Chapter 2: Highly Recommended

"Ino, can I have another-"

"No." She said, cutting across his plea.

"But Ino!…" She heard that deep baritone whine again.

She stared him down, daring him to utter another syllable. If thoughts could kill, the Akimichi sitting next to the Mind kunoichi would have been decimated, which is almost the word that could be used to describe what he did to his full plate of miso pork.

Chouji gulped, a formidable shinobi afraid of his own teammate, his female teammate to be exact. Then again, Ino had that effect on people.

"Just give it up Chouji…" Shikamaru spoke with a sigh across the table, rubbing his palm against his temple. "You know she won't let you get another piece, so why fight her?"

"But I just want one more piece."

"And the four servings you've just had weren't enough?" She looked at him incredulously. "And you!"

"Ow!" The official team leader exclaimed, recovering from a kick that the unofficial team leader gave him. "What the heck was that for Ino?"

"That," she began indignantly, "was for giving up too easily. If you want something badly enough, you should fight for it, not back down when you know you may lose."

"I wouldn't have to back down if you weren't so damn troublesome…" He muttered under his breath, gingerly stroking his injured shin.

"What was that?" She inquired, a little too sweetly for his taste.

"Nothing, nothing…" He waved off her request. "I knew I shouldn't have recommended you..."

"Hmm? What are you talking about?" She asked again, her became interested.

"No, it's nothing…"

"Shikamaru…" Her voice took a deadly tone; she was becoming impatient, "Tell me!" She let out a whine.

"Fine, I'll tell you…if you let Chouji have the rest of your barbeque steak."

Her blue eyes widened, and as Chouji's chopsticks lingered dangerously close to her plate, she slammed them down on the table with precision and abruptly gave Shikamaru another kick to his shin.

"Ino…if you don't stop doing that…"

'I can't believe you, the both of you! You planned that!" She gave his glare no mind as she proclaimed, looking at both of them.

"Maybe I did," he said with a curving smirk, "You still have to give him your steak if you want to know."

In the world of Shoji, Shikamaru's Knight was about to take down Ino's Queen. As proud as she was, she could've not given Chouji the rest of her beef and simply choose to remain oblivious, but that would just satisfy Shikamaru, and that was simply not an option.

With a sigh, she begrudgingly slid her plate over to Chouji, who was more than delighted to take it. Besides, it's not that she didn't want Chouji to enjoy his food; it's just that he should eat a little less. But for the sake of information, she was willing to allow him to enjoy another serving, for now at least.

Turning her attention back to Shikamaru, she innocently regarded him. "Recommended me for what?"

He let out a sigh before continuing, "Fine, fine, if you really want to know, I recommended you for a job in the Spy Unit…a sensei to be exact."

The normally outspoken Ino, was taken aback at his statement, but something just wasn't right…

"Baka," she began, "I would've had to go into the Spy Unit anyways, considering my jutsu and everything. Why did you feel the need to recommend me?"

"Well Ino, the thing is…" Chouji spoke up next to her, taking a break from his fifth serving, "We thought it would be good for you and we thought it would be good for you to be under someone who's already in that field."

"So, you both recommended me? But why?"

"We've been watching you for the past few weeks Ino." Shikamaru began.

"And?" She asked, still not understanding.

"That new jutsu that you made," Chouji followed tentatively, "Inoichi didn't teach it to you, right?"

"So? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You started working on something, ever since Asuma died," Shikamaru paused, letting the statement sink in, "And suddenly, you come to us saying you have a brand new jutsu?"

"If you're trying to suggest," Ino narrowed her eyes, staring at her male comrades, "That the only reason I came up with a new jutsu is because Asuma died, then you're wrong."

"I'm saying," Shikamaru started, also giving her a harsh look, "That the only reason you're doing this, is because you want to be useful to us, since Asuma died and your medical jutsu couldn't save him."

"And now that we're technically without a sensei…" Chouji interjected, trying to ease the tension, "We thought that you should focus on your ninja art, instead of-"

"Instead of what?" She started venomously, "Trying to do something that'll benefit the team, instead of just being off on the sidelines, observing everything, but not important. In case you've both forgotten…Asuma told me not to lose out to Sakura."

"And you haven't-"

"Oh please Ino," Shikamaru gave an exasperated sigh, cutting over Chouji's comment, "If this is about-"

"No! This isn't about him or about that and quite frankly, I don't even care about care about him anymore…"

"But you care about about that…"

"Look," She said, choosing to ignore Shikamaru's comment, "This is about not being useless, to you or anyone else. Sakura's depended on a mission; she's useful. She doesn't have to be just an observer and she doesn't have to be careful with her body because she's never in a vulnerable state, not like I am when I do my jutsu. I'm not some little girl you guys always have to take care of, in fact, I'm supposed to be taking care of you!"

"We don't need you to feel like you need to take care of us because of what Asuma said." Shikamaru stated.

"But we still want you to." Chouji said after.

"Fine, but what if I just want to get better at a few family jutsu, there's nothing wrong with that."

"Not if your father knows. But that Mind Crush…"

"Is completely safe, I promise." She reaffirmed Shikamaru.

"Yeah, for you, but obviously not for the target. If it was against an opponent, then there would be no problem, but how can he be interrogated if he can't respond."

"Shikamaru, do you really think I'm stupid?" She retorted. "I wouldn't have even attempted to use that jutsu on that mission if there wasn't a counterjutsu or a way to get him out of his comatose state. You should know me better than that by now."

"And I suppose this is another one of your concoctions?"

"More like a family jutsu, which is none of your business. The point is I'm old enough and responsible enough to make my own decisions."

"Then make the right one and become Morino Ibiki's apprentice." Shikamaru stared her down as she considered this.

"But, Sakura's already my sempai…" She stated half-heartedly.

"You can resign, can't you? I mean, you already know enough medical jutsu in case something happens." Chouji said, backing up Shikamaru's previous statement.

"Wait, did you say Morino Ibiki?" Ino inquired.

"Yeah, why?" Shikamaru replied with a question of his own.

"Why does that sound familiar…?" She wondered to herself.

"Remember Ino?" Chouji asked, Ino turning to look at him "He was the guy who ran the Chunnin Exam, the one with the scars on his head."

Now that the mental image came to her, she wondered how she could easily forget the various grooves and scorch marks forever engraved in his skull. How he ever dealt with such torture, she'll never know. But that wasn't the only thing she remembered…

"The one that liked messing with peoples minds, because he enjoyed it? You want him to be my sensei?" Ino's eyes slightly widened.

"Well, if you think you're not up to the challenge…" He gave her another careless smirk.

Shikamaru always knew how to press her buttons; then again, if the occasion called for it, they all knew each other well enough to make each other do what the other wanted. This was one of the perks of being on the Ino-Shika-Cho team.

"I'm very ready, but does he already know that-"

"It's all been taken care of." Chouji said as he finished off the rest of her steak. Shikamaru laid down the yen needed to cover the bill as they got up to leave.

"Oh really?" She said with an amused smirk, walking in between her teammates.

"Yeah, I mean after all, you came highly recommended." Shikamaru countered back with a smirk of his own.

"By who, a smart lazy bum and a buxom glutton, yeah right."

"Hey!" Chouji and Shikamaru shouted in unison, offended by their old nicknames.

Ino giggled as her teammates, her frustrating, unorthodox teammates half-heartedly glared at her. What did you expect, you two recommended me!"

"Yeah, and you could be un-recommended…" Shikamaru muttered.

"You do and Chouji doesn't eat beef for a week!"

The Akimichi gluped once more as the Shadow User carelessly glared at Ino and the Mind kunoichi shrugged back.

In the world of Shouji, Chouji was a Pawn that took the first hit, Shikamaru was the Knight that defended the Pawn and Ino was the Queen, who would lose the battle, but win the war.

Wow...I can't believe I typed that all in one setting, new personal best. Well, leave me a review to tell me if you spotted errors or stuff, or just to tell me if you liked it. I'd like to thank everyone who read, regardless if you reviewed or not.

...: I wish you left a name, but oh well, hope you liked the Team 10 love in this one.

funky-squirrel: I like your name btw! XD Thanks for mentioning the way I did the last chapter, I'm glad you like it and didn't get confused with it.

Good night and good luck...

DAC