Shifted
by Rylarei

Summary: Lying had always come easy to her, but she never thought she'd have to lie about this. Life sure has a way of making the unlikely happen. A new spin on the Team 7 dynamic. Ino-centric. Ocean Ripples rewrite. "You're like the wind, gentle and soft one moment, then harsh and cutting the next."

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

xxx

Chapter Three

Ino grunted as she fought off the kunai aiming for her throat. There was no way she was going to hold it off for long, not with an opponent who was obviously stronger than her. Relaxing her wrist, she spun of the way, using her momentum to smack the butt of her kunai on her opponent's temple.

Sasuke stumbled before righting himself, glaring at the opposing blonde. Ino grinned cheekily at him. The boy had made good on his promise and they started meeting at the same training field after class let out everyday. He had yet to pull off a decisive victory on her, as she kept wiling her way out of his hold. It was already two weeks after their first spar, and today was the first time they allowed weapons. Of course, being Ino, she banned permanent injuries. Scars were still possible ways to identify someone after all.

"Why won't you just," he sent off a jab. "Sit." he ground his teeth, swinging his arm as she dodged out of the way of his strikes. "Still!" he grunted. She was getting on his nerves, she knew, but it was so much fun getting a rise out of him.

"I wouldn't be a very good ninja if I just let you hit me," she teased. He rolled his eyes at her. She laughed. She was really starting to enjoy spending time with him, something she never thought she'd say. Ever. It turned out that he wasn't such a stick in the mud if you impressed him enough. He was just socially…stunted, she supposed. It was understandable though, with what happened to him. You didn't go through an ordeal like that and come out unscathed. Things like that left huge marks, no matter how invisible.

She faltered when she sensed her father approaching. "Wait," she said. Sasuke stopped, turning inquisitive eyes to her. She frowned. "My dad's coming," she explained. He nodded and started doing his post-spar stretches. She pouted. And today was supposed to be fun, too. Oh well.

"Hi, princess," Yamanaka Inoichi greeted. She smiled brightly at him.

"Hi, Daddy!" she chirped. "Did you need something?"

Inoichi eyed the younger boy beside Ino. "Your mother's calling you," he said with a smile. He started walking back to their house at a leisurely pace, making sure she could catch up to him.

She turned towards Sasuke. "Sorry about that, see you tomorrow!" she said as she jogged to catch up to her father. Sasuke nodded in response, eyes distracted. She tilted her head in curiosity at that but shrugged it away nonetheless. They weren't close enough to warrant her questions anyway.

"What does Mama want?" she asked her oddly silent father.

He gave her an indulgent smile. "You'll see soon enough," he said.

The walk home was oddly quiet, almost solemn. She snuck a glance at her father. His silence was seriously making her nervous. Was her mother mad? She pouted at the blank expression on her father. She never could read him.

"She's in the garden," Inoichi urged. "Don't want to keep her waiting."

Ino nodded as she trotted off to the backyard, her mother's domain if anything. This was where they spent most of their time together. "Mama?" she called.

"Over here," came the reply. The Yamanaka matriarch was sitting on a stone bench overlooking a small fountain in the middle of the garden. She indicated the seat next to her. "Sit."

"What did you need me for?" Ino asked.

Mayori gave her a sideward glance. "You're going to be a kunoichi soon," she said. Ino nodded, trying her hardest to be patient with her mother. "Your father will start teaching you the more advanced Yamanaka clan techniques now. As will I."

Ino blinked up at her. Her mother usually didn't want anything to do with the Yamanaka techniques. "What will you be teaching me?"

Mayori stood and bent over one of her many wolf's banes. Plucking one out, something that caused Ino to gasp in disbelief, the elder Yamanaka began channeling her chakra into the plant. Ino gaped. Since when could her mother use chakra? In the blink of an eye, Mayori threw the flower at her, stem first. Ino's eyes widened as she hurriedly dodged out of the way. Wolf's bane was poisonous, there was no way she was getting hit by that.

"The Yamanaka are known for their mind techniques, that's true," her mother said, sharp blue eyes scrutinizing her. "But we Yamanaka women are known for more than that."

"Our ikebana?" Ino asked.

Mayori gave her a small smile. "Yes, though not in the form we use it now," she said. Her eyes had a faraway look to it. "Back when we were still at war, the Yamanaka were renowned for their assassination skills. Skills that allowed them to kill whoever they wanted without ever having to be in contact with their target, let alone ever be in the same room as them."

Ino's mind soared at that. She stole a look at the flower that was still embedded in on of the trees behind her. Did it have something to do with potions? Mayori stared patiently at her, unmoving. "Teach me," she breathed.

xxx

Ino tapped her finger on the desk impatiently. She already knew she would be assigned to a team with Shika and Choji so could Iruka-sensei get on with it already? She sighed as she looked down at her rival in disdain. Sakura, who was the second best amongst the females would most likely be paired off with Sasuke. Ugh. She could already imagine how insufferable the girl would be.

"Team Seven will be: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka-sensei said. This was it, Sakura would get called and ruin every other girls' dreams. "And Yamanaka Ino." Ino froze. What? What the hell? What about Ino-Shika-Cho? She gaped at Iruka-sensei before the wails from the female population roused her from her stupor. A slow, devious grin rose on her face as she launched herself at the Uchiha.

"I just knew we were destined to be together, Sasuke," she crooned. Oh, this was priceless.

"Get off of Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!" came Sakura's incessant screech. Ino gave her an unimpressed glance.

"You're just jealous that I'm better than you," she taunted.

"Enough," Iruka-sensei shouted. "MOVING ON, Team eight consists of Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuga Hinata. Team nine are still in rotation so we'll move on to team ten which are Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji, and Haruno Sakura. And that concludes the teams. Wait here for your jonin instructors." With that, Iruka-sensei rolled up his scroll and left the classroom.

"I'm stuck with a lazy ass and a glutton," Sakura lamented. Ino rolled her eyes at the theatrics. The girl better not treat her best friends like trash, or else she'd have another thing coming.

"Get off of me," Sasuke growled. Ino jumped away. She hadn't realized she was still hanging onto him like a complete harlot. That was embarrassing. She flushed as she stuck her tongue out. Sasuke rolled his eyes at her. "Whatever."

The three of them sat apart while waiting for their new sensei. She sighed. She wondered who it would be. Hopefully it was someone really strong and easy to talk to. She started easy conversation with Choji about random things until his team got called and it was just hers left. Her eye twitched at that. What was taking their sensei so long? She pouted.

She almost jumped when a silver haired man walked into the classroom, setting off Naruto's prank. Ino's eyes widened. Their sensei was Hatake Kakashi? She had to admit; she felt a little giddy to be learning from someone so renowned.

"My first impressions of you: I don't like you," he said tonelessly. "Meet me at the rooftop in five."

Ino frowned as he disappeared in a flurry of leaves. "Let's go," she said to a still celebrating Naruto as she dragged him up the stairs. Seriously, what kind of jonin falls for a trick like that? She rolled her eyes at Naruto's gloating.

"Took you long enough," Kakashi said as he eyed their group. "Sit. Introduce yourselves." Ino stared at him, clearly unimpressed. He sighed. "Alright, I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm a jonin, I have many likes and dislikes, my hobbies are things you're not allowed to know, and my goals are..." He trailed off, seeming like he was reminiscing about something. "Anyway, why don't you go first." He pointed at her.

Ino narrowed her eyes at him. "My name is Yamanaka Ino, a new genin," she said. "And that's all I'm telling you because you're currently untrustworthy." She sniffed. Why should she tell him anything if he didn't do the same?

To her surprise, Kakashi gave her a weird eye smile. "Good. Never give away personal information to a person you've just met." It made her feel somewhat proud that she'd gotten something right in the first few minutes of their meeting. "And you two?" He asked as he turned to her male teammates.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto exclaimed. Kakashi sweatdropped at that.

Sasuke merely grunted. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Good. Meet me at training ground three tomorrow at 7 AM. Don't be late." he said. He seemed to think a bit before he added, "And don't eat breakfast if you don't want to puke it all out afterwards."

Ino sighed as he shunshined away again. She could tell this was going to be the start of a tiring career as a genin.

xxx

The next morning, Ino decided to pack a couple of bentos for her team. She sighed as she stared forlornly at the clock. She'd had to wake up earlier than usual but it was worth it. She really wanted to get along with her team, and the fastest way she knew how was to offer them food. Hey, it worked with Shika and Choji, it would probably work with Sasuke and Naruto. Now that she thought about it, she'd definitely have to make Naruto eat things other than that stupid ramen of his. Sure, Teuchi's ramen was really good but that didn't mean she would eat it for every meal of every day. That was just asking for health problems.

She hummed as she popped a cherry tomato in her mouth. She knew Kakashi-sensei didn't want them to eat breakfast, but there was no way she wouldn't at least eat something light before going out. There was careless, then there was just stupidity. Everybody knew breakfast was the most important meal of the day. So while she was technically going against orders, she also technically wasn't. A few tomatoes weren't breakfast, after all. Just a small snack. She smiled at her own ingenious.

As she finished the last of the bentos, she made a quick mental check of her things, making sure she didn't forget anything. It wouldn't do to be unprepared should their sensei ask them to train today. She rifled through her hip pouch with a frown. Her standard tools were there, but she would be hard-pressed to fit any sort of flora in as well. She'd have to think of alternate storage methods or her flowers would be useless by the time she got them out of the pouch. She sighed, maybe her mother would have some ideas?

She walked leisurely to the designated meeting point. On the way, she greeted a few of the shopkeepers just opening up their businesses for the day. It felt nice to be awake at this time. The air was fresh and cool, with a hint of the fog from the night before. She was the first one in the training field. She shrugged, it wasn't surprising. She was thirty minutes early after all. Deciding to get some early exercise in, she dropped the bentos beside a tree and started on light stretches.

Sasuke arrived a few minutes into her katas. He gave her an appraising look. She rolled her eyes at him. She wasn't doing this to impress the broody boy. She kept half an eye on him as he started his own stretches and warmups. She wondered at how different even their stretching techniques were. Were the boys taught differently in the academy? She hummed in thought, she'd never thought about that.

Naruto soon came crashing into the field with his trademark sunshine disposition. She sighed. She was getting tired just watching him bounce around while he sat staring at them.

"Want to join?" she asked. He scrunched up his nose, an act that reminded her of children who were confronted with a hated vegetable.

"No, thanks!" he chirped. She shrugged and turned away from him. "Wanna spar?" he asked Sasuke. Said Uchiha gave him a disbelieving glare. She raised a brow at them.

"You should conserve your energy," she admonished. "I bet you guys didn't eat a thing for breakfast."

"We weren't supposed to," Naruto whined at her.

"Yes, but everyone knows it's not good to not eat anything for breakfast," she sighed at his blank look. "You could've had an energy bar or something before coming. You're going to need it in case we have to do some training before we can eat. I bet Sasuke at least ate something. Right, Sasuke?"

She gaped in disbelief when Sasuke looked away with a light blush on his cheeks. Seriously? Even the Uchiha Sasuke was stupid enough to not eat anything just because their sensei said so? Oh, she was going to lose it. With a long suffering sigh, she unpacked two of the bentos.

"Here, have a few tomatoes," she said.

Naruto pouted at her. "Vegetables? I hate vegetables!"

She glared at him, hand on her hip. "You're going to eat this whether you like it or not. I went to the trouble of waking up early to prepare all of these for you guys," she said. She gave him a pout of her own. "You wouldn't want my efforts to go to waste, would you? Besides, tomatoes are fruits not vegetables."

Naruto blanched as he snatched up the offered fruit. She gave him a winning smile. She turned to Sasuke, who was surprisingly finished with his tomatoes. She hummed, he must have really liked them then.

"Looks like my cute little genin are quite lively in the morning," a deep voice behind her said.

She whirled around but couldn't find where the voice had come from, so she turned her eyes up and searched for him in the trees. What the hell? Was this some sort of test? She felt Sasuke tense up beside her. So even he couldn't find their sensei, huh? She frowned as she gathered up her chakra. She was still new to the whole sensing thing so it took her a considerable amount of effort to look for or even sense unfamiliar people.

But wait, why was she sensing him near the poles when there clearly wasn't anyone there. There was just a small alarm clock that none of them had paid attention to, thinking it was left there by someone from before. She cocked her head at it. Would anyone actually forget something like that in a training field? Probably not. She signaled Sasuke and he gave her a nod.

They casually walked towards the training posts as Ino tried to confirm the chakra signature. She kept up a steady stream of conversation with both the boys, though all Sasuke would reply were grunts. If they were wrong, they'd destroy someone's alarm clock. If they were right, they'd passed whatever test their sensei was giving them.

In a flash, Sasuke sent a kunai flying at the clock. A puff of smoke appeared, revealing their silver-haired sensei. He gave them all that weird eye smile again as Naruto spluttered at his sudden appearance.

"That was pretty impressive," he said. "How did you know I was there?"

Sasuke gave her a questioning look. "I was able to sense that there was a chakra signature there even though there was no one around, so I signaled Sasuke and he tested it by throwing a kunai."

"Good to see that you trust each other enough for that," Kakashi said. Ino blushed at the praise. "What would you have done if that was someone's special clock?"

"I aimed so it would only graze it," Sasuke said.

Kakashi smiled. "Good job, team. You're much better than I thought you would be," he hummed. He turned to Naruto who was bouncing around looking constipated. "Yes, Naruto?"

"How did Ino-chan and Sasuke-kun know you were there?" he asked.

"It's a technique that lets someone sense someone else's chakra," Kakashi explained. Naruto's face scrunched up; he clearly didn't understand.

"So it's like a super jutsu that lets you know where people are?" he asked.

Kakashi gave him an indulgent smile. "Let's go with that." Kakashi looked at their expectant faces solemnly. "I'm afraid I have some bad news however," he said. "Only two of you will be able to continue on to become genin. One of you will be sent back to the academy."

Ino's world seemingly froze. What?

xxx

Author's Note:

This took a bit longer than I thought it would. I'm still trying to strike a balance between giving more depth and believability to the characters whilst not lingering too long on any one scene. I've also decided to change up the way I do breaks, since Word and FFnet don't really cooperate with each other when it comes to horizontal line breaks.