Amateur hour over here kids! Sorry about the story mess-up. But if anyone enjoyed it, I am currently working on a Harry Potter fic too. For real for real, this is the newest chapter!

Ino sighs as she looks in the mirror, she has tried on her third top and fifth pair of kunochi capris, shorts, and skirts. She smiles at the lines of muscles running down her thighs as well as the gap in between them. She also likes the accented muscles on her arms. Her stomach is another story, though her hips are slim, she can't help but pinch the skin around her stomach self-consciously. She'd lost five pounds as opposed to the three that she was trying to loose when she fought Sakura. It's an improvement, I guess. Maybe another five?

"Ino what's taking you so long?" Sakura demands knocking on the door.

Ino sighs "Hold on, Forehead." If daddy would just let me take off the bandages and wear that cute new purple outfit I bought, I wouldn't have to do this.

She pulls on the black spandex shorts They have pockets! she mentally notes excitedly.

The purple tank top has an asymmetrical neckline; the right strap replaced by a band of fishnet meshing, the left side seam has a corset style lacing from top to bottom giving just the slightest hint of exposed skin and her chest bandages. Teasing but not immodest.

As she steps out of the dressing room, Sakura sighs "Do you ever wear any color but purple?"

"Do you ever wear any color but red" she shoots back. She turns around to model the outfit. "What do you think?"

"It looks good, like the last twelve outfits you have tried on." Sakura rolls her eyes.

"I'm serious!" Ino stomps her foot childishly.

"What's wrong with your current outfit, or any of the other items spilling out of your closet and drawers?"

"I want to look good when I fight. Regardless of if I win or loose, I want to look good doing it."

"Your vanity is getting the best of you. You should worry less about your looks and more about your training"

Ino rolls her eyes This vanity of mine still beat you at the chunnin exams.

"I like the top. I think that the shorts are nice too, a little too short for my taste, which means that they are perfect for you."

Ino looks in the mirror again, twisting her body one way then the next. She decides that she likes the top.

"Should I wear something under them? Like some fishnet mesh tights, footless of course.

Sakura nods, she thinks that outfit might suit her very much. "Sounds good, can we go grab lunch now?"

Ino inwardly groans, after looking at herself in the mirror, she's things that maybe she will skip lunch.

"Let me go change and pay. I'll meet you there. We are going to the Ichiruki's?"

Sakura nods. "See you"

Ino changes back into her typical clothing and holding the new outfit in her hands moves to the front of the store. She stops short when she see's the female member of the Sand Siblings standing at the register.

Temari sensing her presence turns and smirks. "How's it going, blondie"

"You're blonde too." Ino replies before mentally wincing. That's something I've been doing a lot lately.

To her surprise, Temari laughs. "True, but I'm more of a dirty/sand blonde. Not nearly as pretty or bright as yours."

"Thank you. I like yours too." Bitch. She can recognize a passive aggressive comment a mile away, she is Ino Yamanaka after all.

Temari nods and turns her attention back to the register. "So what are you getting?" she asks as the owner of the shop begins to ring her up.

"Some clothes." Ino replies. "You?" Keep your defenses up, Ino. You saw what she did to Tenten. This girl is going to fight Shikamaru.

"Some new fishnet mesh. Mine are starting to rip in some places." Temari replies as she pulls the money out of her bag and pays.

Ino nods. "I've never worn them before, are they comfortable?" she walks to the register and places her items on the counter. She'd picked up her own set of fishnet mesh on her way up.

Temari laughs. "As well as anything else I suppose, I like them more than the wrappings because they are less work to put on and maintain."

Now it's Ino's turn to laugh, "Like anything else you get used to it." she takes the bag from the store owner and begins to walk out the door, Temari falls in step with her.

"My brother thinks your cute." Temari says with a knowing smirk.

Ino stops in her place. She doesn't mean Gaara, does she?

As her reading her thoughts, Temari quickly clarifies. "Kankuro."

The relieved smile doesn't go unnoticed by Temari.

"I am sorry, not to disrespect Gaara, but-"

"But he is dangerous." Temari finishes.

Ino nods. Fucking psycho.

Temari gives her a knowing look. They stop at a crossroads

"Well I am this way." Temari points to the left.

Thank god. "I'm going right."

"I'll see you around. Put in a good word with your cute teammate for me, it's a damn shame I''ll have to take him out." Temari says flippantly.

Ino bristles at Temari's comment about Shikamaru, quickly pushing the feeling aside as annoyance towards her teammate. She gives Temari a playful smirk. "You never know with that boy."

Temari smiles and winks before turning and walking away.

Ino rolls her eyes and almost sticks her tongue out at the kunochi's receding form before remembering that she is trying to be a grown up, not some stupid kid. I am part of the goddamn rookie nine! I can't just be some twelve year old kid anymore.

After lunch with Sakura, and a lot of mental calorie counting, Ino arrives at the training ground and awaits the arrival of her two teammates. She does some core exercises while she waits; planks, sit ups, leg lifts- anything she can think of to keep her stomach toned and remove that pinch of an inch.

Asuma is first to arrive, followed closely by Chouji.

"Of course Shikamaru is late again." Ino huffs from her sitting position on the ground.

Asuma chuckles though his exhale of smoke. "Looks like it. At least he isn't as bad as Kakashi."

"Yet." Chouji replies. He is sitting next to Ino and is about to open a bag of chips.

Ino glances at Chouji in annoyance, "Seriously?"

"I'm a growing boy!"

"Lay off him, Ino. You know that he has to eat." Shikamaru drawls as he saunters to his teammates.

Ino narrows her eyes, It's not that he's going to get fat…he's already pudgy. I'm just hungry.

"Nice of you to join us," Asuma flicks his cigarette in Shikamaru's general direction. "Let's get started"

"What are we doing today?" Shikamaru asks.

"Follow me, you three." Asuma replies as he turns away and begins to lead them into the forest.

The three members of Team 10 eye each other wearily. Asuma and Gai are much more similar than the rest of the shinobi of Konoha seem to know. Asuma has been known to throw the curve ball of a ridiculously elaborate Gai-inspired training session, an attempt to disguise it as a game or puzzle. Ino figures that the puzzles are more for Shikamaru's benefit than that of hers or Chouji's, but even she has to admit that they have been rubbing off on her by proxy. Before joining Team 10, Ino never would've thought of using her own hair as a trap. She pulls at the strand that served as the bangs that she allowed to fall in front of her face; she'd finally cut it to match the length of the rest of her hair. She guessed that it was a cute haircut for anyone but herself.

She walks into Shikamaru. Of course I'd walk into fucking Shika. I'm so fed up with this guy. The only time that she would see Shikamaru was at training or when their parents got together, other than that she would avoid her teammate, talking to him only if he talked to her. And despite the 'laid back, lazy persona' that Shikamaru has; Ino knows that he can hold a grudge almost as well as she can. He won't be vocal about it. Even worse, he will just not acknowledge anyone or anything involved with the object of his grudge. It's like he can idle them away.

They stop before a series of platforms, nets, and ropes high above them. Ino notices rope swings across bodies of water, a series of monkey bars, balancing obstacles, rope nets, and an incline wall.

"The hell is this?" Shikamaru demands crossing his arms before the course.

"Training." Asuma replies simply.

Chouji blanches. "Seriously?"

Asuma places a hand on Chouji's head and ruffles his hair. "As a heart attack."

Ino isn't sure if she is excited or terrified of the contraption. Some of the obstacles look interesting, others nearly impossible, even a few looked like fun.

"Another one of Gai's projects?" Shikamaru asks placing his arms behind his head.

"Obviously." Ino mutters.

"I wasn't asking you Ino."

"Then why the hell did your genius mind ask such an obvious question?" she snaps.

"Get off it you two." Chouji growls

"The training is simple, do the course as many time as you can. Go until your chakra runs out, then go again and again. Hopefully it'll blow that steam out of your heads, and make you realize that you're a team"

"Yeah until we fight each other in the arena" Ino says under her breath.

"If you even make it that far. You're going down in the first 30 seconds." Shikamaru snarls.

Chouji puts his face in his palm.

Asuma slaps both Shikamaru and Ino in the back of their heads. "Get going."

Chouji runs out of chakara after three attempts, at least that's through how many calories he was able to spare. Without his chakra, he makes it through another three rounds before he finally misses a rope swing and falls.

Shikamaru runs out of chakara after five attempts, then stops completely. "I'm not wasting my energy on something stupid like this." he says as he lays on his back atop the incline wall.

Ino makes it through seven time with chakara, and almost twice without. The obstacle was called a 'log grip' in which she had to wrap her arms and legs around a log and allow it to swing her to the next platform. She'd lost traction, causing her to slide off the log and onto the ground. Drenched in sweat, Ino allowed herself to stay on the ground and catch her breath.

Shikamaru's shadow meandered towards he and he eventually blocked out the beams of light through the trees. "You're going to regret this tomorrow you know."

"At least I tried" Ino says between gasps.

"In the beginning maybe. You got reckless and ignored your own chakara limitations. You can't finish a mission on sheer willpower and strength alone, Ino. Especially with your kekki genkai."

"What?" she leaps to her feet.

"Your kekki genkai is unsafe unless you have another shinobi with you."

"Because my father is unable to complete S ranked missions alone?" Ino hisses, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You are not your father, Ino." Shikamaru reminds her, his own voice laced with venom.

"And your technique is useless without Chouji. Sure you can capture and make someone's body move, neat. What are you going to do? Get lucky and have them knock themselves out by doing a fancy backbend?"

Shikamaru's face darkens.

"Stop it!' Asuma yells shoving the two away with a chakara infused palms, causing both students to slam into a tree.

"You are Ino-Shika-Cho! You and your ancestors are the best ninja cell in Konoha's history. What would they say if they saw your behavior?"

"Wonder how the hell the 16th generation of Ino-Shika-Cho has a girl on the team?" Shikamaru complains.

Ino makes a lunge for Shikamaru, but Chouji catches her at the last moment. "Fuck you, Shika!" she screams struggling against Chouji's grasp.

Asuma groans and runs a hand down the side of his face.

Ino notices Shikamaru's hand twitch in the direction of his weapon pouch she stops her struggle in Chouji's grasp. She realizes that she had finally broken through Shikamaru's.

Asuma's hand wraps around Shikamaru's wrist.

"Practice is over. You both need to go home." Asuma's voice takes on an icy tone.

Chouji releases Ino's arm's and she rubs the red impressions on his fingers on her thin arms. Those are going to bruise later, Chouji's getting stronger.

"Damn, you're getting stronger." she mutters rubbing them.

Ino glares at Shikamaru's receding back.

Asuma's wrath lands on Ino. "You finally broke through Shikamaru's calm, Ino. He's your teammate, your parents are best friends, and you're hot-headedness is going to lead to a team not being able to work together or trust each other."

Fuck you Asuma, you know nothing. "If he would stop being an asshole and telling me that I can't handle this. If he's really my teammate, he would help me and believe in me! If we are supposed to support each other and trust each other then why the hell is he telling me I can't do this!"

Asuma sighs. Ino can tell that her words made a point. You know that I'm right.

"Ino, Shikamaru says those things because he is worried about you." Chouji says.

Ino groans. "Why the hell are you still here! Great, now he's going to go tell Shikamaru! Those two can't keep secrets from each other to save their lives.

"Don't take your anger out on Chouji." Asuma replies.

Ino lets out a gravelly scream as she runs her hands through her hair. "I don't need this!" and turns away, stomping away from them. Fuck I'm a bitch. Way to be disrespectful to your sensai. Way to be a jerk to Chouji. She feels a small pang of guilt, but quickly pushes it away. She can do this, she can compete, she can hold her own against Dosu.

She will train herself if she has to.

She realizes that in her anger she left her shopping bag behind at the training ground.

Dejectedly she turns to walk back to the training grounds, seeing Asuma's smirking face as he holds her shopping bag.