When Ino awoke the next morning her entire body was in pain. She struggled to sit up, her muscles protesting. "Damn I feel like I did after the chunin exams" she muttered to herself as she staggered out of bed and stumbled down the stairs, gripping the handrail tightly as her legs screamed in protest. She entered the kitchen to find her father sitting at the table sipping tea.
She poured herself her own mug adding milk and a bit of artificial sweetener before sitting down across from her father, wincing as she lowered herself to her seat. Her father looked up at her over his newspaper.
"So you over did it yesterday, huh?" he asked with laughter in his blue eyes.
Ino blushed.
"Shikamaru brought you home, explaining that you were training with Hinata and managed to use up all of your chakara. Looks like you are taking the day off today, huh?" it wasn't a question as he lowered the newspaper and looked at her.
"I was wondering if I could study some of the Yamanaka kekki genkai techniques?" Ino asked.
Inochi smiled at his only daughter. The Yamanaka Clan was a smaller clan, with Ino as the heiress. Unlike the Uchiha, Hyuuga, and Nara clans the Yamanaka did not live in a compound, instead they lived scattered around the village meeting once a week in a hectic family gathering. Ino and her twenty two first cousins would run around together while Inochi and his seven other brothers and sisters would bond together over sake. The Yamanaka did not mind the mixing of bloodlines, the idea that the Mind-Body switch technique could be used along with another technique appealed to the Yamanaka, although they did prefer to have them marry within the clan, a second cousin was the closest in relation that the children could be.
"Yes. Once you finish your shift at the flower shop, we will practice" Inochi replied.
Ino smiled.
Neji Hyuuga was laying on top of his immaculately made bed glaring at the ceiling, the Yamanaka girl had gotten under his skin. She was annoying, loud, weak, vain, pigheaded, stubborn and beautiful. He sighed. The look she had given him when she walked away from the training ground had definitely irritated him. The look she had given him as she walked away was the same one that Hinata had before she fought him. A look that screamed You're wrong. She was trying to change, trying to prove herself. The difference between the one that Hinata gave and the one that Ino gave was a simple Fuck you. Instead of the gentle serene way that Hinata said she was going to try to get stronger, Ino's brash words and eyes just screamed I am going to get stronger and get out of my way. Neji scoffed to himself she was wasting her time, she was destined to be nothing more than what she, is a beautiful face. Neji sighed he just hoped that when she fought Dosu, the guy wouldn't ruin her pretty face. Ino stood in the basement of her home behind her father. "Ino. The mind is fragile and powerful all at the same time. For all your stubbornness you should know this"
Ino blushed in response to her father's words.
"However, I do not think that I will be able to teach you full on techniques before the exams. I cannot teach you how to manipulate the mind completely but I can teach you how to persuade it if you will" Inochi continued.
Ino felt a twang of disappointment but quickly shoved it aside. "What do you mean?"
"Despite all of it's power, the mind can be easily tricked. Tell me how this Dosu boy is able to use his techniques?" Inochi inquired.
Ino explained both battles that the members of team ten had been involved in with Dosu. The first being their initial attack and meeting the second was Chouji's battle. "He has this thing on his arm that when he flicks it releases sound waves that disorient you and make you sick and loose your hearing for a temporary amount of time"
"Then we just have to make him think that his arm doesn't work" Inochi replied simply.
"What?" Ino demanded.
"You heard me. The mind can be persuaded. The hard part is that you will have to go into his mind and simply rewire a few things. This process has both it's ups and downs. The positives are that you will not have to completely leave your body, you just have to be able to concentrate, multi-task if you will. However, on that same note, you are not able to fully focus on where you are. The second is that it is simply a persuasion, eight to nine times out of ten it will work but like every mental technique, some people with strong will powers or external stimuli like Sakura had… can cause the manipulation to break"
Ino looked at her father. "But how do I find it?" she asked.
"That is where all of your studying must come into play. You must learn the mind. Learn which parts of the brain control which parts of the body. Where in the brain can the neurons that control the movement of the arm be found? Where are the neurons that control the eyes so that he cannot see it? Where are the neurons that you can fire in haphazard lines to make the mind think something else?"
Ino already felt her head spinning. This would take weeks, who knows if she could memorize all of this by then.
"If you preform the hand signs quickly and correctly, you will be able to see through the skull and see the human brain, similar to the byukagan. You will see the way that the neurons fire, a maze and series of highways that you must memorize and learn how to navigate. When you see this, you will be able to switch things around for a period of time. That length of time depends on how strong the mind is. For example it would take Shikamaru a matter of seconds to figure out a manipulation while it could take Sakura ten minutes."
"But father what if I can't? What if I have to use the mind transfer technique? I can't exactly cut off my hair again to catch him" Ino explained.
Inochi chuckled at his daughter's antics. "I was thinking about that too. As a Yamanaka you know that our primary element is earth. If you can create a wall and block some of the sound waves then you can hold him off for a second or two. That would be long enough for your soul to find him if you have a clear shot. Using this technique will allow you to create a semi-circle around yourself. There will not be much of a roof but if you duck, a majority of the damage should go above and around you. Not hit you full on" Inochi explained handing Ino yet another scroll to the pile as well as three books that she was also carrying.
The two continued to wander throughout the basement checking scrolls and exchanging theories about what else Ino could do to mentally manage to block Dosu. Eventually she and her father decided that the brain persuasion technique, the earth based technique, the mind transfer and her own physical stamina, speed and ability would be the way for her to win a battle.
"Unfortunately Ino, our kekki genkai are not by design made for up close combat, that is why the Ino Shika Cho combination is so effective. We work together to make up for the flaws that our techniques have. We must develop our skills as fighters because our techniques are best used for espionage, assassinations, torture and interrogation, and any type of emotional manipulation" Inochi explained.
Ino found herself nodding. "Yes, father"
"You are determined and you are stubborn. I know that you will fight well and fight hard. You will bring honor to the Yamanaka name win or loose. No one in our clan has made it this far in the chunin exams as a rookie. Ino I will be proud of you. Win or loose" Inochi explained.
Ino sighed. She wanted to hug her father and tell him that everything was going to be okay, but she couldn't with the books and scrolls shoved into her arms. Instead she used her words. "Thank you daddy. I will do my best" was all that she managed to say before father and daughter went back to the main floor. After setting her scrolls and books down on the table she turned and hugged her father tightly. "Thank you, daddy"
Inochi smiled as he hugged his daughter back. She might die, he knew that and he prayed to every god he knew that it would not happen. He also knew in the back of his mind that if anyone was too stubborn to die it would be his daughter. She was too vain to die a messy death but too prideful to take anything less than a fight to the death. He admired and worried about her because of this trait that she had unfortunately inherited from him. Despite taking after her mother when it came to being stubborn to the point of hardheaded and maybe a little too vain for her own good, Ino was her father's daughter.
"I have go to the T&I Unit. Have fun studying, I will see you later tonight" Inochi said as he waved to his daughter and walked out the door.
Ino smiled and waved back before taking a deep breath and grabbing the first of many scrolls that she was ready to memorize.