Ch. 9 - Ryu's Special Technique.
********************************************************
For almost three months, Ryu had been training under the watchful eye of Iruka. There had been a few hectic days during the ordeals of the third Chuunin exam, but that had quieted down for the most part and they were able to continue the training. Ryu had grown to respect Iruka, a rarity for him. Never had he shown respect for an adult, not since the ordeal he had gone through with his parents where his father had murdered his mother and attempted to murder him as well. That had been almost ten years ago, he had only been four. During the course of his training, Ryu's technique and abilities had grown in leaps and bounds. The training he had been through was extensive, pushing the limits of his body and mind. So much so, that Iruka felt he was ready for one final test. Something he had not done in quite some time. He wanted to test Ryu's abilities to find out if he was ready to become a true Genin.
"Ryu!" Ryu was hanging upside down by his feet in a nearby tree, using his Chakra to keep from falling. He smirked and dropped to the ground when he heard his sensei's voice.
"Iruka-sensei? More training?" Iruka smiled as he looked at Ryu. The boy had become quite the young ninja. He ruffled the young man's hair and shook his head.
"No, I have something else in mind today. We're going to test your abilities in combat." Ryu blinked.
"Combat? Do you mean me against you? I don't know if I'm ready for that." Iruka chuckled.
"Don't worry Ryu, you'll be fine I'm sure." Ryu swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. He was more afraid of possibly injuring Iruka, but he wanted a chance to show off some of his abilities.
"Don't worry about me, I can hold my own. This is only to see how well your skills are coming along." Ryu nodded again. He took a few steps back and fixed his guitar strap. Throughout his training, he had kept his guitar with him. It had become a sort of good luck charm.
"Ready?" Iruka nodded at his student's question. Ryu closed his eyes for a moment before tossing a trio of shurikens at Iruka. Iruka easily dodged them, but was caught by surprise when Ryu appeared behind him and sent a kick into his side. Iruka stumbled and regained his balance, smirking.
"Not bad." Ryu smiled slightly.
"Thanks. I'm not done yet though." Iruka could feel something happening, but he didn't know what. He watched in curiosity as Ryu closed his eyes and raised one hand. After a moment, the strings off his guitar had detached themselves and levitated into his hand, attaching to the tips of his fingers. Ryu stretched the strings between his palms and smirked. They glowed a faint blue from the Chakra flowing through them.
"It's my own personal ability, I call it Devil's Chord." He lashed out with the strings. Iruka didn't know he had been hit until he saw pieces of his hair fly from his head.
"Suits it, don't you think?" Iruka tossed two shurikens at Ryu. He chuckled when his student manipulated the chords to spin quickly around his body, creating a barrier and knocking the shurikens away like toys.
"Quite an impressive technique." Ryu nodded and lashed out with them again. This time, he caught Iruka's arms and legs.
"It's much easier to use than that water prison. And far more effective as well. You see, your movement is restricted with the water prison. However, I can move as much as I like with this technique, and I don't have to stay still. What do you think?" Iruka smiled despite his predicament.
"You put a lot of thought into this didn't you Ryu?" He nodded.
"Yeah, I wanted something that suited me. This captures my love for music as well as my opponent. A small joke there." He and Iruka both laughed softly.
"And as you saw, it's also got offensive power. Can you escape from it? I really need to know." Ryu frowned when Iruka vanished in a cloud of smoke. The strings that had been tied to him were now attached to a log. He scowled when he felt a kunai pressed against his neck.
"Everything has a weakness Ryu, your skills have to compensate for it." He smiled at his sensei's answer.
"That's how I thought that would work." He dropped down and made a sweep with his leg, dropping Iruka to the ground as he jumped away.
"That's why I was working on my hand to hand skills as well." The strings untied from the log and came back to Ryu, floating in front of him like snakes ready to strike. Iruka flipped up to his feet before he could hit the ground.
"What about your Genjutsu?"
"I've been working on that too. Just not as much." Without another word, two exact clones of himself appeared standing on each side of him.
"See, just basic clones, though I can use the water clone." Iruka nodded and tossed two shurikens at the fakes which immediately vanished.
"Very good Ryu, you have come a long way since we first started."
"So then the training paid off?" He asked as they both stood up straight, calling off the fight without words. The strings re-attached to the guitar on their own as Iruka spoke.
"Definitely, I think it would be safe for me to say you can have this back. Your accelerated training course is no complete." He tossed the headband to Ryu who caught it and quickly tied it back onto his forehead, sideways of course. Ryu began to cheer when a familiar voice stopped him.
"Sorry, but we don't have time for celebration." Gado stepped up beside Ryu giving him a half-hearted smile.
"It's been a while, that technique of yours is pretty impressive." Ryu nodded.
"To what do I owe this meeting?"
"I like that, straight to business." The smile faded as Gado's features became much more serious.
"Lina's dead."
**********
"So what? You guys are telling me you believe my friend Yugo is responsible for her death? Do you have any proof?" One of the higher level ninja Gado had taken Ryu to meet with nodded as he placed a tape in the small television setup in front of them. The video was proof alright, Ryu didn't know anybody else with that hairstyle and it definitely looked like his face. What he saw on the video shocked him. Yugo hadn't just murdered the girl; he had torn her body to pieces. With one small dagger, he had managed to mangle her body so badly that it was almost impossible to identify her. This young man, his friend, had committed manslaughter. A mix of sorrow and anger boiled inside Ryu. How could Yugo be strong enough to kill a Genin like that? He wanted to believe it wasn't true, but his gut had been telling him something was wrong ever since he came here.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" He asked, directing his question towards Gado but not looking away from the screen.
"After what you just told me about him, I think it would be a good idea for me and you to go find him. Maybe there's a chance we can handle this without having to resort to violence. Since you have a past connection, we'll try to use that to our advantage. If that doesn't work, we'll bring him in the hard way." Ryu shook his head.
"No, I want to confirm he did this on my own. I'll take care of it. One way or another, I'll bring him back. Where is he?" Gado hesitated for a moment. It wasn't in their best interests to send Ryu alone, but he understood why he wanted to go.
"Information we have implies that Yugo was leaving Konoha for the village of Sand. It seems he's been quite busy." Ryu nodded solemnly.
"I'll find him." Gado and the other ninjas watched as Ryu left without speaking.
"I have no doubts you will find him Ryu. The question is: will you be strong enough to defeat him when you do?" He whispered to himself as Ryu disappeared.
"There's something strange about this Yugo guy, he should not be this strong. Be careful."
***********
Ten years. Yugo had been Ryu's closest friend for ten years. Now, he was hunting his best friend for committing a crime that even he couldn't forgive him for. Ryu was moving quickly, trying to catch up to Yugo before he could reach Sand.
"Stop!" A voice commanded; it seemed to come from everywhere at once. Ryu landed on the ground silently in a crouch and scanned the area, but found nobody. Then, a figured shrouded in black stepped out of hiding. Ryu was currently making his way through a densely forested area, which didn't make sighting potential threats simple.
"I remember you. You're that same guy who pulled me and Yugo into this mess in the first place! Who are you and what do you want!?" The man chuckled softly.
"You're not exactly in a position to be making demands. Just look around. You fell right into my little trap, one wrong move and you're done for. As for who I am, my name is Juzo." Ryu took a look around, wherever he moved he would trigger a trap. Not wanting to take the chance of triggering a trap, knowing how to evade it, and falling into a second trap as he did, Ryu decided to wait for an opportunity. The man removed his robes to reveal a gray Jounin vest, unzipped all the way down. Beneath the vest he wore a black shirt with sleeves that ended a little past his elbows, and a pair of black pants. On both hands he wore fingerless gloves. His hair was a very dark brown, almost black and he wore a headband with the symbol of the village of Grass. The eyes were easily Juzo's most striking feature. They were dark red and very sinister looking.
"And what I want is the pleasure of killing you." Ryu sighed, closing his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.
"You may have tricked me into falling into this place," He opened his eyes again and glared at Juzo.
"But I promise you it will be the last mistake you ever make!" The man curved his lips up in a smile.
"That's what I was hoping you'd say." Ryu's eyes went wide as a kunai flew past his cheek, narrowly missing.
"That was a warning, the next one won't miss." His hand immediately reached for his kunai to deflect that next attack, but when Ryu looked back up Juzo was gone.
"Above you!" Ryu looked up to see Juzo plummeting to the ground with a kunai in hand. He flew straight down the center of Ryu's body, landing on one knee. Ryu's eyes went wide with fear before his body split in two and fell to the ground as a puddle of water.
"What!?" A laugh echoed through the dark woods as Ryu watched from his hiding place.
"You really think I'd leave myself open to such an obvious trap? Now I'll be making the demands, because if you move you'll be the one triggering the traps." Juzo growled.
"Fool. I set the traps, I know how to move through them safely!" To prove it Juzo took a step forward. His foot fell into a hole and he immediately jumped back, crying out in surprise when a rain of shurikens flew towards him.
"I set up my own traps. I'll give you a tip: don't stop moving if you want to live." Juzo ducked beneath the shurikens and smirked when they embedded themselves in the tree behind him. He had little time to congratulate himself though, because a large log swung down from the treetops to crush him. Juzo back flipped out of the way and his eyes went wide when he felt a rope wrap around one leg. The rope lifted him off the ground as two logs flew in from opposite directions to crush him. He fell back to the ground just before the logs could kill him only to have a second rope lift him back into the air. His kunai cut through the rope easily enough and he grabbed one of the logs and flipped up onto it.
"No way!" Juzo cried as he looked at the log in time to see an explosive tag light up. How could he have been so foolish as to fall into all of these consecutive traps? No, it wasn't his foolishness; this child had become much more exceptional. The tags exploded and Ryu came out of hiding as Juzo landed safely on the ground. Ryu had taken the time to disarm all the other traps.
"So you made it out alive." Juzo took a moment to catch his breath.
"It'll take more than that to kill me!" Ryu smirked.
"I figured that much." Ryu dropped into a defensive fighting stance, readying himself for an offensive attack.
"Well then, let's see what you've got." In his mind, he was also eager to see what he himself now had. Juzo crouched down and charged towards Ryu.
********************************************************
For almost three months, Ryu had been training under the watchful eye of Iruka. There had been a few hectic days during the ordeals of the third Chuunin exam, but that had quieted down for the most part and they were able to continue the training. Ryu had grown to respect Iruka, a rarity for him. Never had he shown respect for an adult, not since the ordeal he had gone through with his parents where his father had murdered his mother and attempted to murder him as well. That had been almost ten years ago, he had only been four. During the course of his training, Ryu's technique and abilities had grown in leaps and bounds. The training he had been through was extensive, pushing the limits of his body and mind. So much so, that Iruka felt he was ready for one final test. Something he had not done in quite some time. He wanted to test Ryu's abilities to find out if he was ready to become a true Genin.
"Ryu!" Ryu was hanging upside down by his feet in a nearby tree, using his Chakra to keep from falling. He smirked and dropped to the ground when he heard his sensei's voice.
"Iruka-sensei? More training?" Iruka smiled as he looked at Ryu. The boy had become quite the young ninja. He ruffled the young man's hair and shook his head.
"No, I have something else in mind today. We're going to test your abilities in combat." Ryu blinked.
"Combat? Do you mean me against you? I don't know if I'm ready for that." Iruka chuckled.
"Don't worry Ryu, you'll be fine I'm sure." Ryu swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. He was more afraid of possibly injuring Iruka, but he wanted a chance to show off some of his abilities.
"Don't worry about me, I can hold my own. This is only to see how well your skills are coming along." Ryu nodded again. He took a few steps back and fixed his guitar strap. Throughout his training, he had kept his guitar with him. It had become a sort of good luck charm.
"Ready?" Iruka nodded at his student's question. Ryu closed his eyes for a moment before tossing a trio of shurikens at Iruka. Iruka easily dodged them, but was caught by surprise when Ryu appeared behind him and sent a kick into his side. Iruka stumbled and regained his balance, smirking.
"Not bad." Ryu smiled slightly.
"Thanks. I'm not done yet though." Iruka could feel something happening, but he didn't know what. He watched in curiosity as Ryu closed his eyes and raised one hand. After a moment, the strings off his guitar had detached themselves and levitated into his hand, attaching to the tips of his fingers. Ryu stretched the strings between his palms and smirked. They glowed a faint blue from the Chakra flowing through them.
"It's my own personal ability, I call it Devil's Chord." He lashed out with the strings. Iruka didn't know he had been hit until he saw pieces of his hair fly from his head.
"Suits it, don't you think?" Iruka tossed two shurikens at Ryu. He chuckled when his student manipulated the chords to spin quickly around his body, creating a barrier and knocking the shurikens away like toys.
"Quite an impressive technique." Ryu nodded and lashed out with them again. This time, he caught Iruka's arms and legs.
"It's much easier to use than that water prison. And far more effective as well. You see, your movement is restricted with the water prison. However, I can move as much as I like with this technique, and I don't have to stay still. What do you think?" Iruka smiled despite his predicament.
"You put a lot of thought into this didn't you Ryu?" He nodded.
"Yeah, I wanted something that suited me. This captures my love for music as well as my opponent. A small joke there." He and Iruka both laughed softly.
"And as you saw, it's also got offensive power. Can you escape from it? I really need to know." Ryu frowned when Iruka vanished in a cloud of smoke. The strings that had been tied to him were now attached to a log. He scowled when he felt a kunai pressed against his neck.
"Everything has a weakness Ryu, your skills have to compensate for it." He smiled at his sensei's answer.
"That's how I thought that would work." He dropped down and made a sweep with his leg, dropping Iruka to the ground as he jumped away.
"That's why I was working on my hand to hand skills as well." The strings untied from the log and came back to Ryu, floating in front of him like snakes ready to strike. Iruka flipped up to his feet before he could hit the ground.
"What about your Genjutsu?"
"I've been working on that too. Just not as much." Without another word, two exact clones of himself appeared standing on each side of him.
"See, just basic clones, though I can use the water clone." Iruka nodded and tossed two shurikens at the fakes which immediately vanished.
"Very good Ryu, you have come a long way since we first started."
"So then the training paid off?" He asked as they both stood up straight, calling off the fight without words. The strings re-attached to the guitar on their own as Iruka spoke.
"Definitely, I think it would be safe for me to say you can have this back. Your accelerated training course is no complete." He tossed the headband to Ryu who caught it and quickly tied it back onto his forehead, sideways of course. Ryu began to cheer when a familiar voice stopped him.
"Sorry, but we don't have time for celebration." Gado stepped up beside Ryu giving him a half-hearted smile.
"It's been a while, that technique of yours is pretty impressive." Ryu nodded.
"To what do I owe this meeting?"
"I like that, straight to business." The smile faded as Gado's features became much more serious.
"Lina's dead."
**********
"So what? You guys are telling me you believe my friend Yugo is responsible for her death? Do you have any proof?" One of the higher level ninja Gado had taken Ryu to meet with nodded as he placed a tape in the small television setup in front of them. The video was proof alright, Ryu didn't know anybody else with that hairstyle and it definitely looked like his face. What he saw on the video shocked him. Yugo hadn't just murdered the girl; he had torn her body to pieces. With one small dagger, he had managed to mangle her body so badly that it was almost impossible to identify her. This young man, his friend, had committed manslaughter. A mix of sorrow and anger boiled inside Ryu. How could Yugo be strong enough to kill a Genin like that? He wanted to believe it wasn't true, but his gut had been telling him something was wrong ever since he came here.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" He asked, directing his question towards Gado but not looking away from the screen.
"After what you just told me about him, I think it would be a good idea for me and you to go find him. Maybe there's a chance we can handle this without having to resort to violence. Since you have a past connection, we'll try to use that to our advantage. If that doesn't work, we'll bring him in the hard way." Ryu shook his head.
"No, I want to confirm he did this on my own. I'll take care of it. One way or another, I'll bring him back. Where is he?" Gado hesitated for a moment. It wasn't in their best interests to send Ryu alone, but he understood why he wanted to go.
"Information we have implies that Yugo was leaving Konoha for the village of Sand. It seems he's been quite busy." Ryu nodded solemnly.
"I'll find him." Gado and the other ninjas watched as Ryu left without speaking.
"I have no doubts you will find him Ryu. The question is: will you be strong enough to defeat him when you do?" He whispered to himself as Ryu disappeared.
"There's something strange about this Yugo guy, he should not be this strong. Be careful."
***********
Ten years. Yugo had been Ryu's closest friend for ten years. Now, he was hunting his best friend for committing a crime that even he couldn't forgive him for. Ryu was moving quickly, trying to catch up to Yugo before he could reach Sand.
"Stop!" A voice commanded; it seemed to come from everywhere at once. Ryu landed on the ground silently in a crouch and scanned the area, but found nobody. Then, a figured shrouded in black stepped out of hiding. Ryu was currently making his way through a densely forested area, which didn't make sighting potential threats simple.
"I remember you. You're that same guy who pulled me and Yugo into this mess in the first place! Who are you and what do you want!?" The man chuckled softly.
"You're not exactly in a position to be making demands. Just look around. You fell right into my little trap, one wrong move and you're done for. As for who I am, my name is Juzo." Ryu took a look around, wherever he moved he would trigger a trap. Not wanting to take the chance of triggering a trap, knowing how to evade it, and falling into a second trap as he did, Ryu decided to wait for an opportunity. The man removed his robes to reveal a gray Jounin vest, unzipped all the way down. Beneath the vest he wore a black shirt with sleeves that ended a little past his elbows, and a pair of black pants. On both hands he wore fingerless gloves. His hair was a very dark brown, almost black and he wore a headband with the symbol of the village of Grass. The eyes were easily Juzo's most striking feature. They were dark red and very sinister looking.
"And what I want is the pleasure of killing you." Ryu sighed, closing his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.
"You may have tricked me into falling into this place," He opened his eyes again and glared at Juzo.
"But I promise you it will be the last mistake you ever make!" The man curved his lips up in a smile.
"That's what I was hoping you'd say." Ryu's eyes went wide as a kunai flew past his cheek, narrowly missing.
"That was a warning, the next one won't miss." His hand immediately reached for his kunai to deflect that next attack, but when Ryu looked back up Juzo was gone.
"Above you!" Ryu looked up to see Juzo plummeting to the ground with a kunai in hand. He flew straight down the center of Ryu's body, landing on one knee. Ryu's eyes went wide with fear before his body split in two and fell to the ground as a puddle of water.
"What!?" A laugh echoed through the dark woods as Ryu watched from his hiding place.
"You really think I'd leave myself open to such an obvious trap? Now I'll be making the demands, because if you move you'll be the one triggering the traps." Juzo growled.
"Fool. I set the traps, I know how to move through them safely!" To prove it Juzo took a step forward. His foot fell into a hole and he immediately jumped back, crying out in surprise when a rain of shurikens flew towards him.
"I set up my own traps. I'll give you a tip: don't stop moving if you want to live." Juzo ducked beneath the shurikens and smirked when they embedded themselves in the tree behind him. He had little time to congratulate himself though, because a large log swung down from the treetops to crush him. Juzo back flipped out of the way and his eyes went wide when he felt a rope wrap around one leg. The rope lifted him off the ground as two logs flew in from opposite directions to crush him. He fell back to the ground just before the logs could kill him only to have a second rope lift him back into the air. His kunai cut through the rope easily enough and he grabbed one of the logs and flipped up onto it.
"No way!" Juzo cried as he looked at the log in time to see an explosive tag light up. How could he have been so foolish as to fall into all of these consecutive traps? No, it wasn't his foolishness; this child had become much more exceptional. The tags exploded and Ryu came out of hiding as Juzo landed safely on the ground. Ryu had taken the time to disarm all the other traps.
"So you made it out alive." Juzo took a moment to catch his breath.
"It'll take more than that to kill me!" Ryu smirked.
"I figured that much." Ryu dropped into a defensive fighting stance, readying himself for an offensive attack.
"Well then, let's see what you've got." In his mind, he was also eager to see what he himself now had. Juzo crouched down and charged towards Ryu.
