Chapter 54   - Hinata Vs Kurenai II

Kurenai couldn't help but curse her own stupidly as she barely dodged another high-pressured jet of water that was shot at her.

'Damn it, I should have just stopped this match when I had the chance.'

"HAHAHA, this is so much fun, Kurenai-sensei!"

Hinata could feel another genjutsu slam into her mind and quickly dispelled it. Yuna had spent a lot of time training Hinata and Naruto against genjutsu, after all, being caught inside a genjutsu for a single second could be a death sentence.

Feeling another one of her genjutsu being dispelled easily, Kurenai really wanted to curse, but another volley of water spears being hurled at her prevented her from doing so. She deflected a few with the kunai she was holding and dodged the remaining ones. While dodging, Kurenai pulled out a few shurikens and tossed them at Hinata in an attempt to break her concentration, but the moment the shuriken got close to Hinata, a wall of water formed in front of her and blocked the shuriken.

If Kurenai had more time to think, she would probably be terrified about how versatile Hinata's jutsu was, but considering she had to constantly dodge around the battlefield, she really didn't have time to think about it too deeply.

As a jonin, Kurenai had a lot of actual battle experience, so seeing through the weak point of Hinata's jutsu was rather easy: Hinata couldn't move while using it. The problem was actually abusing that weak point. Projectiles will simply get deflected by a wall of water. Kurenai's genjutsu doesn't seem to work on Hinata at all and Kurenai didn't know any ninjutsu powerful enough to break through Hinata's water shields. Her next idea was to approach Hinata and attempt to entangle her in a taijutsu battle, but Kurenai quickly realized that the closer she got to Hinata, the more powerful and faster the water jets became.

Kurenai felt her dignity as a sensei take somewhat of a dip when she decided that the best move for victory was to keep dodging Hinata's attacks while pressuring her with shuriken, but decided that this was still better than actually losing the fight.

It took another five minutes for Hinata to finally run out of steam and Kurenai couldn't help but sigh in relief. Her stamina was rather close to being depleted, while her chakra was rather close to that point, as well. Despite that, she still held her head high and pretended to be totally fine. She couldn't lose her dignity as a jonin after.

"Haha, as expected of a jonin, Kurenai-sensei still seems to be completely fine. Since you seemed to be surprised by me going for a lethal attack, I toned it down, but it seems I should have just kept going for the vital points like I previously was since you are fine despite me attacking you for so long. Oh well, I guess I will just have to give it my everything in the next sparring."

Kurenai, understandably, almost coughed out blood when she heard that.

'Is this how I will die? Killed by my own student, because I pretended to have everything under control? No! I won't fall that easily! I am not a jonin for nothing. I will increase my training while thinking about strategies to counter Hinata. No matter what, I won't allow myself to lose to one of my students!'

While Kurenai reignited her passion for training and becoming stronger, Shino and Kiba looked at Hinata like she just grew a second head. The only Hinata they knew, was the silent and meek Hinata inside the classroom. Although Hinata had already shown that this was just a façade, neither Kiba nor Shino expected it to be this extreme. Rather than a battle between a jonin and a freshly graduated genin, the whole fight seemed more like a battle to the death between experienced jonin to the two of them.

It took a while for Kurenai to gather her thoughts, but when she did, she decided that it was time to separate.

"Alright, as I have already said, all of you pass the final test and are hereby officially promoted to genin. Although all three of you have the same rank, Hinata will be assigned as the leader of your three men cell for now. If you have any complaints about that, please state them now."

Kiba and Shino, however, were only looking at Kurenai like she was making a joke. After witnessing that kind of fight, who would still dare to oppose that kind of arrangement?

"Good, it seems like everyone is fine with that arrangement. We will meet again tomorrow at 8 in the morning for you to receive your first official mission. Dismissed."

As soon as Kurenai left, a rather awkward silence descended onto the three-remaining people. Kiba and Shino had no idea how to talk to the "real" Hinata, while Hinata was contemplating on what to do with the rest of the day. A few seconds later, Hinata noticed how awkward Shino and Kiba looked and decided to do something about it.

"Well, since we are a team from now on, how about we grab something to eat together? There is a really good ramen booth near the market, my treat."

"Really? A ramen booth? How could something as simple as ramen be special?"

As soon as Kiba said those words, he felt the atmosphere shift. He had no idea what was going on, but he felt like he just created an enemy for life for himself, somehow. Hinata could only shake her head in disapproval.

"Kiba, you shouldn't say things like that out loud. There are people out there that have a lot of passion if it is about ramen. Naruto is one of those people, so I hope you don't say anything you will regret later on."

Kiba, however, didn't seem to care about that at all.

"Haha, isn't ramen just a bunch of noodles that gets dumped into soup? What is so special about that?"

This time, instead of just creating an enemy for himself, it felt more like he just created someone who literally couldn't exist while Kiba was still there. It felt like someone was created for the sole purpose of fighting against him.

Hinata, meanwhile, couldn't help but flinch a little when Kiba said that ramen was "just a bunch of noodles that gets dumped into a soup.". She knew how important ramen was to Naruto, so she decided to never talk about what just happened ever again. Since Naruto would probably go on a rampage if that kind of sentence was revealed, it was better to never speak of it again.

After a few more minutes of discussing how to proceed, it was finally decided that they would indeed have some ramen together to celebrate their graduation.

Hinata could only shake her head with a wry smile when she noticed Kiba happily eating his ramen without any complaints.

'He should have agreed to my words. Those that badmouth ramen had, as far as I know, quite a few pranks played on them. Oh well, I guess it is finally time to graduate, to break free of the chains shackling me. To finally live freely. To finally be…ME.'