Genma followed the blonde girl, he needed to figure out her real reason for not taking his offer; picking flowers was not a bigger deal then to eat. He stopped a few feet away from the gate thinking for a moment, was it such a big deal to him that she rejected him? Or it was because she rejected him, Genma doesn't get rejected and over flowers? She had lied to him, but was following her still such a good idea? She was almost half his age, she just turned 20 and he almost in his mid 30s, if anyone found out about him getting angry over how an 20 year old rejected him would cause some minds to wonder, and the last thing he needed was rumors spreading around.

"What am I doing?" He turned around, shoved his hands in his pockets and began to walk away; until he heard an echoed scream coming from outside the village.

"I thought we captured all of you creeps!" Ino exclaimed, pulling out a kunai from her pouch. The man roared out a laugh and ran towards her. She quickly dodge him, jumping on to the nearest tree branch. 'Damn it, where is he?' she thought to herself, looking at her surroundings, she bit down on her lower lip; this was no time to be thinking about other things. She shot her kunai towards the man but missed, he laughed at her again, jumping up and meeting her on the same branch. He raised his arm and slapped her off the tree, she landed on her back getting all of her air knocked out of her lungs.

"I was given a mission and I must finish it at all costs." His voice was loud and rough. "And this time, I'm not going to hesitate to kill you." Ino turned to her side, struggling to get up. The man jumped down and landed next to her, kicking her stomach to keep her down. "It's a shame because you're such a hot girl." He took out a kunai and pulled her up by her ponytail. She let out a small screech when the cold blade touched her throat.

Another kunai was shot knocking his out of hand and on the ground next to Ino. She smiled already knowing who it was. The man saw Ino's smirk and kicked her back, throwing her a few feet away from him. He looked around for the sight of anyone, and then his eyes shot back to the blonde on the floor, trying to get up. He walked towards her and pulled her up by her ponytail again until she was on her feet.

"Come out, or I'll kill this girl!" His loud voice echoed through the quiet forest. "I guess this person wants to see you die." He whispered roughly in her ear. Ino gulped, why wasn't he coming out.

A dark shadow crept up from behind the crowd of trees; a tall man wearing a long black cloak with red looking clouds stood a few feet away from them. He had long raven colored hair that framed the sides of his face and piercing red eyes, the sharingan, his hitai-ate had the leaf symbol with a slash on it, showing that he was a rouge missing nin. "Who the hell are you?" The man dared to ask, he shook in fear.

"Itachi!" Ino said excitedly. He looked at the blonde and nodded his head. The man holding Ino tugged back on her hair and pressed another kunai at her throat, she let out another whimper.

"I don't care who you are, I was ordered to finish the mission and I'm not going to let you brats stand in my way." He said his voice slightly shaky. Ino let out a scream when the man pulled his hand back and then went straight on for her throat.

"Ino!" A voice yelled through the forest. Genma jumped down from the trees to find the blonde trapped in the hands of the unknown shinobi from the other day. The scene must have confused Genma, noticing the other man that was standing in front of Ino, a s-rank missing ninja from the leaf, Itachi Uchiha. "So the Akastuki was behind those men trying to steal a forbidden scroll? I should have known." Ino wanted to slap him, Itachi wasn't the enemy at that moment, but Genma thought he was. He ran towards Itachi with anger in his eyes, Ino gasped when she saw that he tried to attack him but Itachi dodge quickly, now standing behind the man that held Ino. "What exactly do you people want with that scroll?"

"No Genma, he's only here-Ah!" She was thrown away from the man. He turned around quickly to face Itachi but backed away once he met his eyes. He let out a terrible scream and fell to his knees. Genma watched in confusion as Itachi had attacked the man, and he was now walking towards Ino. She mumbled something when he bent down to pick her up. He started walking towards Genma, handing her over to him before disappearing. He stared at the place where the missing Uchiha boy had been standing and then at the man laying passed out on the floor. What exactly had happened before Genma showed up? "Gen?" Ino said weakly.

"Are you okay?" She nodded her head, patting his shoulder to put her down. "What exactly happened here?" Ino looked away, trying to think of a lie to tell him, she couldn't tell him that she really came out here to meet Itachi and not pick flowers.

"Well, I was picking flowers and the guy came out of nowhere and started to attack me." She started explaining, trying to calm down her voice from talking to fast. "And he was saying things like that he needed to finish the mission and he won't hesitate to kill me this time and then that's when he came out a saved me." She stopped to looked at Genma's surprised expression. "Trust me, I was more surprised then you were." There was silence for a moment and then Ino finally asked the question Genma was waiting for. "Why did you show up?" It was more blunt then he had expected it to be. He rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously. "You followed me!?" She pushed him away from her angrily and lost her balance, catching onto his arm and pulling him down with her. She blushed, there faces only a breath away, she quickly pushed him off of her and her eyes searched around, hoping he didn't see that.

"I saw that." Itachi's voice entered her mind, shocking her. Genma rolled on his side and stared at her, wondering what exactly she was thinking about, with her face flustered. "I'll see you soon, stay out of trouble and away from him." Ino sighed and sat up, bringing her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and hiding her face. If only she hadn't gone to check on Genma, she would have been with him sooner and wouldn't have gotten attacked waiting.

"Are you alright?" Genma waved his hand in front of her face, she blinked bring her head up and nodded. "Lets get out of here and tell someone that the Uchiha isaround these parts. And that guy to." He pointed to Ino's attacker. She wanted to protest, not wanting people to know that Itachi was around the village but she didn't want Genma to get the wrong idea. She nodded her head, he held out her hand to help her up and she accepted it.

Ino sighed, remembering Itachi's words, 'Stay out of trouble and stay away from him.' Even since he said those words it felt like she couldn't get away from Genma, they were sent on missions together, with other people of course, and working on things together, she didn't mind his company it just irritated her that they were pretty much always together now.

"Stay focused Ino." Shikamaru reminded her. They were sent on a mission to Suna to inform them about the akastuki being close by. "We don't want a repeat of the last time, these guys won't hesitate to kill us." Genma saw the disappointment in her face and frowned.

"What's your deal Shikamaru? Lay off of her." He defended her, getting a look from Shikamaru in return.

"What a drag, she being spaced out all the time isn't good, she needs to snap out of it before it gets her killed." He sighed taking a looked back at Ino. "I don't know what's bothering you Ino, but it really needs to stop when you're on missions." She nodded her head and looked away shamefully. Genma opened his mouth to speak again but Ino placed her hand on his shoulder and shaking her head with a small smile.

"Don't let him get to you." Her head jerked up, searching around her for the voice.

"Where are you?" She spoke through her mind, Itachi, she was happy to hear his voice again.

"I can't tell you, but I'm close by."

"People in search to find you." She warned him and cut away from her thoughts after seeing Shikamaru look back at her. "Please be careful."And what that she let her mind focus back on the task at hand.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Genma sat down next to Ino, they had finally reached the Hidden Sand Village, Ino was emotionally and physically drained.

"Why are you always hanging around me?" Genma's eyebrow raised in question and he let out a sly laugh but let it fade when he realized that he didn't really know why he was placing himself around her.

"To make sure you stay out of trouble." He told her, crossing his arms behind his head and rest back against the wall. "I did save your life three times, maybe I'm just waiting for you to return the favor." He joked, but she didn't find it very funny, she wrinkled her nose and gave him a sideways look.

"The first one was fine, I could have handle the second one and you knew that, and you didn't even-" She let the conversation die out, not wanting to speak anymore. The last time he didn't save her, Itachi did but telling someone a s-class criminal saved your life would sound crazy.

She looked towards Shikamaru from the corner of her eye and he was watching them like a hawk, with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his bored face. He knew something that she didn't and she didn't like that.

"Really, what's been up with you? Sadness isn't a good look for you." Genma peeked open one of his eyes and looked at the blonde next to him up and down.

"What's it to you?" She snapped, standing up and walking away, passing Shikamaru. He looked at her bewildered and then to Genma with his eyebrows knitted close together.

Genma ignored the glare shooting at him from the blondes teammate and chewed mindlessly on the senbon in his mouth. He looked up at the blue sky and sighed. 'This really can't be happening to me.' His mind started to wonder on the possibility of it ever happening. 'I'm attracted to the little brat.' He glanced back at Shikamaru and sighed, he knew, he knew before he himself even realized it; he was a genius after all.

Shikamaru slowed down his pace to be next to Ino. They had all decided to walk since it had started getting dark. Choji and Raido insisted that they just stay in Suna for the night and leave first thing in the morning but Ino wanted to get home as fast as she could.

"What is it Shikamaru?"

"Look Ino, I may not be able to read your mind but I do know what something is bothering you." He sighed. "I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine though Shika," She stated showing him a nice smile that was fake.

"No, you're not. If its Sasuke and the fact that," She huffed at the name, Sasuke was the last thing on her mind since he got back to the village. She saw through him and his act, he was a self centered jerk and she was thankful for the fact that was had gotten over him.

"That boy is never on my mind anymore, it makes me sick to even hear his name being spoken. Please don't ever bring him up again Shikamaru." She crossed her arms and looked straight ahead, catching a glimpse of something shining in front of them. She stopped in her tracks and looked around, the place was one big booby trap.

"This is just great." Shikamaru uttered under his breath. "We can't turn back now, it's getting way to late."

Genma quickly grabbed Ino's wrist and pushed Shikamaru out of the way just when a few kunai fell from the sky, landing where they had been standing. Ino gasped.

"There's only three of them." She told them. "Above us!" Genma pulled her away, jumping near a tree. She snapped her arm away from him and took out some shuriken, holding them ready in her hand. She was completely different from all the other fights they had been in together, something in her had changed in that instant. Maybe this was here when she was actually focused or Shikamaru's words really got to her.

"Stay focused Genma!" She yelled towards. While he was lost in his thoughts the enemy had attacked them. He smirked and ran towards her, watching her back; but the enemy soon disappeared into the trees. "They left?" She stood up straight and sighed. "So much for a good fight."

"You were looking forward to fighting?" Genma questioned, smirking and his eyebrow raised. He shifted the senbon in his mouth to the other side and stared at Ino, she had tensed and seemed nervous. She mouth a no, her bottom lip quivered and her legs got weak. "Hey, Ino?" He placed a hand on her shoulder and a kunai shoot through the gap between them. He quickly jumped back, expecting Ino to do the same. "Ino, what are you doing!"

"Genma, what's going on?" Shikamaru and the other appeared through some bushes, out of breath. He saw Ino's trembling figure and ran towards along with Choji. "Ino, what's wrong?" She didn't speak, staring blankly at the ground her eyes wide like plates. Shikamaru looked to Choji with a worried expression and towards Genma.

"What happened to her?" Choji asked him. Genma shrugged his shoulder and shook his head. Another kunai shot at them along with shuriken.

"Shit, just what we need. Ino I need you to snap out of it!" Shikamaru shook her shoulders slightly and she turned to him.

"The chakra is to strong. Two people, very strong people." She muttered, he cursed under his breath and looked around.

"Akastuki." Everyone got ready to attack. "Ino, I really need you to snap out of it so you can tell me where they are." She pointed up towards a tree branch.

"Hm, look Itachi they finally noticed us."