Shikamaru groans when Asuma tells him to run laps around the training grounds. "How is this going to help me?"

"I'm not even going to answer that, Shikamaru. You know every single benefit of running. Now get going."

Shikamaru sighs and begins his run, he runs slowly, taking his sweet time. Asuma was making him run, he never specified the speed by which he ran. He smirks to himself. Fuck Cardio

"Damn it Anko!" He would recognize that shrill voice anywhere. He stops and looks around the training grounds, it's not one but two spiky ponytails that catch this attention Looks like Ino has a new look.

Ino is wriggling on the ground, an immense snake wrapped around her. Even from his distance he can see that the more the girl struggles, the tighter the snake coils around her.

"Give up, Yamanaka. The more you struggle the tighter the snake squeezes." Anko replies.

Shikamaru can't help himself, curiosity peaked. He hides behind a tree nearby, despite her developing abilities as sensory nin, Ino is too preoccupied to notice him.

Anko on the other hand, saw him coming a mile away. She quirks an eyebrow at him.

He puts his fingers to his lips.

Anko rolls her eyes but remains silent, her attention turned to the blonde girl gasping for breath.

Shikamaru narrows his eyes, Ino's arms are pinned behind her back. He notices that the more she struggles that closer her hands get to one another. Is that her plan?

He notices that her face is turning red and her hands are loosing blood flow quickly. He wonders how long Ino can hold out, or how long Anko will allow the snake to keep it's coils around her.

Then he sees it, the hand signs done behind her back.

He turns his attention to Anko who has her arms crossed, watching the blonde.

"Come on Yamanaka."

The snake slowly loosens it's coils. He immediately figures it out. Ino used her Hypnosis technique on the snake, not on Anko.

I didn't know that she could use it on animals, let alone summons.

Anko's eyes widen in surprise as Ino wriggles out of the snake's grasp and out of attack range, she is breathing hard, obviously trying to catch her breath.

"Well well well. Looks like you have a few tricks up your sleeves after all." Anko praises.

Ino draws a kunai and charges Anko.

Bad idea. Shikamaru thinks

Anko immediately blocks the attack before kicking Ino in the chest, sending the girl staggering back against a tree.

Ino groans and uses the tree to stagger to her feet.

"That's all you've got?" Anko demands.

Ino turns and glares at Anko, but charges again.

The hand to hand combat last longer than Shikamaru expects it will last, Ino's movements swift and fluid, not the usual jerky motions she used to use. He attributes it to the amount of yoga she has been doing with the Hyuuga girl.

Of course Anko defeats Ino. Ino is panting on her hands and knees, sweat covers her body and there are the beginning of bruises appearing on her arms and legs from the snake's coils.

Anko offers Ino a hand which the blonde grasps gratefully.

"Nice work, Yamanaka. Pretty clever what you did with the snake, threw me for a loop. Too bad I'm such an epic kunochi that you couldn't distract me."

"Modest too." Ino mutters. Shikamaru hears the statement and rolls his eyes.

Instead of chastising her, Anko laughs and wraps an arm around Ino's shoulders, "Come on Yamanaka, let's have some dango."

"Anko, I don't really think." Ino begins to protest.

Shikamaru sighs. Of course Ino would be on another one of her stupid diets. She's looking a little too thin already, then again she has always looked thin.

"Nonsense. One dango won't hurt you. Besides, your currently being spied on by the enemy." Anko persuades as she turns Ino's attention to Shikamaru.

"Damn it, Anko." he mutters to himself as he steps out from behind the tree.

"Shikamaru?" Ino demands.

"Yo."

Ino ducks under Anko's arm and stomps in his direction."You asshole, creeping around and watching me train. Fucking coward, at least make it known that you are here."

"Why? So you can bite my head off?" he crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the tree nonchalantly.

Ino's cheeks turn a light shade of pink and Shikamaru can't decide if it's a blush or anger.

"Just stay out of my way." Ino growls.

"Hey hey hey. I know that you two are mad, but you are-" Anko begins stepping between the two.

"If you say teammates, I swear to all that is holy." Ino growls.

"I was going to say that you are family friends. You two grew up together." Anko explains.

"Don't remind me." Ino huffs.

"A troublesome child back then, a troublesome bitch now." Shikamaru crosses his arms.

"What'd you say?" Ino yells.

Ino makes a lunge for Shikamaru, but is caught by Anko. "Hold up there fiesty pants." she holds onto a struggling Ino, but glares at Shikamaru.

"You should get out of here."

Shikamaru pauses. Then turns a saunters away.

He can't help but feel a tinge of guilt- he and Ino had grown up together. True she was annoying, but all kids are. But the three of them all played games together, had family dinners together-hell he and Ino would share birthday parties.

Then Ino's mom died. Things changed then, he remembers holding her trembling form as she cried in his arms. He was too young to realize it at the time, but now that he is older and mastered the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, holding a teammate and holding a friend are two very different feelings.

He turns and looks at Ino over his shoulder, he can't help but notice the way that Anko hugs Ino as a friend, not a teammate.

Ino groans as she explains her situation to Hinata and Sakura. To her surprise, Forehead seemed to actually care about her training and situation

Probably because she is trying to live vicariously through me Ino thinks to herself, she can't help but allow herself to mentally smirk at the notion. Although she wonders if Hinata felt the same way. From how Hinata is holding herself, Ino thinks that despite her defeat by Neji, Hinata is the one who came out on top.

The three kunochi are sitting on the floor in Hinata's bedroom in the Hyuuga Compound. Ino isn't sure how Hinata managed to convince her father to allow not only herself but Sakura to enter the Compound, but Ino isn't complaining.

The Hyuuga Compound, especially the gardens are everything that Ino expected them to be. She only caught a glimpse of them as Hinata quickly ushered them into her bedroom I have to figure out a way to look at those gardens. This is probably going to be the one and only time that I will be allowed here.

"That s-sounds horrible. I c-can't imaging if Kiba, Shino and I were in that s-situation." Hinata says softly, hugging a pillow to her chest. Hinata looks weak and tired still, despite her doing her best to help Ino with her training, the Hyuuga girl is still recovering. Ino feels a tinge of guilt for having asked Hinata to help.

"You and Shikamaru sound worse than Naruto and Sasuke." Sakura says with a smirk.

Ino sighs and falls on her back. "Fuck!"

"Maybe you and S-Shikamaru c-could just meet and wish each other luck?" Hinata asks hopefully.

Ino sits up quickly, exchanging a glance with Sakura. Both girls instantly answer at the same time.

"No way!" Ino cries

"That's the worse idea ever!" Sakura moans.

Hinata's face quickly turns tomato red. "I just. I just mean…If N-Neji and I were to have a chance to s-speak. I'd want to be able to wish him luck at the final e-exams."

"Why?" Ino wrinkles her nose.

"I agree. He tried to kill you, Hinata."

"He is still my f-family. I would f-forgive him. I k-know he is hurting t-too. Maybe one day." Hinata explains softly, playing with a loose piece of string on her pants.

She has a point. You and Shikamaru might as well be family. Maybe more? Regardless, maybe Hinata is right?"

Ino shakes her head. Of course Hinata would be the one to make her question her entire belief system. If there is anything Ino can do, it's hold a grudge and convince herself of anything. When she was little she'd managed to convince herself the sky was green for two days.

She huffs.

"Wow, Pig." Sakura said, watching Ino's internal debate.

Ino shoots Sakura a glare. "Fuck off, Forehead."

Sakura opens her mouth to respond, but Ino climbs to her feet. "I need to get going, I have some more training to do." Ino makes sure to relay that statement to Sakura.

Green eyes meet blue ones with a challenge. "I like your hair, Ino." Sakura mocks.

Hinata quickly breaks the tension. "You t-two need to s-stop."

The two girls back down, as if they'd been scolded by their teachers, no their friend.

"Like I said, I should get going." Ino says.

She makes it a point to bow to Hinata. "Thanks for inviting me over." She turns towards Sakura and debates making a face at her, instead she nods her head. "See you, Forehead."

As soon as Ino is outside of the main house, she makes the impulsive decision to go explore the gardens of the main house. If anyone asks, I can just say that I got myself turned around. In a compound. A compound that is arguably the easiest to navigate. She shrugs. Everyone thinks she is a dumb blonde anyway. Might as well play it to her advantage.

The flowers surrounding Ino take her breath away. There are species of hydrangea, magnolia, and lily that she had only heard rumors about. The hydrangeas were green and from the way that the petals looked, would eventually turn white. Magnolia trees grew to immense heights. There were cherry blossoms that seemed almost purple instead of their Sakura colored locks. She walks slowly through the garden, finding herself stopping and examining different types of flora before finding herself on a bridge over the koi pond.

The koi are beautiful as they swim in languid circles, but it is the lily pads that catch her attention. I never knew that lily pads had such beautiful flowers our could be that green.

"What are you doing here, Yamanake?" Ino winces, she'd recognize the belittling tone of Neji Hyuuga anywhere.

She turns. "I just got myself turned around. Besides, Hinata said that I could look at the gardens on my way out." Ino lies quickly. The part about Hinata is a bit of a stretch, as Hinata was giving her and Sakura a tour she pointed out the gardens.

Neji narrowed his eyes at her and stalks up the bridge until he is standing a combative distance away from her.

Why does he have such beautiful hair? And flawless skin? Despite being kinda weird, those Hyuuga eyes. It's not fair. Ino sighs in frustration.

"What was that, Yamanaka?" Neji growls.

Ino shakes her head to forget about how attractive Neji is. "Nothing." she answers quickly. A bit too quickly for Neji's liking as he instantly makes the distance between the two of them infinitely smaller.

Ino resists the natural instinct to flinch away. There is no way that I'm going to let him intimidate me. "I'm not afraid of you, Hyuuga. I'm not Hinata, you don't intimidate me. But I'd watch out if I were you, Hinata has the heart of a lioness, she won't be afraid of you for long."

Neji's eyes narrow and the byukagan is activated. Ino can feel her body shaking, but once again resist the urge to back down. "You and I are competing in the same exams, Hyuuga."

"How could I forget? Dosu will finish you off in no time. You only managed to get in because you fought a kunochi weaker than you. Something that I wasn't sure was possible."

This time Ino steps forward. Too close, moron.

She isn't sure who is more surprised in the moment, the fact that she had the courage to step up to Neji caught them both off guard. The byukagan is deactivated.

Neji's hand reaches up and brushes a strand of hair from her face.

Ino stops breathing, unsure if this is a plan to attack or something completely different.

Neji pulls away quickly, as if he had touching something hot. "Get out of here, Yamanaka."

Ino takes a breath as she too takes a large step back. She gives Neji the slightest of all bows before turning and walking through the garden gate.