The flying woman burst into the abandoned palace, her furred face twisted in a snarl. A screech followed, shrill enough to make Ino’s ears ring.

Maybe she’d exaggerated when she sent Hinata off. She had an idea, barely, not even a complete plan. Still, the decision to fight alone hadn’t been hard.

Hinata was strong. Stronger than she realized. The things she could do, Ino had seen them, were the stuff of bedtime stories her father used to tell about legendary shinobi.

In comparison, Ino was pathetically weak.

Daily training helped. The new jutsu, the strategy meetings, and the relentless drills, in theory, made Ino a better shinobi, but Hinata was overprotective enough to make Ino’s mom look laid-back. That same protectiveness ensured that in the four months they were teamed together, Ino didn’t face dangerous combat besides the town’s skirmish.

That was also when Ino realized that by being overprotective, Hinata was causing more trouble than helping. Hinata had swept in with her teleport and explosions and simply… dismantled the enemy without breaking a sweat, while Ino could barely hold together.

It wasn’t only she who felt that way. Tenten had been the first to complain about the coddling, not to Hinata’s face. They would need to talk with Hinata about acceptable levels of protectiveness, but that would have to wait until after Ino had dealt with the rat. Bats were just flying rats, right?

The flying rat hovered a few meters away, leathery wings keeping the furred body aloft. “How did you avoid my trap?”

Ino wasn’t sure how Hinata had done it; she had ideas but no confirmation. “You call that a trap?” she leered, lips still bloodied. “I thought it was a child’s prank.”

The furred bat’s face split into a grin full of teeth. “Sweetie, you’ll have to do better than that.”

Ino shrugged, looking about, affecting an unconcerned demeanor. “Why would I? Flying rats are just that, rats.”

That struck a nerve because the conversation ended, and another screech followed. Ino flickered away, already braced to dodge the moment things went south. She couldn’t yet feel chakra like Hinata and Karin could, but her still-developing jutsu had been enough to sense the incoming attack.

She threw shuriken, lamenting her lack of offensive jutsu. Maybe by design or neglect, Asuma’s team had always used her for support. Crowd control. Assists. Letting Shikamaru and Choji handle the heavy hits. Her time with Hinata solved some of that. Ino learned shadow clones, body flicker, and other techniques, but most were geared toward defense and utility instead of being direct attack jutsu.

But she didn’t need to attack to win this battle. Instead of trying to be something she wasn’t, Ino had to play to her strengths.

“That’s all you have?” She forced out a yawn. “What else can you do when your parlor tricks don’t—”

Ino flickered away, the building chakra enough of a warning of another illusion attack.

“Haven’t anyone told you it’s rude to interrupt while people talk?” Ino mocked.

More screeches followed, then growling promises of violence.

“I’ll gut you like a fish, sweetie, then feed you to the fortress machine to keep you alive.”

That was interesting information, which Ino had no time to digest. She flickered away, noting how low her chakra reserves were. Thankfully, she might not need to wait too long if everything worked as she wanted.

“Will you? How?” Ino called out. “Like a rat, you always scurry away.”

Another screech was the response. With the screech came smoke, filling the room and blocking everything. It wasn’t something Ino had been expecting. From what she knew, the woman could or would only use the genjutsu. With her sight blocked, Ino paid attention to all other senses. 

A sound of cutting wind was enough to make Ino move, not a moment too soon. A thin line of pain blossomed on her sides, along with the screeching laughter from the woman. “Who’s afraid now, darling?”

Ino wasn’t sure how the woman found her through the mist.

“Afraid? I’m just glad I can’t see your—”

Ino stopped again, the whooshing wind telling of another attack. She scampered, then flickered away. Unable to see, she fumbled, feet hitting debris and almost sending her sprawling.

The attack came again, followed soon by more mocking. “Stop running, darling.”

She flickered away, and then once she heard the wind sound, she threw a kunai carrying an explosive tag. The payload hit something nearby, shaking the whole upper floor.

The woman didn’t attack, even in the moments after the explosion had cleared the smoke.

Ino stood stock still. Unmoving and thinking fast.

The woman had attacked immediately after Ino did something. The first time, she moved away from the previous position, and then, when she spoke back.

If the transformation was more than cosmetic and gave her real bat senses, it made sense. Bats could see through sounds. They had learned that in the academy. Some ninja clans used the flying animals for one reason or another.

To confirm her hypothesis, Ino stood stock still, not even breathing. The woman kept taunting and provoking from inside the mist, but no other attacks came Ino’s way.

A sharp grin grew on Ino’s face. Perfect. It was time to end this. She pulled twine from her pouch, followed by a kunai. No hesitation now.

“That’s all you can do? Whine and hide?”

This time, Ino didn’t move away; she threw the twine, then the kunai. Pain laced her stomach. Ino’s hands grabbed the enemy and held in with all her might before the chakra disrupted, and she dispersed.

The kunai exploded, billowing wind pushing the smoke away.

Ino was still standing, barely, with bloodied lips and hands holding the enemy, while the woman’s arm had punched through Ino’s stomach and out of her back. A grin split her lips, feral and wild. “Got you.”

Then, the shadow clone vanished in a puff of smoke. At the same time, the real Ino, who had been hidden from the start, activated her clan technique, flooding the specially prepared twine to immobilize the woman.

“Wha—” the woman had started to say before stopping, frozen.

Ino didn’t waste time; the technique wouldn’t last forever. Her hands flew through the handseals sequence, and she used her family technique, Mind Body Switch Jutsu. Unlike when she’d done this with Hinata, who had been willing and waiting to accept the jutsu, the woman fought back. Not that she had any chance. If it were before Ino had met Hinata and when training was more of a chore than something she wanted, Kamira, Ino gleaned from the woman’s mind, might have had a chance.

But not now, not after all the control training Hinata forced them through.

Ino tested the new body, pushing the screeching and scared voice to the back of her mind. Moving other people’s bodies was strange, but muscle memory helped. She flapped her wings, pushing off the ground a few centimeters before losing control and falling face down.

“Annoying.”

Ignoring the attempts at flying, she walked to her slumped body and hid it away, far from view. Satisfied she was safe, Ino tried flying again, letting the body's memories take over instead of trying to control the process.

After a few messy takeoffs, she caught the rhythm. Flying was… exhilarating. A wild grin split her furred face. She didn’t just hear the battle; she saw and sketched it in sound. The woman could have found Ino’s real body without being distracted or arrogant.

Last, she felt the source of the transformation, not where her chakra usually was created, but near her shoulder. It was more than enough.

Ino took to the skies and flew outside, above the still ongoing battlefield.

She made a few rounds until she found her target. Still flying above, she pushed her chakra and made the ram seal with clawed hands. This wasn’t how she wanted to introduce this jutsu. She wanted to surprise Hinata-chan, but oh well.

‘Tsunade-sama,’ she projected, smug even in her thoughts. ‘Ino here. One flying freak, freshly captured.’