Wings of a Butterfly

Chünin exams. Stage two. Forest of death. Day two.

It was time for her to quickly learn and dominate in the blink of an eye her sensory skills as Shikamaru gently urged her to do, his morning breath reaching her nostrils and making her narrow her eyes. Chöji had woken them up not much before the sunrise and now she was concentrating on her environment while her stomach grumbled with hunger.

We need to move, Shikamaru reminded them while giving her a granola bar that she was quick to consume, they needed to find water or an earth scroll, whatever came first, but it would be easier for them if she could sense the teams around them so they could use the surprise effect to plan an attack. But Ino wasn't hopeful enough to believe they would actually follow that through and prepare themselves for battle, after all, running has always been their specialty, their most trained feature.

"I'm trying," she furrowed her eyebrows and tried again, sensing chakra paths was a natural occurrence within her clan, the reason as to why kids outside it never let her play hide and seek with them -well, except Sakura, but she was a civilian so she didn't exactly know of Ino's capacity-. But Ino had never tried to reach for chakra signatures that were further away than a couple of meters. Her ability should allow her to pick signatures around a couple of kilometers when well developed, according to her father, but she wasn't there yet, she wasn't even close to a couple of meters. It didn't matter how sensitive she was to chakra signatures if she couldn't use that at their advantage.

"Ino," Shikamaru was done waiting, apparently.

"Sh, don't talk. You're making me lose focus."

Internally, she reached out for more of her chakra, Asuma had taught them they could control it enough for them to walk on water, so she should be able to use it to enhance her sensitivity to chakra signatures. "Okay, uhm…" Ino said, "I can't go very far," -and it totally depends on how much chakra the shinobi has for me to sense it, she should have added, but didn't, "but I think we can move now." Shikamaru nodded at her words and cracked his neck. Being the sensor, she was forced to go ahead of them (what? No!) to alert them if someone -a team, more accurately- was close by.

They spent the rest of their first day trying to recover from the genjutsu-attack while covering as much ground as they could, it hadn't been enough despite the effort each of them put on the task, and they soon succumbed to their fatigue. Today they had to make up for that awful first impression, which meant the more they walked, the better. Shikamaru had figured that their best shot at grabbing the scroll they needed was by reaching the tower's perimeters as soon as they could and intercept any team that arrived after them.

"It's more likely they will have both, and we prevent a possible attack from another team that might assault us in the forest to steal our scroll and the one we might have gathered by then." He had said. Which, alright, it was a fair point, but what if there was another team with the same strategy? They shouldn't brush off the possibility of an encounter with a team that had the same idea as them. Shikamaru hadn't had a response, but they didn't have another plan either, so they had to work with that. Winning was about strategy they thought, but found themselves learning that it had to do with luck as well. And luck they couldn't control. So, Ino thought, good luck counting with that variable on your next scheme, Shikamaru.

A chill rose in her hair arms and Ino stopped, holding a hand up to make her teammates froze in their place. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her own chakra, since it made her more aware of the external variables that might have disturbed it in the first place. The response was what she expected: chakra signatures.

She looked back and glanced at Chöji, nodding once. Since he was the one with the raw power, he was the one in charge of disposing the enemy if a combat arose, Ino would serve as his backup -since she had more knowledge of ninjutsu and had better scores that Shikamaru on taijutsu-, and Shikamaru would try to incapacitate them. He will work from his comfort zone, the shadows. At her signal, Chöji jumped from their hideout, bush scraping his clothes, Ino swallowed, ready to jump at his command, but otherwise remained hidden.

"The fuck?!" A boy yelled at Chöji's entrance.

"Uh…"

"Who the hell are you?" Another one asked, his question followed by the sound of metal -a Kunai perhaps-.

Ino smirked, first rule they taught in the Academy, subdue the enemy, before anything, before questions, subdue the enemy, which was why the Nara clan technique was so important between the ranks of Konoha and why most combat cells had one member of the clan (and also why the Hokage softly encouraged Nara women to have more than one kid). But the rule was universal, for if you didn't restrain them first, then you were giving them an opening to attack. And whoever attacked first often had the upper-hand.

She slowly relaxed and tried to focus more on the chakra signatures, none of them knew she was there apparently, so she supposed they weren't a tracking specialized team and none of them was a sensor. On the other side of the bush, Chöji pretended to be alone and lost, looking for his teammates while a member of the other team moved towards him. "Don't fucking move or I'll cut you open!" One roared, "turn around! Turn around I'll tell you!"

"Where are his teammates?"

Ino swallowed a lump and felt her arms shake with the force of her adrenaline, despite the hair of the back of her neck standing warningly at the immediate danger, Ino smiled. This team seemed worse than them since they committed the rookie mistake of not noticing a trap when there was a clear one in front of them. Maybe she could take them, maybe they didn't need much preparation or strategy as she first thought. And if they could rely on sheer power and not brains, then wouldn't that mean that Shikamaru was unnecessary?

"On your knees! NOW!" Someone screamed, and Ino's hands, by their own volition, stretched. "Look out!"

She stretched her arms through the bush, her skin complained at the pointed branches, and grabbed the boy by the ankles, throwing him to the ground and dragging him in her direction while shouting Chöji's name. The Akimichi, noticing what she did, was quick to respond, he turned from his position and tried to knock him out while Ino held him. Through the leaves, Ino watched as the boy raised his forearm towards his face to protect himself, but Chöji had too much strength for him to block the blow completely and he ended up receiving the weight of Chöji's fist and his own arm. However, two kunai were thrown in their direction and both Chöji and Ino had to jump back to avoid them.

With her location discovered -not that she wasn't expecting it to stay secretive for much longer-, she took a kunai with each hand while landing on the floor, Chöji next to her. "Give us your scroll," she demanded, "and no one will get hurt."

"You already hurt one of us!" Another of the group told her, (well she was still learning the speech part) his weapons on hand. The boy they first attacked kneeled and tried to stand while holding his bloody nose, so her plan to knocking him off hadn't worked, which was great, but at least Chöji's punch had clearly made a number on the boy's head since he couldn't stand and kept falling to his knees every time he tried to.

With her attention back to the rest of the group, she saw the one that spoke running towards her while the other (the bigger one of the three) went for Chöji. On her peripheral vision, she saw Chöji moving quickly towards his opponent with his attack already prepared, which she considered to be a smart move. Akimichi's power came from their massive strength and not from their evasive skills, if Chöji wanted to win, he would have to overpower his opponent.

Returning to focus on her main problem, the boy that decided she was his target threw a shuriken in her direction, she managed to dodge it when moving to the right but the boy was expecting her to do so. He threw a punch that was probably aimed for her jaw but she docked her head just in time and the hit landed on the side of her skull. She felt the pain resounding on her brain, but the fingers of her opponent weren't prepared to knock on something as hard as her head. It was just a second, but a second long enough for her head to stop spinning, she swung a kick aimed at the boy's knees to make him lose balance. He jumped to avoid the attack but she quickly threw the kunai on her right hand, forcing him to use his own weapon to block instead of tossing it towards her as he looked ready to do.

While the boy she was fighting lost one second detouring her kunai she whispered, "Bunshin no Jutsu," and performed as quickly as she could the seals to create a perfect reflection of herself. Her intention was to use it to distract the boy long enough for her to sneak behind him and subdue him. Her time was slim and the clone won't be able to damage him because it wasn't solid and was easy to see through if he was smart enough, but little more she could do.

Unfortunately, the bloody-nose one had recovered enough from their previous attack and decided she was easier to take down than her bigger teammate who's punch was strong enough to let his brain wobbling, and that the best strategy was to incapacitate her while their teammate struggled with Chöji. "Keep him busy, this is gonna be quick!" She heard before pain and pressure ran through her back and she was sent flying in the opposite direction, the visual-clone dispersing from the attack. She spun in the air and landed on her feet but the force of the kick was enough to drag her back a little more, forcing her to use her free hand to keep balance. Her fingers dug in the dirt to stop her recoil and a nail broke. She hissed.

When she looked up she just had time to lift up the hand that was previously on the ground to block part of the attack of the bloody-nose boy, she was able to protect her face with her forearm but he kicked her side. She bit the pain of her ribs at the collision. Despite the burn and the consequential tears it brought to her eyes, she saw from the corner of her eye the kunai flying towards her direction and quickly threw herself to the ground, rolling away and jumping to her feet.

"Fuck, Kori! You almost kill ME!"

Taking advantage of their small distraction and blinking rapidly as to clear her vision, Ino quickly tossed Kori -that was his name, right?- the remaining kunai she still held and replaced it with another (the last one, fuck) from her pouch while running towards him. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins and made her forget the pain in her ribs which, for the moment, was an advantage. He looked at her just in time to see the weapon and stumbled awkwardly to his right on his surprise, attempting to avoid losing an eye. Keeping nothing but her kunai, Ino tossed her remaining shuriken to him in order to keep him distracted. It ended up being too high to actually hurt him. He smirked. She smiled. His smirk vanished.

"Kawarimi no Jutsu!"

Ino popped from above Kori while the shuriken she replaced herself with fell on the grass where she used to be. Her head was spinning from the technique but her distraction was short-lived. Not wasting more time and hearing the boy gasp as recognition came down upon him, she wrapped her legs around his neck and swung around. She put both hands on his jaw and dropped her full weight back. The resulting blow against the ground sent a chill down her spine but further affected her opponent, as she hoped to do, whose air flew away forcefully from his lungs, consequence of her motion, and couldn't return given her grip.

"Kori!"

The other boy seemed to panic at seeing his partner in such a dangerous position and looked ready to end her. She was completely at a disadvantage because in order to dodge the incoming attack she would have to set Kori free and thus still fight both boys who clearly will retaliate in a much more offensive manner than previously. Kori, however, was not unconscious, was very much awake and seemed to like being so as Ino found out when he used his right hand to punch her in her previously hurt ribs, while his left reached for a kunai on his pouch -how many did they have?-. She just had enough time to use her elbows to stop the knife from digging into her cheek and only injure her, and to slow the punches on the other side. Luckily, she still held her own kunai on her left hand and dug the tip slightly on her captive's throat, hissing a warning, Kori's attempt at being free subdued instantly. She scolded herself for not using the tactic sooner, but she supposed it was the consequence of her concussion from before, or so she excused herself.

At the same time both Ino and Kori were fighting for control on the ground, the bloody-nose-boy ran towards the tangled pair, probably noticing her disadvantage and not deeming her worthy enough of a ninjutsu that would clearly waste precious chakra. His tactic seemed clear enough from Ino's sideways glance and Kori's noise of approval, he intended to remove her completely from the equation, wire-ends on each hand. Ino's only options were to either throw the kunai that held Kori dominated against Bloody-nose and lose her leverage, which Kori will use to put himself over her and perhaps choke her to death, or -again- let go of Kori and try to keep fighting two people at the same time. The odds were not in her favor.

"SHIK-!" She screamed.

The ground rumbled and Bloody-nose stumbled forward, falling on his face when the ground broke. In a motion quick as an exhalation Ino glanced at the origin of the attack. Chöji's giant fist emerged from the floor in a cloud of dust and fragments of earth. As compensation for saving her, the third -huge, teammate of the other team punched Chöji on the jaw and made him spit blood. Ino saw Chöji bit through the pain and turn quickly towards his opponent, grabbing the offending limb and blocking the second one intended to lay another attack, this time on the Akimichi stomach. He spun the shinobi in the air grabbing him from his wrists and he tossed him forcefully at a tree behind Ino that broke.

"Kagemane no Jutsu, complete." Came the voice of none-other than Shikamaru. "You can let go, Ino."

Ino glanced around before complying and gently disentangled from Kori, she rolled and got to her knees, her side was burning from the pain and she collapsed forward, her forehead resting on the ground. "Whe- where were you?" She hissed, looking at the floor under her, drops of sweat falling to the grass.

"Trying to grab all three of them." He responded.

"What?" She spoke through bared teeth, "you mean you saw what we were going through and you didn't help us?" She glanced up and looked for her teammate, he walked away from the shadows that covered him, his hands on the usual seal of the Kagemane.

"I saw what you did, attacking without thinking of a strategy first. Chöji was fighting in direct sunlight, I couldn't have helped him if I just grabbed two out of the three."

"But you could have helped me," she deadpanned, "and if it weren't for Chöji breaking the floor-"

"-If Chöji hadn't broken the floor I would have helped you, Ino," he said with such a soft, almost hurt, tone of voice that Ino's anger -frustration, pain- recoiled, "I wasn't going to reveal my hideout if it wasn't a life or death situation, little would have helped us. Now tie them up, I don't have enough chakra to hold all three of them for much longer."

Chöji was the first one to move, spitting more blood from his wounded mouth, Ino tried to stand but the burn from her side came back full force, it was difficult not to let her pain turn to ire but she forced her insults and wishes to plummet the other team faces to the ground to the pit of her stomach. She fought through the agony and stood, grabbing her side. The now more-bloody-than-ever-nose guy had a wire and she thought that if he was kind enough to think of using it to choke her, then she will kindly pay in exchange by tying his wrists with it. It was a dark thought that was quickly forced to remain a whish when Chöji gave her a rope for her to use, a look on his face in between apologetical and wary.

No, she thought, maybe it was better to keep the wire to use it on some other occasion. It didn't look like a very comfortable weapon, but since she didn't know what was going to keep coming to them, it was a better plan to have something that could be used both to restrain as to hurt. Once Shikamaru forced the members of the opponent team to sit and both Chöji and her tied them tightly and stripped them from their weapons, Shikamaru dropped the Jutsu and took a mouthful of air.

"That was a lot of chakra on you three," he sort of admonished them, which made Ino kind of smirk, but she forced her mouth down. "Chöji-"

"-on it!" Was the Akimichi response who was quickly roaming through the ninja -Kusagakure ninja, how interesting- backpacks. "Uhm, Shika…"

"What is it Chöji?"

"Can you remind me what kind of scroll we have?" He asked, his face twisting at something inside one of the backpacks.

"Heaven, why?"

"Like, like this one?" He said, face both purple from the punch he took to his jaw and red from embarrassment or anger, maybe both.

"No." For a moment Ino thought it was Shikamaru's response to Chöji's question, but Shikamaru's disappointment was quick to bury her hopes, "you have to be kidding me." He pinched his nose, "look in the rest of their equipment, maybe they have the other one too."

Chöji did look for the other scroll in every place possible, they even took care of palpating their hostages just in case they were hiding it on their clothes but the result was just the same, they didn't have an earth scroll, which seemed to be a funny resolution for the boys from Kusa who were laughing at their expense despite being on the losing side of their encounter.

"We can't stay here," Shikamaru quickly said, dismissing the playful looks of their opponents, "they soon will free themselves of the ropes or perform a ninjutsu and we can't fight them again-" Ino was quick to understand Shikamaru's undertone, he seemed particularly eager to put distance between them and the group they subdued. Ino raised an eyebrow, despite being close to biting the dust, she had been able to hold her ground against two gënin -regardless of whether this gënin seemed as bad as they came-, but she could consider Shikamaru's point. If he was almost without chakra -a pool that he will have to work on-, and with her sore ribs, they will have to rely on Chöji, and he didn't seem able to fight three people all on his own. "-We were close enough to lose as it is, we'll try to reach the tower and find an earth scroll." Shikamaru finished.

And still, in the farthest part of her brain, Ino scoffed at both of her teammates and at herself. They had been lucky for the Kusa team to be even worse than them, they had been lucky, they hadn't been good enough to take them down. A better-aimed punch, a kunai instead of a fist, a faster reaction of any of them and she would have been over. Ino was sure that if Sasuke were to fight them he would have disposed of the three of them as quickly as a thunder, fast enough to make them hit the ground before them knowing what had happened. And even further down, in the darkest parts of herself, she even doubted Sakura would have had a problem fighting against them, something about being with Sasuke should have rubbed in her by now. Ino was on her own.

"You better run! We will hunt you down!" Kori threatened.

"Let's go," Shikamaru said.

Bitter taste went up her throat with viscous density, she gritted her teeth and forced herself to swallow the retort aimed for Shikamaru and the leading role he seemed eager to fulfill despite his proclamations, their discussion of yesterday a wound too new to lay forgotten yet. It took every ounce of her willpower not to snap at him, she was a wild creature by nature, so she turned, breeze caressing her exposed neck, shivering at the cold air and dampness of her skin, and walked towards the boys still yelling at them. "Start walking, I'll go in just a sec."

"Ino-"

It was a testament of her self-control that she merely turned her head towards his voice, her eyes wide with ferocity, her lips in a dangerously thin line. "Please," she scraped out of her vocal cords, her temperament a bomb to defuse. It must have contained at least a small amount of threat because Shikamaru recoiled, taking a step back, and the three gënin in the ground shattered the air with their sudden silence. The Nara's face transformed in front of Ino's eyes to his usual bored expression, parts of his being put into place deliberately slow, a spectacle almost too intimate for her to bear. When he took another step back and turned away from her, she allowed herself to smile faintly, cocking her head to the side at his retreating form. Ino was thankful at him for not voicing the question that was clearly forming in his tongue.

Chöji stood frozen for a moment, giving his full attention to her, his breaths were sharp and sonorous, something in his chest had to hurt. He opened his mouth and winced, his jaw sore from the attack. For a moment, a short one, Ino glanced back at the teammate she knew better than to despise, her eyes softening. Chöji looked like he wanted to reassure her and be reassured at the same time, Ino pitied that softness. "I'll be there in just a minute." She told him, her mouth dry and desperate for water, she licked her front teeth. Chöji nodded, and with a final look, jogged towards Shikamaru, catching up and walking by his side.

Once both her teammates were far enough for her not to see them but close enough to faintly feel them, she grabbed the Heaven Scroll from the Kusa team. "What the hell are you doing?" The bigger member of the team -the one that fought Chöji, the one that hurt Chöji, spoke and she shushed him with a look. This didn't feel bad, Ino wondered if it was in her nature to be cruel, but she refused to believe this was anything but fairness. This was a necessity and will ensure both their safety and retribution.

And retribution she will have indeed.

"We can't have you chasing us, can't we?" She purred, caressing her sore side with her open palm, their scroll was heavy on her hand. She tossed it on the ground and kneeled, the Kusagakure team watched her move wide-eyed, she took the wire she had recently stolen from one of them and smiled softly. Ino could feel the fury coming from the previous owner of the device like waves against her skin, what a funny prospect to be taken down by his own weapon, she mused.

Ino tied one of the ends of the wire on one of the tips of the scroll, loosely enough to be able to untangle it, and left the paper there before standing. She glanced down to the boys watching her, it was clear from her position that they will soon break loose. When she walked away, the other part of the wire tightly secured in Ino's hand, she was lucky enough to pull at the same time she heard one of them scream a victory yell -they had broken free, it seemed. When she pulled, there was a scream and then silence. She didn't know what her actions provoked, maybe death, maybe a mere chastise. Whatever the resolution, it was over. The Kusa team went away with their scroll open and whatever consequence it brought.

She tied the wire around her arm, looking back at the place she had been not seconds ago, she could only see the trees now, nothing more, nothing else. There was no smile on her face.

If it was noon by the time they dispatched Kusa's team then, by his calculations, running into Neji has been around two in the afternoon. Ino had not told them what she did when she stood behind, she approached them warily, her expression impassive, as if nothing of importance was to be said. Shikamaru didn't question her, but from a logical standpoint, he knew the Kusa team won't be pursuing them anytime soon. Ino looked at him once, right in his eyes, and kept walking, taking her position at the front of the team.

When they found Neji, Shikamaru couldn't say he was particularly proud of how things played out. It was a pathetic encounter really, for a moment Ino seemed to be distracted enough not to notice him, or maybe it was because Neji has not a big chakra pool for her to pick up and he was completely alone, no other chakra signature for her to notice, or -and this was the most logical and possible explanation-, Ino just wasn't that good of a sensor; which given that she hadn't particularly practiced the skill, wasn't that big of an insult. Thus, it was almost too late when she finally picked up on his energy and shoved both him and Chöji behind a bush, wincing and grabbing her sore side. They were in the middle of planning how to go around the Hyuga when he told them to show themselves but ultimately let them go with their own scroll and a wounded pride.

"We should have fought him," she said eventually, the tone of her voice tinted with wounded pride and a weird sense of determination that will more likely become a problem sooner than later, and even Chöji looked at her with his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "What? We're not weak!"

"You want to go back and fight Neji Hyuga then?" He asked her. They didn't know many ninjutsu yet and their taijutsu was clearly more than underdeveloped in comparison to the Hyüga prodigy, a person that was well known in Konoha, particularly for those who were willing to listen to a both proud and mad in equal parts Hizashi Hyuga. Shikamaru knew of his existence because his dad had told him, and his dad knew about him because Inoichi spoke of the promising boy one night while drinking, so if Inoichi knew, then Ino knew. And frankly, Shikamaru couldn't believe Ino was willing to fight Neji Hyuga to make a point that didn't even exist. They weren't weak, they were less than that.

"Whatever," she dismissed, still walking away from Neji, glancing back at the place he still stood with his back turned, not giving them much attention, "we'll just have to find some wimps," she breathed out, it might have been a joke, but she didn't laugh, her resolution shining through her eyes. Shikamaru immediately thought that they were as wimp as they came but then he remembered Ino and Chöji fighting the Kusa team and kept his mouth shut.

If it was approximately two in the afternoon by the time they encountered -and ran away from- Neji Hyuga, then it must have been around four o'clock when they heard Sakura's scream. Ino was standing pretty much ahead of him when she heard it, they were far away enough for her not to feel anything yet, but the shout gave away her position and as an automatic response Ino's muscles tensed and she sprinted towards the sound without thinking ahead. It was him the one who reacted almost immediately and went after her, hissing her name through his teeth.

They came to an abrupt stop behind another bush -god bless Konoha's flora-, Ino looked pale and she was biting her lip frenetically, watching Sakura trying to dispose of the assault all by herself, Naruto and Sasuke nowhere to be found. Lee, the guy with a green spandex that Ino had disgusted over out loud during the first exam, was unconscious on the ground. Ino's fingers were clutching her purple skirt and she looked ready to jump out and eat the sound-team but then recoiled. Shikamaru looked down at the floor and saw the dead grass he stood on, it was almost sad to watch the dark green of a lifeless plant, and when he looked up, Ino performed the same inner-debate of going but recoiling twice. He shook his head and thought that this wasn't his battle, nor team 10, but still, "Ino… what do you want to do?"

"What?" She looked at him, "why would I do something?" There was a glint in her eyes that looked suspiciously like water gathered in the corner of her eyes, but no tear followed, Ino's ponytail seemed particularly tense on her scalp and Shikamaru wondered if she ever let her hair loose. Ino furrowed her eyebrows at him, as if his question was a personal inquiry he wasn't allowed, and bit her upper lip harder, it bleed the tiniest drop of blood, and she quickly took care of it with the tip of her tongue.

For a fleeting moment, he watched her move in silence, tasting the words he wanted to say in his mouth, because you want to, seemed as something both correct and inappropriate, so "didn't she used to be your friend?" was everything he voiced at her question, the following before she broke your heart, came undone before he could properly form it with his lips. Ino opened her eyes and swallowed, looking back at the place Sakura was being held on by the sound-kunoichi, he could see Ino's hands shaking, her fingers taking leaf by leaf of the bush and letting it fall to the ground, dead. He almost reach to her to stop her criminal motions. Then, a kunai held by non-other than Sakura herself moved quickly, and pink locks came crashing down, there was laughter and tears and bites of all the things, but Sakura held on to her feral wish to protect, and something in Ino must have snapped, must have been a reminiscence of their time together, because her face twitched and she jumped forward.

He had no choice but to follow.

When she stood in front of who used to be her best friend and learned to be her torment, Ino smirked in a way Shikamaru hasn't seen in months. "Like hell I'll let you be the only one looking good in front of Sasuke-kun," she said, full of a confidence whose appearance only highlighted its absence. Shikamaru watched Ino from the corner of his eye, his body tensed with fear, fingers trembling. The sound-ninja all laughed, looking seemingly relaxed despite their presence, they were strong. Stronger than them no doubt, and the only way they could help Sakura was to rely on their numbers, but all three of them were in perfect conditions, while team 10 looked as good as it was in reality, completely wrecked.

"Stay away from her," Chöji warned, voice breaking and revealing his fear, the sound-ninja laughed even harder, whipping a tear from his eye with a smile on his face, Shikamaru scowled.

"Stay on your fucking line, this is none of your business." The girl warned with a twist on her lips, her hand caressing her arm as if to soothe, which was particularly odd for a person that seemed eager to rip their throats.

"No." Ino's response came out as a whisper despite her earlier bravado, there was no doubt in her voice, but it seemed as if the odds she believed they had before were now slimmer, maybe she already knew they didn't stand a chance, but now that the sound team wasn't backing down, there was no way to walk away. There was a pause then, the moment where both teams looked at each other before attacking, and Shikamaru knew this moment will be the worst part of a battle, the expectation of what was to come, who will attack first, and how. Ino took a breath, breaking the silence, and when one of the sound team seemed to tense as to move, the pause was gone.

"Chöji!" Ino screamed, and Chöji -his best friend, the boy who constantly berated himself for being too coward, the one for which Shikamaru will burn the forest to the ground- jumped to action, clearly acting on impulse, he was the only one who could move and cause damage, Ino being injured from the fight prior and him being nowhere near a good fighter.

"Baika no Jutsu!" The Akimichi screamed, roared, and his size grew double, triple, his friend's eyes scanned the field until he spotted his target, "Nikudan Sensha!" His massive form twirled as quick as Shikamaru could see, moving towards the Sound-nin with the weird artifacts on his arms, said man blasted air no, not air, sound, (which traveled through air, so- no, this wasn't the time to overthink that kind about stuff) of his arms and pushed -kept, Chöji away enough from him not to be smashed to the ground. The Sound-nin struggled, yelled, and Chöji jumped to the air, the bandaged sound-nin saw his friend's action and ran towards his teammate -probably to save him from Chöji's attack, but Shikamaru wouldn't let him.

It was hard for a Nara, particularly for him who hasn't learned to control his jutsu to perfection and was almost without chakra, to grab a moving opponent, his own shadow was hard to bend, but what was more difficult was to grab the moving shadow of his opponent. Nara, when able, always tried to rely on the surprise effect, they tried not to be seen until they had grabbed a hold of their opponent's body. But the sound nin was making a pretty rookie mistake when fighting a Nara -but again, he might not know they even existed-, he ran straight to his objective, Shikamaru was more than capable of knowing exactly where he was going to take his next step.

The precious look on the sound-nin when he noticed he couldn't move was priceless, he would have dwelled on it a little longer if it wasn't because Chöji's attack was still unsuccessful, the artifact-arms-guy jumped away at the last second. Ino, defying the very premise of her family Jutsu (Ino, always goddamn Ino), used her mind-transfer on the girl who hadn't been quick enough to move without his assistance. "This is how far you go," she said while inside the Sound kunoichi, pointing the kunai to the girl's neck. It was a bluff, both Shikamaru and Chöji knew and he tensed because, no, she wouldn't dare, but her plan was good. If they ever wanted to keep their teammate safe, or even if they only wanted to advance to the next round, since only a complete team could move to the third stage, they were forced to retreat.

But he didn't count the other important variables.

The one with the weaponized arms blasted more sound, but his arms were not pointing at Chöji, as he expected them to be, but to his own teammate. Shikamaru walked back -the one he still controlled was forced to do the same, perplexed by the sudden change in scenario, it was just a second ago that they had the upper hand, but now... was this something he will have to get used to? As it seemed, this exam was the first time they were actually experiencing what being a ninja actually was, what being in battle actually was. And, if they survived, this wasn't the worst thing they will have to encounter in their lifetime. "We don't care. The only thing we care about it's to get Sasuke for our master." He spoke, a smirk on his lips.

Shikamaru's mind started to work on a possible hypothesis, who was this team? Who was their master? What did they want with Sasuke specifically? It was something to do with him being an Uchiha, hence, it was about the Sharingan. He glanced at Ino, looking for any expression she might have produced at hearing Sasuke's name from the boy's lips, but she still was inside the kunoichi's mind, so her body was laying on the floor, blood coming out of her mouth. The attack must have hurt something inside the Sound-ninja and consequently, inside Ino.

"And besides," the bandaged sound-nin purred, "for what I can see from the blood on the girl's mouth, everything we do to Kin will also affect her," he said, pointing at Ino. He heard the way Sakura's voice cracked and called for his teammate to wake up, by the sound of the grass, she was trying to move towards the Yamanaka's limp body that was at his feet. Paying Sakura no mind, he needed to think of a plan, something for them to do. At this rate, strategies were the only thing that could help them, both Chöji and Ino's Jutsu were useless in this situation, and he was about to plummet to the ground in exhaustion.

The whole improvised plan had been to make them retreat while Ino controlled Kin's body. But that hadn't worked, Chöji's family Jutsu was over, his own shadow technique was on the verge of breaking, and Ino… he glanced at Kin. Kin -Ino- glanced at him, her eyes wide. He had to think, he had to come up with something. Both shinobi from sound laughed, they felt safe, winners already, they also liked to talk, to mock their opponents. Fine, they could talk, Shikamaru could work around that. He looked at Chöji. Then at Kin again and back to Chöji, his eyes narrowed. His best friend smiled. Kin nodded.

"So your power is to air-blast your opponent, right?" He said, squeezing Ino's arm and the response he got was so subtle that he almost misses it. He almost did. Her arm, slightly, softly tensed back. And of course, why would Ino stay on a body she couldn't use to their advantage? Kin was once more in control of her body, but her mind won't come back immediately once Ino left, it depended so much on the hostage's will power that Shikamaru couldn't know exactly how much of a window they had, but since Kin hadn't regained control over herself even after her teammate attacked her then that must mean she was overpowered by Ino's willpower.

He was smart. He had a plan. He was a Nara.

Five seconds before Kin woke up.

One

The sound of a branch distracted the boy with the weird arms, Shikamaru clapped a hand on his mouth and the bandaged boy, who was still linked to his shadow, did the same. Ino jumped to her feet. Chöji moved.

Two

The armored-arms-boy saw Ino moving towards him. Chöji almost reached Kin.

Three

The armored-arms-boy pointed his arms to Ino. Chöji enlarged his fist and Kin opened her eyes. His control over the boy trembled, he was breaking, he felt the weight of exhaustion pushing him down to his knees. He felt the breeze hit his face.

Four

Ino went around her target while trapping his arms together with a wire Shikamaru didn't know she had. Chöji punched and Kin screamed.

Five

It was too late by the time the armored-arm-boy noticed Ino's intention when deviating his hands when she pulled her wire.

"Dosu!" The boy yelled, and the bandaged one -Dosu- widened his eyes. A short but powerful blast of air, courtesy of their own teammate, sent Dosu flying away with enough force to break a couple of trees, breaking Shikamaru's control over him. He was forced to his knees, a rock on the grass pierced through his skin. Regardless of something working in their favor, the fight wasn't over. Kin had been slowed by Chöji's punch but she still wasn't knocked out (she had great endurance, apparently) and Dosu was temporarily absent because of the blast but he will come back soon enough. The last one of the Sound-nin was currently trapped on Ino's wire, but he wasn't going to let them have it just because their tactic miraculously worked. He grabbed the wire Ino used to trap his hands, yanked at it, and sent Ino flying towards him, punching her in the face and sending her backwards again.

"Little bitch!" He was about to yank the wire again to punch her some more when

"Sakura… who did that to you?"

Sasuke woke up.

A/N: There's little explanation in the manga about how the sensing ability works. It seems to be a type of skill that can't be used by everyone or appears to be able to be learned if someone doesn't have the affinity for it. Ino seems to be the only one of the rookie nine to be able to sense chakra signatures. Furthermore, not many shinobi are shown to have this specific ability. For instance, Tobirama or Minato are shown to sense chakra signatures (Namikaze was able to sense Naruto and the Kyuubi's chakra when resurrected), but it is unknown how good both of them were as sensors since Kurama and Naruto had enormous amounts of chakra that makes them easier to be sensed. Karin and -to a lesser extent- Fü Yamanaka are presented as the best sensor characters in the manga (Ino's feat in the War Arc was brilliant, but she can't be compared to Karin's technique and Fü was recruited by Danzo because of his capacity), and both are able to notice when there's a sensor in a group. Knowing this, I always thought that the technique likely works by producing a faint net of the user's chakra to find others' chakra signatures.

Naruto canonically needs to enter the Sage mode in order to feel those around him, so he's not a sensor naturally, hence why I separated Ino from the entirety of rookie nine. Shino relies on his kikaichus to feel his enemy's chakra, and Kiba on his enhanced olfactory sense, the Hyuga clan uses the Byakugan to spot the enemy, and the Sharingan allows the user to see colored chakra. I have seen part of the fandom catalog Team 8 as a sensor specialized team, but none of them are actually sensors in the strict term of the word, in that sense -pun intended-, I believe they're more accurately trackers than sensors.

As you noticed, I did modify the fight of Team 10 against the Sound nin without actually modifying the canon material. That moment is not particularly important to Team 10's story, but to Sasuke's, and I don't want to change it. I used this chapter as an experiment to see how comfortable I am writing fights, and as it turned out, I'm not particularly comfortable nor proud of the results. It still suits me fine since the main plot doesn't revolve around fighting and is not the main reason you read the story, but I will leave this chapter untouched as a reminder that this is not my forte.

Regards.