For the life of her Ino still did not understand why the hell Shikamaru was so convinced that she was not going to be able to fight in the chunin exams. They had done an exercise that day in which she had her ears plugged and Shikamaru was throwing sebon needles at her in an attempt to hit her, sure sound traveled exponentially faster than needles but it was a good start. She hadn't been hit once, next time Asuma would be using a wind jutzu with colored powder to see if he could hit her then. To fight Shikamaru, Ino played tag with his shadow. He would release it and she would run or leap away from it, sometimes he would use another shadow and other time he wouldn't. He only caught her five out of fifteen times, in her opinion that was pretty damn good for her and a bit shitty for Shikamaru. But Asuma reminded her a few moments later that one was all the counted.

She sighed as she continued to beat a practice dummy, taking all of her anger at Shikamaru out on the dummy, there was sweat dripping down her face, the sun was going down and she had been at this for hours. She was getting ready to call it quits when a soft slightly timid voice called to her "Ino-san" Ino stopped punching the dummy and turned to look at Hinata.

"Hi Hinata" Ino greeted, Ino had to admit that she didn't really know the Hyuuga girl, they definitely had opposing personalities. But Ino had to admit that at the academy she almost beat her at the tea ceremony lessons, however Hinata was sweet and probably one of the hardest workers that Ino knew.

"Umm… t-thank y-you for your assistance t-the other d-d-day" Hinata asked softly.

"It wasn't a problem" Ino replied.

"I umm…I was wondering if I c-c-could help y-you out t-t-to?"

"Hinata…I am getting a bit tired, I have been at this all afternoon" Ino said awkwardly.

Hinata looked at the girl "B-but I c-c-can help you w-with your c-chakara control"

Ino now smiled at the girl "Really?" she asked. Ino knew that she had a bigger chakara reserve than Sakura, but after their battle she had realized that she really didn't have much control especially with that hair stunt that she had pulled. She subconsciously yanked at her stubby ponytail.

"H-hai. The byukagan r-requires a lot of c-c-chakara control" Hinata stammered.

Ino nodded. "That would be amazing, Hintata!"

The Hyuuga girl blushed. "O-okay, ready?" she asked.

"Now?" Ino asked.

Hinata nodded, "if you are l-low on c-chakara now, w-what b-b-better time to learn?" she asked quirking her head to the side.

Well I can't argue with that Ino thought.

Shikamaru was looking for Ino, the troublesome woman had missed the weekly team meeting. First he checked the flower shop, then he checked her house, he checked the mall, and even the market but there was no Ino to be found. He sighed. Where in the hell could she be? He continued to amble down the streets in search of the Yamanaka girl, he saw Sakura walk out of the ramen shop with Naruto and after calling out her name sauntered over to her.

"Have you seen Ino?" he asked.

Sakura sighed. She was obviously still a bit bitter about loosing to Ino, but from what he could tell the two had managed to rekindle their relationship. "No. Sorry I haven't." Sakura replied.

"I saw her at the training grounds" Naruto said quickly.

Shikamaru looked surprised "When?"

Naruto was scratched the back of his head. "She was with Hinata"

Shikamaru was puzzled since when did Ino and Hinata become friends?

He sighed and waved goodbye to Naruto and Sakura before ambling down the street headed towards the training grounds, thoughts of a certain troublesome blonde running through his head.

Ino stood in the center of the training ground panting. Despite not being allowed to train, Hinata had drilled and drilled her to the point that she was exhausted. The steps that Hinata made her do were difficult and intricate, more like dancing than anything. "You aren't teaching me the byukagan are you?" Ino gasped as she rested her hands on her knees.

"Goodness n-no. I am t-teaching you the p-practice t-techniques that I learned w-when I was a c-child" Hinata replied.

"A child?" Ino demanded.

"The Hyuuga s-start training e-earlier than m-most clans" Hinata replied.

Ino saw the sad look in the girl's eye but instead of pressuring her like she usually did with Shikamaru and Sakura, she remained silent. She moved to stand up only to stumble and fall to her knees. Shit, I am totally used up she thought to herself.

Hinata ran over to her. "Ino!' she cried out kneeling beside her.

"I-I'm okay. Just managed to use myself up. You're a good teacher, Hinata. I didn't know you could be so ruthless" Ino joked.

Hinata blushed and was about to stutter what Ino assumed was an apology when Ino noticed Shikamaru walking towards them. Wonderful.

"Oi Ino. You missed the meeting" Shikamaru explained.

Ino looked at him before a look of realization appeared on her face. "Shit. I knew that I was missing something!" she exclaimed.

"You are so troublesome. Are you alright?" he asked.

"Just pushed myself a bit too hard. Thanks Hinata! I will see you soon" Ino said with a smile and a wave at the pale eyed girl.

Hinata took the hint, knowing that yet another fight was about to begin between the two teammates. She stood up and waved lightly at Ino and nodded at Shikamaru before walking away from the training grounds towards the Hyuuga compound.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shikamaru demanded.

Ino turned and glared at her teammate. "I am training" she replied.

"You're pushing yourself too hard" Shikamaru said.

Ino glared at the boy, after today she really had pushed herself. She would need a day to recover, something that she was not willing to take. She would have to do some serious studying."I am not" she replied defiantly.

Shikamaru snorted and gave her a lopsided smirk "Prove it. Stand up"

Ino glared and managed to climb to her feet before her knees began to buckle. To her dismay, Shikamaru caught her before she fell to the ground, his arms sinewy with muscle she didn't know that he had as he held her up. "Damn it, Ino" he muttered to more to himself than to her. Ino hated to admit that her eyes were beginning to feel heavy and that her head was a bit dizzy. When she felt steady, she lightly pushed away from the brown haired boy and stood up, swaying lightly on her feet.

"Ino" he said her name with exasperation. She stepped away from him and stumbled a few steps before she managed to catch herself against a practice mat.

"Ino" Shikamaru said again as he got to her side. He sighed and wrapped her arm around his shoulders linking his fingers through hers and put his other arm around her waist as he began walking them away from the training grounds towards Ino's home which was right next door to his own.

"Woman have you been eating?" he demanded. After catching her and holding her body all the time, Shikamaru could recognize if she had gained or lost weight before she even stepped on a scale. He felt the bottom of her ribcage and there was a bit more space between it and her torso than usual.

"Of course I have. I have just been training more, besides a girl has got to look good. The fact that I am loosing weight is just a bonus" she replied sleepily.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes "If I have told you once, I will tell you again. Men like girls with curves, not stick figures that have smaller chest than they do."

Ino laughed weakly. "Thanks for the pep talk, coach"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Even when you are an inch from passing out you still have some type of snarky remark to make, huh?" he asked. And it was that attitude that was going to get her killed. She didn't know when to keep her mouth shut. Ino didn't respond instead she looked at him from beneath her long dark lashes. Her pretty blue eyes almost slipping shut as she stumbled half held up by him. Shikmaru sighed and stopped before swooping down and lifting Ino's lithe form into his arms.

"Troublesome" he muttered against her sleepy protests. She was almost immediately asleep in his arms. He couldn't help the soft smile that graced his features as he carried her the rest of the way home.