It was the afternoon and as Ino promised she spent the rest of the day with Shikamaru. Unfortunately for him Ino seem to be more of the problem than his solution to his work today. He had to go gather some herbs for his grandma, so before he left he drop by his house to grab a nice carrying bag and some snacks. Ino trying to help, read through a guidebook on herbs and spices that Shikamaru had. She double-checked if it was the right one but her lack of patience just got the better of her and she just assumed if the flower looked close enough that would do. On top of assuming the herbs would look the same she didn't read the caution part of the book and just threw the book aside. She went on to help him pack his gear when Shikamaru walked in looking for something. He warned her about many things including about dangerous bandits in the forest where they would be going but Ino didn't pay attention hear him. He found what he was looking for after awhile of searching, then he noticed the guidebook thrown to the side of the wall. He picked it up and shoved it into an open pocket in his bag. They left Shikamaru's house by late afternoon.

They walked through Kohana crowded streets and left the village towards the north. The trail in which they were to take had been constructed on and has become a fork road. Shikamaru sat down right between both sides trying to remember which side of the mountain the herb usually grow. After careful examining the flowers on both side Ino used her knowledge of flowers to pick the left road. Shikamaru eventually gave up because the matter became far too troublesome to think about. He also noticed Ino getting impatient and she's definitely not someone you want to be dealing with later on. After a few hours of walking Ino grew tired of carrying so much things she tried to shove them on to Shikamaru's bag. But it just got too unstable and everything fell on her. Amongst the fallen equipment she dropped one of the carrying case and broke it. Underneath the pile up Ino groan in pain until Shikamaru pulled her out. They were studying the pile of stuff, until Ino noticed a shard of glass. She tries to study it and think what it belongs to. That's when it hit her; she figured it must have been that ancient carrying case that Shikamaru always take with him on these kinds of trips. She dived into the mess trying to find the rest of pieces while respectively saying, "please don't be it." Ever so slowly she found each piece and carefully picking them up collected as many as she could. In the mean time Shikamaru wandered off to find a nice rock to rest on. By the time she found them all he was already sleeping. She walked over to him slowly while crying. Shikamaru woke up to hear her sobbing voice. "I'm so sorry Shika…. I.. I.. I … broke it," she stuttered out while crying.

He was confused at what she was saying then he understood after she held up the shards in her hand that she gathered. He saw what they were but he also noticed she cut her self while picking them up because she held back her left hand and it slowly dripped blood. He couldn't careless about the broke jar, and instinctively he grabbed her left hand and ripped up a piece of cloth and tied it around the cut. She was completely confused, she just broke a very ancient jar, which probably meant a lot to Shikamaru and yet all he can think about is the tiny cut she got. They started to continue walking along the path until almost sunset. After a while they arrived at a large open area around the mountain. Instant Ino remember the guild book saying the herbs they where looking for grew around this kind of conditional area. Shikamaru was extremely puzzled. This surrounding was not very familiar to him. "Ino… I don't think the flowers are here. We should head back to the path before we get lost," he yelled to her.

She and ran off a head of him right into the opening looking for a white soft flower. Then out of the trees came a kunai flying right past Shikamaru head and hit Ino near her left shoulder. She let out a scream as if she was in immense pain. Shikamaru heard Ino's scream and headed to where he saw her last looking for flowers. Instantly he studied the shadows of trees in the area and memorized them. He then saw a figure leaping amongst the trees. It was the exact same one that attacked them during the ceremony night. Suddenly a wind picked up and Shikamaru lost track of where his target went. A normal ninja wouldn't be able to see a well-hidden Ninja in the shadow of the trees. But not for a Ninja like Shikamaru. He restudied the surrounding and noticed that a particular tree had an unusual bump in it. The attacker was well hidden but he gave away a small piece of shadow when his shirt stuck out from the side. Shikamaru grinned and left out a laugh. "You think you can hide from me in the shadows? Just give yourself up and save me the trouble I know where you are hiding," Shikamaru yelled out. The attacker gave out a deep breath. This prey was much more experience then the average ninja. Instantly the attacker revealed himself by jumping into the open area and went right after the injured girl. Ino heard the sound of crushing flowers and turned around. She saw a ninja wrapped up in pitch-black clothing. The assassin didn't give Ino a chance to react. He leaped up and attacked her instantly. Ino tried to dodge the assassin but still got slashed by the end of the assassin's blade. "Who is this guy… he's so fast…." she thought to herself. She fell back from the attack. That's when she realized her left leg had a cut in it. Shikamaru came dashing into the area. He saw that Ino's left side was seriously wounded realizing this assassin knew what he was doing he prepared himself for a very tough opponent. "He's trying to immobilize her by attacking Ino's left side constantly," Shikamaru thought. In the meantime Ino had a hard time keeping up with the assassin's furious attacks. The assassin got behind her again and stabbed her in the back. She stumbled over to the edge of a pond and fell down. Almost completely unconscious she coughed out some blood and thought "how can he like someone like me, it's just can't be…I'm ...i'm just not strong enough for him. I can't even take out this one guy."