Ohhhhh. Whatever will go here? Couldn't be a disclaimer…..or maybe it is….ok it is. I don't own Naruto.
Italics equal thoughts being mind read.
Unfortunately for Ino she didn't have the time to clear her mind in preparation to read Shikamaru's mind because he had just charged at her, kunai raised. Ino jumped out the way to avoid it and he struck at thin air. Shikamaru then threw the kunai at her. She took one of her own and threw it, hitting the other one in mid-air and sending it spinning out of control.
Ino then charged at Shikamaru, hoping to catch him unawares but he jumped backwards and threw more kunai at her, making her have to throw her own to block them. Only 1 left Ino thought to herself, obviously annoyed at herself that she had used a lot of them already. Ino looked around quickly, noticing that Lerone had disappeared. Ino was confused about the whereabouts of Lerone. She could still see Shikamaru looking strained, which could only mean that he was keeping Lerone around somewhere. So instead of reading his mind Ino decided to attack head on.
"Kage bushin no jutsu!" Ino cried out while making the appropriate hand symbols. 3 Ino's poofed beside her. Each of them charged straight to Shikamaru. Shikamaru threw 3 of his Kunai hitting 2 of the bushins but missing one. 1 of the 2 Inos stayed behind doing various hand symbols while the other Ino charged ahead. She threw her last kunai at Shikamaru, who slid to the side avoiding it, and went to kick his face.
Lerone came up from Shikamaru's shadow and caught her leg. So he's given her form now Ino thought faintly to herself. Her main thought, however, was more along the lines of CRAP. Lerone spun Ino by her leg and threw her away. She landed on the ground and with a flurry of hand symbols a small wood sprouted up. Ignoring the illusion Lerone charged at the other Ino and clawed at her. After being scratched apart Ino disappeared with a poof.
"It's good to see my new summon works so well. If only she didn't have as much free will, she'd be perfect" Shikamaru thought to himself. He then looked into the woods where Ino had been thrown. He heard a poof and then a whisper, which he couldn't make out. Before he could send Lerone out Ino came charging straight at him.
"Lerone" Shikamaru calmly told his summon "That's not the real Ino. You go into the woods and find her" Lerone shook her head and grabbed his hands, preventing him from doing anything that could save him.
"WHAT!" Shikamaru shouted, completely at surprise by his summons actions. Of course since Shikamaru knew the free will flaw in his summon meant she/it had a mind he guessed what had happened. Ino had used shintensin no jutsu to control her. Since she had him trapped he couldn't do a thing. So he did the only thing that he could do. Even if it was rather humiliating for him.
"I surrender."
After the battle Ino still had trouble believing that she had beaten Shikamaru. She had dreamed about it ever since he had been made chuunin and Asuma focused his attention on him. NOW Asuma had to pay attention to her. After all, beating his "best" student in a spar was a big thing. He also had no excuse to go "I wasn't watching". After all, he had been watching for most of the spar.
She also knew her father would be proud to. She had successfully managed to read Shikamaru's mind in a useful way without losing track of the battle and being mercilessly beaten. She also knew she had proved to everyone that she wasn't the old Ino that had basically lost to Sakura in the chuunin exams. She had been training hard and now was her time to shine.
Asuma walked up to them both. When he got to them he stood there for a few seconds, looking at them both. Then Ino heard a gruff "Good work Ino. I see your training has paid off" from him. She then quietly thanked Asuma, even though inside her head she was throwing a congratulatory party for herself, and walked away to talk to Hinata.
After Ino told her about her spar with Shikamaru and how Asuma had FINALLY saw all the hard work she had done and did, Hinata had said to her "Congratulations Ino. Glad to see you're finally being recognised". Of course Ino, being slightly nosy of how Hinata's spar went, asked her who she was against.
Hinata said to her, with a hint of pride in her voice "I was against Chouji. Lucky for me I had been practising with my team otherwise I'm not sure what would've happened during the spar"
"Well you won and that's the main thing. Anyway how about we get a few people together and we celebrate?" Ino asked Hinata. Hinata said yes to Ino so, phoning Sakura and Tenten, they went out to celebrate.
Shino watched Ino walk off. There was something she wasn't telling about her win over Shikamaru.
Since 3 of them were only 12 years old, they only had enough money to go to a small cafe in the village. It was pretty crowded but, luckily for them, they managed to get a table and after ordering their drinks, they got round to talking about what they were celebrating.
"I can't believe you've finally beaten that smug know-it-all" Sakura said. She had never liked Shikamaru during her ninja academy days.
"Just goes to show how well Ino's been training" Hinata told her, feeling so proud of Ino. After all, Ino had told her all about how unfairly she was treated by Asuma and after Ino had helped in destroying most of the animosity Neji had for Hinata she thought she owed it to her and listen to her problems.
"Is he really all that good?" Tenten questioned. She had no idea who he was, being a year older she hadn't been in their class. Luckily she was on the same team as Neji and after helping Ino help Hinata she had became a part of the group.
"Well now I should be able to get the same treatment as that useless, lazy ninja" Ino said while sipping her drink. Of course they couldn't just talk about Ino's grand and glorious victory over Shikamaru all day so their conversation turned to other things.
"Ino" Hinata ventured. "Do you think that Kurenai and Asuma will ever start…?"
"Of course" Ino, Sakura and Tenten said at the same time. They had all discussed this for ages one night and had mutually decided that it would only be a matter of time before the teachers decided that they would train the 2 teams together.
Then the conversation turned to crushes and how well they were doing.
"So how's Sasuke doing?" Hinata asked.
A silence descended across the table. Then…..
"He's doing well!" Ino and Sakura told Hinata while glaring at each other. "He certainly isn't fine with her!" they both said with unconcealed menace.
"What about you Hinata?" Tenten queried" Hinata looked confused so Tenten decided to try asking more straightforward. "Who do you like Hinata?"
"No-o-one" Hinata told her stuttering. "Naruto"
"What Hinata?" Ino asked, confused by what she heard.
"I said no-one" Hinata said, more confidently. "Naruto"
"Naruto, Hinata?" Ino said, totally confused on where the voice came from.
"NARUTO?" Sakura and Tenten both questioned. Hinata shook her bright red face. Of course Sakura and Tenten didn't believe her so they made fun of her. (Nice friends…..--) Hinata shot Ino a hurt glare.
Ino was confused. She could've sworn she'd heard Hinata say Naruto but she obviously didn't. Then how could she have known….. Ino thought it through and realised something most dreadful.
I'm losing control of my ability Ino thought with despair.
Believe it or not I'm actually kind of happy with this chapter. I finally managed to put in Sakura without an "Omg whyyyyyy?" thing and I managed to finish of the fight WITHOUT the need for another one while managing to move the plot along slightly. The next chapter might be the last chapter so then you'll never have to read this ever again. :) Thanks to people who decide to review and if you don't……then you can't say how much you hate it now can you?
Edit: Now with freaking divider lines which i always forget. YAY
Once again thanks to Lerone and Liv for proof-reading it.