Ino Yamanaka

Country: Leaf

Age: 12 Height: 4'11" Weight: 084LBS

Birthday: September 23rd

Bloodtype: B

First Seen: Volume 04, Chapter 034, Page 137

Ino is a secondary character in Naruto who is on Team 10 with Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara, under the leadership of Asuma Sarotobi

Background
Ino has known Sakura since the two were very young, and was a considerably more popular and self-confident girl at the time they met. She convinced Sakura that hiding the size of her forehead was pointless, and gave her a ribbon to draw attention elsewhere. When Sakura became attracted to Sasuke, and found out that Ino was attracted to him as well, she ended their friendship so they could compete for his affection.

Personality
Ino is somewhat superficial, constantly thinking about boys and hoping to diet to lose weight in order to be more attractive to them. She sometimes suggests that Choji should lose weight, but in the filler arcs, suggests that his fat is essential for his techniques. She is attracted to Sasuke, but her reasons for that attraction, apart from Sasuke being a popular student and the best in his class, are unknown.

Role in the Plot
In the anime, Ino plays a small role in Episode 3, being upset when she does not get onto Sasuke's team while Sakura does, and being dismayed to be on the same team as Shikamaru and Choji.

Ino later reappears in the Chunin Exam. She uses her Mind into Body technique to enter Sakura's mind and memorize all her test answers, then sends her mind into Choji and Shikamaru's minds to give them the answers. In the Forest of Death, she helps Sakura and Lee fight off the Sound Genin until Sasuke, his Cursed Seal having awoken, forces the Sound Genin to retreat.

Ino's first match in the Chunin Exams is against Sakura. The two do not battle seriously at first, until Sakura, unwilling to have Ino pity her, denounces her. Ino and Sakura battle seriously afterward and use up most of their energy in the process. Ino then attempts to enter Sakura's mind after cutting her hair and sending chakra into it to immobilize her. She succeeds, but is expelled by Inner Sakura, and Ino and Sakura knock each other out. When they regain consciousness, they start becoming friends again, but still maintain their rivalry over Sasuke.

In the filler arcs, Ino accompanies Naruto, Shino and Anko to the Land of the Sea, and helps defeat Misumi Tsurugi by possessing him and tying his arms to pillars, leaving him trapped in a collapsing room. She later appears in a mission with Naruto, in which she tries to replace a princess who has grown overweight in an attempt to woo her suitor. Ino is barely able to stand the man, but the mission succeeds after Naruto, while interfering, accidentally exposes the real princess.

In the Konoha 11 arc, Ino and Sakura are sent to examine a corpse that is believed to be that of Genno. Ino hesitates, but eventually enters the room, and concludes from the condition of the hands that the corpse was not a ninja or a carpenter, and that Genno is still alive. In the final filler arc, Ino's attempt at possessing Kyaku fails, leaving her at risk, but Kyaku is defeated by Shikamaru and Temari's combined efforts. Feeling guilty that she did not contribute much to the mission, she asks Sakura to ask Tsunade to add her as a second apprentice. Sakura agrees, but adds that she will be Ino's senior apprentice.

In Part II, Ino knows medical jutsu, but her skills have not been shown as often as Sakura's. She attempts to save Asuma with her medical jutsu, but his wounds are too severe to be healed. It is also shown that she is starting to become attracted to Sai. While he refers to her as a "pretty lady," he does so while trying to give her a pet name that is the opposite of how she appears, indicating that she is, in fact, ugly to him.