Walking off to the side to sit under a tree, Inoichi watched as his kids ferociously chased after the three dogs. After watching them struggle for thirty minutes he absentmindedly said, "Oh and just to add another element to your training. Your opponent is rarely ever going to let you perform your jutsu or chase after them without retaliating. So, use your heads, because these pups pack quite a bite, good luck."
FIVE HOURS LATER
Five hours…they were exhausted, littered with dog bites, and covered in both scratches and dirt, but they did it! It took them five whole hours, but they finally hit one of the dogs with the jutsu and they only managed it because they wore the dogs down. Crumpling to the floor they couldn't take much more of this. Hopefully this was the last of their training montage, the two Yamanaka kids didn't think they could survive more of this brutal cycle.
Inoichi laughed as he watched both the Haruma Brothers and his children lay on the ground in a heap of exhaustion. "Well I'm sure you both will be glad to know that the next part will be the last official clan training for now. Tomorrow I will have some hawks that you will have to hit with the Shintenshin and then we will be able to move on." Inoichi said with a gleam in his eyes as he grabbed his prince and princess who were too tired to walk themselves and walked home.
The next day after eating a hearty breakfast the blond Yamanakas were ready for the next training. Walking into the caged training area with confidence they didn't have yesterday. With a vigor they didn't have yesterday the blonde duo set out to finish their training and catch these pesky hawks
A few weeks later our favorite pair of blondes could be found standing in front of a tired looking Shikaku. "Well today since I'mm stuck with you gaki's we're going to be working on improving your dodging skills. Now this is simple I'm going to attack you with straight-forward taijutsu only and I want you to dodge as much as you can." Before any of the Yamanaka kids could answer or respond with their own questions, Shikaku blitz Naruto.
Naruto soon found it hard to dodge all of Shikaku's attacks. Naruto knew he wasn't as flexible as the rest of his family especially Ino ,but what he lacked in flexible he made up with tenacity and durability. Taking a few more hits that knocked him into the mud he became flustered when he heard his sister laughing at his pain and taunting him from the sidelines. "SHUT UP INO-PIG I BET YOU CAN'T DO BETTER THEN ME!"
Now Ino may be girly, but didn't like losing and if someone challenged her she never backed down. Growling she switched spots with Naruto and looked Shikaku dead in the eye and said, "Don't go easy on me just because I'm a girl!" and began dodging blows. Being way more flexible than Naruto she was able to dodge most of his blows with ease, all those flexibility lessons with her mother, albeit painful, sure seemed to be paying off. Without those lessons she would've never stood a chance. Grinning to herself she knew she had beat Naruto's time, so she mockingly threw out a comment, as she continued to dodge. "HA! Naruto-Baka you couldn't beat me in your dreams this is way too ea-!" but was soon cut off as the wind was knocked out of her and suddenly her view was replaced with the blue cloudless sky. Hearing her brothers rambunctious laughter, she smiled to herself, and paid no mind that she had gotten too cocky, atleast she beat her brother which was the only thing that really mattered.
Not to be outdone by the other they both vigorously jumped back into the training with renewed strength and with renewed energy only competition could bring out.
Today was one of those rare weird days, when they didn't have to trained. What do they do on these days you ask? Well that's simple the blonde duo could be found at their home away from home the park.
They loved going to the park. Being young budding socialites, they always made a lot of cool friends there, even if some of the parents would sometimes throw dirty looks at Naruto and her, it didn't matter to them, Adults were weird like that.
Today Ino spotted a group of boys trying to bully a girl with the best hair she's ever seen, well since her own of course. Grabbing Choji, Shikamaru, and Naruto she made her way over to them.
"Hey leave her alone!" as she mustered up the iciest glare she could
Watching the little blond hair girl come up to them with a trio of boys, the biggest of the boy Taichi stepped up to her "Leave us alone, little girl this is between big kids now go play with your dollies or something.
"Who did this boy think he was? How dare he call me little girl and who still played with dolls nowadays?" Scoffing at the boy she gave the boy the sweetest smile she had in her arsenal, "If you know what's good for you I'd suggest you to leave her alone before things get bad for you"
Laughing at the blonde girl he got up into her space and promptly said "What are you gonna do I'm bigger then you?"
"Was this boy crazy?" He was going against Ino she was almost bad as his mom. Shivering at that thought of how troublesome she was I feel bad for him.
Narrowing her eyes she laughed and with graceful precision she twirled and simply, kicked him in the side of the face, effectively knocking him down to the ground. Adeptly landing firmly on her feet, she dusted off her dress and said "If you're going to pick on someone, pick on someone whose going to fight back"
The bully grabbed his head in shock and began crying as he quickly got back up and started to run away with his tail between his legs, his two goons following soon after. Watching the boys run away, Ino offered a hand to the sniffling girl on the floor and helped her up. with a wide smile plastered on her face she proudly said "Hi my name is Ino what's yours?"
Sniffling a bit, the girl took Ino's extended hand and stood up. "M-my name is Sakura H-haruno"
"Well its nice to meet you Sakura, but why were they messing with you?"
"I-I was telling them about how I wanted to join the ninja academy next year and they laughed at me and pushed me down and said a clanless civilian with a big forehead shouldn't be a ninja" Sakura said as she nervously played with the ends of her pink hair
Frowning, Ino hated people like that "Well if you want to be a ninja I'm sure I could get my daddy to help you get some pre-training before the academy. My brother, Choji, Shikamaru, and I are going to join next year too, so we can all train together! Pausing for a second she took off her burgundy ribbon and said thoughtfully,
I think I can do something about your forehead if people are making fun of you for it. Here close your eyes."
Tying a red cloth around Sakura's hair, which moved the bangs that were covering her face out of her face and said, "Your forehead is really pretty and goes well with your hair, so you shouldn't hide it behind your bangs! Come on, let's go play on the swing set!" grabbing her hand she dashed to the last two available swings leaving three bewildered boys in her stead.
Author's note: Anywho the next chapter is going to a small time skip to the end of the academy just in time for the genin exams! I like to thank everyone who read/reviewed/or alerted this story. If anyone has some advice or suggestions for the story they would like to give feel free to do so guest or not every review is encouraged and read – Luv, Xab
