Ino had been preparing for her first A ranked mission in at least a month. She'd been packing and resting for about a week. She was excited to finally get out of the village but then found out her two teammates came down with illnesses.

"Of course you two idiots got sick on the day of our first A-ranked mission since we fought Kakuzu and Hidan!" Ino screamed.

"Well, first off Ino, not to anger you but you and I didn't fight either of them, remember Naruto destroyed that Kakuzu freak. Secondly, we can't control when get sick." Choji said as flames appeared in Ino's eyes as she gave him a death stare. She then resorted to putting her hands on her hips realizing that what he said was true.

"You women are such a drag..." Shikamaru said.

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!" Ino screamed at the two.

"If you really care so much about a mission the just go to the Hokage's office, I'm sure she has a replacement." Shikamaru said.

"Fine, thanks for nothing you two." said the platinum blonde as she walked out the door and made her way to the Hokage's office. How could they do this to her. Forcing her to pair up with complete strangers. Well at least she could get out of the Village and avoid working at the family flower shop. She entered into the Hokage's building and headed to her office. She said hello to Shizune before entering, since Tsundae was expecting her.

"Ah, Ino I was expecting you, I heard about Shikamaru and Choji and I found you a replacement."

"Pardon me for interrupting but "A" replacement, shouldn't I have two others since its an A-ranked mission." Ino asked in a concerned tone.

"The person I chose can give your squad the amount of people needed to form a small army." Tsunade said causing Ino to gasp, who could it be?

"Aww, thanks Granny, that means a lot coming from you!" Naruto said emerging from the shadow in the back of the office. Ino groaned, no, anyone but him. Ino and Naruto never got along, to say the least. The only memories Ino had of him were constant arguing and him acting like an idiot. Almost everyone else, including Shikamaru and Choji were friend with him. In fact, Shikamaru was really good friends. She never managed to understand why everyone could like such a childish person.

"Danmit Naruto, show some respect, she's the Hokage." Ino shouted while hitting him over the head.

"Ouch, gosh, calm down Ino!" Naruto shouted at the blonde. He hated her guts, but he had to admit, she was gorgeous, her blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes. Any guy in Konoha would go out with her, not that he stood much of a chance with her. She hated him and he knew it quite well, it was pretty obvious.

"As you two know, this mission's goal is to gather information, I want you to spy on the sound village and see if they are mobilizing ninja at all. This is very dangerous but I believe you two can do it. Now hurry up and get going." Naruto and Ino then exited the building.

"This should be fun " said Naruto with a large smile appearing on his face. 'Yeah for you' Ino thought, dreading the upcoming mission as she looked at that obnoxious smile that made her want to clobber him.

o0o

Ino and Naruto left the village and began darting through the trees. It was a two-day trip till they entered sound village territory. The two didn't get along and neither wanted to start a conversation. Ino didn't enjoy being around the hyper and overactive ninja. She had disrespected him since their academy days. The only reason she didn't criticize him anymore was that he had somehow become extremely powerful. This was recently proven when he single handily took down one of the Akatsuki, while saving her in the process. They had jumped through the trees for at least an hour when Naruto finally decided to break the ice.

"So Ino how have you been." he said while scratching the back of his head.

"Naruto…. shut up and lets focus on the mission" Ino obviously didn't want to talk with Naruto and would rather have her real team with her.

"Fine then, your always such a pain in the ass, why don't you try being nice every once in a while?" asked the annoyed blonde harried boy.

"Why don't you try acting mature for once Naruto, then people might actually respect you and Sakura might actually want to go out with you. Oh wait that's never gonna happen, after all, it hasn't in the past 5 years." Ino said with an obnoxious smirk.

"Well if were talking about respect here, you're not one to talk. All you do is go around bossing people around and yelling. You never train and only worry about stupid dieting. As I recall you use to criticize me 24/7 and I think I know the reason you stopped. Could it be that I killed the Akatsuki member almost single handily and saved your ass while you sat back and did nothing? Oh, yeah I think that might be it." Naruto screamed obviously annoyed with the platinum blonde.

"Fine, so your decently strong and you killed the Akatsuki guy, at least three-fourths of the village doesn't hate my guts because I'm such a nuisance." Ino said laughing obnoxiously. She then looked over at Naruto as she smiled arrogantly, obviously thinking she had won the argument. Then fear ran through her entire body. Red chakra flew through the air as it engulfed. His light blue eyes turned blood-red and fangs began to appear from his teeth. He then jumped right next to her faster than she could ever imagine, he then grabbed Ino and shoved her against a tree trunk.

"Listen you little princess, don't you dare bring up the village hating me in my presence ever again or I will rip you to shreds. Do you know why the Akatsuki wants me so bad, huh do you?" Naruto yelled at her. She stared into his eyes in complete terror As a cloak of chakra began covering his body. Her mouth fell wide open as she remained pinned to the trunk of the tree. She wanted to run but she was paralyzed in fear.

"I see, the princess has no idea what I go through. Isn't that so Ino? It's funny how you say that they hate me because I'm a nuisance, it's actually just stupid in ignorant coming from a girl who grew up with parents and people who cared about you. You have no clue what I go through on a daily basis you ignorant fool!" Ino sat down and put her hands over her face to shield her eyes from the complete terror before her as tears began pouring down her face.

"Oh did I scare you Ino? Well now you know why all the villagers want to kill me. I have this stupid demon fox inside me!" Naruto's face was now right in front of hers. She looked up at his face covered in a cloak of red chakra. Fangs replaced his teeth and his eyes were blood-red, as complete terror ran through her body. She then tightened her fist and looked as it connected to his right cheek at full power causing her to smile, thinking she had gotten a good hit on him. She became even more terrified as the punch was stopped immediately by the cloak of chakra. A giant smile appeared on his face revealing the set of fangs causing her to shiver in fear.

"Oh, look who decided to finally become a ninja and fight. Thats still a pretty pathetic punch princess, let me show you some true power." Naruto drew his arm back and punched the tree right above her head. Ino screamed in terror expecting to feel the impact of a punch. She looked up to see Naruto's arm completely though the tree. He removed his arm as the tree fell. Ino looked back down crying in terror.

"Don't ever say that again, got it princess!" Naruto barked at her as Ino nodded her head, unable to speak or move with tears still running down her face. She then watched as the cloak disappeared and his teeth and fangs went away. She continued crying, still in complete terror. Naruto began to calm down and realized what he had just done.

"I… I guess we'll set up camp here.." Naruto said calmly, feeling somewhat bad about what he did. But then again she deserved it. Naruto stood up and began walking to open patch of grass where there weren't as many trees.

"I guess I can now definitely count you as part of the three-fourths of the village that hates me." he said while smirking