-Chapter 13 Ino's Stand–

"Awww, don't tell me that's your village, Yusuke-san. We haven't even run into any other ninjas."

It was true. As Yusuke had told them after they began the journey, it was a little past midday by the time they reached the village. And within the day that they had traveled from Konoha, they had not even seen another person, much less another ninja. Not even when they set up camp for the night in the woods, all was silent.

While Inoria became more and more irritated with the lack of action, Ino was becoming more and more serious as they neared the village. Inoria, noticing how quiet her sister was being, decided to see just what was up. "Hey, Ino-onee-san, what's up? You haven't said a word since we started going again. I know that you have to be focused in case we are attacked but-"

"That's just it Inoria." Her face didn't change at all, her pace didn't change any. It was as if the only thing that moved differently was her mouth. "We haven't been attacked at all. If this other village was serious about wanting to take Yusuke-san out, then we should have been attacked a long time ago, Hell, think about it. How did he get all the way to Konoha if they knew he would be heading there in the first place?" Ino finally shook her head roughly. "I don't know, maybe it's just me being paranoid and overanalyzing things a bit. Being Anbu as long as I have will probably do that to someone. Still, keep your eyes open. I have had a very bad feeling about this mission since we set off from Konoha."

"Ahh, you're just a little worried because I'm here. I'd be willing to bet that if I wasn't here, you would feel much better about this mission. Relax a little bit. Loosen up, sis. Like you said, you are Anbu. Not like the ninjas have a chance at taking us out if they try and ambush."

Ino looked back down at her little sister, and her face softened up a little bit. "Ok, but only because you say so. This is still technically your mission after all. Now get back and watch Yusuke-san. We still got a ways to go."

It wouldn't matter, since all was still quiet when they got to the village. So quiet in fact, that Ino allowed her seriousness to return. This time it wasn't because of the lack of enemies. It was the lack of villagers. Yes, the village itself looked just like Yusuke had described it; however it was missing the villagers that Yusuke had described. "Yusuke-san, what is going on here? Why aren't there any people here?"

"The recent attacks have caused most all of my villagers to remain in their homes all day, unless I am here. Do not worry. Once they realize that I am back, they should start filling the streets once again."

While Ino nodded her head, Inoria looked at Yusuke, studying him for a moment. Even though she told Ino that maybe she was just being a little bit too paranoid about this mission, her sisters earlier worries had rubbed off on her. One fact continued to replay itself in her head. "How did he get all the way to Konoha if they knew he was heading there in the first place?" After a while of trying to work it out in her head, she decided to bring it up. "Hey Yusuke-san, did you walk all the way to Konoha from her by yourself?"

"Why yes little one, I did." Yusuke turned his attention to Inoria with a small smile on his face.

It was at this point that Ino spoke up. "How did you make it there? I mean, if this rival village really knew that you were coming, they should have attacked you then right?"

"True, however there is a shortcut through the forest that only I know about. It leads through the back of the village and only takes me a few hours if I go nonstop. I didn't take you back through it because it would be extremely hard for you to fight back an ambush, especially if you are trying to protect me."

"I see." Even with his reassurance, Ino only seemed to become even tenser.

"Hey, onee-san? Remember earlier when you said that you had a very bad feeling about this mission? Well I'm not sure if it is just a Yamanaka thing or if it just rubbed off on me, but I'm getting that same feeling now" Inoria "spoke" to her sister, hoping that her sudden wariness towards Yusuke was picked up on by Ino as well.

"Yusuke-san isn't telling us everything, but I don't want to risk trying to see what it is."

That would end up being the right decision, as she was just barely able to move out of the way of an oncoming senbon needle. Inoria automatically fired off a handful of shurikens in the direction of the thrower, but was met with the disappointing sound of her weapons being deflected. Both Yamanaka females quickly jumped back, putting Yusuke between them.

"It is just a little disappointing that we only get to take out one of you, but I suppose it does make our job a little easier now that we can pick you off one at a time." The owner of the voice revealed himself to be a missing nin coming from inside one of the houses, to the surprise of both Ino and Inoria. This surprise would only grow as the doors to each house would open to reveal even more missing nins.

"Forgive me ladies, but I had no choice. They said that they would kill my family if I didn't go along with this plan of theirs." Ino would have been the first one to say that he was lying, if it weren't for the fact that her mind worked logically even in situations such as the one she was currently in. The trap had already been sprung so he really didn't have any reason to be as apologetic as he was being. Besides, she could hear the genuine regret in his voice. "And you didn't tell us back in Konoha because……"

"If I told you, you would come here expecting an ambush, and then they would kill my family either way." He directed his attention to the first missing nin that talked. "Alright Jin, I have done as you asked. Let me be with my family now."

"Oh, of course Yusuke. They are right inside of that house." He pointed to the house he had just exited. Yusuke ran to the open door, calling out the names of his family. When he would reach the door however, he would stop dead in his tracks, though neither Ino nor Inoria could figure out why. Whatever it was, it wouldn't affect him for long, as he would then have three senbon needles pierce the side of his neck, dropping him immediately.

Needless to say, this caught them the ire of the female Konoha ninjas. "What the hell? Didn't you say you were going to let him be with his family?" Inoria was the first one to speak up.

Jin, unaffected by the younger girl's outburst, calmly looked back at her. "What are you yelling about? I kept my promise; he is with the rest of his family." He caught the eyes of Ino and smiled. "Your partner here knows what I'm talking about, don't you?"

Inoria turned her attention to her sister. "Onee-san, what is he talking about?"

"His family is dead."

This, of course, brought about a viciously angry response from Inoria. "YOU BASTARD!!" She was about to jump straight towards Jin, Kunai in hand, when her sister grabbed her shoulder.

"I know how you feel, but don't lose your focus. Look around. He isn't the only bastard here. You wouldn't have made it halfway to him before you would have become a human pin cushion." Obviously, Inoria didn't like what her sister was telling her, but still calmed down and waited for Ino to give the word.

"This is surprising though. This many missing nins working together? What's the occasion?" Ino spoke, never taking her steel glare off of Jin. Inoria made a slight mental note to ask her sister how she could control her emotions this well.

"You are. Word has gotten around the five countries that you and your partner have done some rather incredible things over the last 7 months. Cap it all off with your little stunt with the Sound Army, and all of us decided that we needed to do something about this. So, with the help of Yusuke over there, we decided to see if we could ambush your little group. Like I said earlier though, it is a little bit great that you decided to come one at a time."

Inoria could see the gears turning in her sister's head while he spoke, obviously contemplating just what they were going to do. The really weird part was that she could have repeated everything that he had just said. "Inoria, listen up and don't argue. I'm going to provide you with a distraction. You are currently facing the rear of the village, where Yusuke-san said the shortcut was. When I tell you to, close your eyes and start running as fast as you can in the direction that you are facing. Head back to Konoha and get help."

Inoria, completely disregarding what her sister said, fired back. "No way in hell am I leaving you here by yourself. Do you really think you can hold out long enough for help to get here? Why don't we both just kill them?"

"No. Yes, you may be able to take on a couple of missing nins, but not only is this more than just a couple, but they look like they are almost all in the high B lower A class. I can survive long enough for you to bring someone back."

Inoria didn't answer back. She knew it was pointless.

And after about half a minute….. "Go!" Inoria shut her eyes and took off running, just as a bright flash of light engulfed the area. Inoria didn't stop running until she felt the ground change texture. Then she opened her eyes, and was somewhat surprised that the shortcut that Yusuke spoke of was there. It was a straight, extremely narrow path in the direction of Konoha, with a very steep slope on either side of it. Now she knew what Yusuke meant about defending from an ambush.

Not looking back, she took off full speed down the path towards Konoha.

-Present time, back in Konoha-

Tsunade opened her eyes once the memory that Inoria poured into her head faded, her face taking one a much more serious tone than it was a few minutes ago. "So you came straight here after you got back?"

Inoria stood nervously before the Hokage, Lee and Gaara on either side of her. "No, Hokage-sama. I went to find Naruto-nii-san first. I know it probably wasn't what I was supposed to do, but he was the first person that came to mind. After I showed him what happened he told me to come straight here and tell you. I'm sorry if I made a mistake by not coming to you first."

"No you made the right decision. Saving your sister takes top priority right now. About how long did it take you to get here using the route that you took?"

"Maybe half an hour."

Gaara spoke up next. "Then Naruto will probably be there in about 20 minutes in his frame of mind. Though, if there are as many of them as you say there are, someone's going to have to be there to help Ino on the spot."

Almost as if on cue, her office door opened. "Tsunade-sama, were checking in."

Tsunade turned to them. "Not a moment too soon either. I have a task for you two. There is no time to explain it now, so Inoria will fill you in while she takes you there. "

Inoria shot an evil glare at the duo. Lee's face took on a sort of worried expression.

Gaara assumed his now trademark smile. "I think I shall come as well. This could get really interesting."

-Shortcut to village-

Naruto allowed the vision that Inoria fed into his brain to replay itself a few times during his trip to the village, remembering each and every detail of the ninja's that had ambushed Ino. Though there was no real tactical relevance to this. No, he just wanted to make sure he killed the right ninja's the right way. Jin, for example, was definitely going to be met with a very violent, very painful death, assuming that Ino didn't take him out first. "Hang in there Ino. I'm almost there."

There is a term called sexual frustration. Being brought close to the end, and yet leaving unfulfilled. Maybe some sort of natural disaster or another ninja interrupting. Let it be known that the only reason Naruto knows of such things is because of Ino's ranting on about some of the other female ninja's personal lives.

The moment Naruto bore witness to the scene at the village, and fully comprehended it, he suddenly experienced a phenomenon called homicidal frustration.

The scene itself wasn't all that new to Naruto. The village itself was in ruin. While most of the houses closer to where he emerged seemed to still be intact, they only became worse and worse as he moved along the village. Most of them only had stray ninja tools stuck to them; others had doors or window broken off. However, once he reached the center of the town, it became apparent that this was where most of the battle took place, and where the battle had ended.

The most obvious indication was the fact that there was a gigantic black circle smack dab in the center, and with the stray flames on the ground and some of the buildings it was apparent that there was an explosion. A big one. 'Ino must have done this. Doubt they would have wasted such a big explosion on just one person.'

Next were the various bodies scattered around the ground. At least, some of them were bodies. Most of them were nearly completely burnt, suggesting that they had been caught in the explosion as well, while the rest were just half bodies, close enough to the explosion to have some of their bodies comp0letely blown off.

However, there was one body that Naruto was interested in, and not only did he find this one completely intact, it was moving. Very slightly, but still moving.

Rushing over to it, Naruto kneeled down next to the extremely ravaged body of Ino. Cuts, bruises, punctures, you name it, and she had it. Even her hair was completely soaked in blood, though Naruto was absolutely sure it wasn't hers. She wouldn't even be alive right now if Ino had lost that much blood. "Ino, it's me. You still alive?" In retrospect, it was probably a stupid question to ask, but then again it wasn't as if Naruto had been using his right mind at the time.

"B-baka." Ino's voice was far too weak and silent for it to belong to the woman that Naruto had gotten to know. "I told my sister………… to go get help……… and she sends you."

"What happened? How the hell did this happen?"

"Bet-better to show you…………. than tell you."

Naruto immediately began to refuse. "No way, Ino. You body looks like its on fumes right now. If you leave it now, you might not have a living body to come back to."

"Naruto…….. be intelligent for a………second. Would I really…………. put myself at risk if I………… thought I wasn't going to make it? Now……….shut up and pay attention……….for once." And at that, she began to fill Naruto's mind with her memories.

-Earlier that day-

"Go!" Thankful that Shikamaru had bestowed upon her a little more than just the secrets behind his family jutsu to help her out with hers, she tossed up the small ball, then ducked and clenched her eyes shut just as it exploded into a flash of bright light.

Once it had died down a little bit she was on the move immediately, heading in the same direction that Inoria had gone. She wanted to make sure that Inoria wasn't followed out of the village. Running into another missing nin while she was running, she reacted fast, jumping up and placing a foot on either side of his head so that they looked like an upside down L, and then using all the force she could muster, twisted her body to the right, thus snapping his neck completely in two, taking him off of his feet, and then land on his head. The light had since completely gone away And Ino could see that each and every set of eyes was trained on her. 'So it really is me they want.' "Ok, boys and girls, I'm right here, so come and get it."

It would begin with a wave of thrown ninja tools. Each and every one of them rocketed towards Ino, who seemed to be frozen in place. A few seconds later, Ino was riddled with various weapons, and probably would have died right then and there if it weren't for the fact that Ino suddenly turned into a large log.

In the trees surrounding the village, Ino hid and planned her next move. 'Ok, so obviously trying to fight them head up is going to be impossible. At least for me it is. This would be so much easier if I was one of the others. At least Naruto could overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Tenten could out-weapon them any day of the week. Kiba and Akamaru, well let's just say it wouldn't be a very pleasant scene afterwards. I, on the other hand, have to outwit them.'

Looking back into the village, she could easily see that they were prepared for any attack that she could have tried. This, of course, meant that she would have to jump into her partner's bag of tricks and pull some sort of completely outlandish plan of attack out of her ass.

Or so she thought. Almost as quickly as she had thought about her partner, an idea hit her. She had just remembered a move that her mother had told her was one of her late aunt's favorite jutsus, passed on to her from her mother. She had understood early in her ninja career that as a Yamanaka, large battles would not be favorable for her, especially if the deck was stacked against her. She was also a very skilled Genjutsu user, and addressing the Yamanaka's weakness to large battles, created the first ever Yamanaka exclusive Genjutsu.

Checking her pouch, she nearly squealed in relief when she pulled out the scroll required to use this move. "Ok, auntie, time to make you proud." Checking back, she caught sight of Jin who was apparently not at all concerned that his target had suddenly disappeared. 'Pity. I kinda wanted to save him for last.' Jumping to the top of the tree she was under she tossed the scroll so that it was directly above them when it made its decent. Once it was just above them, she ran through the seals and spoke the magic words, "Floral Oasis Jutsu."

The scroll exploded, and from it came thousands of different flower petals, each one containing its own scent. This was the key to the whole jutsu. Genjutsu are supposed to affect the body by entering through one of the five senses, the most popular of these senses being the eyes. There were, however, the Sound ninjas who used their opponent's sense of hearing to do the same. And now, there were the Yamanaka's, who could capture their opponents inside of a Genjutsu by their sense of smell. In a sense, it only seemed natural.

Her aunt described the opponent's visual of this as being inside of a gigantic field of flowers and, if they were deep enough in it, have only one intention; Stopping to admire them. It seemed kind of a silly thing to try and catch a cold blooded killer in, but considering that the missing nins were acting as if they were in such a flower field, she couldn't exactly argue with her aunts reasoning.

Pulling out yet another scroll, she tossed that out as well, though when this one would explode, it would turn into thousands of flower petal shaped pieces of paper. 'Not much of a change, but at least it isn't completely like Sakura's attack now.' Once they were low enough, she took the kunai with the ignited explosive tag on it and tossed it down as well. 'Have a nice day.'

And in similar fashion to the attack on the sound army's base, the tag exploded, triggering the smaller tags and creating a very large explosion in the center of the village, completely wiping out the ninjas.

Ino jumped down from her perch atop the tree once the damage had been done, and stood right in the center of town, surveying the damage. "Well, that was easier than expected. Didn't think that they would be that-" And before she could finish her thought, she would be impaled by four kunai in her back. Thankfully, they didn't go very deep or else she wouldn't have been able to keep herself from falling completely down, instead going to a knee.

Turning her head around, she found herself staring into the eyes of four of the missing nins, Jin among them. "I will admit that your little genjutsu was a bit surprising since it was a scented one, but in the end a genjutsu is still a genjutsu." He turned his gaze to the scattered carcasses of his allies. "I only wish they would have been a little more attentive. Good help is so hard to find these days."

Ino, still keeping her eyes on Jin, stood back up while pulling the kunai from her back. "Don't worry; you won't have to worry about finding any kind of help, much less good help, once I'm through with you." Her voice showed no sign of pain or anguish, even though she had just removed four kunai from her back.

"Oh, this cat still has a little fire left huh? Very well, let's just how long you can survive." Even though Jin was the one talking, the other three were the ones that went on the offensive, while Jin remained behind.

Ino quickly reacted, using the kunai she had just dislodged from her body to attack them. They dodged each of them and then moved in for close combat, which Ino was perfectly fine with for now.

Even three against one, Ino was able to keep up with their attacks quite well, thanks largely in part to her mind tag. She knew where each of them were at any given time, and was able to predict their attacks accurately. Occasionally, there were attacks that slipped through the cracks and knocked her off balance, but she recovered nicely from them each time and went back to keeping their attacks at bay.

Eventually, she realized that this was not going to hold up forever. There were three of them, and only one of her. Plus she was injured slightly. She needed to get rid of them. Now.

Knowing that she was taking a huge risk with this one, she pulled out another kunai, with an explosive tag attached to it, took a few dozen steps backwards while keeping her pursuers busy with shurikens, and then fired it off, deliberately hesitating on activation the tag, which began to burn when it was right at the nin out in front. He simply caught it and redirected it towards her.

Ino could only watch in horror as her own weapon, her own plan, exploded in front of her face. Literally.

The nin that had deflected the kunai smiled at the sight and said, "Gotcha."

That was when the smoke would clear up and where Ino would have been sat a burnt log. At the same time, a female voice would say into his ear, "Gotcha." Then Ino would impale the kunai through the back of his neck, killing him instantly.

The other two reacted quickly, throwing a handful of shuriken each. Ino pulled her victim in front of her to block the attacks, and then tossed him aside to attack bogey number two. This time, she decided to go into her own bag of dirty tricks, ducked under his punch, gave him her hardest uppercut even causing him to pop off the ground for about a meter, then caught him with a kick as he was going down, placing the toe of her sandal right between his legs.

With the second guy incapacitated, she turned her attention to the third one, who was now attacking with a kunai in each hand. Even though Ino was keeping up for a while, the initial three on one attack, combined with her two counter attacks, on top of the injuries on her back were causing her to slow down a little bit at a time. Eventually, she began to take more and more cuts, but stayed on her feet.

An idea came to her, but once again, her logical mind got in the way. 'He's already in position for it, so it's not the getting there that's the problem. That Genjutsu and giant bomb took a lot more chakra than I thought. If I use it now, I may not have enough to finish it. Then again, if I don't use it, I won't finish either way.' Saying a quick prayer she parried a strike and jumped back as far a she could, then set up for her attack. Just as her attacker was about to impale her with one of his kunai, she made the window and shouted, "Mind Imitation Jutsu!"

She opened her clenched eyes just a tad, and was relieved to see that her attack had connected not a moment too soon, as the kunai was about a millimeter away from her forehead. Not wasting another second, she made him impale both kunai in to his own head, causing him to fall like a rag doll.

Riding this wave of adrenaline, she turned back to the guy she had "super kicked", who was finally back onto his knees. Running towards him she launched herself at him and delivered a bone crunching roundhouse kick to the side of the head. Literally, as there was an audible crunch as his neck was broken into far more than just two pieces.

Then there was just one. Jin was watching with a seemingly bemused smile on his face. "Very impressive. I must say that I probably wouldn't have believed any of what you had done unless I saw what you just did."

Ino was neither amused nor flattered. "What do you have to smile about then? I just kicked about 30 asses by myself, and yours is next."

"40, actually, though it doesn't really matter at this point. They have all done the job required of them. As you can plainly feel, you have absolutely nothing left. You have more than likely exhausted most of your chakra reserves, you have used up a good portion of your kunai and shuriken, and you are physically spent. I could probably beat you with one arm tied behind my back."

"Just try it." And with that, Ino rushed Jin, completely disregarding the fact that everything that Jin had said was true. Punctuated by the fact that she barely even made it halfway to him before she stumbled. She attempted to refocus on him, but found that she couldn't. "No, no, not now. Just a little longer body, please." But her body wouldn't listen; the loss of blood was starting to get to her.

"And now I have some fun." Jin walked up to her, stopped when he got just a couple of feet from her, and punched her in the gut. Ino immediately doubled over and fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. She wouldn't have much time to rest, as Jin would then grabbed her by her hair and yank her to her feet. Then, keeping her up by her hair, he began repeatedly punching her. Her stomach, her face, nothing was spared. By the time he was down Ino wasn't even holding on to herself anymore, because she was in pain everywhere.

"Oh I have waited for this day. And to think that this is just step one. I get to do this three more times after this."

"What purpose would this serve?" Ino's voice was small, almost a whisper.

"Can you imagine the fame I would get off of this? 'The team that took out an entire army, taken out by one missing nin.' It's a headline that I am looking forward to." Jin smile and once again picked her up by her hair. "And now, my sweet, die." And with one thunderous uppercut, which he jumped with to add more power to it, he sent Ino flying into the air.

For Ino, time would slow to a crawl. It seemed as if she were floating in space as it were. 'So this is it, huh? This is how it all ends for me? Not in some huge battle that will be recorded in the books? Not in my own bed as an old hag? Not even in the arms of……… him? Am I going to die like this?'

All at once, she saw faces. The first face was that of her lazier teammate. 'Shika.'

'Baka, you have any idea how troublesome your death would be? Choji would never let me hear the end of it.'

Then, the faces of her family. "Oto-san, Okaa-san, onee-san.'

Inoria was the only one who spoke. "And then she taught me how to do this. Ino-onee-san is probably the best sister in the world.'

It would be the last one, however, that did it for her. The face of her blonde haired partner appeared, and with it, a mesh of every conversation she could remember them having, ending with her reciting her line from their first night at the Oasis. "Friends, partners, and maybe more, sometime."

"No! I am not dying here!" Her eyes, which had been so blurry from the lost of blood, suddenly refocused again. Time resumed its normal flow, and Ino was moving again, flipping backwards so that she landed on her feet. Jin, who was also just now coming down off of his uppercut, was a bit more than shocked to see Ino back on her feet, so much so that his brain went blank for a while, which was all Ino needed.

Dashing forward and screaming wildly, she started out with a punch to the gut, then immediately went into a back flip kick. As soon as she landed, she sent a pair of roundhouse kicks to his sides, then jumped up and kicked him twice to the face. Once she hit the ground she gave him four stiff punches to the ribs, then four more kicks, one to each of his arms and legs. After that it was a spinning back kick to the gut, then one more roundhouse kick to the head, causing him to stumble backwards. "The new and improved 16 hit combination."Jin finally found his feet and started back at her.

"Fine! No more fooling around. Your life ends here and now!" He charged at her, but it was too late. Ino had already set up for her final move.

Ino jumped forward, landed on her hands, cocked her legs back, and drove them into his chin, sending him flying. Jumping back onto her hands she used whatever chakra she had left to jump up after him in a similar arc. "Now you die!" Flipping her body backwards, she put her ankles on either side of his head, and started flipping backwards with him. After about 10 flips she finally ended it by planting him right on top of his head. "Yamanaka Ino Assassination Technique: Flower Planter."

Ino started walking away from the battle field, but only got about ten steps. She just barely caught the ground starting to come closer to her face when her world went completely dark.

-Present time-

Naruto opened his eyes as the memory fade from his mind, and looked down at Ino, who was starting to come to herself. "Don't worry, you're gonna be ok. Inoria went to the Hokage after she found me so I am sure that help should be close behind me."

"A lot closer than you think, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto looked back, and was greeted with a welcome sight. "Gaara, glad to see you came along."

"Naruto, you are starting to become something of a nuisance. That's twice so far that I have had the opportunity to kill a large group of ninja's, and twice that you have taken that away from me."

"Hey, don't look at me. She took them out by herself. But if it pleases you, I will take the blame for it later. Right now, did you bring anyone else along? Someone who can heal?"

It was then that Naruto noticed the others. Lee was there, along with Inoria. And then he spotted them, causing a small glare to come up on his face. "What are they doing here?"

Inoria stepped up. "Sorry, Naruto-nii-san, but they showed up just as we were about to look for someone, so the Hokage sent her."

In his mind, Naruto rationalized that the Hokage did what she thought was the right thing to do, and somewhere down the line, he would probably agree with her. That didn't mean that he had to like the fact that she sent Sakura and Sasuke to help.

-End-

No, ladies and gents, I have not fallen off the fact of this earth. Just ran into a little writer's block is all. I have gotten over it though and I hope to not run into it again.

Well, here is part one of my next big project. Added a little bit of drama into it, just as a bit of an experimental phase. See how I do with it.

That's all I got for now. R&R&have a nice day.