Konoha's training grounds are a palace for some acts of bravery, wit, and absurd stupidity. Genin used to regularly incinerate themselves on the vast forests that the ninja have known to call home, and Hashirama's trees stand vigilant against the test of jutsu and experimentation gone awry. On this day, one such training ground is her battlefield. Yamanaka Ino is many things. To some, a prodigy only overshadowed by other clan geniuses. A kunoichi of Konoha's finest squad, the heir to her clan, and a fashionista the likes of which no one had ever seen before. She was full of love and pride for the village that had raised her. By such, it only made sense that she wanted this, right? She wanted Jōnin more than anything else she had ever known, if only because it would be the penultimate stepping stone in her path. Shikamaru and Chouji were already proud of her, her family was already boasting of her accomplishments. It was rare for Yamanaka to stray from the path of research and interrogation since their unique ninjutsu made them suited towards such tasks. Her father was the exception to the rule and clearly, his daughter was now following in his footsteps.

Except, Inoichi didn't make Jōnin until he was 20, given a choice between dying with his squad in a mission he botched or fighting Iwagakure nin till his dying breath, praying that reinforcements came before he could die. He wasn't a prodigy or even ambitious as a soldier of Konoha. Simply just a body in the right place, wrong time. He was driven in his pursuit for strength by a need to survive, while Ino was...

Ino was driven by her pride. Sure, it did her a great honor to serve Konoha and keep it safe however she could, but hearing that she could be one of the youngest kunochi to ascend to Jōnin since the Third Shinobi War filled her with... some weird sense of completion. She wasn't following in her fathers' footsteps because they weren't at war. The village was ushering in a new peace, the Fifth rightfully settled in her seat of power, an uneasy truce between Suna and Konoha formed over the bonding of their respective jinchuriki. There are whispers of bandits, of S class missing-nin congregating for some goal that remained unseen. It's... different than war plans, marches made for territory and supplies in the unforgiving climate of Rice Country. She's the first of a new era, a Jōnin hopeful that wanted nothing more than to prove her power.

It's this pride, that drives her to arrive early. Before Team 7 would even meet up that morning, Ino would be hard at work in the woods, setting traps, creating little markers for herself, completely indistinguishable from the forest and fauna. She understands her specialty, and the only advantage she would have against that team in any fight was the element of surprise.

Hopefully, that would be enough.

She can hear the 'audience' that Asuma spoke of as the early rays of dawn grow brighter through the trees. Ninja were discreet at the very least, but she can feel the eyes on her from just beyond the barrier provided by the training ground. Anbu? It seems a little... excessive for what would be a friendly spar, but if they were interested in watching, who was she to complain? So long as they kept their distance from the forest proper and avoided setting off any of the traps, things would be fine.

Things would be fine, and she just had to tell herself that time and time again. She knew what to do, who she was up against and what it entailed. When Asuma insisted that she challenge the rest of the Rookie 9, this had been the battle she was most looking forward to. The only person to beat out her scores in ninjutsu and taijutsu in the academy, combined with the academic powerhouse and a stamina monster. An impossibly well-rounded unit for a front line squad and from the beginning, Ino understood that she would not be able to abuse their weaknesses in the same way that she could abuse the failings of Team 10's. All of them specialized in radically different things, each ninja bringing either an S-rank jutsu or skill to the battle that she wouldn't be able to outmaneuver on her best of days.

But, there was something that could be done. Like all teams, Team 7 had their failings. And she didn't have to beat them at their own game, she just had to win.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" She doesn't feel a signature until he's molding the chakra for the jutsu and feels a tinge of annoyance at that. Who taught Naruto how to avoid sensors? Even if she were a low level one, the blind could normally pinpoint the burning resonance of Naruto's chakra, which was as chaotic and unwieldy as his own personality. There's no fanfare to their arrival and she's no longer scared or even annoyed because without even realizing it, they just played into the open stages of her attack.

Now that the covers blown, she can easily make out the signatures that were recently dimmed. Sakura's chakra is as grating as always, snaking beneath the earth in some bastardization of Kakashi's Head Hunter technique, while the warmth of a Katon is made obvious from the treeline far in the distance. Naruto's clones are almost as bad as Shino's swarms, and just as plentiful as they fill out the bramble above and the clearing in her line of sight.

Going all out from the beginning? Good, good.

"Fire Style! Great Dragon Fireball!" She's still standing in place as the roaring inferno comes, standing in the very same spot as Sakura burrows closer and closer and the yelling of Naruto's clones is audible over the crackle of flames materialized from raw chakra. Enemy ninja would probably just be shitting bricks if a Sharingan user and apprentice to the Sanin just came at them, guns ablaze. But Ino's calm is almost... meditative. She's done drills for this, she's done combat scenarios and played it out with Shikamaru and Chouji. She knew the Konoha standard and the codes and regulations about this exact sort of protocol. Just... just a few more steps...

Sasuke doesn't exactly like that they're not going with Naruto's plan, but he's somewhat happy that the knucklehead agreed to his part in all of this. This sort of attack was meant to disable and defeat ninja in a single, powerful blow. Ino was resilient and prepared if nothing else, so even if they hurt her, she'd bounce back. Sakura's a splendid medic and a few burn wounds wouldn't kill anyone.

Except... Ino never moves. She doesn't falter in her stance as twenty Naruto's close in from each and every visible angle, even when it's clear that she would be worm food to his jutsu or Sakura's if she didn't at least try to dodge or replacement jutsu away. It's eerie, to imagine that she's frozen in fear. And he's a little disappointed in this showing, too! How was this the best that Konoha could recommend for Jōnin? Had she really been able to defeat an entire team of Chunin by herself?

If his Sharingan weren't activated, he would have missed the smirk that came to her face. The confidence, as her fingers slipped into a cage and every clone on the battlefield disappeared in unison. His jutsu scorches the field and burns at trees like firewood on the hearth, while the plumes of clone smoke obscure the field of view. She's flared her Chakra but...?

"Are you guys really so reckless?" Her voice is in his head now, and as his fingers come up to dispel whatever genjutsu she had cast, a shuriken is thrown. It's still childs play to simply tilt his head a few inches, so the bladed weapon skitters past his cheek harmlessly. But... how could she be so accurate in this mist?

"Sasuke, duck!" It's Sakura's voice this time, loud and right beneath him as she comes bursting from the ground, burned in the crossfire of an attack not meant for her. What was happening? How did she get hurt? It's a learned effort to move his body in response to a sensation he can't see or hear, but it's the split second reaction that saves him from a shower of senbon, all riddled against the tree he had just been using as a hideout. When did Ino discover them? It doesn't matter, because even if she had thrown a wrench into the plan, Team 7 were best when they were improvising. Naruto's chakra was...nonexistent now? While Sakura's tampers off beneath the earth once more, swimming beneath trees like a shark looking for its prey.

Ino's fast and for a Chūnin, she's certainly skilled, but such talent pales in comparison to his speed. He's in front of her, tomoe of his eyes whirring to start up the genjutsu before the blonde could even think to do anything. She has no room to react, to set a trap or surprise them again and he makes certain of it. As the lilac eyes meet his and go listless with the chakra he forces into her pathways, he imagines the jutsu as she feels it. Simply being entrapped by Sakura's Headhunter technique, restrained and bound as the Anbu audience that watched it all applauded their creativity. To watch her freeze is... satisfying. But, it still doesn't explain anything of the last thirty seconds. How was she able to avoid Sakura and fight him? And what happened with Naruto?

"Lesson one, I guess?"

He nearly screams as the signature he assumed to be Sakura's tunneled right beneath him. A hand grabs him, pulling the boy neck deep into the earth before a dirtied looking blonde comes up. "You've heard of jutsu layering, right Sasuke?" he's absolutely furious with this turn of events because, with the use of his curse seal, or many of the earth jutsu he inherited with the Sharingan, he could have broken free. But because of the self-imposed limitations, he had to admit defeat. So angry, the question Ino asks goes right over his head.

When it becomes clear that he's taking the route of the silent prisoner, she sighs. "You're clearly not entertained. I'm sorry." Genjutsu? Had she employed some of her clans hidden techniques here? What was it, that lead to this situation? The mystery begins to unravel with a single hand sign made by the young Yamanaka. "Kai!"

A flare of chakra he can accurately say is Inos, and... the target he used a genjutsu on lost her chakra? Blinking slowly, he watches as an unconscious Sakura falls to the ground in front of him. Gritting his teeth, he barks. "What did you do?!" This had to have been some trick by the Anbu, they must have interfered with the battle somehow, just to watch Team 7 lose. Would Kakashi really have allowed that?

Ino sits at the base of the tree he was just in, checking her appearance in a compact mirror as she spoke now. "You weren't listening. Jutsu layering. The art of combining two or more jutsu, typically lower-grade techniques, into something greater." ...And what was this demeanor? Wasn't she a fangirl still? How could she lecture him so calmly, when he recalled Sakura saying something about Ino 'still following the hopes of a childhood crush'? "I'll start with our encounter since it's probably obvious what I did now." She's reapplying lipstick as if it's the most natural thing in the world and the Uchiha is forced to glower at her still.

The fireball blazing across the forest was heading straight for her, and even if... she couldn't get a hold of Naruto, the clones had been dispelled. Readying her hands in the formation, Ino can't help but smile. They didn't even set off her traps and instead, chose to come straight at her in a coordinated attack, just like Konoha had taught them.

Sakura grows near and now, Ino could see the little mound of dirt that was her mobile body beneath the earth, following the same trajectory that Sasuke's jutsu was on. Even if she had a way to get out of range, Sakura could easily close the distance...

So she waits until the girl shows herself to cast the jutsu, and just as the fire hits her body, her mind is separated into three individual parts. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" Sakura's barely exposed hand freezes in place against Ino's ankle, and from the mole hole, she catches a glimmer of emerald eyes staring up at her in shock as the flames lick at her still body for just a moment, before the newly body-jacked Sakura casts a replacement jutsu on the immobile form of Ino, throwing her into a safe range. Namely, close enough to Sasuke to cast a second genjutsu on him, just to distract the boy from the second flare of chakra beneath the earth as 'Sakura' transforms her appearance, trades in the clean and pristine look that the Chūnin normally kept in favor for a freshly burned victim.

With the ruse safely concocted, Ino swims beneath the earth, using Sakura's jutsu to the best of her ability, until she's beneath Sasuke. Bursting from beneath the ground, she shouts. "Sasuke, duck!" In tandem with the release of one of her senbon traps. While it came nowhere near close to hitting the Uchiha, it did tip him off to the position of her real body, which was all she needed. Following behind him, the blonde waits for the uncomfortable tug of a genjutsu on her unconscious body to act, pulling Sasuke beneath the earth and breaking her own jutsu in the process.

"Does that make sense?" The Yamanaka is now sitting at the base of a tree in front of them both, cleaning the dirt from her nails as she watched for his reaction. Her... demeanor, the easy and matter of fact way in which she read through their formation and completely broke it apart... didn't actually upset Sasuke as much as he thought it would. It stung his pride (hell, Sakura might gasp if she heard him admit it), but neither of his teammates seemed to be seriously hurt and Ino had never lifted much of a finger against the three of them.

"...What do you mean you can 'layer' jutsu? When did you do it?" He had seen amazing and innovative tricks to do two jutsu at once, and combination ninjutsu performed by Orochimaru's henchmen, but he hadn't imagined that a ninja on their level could do such a thing.

"I can use the Mind Transfer Technique with the typical Henge to... well, fool the Sharingan. You took your eyes off me when you used that big jutsu, so I was able to swap places with Sakura, over there. While you were fighting my projection, I was looking for an opening." It's... such a simple explanation, a shrewd manner of fighting, that he feels just a little shocked. In just a couple of seconds, Ino was able to put forth a plan potent enough to incapacitate two member of their team.

"But... where's Naruto?" Now that he wasn't panicking, he could see the blonde's chakra signature far off in the distance, relatively safe but unmoving. At the mention, her eyes quirk up in amusement and the makeup case is snapped closed. "Oh, uh... I think he's fine? I tried to dispel those Shadow Clones with my clan's technique and it... backfired? Or at least, Naruto did something with his chakra to make it backfire. I think he knocked himself out in the process." Without question, the scariest part of her entire encounter with the team was dealing with that little slip-up. Naruto was supposed to be the one she controlled, so she could either subdue Sakura or Sasuke. But... the idiot knocking himself out wasn't exactly a bad thing, either.

He... couldn't be furious, the more he looked at her. He might have been strong, and he certainly took pride in his team, but... seeing it himself, Ino certainly was Jounin material. She was living proof of what Kakashi had tried to drill into their heads about the fundamentals of being a ninja. Skill, resourcefulness, and luck could do much for anyone.

Bowing his head, the bluenette has the briefest hint of a smirk on his face. "Alright, we concede." Sakura's snoozing right beside him, Naruto is unharmed, he is... content. This isn't a weakness, but just simple fact. They were outsmarted and outmaneuvered and for that, Ino had his respect.

The office of Lady Tsunade was just as Ino remembered it. The room itself was well protected, with the mask bearing ninja posted at each corner of the perimeter. Its singular window gives way to the midday sun and for once, the place didn't smell of cheap sake and stale papers. The desk was cleared and the Fifth Hokage wore her hat with pride, beaming at her former pupil with a respect Ino could not recall ever seeing on her face previously. For such a prestigious meeting, it still felt like she was just some snotty nosed brat graduating out of the Academy. Taking up her flank was, as always, Shikamaru and Chouji, both of whom practically barged in and demanded that they were included in the envoy. In front of her, Tsunade, Asuma, and her father all stood.

"...Only 16. What have you been teachingher, Asuma?" Inoichi let a joking comment go and her bearded sensei laughed in response, shrugging. "The same things her teammates learned. Just the basics. I guess she took that and went running with em." He had seen the fights, had known it to be true. Ino didn't use her clan techniques as a clutch, nor did she even rely on the myriad genjutsu she knew. Just simple tactics and applications of her skills in the right places. "I have to be honest, if I wasn't her sensei, I would have bet against her." And of course there were bets. Once she had bested Team 8, news of her strength spread like wildfire.

This managed to get a reaction from their leader. "Oi, you should have told me your student was a powerhouse Asuma. I lost out on 500 ryo because of you." The more they bickered, the less ceremonious everything felt. And yet...

"What do I get, for making Jōnin?" If Chūnin got that eyesore of a flak jacket, and ANBU walked around in animal masks and tights all day, Ino really couldn't imagine what sort of uniform Jōnin typically had. Luckily, Tsunade scoffs. "You get a bit of paperwork to sign. Waivers, junk that allows me to put you on the roster for A-ranks and lead B-ranks if your sensei approves. You still won't be out of your normal formation, much. But... this means you're that much more of an asset to the village." The praise made her beam and turning toward her teammates, she giggles.

"Okay, maybe I didn't have to drag you both here to watch me do paperwork. How about I treat you all to some food after this?" The cheer of excitement her team gives was brief, as Shizune approached, holding what was clearly a new uniform. Everyone quieted as Tsunade straightened in her seat, beckoning the young Yamanaka forward.

"Ino, do you intend to serve the village with your life? Uphold the standards and protect the people of Konoha within the best of your ability?" It's a line she's read far too many times before, and still, Ino's answer surprises her. Instead of looking completely sure of herself or solemn about her duties like most Jōnin candidates did, she... smiled bashfully.

"I do! I hope to learn much more, to make myself an asset in any way I can." She wasn't powerful in the same ways that Kakashi and Asuma were, nor did she have their level of experience. Bowing slightly, she accepts the gifts from Shizune before continuing. "I am in your care now, Lady Hokage."

There's... more silence that follows, as everyone watches the exchange. Shikamaru and Chouji, clearly not used to seeing such determination and maturity from their teammate, are shocked while the adults in the room look rather proud.

Stamping a page in her book, Tsunade hums in approval. "Welcome to the elite of Konoha, Ino. I look forward to seeing what more you're capable of!"