"I can't quite put my finger on it... overall, it's just too fast, which makes me a bit uneasy," Inoichi Yamanaka thought for a moment before saying. As the head of the Intelligence Department, he had come into contact with far too much darkness and witnessed far too many memories—the thoughts and ideas of every individual, their infancy, childhood, and adolescence. This "knowledge" wasn't intelligence, nor did he intentionally dwell on it; it was simply a state of having "browsed" through it.
However, these diverse memories had settled, subtly forming his perceptions and becoming a part of him... Thus, this unexplainable intuition was born—"unease" was likely a conclusion triggered by certain commonalities among those numerous memories.
"That one from the Uchiha... Itachi... sooner or later, their clan is going to have problems... don't go spreading this around..."
Such baseless words—and he was the head of the Intelligence Department, while Itachi was a brilliant young genius of the village—to put it bluntly, one Itachi could easily take down a hundred of him. Such gossip couldn't be spread, or at least, it shouldn't come from his mouth.
Mrs. Yamanaka naturally understood this logic and was used to Inoichi's way of decompressing... Inoichi held too many secrets, and she was the only one he could trust, the only one he could selectively confide in regarding secrets that weren't quite secrets.
Mrs. Yamanaka said, "That child..."
The room was pitch black. Little Ino stared blankly at the dark ceiling with her eyes wide open. The rare quiet of the night gave her an indescribable sense of peace, allowing her to think about her "future"—though, in reality, it was the same thinking she had done yesterday, the day before, the day before that, and the day before that. Since she had become Ino, she might as well just "let it be"!
First, it was certain that as of now, she had no "cheat" or "system."
Second, the family Secret Techniques she inherited... still needed to be learned. And they didn't seem particularly powerful, serving mainly a supportive role. She didn't know that in the future, there would be a Fourth Shinobi World War, nor did she know that Ino would multiple times use the "Mind Body Switch Technique" to perform brilliant teamwork, pushing the clan's Secret Technique to its limit—possessing both the cleverness and the sensitivity of a wild boar, she was one of the few splashes of color outside of Naruto and Sasuke. In her "previous life," she had read the manga in high school and had only finished the Konoha Crush arc in bits and pieces... that was it.
Third, she had forgotten almost everything she learned in school in her "previous life," and other things seemed useless... Finally... she could only work a little harder so she wouldn't be so "rotten"—at least have some power so she wouldn't be at the mercy of others!
"Hmm—the clothes Ino wears as an adult that show off her waist, arms, and thighs are definitely out. I'm not going to provide fan service for people..."
"It's best if people don't realize I'm from the Yamanaka Clan at a glance. A Secret Technique is only a secret when it's hidden and unused. If I have black hair, then no one should think I'm from the Yamanaka Clan. If they aren't on guard against my Secret Technique, then it can achieve miraculous results—ideally, I should use the Secret Technique as little as possible, keeping it as a trump card."
The ideal situation, of course, would be to never use her Secret Technique once in her entire life from birth to death—except for practice.
"Taijutsu—that's a must-have. Ninjutsu... I wonder how much Chakra I have..."
Memories from watching anime were always superficial and hard to remember.
Ino fell asleep while thinking.
When she woke up, she climbed out of bed and walked around the bedroom, treating it as "exercise." Taking advantage of her small body, performing flexible movements wasn't difficult or painful. She did various stretches and curls, playing through splits, backbends, shoulder openers, and hip openers that she could only envy in her "previous life."
Ino's idea was: every morning when she woke up, she would do these things several times to maintain this level of flexibility.
In her "previous life," she had seen a professional acrobat explain that if you open up your body when you're young and keep it up, you can maintain that flexibility even after reaching adulthood without further practice. The difference would at most be the legs opening to 120 degrees instead of the original 130. Doing this step earlier and better than others was her "lead."
Just as she finished her practice, Mrs. Yamanaka came to call her for breakfast. After a simple wash, the family ate breakfast, and Inoichi went to work.
Mrs. Yamanaka had to clean the house, so she let Ino play in the yard by herself. Once the house was tidy, she taught Ino flower arrangement for a while and read her a story. In the afternoon, she made plans with the Nara and Akimichi families; the three clan heads' wives each brought their children and went shopping for the whole afternoon!
That kid Shikamaru spent the whole time rolling his eyes, his face full of disdain. Choji, with a thick head of brownish-red hair, kept sucking his thumb.
These two boys stayed in their respective mothers' arms, refusing to budge. One was purely too lazy to move, while the other didn't want to move unless food was involved.
Ino, however, held her mother's hand—
And walked by herself.
This was also a form of exercise.
Moreover, she didn't like the feeling of being held by Mrs. Yamanaka. The weather was already hot, and being held in someone's arms made the heat even more unbearable.
Seeing how well-behaved Ino was, walking by herself while holding Mrs. Yamanaka's hand, Shikamaru's mother gave Shikamaru's bottom a smack and set him on the ground. Once placed on the ground, Shikamaru looked dazed, glancing at Mrs. Nara and then at Ino... Sure enough—beautiful women are trouble, women are a pain! He thought to himself, "My poor little short legs..."
Seeing his two companions on the ground, Choji also struggled to get down. The future "Ino–Shika–Chō" trio, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, were now "acting in unison."
Ino asked Shikamaru, "What are you looking at me for?"
Shikamaru sighed, looking like he wouldn't argue with a woman... He put his chubby little hands behind his head, imitating his father's relaxed posture. Before he could even start, he got a smack on the back of his head from Mrs. Nara.
"Smack—"
It sounded like a hollow melon.
Ino thought strangely, "This dummy... Could it be that the ladies of the Nara Clan are all exceptionally gifted, and their IQ grows the more they smack the back of a head?"
However, it could also be another situation—perhaps Shikamaru's original IQ should have been 250, but because he got smacked on the back of the head too much as a child, 50 was slapped out of him, leaving him with 200... Well, this was a "version nerf" from his mother. Ino mentally added a doge meme to herself to show her guess was not malicious.