Fourth Time is the Charm

The Clone Sasuke went through hand seals and implanted his arms into the ground. The earth rose up, causing Choji to ride it and fly over Clone Sasuke. Clone Sasuke then took advantage of the fact they couldn't see him and dug under ground, making his way toward Shikamaru.

Sasuke, the one in the tree, threw a pebble, attracting Ino's attention. Their eyes locked and Ino fell unconscious. Sasuke then hid, leaving behind another clone. This made a total of three Sasuke's on the field, only up to two of them being known after this part in the fight.

[Sardonyx]

Shikamaru felt the pressure immediately, with Ino absent he lost his extra pair of eyes, but he maintained his cool.

He released Choji at an exact moment where he crash and knock over the Sasuke clone stood on and leaped back before standing on the side of the tree using Chakra Control.

The first Sasuke had disappeared, and so far he had only been using Earth Style techniques, it's too bad none of Team 10 had Lightning capabilities, but he was probably from underground after him, so he had to pay attention to both Sasuke's positions, and with the new disadvantage his original strategy was ruined.

The Clone Sasuke from the tree jumped off and landed in front of Shikamaru. Then, the one hidden in the ground emerged. They both started going through hand-seals, both releasing a torrent of water bullets at Shikamaru. This jutsu had the capability to tear him in half if it missed. Meanwhile a third Clone Sasuke appeared in front of Choji and fired a giant fireball at him.

[Sardonyx]

As they both appeared in front of him, Shikamaru kept his cool and actually smiled a bit as he clenched his fist, even as they were forming hand signs. "That's right..."

He leaped up and over them and let what he had in his fist drop to the ground by their feet, a smoke bomb that immediately exploded. The Nara boy then landed behind where the smoke was and started with his Shadow again, but this time the shadow tendrils wrapped around the smokescreen and began to squeeze it down tightly.

Choji's eyes widened, before he grit his teeth. "This is gonna get hot! Expansion Jutsu!" he shot his arm out, which grew to huge proportions and shot his hand at the fireball. With a grimace it traveled through the fire and at Sasuke in attempt to grab and over crush him.

Suddenly, smoke piled out of the surrounding trees and enveloped them all. When it cleared there were two dozen Sasukes, all of them wielding a sword (If Ino had been conscious she would comment that those must have been what cut her sebon). The lethal metal was pressed up against Shikamaru's and Chouji's necks. Finally, the real Sasuke held Ino hostage on the other side of the training grounds. "This evaluation is over. Line up." He released the clones and Ino-from the Genjutsu- as he directed the Chunin.

Ino grudgingly went over to Shika and Chouji.

"You all clearly have your own skills and they are well developed." Sasuke said, sounding as though he was saying something he was instructed to say. "However, there are many flaws which can be exploited in your fighting. Number One, all three of you stayed out in the open instead of using the forest to your advantage. That left you open. Two, once a teammate was down you abandoned her, which allowed the enemy to take advantage of your mistake. Three, the execution of your plans were sloppy, but they were thought out well." He threw in some praise. Ino still felt strange since he wasn't putting any emotion behind his words, no inflection at all.

[Sardonyx]

It sounded like they were getting scolded like Genin again by their 'sensei', or in this case team leader, but nonetheless without the emotion was missing. While it is key for a ninja to hide their emotions in the field, something was definitely 'wrong' with Sasuke, everything was...in simple terms...fake.

"Now I get why he's going to be a Tokubetsu Jonin..." Choji commented.

Shikamaru didn't say anything, he was still in the middle of processing everything.

Ino nodded, agreeing with Chouji. Sasuke was incredibly strong now, so it was no wonder he was being promoted.

"Now, in this mission Ino we will all be undercover. Ino will be a small, no-name princess, married to Chouji, and Shikamaru will act as your brother-in-law. I will act as a body guard with several clones henged into different people. We will travel by caravan, with some Kumo merchants." Ino flushed at having to pretend to be married to Chouji of all people. "Something to remember is Kumo civilians are very traditional and they will expect the princess to be kept in place by her husband. We'll have to play that card as soon as possible for them to trust us completely." Sasuke said.

Ino's blush darkened. "What do you mean, keep me in line?"

Sasuke nodded. "Valid question. He will punish you with a spanking."

...
...
...

"WHAT?!"

[Sardonyx]

Choji's jaw dropped completely at the fact that not only would have to be mock husband to Ino of all people, but spank her.

Shikamaru blinked in surprised, but stifled a chuckle. "Well, this might not be a complete drag after all...just try not to enjoy yourself too much, Choji..." he said.

"W...Wha...?! I mean...no way...b-but...it's apart of the plan so..." Choji reasoned a bit, their female teammate had this for a long time coming.

Sasuke continued, ignoring the steaming Ino. "This will take place tomorrow, when we depart with the merchants. Ino will need to be punished within the first few hours of the trip. It needs to be loud, and as public as possible. And so it will happen on the first break they take."

Ino gaped. "W-Why can't we just dress up Shika as a girl?!"

Sasuke shook his head. "This is not negotiable. Behave yourself." His eyes landed on Chouji, expectantly.

[Sardonyx]

Choji nodded, before both he and Shikamaru give glances to their female partners, both had sympathetic smiles on their faces, but they weren't really sorry for her.

Well...on the bright side, not only would she be going on a mission with Sasuke, but at least Sakura would never know...but did that REALLY outweigh the bad?