Naruto had long since decided that D-Ranks were the worst. This man, Tazuna, was nothing but a combination of all the D-Ranks he had ever done: annoying, petty, and unnecessary. At least Team 10 was joining them on the mission, the Hokage saw right through Tazuna's lies.
"Hey, Saku-chan!" Naruto called, his voice purposely louder than normal.
"Yeah?" She answered.
"That's a nice puddle to practice on, right?" Naruto's voice became mischievous as the hidden chakra signatures grew erratic. The two teams' Jonin sensei looked at him and Sakura with an approving smile when she nodded. "Great!"
"Oh, uh, Naru-chan! I have this one jutsu I really want to test out! Can I have first go?" Naruto nodded at her and she stepped forward, hands already flying through seals. "Earth Style: Four Hands Jutsu!" Hands made of mud and stone emerged from the ground, spreading and growing before simultaneously slamming onto the puddle.
"Aw, Sakura-chan, you didn't even give me a chance!" Naruto poured at the girl. Shikamaru chuckled slightly when the girl jumped up to try and get him to forgive her, making his teammates stare at him.
"Shikamaru..." Ino started.
"Did you just laugh?" Chouji finished for her. Shikamaru's chuckle became a laugh accompanied by an amused smile. He shook his head.
"No, I chuckled!" He replied, voice slightly raised.
"Hey, Shika!" Naruto called out to him, shoving Sakura slightly to make room only to be shoved by the pinkette. He glared before continuing what he was saying. "Come to the front with us!" Thinking it was fine, the Jounin were at the back and his teammates were at the sides, Shikamaru nodded and joined the strange pair. This surprised his team, who had thought he would find it too troublesome to be in front, before they remembered the restaurant fiasco and cringed.
Ino and Choji walked silently, keeping pace but lost in their own thoughts. Ino couldn't stop thinking of her former best friend, Sakura. She was much closer to Naruto than Ino had ever been to her, and despite their old rivalry, Ino couldn't help but feel happy for her. She wanted a friendship like that, and it even looked like Shikamaru, of all people, was being included in it. He didn't do anything to try to get people to like him, and he was joining those two? Why him? What was so special about him? Before her thoughts could grow any darker, she remembered Naruto's precision with senbon, and Sakura's powerful earth jutsu. Despite having minuscule reserves back in the Academy, she pulled off that chakra-intensive jutsu like it was nothing. Not to mention Naruto, he had the worst aim out of anyone in the Academy, and he wielded senbon, one of the most precise weapons in the world.
Ino knew she didn't seem like much. One of her teammates was stronger and able to use powerful jutsu, and the other was a genius. Meanwhile, she didn't have much other than a difficult to wield mind jutsu, and a fiery temper. She knew that was how everyone saw her. However, if there was one thing she knew that they didn't, it was that she was a Yamanaka woman through-and-through. Academy teachers, particularly that traitor, Mizuki-Sensei, had called her a disgrace to her clan for years, going off of her father's performance, but he had been taught by his father, his uncle, his brother, his grandfather. Ino, she was taught by her mother, her aunts, her grandmother, her cousins. The women. They taught her how to draw people in, to read people. Then, they taught her how to take the newly gained information, and use it against them. She knew how to get people to underestimate, and she knew how to get under their skin.
Why couldn't any of her instructors realize that women and men were taught differently in the Yamanaka family?
"Ino?" Chouji glanced at her, and she realized she had stopped walking.
"Ah!" She cried. "Sorry, Chouji! Lost in my thoughts." Ino threw in a carefree laugh, forced, but nearly perfectly copied. He nodded suspiciously before leaping ahead, towards the middle of the group.
Ino took a moment to survey the group. Asuma, Kakashi, and Tazuna were walking in silence. Chouji had pulled out another bag of chips—'You're supposed to be on a diet!'. Shikamaru and Sakura were laughing, probably at a math or Go! reference. Naruto, however... he had turned his head, and their eyes met. After whispering something to the other two ninja in front, he leapt back to walk next to her.
"Naruto?" She asked. "What are you doing back here? Why aren't you with Fo—Sakura?" She couldn't help the slight bitterness that entered her tone at the name of her former best friend.
Naruto gave her a smile, and she observed his face. Forced, she thought. His smile was fake, but it wasn't obvious. She could simply tell from years of observing that same smile, never reaching blue eyes covered by spiky blond hair, a clear sign that no one was at home to tell him to fix his hair.
"Why'd you always fake that smile?" Ino found herself asking.
Naruto smiled at her. "I knew you were more than a disgrace," he muttered, and she felt like crying. If it had been Asuma, or Kakashi, or, hell, even Iruka, she would have. Instead of thanking him, for the slightly offensive compliment, she tossed him a challenge.
"Well, yeah." She said, a, once again, fake smirk sliding onto her face. "Did you think I was one before?"
"No," he snorted. "I have Sakura as my teammate, I studied your clan teachings at the library, and damn were those books dusty!" His eyes slid up to meet hers, and she was struck by how much shorter he was. She knew the moment he noticed as well, for his smirk, almost believable before, was suddenly incredibly strained. Height was always an advantage. "It's almost like someone had tried to hide them."
The accusation was logical. She was a female Yamanaka, and she was a kunoichi. That wasn't very common. It would give her an element of surprise if the only techniques known were the male ones. After all, the girls in the clan were far more suited to senbon than the boys. And, for the first time in the conversation, a genuine laugh erupted from her throat.
"Well, looks like I have a friend to play psychology games with." Ino chuckled.
Naruto smiles at her, genuinely, and let out a small giggle. "Yeah I guess so. Hey, could you teach me how to fake some of my expressions and tones a bit better. You had much more precise control than me."
"Only if you help me learn to use senbon. I've started practicing, but I'm not that good yet."
"Shake on it?" Naruto stuck out a hand, and together, the two blondes shared the flimsiest hand shake known to man, giggling as the did it.
"Hey, do you think—!" Ino was cut off by a yell from Kakashi.
"Duck!"
Without thinking, the pair did as asked just in time, as a sword cleaved past their heads with enough force to cut Ino's hair, which she had been growing out for years, into a long bob.
However, she knew this wasn't the time for dramatics, and she grabbed a handful of senbon, and he pulled out a steel garrote.
A man, sat atop the hilt of a giant sword, chuckled ominously, a feeling of being hunted permeating the area as he released his killing intent. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Copy-nun Kakashi and Asuma of the Twelve Guardians."
"Genin!" Asuma's clear voice rang out. "Stay back and protect Tazuna. This fight is beyond your abilities!"
The Genin nodded and leapt back, grabbing Tazuna.
As soon as they reached the tree line, a thick mist spread throughout the battleground and with that, the fight began.