Chapter 56: Regroup and Reform
The woman took a step back hearing someone land beside me revealing, Sakura, Sai, Yamato, Naruto and two giant toads.
"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said looking over towards Naruto as he smirked saying, "Is everyone alright?"
"Naruto what was that?" Kakashi asked seeing Naruto smile replying, "That was collaboration Ninjutsu with a toad, we learned it from pervy sage. Now it's my turn, there's nowhere to escape."
The woman snickered replying, "Here comes that really loud guy I've heard about."
Naruto finally noticing Hinata he tensed up glaring towards her saying, "What did you do to Hinata?!"
She simply smiled hearing Naruto growl looking towards Kakashi saying, "What are you going to do Kakashi-sensei?!"
Frowning I looked towards him worried about the Nine-tailed fox's chakra returning as Kakashi said calmly, "We can't attack them recklessly since Hinata has been taken hostage. Besides, any small shock will cause that crystal to shatter."
Looking towards her our options were limited, our main concern now was getting Hinata to safety before we could even try to figure out how to set her free. Seeing Naruto start to charge up his chakra he sent a water attack towards the woman who put her hand up crystallizing the water.
"My crystal style can crystallize all materials, you need ten more years of experience before you can challenge me." she said creating a dragon out of the crystal causing us all to jump back getting distance from her.
Standing by Shino, Kakashi went over the plan to get Hinata then make for the shelter we had, all of us nodding in agreement. Once Kakashi and Yamato distracted the woman long enough Sai came from the sky knocking her off the dragon as one of Naruto's toads grabbed Hinata with his tongue placing her in his mouth. As soon as she was safe, we broke apart fast back to the hideout hearing Kiba say that the enemy wasn't following us.
"Alright Gamatatsu, you can bring Hinata out now." Naruto said as the toad's tongue came out with Hinata in it watching him slowly bring her to the ground.
"Gently..." Naruto whispered seeing a fly that ended up distracting him dropping Hinata a few inches as I winced watching the crystal crack ever so slightly.
"You fool, what are you doing idiot?" the other toad said to Gamatatsu hearing the crystal continue to crack, all of us surrounding it until it stopped.
"We're too late..." I heard turning as I said, "Pakkun?"
He sat on a rock as myself, Shino, Kakashi, Yamato and Sai stood in front of him while he said, "They finished analyzing Shino's parasitic insect, it appears the enemy's jutsu was definitely a long forgotten Crystal style."
"Just as we expected..." Kakashi said seeing Pakkun frown finishing, "And the analyst confirmed that several materials from the crystal encased the parasitic insect."
"It was true what she said about crystallizing all materials..." Kakashi said while Yamato turned to him saying, "Sai's super beast scroll was also crystallized, it's a troublesome jutsu."
"Not only the jutsu itself but also its effects." Pakkun began looking down as Shino said beside me, "So that means..."
"Yes, they said that even the biological fluid of the insect was crystallized too." Pakkun said defeated as Naruto piped in, "And Hinata? Is Hinata all right Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yea..." Kakashi said but I could hear the hesitation in his voice while I said, "We should take her to the village immediately, someone could be able to help her."
"That's right, Granny Tsunade should be able to help, she has to help." Naruto said hearing the determination in his voice while Kakashi replied, "Calm down Naruto."
Hearing another crack we all turned to the crystal as it shattered widening my eyes to see Hinata was still intact while Sakura checked for a pulse.
"She's alive." Sakura said happily making me sigh relaxing hearing Naruto say, "Are you sure?"
She nodded as I saw Shino stuff his hands in his pockets turning towards him, "What is it Shino?"
"I was thinking about my insects… after it was defeated by the crystal jutsu they shattered in my hand, yet Hinata survived..." he said making me frown hearing Kakashi, "True, when we first encountered the crystal jutsu it shattered all those people."
Looking down at Hinata I rubbed my chin saying curiously, "I wonder what the surviving insects and Hinata have in common..."
"I..." I heard a faint voice say looking over as Sakura helped Hinata sit up telling her to take it slow hearing her say, "When I received the jutsu… I released my chakra from my chakra points all at once to make a thin film in which to cover myself."
"I see, that's why, even her crystal style failed to crystallize chakra." Shino said now understanding a bit more seeing Kakashi smile saying, "Although you faced the unexpected you did a great job Hinata."
She smiled shyly while Kiba praised her as well, "Only a Hyuga family member could pull that off, Hinata you're awesome."
"I'm glad you're okay." Naruto said smiling at her seeing her blush lightly replying, "Sorry you had to worry about me Naruto."
Smiling towards the both it was clear to see Hinata admired Naruto so much, he was an idiot but a force to be reckoned with.
"Well Kakashi what are we going to do now?" Yamato asked as he looked towards Hinata assuring him she was fine despite Sakura protesting.
"I think we're lucky because Hinata was the only victim of the crystal style." Shino said seeing Kakashi turn to him, "We don't have any countermeasures against it at this point so falling back would be our best option for now."
"But we can't let them get away." Naruto said glaring towards Kakashi who replied, "Right, unless we stay on the lookout, we'll lose them."
"We went through all the trouble finding them, if we retreat now we may never be able to find them again." I said looking towards Kakashi watching him close his eye for a moment before saying, "Well we have enough people to split into two groups, Sai and Sakura you stay here and wait for Hinata to recover."
"The rest of us will track them down though I'm sure they'll be erasing their scent." Kakashi said explaining we'd have to keep our distance from the bats but at the same time stay close enough not to lose their scent.
Before jumping off we said farewell to Pakkun and the toads starting our movement again to see if we could get back on the enemy's trail.
"We shouldn't have taken our eyes off of them even for a second." Kiba said behind me as Naruto piped in saying, "And with the bats we can't move freely either."
"We don't have a choice, shall we try it the risky way?" Shino suggested seeing Kakashi stop as we all did the same looking towards Shino, "Do you have another idea?"
"We should try changing our way of thinking, not wanting the bats to find us is a problem but if we assume they do find us it can be an advantage for us too." Shino said seeing Naruto make a face replying, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"The supersonic waves the bats produce doesn't work from far away, when they report our whereabouts how do they report to the enemy?" Shino asked seeing Kiba make a fist, "That's true."
"You're right, good work figuring that out Shino." Kakashi said hearing Naruto confused next to me, "Wait does everyone understand that?"
"Why wouldn't we, we're all Chunin and Jonin… oh wait and one Genin." Kiba said smirking towards Naruto who shook his fist at Kiba, "Do you want to pick a fight, alright I understand too."
"Of course..." I said quietly shaking my head as Shino turned to Kakashi, "So what should we do?"
Kakashi went over the plan of letting Naruto's shadow clones' fan out in front of us to attract one of the bats seeing Naruto jump towards me.
Once Shino located a bat we began following it as Naruto leaned towards me, "Why are we following the bat?"
Smacking my forehead I replied, "We are following the bat to the enemy… you really weren't paying attention to Shino..."
"It's not my fault your bug boyfriend is vague and confusing..." Naruto murmured as I gave him the stink eye saying, "Don't say stupid things at a time like this."
Jumping ahead besides Shino I heard Kiba and Naruto arguing as I shook my head hearing Shino say, "What was that about?"
"It's nothing… Naruto is just being an idiot as usual." I said narrowing my eyes behind me to see him fart in front of Kiba and Akamaru knocking them to the ground hearing Shino say, "He is an idiot."