A/N: My sincere apologies for the long delay. The thing is that, we were extremely busy in the last two months. And we were also brainstorming some new ideas for future. I sincerely request for your kind understanding. And I thank you all for your continued love and support.

Editor's Note: couple of reviews to answer. Sorry that this took so long. We've been busy and I got sucked down the Persona 5 rabbit hole. Life Will Change, Willpower, and Take Over now lives in my head rent free.

This first one is to several reviewers, we have had several of you question how Sasuke could defect to Orochimaru after he(Orochimaru) had died…did you forget the plot point of the Curse Mark containing part of Orochimaru that could be used to revive him? That's from canon and was used in the Itachi Fight when Orochimaru attempted to revive himself and take over Sasuke towards the end, and from the Fourth Great Ninja War arc's tail end with Sasuke reviving Orochimaru from Anko's Curse Mark.

Arata7Kasuga: well we appreciate the enthusiasm you've shown, Sai will not be going anywhere as he is plot important to what we have planned and is the funniest character and a personal favorite for the two of us, and those eyes were all canon. The Tenseigan is from The Last and is the eyes used by Toneri Otsutsuki, being the eyes of the Sage of Six Path's elder brother Hamura; the Ketsuryugan is the Dojutsu bloodline of the Chinoike Clan which was introduced in Sasuke Shinden Book of Sunrise and has exceptional affinity for brainwashing genjutsu and allows users to control iron rich fluids like blood; and the Jougan is from Boruto and is the eye that Boruto himself has. And yes, Ranmaru does possess a unique dojutsu that allows him to tamper with the detection of most standard sensing methods and dojutsu, he's from the Kurosuki Family arc of the original anime, a filler arc towards the end of Part 1's anime. It's implied that Ranmaru was a mutant who was the potential genesis of a brand-new bloodline.

marquix_shax-that is a fair point…but that review had sent both me and RaNK into a fucking rage and we wanted catharsis. (We can't even use your correct username here, the automatic anti link filter is not letting us write your user name with the ".")

Freedomringer: I am both fascinated and horrified by your Yellow Flashpoint idea…mainly because I see Menma showing up and acting like the Professor Zoom memes. Also, what? Table-kun? What the heck does that mean? Unless you are referring to that thread being tabled for now then in which case I suppose so. Yes, it's the setup for a brick joke-Leave the setup in place and then give the punchline way down the line.

Alright it is 1 PM on a Monday morning(2/24/2025) when I am finishing this. I am tired and I have work tonight and need to be up no later than 6 pm. This is gonna suck. No note at the end. Don't have the energy. See y'all later.

(2/28/2025) this chapter and week has been absolute clown shoes: the previous note was written and then it was discovered that the chapter had two versions in my document directory and the newer version had the last third of the chapter missing. And while I was working on it, I got an announcement at work stating that the company is shutting down the place I work at in less than 2 weeks, three days short of my birthday (3/13). Company: Happy birthday! Me: thanks, I hate it!

A/N: marquix_shax: You have always been a supporter to our works and we sincerely appreciate your support. Its a fair point that we probably didn't need to post an entire note regarding those not-so-constructive reviews. However, please understand that if we were to make an author's note about that point along with some chapter, that...would have been an extraordinarily long a/n and yeah, on that day, the two of us were really beyond irritated. We had to let it out. I hope you can understand. Thanks.

And let's get on with the chapter!

CHAPTER 46: SO MUCH FOR A BEETLE…

Having followed the Bee for a few minutes, Team-7 got to Ino's location. The blonde girl was trapped with her hands tied and mouth gagged in some sort of solidified brown stuff…

Even in that state, her eyes kina became bright as they took sight of Sai, after her consciousness went back to her own body of course.

As far as the Bee was concerned. As soon as it was free of Ino's mind control, it flew off.

Seeing Ino struggling, Sai and Kiba got to her and began working on freeing her.

"This smells kinda…unique." Kiba commented.

"Its solidified honey…" Sai added.

"Honey to trap someone…that's weird…couldn't she have just eaten it and freed herself…" Naruto couldn't help mumble, making Hinata by his side sweatdrop, and making the bound Ino more annoyed if her expressions and her increased struggles to free herself were anything to go by.

"Looks like I pissed her off…hehe…" Naruto mumbled.

"It is chakra laced honey…not something that can just be eaten, captain dickless…" Sai stated.

"You used that insult so much it doesn't even have bite left to it…" Naruto said with a sigh.

But as they were freeing Ino,

"What's that sound?" Kiba suddenly remarked.

Akamaru had become tensed and was barking frantically.

"Yeah…I hear it too…sounds like…water…?"

Kiba at this point recognized that sound. "It's a flood!" He shouted. "GET AWAY FROM THE RIVER!"

By that time, at a distance, the rapidly approaching water was already visible.

"MMMMMMmmmm…MMMM!" Ino struggled violently as Sai was working on cutting through her difficult bindings.

But it was already too late, as flash floods move very rapidly.

When the water came close, Naruto and Hinata jumped upwards instinctively to avoid being swept away by the flood waters. Sai and Kiba jumped upwards grabbing the bound Ino, whose hands they had managed to free. But they didn't have anything to grab onto, so everyone fell back onto the flooding river. Naruto, Hinata and Sai managed to stand uptight using their chakra, but Ino was not so lucky, since she was just getting a hold of herself.

Kiba also had to focus on Akamaru, so when he fell back, he couldn't gather the chakra to his feet to stand on the flooding river.

"SHIT! They're being swept away! After them!" Naruto ordered as the flash flood began taking Ino, Kiba, and Akamaru away. The rest gave chase, running over the flooding water, an increasingly difficult job as it required much better chakra control than the level required to stand and move on still water.

But it turned out to be futile, as the currents were just too strong; Ino, Sai, Kiba and Akamaru were separated from Naruto and Hinata who got thrown onto the bank.

Fighting against violent currents of a flash flood was just too much.

If all that was not bad enough, Kiba and Akamaru got separated from Sai and Ino and were thrown onto a bank as well.

Finally, after maybe being washed away for about five kilometers, Sai and Ino got washed up on the bank.

All of them were exhausted from fighting the violent currents.

*Meanwhile, with Shino and Choji*

With Ino gone, the rest of team-8 were also at the moment basically hostages of Suzumebachi and her siblings.

She had used sticky honey to bind the hands of Shino and Choji. Suzumebachi had not yet forced Shino to hand the Bikochu over, since she knew well that despite being bound, Shino could easily have his bugs kill the Bikochu and that would be…well…saying goodbye to their dream of restoring the Kamizuru clan's glory days.

And every time the bee keeper ninja did anything Shino found suspicious; he reminded them how much leverage he had over them with his hives buzzing within him.

So, the Kamizuru siblings carefully kept their deal if they wanted any chance of succeeding.

No words were exchanged during the walk to the spot where the Kamizuru had kept Ino.

And when they reached the spot, they found…nothing.

"The hell!?" Suzumebachi yelled.

"Must have been a flash flood." Jibachi commented.

"And considering how she was bound when we left her, it is unlikely that she would have been able to even attempt to swim. Sorry boys…looks like that blonde girl is a goner." Kurobachi stated.

Shino didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Well, that would be a pity." The Aburame spoke up finally. "Why? Because that would mean you would never be getting the Bikochu beetle."

Suzumebachi's eyes widened in horror. 'Is…is he going to make good on his threat!?'

But just then, Shino's bindings got loose and he jumped onto a tree.

Choji for his part, suddenly expanded to a gigantic size and then roared: "Leaf style taijutsu: Akimichi clan technique! Human bullet tank!"

The expanded chubby boy began rolling violently and then dashed in the direction of the Kamizuru siblings, making them deflect and diverting their attention from Shino. But Suzumebachi was not going to give in so easily, as she jumped away from being crushed by Choji, she went through hand-signs and quickly summoned a large number of bees, attached with explosive tags. The swarm of bees dove towards Choji and all of them began going off in explosions. Some of them began shooting their poisonous stingers at Choji. The boy bore the extreme pain and kept pushing the Kamizuru siblings as far off Shino's trail as he could. But Shino had warned him earlier, not to exhaust himself too much.

Choji receded to his normal form, turned around and ran off. He and Shino and already discussed a rendezvous point. It was obvious, the Kamizuru were going to give chase. But it was now basically Shino's job to cover Choji's escape from them while also using his insects to confuse the tracking bees of the Kamizuru siblings, something the Aburame boy had made sure to lay the groundwork of as he fled deeper into the insect sanctuary.

*Some distance away*

"Can you track them?" Naruto asked, panting.

His girlfriend nodded. "All of them are in different direction. Kiba-kun and Akamaru to the South-West, Ino-san and Sai to the west, Shino-kun to the north-west, Choji-kun to the north-east, but he appears to be turning due west."

Naruto shook his head. "Just awesome, all of them in entirely different directions…" He said in an annoyed tone.

"That is not all, Naruto-kun." Hinata stated, making Naruto raise his brows.

"I see three adults, two males and a female, chunin to jonin level chakra reserves."

"Some baddies who got Team-8 into this pinch, I guess. What are they doing?"

"I believe they are trying to chase Choji-kun, but they are being thrown somewhat off the trail, it seems."

"Is that so?" Naruto had to think of something, and think it quick. 'We gotta attend to both sides… what to do? Looks like Hime and me gotta split up for a while…'

As Naruto was contemplating his next move, Hinata spotted some bees overhead and with her Byakugan followed them to their source.

"Naruto-kun, these bees, they seem to be summoned by one of those three pursuing Choji-kun, the enemy would now know of us for sure."

"Do you see any other enemy apart from those three?" Naruto asked.

Hinata shook her head.

"Alright, if your estimates are correct, these should be enemies of the same level of that Nadare guy from Yukigakure if not less…but we shouldn't get cocky here, who knows what tricks they have up their sleeves. We have to back up Shino and Choji while also regrouping with the ones that got washed up in this flood…I guess, you should go after Ino, Sai, and Kiba and then lead them to wherever I would be… and I will go in Choji's direction."

Hinata nodded as she made the cross hand-seal, "Shadow clone jutsu!" and had a copy of hers appear. "Lead Naruto-kun to Choji-kun and Kiba-kun please." She asked the clone, despite the clone theoretically having a full copy of Hinata's mind until the moment it burst into existence.

Hinata sought to be nice to her clones, she had seen what happened when Naruto was dick to his clones and they didn't burn out as expected.

"Of course, follow me Naruto-kun." the clone Hinata said as she activated her Byakugan. Naruto nodded and went with the clone as Hinata made haste in the direction of those that had gotten washed away.

*Several minutes later*

As Naruto and Hinata's clone chased after Choji, Hinata herself went after those who had been washed away. She had already spotted all of them, who luckily for her were all in her visual range.

Finding Kiba was not that difficult. Next was going after Ino and Sai.

When they reached those two, Hinata almost felt a sweatdrop on the back of her head when she saw Ino all flustered as if Sasuke had just complimented(usually by accident due to his stagnant social skills) her during the academy days.

'Why do I feel like Sai somehow ended up complimenting her? And how did he even manage to do that?'

"Ino-chan, are you okay…" Hinata asked patting the flustered girl's shoulders.

"Super okay!" The Yamanaka replied enthusiastically. "Yeah, I got stuck in their trap and it sucked being soaked in honey and all that, but…" the blonde girl came close to Hinata's ear…

"But spending time with Sai-kun is totally worth it. He even called me beautiful!" Ino whispered.

Hinata internally sighed, but then again, she had a faint hope. Perhaps interacting more with the socially active Ino would make Sai more sociable and less of a bother in the team, especially with regards to his stupid and irritating interactions with Naruto and others.

'I am sure, he did not really mean it by heart. I hope he does someday for her sake…' Hinata thought to herself.

"Where'd captain idiot go?" Sai asked, not really wanting to test Hinata's temper with the word 'dickless' for some reason and quite smartly so.

"To rescue Choji-kun from his pursuers, he is being pursued as we speak…"

"Really? We gotta back them up then!" Ino stated.

Hinata nodded. Just then memories of her clone came flooding back. She couldn't help shake her head. Her clones were becoming sneaky with her own mischievous side coming out. Add that to what she had heard from him in the Snow country… her innocent boyfriend was being exposed to things he should not be at this age, him spending a considerable amount of time with Jiraiya for regular periods didn't help matters much.

"Let's go!" She commanded. And the group all followed without asking any questions.

*Meanwhile with Naruto*

The clone had guided him close to Choji's location and had dispelled. Though from here on out his negative emotion sensing was enough to lock onto the target. He charged forward.

Only to see a swarm of bees attacking his friend. The attackers were probably hidden behind some bush or something. The bees were shooting something at him, probably his Hime would be able to easily see what was being fired upon Choji, but obviously, the Akimichi heir was struggling with the incessant attacks.

Choji was using the partial multi-size to expand his hands and defend, however he was not daring to go on a roll down rampage, this insect sanctuary was an important and strategic property of Konoha, excessive damage would be detrimental to the village's interests.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto summoned about 50 clones. He was also well aware of the limits placed upon them, especially the one regarding a ban on fire techniques in this particular forest.

"CHOJI! HOLD YOUR BREATH!" Naruto yelled as he went through a series of hand-signs and his clones did their own. Naruto jumped close to Choji and in a moment the area got covered by a dome of violently rotating wind, all the while oxygen was sucked from inside the dome, well almost. The bees couldn't penetrate the winds. At the same time, the remaining clones launched their attack, a combined 'Great Breakthrough' upon the bees, throwing them off into the sky. The bees released sticky honey as most of them perished, however that didn't do any damage to Naruto or Choji as they were protected by the wind-dome.

When Naruto dispelled the jutsu, Choji was gasping for air. "N-Naruto…w-what was that…what a-are you…" He tried asking.

"We came here as your back-up! Nice isn't it, dattebayo!" Naruto responded with a foxy grin as he prepped himself for more attacks. He could still sense one of the three attackers remaining close by. The other two were after Shino.

"Shino has the Bikochu, we have to keep him safe…" Choji said panting and gasping for air.

"Well, in that case, we gotta take care of this baddy first."

Their opponent was Jibachi, he was quite a skilled bee user and this time he had hidden himself using the transparent hiding technique. He had obviously guesstimated that these young boys would not be skilled enough to sense him. Poor guy couldn't have known about Naruto's negative emotion sensing. When Naruto sensed him and noticed that the opponent was concealing himself, he just decided to be smug and play with him. Why not let your opponent think that he had already won the fight, that would be when he would be the most vulnerable. He deactivated the weight seals on his wrists and legs, while making sure to act like he was dusting himself off. The weight seals given by Jiraiya were so useful. Obviously, it was the blonde's objective to be able to design weight seals of his own within the next month or so. Regardless, Naruto waited for Jibachi to come close.

And not knowing any better, Jibachi did come closer and closer, clearly intending to sneak up and knock out at least one of the two kids and then use the element of surprise to have his bees deal with the other.

'3…2…1' Naruto mentally counted as he anticipated Jibachi's arrival. Just when he was in range, Naruto took off…literally. He vanished and Jibachi found himself being thrown up into the air as he got kicked violently.

"I…*kick* thought *kick* I *kick* was invisi- *kick*" The Kamizuru painfully screamed as he got violently thrown upwards and then got tied in ninja wire as he saw the blonde boy wrap him up in ninja wire and then they rotated violently as the fell back onto the ground like a drill.

Jibachi would remember that when he woke up three days later…and remember when his captain told him to dodge when being repeatedly hit in the face.

"Whoa, that was like Lee in the Chunin exams!" Choji commented.

"Yeah!" Naruto nodded wiping some sweat from his face. "Gai-sensei taught me that move as well, when he taught me the gates…but its still exhausting as hell!" He stated as he took out a prisoner scroll. Something Jiraiya had already taught him to make.

Naruto unfurled the scroll and put it upon the unconscious Jibachi.

"Seal!" And with that Jibachi was sealed into the prisoner scroll. "Let's go after Shino!" The jinchuuriki stated.

"Yeah!" Choji agreed and the two took off.

With Naruto's negative emotion sensing in play, he was able to keep track of the two that were following Shino and that also meant keeping up with Shino since from what he now understood about the opponents, it was obvious that they were fairly accurate trackers with their bees, much like the Aburame with their kikaichu.

It wasn't long before the inevitable confrontation came to pass.

Just when Naruto and Choji had caught up with Shino, they were struck by thousands of bees carrying explosive tags. Once more, wind dome was used as the counter to the attack and then several clones launched a barrage of 'great breakthrough', blowing the attacking bees away and having their explosive tags blow up in the air away from any target.

"Oi! Stop attacking from the shadows and come out! 'ttebayo!" Naruto yelled. He was really getting irritated of fighting bees all the time. 'If they keep this up for much longer, I'm gonna have a complex or whatever it's called against insects…gotta finish this one up before that.'

Knowing that their strategy was becoming an active hinderance, Kurobachi and Suzumebachi came out of hiding.

"What the hell do you guys want!?" Naruto yelled.

"Tsk! Use your head, the bikochu beetle is the prize here, kid." Suzumebachi answered.

"Oh yeah! We wanna use that to track down our missing-nin, what are you gonna use it for!?" Naruto shot.

"W-we have missing-nin too!" Suzumebachi responded. "And we need this beetle to raise our prestige in Iwa!" The leader of the Kamizuru infiltrators spoke.

Naruto just looked at the two with an irritated but suspicious expression.

"Lemme get this straight: you people who I heard are descended from the first Tsuchikage, need to steal some stupid little insect to raise your prestige? Are you guys really that pathetic? At least we are not looking for the bikochu for some prestige issue…We have people who actually can use it. You guys are like those idiots who kidnap bloodline limit children and think that they come with a manual or instinctive knowledge for using their clan's techniques." The blonde jinchuuriki stated.

Kurobachi and Suzumebachi stopped. The jab being on point and being a very bad reality check for them judging by both having 'oh shit he has a point' expressions on their faces while the gears in their heads visibly struggled to come up with anything to brush it off.

And as they stood there dumbfounded: Naruto, Choji, and Shino made a getaway.

Shino suggested doing so, since he didn't want the fighting to damage the precious insect sanctuary any more than it had already done.

It was not long before the Kamizuru siblings came out of their stupor and gave chase. Besides, knowing that they can't just keep running, the Konoha group chose to stop in an open field. Such a place would allow the least amount of damage to the forests around them.

When Suzumebachi and Kurobachi reached that field, they were standing on the back of Suzumebachi's giant queen bee summon, and the eldest Kamizuru sibling was really pissed at Naruto for so easily pointing out their obvious weakness and stupidity.

She was reasonably confident that she could get even with him unlike Deidara which would mean Roshi coming down on her.

"You little bastard! I'll make you pay for what you said about our clan! You looking like Minato Namikaze is just the cherry on top of this! Get ready for payback you loudmouthed dimwit! Attack!" And the Queen bee began charging at Naruto and the others, while several other bees were summoned to deal with Shino and Choji. Shino quickly let out a large swarm of this bugs who positioned themselves as a protective shield around himself and Choji. "I will leave the queen bee to you, Naruto." Shino stated.

"Yeah, I got this in the bag. Doncha worry." Naruto stated before turning to the attacking Kamizuru siblings.

"Do you guys even realize how stupid this looks? A bunch of insect users turning a whole forest upside down just for one little bug!? And you three even thinking that a single bug would make up for all your failings…" Naruto drawled out.

"SHUT UP!" Suzumebachi yelled. She did realize that absurdity of this whole ordeal, but her ego didn't allow her to back down and acknowledge that the present state of her and her clan in Iwa was not as much due to them losing to the Aburame, rather due to them never even trying to improve themselves beyond the proverbial bubble they had chosen to live in…

"And if you think a big summon can help you win…I've got some news for ya!" Naruto bit his thumb.

"Summoning jutsu!" And a massive burst of smoke erupted.

"JIRAIYA! YOU GOT SOME NERVE SUMMONING ME IN THE MIDDLE OF MY NAP! YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT EVEN IF IT'S EVENING AT YOUR TOWN! IT IS 2 IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN NIGHT AT MYOBOKU!" The irritated voice of the gigantic creature yelled. The smoke cleared to reveal the massive Gamabunta.

Suzumebachi's queen bee stopped in its tracks as the two Kamizuru siblings paled in horror looking at the Boss of the toad summons.

"T-the Toad Boss! Gamabunta…we have only ever heard of the Yellow Flash or Jiraiya of the Sannin summoning it…" Kurobachi mumbled in terror. The toad boss already being in a bad mood, having been summoned in the middle of his sleep made the two Kamizuru siblings tremble in fear of what was to come. And even their summon began fearing for its life. For it was common knowledge that toads loved eating insects.

"Ero-Sennin is stuck doing paperwork in the village, boss. Its me." Naruto greeted waving his hand.

"Did he have to summon the boss of the toads to the middle of an insect reserve?" Shino mumbled in slight hysteria as he tried to calm his uneasy and fearful insect colony down.

The Kamizuru were so fearful at this point that they forgot to keep their bees under control.

"Oh, it's you little blondie… what happened? And I do smell some tasty meal…" Gamabunta commented looking at the queen bee with interest.

"Oh yeah…those idiots in red, they thought they could scare me with that big bee, so I thought why not show them who the boss is…" Naruto replied.

"HAH! A bunch of insect summoners trying to scare one of us! Insolent fools! I almost feel bad for you!" The toad boss didn't attack. He just captured the queen bee with his tongue and within a second the queen bee was already his untimely dinner. The Kamizuru siblings escaped by a hair's breadth as they jumped down the queen bee just as Gamabunta captured it.

And they were trembling so hard that their teeth were crackling.

"Not enough for a whole meal… but since I am not feeling particularly hungry, I won't go hunting right now…" Gamabunta commented.

"Yeah, thanks boss. If you did, the Aburame clan and Ero-Sennin will never let me hear the end of it…"

"Yeah yeah…but what about those two… It's not like I eat humans, but if you want, I can make an exception for them…" Gamabunta stated.

"NOOOOOOO!" The Kamizuru siblings screamed. "L-L-L-Leave us a-alone…" And they began running for their lives.

"And they run away…idiots… Thinking that one single beetle can reverse their fortunes and not willing to put in the hard work. It's like Neji old self without his good sides, at least he worked hard…these three were even more pathetic… anyways, thanks boss."

"Hmm…no problem, but since you summoned me in the middle of my sleep, next time, I will ask for a meal."

"I can't bring, sake though…" Naruto responded with a sweatdrop.

"Just come back here and summon me…" Shino sweatdropped at hearing those words as his bugs began getting almost out of control. "Just kidding, some meat and fish will do…" Gamabunta stated.

"That can be done!" Naruto said flashing a thumbs up.

"Well then, good night kid." And Gamabunta vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Phew…that was easy." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head. "Hey, why do you look so pale, Shino…" Naruto asked innocently as he turned to his Aburame friend.

Even when nervous, Shino still spoke in his monotone voice. "I…would very much appreciate it if you don't summon your toads in the middle of this insect reserve…they can make this place extinct of insects within a day at most."

"Uh… didn't really think about that. The boss was definitely interested in having a feast here. I kinda summoned him just like that since that lady was screaming about teaching me a lesson, just because she was riding on a bee…had to show her who the boss was…" Naruto reasoned placatingly, rubbing the back of his head.

Hinata reached with the rest of the group minutes later.

"You missed the action, Hime…well not that there really was any…" Naruto stated.

"I saw what you did, and how they ran away…" The Hyuuga girl replied with a smile. "Why is Shino-kun so uneasy?" She couldn't help ask.

"Oh, I summoned Gamabunta and he joked that he will eat all the insects of this forest…" Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh…" Hinata sweatdropped as well.

"Wait a minute…" Shino cut in. "The Bikochu, its metamorphosing right now." The Aburame pointed out as he brought out the Bikochu with its shell slowly breaking apart. "We need to be careful. We have to make sure that what it smells first belongs to our target, i.e., Sasuke, why? Because the Bikochu will only ever remember a single scent."

"Which means you need to control the urge to fart." Kurama commented from the mindscape with a grin.

'Shut up Kurama! Also where the hell did that come from!?' Naruto yelled internally. Why did the lazy fox have to bring that one up at this moment.

"But do we have anything of that Teme here?" Naruto asked.

Shino nodded as he took out a handkerchief, kept inside a polythene bag. "I borrowed it from the Head Jonin just in case the Bikochu metamorphosed before we could take it back to Konoha." The Aburame commented as Kiba took the handkerchief out of the bag and held it close to the beetle.

In due time, the Bikochu broke out of its shell. Everyone got close as Kiba held the piece of cloth as close to the Bikochu's face as he could. The beetle stood still for a few moments and then came forward a bit, closer to the handkerchief. The group waited for a whole minute allowing the Bikochu time.

Then the insect began flying up.

Shino nodded in satisfaction as the beetle began slowly flying due northwest.

"It has gotten Sasuke's scent; it is now leading us straight to his location."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto asked in excitement.

"Sorry, Shino-kun, but can you stop it from pursuing Sasuke's scent for the moment?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed as well.

"Huh! But Naruto, I thought you would be running after Sasuke the first chance you got. You promised Sakura and all…" Kiba questioned.

"I did, but that doesn't mean I can act stupid. Me and Hime have been facing one jonin after another, we are getting injured time and again and we are tired. We didn't even get much time to train and learn new stuff. And it's not like if we track the teme down, he will just come home nicely."

"And then there is Orochimaru and Kabuto, who has likely been his right-hand man all this time. They are formidable opponents. Naruto-kun and myself don't feel prepared to deal with them at the moment. We have a lot to learn and master." Hinata explained in a serious tone.

*In the mindscape*

"Thank kami. Our son has matured so much than what he was at this time in the other timeline." Kushina commented with a sigh of relief.

"I think it's because of Hinata-chan and us, the three of us were not there for him to hold him and guide him back then. Now we are here. I am very happy to see the difference and that he is not all alone in this." Minato commented smiling.

"Yeah. That's right. But we have to make sure of our plans about Uzushio and that jutsu if we really want to help Naru-chan and Hina-chan in what they want to do. I don't wanna give them mere lipservice all the time." Kushina stated cracking her knuckles. "Especially with how these two keep throwing themselves at one overpowered opponent after another."

"Agreed." Minato affirmed.

*Back to the real world*

In accordance with our favorite couple's wishes, Shino commanded the Bikochu to stop its pursuit for the moment and brought it back to his colony.

"I agree with Hinata's risk assessment. And waiting also benefits me. Why? Because this gives me time to train with the Bikochu and have it adapt into my bug colony and make myself adaptable to a Bikochu colony in the future. Thank you, Naruto, Hinata."

"Don't mention it! And with this mission being a wrap, I guess we should go home then." The blonde commented.

The rest nodded.

The mission was successful, despite the little hurdles they came across.

Editor's Note: that scene with Gamabunta threatening to eat the Kamizuru made me think of Konosuba and Kazuma and his party's troubles with getting nearly eaten by giant toads. That's all from me.

A/N: Nothing much to add, apart from the fact that Naruto didn't fart! Honestly, I didn't like that anti-climactic end to an otherwise wonderful arc. Comic relief is fun and all, but imho, there have been times when the studio took the comic relief at Naruto's expense a bit too far. So, we fixed that. And yeah, we kind of had to let it out in that previous special release on both One Year Early and Guardian. Some reviews do get on our nerves, especially if they keep highlighting a point we have already addressed or acknowledged and that too in a language that can't be described as cordial or constructive. So we had to make our stance clear. We once again apologize for missing out in the last two months. We have been a bit too busy with real life circumstances. Sorry again. I know that you all have always been kind and understanding, so once again, thanks a lot. See ya'll in the next chapter then.

Cheers and peace.

RaNK001 and GBAboy313 out!