Shikamaru stared at the blonde kunochi before him. Ino looked different. She didn't look like the vain kunochi that she usually was, in fact she looked more like a real kunochi, like Anko or even Tenten. Her short blond hair pulled back in almost comical looking stubby pigtails. Her usually perfectly manicured fingernails were uneven and broken while toenails remained unpolished. A few scrapes graced her typically flawless skin, almost like she was a small child who fell off her bike and had road rash.

"Ino you look different." Chouji said, stating the fact that Shikamaru was thinking.

Shikamaru noticed that she didn't flinch, nor did she break eye contact with him as she replied. "Different, how?"

"You just look…I don't know more like a kunochi." Chouji stated.

"I have always been a kunochi, fatso." she replied. Shikamaru could hear the slightly irritated tone. He knew that Ino took his opinion that she shouldn't compete in the chunin exams to heart. He knew that she was training her ass off. He sighed she has so much potential but she isn't at that level yet. The Dosu guy could easily kill her.

"Okay you three, let's get started." Asuma said lighting a cigarette.

The three members of Team 10 stopped talking and turned to their jounin sensai. "What's happening today?" Chouji inquired.

"Target practice." Asuma said simply.

Shikamaru and Chouji let out a groan while Ino smiled. It's about time I got some more target practice in. I haven't really focused on this since Neji commented on my skills.

"Okay, let's do it." Ino said.

Asuma smiled and lightly tugged one of Ino's pigtails affectionately. "That's my girl."

I have the best aim out of the three of us. Shikamaru has the worst, because let's face it he doesn't really give a shit. Chouji isn't too bad. Ino thought to herself as she and her two teammates lined up across from the targets, kunai in hand.

Ino let weapon after weapon fly, all of them hitting the target, all of them within at two rings or less of the center. Out of the twenty that she threw at least ten of them were embedded within the center. Looks like I have improved at least a little bit at least. She thought to herself as she mentally counted all of her weapons and where they all landed. At the academy she was the top female when it came to target practice, although she knew that she was no where nearly as talented as Tenten when it came to weapons. Maybe I should ask her for a few pointers…then again she is too busy training that pompous Hyuuga.

She glanced at Shikamaru's targets and found herself smirking. Her aim was certainly better than his and she was beyond thrilled that she had at least defeated him at one thing since they had started training together, if there was one thing that Ino hated more than anything it was to loose. And she had been doing that a lot lately.

She looked over at Chouji's targets next, he isn't too bad to be honest. If he would practice a little bit more he would be able to hit a majority of the targets no problem. Then she noticed something a bit more surprising, she narrowed her eyes to get a better look at the targets. Where her kunai had landed with a satisfying thunk against the targets, embedded about a third of the way in like they were supposed to be, Chouji's weapons were stuck in the target at least half of the way. Holy shit, it doesn't matter if Chouji doesn't hit someone in a fatal location, he throws with so much power that he could probably shatter a bone. If he hit someone in the leg he would be set. "Holy shit Chouji." she exclaimed as she voiced her thoughts.

"What?" Chouji demanded.

Ino double checked to make sure that Shikamaru had finished throwing his weapons before grabbing her teammates arm and leading him to the targets. She first showed him her and Shikamaru's weapons. "See how our kunais are only one-third of the way within the target?" Chouji nodded.

"Well yours are about half way within. Your aim could use a little work, but holy shit you could definitely break a bone, and take a good chunk out of someone." Ino said.

Chouji beamed proudly. "Wow." he said to himself obviously proud of his new found strength.

"Not bad you three." Asuma said inspecting the progress of his team. The three smiled.

"Now drop and give me fifty." Asuma demanded. The three members of team ten looked at one another before letting out dramatic sighs and beginning what would only be a long and tedious day of pushups, pull ups, hand stands, weight lifting, and of course more push ups.

Ino sighed as she sat, her back against the wall her father had made yesterday in the Yamanaka training ground, glaring at the knee high rock wall that she had made. She had been at it for four hours Why the hell can I not get this? she demanded to herself. There were small mounds of earth scattered about the training ground, each one of them a failure in her eyes. She sighed and leaned her head back against the wall.

"Still struggling?" Inochi asked as he walked up to his daughter.

"Yep." Ino replied curtly.

"You'll get it, sweetheart just keep trying." Inochi encouraged.

"Dad, the chunin exams are only two weeks away, I have so much training to do, and I can't just waste my time trying to make stupid rock walls. I have always picked up things so far, I just don't understand why I am having so much trouble." Ino complained.

"Sometimes struggle is good for us. Keep trying." The head of the Yamanaka clan said simply.

Ino rolled her eyes causing her dad to chuckle lightly.

"I have a mission tomorrow."

Ino perked up. "How long?"

"No more than four days. I'll be home as soon as possible, it's just a ridiculously long journey to the Land of Snow. Obviously not exactly a close trip." Inochi explained.

Ino hated it when her father left for long periods of time. She had always grown up with it, with him as a ninja. He was the reason she became a ninja. However, Ino still felt a slight twinge of fear, loosing her mother had been bad enough, she wasn't sure what she would do if she lost her father as well.

"I'll be fine, Ino. Come on, take a break. We can have dinner and you can stay here all night if you want to." he joked.

Ino sighed but allowed her father to pull her to her feet. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"How about Ichiruki?"

Ino chuckled "Okay."

Ino sat next to her father as the two of them placed their orders. They discussed the happenings of the T&I unit, while Ino told her father about her run in with Anko. Leaving out the details about her guilty conscious only asking Anko because she was worried that she had killed another kunochi.

"Oh damn." Ino muttered softly.

Inochi looked at her daughter. "What is it?" he asked following his daughter's gaze. Standing at the entrance was non other than two members of Team One along with the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha himself.

"Ino. I know that Gai is a bit eccentric, but there is not reason to react like that." Inochi scolded.

"It's not Gai." Ino said.

"Who?"

"The Hyuuga. Let's just say that we don't exactly get along too well." Ino said simply.

"He was the number one rookie last year. I heard that the reason that Team One didn't compete in the exams last year was because each of them had to battle Gai one-on—one. Looks like they won this year." Inochi said with a chuckle before turning his attention back to his noodles.

Neji had his arms crossed and sighed. Gai wanted to go to Ichiruku, and to humor him both he and TenTen agreed. He hated Ichiruki, not that he didn't like ramen, far to the contrary. He just hated the number one knuckle-headed ninja who tended to eat at the restaurant. He looked around, looks like the idiot in the orange jumpsuit is no where to be seen. He thought to himself as he gazed around the building. Then his eyes landed short and poorly cut blond hair, before her eyes met his briefly and quickly Ino turned to speak to her father. He looked at the father and daughter, it was obvious that Ino took after her father in looks. Long hair, although Ino's was a few shades later. Blue eyes, fair skin, and of course the ability to manipulate the brains of others. He had heard rumor that Inochi was the ninja that interrogated the most difficult of ninja. Sometimes he left his enemies in such a state of trauma that they had to be institutionalized. But those are all rumors of course. If Inochi is so powerful how is Ino so weak? I heard that her mother was a civilian that's probably why. He turned and followed his teammates, trying to forget the dream that he had yesterday night about the blonde kunochi.