"I never said how many games of shogi I had to play." I pouted.

"And I only said I'd maybe teach you how to read." Shikamaru shrugged.

Ok, so it turned out my ingenious strategy was not that great, and honestly, I wasn't sure why I thought it would work in the first place. Therefore, I continued to play shogi against him, and he progressed until he could continuously beat me, but at least I was literate now.

Within a couple of months, I had made significant progress on my reading. I made my way through most of the texts that lay within reach in each in the family compounds. History was a popular topic, but I quickly got sick of trying to decipher which events actually happened, and which ones were 'artistic renderings' or 'enhanced for political purposes'.

Of course, clans didn't leave their valuable techniques laying around where anyone could grab them, so I didn't have access to those. However, there was still valuable information to be found.

I had a suspicion, based off my experience with reading other Self-Insert fics. According to fanfiction, chakra was made of physical and spiritual energy. Physical developed with the body, while spiritual developed with the mind.

So, when Self-Inserts would embark on their 'nEXt GReAt AdVeNtUrE,' they often had exceedingly higher spiritual energy than physical, due to their developed mind being squished into a child. This had varying impacts depending on the fic.

Some Self-Inserts had better chakra control, but the amount of chakra they could use was capped by their physical energy. Others had a complete chakra imbalance that prevented them from being able to perform certain types of jutsu. Some focused on jutsu that required more spiritual energy, while others had to find alternative workarounds.

I didn't want to be handicapped in any way by my chakra, so I needed to fix the imbalance from now. I didn't have a way to test if I even had the deficit, but I could take a guess.

If I were to get formal testing, I might be questioned on why my chakra was so skewed. Maybe they could chalk it up to me being a Yamanaka, which would obviously put more emphasis on mental improvement, but I didn't want to take my chances. After all, if my spiritual energy was that of an adult at such a young age, it could seem like I was a spy. And then my clan could easily check, given their specialty.

It was at my own compound that I found a scroll with an entire chakra network diagram. The theory I picked up from it only led to more questions.

Chakra was composed of physical and spiritual energy, and spiritual energy came from the mind; I was already aware of that. But what I didn't know was that physical energy was drawn from each cell in the body. That made no sense to me.

If by 'mind', they meant brain, then that was a physical part of the body as well. So, wouldn't physical energy be drawn from there too? The diagram showed that a good number of chakra points connected to the network were clustered within the head. It clearly seemed that the brain produced physical energy.

So then where did spiritual energy come from?

Are there souls in this world? I suppose it would make sense, since it is called spiritual energy. Are they a chakra construct, or something that humans have had way before the aliens?

If humans have always had them, it's possible it's my soul that was transported to this body. It would make more sense than an entire physical brain somehow making its way into a fetus. But does that mean souls are tangible? How would the chakra network connect to them otherwise? Where in the body would one be stored?

I was running low on useful information. I needed a way to gather more. I even thought about risking it and asking Inoichi at this point. But I wanted to wait a bit longer to lead up to that question. After all, I still had no reason to know about chakra.

By the time I was four, our little trio had expanded our horizons by playing outside way more often. There were more children closer to our age around and we'd sometimes join their games.

If it involved physical activity, I joined in to try to increase physical energy. If physical energy was taken from cells, then output should increase with cell efficiency, higher metabolism, increased fuel source (eating), and/or by increasing mass, so that there were just more cells. The easiest solution would be to eat and exercise for now. I didn't want to increase my mass in a way that would slow me down, so building more muscle over fat would be the way to go.

Therefore, I tried to eat more, and pushed myself to as much as I could get away with; I didn't want to stunt my growth. I wanted to try reinforcing my body with chakra, but I wasn't quite sure how to do that. My control still wasn't outstanding, and I couldn't do much with it.

Ninja was a popular game. The other kids could jump through trees or up buildings and chase each other at speeds I frequently couldn't match. I was still faster than I expected, but I was pretty sure they were doing something with their chakra that I just wasn't. I wasn't sure if they were intentionally doing it, or if chakra naturally reinforced their muscles.

"Yeah! Umbrella Gang! Let's GO!" I encouraged my partners, while we made our way to the usual street where the other kids played ninja.

Shika face palmed. "Never call us that again, Ino."

Choji muttered to Shikamaru, "Why is it the Umbrella Gang?"

"I think it's because the Yamanaka symbol's an umbrella, but I don't care," He looked at the sky. "Man, it's so embarrassing."

Choji nodded in agreement, with a slight wince.

A couple of minutes went by, before I broke the peaceful silence. "Hmmm. Would you rather us be the Wavy Bricks Squad or the Butterfly Crew?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Neither. Please don't include us in your craziness."

I had sensed my moment to steal Shikamaru's moment.

"Trouble-" "TRoUblEsOmE." we said together. Shikamaru glared at me. I stuck my tongue out.

"Remind me why I'm friends with you again," he grumbled.

"What? I was helping you out. I don't want you overexerting yourself after all, just like the good friend I am." I patted his back.

"Troublesome," he quickly got in, before I could interrupt him again.

"Come on guys, let's just get in the game," Choji piped up with a grin, diffusing the situation.

We headed to the block where another game of ninja was about to start.

"Hey guys, can we play?" Choji asked tentatively.

The kids turned their heads to us. A blond one spoke. "Yeah, sure! We were just getting started!"

Another, black-haired kid looked at him. "Nah, it's not fun that way. The fat one's too slow. And the girl's even slower, she can't even jump very high. Every time they're in a team, that team ends up losing."

Choji flinched at the comment. Meh, the kid wasn't wrong. I seriously needed to fix my speed.

"It would be uneven, too. There are six of us, so if we add another three, there'd be an extra person," an older kid observed.

Shikamaru spoke up, casually. "Ok, how about we make our own team then?"

Choji looked up, with some hope.

I grinned like a maniac. "Hmmm. Perhaps a gang, even?"

Choji and Shikamaru pretended they didn't hear that comment.

The black- and blond-haired kids looked at each other. One of them scratched the back of his head. "I guess it's fine if we add another team."

"Wait, how would we do that? Ninja only works with two teams," said the other. Dang. I was hoping they wouldn't notice. Ninja was like hide and seek, but the variant where the seeker had to tag the hider, so the hider could run away if they wanted. Also, wooden shuriken could be used to tag players.

Shikamaru hesitated a bit, before offering a solution. "It could be like rock, paper, scissors. The first team has to tag the second team, the second team has to tag the third team, and the third team tags the first team."

The blond nodded, brightly. "Ok, that could work! There are nine of us, so you three can be in one team, and the rest of us are already split into teams!"

"But who tags who?" The second kid asked.

Shikamaru spoke again. "Two teams could play rock paper scissors. Whoever wins gets to be the seeker and the loser is the hider. And then the third team is the seeker against the winning team but hides from the losing team."

All the kids agreed to that, and we got started. Choji was noticeably more cheerful with this arrangement.

We decided to call ourselves Team Rock, while the team we were chasing was Scissors, and the ones chasing us were Paper.

All three teams counted to ten, while spreading out as far as they could, in different alleys or on roofs.

Our team agreed beforehand that we would stick together while trying to move as far away from the initial location as possible.

It was clear we weren't getting amazingly far though. I spoke first. "Alright guys, I can sense other kids' chakra, so I can tell if there are other teams around. I didn't have enough time to memorize their chakra signature, but I can probably guess if it's them or not, because kids have smaller chakra reserves than adults."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, and we don't have to run away that far or chase them. We can hide around here and use the shuriken to surprise them from further away. Ino, how far can you sense someone?"

"Uhh, about six feet in any direction. Maybe further if I concentrate. And I can sense them through walls and stuff."

"Hmm. That's not the best range for this," Shikamaru pondered.

"Um, how about we all just hide on a roof and drop shuriken at Scissors if they come by here?" I offered.

"Ok, that could work. And to make sure that Team Paper doesn't get us, we can find a building that's too far to jump to and hide on top of that. That way, even if they do spot us, it would take a while for them to get to us."

We found a building that fit the requirements and got into position.

It was Choji who threw the first shuriken… at Team Paper. He hit one of them, and the enemy team turned to look above, but we'd already backed away at that point.

The other kids immediately ran away, probably thinking it was Team Scissors. The kid he hit then groaned and left with a huff, believing he was out.

I laughed when they were out of range.

Shikamaru patted Choji's back. "Good work, Choji. You scared them off. Now we can focus on Team Scissors."

I was pretty sure Shikamaru knew Choji didn't mean to do that.

Team Paper made their way back near our location after a while. They thought they'd lost us. It was then that I spotted two members of Team Scissors on the ground, in the opposite direction. I thought of an idea.

"Shika, there's Team Scissors," I pointed in their direction. "If we get down from this building and make Paper see us, we can lead them to Scissors and let them fight it out. We just have to make sure Team Scissors doesn't see us first."

"Ok, I can sneak down and let Paper see me. I'll get a head start first by getting in view of Paper, but not close enough for them to catch me. That way, I can lead them to Scissors. If I get hit, Scissors won't have to worry about me, and they'll chase Paper. You two can sneak over to Scissors while they're distracted and take potshots. Hide if there's still a member of Team Paper around."

We followed through with the plan. Choji and I watched as Shikamaru snuck to the center of the street, right in view of Paper. Paper fell for the trap started to chase him. He weaved around buildings, making sure they wouldn't notice they were being led to Scissors. He stayed just in view, to were Paper could still follow him. Then, when he was close, he hid behind a trashcan. They walked around, trying to find him.

That was when one of the Scissors noticed Team Paper and gave chase. One of the Paper members was tagged physically, while the other dodged and nearly escaped before a shuriken hit him. We made our way down and ran over to the direction we last saw them from the building.

When we were in range, I threw a shuriken at a lone Scissors member. It hit him in the back. The other one wasn't anywhere to be found. I couldn't see Shikamaru or Choji either.

Looked around, then walked up the street, toward the original spot all three teams had started at, where all the players who were 'out' had moved to. The three Paper members and two Scissors members, one of which I had hit, were already gathered there. I stayed out of view.

I climbed up a building and watched from the side. Choji was chasing the other Scissors member, who successfully hid behind a stack of planks against a wall. Choji slowed down and looked around.

The kid backed away slowly, then swerved into an alley out of my sight the moment Choji's head was turned.

Choji heard his footsteps and immediately headed over toward the alley.

Right as I was about to climb down to help Choji out, the kid backtracked. Choji reached out and tagged him.

I made my way down the building and found Shikamaru on the other side of the alleyway. Oh. So that was why the kid had turned back.

"Oh! You're still in the game, Shikamaru?" asked Choji as we walked toward him, in the alley.

"Nah, I got hit, but he doesn't know that," Shikamaru shrugged, jerking is thumb toward the dejected kid that Choji tagged.

"Hey!" shouted the kid.

"Ok, I guess he knows now," Shikamaru smirked.

"I think that means we won, then, right?" I asked. "The rest of the Scissors are out, I saw them back in the Out Zone, along with the whole Paper Team."

"Wait a min-" Shika said before we were showered with about twenty shuriken from above.

We ducked and protected our heads while we continued to be pelted. "Ok, ok! You can stop! We're out!" I shouted.

We looked up when they stopped.

The black-haired Scissors boy from earlier began to chase the blond, Paper one. The blond dodged, then yelled 'no tag-backs' over and over as he hopped over a roof.

The black-haired boy shouted incredulously, "What do you mean no tag-backs? That's not how this works! We're the only ones left!" He made another swipe for the blond.

Choji looked at me questioningly as Shikamaru's face dawned with realization.

Then it clicked. "Did any of us hit that Scissors kid at any time during the game?" I asked.

Shikamaru got it. "I guess he pretended to be with the kids who were out. And the rest of the Scissors team probably told the Paper guy that they didn't hit him, so he figured we did, and that he's still in."

Choji figured out the rest. "Ohhh. And since they're still in, and they were both in the Out Zone, they agreed to team up against us!"

We watched them chase each other for a bit, before making our way back to the Out Zone.

Eventually, the black-haired boy made it back with a superior smirk on his face, hands in his pockets.

Wait a minute. Superior smirk? Black hair? Boy?

Ok, to be fair though, it could be any Uchiha. They're all like that. Also, black is the most common hair color here.

"Sasuke bastard!" yelled Naruto, running toward him.

Yep, there was no doubt about it, that was Naruto. Oh - and Sasuke too, I guess.

Naruto wasn't as obviously recognizable as you'd think. Being around a lot of Yamanaka had desensitized me to blond hair and blue eyes, and he was dressed in a normal T-shirt. His little whisker scars were kind of hard to see too, and he wasn't even wearing any goggles. But he was pretty adorable though, even compared to other four-year-olds.

Now that he was closer, his chakra completely overwhelmed my senses. I couldn't sense anyone else anymore. Jeez. What a chakra battery.

"Hey, Ping Pong Paddle!" I called.

Shikamaru face palmed.

Both boys stopped and turned toward me.

"Huh?" asked Naruto.

"Not you, the other one," I said.

Sasuke gave me a questioning look. "Hn? Ping Pong Paddle?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Just ignore her…"

"Yeah, your crest. I want to know what it is exactly. Is it a ping pong paddle or a fishing bobber?" I asked bluntly.

Naruto giggled.

Sasuke responded, offended. "It's a fan. This is the Uchiha crest."

"What kind of fan is that? Why's it so round? And cut in half?"

Shikamaru and Choji shuffled a couple of steps away, pretending not to know me.

"It's an uchiwa," he growled.

"Oh! Like Uchiha! That makes sense. Anyway, that was pretty smart of you to stay in the Out Zone like that."

He looked conflicted between pride and irritation. "Hn," he nodded and walked away.

Cool. I broke him already.

Naruto made his way toward us. I can't understate how adorable he looked. "Hey, that was pretty funny what you said, dattebayo! Did you see Bastard's face? He was all like Grrr!" He crossed his arms and scrunched up his face.

Did - did I just hear him say dattebayo? Dammit. I was kind of hoping that phrase would be magicked away like all the other weird changes in this world. I mean the four-year-olds here actually sounded like four-year-olds for God's sake! Why couldn't I get this small change, too?

…Could I curb it early, before the addiction gets too powerful?

"Anyway, did you see me?" He jumped up and down. "I came up with the plan to dump everyone's shuriken on you! That was pretty smart too, right? They wanted to take revenge, so they gave them all to me, dattebayo!"

Aww, he's so innocent. Also, he has no social awareness whatsoever.

I decided to respond before he could open his mouth again. "Yeah, that was pretty smart! So, anyway, what's your name?" Might as well get introductions out of the way.

"Oh, that's easy!" It wasn't supposed to be a hard questio- "MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI," he proclaimed to the entire human populous, "and I'm GOING TO BE THE NEXT HOKAGE!"

"Oh, that's - " "dattebayo!" " - that's pretty cool Naruto!" Jeez, that thing was like a trademark symbol.

"Uh-huh!" Naruto blinded me with his famous million-watt beam.

"Well anyway, I'm Ino Yamanaka. These two -" I dragged Shikamaru and Choji into view before they could escape. "are Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi!"

"Hi! I'm Naruto!" he greeted them.

"Yes, I've heard," muttered Shikamaru.

"So, do you guys like ramen?" he asked.

Oh God, he already knows about ramen.

Choji decided to respond. "Yeah! I love ramen. My uncle makes it at his restaurant, and it turns out there are all sorts of flavors and types. Did your parents name you after naruto fishcake ramen topping?"

"Mmm, I don't know my parents," Naruto scrunched up his face, "but that would be pretty awesome if they did!" He nodded enthusiastically.

I checked around quickly. Shikamaru had vanished. I left the two to continue discussing their fascinating topic and went to go look for him.

"Shikamaru, oh Shikamaru~ " I called. "Pshshshsh," I held my hand out like I was going to feed an animal.

"I'm not a cat," Shikamaru grumbled. There he was!

"How come you left? Did you not want to meet Naruto?" I teased.

"No, thanks. I'm fine. I already have to deal with one crazy blonde on a daily basis."

"Alright, fine." I grinned. He'd get to interact with him later on a daily basis, anyway. "Anyway, I have a question for you."

It was getting very difficult to outrun these kids, and as a result, they didn't see me as real competition. Even Shikamaru and Choji seemed faster than me, and Shikamaru was supposed to be the lazy one! It was becoming kind of infuriating. I just had to know if they were intentionally doing something with their chakra.

"Shika, do you do something with your chakra when you run?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Yes. No? Maybe. I don't know. Why do you always ask me this stuff?"

Ok, so I guess it's involuntary then. I shrugged. "You're pretty smart. I thought you might know."

"Hmmm." He closed his eyes.

"Well, thanks anyway." I turned to leave before he could question my behavior anymore.

"Why don't you ask your dad?"

Uhhh. I scratched the back of my head. "I was going to, but I just thought of the question, so I asked you first. It's ok if you don't know about chakra."

With a pause, he asked, "Do you think that's why you're slower than all of us?"

Damn it. Quit thinking, Shikamaru. "Maybe. Anyway, that's alright, I can figure it out on my own. Bye!"

I returned to the main group.

Hopefully, Shikamaru was an out of sight, out of mind type of person.

Back at the compound, I sat on the floor. I realized what I had to do. I had to… finally ask Inoichi about chakra. I wasn't looking forward to that.

I found Inoichi in his neatly organized study, looking over some documents. Huh. Maybe I could read some of them when he wasn't home. Any information was better than nothing.

He glanced up from his papers.

How should I approach this? Maybe I could make it sound like I wanted to become a ninja? After all, wanting to become a ninja was natural when all you did was play ninja. Almost by design, really.

Whatever. I was overthinking this.

"Daddy, what's chakra?"

"Oh, did you hear about that from the other kids, Ino?"

"Uh-huh." Sure, let's go with that.

"Well, it's the life energy that flows through our bodies."

"What does it do?"

"For shinobi, that's how we fight. It's where our power comes from."

Wow, this really is baby's first chakra explanation. "Ok! Can you teach me how to use it?"

Inoichi took in a deep breath before releasing it. "I suppose I could give you the basics. It is about time, after all." It is? "Ino, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

I was half tempted to say ramen chef. "A ninja!"

"Is that so?" He looked adoringly at me.

Did I stutter? I nodded.

"Well, ok then. In that case I can teach you about chakra and how to use it. Do you want that?"

Yes. Power. "Yeah!"

Why was I so worried about this? That was ridiculously easy. He didn't even bat an eyelash. But wouldn't that mean I'd be learning it early? If he was teaching me now, he was more confident in me than I had planned. I guessed that meant I wasn't as subtle as I thought. Or maybe age four was when most clans taught their kids.

"Ok, but before that, I want to know something. Why do you want to be a ninja?"

Oh, to uhh… protect the village from baddies?

"To defend the village from evil!" I lifted my fist into the air.

He gave me an amused smile. "Oh, is that so?"

Nope. Actually, that is NOT so.

"Yeah!"

"Alright then, we can get started." He clapped his hands together.

That was the right of passage? That was pathetic. And he was willing to give me the equivalent of a gun for it?

Heck yes!

Inoichi went on to teach me about the chakra network and how tenketsu, or chakra points, were how chakra was manipulated. Tenketsu could be found all along a chakra network, acting as nodes that the chakra passed through. Chakra could exit the body through any tenketsu but was usually released through the fingers, for jutsu. Tenketsu could also control the direction of chakra flow and how much flowed through the tenketsu.

Because chakra needed to be molded and shaped a certain way for practical application, the amount of fine control required made hands the easiest way to do that. Each finger served as a conduit through which chakra could actively be directed. A shape could be formed by making a hand sign and running chakra through it.

The conduit didn't matter though, so much as the shape that the chakra itself made. The shapes were individual instructions. As long as the chakra continued to flow without stopping, the next instruction could be inputted without the jutsu sputtering out. Then, the chakra could be released through one or more of the tenketsu in the hands - usually, through the tips of the fingers.

When released from the conduit, the chakra would follow the instructions to produce the jutsu.

It was unclear how chakra remembered the instructions, or how it translated them into a jutsu, but I guessed that was the magic part. Maybe they called it a life force because it was sentient. Who knew?

Based off the complexity of his explanation, Inoichi either truly thought his daughter was a prodigy, or he'd just never heard of baby's second chakra explanation.

"Well, that about explains jutsu. For now, though, I want you to learn the different hand signs. I don't have any hand sign diagrams on me, but I'll get you one by tomorrow. In the meantime, I can teach you three hand signs today."

We went through Dog, Boar, and Ram. He corrected me a few times, then told me to practice until I could do each of them from muscle memory.

Something about that pattern sounded familiar. I suspected it was a jutsu, or maybe a start of one? But Inoichi wouldn't be dumb enough to tell someone how to use chakra, show them hand signs for a jutsu, and then expect them not to combine the two instructions. Right?

Whatever, I was testing it anyway.

I went to a clearing with my chakra network diagram, before remembering that my chakra control kind of sucked.

Well, at least I knew I was supposed to make the chakra flow through my fingers - and what to do with the tenketsu. In the network diagram, tenketsu appeared in all the joints of each finger.

I drew chakra from my stomach and actively allowed each tenketsu to let it through, tracing a path through an annoying, endless spiral. That was when I sensed another pathway connected to the pool that would skip the spiral all together.

With a groan, I pushed chakra through that one instead. When it reached my shoulder, the path branched out into four more. After some time, I found which paths lead to which fingers. The index and thumb shared one, while the pinky and ring fingers had another. A third led solely to the middle finger.

I pushed more chakra down these paths, then locked it in with the tenketsu in my wrists. When I opened up all the tenketsu in my fingers and formed hand signs, the chakra followed a natural path that linked the two hands through overlapping tenketsu, allowing the chakra to skip from one hand to the other without direct input.

That was interesting. Hand signs lined up the tenketsu from both hands to allow for chakra transfer between them.

With the Ram sign complete, I opened the tenketsu in the tips of my fingers to the outside world and released the chakra.

Nothing happened.

My subsequent attempts yielded the same.

Ok, the jutsu could be one of the three academy techniques: Clone, Transformation, or Substitution.

I didn't know about Clone, but the Transformation Technique presumably required the user to imagine their new form. I imagined my foot was a little bigger and did it again.

Nope.

Focusing on a rock to swap with instead didn't do anything either.

Alright, maybe I was wrong. I'd have to wait until I could meet up with Inoichi tomorrow to make more progress.

The next day, I faced Inoichi. He handed me a scroll with twelve illustrated hand signs. Then he asked me to show him the first three I learned, consecutively. With an approving nod, he instructed me to feel my chakra, and draw it into my hands. Like it was that easy. I did as he asked, with a lot of strain and focus.

"Alright, good. Now, what you're actually doing a jutsu called Transformation." I knew it! "The Transformation technique allows you to take on a different form, but you have to be able to imagine it well. The rules are that the form has to have the same mass as you and that it must be alive. The bigger the change you make to the form, the more dangerous it's likely to be. That's why you should only transform into another person, until you understand what makes something a living creature."

That's how you make dead children Inoichi. By telling them not to think of the pink elephant.

"If you decide it's not safe to transform into a certain form, always cancel the jutsu. You can cancel it by keeping the tenketsu on the tips of your fingers closed. Also, the jutsu will not take if what you're imagining has more or less mass than you. There's no danger in doing that."

Oh. That's good. By the way, I almost killed myself when you weren't looking.

"The last thing is that more or bigger changes use up more chakra. If you don't have enough, the jutsu will also not take, and you won't lose a significant amount of chakra."

Ok, I supposed that prevented some of the danger, especially for kids. But deleting a random artery could still happen. It brought into question how someone would imagine themselves, but without an artery. Did you need to imagine a model of yourself, but then the invisible camera you're looking through phases through the body, to show a missing artery? Did you have to imagine all the other organs too, or was it just intent?

And then, how did the 'same mass' thing work? How would you know if you were the same mass as whatever you wanted to transform into? Did it have to be exact, or was there a little leeway on the difference in mass?

I decided to keep these questions to myself, in favor of listening to the rest of his explanation.

"Now, I don't want you trying this technique out yet. It's a good idea to learn all the hand signs first, and then we can try chakra sticking exercises, until you get used to channeling your chakra enough that it becomes natural."

You. What? Maybe I did overthink this. It was a good thing the jutsu failed. What kind of order was he teaching in?

I internally sighed. This was going to take a while, wasn't it?