Friends You Can Count On

Summary
An insect appears on Naruto's ship, but he fails to remember Shino. Meanwhile, in Konohagakure, Shino is telling a story to a few younger Konoha shinobi that are curious about the upcoming war. Shino tells them that he is scared but he is not worried because he has friends he could depend on. Shino recounts a mission he had while a genin to capture a bandit. The mission was initially unsuccessful, as Suika was able to defeat Shino in close combat taijutsu and at the same time called him weak and mocked his use of insects in battle. With his pride hurt, Shino locked himself away at his home, but Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata instead opted to help him train to improve his taijutsu. Kiba and Hinata later track down Suika but are overwhelmed and eventually caught in the direct line of one of his attacks. They are however saved by Shino who then engages Suika in close-combat and eventually overwhelms him with his Iron Mountain Leaning. Hinata then frees herself and Kiba and with their help, Suika is incapacitated. It is later revealed that Kurenai, who was noticeably absent during the events, had been watching over them all along. Naruto still hasn't remembered Shino, and Shino gets very irritated.

Trivia

 * A running gag in this episode is that while soaking in the hot springs, Shino's pores seemingly open up too much because of the heat, allowing his bugs to leave his body. This greatly creeps Kiba out. This seems to be a deviated recreation of him at a hot spring on the cover of chapter 541.

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