Author's Notes: I added a short paragraph to the author's notes in chapter 1 about my OC's background for those who have not read the previous stories. Spoilers to the other stories start in this chapter.

Traveling to Hidden Cloud Village

"Kakashi-sensei," Shikamaru started to say and then hesitated, unsure how Kakashi would react. "Is it wise for you to lead the mission? Considering the emotional involvement…"

"It will be fine. I have more experience than all of you put together." His tone left no room for discussion.

Shikamaru shrugged and thought, Better for me, less responsibility that way.

Kakashi led the team since he had traveled to Thunder Country more often than the others and knew the roads and terrain well. He also knew where the sentries were normally posted. Rikako had told him (rather reluctantly, she felt it was a betrayal to her country) to help expedite his travels. Shikamaru followed on Kakashi's right, Naruto on his left, Ino in the center and Neji in the rear - the diamond formation. Ino, as the weakest member of the team, had to be protected. Kakashi and Shikamaru had things to discuss. In addition to his byakugan, Neji was strong and smart, important aspects to guard the rear. In his position, Naruto's power could support both the front and back. The team hurried along the main roads at first then as more secrecy was required,they leaped from branch to branch.

Traveling with these four has not been a barrel of laughs, but more like a barrel of literal monkeys, thought Kakashi as he tried to ignore the constant bickering. Neji returned to his arrogant self since he became the adopted heir to the Head Hyuuga family (poor Hinata and Hanabi were just not good enough). Shikamaru was still the same sarcastic complainer; Ino still trying to boss everyone around, but she seemed wary of Neji; and Naruto still constantly talking when he should be silent.

Ino, "Really, Shikamaru, with your intelligence, you should be jounin by now. Look, even Naruto is a jounin…

Naruto, "Hey, what's that supposed to…"

Ino, "Don't you want to reach your full potential? The next round of jounin tests is coming up. If I had your smarts…"

Shikamaru, "Too troublesome!" That Ino, always riding me for being lazy, worse than my mother!

Shikamaru could have made jounin long ago if he wanted, but was too lazy to take the jounin tests. Instead he stayed a chuunin with less life threatening missions, but taking on the occasional A or S mission when specifically requested. And he still lived at home - too lazy to move out, tolerating his mom in return for meals and laundry. He was not happy about this mission. As he traveled, he pieced together all the information Kakashi had given them, analyzed the pieces, and restructured them again and again to formulate a plan.

"A clan of mind readers…even Ino can't do that. This mission is so troublesome! How to outwit a possible mind reader…" If Ino had that power, I'd be wrapped around her finger so tightly, she'd get gangrene.

"Well, Rikako's powers are quite advanced. Her sister is not nearly as powerful. She can't mind read as well as Rikako, but she does have strong psionic attacks," noted Kakashi.

Shikamaru added that piece of information to his growing list. Suddenly, a disturbing thought came to him, one that made him clench his teeth. "Rikako…I played shogi with her a few times long ago. She beat me once, the only one who ever beat me. But she's a mind reader! She knew my every move…she cheated! Geez, that had me upset for days…"

Kakashi laughed to himself. Yes she would do that. She didn't like shogi or most games, found them a waste of time. But she would play shogi with Shikamaru just to see how his mind worked, how he formulated strategy. That's what she was interested in. Of course, she didn't like to lose all the time, so she probably did cheat, just to show him up.

Neji's brow furrowed as he considered this revelation. "I remember the first time I trained with her. She stabbed me from the back. Did she read my mind to anticipate my moves?"

Kakashi continued to listen to their reminiscences but said nothing. She didn't need to read your mind for that. She was just testing the byakugan's abilities, but you pissed her off by disrespecting her family name.

Ino pondered, "I met her once in the advanced field first aid class. She was kind of annoying. She kept correcting the instructor. And she didn't seem very friendly. Oh, uh, er…no insult intended Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi shrugged, Ino's right, she wasn't very friendly unless there was a reason to be. And sometimes her know-it-all attitude was annoying though she usually tried to downplay that. But she did end up teaching that class for a few months before…before she had to leave.

Ino took Kakashi's non-response as being mad at her so she apologized. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei, I didn't mean to say…sometimes I talk without thinking, sorry."

Kakashi turned his head to give a her a smile from underneath his mask and replied, "Don't worry about it, Rikako would be the first to admit those faults." Ino was a simple character, a diva with a short temper but a good heart. What she thought and what she felt was reflected in her words and actions, not so with Rikako. You could never be sure if what she said was the truth, her version of the truth, or a lie so twisted it could be true, or a downright lie that she thought was for the best. Their relationship would have been so much simpler if Rikako were more like Ino…but less pushy…and smarter…and…in truth he loved her as she was, despite her faults…well, he could do without the mind manipulations…

Naruto said thoughtfully, "Well, it's not like the two of you have anything in common…"

Ino frowned, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Naruto thought of how Rikako usually dressed plainly, conservatively, in black. "Well…look at the way you're dressed…"
"What's wrong with the way I dress?" asked Ino, her voice starting to rise in anger.

Naruto innocently explained, "Maybe you should wear something that fit instead of two sizes too…" Crash! Naruto never got to finish his sentence as Ino used her mind confusion to trip him. Naruto tumbled from the tree but was able to catch hold of a lower branch before he hit the ground.

Kakashi rebuked them angrily, "This is a serious mission! We can't waste any time or risk any injuries before we get there. Stop fooling around!"

It was very rare to see Kakashi lose his temper. Naruto and Ino mumbled their apologies and the team fell silent for a while.

Training

The sun was now setting as they approached the neutral zone between Fire Country and Thunder Country. The team had traveled without a break for hours. Kakashi finally came to a full stop. "We'll break now and refresh your mind block techniques."

Kakashi instructed the team while they wolfed down their shinobi rations and soldier pills.

"Mind attacks are difficult but not impossible to defend against. Shinobis with such techniques are very rare. Fortunately we have among us one who is proficient in several types of mind techniques." Kakashi looked over at Ino. She sat straighter on the log, smiled, and almost waved. "Mind techniques are like genjutsu but genjustu affects the five senses while mind attacks directly affect the brain. We may be dealing with mind reading, subliminal suggestions and psionic attacks. Ino's best techniques are mind transfer and mind confusion. She should have some natural resistance. The rest of you will have to work a bit harder. Now you all have had past training in mind blocks and resisting brainwashing and hypnotism. It's basically the same training. You just need to focus and prepare a mental barrier by building layers of walls within your mind. At the center, focus on the one thing that gives you your sense of self. Techniques to guard against mental attacks are rarely 100 percent effective, but their intent is to delay or mitigate the effects so that you can further defend yourself with another justsu or get away from the enemy."

Three of the other four shinobis nodded in comprehension. Naruto was thinking how he ate all his shinobi rations and will have nothing for later.

"Okay, team, concentrate and square off against Ino one by one. I'll go first then Neji, Shikamaru, and Naruto."

They meditated for a while, then Ino tried to use her mind confusion technique on each of them in turn.

Kakashi thought of his sharingan, how he obtained it, his friend's sacrifice, and how he was who he was now because of it. His sharingan gave him some protection against genjutsu, but not the high level techniques practiced by Itachi, nor direct mind attacks. He had torely onhis old Anbu mind block techniques. Ino stood twenty feet from him and performed the seal for mind confusion. He could feel the pressure, as if the barometer suddenly fell and a headache were coming. If he had not been prepared, his legs and arms would have gone numb and Ino would have controlled them. But Kakashi closed his mind tightly and used an earth jutsu to quickly disappear into the ground and suddenly reappear behind Ino, who gave a slight shriek in surprise. "All right," Kakashi nodded to the rest of the team, "that's how it's done. Neji you're up next."

Neji thought of his cursed seal which made him work harder to be recognized, and to supercede the head family. He was the man he became because of his cursed seal. He activated his byakugan and stared at Ino. Ino gulped and blanched a bit. She had been afraid of him since the first time they took the chuunin exams. Those eyes with their penetrating vision…wait a sec…exactly what is he looking at? His byakugan doesn't protect him from mind attacks, so why does he have them activated…unless…unless he's some kind of pervert… Ino felt her cheeks turn red. She quickly did the seal for mind confusion, trying to concentrate as hard as she could.

Neji was observing her chakra flow with his byakugan. When she performed her seal he too felt the disturbing pressure on his brain. So that's what a mind attack feels like. I'll be ready for it, he noted to himself. Against physical attacks he could protect himself by releasing chakra from the tenketsus. But mind attacks were different. He saw Ino's chakra being concentrated around her brain. He inferred that chakra was being converted to electromagnetic brainwaves and projected out. Neji concentrated his chakra to the chakra pathways around his brain, trying to blockthe brainwaves. If this works, it will be another layer of protection in addition to the typical mind blocks. It seemed to be working…

Neji ran toward Ino, his veins bulging around his blank eyes…

What the f…is he trying to kill me? Ino thought in a panic. She ducked down and rolled out of the way. Neji missed her by barely an inch

"What the hell do you think you're doing? This is just practice!" Ino yelled at him.

Neji almost shrugged. He calmly replied, "I was going to stop short of actually hurting you. Besides, this is good practice for you as well."

Ino scowled angrily at Neji but was too afraid of him to let loose the string of expletives on the tip of her tongue. I'll have to find a way to get back at him, but not directly, without him knowing it was me. Maybe I'll make up something to tell Tenten…I'll tell Sakura that Neji was hitting on me…no… he was hitting on Naruto during this mission! Then she'll tell Lee who will tell Tenten…Yeah that's it! Ino was now back to smiling as she faced Shikamaru.

Shikamaru thought of shogi, how he'd rather be playing that instead of being on this troublesome mission, and how he wanted to write a book on shogi but even that was too troublesome. He looked over at Ino who just seemed way too enthusiastic about this training. I'd better not fool around. I should really concentrate or she'll catch me off guard and then I'll never hear the end of it...

Shikamaru was used to Ino using her mental attacks on him. During their first chuunin exam, she had transferred her mind into his body to copy down the answers she stole from Sakura. And whenever he pissed her off, which was quite often given her bad temper, she would repeatedly use mind confusion to make him trip or walk into a wall. So he had practiced using mind block techniques, though he didn't let her know about it. Keep it a secret and use it as a trump card against her when it's important.

So now Shikamaru had to demonstrate for Kakashi that he could delay Ino's attack. Shikamaru established the walls in his mind and blocked Ino's mind confusion attack, and then performed the seal for shadow imitation. At twenty feet, his shadow lengthened by the setting sun easily bound her shadow. Shikamaru smiled back at Ino and started to think of ways to humiliate her. Maybe I can strip off my clothes…

Ino recognized that shrewd look and tried talking her way out of his pending plans, "That was really good Shikamaru, on your first try too! You're so smart! I wish I could be more like you…"

Kakashi astutely stepped in before anything could happen. "All right, Naruto, you're next." These guys are good, both on their first try, Kakashi thought, let's see how Naruto does.

Naruto thought of a super-size bowl of ramen because he was hungry. Kakashi, Neji and Shikamaru had successfully fended off Ino's attacks long enough to perform a jutsu of their own, but poor Naruto continued to fall on his face as Ino tripped him over and over and over, smiling and giggling all the while, This is sooo much fun!

She must have it in for me! She's gotta be pouring extra effort and extra chakra against me! I'm a jounin, I have to be able to fend her off! I just need to concentrate better. Naruto thought back to his rasengan training with Jiraiya and of Iruka's leaf lesson so many years ago. It's the same thing...maybe l need to concentrate on something else. Naruto then thought about the demon fox within him. He had accepted its presence as part of himself for so long now that he rarely thought about it anymore. In the beginning he was wary of it, but as he learned to control its power, it became no more disturbing to him than having an extra finger (actually, having an extra finger would have been much more disturbing). My sense of self...I am not the fox demon...but my power comes from it...it is part of me...

Naruto envisioned the huge fiery demon in its barred sealed cage deep within the dungeon of his mind. He built a maze of walls around it. He focused on it for a minute then opened his eyes and smiled at Ino. "Try it again!" he ordered enthusiastically.

Kakashi watched in satisfaction to see Naruto finally fend off Ino's mind confusion long enough to retreat from her line of sight, which she needed for the technique to succeed, and into a tree, by using kawarimi. "All right team, good job," Kakashi announced, "pack up and let's move. We'll be traveling all night."

"We should make better time under the cover of night, right?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru shook his head. "There are probably more sentries roaming the borders. It'll be just as troublesome," he sighed.

As they hurried along, the landscape started to change from the green forests of Hidden Leaf Village and Fire Country to the more rocky terrain of Thunder Country. At certain stretches, Kakashi would stop and indicate to the team to go slower or be extra quiet.

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More author's notes: I'm making an extra effort to write a full story with a bit more dialogue and description than in the previous stories in this series, which were the first fanfics I ever wrote. I've been thinking of rewriting the previous ones once I'm done with the series to make them more similar in writing style and adding in deleted passages. If you read the others, please leave a comment. I've noticed that my first story was added to a couple of people's fav list but they did not leave a review (may be because I didn't know I had to check allow anonymous reviews until recently). This is my pet project (it is much harder to create a good believable OC than just using preset Naruto chars) and my other stories are just side projects to me though they get more reviews. Thanks for reading this far!