An Extremely Awkward Problem pt 3
Shikamaru moped around his now empty house, flopping unto the couch, staring at the pile of scrolls spread about on his coffee table.
“I guess, I could look through them again…” He sighed, not very enthuiastc at the thought.
He had perused the Yamanaka Technique scrolls a few times already, not able to find anything new about this mysterious ‘switching’ technique, except the seals to perform it. Still, there was no way he could perform the jutsu yet, he could barely hold a confusion technique.
The day passes, still nothing. Ino probably wouldn’t be back from his mission for at least another day, but he still had nothing to do. Now, usually, he would’ve put up no complaints to lounging around all day and staring at the clouds from his porch, but he felt indifferent in Ino’s body…it just wasn’t the same!
He decided that he needed help, someone to discuss this problem with, and he departed for his friend’s house, after trying his best to put Ino in a matching outfit.
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Ding-dong!
“Ino?”
Shikamaru sighed, “Yeah, sure. Can I talk to you for a minute, Chouji? Want to go to lunch? My treat.”
Chouji’s eyes sparkled and he reached for his wool scarf, exiting his house and slamming the door behind him, obviously excited.
They sat at a secluded table in one of the more deserted of cafes in town, Chouji eating his meal and Shikamaru taking small bites of his mackerel.
“I didn’t think anybody but Shikamaru liked mackerel, Ino. Are you going to start eating kelp too?” Chouji joked, finishing off his dish.
“Chouji, it’s me…” Ino said, staring at him intently.
“I know it’s you, Ino. I was just joking.”
“No, really. It’s me, Shikamaru.”
Chouji sat silent, then grinned.
“Ino, Shikamaru’s out on a mission, he’s not here.”
“Dammit, Chouji! Would you listen! I’m not Ino, I’m Shikamaru!”
Chouji glared at his blonde teammate.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ino tried out this technique on me the other day, a mind-switch. And now I’m stuck in Ino’s body until I can figure out how to perform the technique to switch us back.” He sighed.
Chouji sat, his head in his hands, obviously thinking hard.
"Okay, okay…IF that’s possible….wait…IS that possible? That doesn’t sound like any of Ino’s usual techniques.”
“I know, it’s a forbidden one, her father apparently discontinued the practice of it, for this reason, exactly.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
“So, now I’m stuck trying to learn how to do her techniques, and they really suck! They’re hard as hell! It’s no wonder they have such a limited amount of techniques, they’re impossible to master! I’ve been doing shadow jitsus since I was ten, but, apparently, Ino had to start her training when she was only five. They’re that hard, you have to start at a young age to master them.”
“I see, how far have you gotten?”
“I can barely do a confusion technique. I don’t think it’ll be any sooner than a month at this rate. I need some serious help. And with Ino gone on that mission, I have no idea where to start!”
Chouji sat back and thought for a bit. Snapping his fingers together.
“Why don’t you ask Inoshi? He trained Ino, it should be a breeze for him to teach you too. Or at least give you some pointers.”
“Chouji, there’s no way I’m going over there, in Ino’s body no less. First of all; he’d kill me, just for being in his precious baby’s body. Second, he’d tell my father, then I’d never live it down. Third, he’d kill me.”
“Well, why don’t you just not tell him what happened, just pretend to be Ino.” Chouji said casually, picking his teeth with a toothpick,
“And tell him what, ‘Hey daddy, I want you to teach me everything you’ve ever taught me all over again, start from scratch, I can’t seem to remember the last 16 years of my life.’ I don’t think that would work.” He replied, a little to sarcasticly.
“Well what about asking him about this particular technique, say you came across it during training and were curious. You’re the genius, you’ll think of something.”
Shikamaru slouched back in his chair, thinking. Chouji got up, ready to leave.
“Well, thanks for lunch, but I have some things I need to do for my mom. I’ll catch you leter, Ino.” He joked as he left the table, leaving Shikamaru to rummage around for the exact change to pay the bill.
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He paced around on the porch of the Yamanaka house, thinking of the right words to say. He took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Inoshi soon appeared in the doorway, looking at him strangely.
“Um...Hi Daddy!” He said in the cutest voice he could muster.
“Hello there sweetie. You know, you didn’t have to ring the bell, you do still live here, after all.”
‘s**t’ Shikamaru thought.
“I just wanted to surprise you.” He said, trying again to sound cute.
They went inside and Ino sat down on the couch, across from her dad, who seemed to be going through his ninja equipment, sharpening and cleaning the kunai and shuriken.
“Did you need something, baby?” He asked, picking up another weapon and sharpening it carefully.
“Um, yes. I was just wondering…I was looking through some of our older training scrolls and came across an interesting technique and wanted you to teach it to me.”
“Oh, really. Which one was that?”
“It was a mind-switch technique.”
Inoshi set down the kunai and turned to face his daughter. “Ino, that technique was discontinued, it should’ve said that in the description. You know that there are some jitsus that can’t be used anymore, they’re too dangerous.”
‘Obviously not, cause she did it anyway…' he thought. “I know, but, why is it not used anymore, daddy? Did something happen?”
Inoshi sat back in his chair. “Your grandfather developed that technique oh…about 34 years ago. He tried it on one of his training partners and they ended up being stuck in each other’s bodies for 6 months.”
Shikamaru stiffened, ‘SIX MONTHS!’
“How did they get out of it?” Ha said, as calmly as he could manage.
“It was hard to figure out, but it ended up that they had to both learn to perform the jitsu at the same time. Once they figured out what they needed to do, it was easy to overturn the technique. They needed to mix the mental and physical chakra of their minds and bodies together just enough to balance out and switch back. It’s very easy, it just takes a little practice.”
“Hmmm. So, you’re saying that if I switched places with someone, the only thing I’d have to do to switch back would be for both people to perform the jitsu at the same time and I could switch back?”
“Yes, sweetie. But don’t worry about it, cause I wouldn’t let you use the technique in the first place. It’s one thing for you to be using mind-control on others, but I don’t want someone else in my precious baby’s body. I would have to kill them, sweetheart.” Inoshi said, a little too casually.
“Um, right daddy. Well, I should be getting back to Sakura’s, I think I might’ve left the water running.” Shikamaru said and bolted out the door.
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Meanwhile, on Shikamaru’s mission, Ino was having a hard time in a leadership position, even though Neji was told to practice for himself.
“Shikamaru, did you want us to go separately or together this time? Do you remember which was faster last time?”
“I thought it was together that worked out better last time.” Tenten chimed in, leaping up from behind.
Shikamaru nodded to Neji and they picked up their pace.
It took longer than expected to reach their target, almost a day and a half, the team barely stopping to rest. Nevertheless, they did catch up with their blonde comrade, halting his explorations and cutting him off in a clearing.
“Shikamaru! Dammit, not again! I told the old lady that I needed to search for Sasuke!”
“I know Naruto, but you weren’t given permission to leave the village, that’s considered abandonment. I swear, if she didn’t want you for her successor, you’d spend half your life in the stockades.” Tenten whined.
“We can either do this the easy way or the hard way…again. It’s your choice, Naruto. But you know that you’re going to be coming back to the village with us, whether you like it or not.” Neji added.
Ino nodded, ready to make the seals to send out Shikamaru’s shadow and entrap the energetic blonde at any moment.
Naruto seemed to hesitate for a moment, clenching his fists at his sides.
“I have to find him, I promised Sakura. It’s been over two years!” He said through gritted teeth.
Shikamaru walked up behind him and placed a hand on his tensed shoulder. “I know, Naruto, but you need to think rationally about this, suddenly leaving the village does nothing for anyone, least of all Sakura. Do you think she likes having her mentor in a foul mood whenever you decide to leave? Tsunade promised that she would dispatch another team to find Sasuke when the time was right. You just need to be patient.” Naruto looked at his friend, surprised at his words, they were so…gentle.
He smirked and started going back in the direction of the village.
“You sound like you’re going soft, Shikamaru.” he laughed.
‘Uh-oh! Did I sound too feminine?’ Ino thought, turning to follow him, seeing Tenten swat Naruto over the back of the head, reprimanding him for leading them out on yet another chase after him.
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Shikamaru had barely gotten out the door of Ino’s house when he heard Ino’s dad calling after him again.
“Ino! Ino, sweetie!” He stopped to face ‘his’ father, remembering that it was him he was calling out to.
“This came for you from the Hokage’s office just this morning, I forgot to give it to you before. Looks like mission scrolls. Good luck, baby” He dropped a purple scroll into her hands and headed back towards the house.
‘s**t…’ He thought as he opened the scroll.
“Yamanaka Ino, you are summoned to the office of the Hokage for a mission briefing. 2 o‘clock.” He read out loud.
He mumbled under his breath and looked up at the clock tower.
1:27.
‘Oh well, might as well go early and save myself the trouble of going home again.' He thought, shoving the scroll and his hands into his pockets. He strolled through town at a casual pace.
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“Yamanaka, you’re a bit early, but the Hokage can see you.” The secretary nin outside said, waving her through the doors.
Ino looked around, there was no one else in the room.
“Ino, glad you could make it, early, but it’s no matter, we can start the brief. Just means you’ll be leaving earlier.” Tsunade said, reaching for some papers.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the other team members, Hokage-sama?” He asked casually.
"Funny Ino. This will be another solo mission. You should be used to these by now, they’re the norm for members of the spy unit.”
Shikamaru’s eyes widened. ‘Spy unit? Since when was Ino one the spy unit?’ He thought. Sure, it made sense, now that he thought about it, not many people knew the list of nin on the spy list, due to the secretiveness of their missions, and Ino with her mind techniques was perfect for it.
“It’ll be the usual kind of mission, basic information gathering…” She continued to rummage around for a piece of paper, apparently.
“Aha. Knew I put it in there somewhere. Here is the rendezvous, the target, objective and anything else you might need to know. Basic routine, unfortunately, you’ll have to get a bit closer this time, we need details.”
Shikamaru didn’t really understand yet, but continued to listen.
“Before you leave, go down to supplies and show them this, they’ll know what to do with you and what to give you. Any questions?”
Shikamaru had plenty, but he didn’t think it wise to ask, it seemed like Ino had done this many times before and he didn’t want to make himself look foolish.
So, he shook his head, accepted the paper with his instructions and headed out of the office.
Waterbender Khyna Community Member 
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