Chapter 2

What is it to be lost with a purpose?

Forgeries and other things are supposed to be amongst the things that make for a better experience amongst those that are amongst the land of the living. What would make a thought like that one come to the fore is not something that one would better ones life with by experiencing. Or even thinking about actually. Diaries are full of those little stupid writings that only make sense to one that is… yourself and no one else. It isn't supposed to be that way it is just the way that things happen. You don't ever really get away from yourself.

Ino wasn't supposed to be the diary writing kind of person yet on her fourth birthday besides the floral arrangement set that she was given by her mother she was given a diary by her father and several outfits of some sort that were supposed to appease to that personality of hers. Looking at the dubious looking outfits and then back at her skittering mother it wasn't hard to see that she was supposed to be thrilled about it all and give of a kind of … girlish response of sorts. Not that she would be able to.

"Thank you mother. And Father too… It is just that I am not ready for this kind of attention from the two of you just yet. I am only four if you don't remember." Sitting down on her rump Ino was only peering at her parents with a weak ass gaze of sorts. She just didn't have the age needed to pull of what it was that she was trying for. She did know of it the effect that she was looking for would be the same even with this taken into consideration from her POV. "I guess that I can start in the shop helping out and all, but there are other matters that I am trying my best to give time towards. I won't truly approve of this… trying to model me after… Forget it. When do you want me to start?" This time the smile that she pulled off was a good one. It even smoothed out that she almost rebelled against her own parents unspoken wishes.

It was good enough for her mother.

"Ino I won't force you into anything but what you have been trying to do the last year isn't something that you will be bettering by this kind of nonsensical non-commitment." Of course he was hugging his daughter all the while whispering little words of nothing to her ears. The way that things are it is what you should expect. "Your mother won't need to know what it is that you are doing but aren't you taking things just a little bit too far?"

Ino didn't answer to that, she just lay in his arms waiting for the time to pass and the moment to die out. Certain things she hadn't been able to face even in her past life. This was one of those things. The beginning of a tear forming on the inside of her eyelid bothering her and her alone was all that she would say to that. Slithering out from her fathers grasp she sat down and unpacked the flowering arrangement giftset that her mother had made for her with such care. It was still glistening from the lacquer that it was all painted in. Scissors and short sticks of differing lengths. No rope at all. "It looks really professional mom. I think that I will love to work with this." It is for some so easy. All that you have to remember that you are really in a four year olds body and things will come to you just like that… Smiling smiles that would silence even the most reluctant of hearts is just another one of those abilities that you are given when you are just 4. "I love you mom. " Even fakers have hearts. Ino felt the embrace as one would feel a spear through your own heart. But it was as it had been to her for all that time. Just right.

'Maybe there are things that you know father still… I will not make the mistakes that I once made again. Even if you will never hear those words from me you will see the import of their being there. I swear.'

On the grassy little plains outside their house there were a few dummies stacked up and a green spandex outfit splayed across one of them. That one was the one that had the least blemishes though. It wasn't the most suitable form of respect yet it was one of those that counted all the more. Gai knew what it was that drove her somehow. To put it there on the training dummy had been another decoy of sorts. She just couldn't bear that little truth to spill forth. Not ever.

The near silent pock like sounds emanating from the wooden beam being pierced by multiple kunais all thrown in sequence and in rows and rows was the only sign of what it was that was taking up her time. Training that is what it was and there was nothing else to it either. Gai had only given her a few pointers and offered her a few pieces of advice on the form of her kicks throws and the like. It was all repetition from there on. She could piece together what it was that made the training effective in the end. What you were trying to reach was something that altogether blew you away. Nothing in there was going to make things anyway more out there than what it was that the training was trying to achieve and what it was that it took from you to make it happen. It was with a smile on her face that she reset the alarm clock for the next set of kicks that she was going to put herself through. Her synchronization wasn't as good as she would have been hoping for but it was a whole lot better than what it was that she had started from. A single year and she could already feel the fire in her.

Kicks with no resistance in the air against nothing only to maintain form and gain endurance and experience and what else it was that would make her more able to hold her own in a fight. She knew that Gai was there observing at times and times again. He would come with advice and corrections that were only progressively helping her. It was as if he was making the responses up ahead of their meeting time and all those things. Also Gai knew what it was that made her not a mere four year old. It wasn't hard for her to find what it was that made Lee such a devout student. It wasn't only his personality that made it all come together. Gai was the key to it all. She knew by know that she wouldn't fit into the normalcy of the shinobi world. That was alright but still it wasn't something that she would happily… 'No more of those thoughts that are able to slow down my kicks.'

Looking as determined as could be she wasn't stopping the motion in the least. They just got an added layer of intensity to them. "Thank you." Sweat glistening in the last few rays of the settling sun gathering in her dimples brought her a sensation of her own body ten years into the future. 'What kind of a Genin will I become?' Her smile was a toothy one filled with a whole row of milky white ones. She didn't need to have her father pick her up exhausted on the training grounds today. She would skip skip all the way home on her toes. "Lee will see." She could almost even giggle at that.

No one was invited to her birthday party and there would be none of the celebration of the kinds that others would have urged for. It was the only request that she made of her parents. Holding onto her doorframe leaning against it for a while she could only think of what her life would have been like should this not be the end of all things male. "Perhaps Sakura will still need to be rescued."

"Happy birthday Yamanaka Ino. Good night Yamanaka Ino. Go and save Haruno Sakura, will you Yamanaka." Sleep was a delight.

When you are made to wake up a different person you don't sleep the same way that you would have been sleeping else wise. But it wasn't different enough to make things change enough to awaken her. Squirming underneath the sheet's of the bed Ino was thinking of what it was that she was supposed to achieve to bring an end to the existence that she was slumping in. Things weren't really exactly doing what they were supposed to do. Rolling around in her bed it wasn't as she was growing any older doing so or anything but there was a sense of progression that was carried forth in her dreams or whatever it was that came with sleep at this hour. Even when exhaustion took her finally into the night it was with open eyes that her seemingly lifeless body stared back into the ceiling. Whatever that it was that had and would precipitate the madness that followed her around the sleep that she was in it wasn't something normal. 'What is it that four year olds really do? Not that I really need to answer that question rather what it I should do is something that is aching to the exact opposite of that… I really don't know what it is in my mind that makes thoughts like these ones surface. Good night I suppose. Either way of course.'

Quite the way to end a day …

Chapter 2.5

Are you growing older this way?

Life is cheap for some of us yet not for those of us that ask of it the most. "I know that better than you think Sakura." Her hand still closed around the throat of the older girl that now stood alone her minions long since gone from the sand box leaving only the three of them left. A little bit of glee was there in Ino's face at that particular realization. Not that there were any sounds of any real satisfactory nature coming of from the other girl that was in a near chokehold. "Calm down Sakura. Breath evenly. DO IT!"

For Sakura things had moved in an eerily easy way. That older no strike that equally old to her girl had appeared as if a shining knight or however that went. 'I don't think that I will understand any of this…' Still she was feeling hopeful and had successfully quenched her first impulse of merely sitting in the sandbox on her knees hiding her tears beneath her pink locks knowing that the pain that she took for being what she was would somehow lessen that way. 'No it won't…' She was still grasping at the handle of that little spade that she had been digging a shallow pit for her sandcastle in the making for. Pawing in the direction of Ino's feet she felt the air not to be the heavy constricting one that she was still looking for. "Thank you." Looking up she was smiling the brightest smile that she knew how to. Not that she wasn't aware of it just that she wasn't supposed to do so or something like that those were the thoughts that were pushing at her slowly releasing thoughts of free… something. "How do you know my name?" She couldn't stop smiling even to look inquisitive at that. 'I like you. I think that I want to be like you too.'

For Ino things were real easy this day. Only a day into her fifth year and she had stumbled onto this little event taking place. It was as if the event had been there for the taking. Of course she wouldn't be an ass and start being all philosophical about it and stuff like that, but still she felt that it was just too to right the way things were. "I think that I wish us to be friends Sakura. What do you say to that?" Dropping the handle around the older girls throat she didn't pay the slightest heed to the snorting sobs and wheezing sounds that were coming from her at all. Ino just kept her eyes on Sakura even offering her a hand. 'I do know that I am not being very ladylike but let's see where we go from here.' Dragging up Sakura from sitting on her behind almost to standing Ino reveled at the ease with which she had hauled up the other girl. She had been training not more than ten minutes ago. It was her father that had insisted that they go to the park. Not that he was doing anything in the ways of such activities that were the norm for such places what with him sleeping on one of the park benches like a regular bum. "Oh yes there aren't any bums in Konoha!"

"Huh?" Sakura was one of the cutest kids around in all of Konoha. Just that she wasn't really that good at employing what she needed to make the impression that she gave off work its magic on the populace. She was inactive in dealings that were important for the welfare of her own something. "What are you talking about!" She didn't notice it but she had decimated the distance between their faces to the point where if she had wanted to she could have been giving Ino Eskimo kisses. "Please tell me!"

There wasn't that much about the way that Ino heard Sakura talk to her that spoke of cuteness however the total in her face thing made her hope for so much more from Sakura. "Maybe you aren't that bad after all Sakura-chan…"

Back at Ino's place Sakura was treated to her first lesson in flower arrangement and Ino was taught of what it was that made Sakura the most softhearted person in all of Konoha. Not that she wasn't already hooked on it from the sandbox it was just that she know knew and accepted it for what it was… 'God! I need Naruto!' Ino's plans were forced to stay on the low until she managed to evoke something of a winner potential into that of her new friend of the day. It was all look at the pretty flowers for the remainder of the day and whenever she took out her fathers kunai that she had 'borrowed', Sakura's mouth would just stay in an O and slightly ripple now and again. Ino didn't have the heart to break down even that fragile self.

Sakura was having the time of her life. She had found her new idol and best friend. "I wish that you will be my friend forever Ino!" Not that Ino's face had gone a bright red after she had hugged her friend as tightly as she possibly could but the slight shimmer that she had seen after her mom had come to the flower shop to pick her up, Sakura had even felt a sliver of some sort of determination well up from somewhere inside of her. "I love you too Ino-chan!"

Going just a little bit gray wasn't the answer to this nightmare that Ino was in it was just that it was the only thing that stopped her from throwing up at the paradox that her mind was feeding her upon hearing that one word. She didn't throw up though and she wouldn't do so either after some training with Gai sensei. He had finally started showing up and started criticizing her form after having proclaimed that her fires of youth were inextinguishable. "Bye, bye Sakura."

((Hm… there aren't like any readers of this piece of fiction that I am writing. So what of the slow progression that I am making here? There are several avenues of thought that could have been taken or acted on or anything of the like. I am kind of rambling here. If you will let me know or even feed me flames I can only get better. I know since there are few that can't recognize when they are on the bottom. Just let me know will ya. Please.))