spots a young raven haired boy going against an older leaf warrior about to attack him.

A sudden impulse made Ino running towards the boy and wraps her body to protect him.

"Don't hurt him!" Ino demands closing her eyes and holding out her hand signaling him to stop.

Before the warrior could swing at them he instantly stops and begins attacking his fellow warrior.

"What do you think you are doing?!" the other shouts trying to prevent him from stabbing him with the small sword.

"I d-don't know….can't control….my body!" the man says before finally piercing the sword through his teammate. The other cries in pain before being forced to kill the manipulated comrade. Ino, Sakura and the boy could only watch in confusion.

"Argh!" The enemy coughs up blood as he gave a deadly look at Ino "WHY YOU!" he attacks. But as he runs at her a wave of sand comes charging at him pinning and crushing him to the wall of a building and instantly killing him.

Looking behind them, their eyes wide open as the royal palace army had arrived each soldier armed with swords, shields and a silver armor bearing the sign of the Sand Kingdom. The young man who seems to be leading them stands in front floating on what looks like a cloud of sand with his arms crossed and what seems to be a face blank of emotions.

He had short, spiky auburn hair and had black eye-rings, his forelocks parting from the left side revealing the kanji for love. He was wearing a reddish-brownish overall strapped securely by mesh armor. His intense green eyes sent Ino in a daze.

"Bow your head, stupid!" Sakura snaps her out of it as she puts a hand behind her head forcing her to bow her head.

"What? Why?" Ino asks in surprise.

"The royal army has arrived and the extremely handsome one in front is Prince Gaara!" Sakura squeals in excitement.

"Your Highness, you finally came! We are in deep gratitude." The whole medic team returns as they all bow in respect.

Gaara steps down from the sand cloud as it returns to the ground.

"I apologize for the delay. Are you all alright?" His words with concern but his voice and expression unreadable.

"Y-yes Prince Gaara, our warriors and medics were able to hold off the enemy." Sakura's father reply.

"Alright then. Thank you for your efforts. Leave the rest to us" Gaara replies running pass the medics followed by the army.

As Gaara passes Ino he gazes at her. His eyes causing her to feel suddenly weak in the knees. For the first time in her life, it felt good to feel her heart beat not for fear and embarrassment but for something very different.


"Please stop, uncle! I'll try harder next time! Please no more!" Ino cries as her uncle continues to punish her beating her already weak body down in front of the whole medic team.

"You useless pig! You never do anything right!" Her uncle shouts beating her even harder. It hurt a lot more seeing Sakura simply standing there quiet and smiling not bothering to do anything.

About fifteen minutes have passed before her uncle, Sakura and all the others exit the room leaving her struggling on the floor coughing up blood. Large amount of tears began flowing down her now bluish cheeks from those swollen blue eyes. She could barely see anything.

'It's okay' she thought. Uncle beats her almost everyday and this is the first time it only hurt a lot more. At least it's over.

Ino gathers what's left of her strength to crawl to her room and over to her bedroom window to watch the beautiful full moon.

Flashback

"My dear Ino, why are you crying?" Inouchi asks upon finding his little Ino crying by a tree in their backyard.

"They gave out our grades today at school and I'm second to Sakura in the top 10. The other kids' mothers told them how proud they were. I wish mommy is here so she would proud of me too!"Little Ino cries.

"But my dear, you're mother IS proud of you. She is always watching over us." Inouchi smiles patting her head.

"How does daddy know that?"Little Ino finally stops crying and looks at him confused.

Inouchi makes her look at the night sky. "Look at the moon. Your grandmother once told me that departed loved ones can see you under the moon's bright light."

"Really!" little Ino smiles as she starts waving her hand at the moon. "Hi mommy!"

End of Flashback

"Mom…Dad…" she says weakly looking up at the night sky. "C-can you see me? I miss you. I wish I could be there with you so we could all watch the beautiful sand kingdom from above together." She smiles crying until her body finally gives out causing her to faint.