Blaze Away, Byakugan! This is My Ninja Way!

Shino, Kiba, and Naruto are pinned inside the queen bee's hive after Shino goads her into unleashing a sticky honey trap. Locked in place, the three are hauled off by Suzumebachi's squad, who press them for the whereabouts of the elusive bikochu beetle. Shino stalls, then agrees to talk only if they are first taken to Hinata. At the riverbank where she had been bound, the captors find the ropes cut and Hinata gone, and assume she tumbled into the sewer. Enraged and stuck fast in the beeswax, Naruto snaps at Jibachi.

Hinata proves she is far from lost, hurling a paper bomb at the spot where her enemies stand. When they retaliate with a swarm of insects, she scatters them with a new technique, driving the attackers back and shielding her friends. Shino tells Naruto that Hinata has trained relentlessly since the Chunin Exams and is no longer the timid girl he remembers. Freed at last with the help of Shino's insects, Naruto heaps praise on her. Suzumebachi charges in one final time atop her giant bee, only for Naruto to blow it apart with a Rasengan.

The blast flings Sasuke's forehead protector beneath a heap of logs, and as Naruto scrambles to fish it out he passes gas directly onto the bikochu, which promptly imprints on his scent rather than Sasuke's, wrecking the mission's whole purpose. Even so, Hinata leaves the ordeal visibly surer of herself, and her father seems to regard her with new respect. A background gag hides Masashi Kishimoto drawn as a Konoha ninja, and the episode first aired in Japan on 14 September 2005.