Happy birthday to the kindest, most sincere and most beautiful woman, my favourite anime character of all time and the goddess, Mrs. Hinata Uzumaki!
Hinata is an inspiration. It's easy to identify with her struggles, her inner conflicts, her insecurities and its awe inspiring to see how she overcame them all. Yes, she needed the inspiration of Naruto to do that, but we all need inspiration to one extent or another, don't we?
Also, needless to say, it's not just Naruto that has inspired her, she has inspired our favourite goofy whiskered blonde all the time as well. With her conviction, with her soothing words of encouragement as well as her support. Naruto and Hinata are incomplete without each other and only together have they been able to achieve anything. Hinata is the leader of Naruto's private life, the sun that shines on him and keeps him warm. She may not be a leader in public, but without her support, Naruto wouldn't have made it. She is the very first follower of his ninja way, but in private, he's her devotee. Well….I can go on and on about this.
And once again, these fics are all our tribute to her anyways.
So, Mrs. Uzumaki, your humble fans RaNK001 and GBAboy313 wish you a very happy birthday. Thank you for being an inspiration.
A/N: I am sorry! I am sorry! I missed out publishing in November. We missed out publishing by a few days and found that we were already in December when we were ready for publishing the new chapter. And in December and hence we decided to go for Hinata's birthday. We succeeded in publishing One Year Early last month but unfortunately failed in getting Guardian's latest chapter ready to go. I am really sorry for the trouble as well as the wait. Its all due to unavoidable circumstances IRL. So, once again, I sincerely ask for your forgiveness and your understanding. And thank you all for sticking with us and supporting us with your kind reviews as well as the PMs expressing your support. I apologize that most of the time I am unable to respond to the reviews asking questions. I hope I will be able to get it done someday. That aside, thank you all again for your continuous love and support. This support has kept us going.
So, without further ado, let's get on with the chapter.
CHAPTER 45: TEAM LEADING FOR THE FIRST TIME….
Team-7 was rushing full speed ahead.
"Ero-Sennin mentioned about our enemies being from the Kamizuru clan. Any ideas about them?"
"I remember Shino talking about them once." Kiba answered.
Hinata, who was leading from the front elaborated.
"Shino-kun said that the Kamizuru clan were a clan of insect users like the Aburame, though they mostly focused on using bees. The First Tsuchikage was rumoured to be a lover to a previous clan head of the Kamizuru and if true that would also mean that the current Tsuchikage Onoki would be related to them, though distantly. After the third great ninja war, the Kamizuru once launched an invasion of Konoha by themselves and were thoroughly defeated by the Aburame who led the defence-resulting in the Aburame not only retaining but even increasing their clout in Konoha while the Kamizuru lost their prestige in Iwagakure. I don't know much about their techniques though…" She added.
*In the mindscape*
"In my battles with Iwa, I never came across a member of the Kamizuru myself. It was like they and the Aburame specifically sought each other out and fought whenever both were involved in a skirmish, so I don't have the experience to lay out what kind of jutsus they use. Apart from the fact that they might be able to use their bees for tracking and surveillance, like Shino and the other Aburame use bugs. And I speculate that they would be able to use their own version of the insect clone jutsu." Minato explained.
'Gotcha Dad.'
Sai didn't say anything, nor did his expressions change, but he made a mental note of the information being discussed. Of course, he knew about the Kamizuru clan, he wondered if the ROOT could squeeze any benefits out of them.
Meanwhile.
A woman and two men, one buff and another lean overlooked the valley before them.
"So, this is that accursed Aburame clan's insect reserve…" The woman spat.
"So, where do we look for the Bikochu, our key to salvation?"
The woman took out a scroll and looked through.
"It doesn't mention anything about a specific location for the Bikochu. We will have to scour through this entire valley. Tsk!" The woman scoffed.
The Kamizuru clan members got down to begin their search. With far less information in their hands about the Bikochu than Shino had, they were not going to have any luck finding the insect, they considered to be the salvation of their lost glory, for the next few days.
Meanwhile, Team-7 kept making haste towards their destination. However, it was not like they would be able to keep going non-stop. Shinobi or not, they also needed rest.
So, they came to a halt near a clearing with picturesque scenery. "Hey, Sai, let's go on a little hunt." Naruto suggested. Hinata and Kiba remained to set up camp.
As Naruto and Sai walked around looking for possible animals to be hunted, Naruto looked at the river nearby.
"Umm…since you can draw animals out of your scroll, how 'bout drawing some cranes or kingfishers and have them grab some fish for us?" Naruto suggested.
Sai, still keeping up the creepy smile, looked at Naruto. 'I never thought of using them like that…the ink is oil based so water shouldn't dissolve it quickly in short intervals.' He thought to himself. "Even an idiot like you can have good idea, once in a blue moon it seems." The pale boy answered as he opened up his scroll to draw some cranes.
A little vain popped on Naruto's forehead at the jab thrown his way by Sai…but he chose to ignore it. Slowly he was getting used to those little jabs.
Sai drew the cranes and the birds got to their hunting.
"I like your way of fighting…" Naruto admitted. "These ink-based animals…they are pretty amazing."
Sai didn't say anything back in acknowledgement. Perhaps, he didn't know how to receive a compliment.
The ink-cranes kept hunting for fish for a while. Naruto and Sai just had to wait.
As they waited, Sai took out a drawing book from his backpack and began drawing the scenery before him.
Naruto's glance fell upon Sai's work. The blonde would hate to admit it, but he was amazed by how fast Sai was drawing. Add to that, the scenery was drawn perfectly.
"Holy shit, that's amazing!"
Sai again didn't reply. Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
"I guess…you should at least say a thank you or something like that when someone compliments you…" Naruto muttered.
"I don't think of these drawings as anything special. And I don't think praising me like that would do you any favours if you are looking to get any…"
Naruto was indignant. What the hell was this guy suggesting?
"I am not looking for any favours. I praised your drawings because I liked them, straight and simple. And what kind of favours should I be looking from a pain in the ass like you!?" Naruto yelled.
Sai's expression didn't falter. "Well, it doesn't matter to me how you think of me. A ninja should only care about the mission at hand. And you are as far from it as it gets."
'Dang it…spoken just like Haku, but even Haku always had his emotions. This is far worse…' Naruto thought to himself.
Just what were they teaching in ROOT?
"Gee, Don't suppose you would tell me which asshole taught you all this?" Naruto drawled while s
Sai replied with a straight face, still smiling. "I don't think I am obliged to tell personal information, regardless of seniority of rank. You can't force me to do so, just because you are a chunin." The socially inept painter stated.
Naruto rolled his eyes. 'How the hell am I going to deal with this asshole. I thought I could make a headway talking about his hobbies…but nooooooooo! This is going to be a loooooong mission.'
Needless to say, Kurama was definitely laughing at Naruto's annoyance.
By that time, Sai's ink cranes had hunted quite some fish and they deposited it all before Naruto and Sai before dissolving.
The boys returned to the camp.
Hinata cooked them their meal. As she did, Naruto got closer to her.
"This Sai is a going to be a big mess…I tried to get him to open up but no luck. Just wanna punch his face, especially that creepy smile. That weirdo lady was drone like, but Sai is on another level of annoying." The jinchuuriki whispered.
"I suppose its understandable." The lavender eyed girl whispered back. "I decided to hide the fact that I can use the Rasengan from him, as long as possible." She added.
"…Yeah…I guess it makes sense." Naruto agreed in a whisper. "I wonder what I should hide. Rasengan…no I can't…I kinda showed it off in front of a crowd in the chunin exams. I guess I could hide the number of gates I can open and the amount of moves I learnt from Gai-sensei."
Hinata nodded in approval. The couple didn't like hiding their power just because of a spooky, socially inept ROOT agent was sent to spy on them; that being said, circumstances demanded it.
Night came rather quick.
And dead in the night, Naruto woke up from his sleeping bag with a desperate need to relieve himself. Sleepily and half awake, he went around looking for a place to empty out.
*Next morning*
"What's up with you two?" Kiba pried. "Had a fight or something!?" He asked Naruto and Hinata.
Naruto felt uneasy at the question. "No! Why!?"
"You two are behaving awkwardly around. It wasn't like that last time, when we went looking for Tsunade-sama. You two were all lovey dovey, like the kind of crap my sis blushes about reading in her novels I'm not supposed to know she has, even if you tried to keep it private. Now you are behaving like you two are two introverted idiots who just met and don't know how to talk to each other!?" The Inuzuka asked.
Well, it was not surprising that he would feel that way. Naruto and Hinata were blushing very awkwardly when he saw them in the morning and he could see that they were feeling awkward about something.
Naruto muttered: "At least it wasn't like with Kahyo and her icy passive aggressive bullshit…"
"I-It's nothing l-like that…" Hinata protested.
"Y-Yeah…we don't have fights!" Naruto doubled down.
"In that case…" Kiba grinned suggestively. "Did-"
He was cut off by Naruto who figured out exactly where the mutt ninja was going with this.
"SHUT UP! NOTHING LIKE THAT!" Naruto shouted, while Hinata's face became as red as a tomato. "I SWEAR!" Naruto yelled again.
"Well, if you say so…then why so awkward with each other?" The feral teen pried again.
"W-We are f-fine, Kiba-kun…don't worry."
"Y-Yeah. Everything is okay."
"Alright, you two lovebirds don't wanna share. I thought I could help out if something happened."
"Thanks, Kiba, but we don't have any problems. Don't worry." Naruto stated.
"This is why I told you that being in a relationship can be counterproductive, captain dickless." Sai commented.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Naruto yelled and he almost imitated Iruka's 'big-head-no-jutsu' without ever knowing how the academy teacher did that. "Say one more thing about Hime and me, I dare you! I double dare you, you annoying bastard, say one more thing about something you don't know about and I swear you will be dickless." The blonde warned. Going from yelling to complete calm by the end of the statement.
For better or worse, Sai felt that the warning was genuine and didn't try pushing his luck on it.
"Tell me you're not mad at me…" Naruto whispered getting a bit closer to Hinata.
"I am not…it wasn't your fault." She said, giving a soft smile. "We should talk about last night some other day, okay?" She suggested.
"Yeah, probably that would be for the best. But I do have one thing to ask, if you don't mind. Were you working on a jutsu or something?"
Hinata nodded. "A protective technique, based on the 64-palms. I still need some more practice with it to say that I have it mastered."
"Lemme, guess, to counter Neji?" Naruto asked.
Hinata shook her head.
"To protect you." She said affectionately, making Naruto blush. "Now take your own position, captain-san." She ordered.
"Oh yeah, my bad." And Naruto fell back a bit to his position.
*Miles ahead*
"This is the place." Shino commented looking down towards a valley.
Behind him, Ino and Choji were panting a bit.
"Yeah?" The Yamanaka asked. "So far for an insect…" She mumbled.
"I understand the irritation, Ino-san. But let me just tell you that the Bikochu is special enough. In other words, it is something well-worth the hard work." The Aburame commented.
"So, where do we look, or can we take a little break?" Choji asked.
"I would prefer to take a look around to identify the spot where the Bikochu eggs would be. But I believe we have time to spare before the Bikochu eggs hatch." Shino replied.
"Alright. Great."
And the new Team-10 moved down towards the valley. Just as they were making their way, Shino turned back just a bit before continuing.
A few insects came down to his palm before flying out. As the Aburame eyed his teammates, who were walking relaxed. Shino stepped forward a bit.
"Don't act shocked. But we are possibly being followed." Ino raised her eyebrows.
"How'd you know?" She asked in a whisper.
"My insects reacted uneasily. Our followers might be insect users themselves, if my insects' reaction is to be considered. And in that case, it would be a big trouble. Why? Because, the only other major clan of insect users are the Kamizuru from Iwa, a clan which has a violent history of enmity with the Aburame. If they are here in an area belonging to my clan, they can't possibly have good intentions." Shino explained.
"I guess, as Shikamaru would say, 'how troublesome'." Choji commented in a whisper.
Somewhere near the border of the Land of Water, Shikamaru sneezed
"So, what do we do?" Ino asked.
"Now it is more urgent than ever for us to locate the Bikochu and make sure that the possible Kamizuru intruders don't get it…and pay back any damage they cause with their intrusion, with interest as it were." Ino and Choji nodded. And both shivered at how Shino's eyes seemed to glow slightly with his more vengeful sounding comment.
The two were almost certain that if his face was covered by shadow, they would see his teeth and glasses shining with reflected light.
Shino moved on: "And we should act relaxed and try to act like we aren't already alerted to them, if they realize that we know that they are here, then they might just attack us. A scenario that won't be good for either us or the mission."
"Makes sense." Ino agreed.
'I wonder how capable we would be in dealing with the enemy if they are above the classes expected of chunin rank, given the restructuring.' Shino thought to himself.
As the team walked away, the three ninja from Iwa shed their transparency technique.
"That is an Aburame." The big man said with vitriol in his voice.
"You are right, Kurobachi." The woman, their leader spoke. "Kami has been kind to us today, not only can we get the Bikochu, we can claim the blood of one of those greedy insect hoarders!" (She said this without a bit of self-awareness that she was a poacher and therefore committing a crime just as greed motivated, if not even more greed filled due to taking illegal actions to satisfy that greed, as she accused the 'hoarders' of being)
"Yeah, and then we can burn this precious reserve of theirs to the ground. Surely that old fool Onoki would be happy." The lean man stated.
"Don't say that old geezer's name before me!" The woman hissed. "That fool and his family are supposed to be our cousins, yet not only did he remove our seat in the council, he didn't even authorize us a mission to retrieve the Bikochu. We had to sneak out of the village to get this done! If anything, I want him gone from the Tsuchikage's post. If only he was not as capable as he is."
"Let's focus on the matter at hand." The big guy, Kurobachi stated.
"You're right." The woman agreed. "Let's follow these kids. That Aburame brat is bound to know better about the Bikochu's location. And if they are indeed here to find it, we will just have to take it from them once they find it." The woman said with a smirk.
"But apart from the Aburame, the others are just kids, Suzumebachi-nee-san." The lean guy stated. "Should we really kill them?"
"Killing some pests from Konoha won't hurt. After all, Konoha is our sworn enemy." The woman, identified as Suzumebachi stated. She simply didn't care.
Completely unaware that their supposed covert mission had been compromised from the start and Iwa was already aware and organizing a response to prevent a conflict it simply didn't want.
*With Team-10*
"Do you think we will have reinforcements?" Choji asked. "And how many enemies did you count?"
"Three adults." Shino stated.
The group was looking for the Bikochu colony, whilst giving off the appearance of not knowing about being followed. Also, it was not like Shino could have his bugs keep watch indefinitely. The opponents were insect users as well, they were bound to detect it, so he had had his bugs return once they had identified the number of hostiles.
The group kept looking for the Bikochu colony. It was only at night that they found it. But Shino judged it to be too risky to find out whether or not his team would be able to face hostile shinobi during the night. A decision that would down the line prove very useful.
So, instead of going for the Bikochu's eggs, Team-10 decided to set camp and rest, frustrating the trailing Kamizuru clan members further.
And buying Team-7 time to catch up.
But it also gave the Kamizuru time to work out their own plan.
"The girl looks pretty skinny… I think she would be easiest to handle." Kurobachi commented.
"You're right." Suzumebachi agreed. She was still amused to see the genin training even so far away from home.
After learning that Shino had learnt about his nature release from Kakashi, Ino and Choji had forced Asuma to determine their nature release as well. Surprisingly enough, both Choji and Ino turned out to have earth release as their primary. The unfortunate part was that Asuma didn't use Earth nature beyond simple techniques, but he managed to circumvent this. Only problem was that he owed Kakashi because he couldn't stand asking his father for help.
Choji was now learning to use earth release to harden himself as he used the Human Bullet Tank jutsu and other jutsus related to that. Ino was practicing the mud wall as well as the mud clone, though she knew that earth style was not going to be very useful for Yamanaka clan techniques, except for creating cover before she used the mind-transfer jutsu. The genin didn't want to give away too much to their pursuers, so they practiced the basic earth chakra control techniques and not any jutsus.
In the morning, they went looking for suitable eggs. And they found it within no time, having already spotted the colony. After some looking, they found a Bikochu beetle in its pupa stage. "This one is suitable. It will metamorphose into its adult form within tomorrow's daybreak." Shino commented.
"If we lose this one, then what happens?" Ino asked.
"We will probably have to wait for about another four or five years before another one is born. You remember the thunderstorm that passed three weeks ago, the day after the thunderstorm passed, the Bikochu must have laid eggs. When the conditions are met by a storm passing by during this time of the year, which is relatively rare, they only lay a few eggs. We need to carefully transport it to Konoha."
"Yeah." Ino and Choji agreed.
Meanwhile some distance away
"Get the hell out of here you stupid bug! Rasengan!" Naruto slammed the deadly spiralling orb of chakra on the huge beetle with the long nose and blue eyes, knocking it out cold.
Taking out a picture and double checking it, Naruto sighed.
"This does look like the beetle Team-10 came out looking for. Bikochu, right? Well, don't know what to say, now that we knocked it out." The blonde said shaking his head.
"It attacked us and tried to eat us too." Hinata added in a bit of a deadpan tone.
"Are you sure you should have provoked it?" Sai asked. "You and muttboy poked it."
"Well…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I don't think there was any way for us to transport this whole thing to Konoha, except for using a seal and I'm not good enough with them to seal something this big into one." The blonde chunin commented.
"I wonder how Shino and the others were intending to take this huge thing with them to Konoha." Kiba asked. The rest of the team shrugged.
"Ano…did the Hokage ever point out that the Bikochu could be this big, like an elephant of sorts." Hinata asked.
"Nope, the old pervert never did." Naruto responded.
"Could it be that this is not the…thing…" Kiba questioned while Akamaru let out a sound of frustration.
"Hmm…well, let's tie this one up good, then when we meet up with team-10, we'll ask Shino whether this is the Bikochu or not. And if it is then how on earth does he intend to take it all the way to Konoha." Naruto stated. And the team got to work, elaborately tying the knocked out gigantic beetle up.
It had been a less than an hour that Team-7 had arrived at the insect reserve. They were yet to locate either Team-10 or the Bikochu. While Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata were on the lookout for Team-10, they came across this huge blue-eyed beetle. Before departing, Naruto had been given a photo of the Bikochu beetle that Team-10 had been dispatched to retrieve. Thinking that they might have come across the objective before Team-10, Team-7 tried to capture the huge beetle and it got irritated and began attacking them, leading to Naruto knocking it out with a Rasengan.
Having tied it up, Team-7 left, continuing to look for Team-10.
*Meanwhile with Team-10*
Just as Team-10 had returned to their camp, a huge swarm of bees attacked them.
"What the hell!?" Ino cried out loud. As the bees began stinging. Shino held his arms out and released his swarm of bugs to battle. Choji expanded his arms to place himself protectively around the team and used earth chakra to harden his body as much as he could so as to withstand the pain of bee stings.
Shino's bugs were smaller than the bees, and may have lacked many of the adaptations developed to counter the bees from Kamizuru due to other adaptations being developed which forced out the anti-bee adaptations, but the Kikaichu's numbers overwhelmed the smaller bee swarm-inducing a stalemate.
Then another bee swarm attacked, this time with explosive tags attached to them, setting off several explosions in the area.
This pushed the team back, though it was not enough to force Choji into receding his Partial Multi-Size jutsu. However, the explosions hurt more and as the attacks continued Choji took notice of something.
"The bees that I hit… are leaving honey on my skin…attracting more bees onto it!" The Akimichi shouted.
"We have to retreat." Shino commented. 'It's a pity that I have never really known about the techniques of the Kamizuru clan. Likely that they were no longer considered a threat for having had lost their status and most of their prominent members.' The Aburame heir thought to himself.
It was just that, when he had made that decision, the explosions ceased. And Ino was nowhere to be found!
Shino immediately set off some more of his bugs to look for the Yamanaka, as Choji and he retreated to somewhere with good cover. They could only curse their luck. They knew that there were hostiles, but they had no idea what kind of attack would come.
Although the explosive tag suicide bees were no longer attacking, but Choji and Shino still had no respite. A huge swarm of bees were still attacking them and overwhelming them as well. It was not helping matters that defending themselves with kunais attached with explosive tags or any other method only led to the defeated bees dropping sticky honey on them, hindering their movements and attracting more and more bees onto them.
As they retreated, Choji and Shino never noticed that they were getting closer and closer to a gigantic beehive shaped construct.
And as soon as they were forced into it, a gigantic bee spewed a lot of honey onto them, immobilizing and trapping the two.
It was then that the attacker finally showed herself.
"Well, well, well; who knew we would run into a little Aburame here?" A woman said with a devilish grin, standing atop the huge bee.
"I didn't know the Kamizuru still existed either." Shino replied with a monotone voice.
"Mind your tongue boy! Do you realize what situation you are in: all three of you are at my mercy! That little useless girl who was with you is my hostage. So, I will make this plain and simple for you tree huggers: hand over the Bikochu and we'll let you go." Suzumebachi stated.
"So, you are indeed after the Bikochu, just like I suspected." Shino stated.
"Any insect user knows the value of that little beetle; it can change the fortunes of an insect using ninja. I know that you have it on you, how about being a good boy and handing it over now, we don't have to make this any more difficult than it should be." Suzumebachi ordered as her two brothers showed themselves as well.
"If it is the Bikochu you are after, I will hand it over once you take us to our teammate and hand her over safely." Shino stated monotonously.
"What did you say!?" An indignant Suzumebachi hissed. "Do you even realize the situation you are in!? You are in no position to bargain."
"I believe I am, Kamizuru-san. Why? Because I have the Bikochu on myself and I can anytime have my bugs devour it. Being an insect user, you should know that this is the only Bikochu here worth the trouble and if you lose it, you will have to wait four or five years before another suitable one metamorphoses into adulthood. Unless you are petty enough to destroy the entire reserve just to give my clan a black eye which will just cement your perceived inferiority as having to have three adult Kamizuru gang up on an Aburame child just to win and having to strike at distant Aburame holdings just to win." The Aburame stated.
"Tsk!" Suzumebachi groaned in irritation. This Aburame and his monotone voice, as if he didn't care about her or even the situation he and his team were in, was getting on her nerves.
And his stare judging her was reminding her of a certain artist brat with a love of explosions who judged her for sticking to traditional Kamizuru bees and techniques.
"He does have a point, nee-san." Jibachi stated.
"I know that already! He can have the Bikochu devoured by his bugs anytime he wants."
"In that case…" Kurobachi hissed as his swarm of bees appeared overhead.
"I can have my bugs kill the Bikochu long before your bees can take me out." Shino stated again.
"Grrrr! No wonder why the Aburame are so hated! They act so high and mighty, regardless of their situation! This monotone, expressionless, emotionless tone he takes! He is getting on my nerves! This little brat!" The irate Kamizuru scoffed.
Shino spoke quietly: "Really now? And why are the great Kamizuru clan reduced down to just three? You refused to adapt and evolve and became willing victims of time's merciless march forward. The Kikaichu Parasitic Beetles are designed to evolve rapidly by nature, which the Aburame chose to work with-leading to the birth of many variants that diverged so widely that they became solidified alternative branches of the species such as the Kidaichu and Rinkaichu. Your bees are impressive and versatile, but they are lacking in diversified specialization. You could have induced adaptations to create variants similar to wasps and their infamous tendencies…but you didn't. Was it strict traditionalism, or just plain laziness?"
Suzumebachi grit her teeth as she tried to maintain composure. Flashing back to when that artist called her out.
"Hm, I'll admit this Suzumebachi, your bees got their own strengths, but outside of those strengths they are kinda worthless because they haven't diversified. So many clans just rely on good genes and the arts created by long dead people instead of growing and evolving and coming up with new stuff. My family has the same problem. I learned our traditional jutsu and all of that, and learned Sensei's element and the composites of Explosion Release, but I never stopped reaching for new heights. Sensei actually managed to get the old man to loosen up and let me learn the greatest technique an artist like me could want. The Aburame might be our enemies because of Konoha and all that noise, but they learned the lesson of trying to fight against time and decided to change with it. I'll always respect them for it. Some things are best in the moment, like an Explosion, while others are best experienced over time. History is the best test of something that has to last for a while-like legacies and families and all that. You need to learn or the Kamizurus are gonna end up completely washed away by time. Because right now, you are failing history's test. Is it stubborn adherence to tradition, or just plain laziness and coasting on your clan's name?"
Suzumebachi refused to acknowledge Shino in the now, or Deidara in the past.
"Fine, we will take you to that little girl, but once we do, hand over the Bikochu without any tricks. Otherwise, all three of you will be dead and we will burn this place down." Suzumebachi warned.
"Duly noted." Shino replied, his mind already working on a plan to get back and defeat the opponent, now that he had a good idea about the tricks up their sleeves.
*Meanwhile with Team-7*
"I spotted Shino-kun and Choji-kun's chakra! 10 o'clock!" Hinata declared.
"Let's go!" Naruto ordered. Just as the team was readying to set off, a bee flew before them and began hovering over. As they turned towards the direction Hinata had pointed out, the bee began flying violently and irately.
"What the hell with this bee!? Get off! I hate bees!" Naruto yelled as he tried to get the bee off that was flying all over his face.
"Wait!" Hinata cautioned. "I can sense something. I see traces of Ino-san's chakra on it." She stated as she looked at it with her Byakugan.
"Ino! You mean she's mind controlling this bee!?" Naruto asked.
The bee flew up and down as if nodding.
"She could be in danger. I was able to spot Choji-kun and Shino-kun, but not Ino-san with them. Maybe she wants to show us something using this bee. Let's follow it, Naruto-kun."
"You're right, Hime. LEAD THE WAY INO!"
The bee began flying in a direction, different from the one Hinata had spotted Shino and Choji in.
Team-7 followed the Bee that had Ino controlling its mind.
E/N: in the hiatus between chapters I ended up binging through Highschool DxD. That is such a great series. We(RaNK and myself) were already working on a fic that has a tone very similar to the tone used in Highschool DxD, fluttering between serious and silly and all things in between and even treating the silliest of things with the same gravitas as you would expect from something completely serious…well that ended up inspiring me personally. Also: Trip-Innocence of D by Larval Stage Planning is such a great song, I never skipped the opening for a season 1 episode of Highschool DxD just so I could listen to that awesome song!
I ended up channelling Samuel L Jackson's character from Pulp Fiction for Naruto's breaking point with Sai. "I DARE YOU! I DOUBLE DARE YOU MOTHERFUCKER! SAY WHAT ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME!"
'may have lacked many of the adaptations developed to counter the bees from Kamizuru due to other adaptations being developed which forced out the anti-bee adaptations' this is rooted in some amount of real-life science. Our go to counter for bacteria is Anti-Biotics, which while effective, aren't one hundred percent and thus bacteria with traits that are able to resist anti-biotics are able to reproduce and gradually supplant variants that cannot. This is potentially and worryingly building the world up to a bacterial infection plague comparable to the Black Death that can completely resist Anti-Biotic medications…but at the same time, we have a ray of hope in the form of Bacteriophages-viruses that exclusively target Bacteria for infection. The adaptations that make bacteria resistant to anti-biotics completely erase any defence against Bacteriophages, and adaptations that resist Bacteriophages make bacteria vulnerable to anti-biotics.
Welp that's all I have to say. See you guys later! Got anything to say RaNK?
A/N: Nothing to add. I hope you all had a nice read. Sorry again for the delay. We'll try our best to not get delayed in publishing the next chapter. Once again, thank you all for your continued love and support. See ya all in the next chapter. Cheers and peace.
RaNK001 and GBAboy313 out.