Soo... sorry. It's been... 5 weeks? Anyways, sorry. This chapter was hard to get into the groove with, mostly because it wasn't well planned out but was difficult all the same. The major cause was video games, a blessing and a curse. I'm hoping just getting this chapter published has helped get me back in the groove. I have one other full chapter for this story, I don't plan on the training good bye being very long so maybe I just have it added to the end unless sometime asks otherwise. Now, the goal of this chapter was mainly to prove the Sakura isn't useless like she was in the original. I think I did a good job but I don't trust my opinion. Anyways, please enjoy.
_]}{[_
Hinata sighed for the 19th time in annoyance. She had been sent on a mission with team 8 in search of some new beetle to add to the Aburame Clan's arsenal without the accompaniment of either of her teammates. Shino was tolerable, but Kiba was so obnoxious. Even worse than Naruto, and Sakura was just as loud and twice as curious. Already Hinata had been asked several times who had given her the yin yang choker. 'Why was only I sent on this mission?! Naruto would've been thrilled to get out of the village… plus he would've made this trip a lot more tolerable'. Hinata blushed slightly when she realized she was being so bold about missing Naruto. Even if it was just her thoughts, she still found it to be quite embarrassing.
The group was heading to a sacred place in fire country. Supposedly every type of insect lived there, and it was considered a garden of eden for bug clans. While he never voiced his excitement, Shino was overflowing with excitement. Several times he had almost left Sakura and Kiba behind when they weren't paying attention. Kurenai had more pressing matters and couldn't join them. With Hinata and Shino having been Chunin candidates and with the location being relatively close to the village, it was decided that a jounin instructor wasn't necessarily needed.
Kiba had tried flirting with Hinata a few times, but he was promptly shut down without a single glance his way. Sakura would laugh at his failures. Although, she was curious about Hinata. While denying Kiba's advances was what any sane person would do, Sakura kept wondering where the choker had come from. Sakura had never seen it before, and it didn't look like something that a Hyuga would usually wear. 'It must be special to her, but the only possible reason I can think of is it being her mother's. But if it was, why didn't Hinata wear it sooner? Plus she had returned from her last mission with it, I don't remember seeing her with it before then. It must be a boy. Why someone gave it to her isn't to hard of a question, but why she would wear it is the mystery'. Sakura pondered this for a good portion of the trip whenever she wasn't fighting with Kiba or doing some light genjutsu practice.
After about 2 days of traveling, the quartet had arrived at their destination. Shino stood at the edge of the crater taking in the sight. It was literally a dream come true for him. The others were less appreciative and only gave it a brief look before descending down the sides so they could set up camp before looking for the beetle.
It was supposedly a beetle that was the strongest in the world and could produce an acid that could melt through metal. It was called the Tank beetle. The Aburame clan frequented the crater and only recently discovered it. Unfortunately the beetle escaped before they could leave the crater. The Aburame clan had tried finding it multiple times before but still their searches remain fruitless. The beetle produced very slowly and would often attack the Aburame beetles. Recently the clan had been able to breed what they called the "love beetle". It's DNA allowed it to breed with almost any beetle and have an incredible fertility rate. Along with this, the beetle produced powerful pheromones to attract other beetles.
It was theorized that the babies wouldn't be able to produce the acid so early on so transportation would be much easier.
Shino had only been given a few of these beetles unfortunately. If he had too many on him the pheromones would go through his body and out into the world and attract any and all beetles in the area. These beetles could only reproduce once before dying so Shino was going to make sure they did not go to waste.
After setting up camp the genin went over the details of the beetle again so they would know what to look for. It didn't look all that special. It was a plain brown beetle who's only defining feature was its large size. About the same length of a golf ball.
Sakura and Hinata quickly memorized the appearance and went to bed, making sure to seal up their tent nice and tight so no bugs would get to them. Kiba kept complaining that he needed to know what the beetle smelled like and that's why he couldn't memorize the appearance. Shino eventually gave up and went to bed, leaving Kiba to follow and grumble something about "stupid bugs" as he pulled to covers over himself.
]}{]
The next several days were spent searching for the beetle. Kiba attempted to try and memorize the smell of every bug he came across in hopes of the process of elimination working in his favor but there were just too many different bugs. Hinata had tried with her Byakugan a few times but the bugs were just too small for her to make out.
On the 6th day searching, Hinata found herself walking with Sakura through the forest. "Where is this stupid beetle? I know it's supposed to be rare but you would've thought after 5 days of looking in this place we'd actually find one", Sakura complained. While Hinata didn't say it, she wholeheartedly agreed. She hated bugs. She found the idea of something so small crawling on her skin to be terrifying.
"Hey Hinata, can you try with your Byakugan again? Maybe it'll work this time".
Hinata sighed before activating her dojutsu. Just like before, the world had become black and white and she could see almost entirely around herself. Still, all she could see were little blurs where the bugs were. "It's no use they're too small for me to see them all".
"Try focusing on just one then. Maybe that'll help your eyes get used to seeing something so small", Sakura suggested. Hinata was a bit surprised by the suggestion. In all her time using the Byakugan, she had never thought of focusing it on a single point. She had always been told the goal of the Byakugan was to see as much as possible. Following Sakura's suggestion, Hinata focused on one of the blurs. Soon enough, she was able to see all the details of the small beetle.
"It worked!" exclaimed Hinata. Sakura cheered at the victory.
"Hell yeah! Can you see any beetles that are bigger than usual now?".
Hinata used her vision like a sonar reading and focused her vision in a 360 degree rotation around herself. "I see something! I can't see the color, but it's definitely bigger than the rest. Follow me". Hinata leapt into the tree branches with Sakura in tow. The two were filled with anticipation and hope. Finally they would get out of this nightmare of a paradise.
Unfortunately for them, it was not a large beetle Hinata had found, but a large bee. The two were severely disappointed, but they were able to cover a larger area now with Hinata being able to use her Byakugan. After a few more hours of searching they had finally found one, Sakura turned on the walkie talkie to tell Kiba and Shino to come find them and within 3 minutes Shino had arrived out of breath. Kiba arrived a few minutes later, giving Shino plenty of time to inspect the beetle to make sure it was the real deal.
"This is it. Now, we need to get it out of this crater. Having it mate with my love beetles here would attract all the other beetles". Gently, Shino scooped up the large beetle in a plastic bug container. While the bug could use acid to get out, the hope was that they'd be able to get it outside of the crater before that happened.
[}{{}}{]
When they were about halfway to the side of the crater Shino stopped suddenly. "My beetles are being killed. Someone is here. Sakura, go hide the beetle at the camp and put a genjutsu over it. If you give it some leaves and flowers it should stay in the box". Sakura went without hesitation, delicately grabbing the beetle and rushing towards their camp site. Shino sent some of his beetles to follow her to help prevent any attack or following.
"What's going on, Shino? I don't smell anyone, just a bunch of bees".
"Those bees are no normal bee. Like my beetles they have a mutualistic relationship with a host. In the Hidden Stone there is a clan like my own called the Kamizuru Clan. Why they are here, I don't know but if they know we have a tank beetle they'll do whatever they can to stop us".
"I thought you said your family had searched for this beetle before," Hinata pointed out.
"They have, but many of those times we've lost the beetle to the Kamizuru Clan. Since it's a beetle they can't use it but they usually kill the beetle. Never to extinction, but just enough to make it next to impossible to find".
"Great! So we're going to be fighting people who use murder bees over an oversized beetle. Just how I wanted to spend my thursday".
"Lucky you. Hinata, can you see the enemy with your Byakugan?" Shino said, ignoring Kiba's sarcasm.
"No, they're out of range".
"So they don't know where we are necessarily, they just sent scouts. Kiba can you smell anything".
"I've got something but it's hard to make out with all the pheromones the bugs are releasing. Akamaru you?". The tiny white dog yipped in confirmation. He leapt to a branch in front of Shino and yipped once more before continuing into the forest. The three quickly followed battle ready and conscious of the surrounding bees.
After a few minutes Kiba was able to smell them too. "I'm smelling two enemies. A man and a woman. They're next to some sort of giant honey thing".
"A hive. They must've left a queen behind to build one over time". Shino took a few seconds to consider their options. "They may not know we're here yet. For now we'll scout out the hive and then make our way back to camp". Hinata and Kiba nodded in agreement.
Now that she could see them, Hinata led the trio to one of the taller trees in the crater to get a better view of the hive. It was massive. Bigger than most buildings in Konoha, constructed of beeswax and honey combs. Bees of all sizes going in and out of the hive. Some as tiny as a fingernail, others as large as their fingers.
"Where are the two Kamizuru nin?" Shin asked.
"One's in the hive, the other is on the other side. Looks like they're setting up camp" replied Hinata.
"They must've just gotten here then" Kiba said with relief.
"They're still a threat," Shino reminded him. He was determined to be the first one to bring back the Tank Beetle, he wasn't going to chance anything. "Let's head back to camp and get out of here. There's not enough daylight left to go far, but if we can get out of the crater we'll be much safer".
Hinata led the way back, keeping an eye out behind them just in case. Akamaru was the first to notice something was missing at the camp. He didn't smell Sakura. When they got in range, Hinata reported the same thing with her sight, but she did see that the beetle was safe. Sakura had hid it under some tree roots and gave it plenty of leaves to munch on.
Kiba and Akamaru sniffed around for clues. "I don't smell anyone else. Only a lot of beeswax… wait! *sniff sniff*. Nope… *sniff* WAIT *sniff sniff… sniff sniff sniff*. There's a very faint smell. And it's not like the two from earlier. It's someone different".
"They must've covered themself in beeswax to try and confuse trackers. Kiba, can you smell where they went?" Hinata asked.
"Now that I'm following the largest smell of beeswax hell yeah. But shouldn't we move our stuff out of the crater first and put the beetle in a safe place?"
"Yes, but we also need to make a plan to get Sakura back. They're demanding the beetle for her". Shino said.
"Where do you see that?" Kiba asked. Shino pointed to the tree behind the inuzuka at a piece of paper stuck to the tree with a kunai. "Huh… didn't see that. Anyhow, what are we going to do?".
"We should take the beetle out of the crater and then rescue her. That way the beetle is safe" Shino said.
"But they're demanding the beetle for her. If we don't show up they might kill her before we have the chance to rescue her!".
"Did you not suggest the same plan earlier?" Shino asked.
"Yeah but that was before I knew they were demanding a ransom for her! If they're demanding the tank beetle they're going to be expecting a rescue mission! We need to give them the tank beetle so we can get Sakura back".
"If we give them the tank beetle the mission will have been a failure. They're not expecting us until night fall, that gives us time to retrieve her beforehand".
"Shino, they're fully grown adults! We've only been genin for like a year! You may think you're real powerful since you almost became a chunin but that doesn't mean anything to them! They'll kill her the moment they see us try to cheat them!"
"Is the famous Kiba Inuzuka scared?" Shino taunted.
"It's called being realistic, bastard! I've fought chunins and jounins in my family hundreds of times and every time I lose when they're not even breaking a sweat. Sakura is our teammate! Forget about that stupid beetle and open your eyes!".
"I have no intention of sacrificing Sakura, but I'm not giving up this beetle. You wouldn't understand how much retrieving this beetle means to me and my clan. I'm not going to give it up. We don't know that they'll kill her".
Kiba and Shino entered a headache causing, bickering episode. Hinata gave it all of 30 seconds before having enough. "SHUT IT! Kiba! Start packing up our things so we can make a quick get away". Kia tried to say something but one look from Hinata shut him up. He had seen that look from his mother many times before and knew to keep quiet and obedient. "Now you! Shino! Sakura is our teammate! If they're asking for a ransom we're going to give them the damn ransom and not play with our teammate's life! Got it?!". Shino gulped, his high collar hiding it and maintaining his stoic appearance. He entered a staring contest with Hinata, challenging her authority. He quickly lost, and joined Kiba with the packing of camp.
Hinata toyed with her choker as she watched, letting out a sigh of relief that that was over. 'Time to save Sakura. Okay, we can do that'. Hinata tried thinking of possible solutions to their predicament. They couldn't leave without Sakura, but they also couldn't leave without the beetle. Well they could, but then the entire mission would be for nothing. Hinata had finally come up with an idea when Kiba and Shino finished packing. "Shino, if we have the tank beetle mate with your love beetles now would we be able to give them the Tank Beetle after?".
Shino was given a few seconds to think it over, "That could work, yes, but I wouldn't be able to move very much. I could damage the eggs with too much movement".
"We'll have to work with that. Shino you go have you love beetles mate with the Tank Beetle. Kiba and I will bring the supplies out of the crater and once that's all done, you'll take the supplies about a mile or two down the path. We'll catch up later with Sakura".
Shino was unsure of the plan but at the moment, it was the best idea they had. "Okay, but I'm sending some of my beetles with you. They'll make a clone of me so it doesn't look suspicious".
"Don't send too many. You'll need some to defend yourself. We'll discuss this more later. For now get that beetle and get to work!". Shino promptly did so, leaving Kiba and Hinata behind. Without a word Kiba started grabbing the camp supplies. Within 3 minutes the two of them were up the side of the crater and standing before Shino. After the beetles had finished their canoodling Shino once again placed the Tank beetle in the container with some leaves to munch on.
Kiba reluctantly took the container, not a big fan of holding a beetle that could melt his face off. Nor did he enjoy the hundreds of beetles on his back. Shino had said that it would be easier for the beetles to defend that way but Kiba and Hinata still were not fond of the feeling.
Thankfully for them, the beetles detached themselves from their back once arriving at the hive and formed a clone of Shino off to the side. "Remind me to never make a plan that leaves Shino behind again" Hinata said, a shiver running through her as she tried to forget the feeling of having all those beetles on her back.
"I would be more than happy to" replied Kiba, trying the shake off the memory of the beetles himself. "You ready for this?".
"As ready as I'll ever be. Give me the beetle and stay silent. We don't need them getting angry over your lack of formality".
Kiba was about to make a snappy remark but Hinata had already grabbed the beetle and left, the Shino clone following, leaving Kiba to silently fume as Akamaru waited for his master to follow.
*)(*
As Hinata approached the humming of bees grew louder and louder, reminding her just how many bees were around her and within the Hive. The man and the woman from early came to greet her with Sakura chained up behind them. The third member having yet to be seen. They wore beehives like backpacks.
"You brought the beetle?" the man asked in a gruff voice. Hinata lifted up the container to show them the beetle. "How do we know you didn't just use a henge on some random beetle you found here?". At that moment the beetle had fallen out of the container, finally having run out of food to eat.
"Is that good enough for you?" Hinata asked, her intense stare at the man pressuring him to accept it.
"Good enough. Now squash it" he ordered.
"No. You give us Sakura and you squish it" Hinata said. The Kamizuru scowled. The woman led Sakura off to the side and held out her chain. Kiba went to go take the chain as the man walked up to Hinata to squish the beetle. After receiving Sakura, the leaf genin retreated to the trees, leaving the two Kamizuru behind.
"Thanks for saving me," Sakura said, bowing her head.
"What did you think we would do? Just leave you behind? It was a tempting idea but you know Kurenai Sensei would have my ass if I did that" Kiba said jokingly, hiding the worry he had for her. Sakura smiled and laughed. Kiba and Hinata froze, confusing Sakura.
"Huh? What are you two looking at?" Sakura asked, uncomfortable with Kiba and Hinata giving her such strange looks. Shino only stood off to the side, emotionless and thoughtless.
"Nothing," Hinata said. "Hey Sakura, what do you think of my choker?" Hinata asked, pulling the choker forward to give Sakura a better look.
"It's pretty, but why are you asking me about your choker in a time like this? Shouldn't we get back to camp?" she asked.
Hinata rushed forward and shut off enough chakra points to make Sakura pass out. The girl's eyes widened before she fell backwards, off the tree branch and to the ground. As she fell, the henge fell from around her and the third Kamizuru nin was revealed. He had beeswax almost growing on him as if it was a fungus.
"So they still have Sakura and we're down one Tank Beetle. Now what? He's too big to drag, plus I'm sure his bees would defend him if we tried. You got any ideas?" Kiba asked, frustrated and annoyed at the deception.
Hinata activated her Byakugan. "I see Sakura. She's in some cocoon thing, alive. The other two seem to be prepping dinner. We may be able to sneak in, free Sakura, and get out before they even notice us". Kiba nodded his head and the two made their move to retrieve the real Sakura, Shino's beetles deciding that they wouldn't be of much help like this any longer and dispersing to form a loose protecting circle around the two.
Getting to the hive had been no problem, getting into the hive without disturbing the bees was another. Neither Kiba or Hinata had any fire jutsu to smoke the bees to calm them so they had to step as carefully as possible. The humming of the bees provided a nice cover however for the multiple gaspes they took as they barely saved themselves from crashing into a wall covered in bees. They were playing a dangerous game of twister that held deadly consequences if they lost.
After about 15 minutes of traversing through the nest, the two had finally reached Sakura. She was still unconscious and was in what looked like a sleeping bag of beeswax. Kiba tried shaking her to wake her up but it was to no avail. Naturally he did the next best thing, slapping her.
If not for the beeswax, Kiba would've ended up with his head in the ceiling when Sakura woke up. For the sake of the mission Sakura calmed herself and decided to unleash her beating on Kiba later.
The trio snuck out the same way Kiba and Hinata came in. They had a few close calls, and Kiba contemplated getting some honey on a kunai to taste, but he was quickly shut down. Once out, they made a beeline to the bushes. They would've continued going if Sakura hadn't stopped them. "Assuming you took the third one out, we need to take care of these two too".
"What? I just had an argument with Shino about this. We can't beat them! We're only genin!" Kiba whispered.
"I know, but if I can get close enough, I can use a genjutsu to make them fall asleep for the next day or two" Sakura explained.
"Are you sure it'll work? What if they notice and dispel it?" Hinata asked.
"Don't worry. I've been practicing this one on Kiba for weeks now, plus I even tried it on Iruka sensei. They never knew what hit them," Sakura finished. Kiba started to ask about when and how many times she had used the genjutsu on him when Hinata cut him off.
"Okay. How close do you need to be to use it?" Hinata asked.
"About 5-6 feet. If we can lure one into the woods that'd work well. Although I'm not sure about the last one". Sakura gave the idea some thought before coming up with an idea. "If it's only one, maybe we can have one of us act as bait. With them distracted I can sneak up behind and place the genjutsu on them".
"Okay, but who's the bait?" Kiba asked. Both girls looked at each other and then at him, they had chosen their bait. "I hate unbalanced democracy," Kiba complained, reluctantly accepting his role as "bait".
"Okay, me and Hinata will go to one side of camp and make some noise in the forest. One of them should come over, after that I'll put the genjutsu on them and we'll move onto the bait trick".
"How will Kiba know to come out though?" Hinata asked.
"I have a smell signal that I can use".
"Wait, is it that vial of the stuff you call medicine?" Kiba asked cautiously. Sakura replied with an evil smile and Kiba sighed in disappointment, Akamura too. The only thing worse than smelling Sakura's medicine concoction was tasting it, and both Kiba and Akamura had done so. Just thinking of the smell made Kiba queasy.
Unfortunately for him and his pup, they were left with no choice. The three of them split up to start the operation. Sakura hid behind a tree while Hinata prepared to snap a few sticks before hiding in case Sakura's genjutsu failed.
Once Sakura had given Hinata a thumbs up, the mission started. The sound of snapped branches rang through the forest. Just like they had planned, one of the Kamisuru came to investigate. It was the woman, and she did not look happy to have her dinner interrupted.
Within seconds of passing Sakura the woman was asleep, Hinata catching her as she fell and softly placing her on the ground. Sakura took out her vial and popped the cork, gently blowing on the top to help the smell travel faster. After a minute it had finally reached Kiba and phase two had begun.
"Hey Bee Hugger! I've got a bone to pick with you!". Hinata and Sakura face palmed at Kiba's entrance. The Kamizuru scowled before standing up and facing Kiba.
"What are you doing here runt?! We had our deal, I would expect Konoha Shinobi to keep their word, or is Konoha no longer the mushy weak little village it's been for the last 40 years?".
"Hey! We are not weak! My village would destroy your village in battle!"
"Oh really? Well, let's see just how good you are kid, though I doubt you'll be much fun…". The man heard a foot step behind him and turned to see Sakura. "How did you escape you brat?!". The man had grabbed Sakura by the wrist, disrupting the jutsu and sending Sakura flying towards Kiba.
"So you saw through our little trick did you? I'll admit, I'm a bit surprised, you were able to take out my two chunin counterparts. Now let me show you how a jounin gets things done". Kiba and Sakura paled as the man mentioned his rank.
"Swarm Technique Level 4!" a cloud of bees formed behind him. Making a few more hand signs the bees enlarged to the size of a finger. Thrusting his hand forward, the bees followed. Spiralling towards Kiba and Sakura, their stringers at the ready.
Hinata was just able to send a wave of water at the swarmm to knock them out of the air. She placed herself between the man and her teammates. The man scowled and sent more bees their way. Hinata activated her byakugan and took to using kunai to slice the bees out of the air.
Once Kiba and Sakura had gotten back on their feet, the three retreated to the forest. The Kamizuru man followed looking forward unleashing a storm of bees on his victims.
The genin were out matched and out gunned. With the bees following close behind, they weren't even given time to regroup and make a plan. For now they just ran, launching from tree branch to tree branch, searching for a place to stop for a minute. Fortunately they found a cave that was hidden behind some boulders. Ducking into it, the trio(Akamaru) took the time to catch their breath, praying that the bees wouldn't find them.
"Great, the last one of these bastards we have to deal with is a freaking jounin!" Kiba complained in a low voice.
"Well if you had done a better job distracting him we wouldn't be here right now," argued Sakura.
"Well if you had been more quiet he wouldn't have noticed you!" snapped Kiba.
Hinata decided to end their bickering early, "Both of you shut up and listen. There's only one left and there's three of us… Four, sorry Akamaru. We nearly got him the first time, if we play our cards right we can do it again".
"Okay, but how will Sakura get close enough to place the genjutsu on him? Plus, if he knows it's coming he may be able to break it before we're able to leave," Kiba pointed out.
"Well do you have any bright ideas?" Hinata asked, starting to get annoyed with the inuzuka for always being so pessimistic. Kiba opened his mouth, about to say that he did indeed have a plan but quickly realized that retort would only work if it was true. "Great, now stay quiet until me and Sakra come up with a plan". Hinata didn't even pay attention to Kiba's fuming as she turned back to Sakura. "Well, do you have anything?".
"Ahh…" Sakura had never been put on the spot like that before, she didn't know whether she should answer or enjoy the moment of being so relied on. Unfortunately for her, she knew she couldn't enjoy the moment. "Oh! Okay, umm… Wait, Hinata, can you make more water waves like you did before?". Hinata nodded her head in confirmation. "Kiba, do you think you and Akamaru are able to do your fang over fang technique if you get wet?".
"Yeah, why?".
"Okay. So Hinata will act as the bee repellent…."
(_]}{[_)
The Kamizuru jounin was starting to get tired of searching for the leaf genin. "Hey! Brats! Get your asses out here! I know where your friend is and trust me, he won't be getting away from me!". A rustle came from the leaves to his left. Acting like he didn't notice, the man sent a swarm of bees to investigate. A few seconds later Hinata leapt out of her hiding place and took a fighting stance, dead bees falling around her.
"You know, I don't appreciate you killing so many of my bees young lady. Maybe I'll save you for later, that way I can let my queen get her revenge on you for killing so many of her children".
"Send her my condolences but I'm afraid I won't be meeting with your queen anytime soon".
"Oh? Well, we'll see about that". The jounin raised a hand and clenched it, bees came from all sides at Hinata. Acting fast, the Hyuga engaged her Byakugan and quickly made a sweeping wave of water that knocked the bees to the ground.
"Not bad, but it won't last forever. Like your Aburame friend's beetles, my bees can adapt too. A few more minutes and water won't even phase them".
"Then I guess we'll have to defeat you before then". Hinata summoned a wave of water to sweep across the forest around them, drenching everything. She then engaged the kamizuru, using the water to act as armor from his attacks. She may be trained in taijutsu, but that meant very little when against a jounin. While she was able to dodge many attacks, launching some of her own, he was able to land several punches with an incredible amount of force. Hinata had only been able to close one chakra point and it was the least important one in the chakra system. Within a few more minutes he had been able to reopen it.
'Come'on Kiba. Where are you?!'. Just as Hinata mentally called out for her teammate he appeared with his nin dog as two spinning tornados. Having been distracted by Hinata, the Jounin wasn't able to move fast enough and took the attack head on, using his arms to shield himself.
Kiba kept on the attack, forcing the jounin to stay on the defensive as the final move of their plan was put into place.
Unfortunately the jounin had eventually been able to grab Akamaru from his tornado, throwing the nin dog at his owner and causing the two of them to slam into a tree. Sakura had tried to emerge from her hiding place behind a nearby boulder but the jounin haad once again heard her and threw a kunai at her. The kunai found it's target, ripping its way through Sakura and to the otherside. THe jounin smirked in triumph as he saw the desperate look in the girls eyes.
Sakura then poofed into a cloud of smoke. The jounin's eyes went wide before collapsing to the ground, out cold. The real Sakura had transformed into a rock and had been casting the genjutsu as he was watching her clone perish.
"Finally! It's really cramped as a stone".
"You're telling me, that guy hits like a truck," said Kiba. Hinata agreed, nursing a bruise she had received earlier.
"Now that that's done, let's meet up with Shino and get out of here. I'm sick of bugs" Sakura said, Kiba and Hinata shivered as they thought about the beetles that had come with them. The three of them, plus Akamaru, made their way back to Shino. Together the genin made their way home.
[_}{_]
Upon reaching the gates, the quintet was met by a series of familiar faces, and one unfamiliar face. The rest of Team seven was there, along with team 10 and team Gai. The surprise was a new girl standing next to Choji. To be honest, Sakura and Hinata thought she was standing just a little too close to Choji to be just friends.
While the returning genin were being asked the most questions, Hinata had only one in return. "What happened when we were gone?" she asked Naruto and Sasuke. The two looked at each other before they started smirking.
"Let's just say Konoha gained a new ninja and Choji has an unofficial girlfriend". Not much detail for her, but she figured she would be able to get the full story if she asked Ino about it. For now she decided a trip to the hot springs was in order, along with some pancakes.
Well that's it. As always, I hoped you enjoy, if not please leave a comment so I can fix it in the future. While small, if anyone wants to suggest the name of a character in a new story I'm planning to write as a break from this one. Also, keep in mind that I'm planning on redoing most of these chapters later on(probably after a few years) if I'm still on this platform. Any critiques for previous chapters are welcomed, and if you'd like e to read your work, or you know some good pieces, please recommend them to me. Great thing about writing(or typing in this case) is that my research is basically reading.