It had been a year, since the Uchiha had left Konoha. Since the team, since her teammates were brought back bloodied and battered.

Dying.

The kunoichi walked down the bustling street of mid-morning, aware but unresponsive to the male gazes that traveled over her. She was no longer proud of receiving them, and continued down the street with slight annoyance biting at a corner of her mind. No, Ino Yamanaka went more from a joyful bubbly to a calm even almost cold at times demeanor. Her voice still rang out loud, as did her laughter, but it grew rarer through the months. People said that she finally grew up, became a shinobi. Some people merely stated that she became spiteful, bitter at the departure of the Uchiha. Those harsher simply said that from a narcissist harlot she grew into a cold-hearted harlot instead, but was a harlot nonetheless.

But as for Ino herself, she decided to focus on life more now or more like the act of being a shinobi, over enjoyment. As for those who labeled her to become apathetic, they were partially right, but it was more so that she was nursing the hard compressed stone of emotion that grew steadily in her heart, by ignoring it. The longing, contempt, anger and despondency she quelled inside her heart.

Her smiles were just as bright if not stretched a little too wide for emphasis. Her hair was still just as smooth. Her fashion sense was still as sharp as the kunai she carried on her leg. Her eyes still shimmered, but unlike before they stayed the same viridian hue, and now carefully masked whatever she felt inside. Her slender but curved body was now tightly muscled and lean. But the thing that changed that most about her was the way she walked. As each foot was placed obediently in front of the other, no extra energy was put into the simple task, no bounce in each step, though she still held her head high, with her back straight, there was an odd feeling that her straighter posture was merely a way to hold something up. Some sort of an invisible weight on her shoulders that threatened to crush her.

Shikamaru was almost constantly sent all over the place, due to his over exceeding intelligence, Chouji just happened to be on a mission, and…she didn't feel like asking Asuma to train her. As of now, the blonde was on her way to train. Alone. Though now it was more of a routine she gave himself even if they were here. Contrary to popular belief, Ino wanted to reflect on and improve herself, her abilities, and mainly her faults.

After walking quite some distance into a clearing in the depths of the Konoha forest, Ino Yamanaka leaned against a tree, did a few simple hand seals and created a simple clone. She made the simple clone go through her usual taijutsu routine, which started out slow and meditative like, then escalated into quick jutting movements as fast and as long as her body allowed her.

Throughout the entire time, Ino remained leaning against the tree, watching her clone's movements. A small but familiar frown began to creep onto her face as she studied her clone's movements.

'Too slow. So rough and uncoordinated. Bad defense…upper back open…arms too low…head too high... ' She listed off in her head while watching 'her' movements. Watching her clone move, she saw so many invisible enemies, and so many potential deaths in store for her if it were a real situation.

Tired of seeing all her flaws she released the clone and started the routine herself with the same frown that appeared earlier etched on her face, trying to remember all the little details that she found.

'Calm.' She chanted in her head as she began her slow fluid movements; eyes closed. Moving her limbs slowly, she pulled the back as far as possible, then returned turned them in exchange of stretching another limb. This she told herself, would make her more flexible. Having a special bloodline to switch minds, Ino was particularly sensitive that what could not be seen, but to what was felt. She did this for the main reason to calm and strengthen her mind, forcing it to slow and focus.

'Calm.'

Soon her movements sped up, the movement of her feet drew sweeping crescents in the ground, sharp jutting lines, never stopping in movement. She added a new word to her mantra, control.

'Calm. Control.'

Finally opening her eyes, she reached the favorite of her routine. Flying into a full-fledged sprint she dashed up the nearest tree, didn't stop till she neared the top, till the nimble branches could no longer hold her weight then lept away into a free fall.

'Calm. Control. Speed.'

Flipping mid-air, she twisted her body around and drew kunai and shuriken from her leg pouch and threw them at the mini targets she set up.

'Calm. Control. Speed. Accuracy.'

Before she knew it, the ground came crashing faster, as she landed with her legs underneath her and as she barely felt the pressure of her momentum stopped by the ground, she leaned forward and utilized her motion into a quick roll, found her feet then pushed off the ground into a sprint.

She sprinted up anything the met her eyes, climbing, flipping, aiming, and falling.

'Calm. Control. Speed. Accuracy. Endurance.'

Moving in random directions, she added the final and biggest challenge in the routine she set for herself. Forcing her eyes to stay open, her gloved fist flew to a tree, as the impact resonated through her ears, she pushed off the tree and aimed to kick through the softer branches of another tree. A crack echoed on the floor as a disembodied branch hit it. Wincing, she kicked off again, and repeating the process.

'Calm. Control. Speed. Accuracy. Endurance. Strength.'

After some minutes of an eternity, the seemingly flying kunoichi bounced off another dented tree and crashed onto the worn ground.

Panting furiously, the rivers of sweat washed down her face, each an own personal memory, each a personal reminder to strengthen herself. To be able to fight, succeed and protect those around her. Not being able to go on the mission to retrieve Sasuke hurt her pride more than she let on. And Ino Yamanaka was every bit guilty of the sin pride.

Standing up slowly, she felt the bones within her quiver silently. Wincing with every step, she cradled her bleeding fists and blood-soaked gloves against her chest. Putting on her bloodied gloves after she inspected her bloodied hands, she went back to gather all the kunai and shuriken she threw. Walking up the trees and leaping in-between them with considerably less ferocity, this was to slowly sooth her heart that pounded painfully against her ribcage.

Finally finished the annoying task of collected her weapons; another groan escaped her lips as her limbs stung in protest as she lowered herself to the ground, a small stream in front of her. The groan morphed into a hiss then silenced as she washed the dirt and blood off her wounds within the cooled water of the stream.

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Now at mid-afternoon, the hottest times of the day, Ino planned out an hour or two of rest. After going home to take a shower and treat her wounds properly, she exited with a back-pack and wandered around one of Konoha's many street markets a while and then finally headed over to TenTen's house.

TenTen you ask? Why out of all people, TenTen?

Well, yes. TenTen. Over the years, it became a familiar routine for the both of them to meet and train together mid-afternoon. For the sake of indulging in some well needed girl talk, but also to keep to an unspoken agreement to help improve each other. But I can imagine why you still question the odd pair, why not Sakura? If you listened to everybody else, they'd say it was because Ino hated Sakura, being the last person Sasuke saw before leaving. Well, I guess you could say that it was partially true, only the wrong emotion was said to be felt by the blonde kunoichi. She didn't hate Sakura, she was simply hurt due to fact and…avoidance was her best choice at the moment. But she quickly managed to get over the hurt in the next few days when she saw each and everyone of the retrieval team's conditions. Now, slightly hardened, she focused on power taking on a slightly Naruto-like trait of extreme stubbornness when it comes to her training (Not that she wasn't stubborn before, just with different topics). Determined to be able to keep those around her from being harmed. But unlike Naruto, Ino was well aware she had a farther way to go. The damn dead last was like a sponge when it came to absorbing power. Her relationship with Sakura simmered, and despite what happened, they regained their closeness between each other, but Ino wasn't looking for another best friend in TenTen.

She was solely looking for a training partner. To quicken and improve her reflexes, she deduced that her best choice was TenTen after seeing her match against Temari in the preliminaries.

"TenTeeeeeeeennnnnnnnn!" Ino all but wailed as she knocked on the wooden door. A second or two later the door opened to reveal an expectant brown-eyed kunoichi. Delicately raising an eyebrow, TenTen gave her a dead-panned look.

"You don't always have to be so loud every time, you know? It's not like I don't know that you're coming."

Flashing a boyish grin, the blonde retorted, "You know that you enjoy my beautiful voice!"

With a scoff and a roll of the eyes, the brunette exited her house and the duo left together, chatting about nothing in particular as Ino for the second time walked into the woods.

"What'd you do this morning anyway? Shikamaru and Chouji are out on missions, aren't they?" TenTen asked.

Ino shrugged, "Nothing really. But I find ways to amuse myself." She finished with a grin.

The older chunin quirked an eyebrow in question, but chose not to ask the blonde for details. The two pulled of their packs, and TenTen stood and faced the Yamanaka with a smirk. " Ready when you are, blondie."

Barely upright with her light hair in a newly tied bun and with a water bottle in hand, Ino frowned a bit then took a swig from her water bottle.

"You know us blondes always have the fun." The blue-eyed female smirked right back at her, and then got into stance; giving the "go."

TenTen nodded in acknowledgement and took out a scroll, then leapt into action.

"Soushouryuu Projectile Weapons no Jutsu!" The many weapons that surrounded the offending kunoichi descended in a shower of fatal gleam.

Quickly directing chakra to the soles of her feet, Ino pushed of the ground and pulled out two of her own kunai. Barely a nanosecond after she landed, another shower of weapons came hurtling at her, she crouched low and rang forward, and deflected the major pieces of steel with her kunai, and got cut multiple times in the arm.

Mid way to the ground, she flipped and then sprinted to a tree close by to escape the unending onslaught of weapons. TenTen was an extremely skilled weapons specialist who possessed deadly accuracy Ino knew, and even a nanosecond of hesitation could equal to your demise while facing her.

Ino's personal training mantra came into mind. 'Calm. Control. Speed.' Wincing as a few splinters came off the tree she pushed off, she flipped midair and kept her eyes peeled open, fully alert and high on adrenaline.

Barely finishing her flip mid-air, Ino was floating upside down, and in the split second a huge shuriken whistled by dangerously before she caught it tightly and threw it back savagely, even though it would do no good. After all, what sort of summoner would let her own summon harm herself?

Grunting with effort, Ino flattened herself against the earth immediately, dodging the shiny blades that would've ripped through her head and torso if she had not made it.

Numerous "thunks" were heard as they embedded themselves into the innocent tree behind her, but feeling absolutely no remorse for it, she quickly rolled onto her back and swung her two kunai wielding arms upwards, cutting the thin threads of wire that were connected to the lethal blades.

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, the blonde stayed on the ground, a small triumphant smile on her face. "Eh, you're getting slower!" She joked to her training partner after picking herself up off the dirt.

The older chunin scoffed, mock indignant to her comment. "We've been at this for about a month, it's just been getting easier for you to predict my movements!"

"Pfftt, you're about as random as Sakura's mood swings when it's her time of the month."

And to that, the brunette simply settled for glowering at the blonde.

Patting all the dirt off her clothes, Ino gave her a playful grin; "You can beat my ass once we get move on." And with that she lunged at the other chunin. The grin didn't even completely leave her face as she came full speed.

TenTen's quick ninja reflexes kicked in without her consent as she ducked to dodge Ino's leg that came flying up to greet her face.

In retaliation TenTen lowered herself to the ground and used her leg to hit Ino's left leg that was currently the only support she had. The hit made contact, Ino nearly fell, but thanks to her flexibility she ended up flipped backwards instead. The two made eye contact, smirking in friendly competition then leapt into action again.

A sharp note of metal scarping against metal sounded through the air as the two clashed, kunai clutched tightly in both their fists. Being a master at weaponry, Ino ended up in the position of having both her hands up, defending against the more experienced chunin's offense.

Most glares and taunts passed silently between the two before they resorted to just plain Tai-Jutsu, relying on speed, agility, strength and endurance. Thanks to her secret morning self-training session, Ino had gained a slight upper hand.

But in the midst of their well-aimed kicks and punches, they were interrupted.

"Go, TenTen! You can do it! Explode in the power of youth!" Guess who.

"That's the spirit, my adorable student! Cheer on your teammate!" Another guess?

The two immediately froze, practically embarrassed that the comment, well more like Ino, but TenTen…gaining an immunity toward her...rather…unusual comrades, merely hung her head in resignation.

She quickly recovered with surprise. "Gai-Sensei? Lee? You guys...are…early…"

The two green clad shinobi stood before them, shining in all their…green…glory.

"Not at all. It seems that you are the one early in this case, TenTen. You have beat us here, and taken our idea to get a head start on training!"

Ino had never felt so awkward in her life.

"Well, um…Guess…I'll be going, TenTen. Nice to see you again, Gai-Sensei, Lee-san." With a nod to each she did a 180 and was about to march off –

"Wait! Ino, why don't you stay and watch this time? After all, the rest of your team is away, right?"

The blonde of the group half-turned, not entirely sure how to answer, but tried anyway before getting interrupted.

"Ino will be the witness to Lee's burning youth then!" Apparently Gai-Sensei answered for her.

"Yes, Gai-Sensei! I will do my best!"

Looking back on the chunin exam, the Yamanaka recalled Lee's intimidating speed and his oddly graceful movements. Curiosity got the best of her, and though TenTen already told her how the energetic teen trained…well, seeing it is different from merely hearing it.

"Well, um…I'll...what…should I do?" She asked tentatively, slighting twitchy from their constant outbursts.

"Just come over here and watch! Maybe you could learn something!" She was momentarily blinded by the deadly sparkle Gai harbored in his teeth, but nonetheless the last statement hit her like a ton of bricks.

Maybe you could actually learn something.

Did she dare dream to one day be as fast as him? The thought merely saddened her, as she thought to what she was practicing earlier with the help of TenTen, Lee wouldn't have the slightest trouble to dodge them…and with those horrendous weights on too! The blonde looked sadly at the energetic Lee.

Contrary to popular belief, Gai certainly was not oblivious to what those around him were feeling. And at this moment, he felt some remorse coming from the blonde chunin next to him.

He witnessed a surprisingly large amount of self-control but from the tightening in her fist and the way her lips drew back slightly as she watched Lee, eyes down but closely taking in every detail, it was obvious. Gai smiled softly. He saw the determination, and couldn't help but think of himself, and of course, Lee.

He had also heard all the rumors of the famous "Ino-Shika-Chou" formation, but more specifically regarding the team itself. The team was the weakest according to rumor. Shikamaru himself was outstanding, due to his incredulously high intelligence and excellent strategizing capabilities, but as he advanced it seems that Ino and Chouji were left to fade into the background.

Because of the care Ino had always put into her appearance, people automatically assumed that she wasn't a good ninja, the familiar phrase, "dumb blonde," comes to mind. Sakura on the other hand, just recently had been upping up her looks, as people began to acknowledge her and even praise her. The two rivals seemed to have switch roles. And as for Chouji, it wasn't a surprise that he was underestimated for his power. To be looked down upon, not even given a chance, he understood. And truthfully, seeing it happen to the promising youth around him…

It was his weak spot.

And from what he saw as he approached their familiar clearing, the blonde next to him was exerting herself with every ounce of her strength, Gai smile turned a bit wry, as he noted, it seemed to have a touch of desperation in it.

Gai contemplated all this. And this was the reason behind his next action.

"Ino-san, was it?"

The lithe female peered up, surprised. "Yes, Gai-Sensei."

"Why don't you stop watching Lee and TenTen and show me what you can do?"

She stared at him briefly, not comprehending. For the love of her life, couldn't understand the Jounin's request, except for a knowing expression on his face…which…annoyed the hell out of her. It was something that all the sensei's seem to share.

"From what TenTen said, it seems that you haven't gotten any of your teammates to train with."

Still slightly dumbfounded, Ino managed a hesitant nod and a soft yes.

"Well, I will help you utilize your power of youth while I have the chance! Get up!"

Without giving her a chance to comply to his command, Gai grabbed the blonde's arm and yanked her up effortless then marched off, with a shout, "MY STUDENTS! I WILL BE HELPING INO EMBRACE HER YOUTH!"

"Yes, Gai-Sensei!" Responded Lee. His brunette haired teammate merely nodded.

The young kunoichi currently held prisoner at the arm by Gai, was…how would one say it?

Excruciatingly alarmed.

Yes, that should do it.

Excruciatingly alarmed.

"Wha—"

"I am going to train you, and help you embrace your youth!" Then he paused and turned his heavily haired eyebrow to her, "Unless you have any objections?"

As she mentally translated it into getting stronger, Ino stumbled a few incoherent syllables and finally settled on one.

"Why?"

The older men turned around, suddenly calm, and actually looking like a full-fledged jounin, well a bit more, since the hair cut interfered greatly with the image. He looked her squarely in the eye, much to the dismay of his 'new student.'

"Do you wish to improve?"

The purple clad chunin looked up at him, once again surprised and practically nodded on by an automatic reflex.

With that, the jounin swiveled around and continued to march. "Well then, I may not be able to teach you the best of Nin-Jutsu or Gen-Jutsu, but I can help you improve with Tai-Jutsu. Which will lead to more chakra capacity, then you'll be free to do whatever you want with it."

For some odd reason, the Yamanaka suddenly felt humbled, and looked down at her feet, while following behind him.

"Yes…" She almost felt like Sasuke with the monosyllable replies. She winced as she realized her own thought.

Just a few seconds later, they reached their apparent destination, which was a few meters from where TenTen and Lee were training.

Now the duo stood facing each other. Ino was once again, at lost for what to do.

Out of randomness, or god knows what that went through the mind of the green best of Konoha, because of that very moment, the chunin saw a fist coming her way and barely dodged it by bending all the way back.

In pure adrenaline, the kunoichi felt her body take on constant movement, dodging, leaning, flipping and flattening herself against the ground to avoid the flurry of physical attacks coming from the jounin.

It seemed that in the span of a minute, he was testing out her ability, because in the instant the minute in his mind came up, his attacks came harder and faster.

Wide-eyed the entire time, Ino's light hair was coming slightly undone from her tight bun. So far she had only dodged purely on instinct till the idea of actually trying to land a kick or punch on her offender came to mind. The label Jounin stopped her from acting instantly though.

After more dizzying rapid spins and flips, she decided that taking this physical fight to the trees would be better. She moved with an entirety while up high amidst the trees that she couldn't gain on the ground, well at least, not as well.

Sprinting up a tree, she looked back to see Gai on her heels, with a little push, she put more power into her sprint and bounced between the tree to travel up, feeling the strain on her muscles after a whole day's of training.

"Is that all you can do? Dodge?"

Irritation bloomed through her chest as she fell off backwards a branch, letting the chakra in her feet swing her around in a 360 around the branch, she paused for a split second to gain her balance only to get knocked off by an orange clad leg into a neighboring tree. It seemed that the chase would only stop when she managed to land a hit on him.

Panting like a dog dying of thirst now, she was definitely beginning to feel the strain. She pushed off another hundredth branch, pulled out a kunai and held on. Waiting for the right moment to strike.

But from the looks of it, it didn't look like she was going to get a chance to strike. MaitoGai, supreme Tai-Jutsu specialist, jounin rank, seemed to give her no openings.

Finally deciding to take a risk, as he aimed a kick at her, she took the resolve to hang on to his leg mid-kick with her dear life and see what would happen.

The impact knocked the wind out of her, but somehow her tired arms manage to hang on, and her one open eye, squinting with effort managed to catch the sliver of surprise that domineered in the Jounin's eyes.

Seeing that she immediately launched herself, using his leg as a branch (ouch for Gai) and then faked a motion to kick his back with her right leg, while he expectedly ducked her left leg and kicked his other leg down from under him.

Thanking whatever god there was, her leg actually hit something.

'Oh Kami-Sama. I did it.' Ino presumably decided to give up that moment. She managed to bring the Green Beast of Konoha down, for a split second, but that split second was all that matter for her at the moment.

As she let a huge gust of air from her lungs, she deliberately gave the last shove a nearby tree and ending up falling head first toward the ground far below.

With her head up she saw her current opponent wear an unreadable expression on his face, but that wasn't the point. The point was that he stayed standing on that branch.

Flipping she landed as light as she could onto the uneven floor with exhaustion racking through her body. She felt a small rush off wind next to her and a thump; she wasn't surprised to see the same orange clad leg that knocked the wind out of her earlier into a tree. Following up the leg, she looked up to see Gai, with the sun hitting him. And she could've sworn that he did it on purpose, the way the sun hit him, it was one of those overdone cheesy hero movies, and as if by cue the sunset and waves came crashing behind him.

One of her thin eyebrows twitched in annoyance, as she wondered what she did to god to deserve this fate. I mean sure, she wanted to improve, but being hunted down by a green sparkling beast of Konoha seemed a bit…out of proportion, didn't it?

"Not bad." The Green Sparkling beast as mentioned beforehand spoke.

The kunoichi still knelt on the ground, recovering from the previous ordeal, looked up in question.

"You're very flexible, and your reflexes are pretty quick. And you work very well with your own momentum. You're speed is proficient for now, but you lack power, and your endurance could more work. Your counter was unexpected though, so not bad."

The chunin blinked then stood up. "…Thank you?"

She was greeted with a blinding sparkle. "Now, let's see if you can land a hit on me."

Ino didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but remembering the initiation of this 'practice,' she managed to grin back at Gai, and threw a punch at him without warning.

It was no surprise when her attack collided with nothing, as the green disappeared she caught it reappearing at the very top of her vision, and leapt.

And this continued for a quick a while, Ino pushing off furiously and with Gai disappeared when she was barely and inch away from hitting him.

She suspected that it merely Gai toying with her. And…so it went on, with Ino's various limbs meeting nothing but air.

It was truly getting to her.

But at least this only lasted for a few minutes, since it was clear that the chunin wouldn't be touching him anytime soon. It was a completely different story chasing the jounin than from running from him.

Out of all the people, she had to hunt down the one and only Green Beast of Konoha.

She vaguely wondered if this would really help her.

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A/N: Tell me what you think. I'd greatly appreciate it.