CHAPTER 48(New Team Kurenai)
Read auxiliary chapter World Info before starting the story.
Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and changes etc)
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CHAPTER START---
Using his transparency jutsu, Jin sat on the branch of a tree in the team 8 training field, he looked at his old team doing some taijutsu training.
Kiba and Kurenai were doing a light spar while Shino and Hinata were practicing their forms.
'Let's see if you guys have been getting soft on me...' Jin can't help but smile as he cuts open one of his fingers, just enough for a drop of blood to leak out.
---With team Kurenai...
"Whaddya think sensei, I've been getting pretty fast right?" Kiba asks as he dodges some hits from Kurenai.
"Not bad, but you need to focus more and talk less, see," she immediately sweeps his legs, causing him to fall on his back.
"Ugh, point taken..." he sits up taking a deep breath.
Looking over at Hinata and Shino, Kiba's eyes can't seem to leave the Hyuga princess. Hinata, no, this entire team has been working all day every day since Jin left. It was no secret that they as well as team 10 were desperately trying to catch up. Nobody wanted to be left behind, he'd been training more than he'd ever admit, all for the sake of not feeling like 'Jin's replacement'.
It took a few missions for this team to adjust after Jin left, he noticed that they had a lack of communication sometimes. They simply expected him to just know what to do. They never asked if he could handle what they gave him, he had to swallow his pride and tell them it's too much before it got him killed.
He didn't realize how big of a hole Jin left in the team until they were infiltrating an enemy compound and didn't allocate enough time for extraction. It seemed that Jin would always just tear through enemies to ensure they all got out. They almost lost Shino that day.
"GRRRR!" Akamaru growling got everyone's attention. They all immediately turned to the ninja hound to see him in an attack stance, glaring dangerously at the treeline.
"Hinata!" Kurenai commands.
'Byakugan!' Hinata shifts her vision to the treeline.
"One man, no symbols on his clothes, he's holding a kunai," she calmly says to her team, everyone takes a battle stance.
"Everyone on guard, capture don't kill, if he got all the way into our territory he's definitely dangerous, be careful but we need information," Kurenai quickly tells her team.
"He's not moving sensei..." Hinata quietly says as they all take formation.
Kiba and Akamaru in the front with Kurenin in the middle and Hinata and Shino in the back.
*CRACK*
Immediately Akamaru is dragged underground, the earth rapidly closes up the hole as he disappears without a trace.
"AKAMARU!" Kiba begins to panic as his friend is gone.
"EVERYONE GET BACK" Kurenai commands as they all leap away.
"I see him, he's underground but alone, SHINO MOVE!" Hinata blurts out, Shino immediately leaps to the left away from the group and two hands appear where his feet were.
In a puff of smoke, the enemy appears above the ground, staring directly at the Hyuga in their group.
Wearing an all-black bodysuit the enemy raises a kunai pointing directly at Hinata.
"Hand over the Byakugan," his demand is short and sweet.
Their faces morph from concern to horror, he isn't here to kidnap their teammate, he just needs her eyeballs, he's going to kill her.
"What did you do to Akamaru!" Kiba's instincts take over as he rushes the man with a kunai in hand.
With deft motions, the attacker parries all his hits.
Every punch and slash missed helplessly as Kiba got more bruises and bumps.
None of the other shinobi on the battlefield moved, this was their plan after all. Kurenai built chakra to perform her most powerful genjutsu while Shino prepared his own attack.
As Kiba received a punch to the face, he felt as if he ran into a steel wall, his consciousness began to fade away as he felt himself being lifted off the ground, his body was being thrown through the air.
Shino immediately saw Kiba being thrown AT him. Forcing him to put his chakra kneading on hold with his bugs and deactivate them to avoid hurting Kiba. Lifting his hands out of his pockets he casually catches Kiba's unconscious body.
"Shit," is all he manages to say as he sees the enemy making a few hand seals.
Before the jutsu can even take effect, Kurenai and Hinata are immediately attacking the man.
Using only his legs he kicks Kurenai in the thigh hard enough to cause her leg to go numb before Hinata slams her palm into his back. Knocking him a few meters across the grassy field.
"Great Breakthrough!" the man calls out as he rolls over a blast a wall of wind at Shino and Kiba.
"Shino!" Kurenai's concerned voice calls out as she steals a moment to glance at her students, Shino was protecting Kiba with his body as they get ragdolled across the field.
Both women immediately charged at the enemy as Shino began to force himself off the ground.
In a flurry of blows, none of their attacks could hit. Hinata was relentless, but Kurenai seemed to be a bit slower now, as if her mind was preoccupied.
Partway through the scuffle, Kurenai lands a solid kick onto the man's face, only for his hand to wrap around her ankle and lock like a metal vice.
She supports herself on her hands as she struggles, stabbing at his legs while trying to kick him, none of it landing proper hits all while Hinata struggles to fight him 1 on 1.
With only one hand the man defended every attack made by Hinata. Every time she found an opening to strike true, he used Kurenai as a meat shield to force her to hesitate. A more ruthless shinobi would simply pierce through their ally for the kill, but this was Hinata, she was soft.
With a harsh kick to the face, she tumbles backward as Shino rejoins the battle. His offense is better than Hinata's as if forced the attacker back. Until he throws a kunai at Shino that is.
As it flies between them the tag attached to the weapon is easily noticed, with no place to take cover the explosive tag would definitely hurt Shino.
With no hesitation, before the tag can even explode Hinata jumps between them, rotation her body she shows off the move she's been practicing to make up for her absent teammate.
Her 2 years of training all for this. She does her full rotation, maintaining it between Shino and the kunai as it approaches.
With a useless cling, the blade is deflected, but Kurenai flies helplessly behind it.
He threw her with such force that she couldn't stop herself. Her body nearly slams into the rotation before Hinata deactivates it, just barely in time for Kurenai to slam harshly into her.
The impact knocked Hinata completely unconscious, Kurenai was dazed on the floor, struggling to get her vision steady.
Only Shino remained.
"Move," one simple word was all the man told him, but he is a member of Konohagakure Team 8, he won't let his friends die, no matter what.
Without another word the man charges at Shino, his bugs immediately rose up from the dirt and flew at the attacker, but the man never stopped.
In a relentless flurry of blows Shino was torn apart, his limbs going numb from all the colliding hits, his bugs falling dead the moment they touched the man's body. He was simply a bad matchup.
With every hit, his chakra would be drained away, until he too fell to the ground helplessly, much like his teammates.
Looking over his shoulder, the man saw Kiba shuffling over to him, a blade in hand and rage in his eyes, barely enough chakra left as he'd drained most in their exchange.
"If...you think...we'll just, let you take her... you're wrong!" the man declared proudly.
His cry causing his allies to focus on him, Hinata's eyes shot open as she laid on the floor, her head moved just enough to see Kiba standing in front of their attacker, Kurenai forcing herself to sit up beside the princess.
As Kiba prepared for his last assault, his sensei interrupted them.
"Jin, that's enough..." she weakly says, earning wide eyes from everyone in the field, all but one.
"Yeah, I might of overdone it..."
*POOF*
In a cloud of smoke, the man drops the transformation jutsu, and their redhead friend stands before them for the first time in the better part of a year.
A few minutes later they all sit in the shade of the treeline, the losers of the little scuffle were eating and resting to restore their chakra and injuries, a bit grumpier than when they started training.
"So, any particular reason you attacked us?" Kiba grumbles out.
"Nope, just for fun really," Jin shrugs, his eyes beneath the visor taking a closer look at Hinata," since when did Hinata get all cute?" he asked with a raised brow, the girl's face went cherry red at the casual question.
"Let's stay on topic please, and she was always adorable for the record," Kurenai points out," what's with the random attack?"
"Testing us?" Shino abruptly asks.
"Pretty much, wanted to see if you guys were slacking while I was slaving away to train, couldn't really tell. Nice rotation though Hinata," he compliments her, her face forming a small smile as she continues eating.
"Did you have to go after Akamaru?" Kiba asks as he pets the sleeping dog.
"Yeah, locking him in a hole is better than having to punch him in the face right? Besides having him smell some blood got the party started enough," he shrugs.
"Well, what did you think of their progress, that was the purpose of this... exercise, after all," Kurenai asks.
"Hmmm, still not dynamic enough. I figured out how you work together pretty easily, I didn't even know Hinata could do rotation but that was easy to fix since she wouldn't use it on an ally. You'd of won against most people because of Shino, his bugs don't work on me but I'm not a normal case..."
"Why don't they?" Shino questions.
"I'm all about chakra, the moment they touch me I drain all their chakra and they die, just like all my hits drained chakra from you four," he shrugs.
"Absorbing chakra during intense fights..." Kurenai mused.
"I try not to disappoint, anyway Hinata what about you, what'd you think?" he puts the princess in the hot seat.
"Y-you, you're stronger, I have to work much harder to catch up to people like you..." she quietly admits.
"Don't be too hard on yourself, that's why we work in teams, to make up for each other's shortcoming, but try to learn air palm maybe to make up for this team's lack of range," he suggests, a small smile on his face.
"Having you around is gonna make things a lot easier man, don't think I've seen you in action since the chunin exams huh..." Kiba mused as he took a sip of his drink.
"I'm not coming back to team 8 actually."
Everyone looked at him with surprise, all but Kurenai, she expected this. Lady Tsunade had told her the purpose of his training after all.
"I assume you're training was successful then?"
"Yeah, came with a promotion to Jounin, captain rank too," he gave a cheeky smile.
"WOW!" Kiba was thoroughly impressed.
"Captain..." Hinata mumbled.
"This way I can do solo missions, starting tomorrow morning actually so I can't even go celebrate with you guys tonight, sorry."
"I'm sure we'll find time, and we can invite team 10, they'll be happy to see you," Kurenai gives him a knowing smile.
"Yeah she doesn't shut up abo-ACH," Kiba receives a hard nudge from Kurenai to cut him off.
"That sounds good, I'm gonna see Shikamaru before I head home, I wanna get some rest before tomorrow, let's celebrate the first chance we really get alright team 8..."
END CHAPTER---