Chapter 91: CH 91
Ever since Kiba and Shino's humiliating one-sided losses at the hands of Naruto, both had been training hard to catch up to the boy that had blown right past them. Kiba worked on his speed and combination tactics with Akamaru and was also trying to teach the puppy how to better defend himself in case they ended up being separated or one of them went down in battle. After hearing how Naruto dealt with the majority of the Sound Four with little to no effort in the least and how he himself instead had to be saved at the last second by Neji and Kankuro, Kiba resolved to somehow get to the blonde's level.
Shino was inspired by a combination of his crushing defeat by Naruto and the knowledge of the Sasuke Retrieval mission that had failed. It was almost a prerequisite by this point for all jounin sensei to venture to the site of Naruto's battle with Kimimaro with their genin cells in order to either inspire them to work harder, or to let them know just how powerful Naruto was. The sight of the countless bone spires sticking out of the ground, and the knowledge that Naruto was able to outlast such an enemy on his own planted a seed into Shino's head that if he didn't want to be left behind even more than he already had been then he needed to improve and fast.
Kurenai watched as her two students stood at opposite ends of the training ground with her lone female charge standing between them. In a blur, Kiba and Akamaru charged the blue haired girl and launched the Gatsuuga directly at her. On her other side, Shino unleashed a torrent of insects at her. Opening her eyes with her Byakugan active she began spinning and directing her hands in precise and exact locations all around her.
A field of chakra as precise as lasers surrounded her body, bouncing Kiba off and actually shredding Shino's kikai insects on contact.
Kurenai had to smile as her most timid student had come up with her own technique on par with the Hyuuga Clan's Hakkesho Kaiten. The Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho (Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms) was more tailored towards Hinata's flexibility than the rigid form that the Kaiten required from its users. The fact that she came up with the technique on her own without help, except to test its development was incredible to Kurenai.
Kiba stood up from where he was launched off, holding his head that had a gash on it, but with a smile on his face as his ninken came bounding up to him, "Wow Hinata, that was rough... And you're saying that it's not finished yet?" Hinata smiled as she turned off her Byakugan and dropped her stance, "No, it's close though. I'm not sure what it would do against an attack from all sides the level of your Gatsuuga, but when focused in just a few areas it should be fine."
Kurenai smiled, at least Naruto's utter thrashing of everyone's genin in front of the entire village did good things for the majority of them, Hinata's stuttering had all but vanished, she had learned that things with Neji were getting better, even her father was beginning to improve "Hinata that was very impressive. When that jutsu is complete it should be B-rank if not A-rank."