CHAPTER 1

The looming monster had been waiting for Ino since before she was born, but it didn't show its ugly face until the morning of team assignments.

She woke up and slapped her alarm before the first brrrring could finish. Her outfit was laid out and ready to go, and all her skincare and accessories were in a neat line on her dresser. She went through her routine with brisk efficiency, grinning toothily in the mirror when she brushed her teeth. She was so ready! The tests had been a breeze.

There was no contesting it, really. Ino sailed to the kitchen in a cloud of achievement. She had done it. She was the top of the girls for taijutsu and for weapons and conditioning. She'd had perfect scores in the ninjutsu. Her academics-

Dad stumbled into the room with bleary eyes, clutching a cup of tea for strength. "Good morning, sweetheart," he croaked.

"Good morning, Daddy," she sang. She took her seat and sniffed the air. Miso salmon? She really should be having a wonderful day- so she forced herself not to frown when she thought about the last of the grading metrics.

Ino was good at school, she really was. But she was third overall for the paper knowledge tests. Second was Sasuke-kun, and first was that egghead Sakura.

'She's a smug one trick pony,' Ino told herself fiercely. 'She's near the bottom for physicality. She can barely do the Academy calisthenics. It doesn't matter that she beats me in one metric out of 5.'

"Good morning, love," Mama said. Something was sizzling.

Ino switched her mood instantly, happy again. "Thank you Mama," she sang. She pulled chopsticks out of the glass and laid them at each setting place. "It smells great!"

"You deserve a special breakfast." Her eyes were warm when she turned back to the stovetop. "It's a big day for you!"

"It is," Daddy agreed. He beamed at her. "My baby girl is so grown up!"

Ino felt warm and loved and like her life was on track. The world was hers!

And so was the most desired team placement. There was no way she didn't deserve the spot with the top male graduate.

She raced off to the Academy at top speed, thrilling in how everything was coming together. She did it, she was the top kunoichi. She would get saddled with the lowest scoring student overall (probably Kiba) and the top male student. Unless Shikamaru had decided that now was the time to stop slacking off, that was going to be Sasuke-kun.

"Oink oink."

Sakura's voice rang out, high and smug. She leapt out of a sidestreet to race alongside Ino. "I'm going to sit next to Sasuke-kun!"

Ino burned. "Get out of my way, Billboard Brow!" She elbowed the other girl and caught a sharp elbow in her ribs in return. She pushed herself harder and faster but she just couldn't shake Sakura! Where was this motivation in their classes? In a matter of minutes they reached the door and wrestled to go in first, shoving aside yelping classmates. Ino bared her teeth. Sakura didn't. She was huffing too hard and her fingers were shaking. Ino took advantage of that to slip Sakura's grip and jab, hard, into her solar plexus.

Sakura fell back with a wheeze and Ino slipped in. Victorious, she raised her head to see-

"Naruto," she said flatly.

The boy in question turned to give her a queasy smile.

'What a waste of the seat next to Sasuke on the last day here…. Wait. Why is he here?'

A kind of creeping horror washed over her.

'If he scraped a pass… he's even worse than Kiba. He will be the bottom student.'

Well. There was nothing for it. Ino grimly set her mind to an improvement plan. Naruto absolutely would not be allowed to ruin her career. At least he had great stamina and was at the top of the class for physicality. His grades were abominable, but she didn't need him to be brilliant. His taijutsu and weaponry would need work, but he problem-solved well whenever they did field exercises. He was also willing to work hard at things that didn't involve pencils and paper. He wouldn't fight her just to be a blockhead.

…

Four hours later, she would look back and laugh at herself. It wasn't a nice laugh. She had been so optimistic! She'd thought that she could turn a bad teammate into a good one.

Ino slammed the door shut and let her bag drop to the genkan floor. She kicked off her shoes. "I'm home," she said dully.

Mama poked her head out from the living room with a quizzical expression. "Oh honey, was it a bad morning?"

Ino felt her eyes well up with tears. "Yes, it was," she said, in an understatement that she was proud of. "I want to go to my room for a while."

Mama nodded slowly, concern washing over her face. "Okay. Take your time to be alone. When you come out, I want to talk to you."

"I love you," Ino said, and went to her room to hide. She heard her Dad get home for his lunch break and give her Mom a wet, smacking kiss. Then there were murmurs. She held the pillow more tightly to her body, shaking mad. Mad at him.

Knock knock.

Ino hissed at the sound of her Dad's knuckles on her door frame.

He paused. "Kitten," he said uncertainly. "I get the feeling that you're upset with me."

"You ruined everything," Ino said. She lifted her face to glare at him. "You did this to me. I'm stuck with those lazy losers and it's all your fault."

Inoichi drew back. He looked sorry but not sorry enough. "It's a tradition," he said gently.

She threw her pillow at him. "It's not!" Ino felt her face redden. "You and your friends made a great team. Good for you, you got placed with people you were suited to. And then you ruined my chances of a team I was suited to because of your nostalgia."

"The clan techniques work together -"

"But we don't," Ino interrupted. She sniffed. "Our teachers never put us together in activities, because we are a bad fit!"

How could she count on apathetic Choji and that smug misogynist Shikamaru? She was going to have to rely on them to keep her alive and the thing was that they weren't trustworthy teammates. She felt sick to her stomach with fear. And she was angry, too. She had worked so hard and been cheated out of a good team.

Dad crossed his arms, obviously uncomfortable. Ino felt a pang of guilt but- this wasn't about him, and that was the whole problem.

"They're lazy," Ino stressed. "I can push and push but they don't care, Dad." New tears bloomed. "They don't care. Do I really deserve that? Even when I argue and try, they just roll their eyes and make fun of me for trying hard. I want to have a good career! I want a team that actually tries, Dad."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Ino, my little butterfly," he coaxed. "It won't be that bad. They were students. They'll grow up."

"And if they don't?" Ino challenged. "Why would you believe they'll suddenly become whole different people, especially when they aren't moved apart from their enabler?"

"I'll talk to their parents," Daddy promised, desperate to make her feel better.

'Like that's ever worked. They're just going to be annoyed that I complained about them to my Dad.'

Ino let out a laugh. She turned away and sniffled. "Thank you," she said. She avoided his eyes. "Maybe it'll help. I wasn't impressed by my sensei yet, either, but it was just the first day."

"Hey, I have an idea." Daddy gave her his best grin. "After we eat, you can go to the clan archives. Pick out something to work on."

It took 1.5 seconds for her mood to do an about-face.

New jutsu! New jutsu!

She blinked at him and then nodded vigorously. "I'll work really hard!" Ino pumped a fist.

Her mood was a lot better when they went down the hall for lunch. She couldn't help but bounce a little in her chair as she ate, anticipation ratcheting her energy up to the maximum.

Mama gave Daddy an exasperated look. "You're busy," she reminded him. "You have to go to work."

"They'll live without me for an hour," Daddy wheedled.

Mama leveled an unimpressed look at him. The temperature dropped.

"Could you go with her, Honey love?" Daddy asked weakly. Ino hid a snort.

"Sigh," Mama said, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. "I am so put upon. But yes." She winked at Ino. "Maybe I'll learn something too."

"You're the Clan's first lady," Daddy schmoozed lovingly. Ino gagged. "Whatever you want, Angel toes."

"Yuck," Ino muttered begrudgingly to her miso soup.

"You can clean up, dear," Mama said. She set down her chopsticks primly. "Ino, I'll go change. Meet me at the door?"

"Okay!" Ino wolfed down the rest of her meal and ignored the way that her Father was staring after Mama with hearts in his eyes.

Daddy had finished washing up and was heading back to work by the time Mama came back downstairs in clothes that could handle the dust of the archives better. She had a grey scarf around her neck, ready to cover her mouth and nose once inside.

Ino grabbed her own purple scarf and waved Daddy goodbye at the door. He bowed out while she was jamming her shoes on. Mama's keys jingled behind Ino. "Just a minute," Ino said vaguely. She stuck her tongue out in concentration and forced her sandals all the way up.

"Hmm. I think you need a new pair," Mama observed. "Let's do that tomorrow."

Shopping!

"Okay!" Ino chirped. She jumped into the genkan and flew out the door. Mama followed at a more sedate pace- a civilian pace. Ino forced herself to slow down, bouncing on her heels to burn off some of the excess energy.

It took three tries for Mama to find the key that would open the old storage building. The electric lights came on immediately, harsh and cold. They cast the shelves into stark relief. Although the building was old, it was one of the most recent clan buildings to get wiring.

Ino spun a circle, overwhelmed by the choices.

"I'll be here," Mama said dryly. She sat at the bench and pulled out her novel. "Your Dad said that you can have one scroll, right?"

Ino nodded, and then got to work peering at jutsu titles. She pored over descriptions, feeling her heartbeat pick up in excitement at all the possibilities. She loved to learn.

'And I can find something that will make me safer, even though my teammates are total duds.'

That was why her Dad had suggested it. Ino recognized that it was meant to give her a security blanket as much as it was an act of desperation to mend their relationship.

"This one would help me use my mind jutsu at a distance," Ino mused to herself. She weighed up the scroll in her other hand. "But an elemental jutsu would be really good to have, too.,." She could manage earth or fire.

Ino let out a long sigh, utterly torn. She set her current top two possibilities down on the edge of the shelf and thumbed through a few more. She paused.

'Is this a summoning contract?'

She opened it in disbelief, enough to see that two Yamanaka had signed it in the past. Ino skimmed the contract quickly- confidentiality, mutual aid, qualifications for a summoner.

"Wow," she breathed. The concept made her head feel light.

'If I had teammates I could summon, that would really offset having those guys as my genin peers.'

There was no chance that her parents would let her have a summoning contract. It was too dangerous for their precious girl.

'As if having incompetent teammates and a teacher who wants to piss off his boss isn't a danger.'

She didn't look at her Mom. As if nothing at all unusual was happening, Ino opened that scroll, the earth jutsu scroll, and then rerolled them together with the earth scroll on the outside. She put it back down and then wandered around a while longer, looking at other scrolls. After a few minutes, she huffed dramatically, shoved away the extra scrolls, and brandished the earth jutsu scroll. Mama looked up from her book. "An earth jutsu?" she said, eyeing the red edging at the bottom and top of the scroll.

Ino nodded vigorously. "It's called the headhunter," she chattered, shoving the scroll into her side pouch. She didn't so much as blink or sweat. "I can go underground, Mama!" She threw her arms out. "I could escape, or hide, or sneak up on people."

"It sounds very useful." Mama tucked her own book away and then stood with a stretch. Her shoulders popped audibly. "Let's go, Butterfly."