Today Ino and her were going to have their first Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara play date.

Curious about how one of her favorite genin teams interacted she was very excited. Settling in her mother's - Inoue, she was detecting an Ino name theme that she had been left out of - she stared up at Shikaku with wide curious blue eyes. He was a handsome guy and the scar did nothing but add to his finesse.

"Thanks for having us over," Her father greeted slipping off his shoes. "Ino's been pretty restless to get out of the house and Kangae mostly just agrees with what her sister wants so that was a tantrum to last the ages."

Shikaku's amused chuckled drifted through the air as he took a step towards them.

"Not even three yet and they're already a hand full." The Nara genius grinned, ruffling their blonde and ginger hair simultaneously. "Well come on inside, Choza and his family are waiting in the tea room."

Carted off to the rest of the company Kangae and Ino were brought before a man and two women, Choza, his wife Sagasu, and Yoshino respectively. Sagasu was a beautiful slim women with chestnut hair and a lively green gaze while Choza had bright red hair and dark brown eyes. Yoshino was also rather pretty but shr had a more fierce look about her.

The woman looked like one of those house-mothers who weren't afraid to throw a hot pot of oil at a disrespectful guest, with her brown hair and sharp dark eyes. Kangae instantly respected her for it.

"So these are your twins huh, Inoue?" Yoshino grinned, red covered lips stretching sinously. "They should have been listed as identical instead of fraternal."

Sagasu nodded her agreement as she took a sip of her tea. "They're practically mirror images of each other if you don't count Kangae's red hair."

"Only one of her cousins have hair this color but I'm happy she got the color as well, it's very cute." Her mother smiled, setting her down near the other two children in the room.

Glancing upwards at their father as crouched down next to them, Kangae resisted the urge to raise one of her brows questioningly and instead waited for him to introduce them.

"Girls," Inoichi started with a bright grin. "meet Shikamaru and Chouji. Boys, meet Ino and Kangae."

The four of them made eyes contact before looking back towards the elder Yamanaka.

"Tou-chan's going to go talk with Choza and Shikaku," He told them and both girls nodded. "Play nice now."

That last bit was directed more towards Ino and her but Kangae let it slide, after all it was warranted.

Watching her sister turn curious eyes to the sleepy eyed, fruit chewing boys Ino let out a cheery squeal and Kangae knew they would click despite their future scrabbles.

"Hi! Hi!" Ino chirped scooting closer to the boys, fingers clasped around Kangae's to tug her along. Following her little sister's lead she gave a tiny wave much to the approval of Ino.

"Hiiii..." She murmured flashing them a half smile and the blonde beside her nodded in agreement.

Chouji was nice enough, answering both of their greetings with a shy friendliness she found appealing. He would definitely make a good friend. Turning to the Kagemane user, she waited for him to say something.

And waited.

And waited and waited, until finally he deigned them worthy of his notice.

If Kangae didn't know any better she would have said that Shikamaru seemed to have sighed in exasperation before fully opening his dark eyes to examine - criticize - them both. Only two years old and already a lazy bastard, talk about predestined character personality traits.

Taking a long look he drawled out a lazy 'hello' and rolled over with every intention to fall asleep again.

Kangae watched the confused hurt bloom across Ino's face at the dismissal from a person she obviously wanted to befriend and Kangae frowned at the back of the boy's head.

Even she wasn't all that psyched to make nice with him - rude little snot that he was - it was one thing to snub her but another to do so to her sister and Kangae would not let that fly.

So she was an overprotective aneue, what could she do but protect her sister to the fullest extent?

Leaning forward she pushed on his shoulder and narrowed her eyes when he didn't respond. If there was one thing she hated more than someone being mean to Ino, it was being ignored. Deciding to do it again and again until he paid proper attention to her, she began shoving him. Harshly.

But it was no dice, she had practically rolled him around five whole times and he didn't even bat an eyelash. Scowling harshly, she took a deep breath and this time gave a push to Shikamaru's mind.

The boy jerked as if she had actually pushed him and he looked around the room in confusion. Feeling a little - alot - winded at the effort, she grinned victoriously at rousing him.

"Ino wantsa play!" She announced when Shikamaru turned around to face her with a peeved expression on his face. He looked accusatory but he had no proof that it was her. So there.

"Go 'way woman." He grumbled attempting to turn his face into the mats beneath him and Kangae's expression became incredulous. Oh no this little brat didn't! She did not waste her psychic energy only to have him revert back to a unresponsive metaphorical couch potato!

"Up!" Kangae screeched, causing Ino, Chouji, and that idiot boy to jump. "Up! Up! Uppp!"

Shikamaru bolted into the air with fire in his narrowed eyes.

"Ino. Wantsa. Play." Kangae reiterated with a childish grin that seemed a dab bit too vindictive. Either he listened to her order or she took more drastic measures. "You, Choji, and Ino play. Now."

Shikamaru glanced over at the other two curiously watching children before his resigned dark gaze settled back on her

"You too?"

The strawberry haired girl offered a falsely sugar filled smile.

"No. I'm tired." She told him, punctuating her statement with a loud yawn, drawing the attention of her mother who hurried over to pick her up from the far side of the room.

Meeting Shikamaru's pouting black eyes she grinned.

"Bye bye."

Turning to face the trio of amused woman Kangae tried for the innocent look and failed. Spectacularly.

"Ah, so much like you already Inoue." Yoshino said with a shake of her head. "It's almost terrifying."

"She'll be a Kunoichi in no time." Sagasu beamed. "An infiltration or interrogationist if I ever saw one."

Inoue looked thoughtful.

"I always thought her to be a hunter-nin with how she always manages to find everyone she plays hide and seek with." The blonde woman mused. "Even the older kids have trouble."

Kangae grinned, blame that on their incredibly loud thoughts. Hearing 'that brat will never find me in this insanely tall tree!' usually prompted one to look in the insanely tall tree.

"So Kan-chan, now that you're done manipulating Shikamaru-kun for Ino would you rather stay with your father or me?" Inoue asked, lifting a knowing brow.

Kangae giggled and pressed a kiss to her mother's cheek. "Tou-chan!"

Chuckling low, her mother exited through the patio door. "Of course you pick the battle crazy ninja over us gossiping old women."

Spying her father and the others a ways down she started towards them.

Inoichi," Her mother called alerting the three ninja. "Kangae finished playing the others for Ino and decided to come out here with you!"

Her father chuckled lowly. "Well she's certainly free to come sit with us."

Placing her on the floor the blonde woman gave Kangae a pat on the back. "Go on."

Turning to go back into the house she pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Pushing herself upwards she ran over to her father and threw herself into his lap with a practiced precision.

"Headstrong little tyke." Choza chuckled watching Kangae right herself until her back was pressed against Inoichi's chest.

"Definitely an action taker." Her father chuckled, running a single hand through her hair. "Can hardly stop her once she gets set on something."

"So what did Inoue mean by 'manipulating the others'?" Shikaku asked pushing one Go piece forward and Kangae wondered how much this was like chess.

Her father hummed amusedly.

"It means some one in there got bended to Kangae's will." He explained. "Most likely it was Shikamaru because he didn't want to play with Ino."

"Ho?" Choza said, moving his own piece before glancing towards Kangae. "Do we have a little protector on our hands. An Ichigo?"

Inoichi started laughing, sounding a bit maniacal and Kangae pouted. It wasn't nearly that funny.

"Oh Choza, what a coincidence," He sighed wiping at the tears gathered at the sides of his eyes. "that's the nickname she's had ever since she slapped her older cousin for teasing Ino."

Yes, Kangae the Ichigo. Thought the Protector. No one told Ganbo to be such a twat.

"Not to mention that hair color, strawberry indeed." Shikaku remarked, moving a black tile after Choza did. "And speaking of hair, I've been meaning to ask how that came about...Oh and Choza? Checkmate."

Ignoring the frustrated groan of 'Never gonna play a Nara again' and 'One more time Shikaku!' her father absently toyed with the ends of her tresses in contemplation.

"Well it could just be a random pop up color that she inherited or maybe a mutation that arose from the generations blond hair." Inoichi shrugged while Kangae internally snickered at the mention of a mutation.

'Daddy dearest, you truly have no idea.'

"With either possibility Kangae has this color and it's here to stay."

And with that they lapsed into a quiet conversation while Kangae began to relax. This was why she enjoyed the Akimichi and Nara clan's company, they were taught how to shield. Naturally not against their Kekkai Genkai because as far as they all knew there wasn't a way to do so, but how to discipline their minds from torture and things of the like.

A gruesome reason but they were ninja, what did anyone expect?

But the shielding wasn't to say that she couldn't hear absolutely nothing. She still caught snippets of thoughts. For example, Choza's rambling about losing to Shikaku, Shikaku's ramblings about how many times Choza was going to keep losing to him, and her father's rather entertaining thoughts about having ginger grandbabies and the man he would kill for getting his little Ichigo pregnant - but it wasn't on blast like she was used to.

And unlike her parents, they weren't as likely to take note of a mental intrusion, so Kangae could practice honing her abilities on them if she wanted. But she wouldn't, not on allies anyway. They trusted each others clans to do what was right with their Kekkai Genkai's, so who was she to come and give a reason for the age long triad of clans to mistrust each other?

No one that's who.

Settling in a ball, she closed her eyes and focused in on the rhythmic pressure of her father's stroking and began to doze.

She might be reluctant to practice on them but everyone else? Well, they were marked as free game.

Edit: 8/28/15