Up and Out

Puppet's Strings

"No, Kiba. She's fine, but she completely drained herself of all her chakra." Kurenai said as she kept two fingers on Ino's wrist to keep track of her pulse.

Shikamaru blinked, "but ... she was only talking about using a basic clan jutsu. How could she knock herself out with one jutsu?"

The Naruto clone in the Asuma puppet sighed, "I'm not entirely sure ... she said she knew the first steps of learning her bloodline. Any ideas on what that would be?"

Choji hummed as he tried to recall something, "My dad once mentioned that the bloodlines for my and Shikamaru's are very different from the Yamanaka clan. That they have to start from the inside?"

"Really?" Shikamaru asked, genuinely surprised. "My dad never mentioned it."

"Yeah." Choji said sheepishly. "Dad was trying to make me feel better about our body type by saying it provides power in other ways that other bloodlines can't."

Naruto nodded from inside the Kurenai puppet, "That's very true. You'd be a powerful fighter with the right training." He said absentmindedly as he examined Ino. "From the inside, right?"

The Akimichi smiled, feeling happy about being told that he could be strong, "Yes. That's how my dad worded it."

Asuma face palmed, "So if the first step for a mind walker is to start 'inside' then Ino probably used a jutsu that dragged herself into her own mind."

Kiba's eyes widened, "Can she get out without chakra?"

"Nope." Naruto said using the Kurenai puppet. "She's trapped in there for a while. We already signed up for a mission. It's not a high rank so we can back out. What does everyone want to do? We can take Ino with us and practice how to travel with an injured teammate or just start individual training after taking her home.?"

Choji frowned, "It didn't sound like she had permission to start training yet ..." he trailed off, not sure if he was ok with getting her in trouble especially since they kind of provoked her.

Shikamaru nodded, "Yeah. Let's take this chance to learn how to carry someone in different ways and when she recovers we can get her to build up her chakra. Maybe when we return she'll be strong enough that her dad will agree to teach her a few things and we'll never have to say anything."

"I like that idea!" Kiba exclaimed. Everyone else seemed to be in agreement.

Asuma grinned, "Ok! Who'd like to try to carry Ino first?" He said and Naruto was relieved since their plans to get Choji and Kiba out of the village can continue without someone watching them. Everyone, who had clones watching through their puppets as their real bodies headed to Wave, wanted to have their academy peers on their side.

It became clear that Naruto would have to say something sooner rather than later. After all, Kiba and Choji seemed to notice that Shino, Hinata and Shikamaru were already very good at carrying someone. That wasn't a big concern yet. Maybe when Ino wakes up they can start training and revealing some things ...

"I have an idea." Kurenai said after a couple hours of walking towards their client, who was waiting for them to pick the package that needed to be delivered. "Why don't I put a few different genjutsus on Ino and we can practice bandaging and carrying?"

Shino smirked slightly as he adjusted his glasses, "Nothing too graphic or Kiba might faint again."

Kiba twitched violently, "Blood doesn't scare me! I fainted for-" Kiba gulped fearfully as Hinata shot him a deadly glare. "A completely different reason I can't remember right now."

Both clones in the puppets shivered knowing Hinata's glare was meant for them too. "Ok ... there's our client now. Let's start right after I pick up the package so we don't traumatize any civilians." Asuma said as an old gentleman was seen waiting at a cafe. He didn't want anyone, their client included, getting the wrong idea about the clearly unconscious blonde girl in their group ...