Neji dreamed of Yamanaka Ino the night he saw her at the dango shop with Hinata. The two of them were sparring in the training grounds, his byukagan was activated, watching her every movement. She was still on the weak side but had certainly improved. The fact that he had to activate his byukagan attested to that. Her movements were fast, but not fast enough for the byukagan. He had her pinned against a tree in a heartbeat, suddenly the Ino he had pinned vanished in a puff of smoke. Why the hell did my byukagan not notice? He thought to himself. It was because of his byukagan that he managed to dodge her attack that came from behind him. Shit Ino's in my mind. Things had just gotten more interesting. He wracked his brain trying to remember how Shikamaru managed to break out of her jutzu. Instead her focused on something anything, trying to block her mind. He felt her probe his mind, trying to get him to believe the images that she was throwing at him. He shoved them away before he could give into the images that she placed in his mind. From the look of frustration, he had succeeded.

She switched tactics and began fighting with taijutzu. She was fighting hard and fast, sweat causing her body to shine, and her hair was not short in this dream, but instead long the way it used to be as it whipped back and forth a silver blond curtain. He managed to land hits on her body, rendering her chakara useless. She stepped back with a wince gripping her left shoulder where he had just blocked her chakara. He took the opportunity and faster than she could react, had her in his grasp, one arm wrapped around her almost too thin waist and the other around her neck, holding her back effectively against his body. Her hands grasped his forearm, as if she could yank his arm from her neck. "I win." he whispered in her ear. He felt an involuntary shiver run through her body as his breath tickled her ear and he inhaled her floral scent. "Let go." she gasped.

Instead Neji flipped her around so that she was facing him, pinning her arms to her sides. A flush appeared on her face at the close contact, despite the glare that was burning into his own narrowed eyes. He took a breath and then shoved his lips against hers harshly. Her heard her sharp intake of breath at his movement. She struggled in his grasp, but when he dropped his grasp from around her arms, pulling her even closer, she gave in. When she started to kiss him back, his eyes jerked open and he sat up quickly in bed. "Dear gods no." he said to himself.

Ino panted heavily as she continued her run throughout the village. She had been at it for over two hours, but she knew that if she wanted to get the last few miles done she would need to keep going. Gods I hate running had been her mantra for the past 20 minutes. To say that she was tired would be the understatement of the year. After her too close encounter with Dosu the night before, she hadn't been able to sleep. Instead she remained curled in a ball beneath her blankets with the light on and a kunai held tightly within her grasp. The few hours of sleep she did get were plagued with images of the bloody bodies of herself and Kin stacking on top of one another like photographs being strewn across her mind. Despite her obvious dislike for the Sound kunochi, Ino did not want the girl to be killed. In fact, the reason why she was making this run so long and tedious was because she wanted to see if she could at least catch a glance of the black haired girl, to relieve her guilty conscious. I am a kunochi, it is either kill or be killed. Her team would have killed Shikamaru, Chouji and I if Sasuke had not intervened. Her troubled mind tried to get herself to understand. But I can't have Dosu kill an innocent girl. And his teammate on top of it. Ino's conscious said to her. And Dosu doesn't care about her, he didn't hesitate to attack his teammate in order to attempt to get Ino out of her mind. Damn.

Ino sighed and finally came to a stop, panting. She raised her hands and rested them on the back of her head, trying to get more air into her lungs.

"Hey Ino." a voice said behind her.

Ino immediately straightened, instantly recognizing a maroon haired kunochi walking towards her, Anko. When Ino had seen the jonin during the chunnin exams, it took all she could to pretend that she didn't know the kunochi. Ino had spent the past three years looking up to Anko. Anko had been to her home many times, after all when she wasn't on missions the hyperactive kunochi tended to help out with torture and interrogation, where she worked closely with Ino's father.

"Anko!" she called out with a smile as she waved happily.

"Training for the exams i see." Anko said taking in Ino's sweaty appearance, stubby ponytail falling from its confines. Ino's body covered in sweat as she wore a pair of shorts and a tight fitting tank top.

"Yeah. Just finished running way too far." Ino replied.

Anko laughed. "Well then let me treat you to some dango."

Ino laughed. "I just had that yesterday!" she exclaimed.

Anko smirked. "All the more reason to have more. You can never have too much dango."

Ino shrugged and followed the older woman to luckily a different dango stand where the two proceeded to place their orders. Ino looked at the other woman before a thought popped into her head. Gods Damn! Anko was one of the proctors! She would know where Kin is. Gods I am an idiot. She turned her attention to Anko who was in the middle of biting a piece of dango.

"Hey Anko." Ino said.

"Hmmm?" Anko asked her mouth full of dango.

"That sound kunochi, Kin. Where is she? Did she go home?" Ino asked.

"Why?" Anko asked suspisciously.

"I was just curious." Ino replied taking a small bite of her dango.

"All ninja who did not pass the second round have been sent home." Anko replied.

Ino let out a breath she didn't realize that she had been holding. The sound kunochi was safe at least for now. Although in the back of her mind, Ino knew that the kunochi really might be killed by Dosu's blood lust when he returned to the Sound Village, but there wasn't much Ino would do about that now. Relived she allowed herself to indulge in the three sticks of dango that Anko had made her order. She looked enviously at Anko's five sticks, but after mentally counting calories, decided that three was more than enough.

"How is training going?" Anko inquired, breaking Ino's train of thought.

"It's going. Dad is going to teach me a new technique today." she replied.

"Not going to lie Ino, your dad scares the hell out of me with his techniques. I would hate to be interrogated by him. Rumor has it that when he first started out, he gave more than a few ninja a brain hemorage. And during the war, along with the other Yamanakas he managed to take out and entire squadron.

ino chuckled. That's true. He has also made 20 ninja kill one another, and was a key to relaying messages to the other units telepathically during the war. Ino thought to herself. Remembering the stories that she had heard Shikaku and Chouza telling one another.

The two finished their dango, catching up on the small talk of the village. Anko looked at the kunochi in training. It was no wonder that Ino knew anything and everything about the village. She was charismatic, charming, and would eventually become the most beautiful kunochi in the village. She was already beginning to grow into her looks, sapphire eyes glinting in a misceviously, dazzling smile. This girl is going to be the best spy Konoha has to offer. Anko more than once found herself almost falling for Ino's charm.

"I have to go back to work, I will see you soon!" Anko exclaimed standing up and stretching her curvy body.

Ino stood up as well. "Good to see you, Anko. I will see you soon!" Ino said cheerfully before she started walking home.

Inochi met his daughter in what could only be described as a trampled training ground full of boulders and holes. What looked like a rock climbing wall was in the far right corner. He sincerely hoped that Ino would be able to preform these techniques. These were not exactly easy jutzu, but with her affinity for earth based techiniques he figured that she might just be able to figure out the Earth Release: Boulder shield. "Hi daddy!" he heard his daughter call out as she walked onto the training ground.

"Ino, tell me what you have read about this jutzu." Inochi quizzed leading his daughter to a boulder and sitting down beside her.

"This jutzu will allow the user to create what can only be described as a rock wall around themselves to protect them from attacks." Ino explained.

"Good. Do you know the hand signs?" he asked.

Ino paused to think and then nodded. "I think so."

"That are they?" Inochi quizzed.

"Horse. Rabbit. Pig. Rabbit. Horse. Tiger. Snake." Ino replied.

"Tiger. Rabbit. Horse. Rabbit. Snake. Tiger. Snake." Inochi corrected.

Ino deflated.

"It is a complex jutzu. Here let's go through the signs together."

And so father and daughter sat together atop the boulder and went through the handsigns over and over again until Inochi was confident that his daughter could not only do the hand signs but could also do them with her eyes closed. "Ready?" Inochi asked.

"I think so." Ino said.

"OK watch me. Channel your chakara to your feet and hands. Then preform the signs and raise your arms up slowly as if you are pulling the stone from the ground. Which is exactly what you will be doing."Inochi described. He then demonstrated jutzu, he preformed the hand signs and after stomping his foot against the ground used his arms to pull the early into a wall his height.

"Wow." he heard his daughter exclaim.

Inochi stepped from behind the wall and smiled at his daughter. "Got it?" he asked.

"Only one way to find out." Ino replied. Inochi watched as she flawlessly weaved through the hand signs. She closed her eyes and slammed her foot against the ground before yanking her hands up in an upward motion. She opened them to see a small mound about the height of her ankles appeared.

"Damn it." she whispered.

Inochi let out a laugh. "That just means that you need to keep practicing."

Ino released a groan, then wove through the hand signs again.

As the sun began to set, Ino was laying on the ground, her slender body covered in dirt and mud, a few bloody parts on her toes and fingers, but overall she was fine. She had managed to get the pieces of earth to reach her mid-shin. But that's not good enough, you won't be able to hide behind that. Unless I manage to drop on my stomach, but if he gets around it will take too long for me to get back on my feet.

She groaned and rolled back to her feet. She began to weave through her hand signs and tried again.