-1Hello, hello. Im srry ppl, but I DID get a life, and after I did, I was hit with a GIGANTIC thing of writers block. Im trying to update this, so that no one will hate me, and becuz I know wat itz like to wait a REALLY long time for a story u love.(Im referring to Mind Games. Thnx so much x Ino Fan x! And, I don't know if u guys really like it,(my fic that is) or just read it for the sarcasm, but Im trying to be considerate) I'm also really happy that ppl r updating and creating more NejixIno fics!(gawd knows we need more) I don't want to be a hypocrite, so Im trying to update. Also, I want to thnk sakimono-chan, cuz she wrote me a NejixIno. EVEN though she doesn't like it that much. Namine94 also has been super nice, and even came up with a part in this fic! Thnx Namine! Im trying my best at writing romance, so bear with me! I hope it turns out okay…REVIEW!

-The part where this story gets more serious(OR NOT)-

Neji woke up feeling very, very stiff.(He's been sleeping on a brick wall, what do u expect) It was going to suck to travel further today. He was going to have to 'talk' to Hinata-sama later. He tried to get up, but then looked over at his left, and noticed Ino using him as a pillow, arms around him. He smirked and shook his head. "And here I was saying she would tilt over, but would she take my advice? Typical stubborn Ino…" He sat there, wondering whether to wake her up or not, when all of a sudden, a girl to the balcony next to them, sees them, and while laughing her head off, shouts,

"GO GET YOUR GROOVE ON IN YOUR ROOM, AND NOT ON YOUR BALCONY WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE YOU, THOUGH I WOULDN'T MIND WATCHING, IT WOULD BE MORE ENTERTAINING THAN AN M RATED FANFICTION!!!(Haha, good job, Namine!) She ran back into her room, not waiting to see Neji's reaction.

His eyes grew wide and he glanced over at Ino again. The blonde kunoichi was starting was starting to grow on him, but this was too much! "You know what, I think that helped me make my decision. Hey, Ino, wake up." Ino didn't stir. Neji frowned. "I thought she was a light sleeper? Hinata-sama said she almost got punched in the face when she tried to wake her up the other day…"

He gently shook her, but then noticed that her breathing was shallow, and her body felt cold, not like a normal human's body temperature. He saw that her left arm was caked in blood, a little pool drying beside her.

"Wha…I didn't sense any movement up here…I would've have known right away…could her headache cause this…? Who knows what kind of headaches a person who uses mind jutsus have…?" He picked her up, and started kicking the door, assuming Hinata still had the chakra barriers on it.

"Hinata-sama! Open up!" He then looked through the glass, and saw that the chakra barriers had been taken down. "She sure has a sense of humor…" He opened it, went inside, and set Ino on the couch. Hinata and Naruto came running in the main room.

"Neji!" Naruto exclaimed, "What did you do to Ino-chan!"

Neji stared at him. "I didn't do ANYTHING. When I woke up, her arm was caked in blood. Her breathing is shallow and labored, and her body temperature is below normal, I'm assuming."

Hinata activated Byakugan and looked at her arm. "Neji, take a look at this."

Neji activated his Byakugan also, and examined her arm. "There's a sinister build-up of black chakra in that arm. Like nothing I've never seen. Normal chakra is blue, while chakra used for healing is green. Naruto has the Kyuubi's red chakra, and Sasuke had a purple chakra when his cursed seal was activated. But black? It's trying to seep through the rest of her body. I don't know what the meaning of this is, but it can't be good."

Hinata shivered. "It's such a cold chakra, no wonder her body temp is low."

Naruto nodded. "That makes sense, but why is her arm, bleeding?"

Hinata ran over to Ino's medical supplies "I may not be a medic nin, but I'll try to clean up her arm." Hinata started cleaning up her arm, but once the caked blood was off she gasped. "What is this?! She has some sort of markings on her arm! It looks like a clan seal, or whatever."

Neji looked at it for a minute. "Now that I think about it, that Fuyu kid had similar spirals up his left arm. His spirals didn't circle up his arm as many as Ino's though. Maybe six times, but on Ino's arm, they circle about ten…not too mention that he had black irises, and blue pupils also…could they be related?"

Naruto shook his head. "Okay, I don't get it. Wasn't his name Fuyu Souzuteki though? I've seen Ino's parents, they have normal eyes, and no spirals…what is that all about?"

Hinata finished wrapping up her arm. "G-good point, Naruto-kun. I-I wonder why…"

Neji turned around, and headed towards the door.

"Neji, w-where are you going?"

"I'm going to see if the villagers know anything about the Souzuteki clan. If they are in league with Orochimaru, then this could be bad. And according to the map, we should be pretty close to his western headquarters…" He hurried out of the room.

Hinata and Naruto looked at each other. "Well, Hinata-chan, what do we do now?"

"W-well, I don't know what else we can do for her. We could go get breakfast, and let her rest. If she isn't awake by the time we get back, then we should take her to a hospital, or find a healing nin. Ino's got a strong, stubborn spirit, she might turn out okay…I really don't know if it's a good idea leaving her though…"

"Well, like you said, we probably can't help her. She knows medical stuff, even unconscious, I'm sure she can help herself. Believe it!"

-Around 9:00 a.m.-

Ino woke up feeling as though her arm was frozen. She slowly got up, and wondered how she ended up on the couch INSIDE. She saw that her arm was wrapped up, and started to unravel the bandage. "What is this?! Some sort of tattoo? …this is getting weird…and how did I end up over here? Didn't Hinata lock Neji and I outside? Ugh, maybe my headache was corrupting my thinking. I don't know. And where is everybody? Hm, I guess I'll just ask what's going on when they get back…" She gathered some clean clothes, and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

5 minutes later, Neji came back, and walked over to the couch. "Where's Ino?"(note: single words that r caps or italicized mean somebody's emphasizing a word; plain italics mean someones thinking) He cautiously looked around the suite, and then just gave up, and activated Byakugan.

"…Hn…" He froze. "Okay, I didn't mean to see that…" Neji mentally whacked himself. "Loser! You should of considered the possibility of her being in the bathroom! Ugh, great, now I'm worse than Naruto!" He sighed and sat down. "But come on, it was a view, even though she was wrapped in a towel. A SHORT one."

This time Neji shook his head. "Stupid Naruto, corrupting my mind with his perverted ways…okay, remember, you are not, and will never be a pervert!"

Suddenly, the door opened, and Ino stepped out, tying her hair into it's usual ponytail. "Hm, I miss having long hair…oh, Neji, you're back."

Neji stood up and walked over to her. "So, how's your arm?"

Ino rewrapped her bandage. "Hurts like hell, but whatever. I wont let it get in the way of the mission. And, not to mention I've got the powers of the healing arts on my side."

"Oh really?"

"Well, duh. I figured out that I can stop my nerve cells carrying the information that my arm is in pain, so, therefore, I don't even realize that it hurts! Watch…"

She gathered chakra in her hand, and started to use it on her arm "What the…why is my chakra black? It's usually green…"

"Ino, when I woke up this morning, I noticed that you're arm was bleeding, Hinata-sama cleaned your arm, and that's when we found those spirals on your arm. A black chakra is emanating from it, and it's spreading throughout your whole body. I went around to see if anybody knew anything about the Souzuteki's…" He paused. "Fuyu had spirals just like those, meaning that you must have some Souzuteki blood, Ino, because that is their mark."

Ino looked at him. "Y-you cant be serious! My mom's maiden name is Konaime.(idk ppl…I just made something up) Then that would mean that…she's my step-mom or something…"

"Ino, I've seen her at the hospital. She doesn't look anything like you."

"Well, just because she doesn't look like me doesn't mean she's not my mom, right?"

"Well, we could consider that maybe she changed her last name or something, but looking at Fuyu, it seems like blonde hair and eyes with black irises and blue pupils are their genetic traits, just like white eyes in my family."

"This is messed up. And this chakra…it feels darker, and stronger than my usual chakra…"

"I don't know what to say…"

"Well, Fuyu did seem to know me or something…and he called me Ino-SAMA. And then he also claimed that he knew more about me than I myself…I thought he was just trying to creep me out…"

"This is a definite possibility, like it or not."

Ino sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do. You know what, let's just forget this ever happened, and continue with the mission."

"Are you sure? Just for your benefit, you might want to see a medic nin about that. Maybe they can't seal that chakra, but they can at least do something about it."

"Hey, why are you acting so concerned? Why should the 'Hyuga prodigy' care what happens to someone like me?"

"Pft, don't flatter yourself. I was merely caring for the sake of the mission. None of this has anything to do with YOU." Neji wasn't about to make himself look like a moron.

"Sure. I know that DEEP down, you really care."

"What, are you probing my mind or something?"

"So you are admitting that THE Neji Hyuga has a crush on me?"

"No, nothing like that. Why should I?"

"…Okay, if you're not going to admit it, I won't force you!" Ino skips off to make coffee, leaving Neji hanging. (sort of) After she's had about two cups of coffee, Naruto and Hinata come back. Hinata's eyes widen.

"So you're okay now?"

"Oh yeah."

Neji glances at the clock on the wall. "Well, if none of us feel as if we are about to die, then let's check out, shall we?"

Naruto runs and gets his bag. "Okay! I managed to fit all of my ramen in the bag this time!"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good thing too, because gawd knows how much trouble we'd be in without RAMEN."

Naruto stared at her with an angry look in his eyes. "Hey, I don't question your coffee, so you don't question my ramen."

Ino sighed and shrugged. "Whatever." They all headed downstairs to reception desk, and turns out the guy who Neji thoroughly scared was sitting there, snoring away. Neji cleared his throat and the guy looked up.

"Y-you….w-w-were the guy f-f-f-from the o-o-ther d-day…AH!" He grabbed the keys from his hand, and pushed all of them out of the inn, then ran back inside, typed something at the computer, then ran off to the bathrooms. AGAIN.

Ino looked at Neji, eyebrows raised, and a big sarcastic smile on her face. "Wow. That's one way to get service at an inn, huh? THAT WAS TOO FUNNY!" She burst out laughing, and Naruto and Hinata soon joined her. People on the street were wondering why these crackpots were laughing their heads off by their villages best inn. Oh well. They were too scared to ask, anyways.

-10:00 pm-

After the four of them set up their tents and ate, Ino went off to do the first patrol, but was surprised when Neji came before his shift started.

"What are you doing here so early?"

"Making sure we won't die in our beds due to your patrolling skills."

"Hey! I WAS the one who saved your butt from that Fuyu kid anyways!"

"I wouldn't necessarily call it that. Anyways, knowing you, you'll probably fall off of a tree and be unable to make sure no one gave us a surprise attack."

"I'm NOT a klutz!" Ino was so busy glaring at Neji, she didn't have enough time to get a steady balance on the tree ahead of her. Her foot slipped off the branch, and she tried to get chakra in her hands, so she could grab the nearest tree. All of a sudden, she fell into a pair of strong, warm arms.

"Nice going, Yamanaka." But before she had time to protest, their faces got closer, and Neji pulled her into a long, sweet kiss.

-End of Chappie 5-

Wow. If the last two chappies have been cheesy lately, then Im srry, but like I said, I suck at romance. I TRIED MY BESTIEST! Anywayz, Once again, srry for the delay, but my brain turned to caffeinated goo, so I tried to finish it. And ALWAYS remember, REVIEWS ARE APPRECIATED/WANTED/NEEDED/THE AUTHOR GETS HIGH OFF OF READING THEM! Okay, maybe not the last part as much, but you get my point. Flames, constructive critiscism, ANYTHING is welcome.