Insert obligatory disclaimer about not owning Naruto etc here

She could not help but smile at the genuine grin splitting Naruto's dazed face; his brilliant sapphire eyes gazed distantly ahead focused on nothing – his bowl of half finished ramen forgotten. Sakura looked passed the stunned fox boy to the restored Ino beside him. Her friend's usual smug looking grin was replaced by a graceful and joyful smile. A smile she didn't think she'd seen Ino wear since their childhood. "Flowers shouldn't fight to be number one." That was one of the many encouraging things Ino had told her that day; and the one that both of them took the longest to realize.

Deciding to progress with the conversation, Sakura prodded him in the shoulder. "Naruto, if you're done staring off into space now – Ino and I were talking and decided it'd be best if you moved into our apartment. Permanently." Ino nodded her agreement as Naruto glanced toward both of them nervously.

"B-but… Sa-Sakura-chan, Ino-chan is –" Naruto stuttered, staring wide eyed toward her.

Sakura slapped the counter shutting him up and getting his attention. Adopting an aggressive tone, she scolded the nervous blond. "Uzumaki Naruto! Did I say this was up for discussion?" Teuchi stared at the trio, amazed that Naruto of all people was being bossed around by two kunoichi. "Don't worry about where you'll sleep, we'll figure something out. Now come, Tsunade-shishou has requested our presence this morning."

Teuchi again watched in horror as the two vixens literally dragged his best customer off his stool toward the Hokage tower. He whimpered and called after them "At least let him finish his lunch!" The older man's shoulder slumped as he had the sinking feeling that Naruto would be eating there less in the future.

There was just something oddly gratifying and fun about hauling Naruto around. Of course he wasn't really putting up much of a fight, having more or less submitted to the combined will of Sakura and Ino. Reaching the office, the three entered to see Tsunade surprisingly focused on a docket of mission briefings. Looking at them, she raised her eyebrow to the grinning kunoichi flanking a silent, blank faced Naruto. "What's wrong with the brat?" She crooked her finger to her surrogate brother.

Ino laughed perkily, and answered, "Oh, he's just mulling over his decision to live with us."

Tsunade nodded then smiled. "Alright, I suppose it'd do him some good to have you two refine him some. Now I called you here to give you three the mission to get Ino back in action. Sakura and Naruto, you two are to assist in training her with her new chakra. Since I've never heard of any human with pure demonic chakra, I want Sakura to just be on standby to monitor Ino's progress. Naruto of course has more experience than anyone and perhaps can provide some support." She leaned forward resting her chin on her hands. "Now, if you three have nothing else to do this afternoon, I suggest you get started. From what I've gathered, Ino will need to relearn everything from the basics." Ino frowned and nodded slowly. "You are all dismissed, keep me updated!"

The back-to-normal-Naruto grinned and gave the Hokage a thumbs up. "You got it Tsunade-bachan!" And promptly ducked under the thrown bottle, as the trio exited the office.

Ino inwardly sighed at the thought of relearning chakra control from the beginning as they reached the training ground normally reserved for team seven. She huffed, and turned toward her companions. "I guess I need to try molding first before moving to the more basic techniques."

Sakura nodded, "That sounds like the best plan."

Forming the appropriate hand seals, the platinum blonde attempted to gather her chakra. A bead of sweat formed on her forehead as Ino concentrated intently, feeling the energy envelop her being. Previously, her chakra had always left her with a cool tingling sensation, not entirely unpleasant. When her chakra became exhausted, her muscles began to ache and the cool feeling would transform into a burning sensation throughout her body.

This new chakra, however felt as if a small fire was ignited in her belly, and slowly spread the warmth throughout her extremities. Ino soon attempted to influence the control of the warmth, directing more to her hands and feet. It proved much more difficult – flowing into her limbs like waves of the ocean in uncertain and random pulses. This is frustrating! At first the chakra she managed to direct to her hands would be smaller than her intended amount; then too much.

She growled, and took a deep breath, relaxing and letting the energy filter back to her being. "Naruto, did your chakra always feel like you were either getting too little or too much?"

Naruto's face scrunched in thought, and then he shook his head. "Did? Still does. It's definitely easier now, and most techniques are a breeze. Ero-sennin always said I should just focus on techniques that used few hand signs and a large amount of power to take advantage of my stamina."

She sighed and pouted. Maybe it won't be quite like that, since I don't have two chakras. The prospect of tree climbing and water walking for hours again was not the least bit exciting.

Eventually after a few hours of the monotonous basics, Ino felt it'd be best to practice the basic academy student techniques. "Alright, I'm going to try making a few bunshin now." Sakura nodded and Naruto frowned at the sound of that accursed jutsu.

Taking a deep breath, she formed the seals and prepared the appropriate chakra that would have made her three images in the past. Sakura face faulted and Naruto's eyebrow twitched, and burst into a fit of giggles. She glanced next to her and growled. "You're not helping Naruto!!" On the ground lay an unnaturally pale and sickly Ino clone.

At the sound of her yell, Naruto swallowed and looked down. "Um, sorry Ino – that's what my bunshin still look like. They just look funny when they aren't mine. But, perhaps this means you can use the kage bunshin! It always worked great for me! You know the seals right?"

Nodding she smiled. Kage bunshin would definitely be useful, it'll be so cool to use many clones like Naruto. And I can get this chakra control down so much faster with the clone training! Feeling confident, she performed the seals and pumped up her chakra uncertain how many would be formed. With a poof of smoke two Ino's appeared surrounding her, and she closed her eyes, jumped and cheered.

"Um, Ino, I'm not sure it's working right!" Sakura's frantic voice broke her celebration.

"Huh? Why?" She looked toward her doppelgangers.

"That one is glowing! That one is flickering!" Ino furrowed her brow and looked closer at her clones. What the? "Ino, get away, it's going to explode I think!" She shrieked, and jumped away. One of the clones began to distort and poofed into harmless smoke, while the other began to glow brightly. A loud explosion resounded across the training field, and a concussive force of air sent the three teenagers sprawling backwards.

'W-what happened? Did I do the jutsu wrong?" Ino bit her lip and looked at the crater of where the cloned Ino went out with a bang.

Sakura and Naruto glanced at each other. Naruto nodded and Sakura spoke up. "It looked like you did everything right, but perhaps it's the new chakra? I don't know - it just seems unstable. Perhaps we should test more? How about a henge?"

Ino nodded slowly. I'll henge into Naruto. She swallowed remembering watching her clone's demise. Please don't explode, please don't explode! She performed the technique and transformed into a copy of Naruto. "How is this?" She looked down at herself for irregularities.

"You're… glowing!" A moment later, the technique seemed to shimmer about her body some returning to her girlish figure others remaining Naruto. Finally a twisted combination of the two remained – Ino's legs with Naruto's torso, one arm of each. Both of the others gasped at the monstrosity. She paled, feeling the chakra starting to burn, and quickly dispelled the technique.

Panting, Ino fell to her knees. This shouldn't be that exhausting. "Ino-chan, are you ok?!" Naruto appeared next to her, pulling her straight. She nodded as she caught her breath.

Sakura began to check Ino's condition as she explained. "Well, I can't be sure, but I think techniques that use a constant expenditure of chakra even if small are unstable. Maybe when she has more control she can use some, who knows?" That kinda makes sense.

Naruto just scratched his head at the explanation, "So Ino-chan should avoid using stuff like transformation and clones. What about kawarimi?"

Ino nodded, and tried the seals and was relieved to find she had succeeded in transposing herself with a log. She fell to her knees; her insides felt like they were boiling. She coughed and a wave of nausea came over her. "I think I'm going to sick up…" Ino knelt still, taking deep breaths until the feeling passed. "Well, that worked. I just need to get used to the chakra and practice control."

"Right, don't practice techniques until you are more comfortable with control. We can start tree climbing tomorrow maybe. Let's go get some dinner!"

Naruto's ears twitched at the words. "Um, can we go to Ichiraku? I didn't get to finish my lunch." He finished with a pout of his own.

The girls looked to each other and shrugged. "Fine, ramen it is…"

Reaching the stand, the three ordered a substantial dinner, much to the delight of the old man. Naruto wasted no time in diving into his ramen, just in case they decided to drag him off somewhere. This of course earned him a scoff and twin lumps on his head from his dinner partners. "Manners Naruto!"

And so he was more or less forced to chew. What am I supposed to do? I've never had a girlfriend, let alone two! He quietly kept his comments to himself, and spared fleeting glances to the girls. They had finished their considerably smaller portions before he was satisfied, and he appreciated that they seemed to plan to let him finish gorging himself.

That was until he caught Ino's mischievous grin from his peripheral vision. His foxy sense started to tingle when she stood up and sauntered to Sakura's other side, and started whispering in his pink-haired love's hair. Then he knew something big would happen when Sakura's face flushed to match the color of her rosy locks. Worse, she glanced toward Ino (whom Naruto could not see from his seat), then her head inclined in a nodding motion. Sakura then stared straight ahead, her blush only reddening. He gulped. Why is Sakura-chan acting so embarrassed? What are they planning?

He finished his last bowl, and paid for their meal as Ino appeared next to him. Then her voice was in a sultry tone similar to what he had always associated with the many floozies Ero-sennin had accompanied throughout their travels. She cooed in his ear, her warm breath leaving tickling sensation. "Hey Naruto, why don't we call it an early night and head for the apartment…?"

AN: Alright, I may have a special treat next chapter (since many people have been suggested or asked about it, and story-wise, it would fit without disrupting the flow). I don't think I need to spell out what it is either. That said, if I do decide to go through with this – I want to do it correctly and hold it to a higher standard than my normal writing. So it quite possibly won't be posted for at least a week as I work on it. If you have another. If you do have any reservations against this, now would be the time to let them be known. Also, it's possible it may be posted in a standalone story on the site (but chronologically come at this point of the story) for rating or filter purposes.

That said, as far as Mind of Others goes – while I have already figured out just how the team dynamics of the trio work (mainly just how Ino will develop and complement the other two) – I still have not managed to conceive long term plot goals and ideas yet. I will continue to contemplate and eventually something is bound to ignite my muse.

Once said muse is ignited – I will most likely jump back into frequent updates. Meanwhile, I have many ideas (and plenty of plot to work with) for All I Have Left and will be continuing to have nearly daily updates for that – the next of which will be tomorrow for those wondering.

Thanks for your continued reading and comments!