Ino Yamanaka

Ino Yamanaka (山中いの, Yamanaka Ino) is one of the main supporting characters of the series. She is a chūnin-level kunoichi of Konohagakure's Yamanaka clan and a member of Team Asuma.

Part 1
Ino was born on September 23rd. Along with her team-mates, Ino makes up the new generation of Ino–Shika–Chō, just like their fathers were before them. She is now a considerably more popular and self-confident girl than Sakura when they met at the Academy. She convinced Sakura that hiding the size of her forehead was pointless, and gave her a ribbon to draw attention elsewhere, suggesting that Sakura had great potential, but had yet to reach it. This lead to ongoing arguments about Sakura's "Billboard Brow" and Ino' nickname "Ino-pig" (due to her name, Ino, meaning 'boar'). Despite all these arguments, she helped Sakura gain her confidence. When Sakura became attracted to Sasuke, and found out that Ino was attracted to him as well, Sakura ended their friendship hurting Ino in the process so she could compete with Ino for his affection. During the second phase of the Chunnin Exams, Ino had to fight Sakura which brought their battle to a draw. In the end, the two made up and became friends again, but they still fought over Sasuke. In the end of the first series, Ino was taken in to be Tsunade's apprentice with Sakura as her senior.

Part 2
In the Shippuden series, Ino is 16 years old and is now a full fledge Chunnin after retaking and participating in the Chunnin Exams during the time skip and gaining medical abilities. In the series, like everyone else, Ino was happy that Naruto returned after being away on his two year training with Jiraiya.

Tsunade decided to make her first move on the Akatsuki by assigning Ino along with Choji who were lead by Raido Namiashi and Aoba Yamashiro with back up members Shikamaru and Asuma Sarutobi in their battle against the Akatsuki members named Hidan and Kakuzu. The Akatsuki were to much for the team and they retreated with Asuma who was severely wounded and Ino was left to tend to his injuries. However the injuries were so severe that Asuma was near death. In his final words, he told Ino that she is a strong-willed girl and to look after the team, and to not lose to Sakura in jutsu and romance, and he died with Ino wailing out loud in grief. She later attended Asuma's funeral. Ino along with the team swore to avenge Asuma with Ino playing the major role as the observer in the battle by first using her Mind Control Technique on a hawk to track and spot the Akatsuki, and using her Mind Switch Body Jutsu that became too much on her. In the anime, she saved Choji from a fatal blow from Kakuzu and she got herself and Choji captured by Kakuzu who tried to choke them to death, but they were saved by Kakashi and Shikamaru. Naruto fought and defeated Kakuzu with Ino healing Naruto while being amazed by Naruto's extreme fast developement.

During Pain's invasion of Konoha, Ino rushed to her father to warn him and the village about Pain's intrude on the village. After realizing Pain's ability, the villagers tried to flee but Pain came and captured Shizune to see what she knew before killing her, leaving Ino to briefly mourn for Shizune's death. Ino did what she could to revive her but could do nothing, so Ino regrouped with her father and the others to help tend to the citizens. After Nagato's death, Ino celebrated Naruto's victory in destroying Pain. In the anime, Ino even stated that she could almost fall for Naruto (much to Shikamaru's and Choji's surprise).

After hearing that Sasuke had become a international criminal, Team 7 had resolved themselves to kill Sasuke (much to Ino's grief). Later, Ino along with Team 7 heard about Naruto's recent encounterment with Sasuke who told them not to fight Sasuke and that it is his job.