Inoichi really should have prepared for it. He really should. It happened the same time last year and he was getting far too old to be waking up at 5am in the morning.
The problem being however, you don't really have much of a choice when you have your now 10-year-old daughter jumping up and down on the bed, you didn't really have much of a choice, especially if you wanted your wife to be in a happy mood for the day.
Knowing what his daughter was eagerly awaiting as her first present and that it was only him that could provide it, Inoichi sighed as he got out of bed, cursing at the fact that his wife was able to sleep still.
"Alright, alright. Princess, I'm getting up. You can stop jumping on the bed." The father of one muttered before pulling off the covers and hopping out of bed.
"Yay!" Ino bounced off the bed and ran to her bedroom to get changed into her warmer clothing. Her birthday was in winter but that was not going to stop her, not in the slightest.
With a jacket on, Ino raced outside, finally ready to learn the first steps to her clan's famed ninjutsu
x-X-x
The first lesson took 3 hours and Ino was absolutely riveted to her seat, listening to every single detail. Seeing Ino so entranced and focused was the ideal situation for Inoichi. The mind was not something that you could play around with willy nilly. You had to take the upmost care, especially in the beginning.
Safe to say, the first session was a rampant success. Starting small, the Yamanaka clan heir took Ino through all of the theory, letting her get a good grasp of it before moving onto the practical component.
It took a few goes but, in the end, Ino had managed to successfully complete her first task which was to take over a small goldfish in their pond. As she got more efficient with the technique, she could move onto bigger animals before eventually graduate to using it on humans. Inoichi made it clear that every single training session had to be supervised by himself until he deemed it necessary.
She was fine with this as long as she got to progress. After getting used to it over the past two months, she loved the feeling of improving herself.
Now that it was a respectable time being 8 in the morning, the two went inside and were grateful to find that Asuka had woken up earlier and prepared breakfast. Ino wasn't sure if she could have heard a better sentence in that moment than what her mother said. "Breakfast is ready."
Ino ate and ate and ate. Chakra training required a lot of energy.
After food was finished, Asuka told her blonde haired daughter to go and have a shower, so that they could get her presents ready. Being the spoilt girl that she was, Ino didn't need to be told twice.
10 minutes later, and Ino had finished her shower, got dressed and came back down the stairs, ready to find out what her presents were.
Asuka was the first one to speak up. "Now Ino-chan, which would you like to open first?"
"This one!" She cheered, picking the one closest to her. It was an envelope with a card inside. It warmed Asuka's heart to see that she cared more about the message and not just the monetary value inside the card.
After reading it, Ino got up and ran over to her mum and hugged her "Thanks Mama!" Ino then quickly went over to her father and did the same thing.
"This is a gift voucher so that we can go shopping together honey, I know how much you love shopping." Asuka smiled softly to which Ino jumped up for joy. She loved shopping. It was her favourite thing.
After placing the present down on the couch, Ino went over to the next one and started taking the wrapping off of the odd shaped present. "It's a stick. With a bit of tape around one end." The clan heir mentioned in a deadpan tone of voice. She wasn't too sure what to make of it and it definitely wasn't something that she had asked for.
Inoichi felt the need to jump in and correct his daughter. "It's a bokken, sweetheart." The 10-year-old looked up at her father, expectantly for more information. "That right there is a training sword. After the past two months of seeing how dedicated you have been in your training, I wanted to make a promise to you to help teach you how to use a sword."
Eyes went wide open as she heard the statement by her father. She was going to hold him to it. She had seen people use them in the past and that looked pretty cool. "Thanks Daddy!" Ino cheered and let the present down on the ground before going over to him and giving him a hug.
x-X-x
The rest of the morning went off without a hitch, Ino rather excitedly opening the rest of her parents. Once the presents were done with, it was getting closer to lunch time and that was when the birthday party would be starting. They had to get ready.
A cake had been baked by Asuka and was ready. Ino had changed into a light purple kimono style dress which was loose fitting and stopped just below her knees. It was a new present and she loved it, especially the darker purple tulip design sashaying from one hip to the opposite shoulder.
The first to arrive was Choji, along with his mother and Chouza. "Hey Choji" Ino cheerfully said as she went in for a hug. No matter what happened at school, the trio would always be good friends for life.
"Happy birthday Ino." Chouji replied, before handing her the present that they had gotten her.
Shortly after Chouji arrived, it was Hinata who was dropped off by handler. Unfortunately, Hiashi couldn't make it due to clan commitments.
Thirdly, Kiba and his mum Tsume rocked up. "Happy birthday Ino-chan... was that correct mum?" Kiba turned around and questioned and the Inuzuka clan head couldn't help but sigh. Laugh, but mostly sigh.
Last but not least, the final group to arrive was Shikamaru, Shikaku and Yoshino. "I'm so sorry we're late, you know how it can be with these two." Yoshino was the first to speak, apologising for the two men in her life.
"It's okay, you're fine and on time." Asuka replied, eying her friend. She had no idea how she did it.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru begrudgingly stated whilst rolling his eyes. He had only just gotten out of bed half an hour ago and that was because his mother forced him to! "here's your present Ino."
A small look of hurt filtered across the face of Ino as she didn't think he could be any less disinterested if he tried. "Owww. What was that for?" Shikamaru questioned, rubbing the back of his head where his mother had bopped him.
"She's your friend Shikamaru! Be nice to her!" Yoshino chastised, no shame at all in what she did earlier.
"Ugh. Happy birthday Ino." The boy who had his hair in a pony tail mentioned. It wasn't that he didn't like her. Yes, she could be almost as troublesome what his mother could... it was just that he wanted to lay in bed or lay on grass whilst watching clouds. Something that he knew that he was not going to be able to do.
Wistfully, part of Ino wished that Sakura was here to help celebrate but that bridge had sailed as far as she was concerned. Sakura was the one to break the friendship up. If Sakura wanted to rekindle the friendship then she was all for it, however she was not backing down when she did nothing wrong in the first place.
x-X-x
Unbeknownst to the kids, whilst it was definitely Ino's birthday party, it was just as much of a chance for the group to get together and have a few drinks whilst talking about the recent events that had been going on in their lives.
And when people got drunk, their filters started to wane. Inoichi was the first one to spill. "Ino has been training hard recently, over the past two months." The look of pride was evident on his face.
"Choji mentioned that Ino made a claim at the academy, saying that she was going to be the best ever kunoichi or something. He said that she didn't like something that the academy teacher said." Chouza replied, interested to see where Inoichi took this.
All of the parents were in fact, especially those that had made special jonin and above, curious to see how the next generation was fairing.
"Yes." Asuka mentioned before taking a sip on her glass of water. "The teacher told her that women had to do seduction training whilst the boys did not. She did not take too kindly to this and started asking the teacher why."
"That's completely fair." Tsume mentioned, she didn't see an issue at all.
Inoichi chuckled, seeing that the next comment he made was going to rile Tsume up. "Yes but then it devolved into why girls have to do that and boys don't. She said that men are bigger, stronger and faster." That much Tsume begrudgingly agreed with. You couldn't argue against physiology.
What she didn't agree with was the next comment. "She also said that girls could never be as good as boys as ninja and we had to sometimes do missions using our feminine charm. And that I quote 'We are the homemakers, the ones that care for children whilst the men make the money. It's a fact of life. Get used to it'".
"What!?" Tsume replied. Even if she was completely sober at this point, which she wasn't she would have had the same reaction. She hated all of the unfair treament men got. To hear that a woman was telling this to girls that she was teaching infuriated the Inuzuka clan head.
Inoichi though smiled. It was why he was so proud of his daughter. "Get this though, Ino in front of all of her classmates said that she was a better than a lot of them and that she was going to go on to become the best ever kunoichi. Ever since then, she has been training hard and improving quite significantly over the past two months." Inoichi proudly proclaimed, holding his beer in his hand.
"How significant are we talking here?" Shikaku wondered. He cared about his goddaughter and wanted the best for her.
"Well now that she is putting in effort, it's pretty remarkable. I don't want to say the word genius because she is putting in hard work, but she is talented." Inoichi took a drink of his beer and continued. "She's gotten the three academy jutsus down to a level where she could pass the test. She hasn't perfected them yet though."
Although she hadn't perfected them, the gist of what Inoichi was saying was that Ino could potentially pass the exams 2 years earlier than normal was definitely something to be proud of.
Shikaku whistled. "That's no mean feat. What type of shinobi do you see her as?" before drinking some sake
"Too early to properly tell, but I don't see her as just an interrogation specialist. She's got too much potential to be that one dimensional. I think she's going to be a combat shinobi, good all round, not too sure what she is going to specialise in just yet."
Whilst he was proud of his daughter and the type of person to normally brag about her accomplishments, Inoichi wasn't drunk enough to reveal everything. Part of being a shinobi was having some secrets.
Giving away the fact that Ino was already working on perfecting on water walking, would spread and give undue pressure which she did not need. He wanted her to grow at her own pace. Inoichi wanted Ino to want to become good, not forced by external pressures to feel like she has to be good.
"Oi." Tsume called out as she just realised something, before sniffing the air. A canine grin appeared all over her face. "Say, Asuka any reason in particular that you're only drinking water? You normally always drink wine and a lot of it."
Both Inoichi and Asuka hoped that they could hide it for a bit longer but in a room full of shinobi… it was about to come out sooner or later. "Anyway, Ino is doing really well, I taught her the mind body transfer jutsu this morning, she managed to get to the point where she could impart her conscious onto a fish. She couldn't control it however."
Yoshino was having none of that. Not after hearing that bit of gossip. "That's so great Asuka-chan! Congratulations!" She was incredibly happy for her friend and Inoichi that they were having another baby she got to enjoy without having to go through the hardships of being a mother again to an infant and getting pregnant.
Chouza was the first of the men to speak up. "Congratulations, Do you know how far along and what the gender is?"
Inoichi looked at Asuka and used his mental connection with her to communicate. A nod was shared between the two. "Yes, we do, Asuka smiled, we're going to be having another baby girl."
x-X-x
As the day wore on, the party eventually came to a close. Presents were given which Ino was grateful for. Once it was just the trio of Ino, Inoichi and Asuka, they sat down for dinner.
They could see from the smile on her face, that their little girl had a great day it made them so happy to see her like this and wished that they could keep it this way forever. Alas kids grow up so fast and Ino was a prime example for it.
"Princess, we have something that we would like to tell you." Inoichi mentioned as the trio sat on the couch, with Ino in the middle.
Noticing the serious tone of voice, Ino panicked. "Whatever it was, I swear it wasn't me daddy." She pouted and included the puppy dog eyes.
"We didn't know something was wrong? Is there something that you would like to tell us young lady?" Asuka admonished although internally, she was giggling at the cute sight.
Rapid shaking of the head almost immediately happened as Ino realised that she wasn't in trouble. "Nooo!"
"Haha." Inoichi chuckled whilst placing his hand on his little girl's shoulder. "You're not in trouble. We have something positive that we want to tell you." Asuka placed her hand on Ino's thigh as the prepared themselves, hoping that their only daughter so far was going to be happy at the news.
"We are expecting a baby." Inoichi couldn't contain the excitement. "And it's going to be a little girl!" The smile that was on his face couldn't be contained.
Eyes went wide open, shock was evident as her mouth dropped open. She tried to speak, and her mouth did move, but nothing else happened. No sound came out as her mind processed what she had just heard. Eventually though, time caught up and Ino realised what she had just heard. She was going to be a big sister to a little girl.
"Yaaaaaaaaaay!" The blonde-haired girl screamed, loud enough to make her parents wince, not that she cared. She wrapped both of her hands around her parents and hugged them so hard.
"I'm going to be a big sister! I'm going to be a big sister!" Ino chanted with a smile on her face that absolutely radiated positivity.
That was, until she realised something. I'm going to have to train even harder than I have been before! I have to protect my little sister, I have to set a good example for her since the academy won't! She cared so much about her family that she wanted to make sure that it never suffered any pain and she only wanted the best for them. Of course her parents were skilled and didn't need protecting or so she thought.
Her yet to be born sister though did not have ability to do that just yet so she needed to.
I can't let her think that girls are inferior to boys. I have to show her what our potential is and that we can be who we want to be.
x-X-x
2 years seemed like a long time for Ino. From the moment she found out that she was going to be a big sister, Ino's training kicked up a notch. She wasn't just training for herself at this point. She was training for those around her, especially her baby sister. She had to set a good example for her in what was acceptable for girls and what they can achieve.
And if she was honest with herself, this was something that she liked to think that she was doing a pretty good job at. She was top of the class and had even managed to oust Sasuke to become the rookie of the year.
It was only moving up the school leader boards one place as she already happened to be 2nd but it meant so much more than that to Ino. Sasuke Uchiha was the famed once in a generational talent. Given his lineage and the praise that had constantly been placed on a pedestal for the majority of her time at the academy.
She saw the grace that he had when he sparred against others at the academy. She saw the ease in which he was able to perform the academy three jutsus and the ease he was able to dispatch his opponents in taijtusu.
For the longest period, she viewed Sasuke as this unattainable standard that could never be reached. He was a boy and they were stronger she was told and she believed it. Over the past two years though, she had inched closer and closer to the top.
Taijtsu happened to be the area that Ino had improved the most. That said, it was the area that needed the most improvement. Compared to the other girls, Ino wasn't bad. Hinata was the best but that was because she focused on it. When comparisons were made with the boys however, she was slightly below the average of the class.
That wasn't acceptable in her eyes. Yes, the Yamanaka clan weren't known for their taijutsu like the Hyuga clan happened to be but she refused to accept the stereotype that they were shit at it!
This culminated in countless hours spent sparring with her father after each day when he got home from work. Now that she actually cared about doing the movements right and didn't just go through the motions, Ino was surprised at the rate of progress. Steadily, Ino climbed through the ranks and got to the point where she was tied at the top.
Genjutsu, due to her impressive chakra control and her additional knowledge of how the mind worked, the Yamanaka Princess found out that she rather excelled in the area, making short work of all course material at the academy and entrenching herself in the first place.
It even got to the point where she was frustrated at the lack of progress that she was able to make at the academy when it came to genjutsu. So much so that Ino had requested to learn more about it from her parents and their clan library.
Whilst she had improved significantly in taijutsu and genjutsu, it was ninjutsu that out of the academy three that Ino had made her own. The basic three jutsus that the academy made mandatory to learn had been completed and perfected to the point where there was no waste in chakra at all.
Gone were the days where the academy student could only briefly impart her will over a gold fish. After putting in the work, Ino had steadily progressed to the point where she could impart her full consciousness onto the animal and control it. Once that happened, it was a case of progressively moving up the chain of animals to monkeys before moving onto to humans.
There was still the issue where she still lost complete control over her body was something that she was working on and the blonde haired girl liked to think that she had a solution.
Ever since she made the declaration that she wanted to become the best kunoichi in the world, she knew that she was going to have to study the best to see what made them so special. Of course, as a shinobi from Konoha, the prime example for all girls to follow is Tsunade of the Sannin and by virtue, her teammates.
One such interesting fact that she found out was that Jiraiya, managed to turn his hair into a weapon. To a girl who loved her long hair and hated how everyone told her to cut it if she wanted to be a respectable ninja, this was a goldmine. Gone were the days were her hair was a fashion statement with no practicality.
Now, if she channelled chakra into it, she could use it as a weapon and also as a shield, encasing her entire body. It took hand seals but she was working on it to become an extension of her body to the point where she could use it without her hands and which would then free them up for something else such as the mind body transfer jutsu.
Either that, or her budding abilities as using the ration element. What Ino found out was that quite a lot of members of the Yamanaka clan happened to have the lightning release affinity due to the neural pathways in the brain running off of electrons. When she found out that she had the ration element, Ino had started practising basic E and D-ranked jutsus to get a hang of them. Since she hadn't completed any elemental manipulation training, she wasn't able to do B-ranked jutsus or above but with some effort, C-ranked should be in her grasp.
That was highly beneficial as Ino had been practising quite heavily in her kenjutsu over the past two years. Whilst it was true that the Yamanaka clan didn't pride themselves on taijutsu, Inoichi over the years had learnt how to use a sword as a defence mechanism for when enemy shinobi got too close. It was something that he wanted to pass onto his daughter.
He laughed when he saw her frank assessment of the stick however he was impressed by her ability when it came to learn the katas. In his eyes, she seemed to be taking to it quite well. The problem that they were running into at the moment though was that Ino was unable to use her repertoire of both ninjutsu and genjutsu whilst she had a sword out.
Thus, Inoichi was in the beginning stages of teaching her to be able to do one handed ninjutsus which due to her good chakra control, was coming along nicely. All of her training that she did was done on top of the water, forcing her to be able to multi task. In doing this, her chakra reserves grew considerably.
Despite all of this training, Ino made sure to commit to having a social life. She was a social butterfly and didn't want to give up on the friendships that she had. Choji and Shikamaru were her main friends. If she was honest with herself, a lot of the girls that she hung out with at the academy, she didn't see them graduating the academy. That in addition to her not having enough time / will to devote to the Sasuke fan club meant that her friendships with a lot of those girls waned a fair bit.
None more so than Sakura who had developed an active dislike for Ino, thinking that her attempts to get stronger and take Sasuke's place as the rookie of the year were to get him to go out with her.
The feeling was fairly mutual although Ino's reason was due to not liking the way that Sakura gave a bad name to hard working kunoichi in training. Whilst the blonde had put so much time to improving herself as a ninja, Sakura had spent her time fawning over a boy that didn't even like her.
As time went on and Ino distanced herself from the Sasuke fan club, she noticed just how much Sasuke hated the attention of the group. He was an introverted person by nature and liked to be by himself.
By constantly pressuring him for dates, it was just making it harder. What Ino had also realized was that Sasuke was starting to pay more attention to her. A few years ago that woud have made the Yamanaka clan heir go over the moon, now though, not so much. Sure she liked the attention that she was now getting but she wasn't going to do anything with it.
Girls were supposed to be chased, not do the chasing as far as she was concerned and even in the past she had done the chasing. Now it was up to Sasuke to come after her. Not that he would do that of course, given his pride.
In addition to this, Ino was happy to say that she had made a new friend, well they were already acquaintances due to their respective families however, Ino and Hinata became closer over time. The naturally charismatic personality of Ino helped Hinata come out of her shell a bit more whilst Ino found it adorable, the crush that Hinata had on Naruto.
Now she couldn't see why, but that was neither here nor there.
x-X-x
Graduation was coming up and Ino grinned. It was finally for the time where could show the world who she was and start taking names.
The academy made the academy students fairly similar. Once you became a genin, you had much more of a chance to make a name for yourself. It would be a chance for those talented to rise quicker whilst give space for others to find their feet a bit more.
Ino couldn't wait and in the back of her mind, chunin exams had just been announced for six months' time. She had her eyes firmly on that, now the only question how was she going to be able to motivate Shikamaru and Choji… or did she even have to? Now that she was legitimately in the running for rookie of the year, she may take the title and get placed in a different team.
Author's note: Here is the next chapter of Yamanaka Princess.
I have decided on Naruto being a teammate of Ino and also who thier sensei will be. The other team mate spot is still up for grabs. Please let me know who you think I should put there.
I hope I haven't made her too powerful. I like to think I gave her a great base to build from but nothing that is majorly overpowered. I'm finally able to get into the real crux of this story where a powerful female from the same year can influence Naruto and see what changes this forces in his personality.