I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Training
Ryuu watched as Hinata and Fu sparred with their swords, the two moving around and around the Third Training Ground as they fought. Hinata had obviously been keeping up with her kenjutsu training while Ryuu was away, and more than a couple of times, she stepped in close to Fu, the way Fu and Ryuu had done during their last training session to show off so long ago. Of course, having the Byakugan to cover her blind spots definitely helped Hinata. Finally, though, Fu tripped her and placed her Water Sword to Hinata's throat.
"Well done Hinata," Ryuu smiled, then looked to the side, seeing Yugao fighting Naruto on semi-even level.
She was holding back, of course, but Naruto had clearly been training with a sword since the last time Ryuu and Fu had tested him after rescuing Gaara. Finally, Yuga pinned Naruto to the ground, sword to his throat, and Naruto froze.
"Well done," Ryuu said. "You've improved, Naruto."
"Thanks," Naruto said as Yugao pulled him up. "So, what's next?"
"Next, you're going to get extremely jealous, at the same time as you train in something new," Ryuu said.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"You've got Wind Style Chakra, so you're going to learn some Wind Style Ninjutsu," Ryuu said.
"I think I have an idea for that as well," Kakashi said, walking into the field.
"Hello Kakashi," Ryuu greeted him.
"Hello Ryuu," Kakashi smiled. "Anyway, Naruto, did you know that I was the Fourth Hokage's student?"
"You were?" Naruto asked.
"That's right," Kakashi said. "So, once Ryuu's taught you a handful of Wind Style Jutsus, I'm going t teach you to improve this," Kakashi formed a Rasengan.
"Aw, no fair!" Naruto complained. "You can do the Rasengan better than me."
"That wasn't the point I was trying to make," Kakashi said. "You see, the Rasengan is an incomplete jutsu."
"It is?" Naruto asked.
"Yes," Kakashi said. "The Fourth Hokage intended to combine a change in Chakra Nature with it, but failed. He taught it to me in hopes that I could combine my Lightning Style chakra with it, but I also failed. But I have a feeling that you can do it."
"Really?" Naruto asked, grinning. "That's awesome! Let's do it now!"
"Not so fast Naruto," Ryuu said. "First you'll be learning some other Wind Style jutsus from me."
"But why?" Naruto asked. "A Wind Style Rasengan would be s much cooler!"
"Naruto, how many jutsus do you know?" Ryuu asked.
"Uh...well...Rasengan, Summoning Jutsu, Shadow Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu..." Naruto trailed off trying to think.
"So four," Ryuu said. "If you learn to combine your chakra nature with the Rasengan, which would be at minimum months worth of training, you'll know four, plus a variation of one. I know around fifty of each element, plus variations. The less jutsus you know, the easier it is for an enemy to predict your next move. For example, will you send in a fake to fight for you, or will you try to shove a ball of chakra into my stomach? But I can teach you a lot more jutsus, for example...Wind Style, Air Bullet." He exhaled a barrage of Air Bullets that exploded into a tree, blasting chunks out of it. "Or the stronger but more difficult Wind Style, Vacuum Bullets." He exhaled several cylindrical Wind Chakra blasts that punched completely through the tree. "Or there's this." He waved his hand, sending out an arc of wind that smashed through the tree, breaking it off. "Wind Sword." He hurled several disks of compressed, near-invisible air, the disks streaking across the field and slicing the tree into small pieces, the leaves still drifting through the air. "Wind Style, Pressure Damage." He sent a weak one out, hitting the pile and blasting it into sawdust while blowing the leaves away. "But hey, if you'd rather just learn a single variation to your Rasengan, which will use up all of your chakra in a single use anyway, that's cool too." He turned away, like he was going to leave.
"No please!" Naruto said, catching his arm. "Please teach me that!"
Ryuu grinned, turning back around. "Sure." He formed a shadow clone. "My clone will teach you to use your Wind Chakra, that way you can use those jutsus, then will teach you the jutsus afterward. Kakashi, while he's at it, will you teach Naruto what Shadow Clones are really useful for?"
"Sure," Kakashi said, forming a clone of his own. "Naruto, form a clone to go with mine while you train."
"Okay," Naruto nodded, confused.
Kakashi's clone walked away with Naruto's and Ryuu's clone handed Naruto a leaf, telling him to focus his Wind Style Chakra into it in order to split it like chakra paper. After several minutes of looking like he was constipated, Naruto opened his hands and complained about it being impossible. In response, Ryuu's clone held up a leaf with two fingers and split it instantly. Ryuu chuckled, shaking his head before focusing on making a Rasengan properly. After several hour, everyone took a break, heading to Ichiraku's for lunch, then headed back to the training ground, continuing where they'd left off. Except, this time, Kakashi had Naruto create a hundred clones in order to speed up his training, Naruto having finally learned that clones' memories were transferred to the original after they were dispersed. Ryuu returned to his own training as well, Fu seated beside him, also trying to create a proper Rasengan. Finally, just as the sun was beginning to set, Ryuu managed to get it right, checking it with his Sharingan and smiling. He let the Rasengan fade and stood, dusting himself off and walked over to his clone, setting his hand on its shoulder and reabsorbing the chakra from inside the clone, smiling as the memories of Naruto's progress filtered into his brain. Naruto had gone from no effect n the leaf, to a tiny split, barely bigger than the ridges on the outside of the leaf.
"I got it!" one of the Narutos cheered suddenly, holding up a halfway split leaf.
"Well done," Ryuu said. "Keep trying. You're halfway there."
"How long did it take you to figure this out?" Naruto asked.
Ryuu raised an eyebrow. In truth, he had been able to perform change in chakra nature since he was a child. However, he didn't feel like spoiling Naruto's mood.
"About a week," Ryuu said. "Two to get the full leaf. If you get the full leaf by the end of today, I'll teach you one of my personal favorite Wind Style jutsus."
Naruto grinned and nodded, setting back to work. Ryuu smiled, turning to Hinata, who had been practicing with her Kenjutsu and Taijutsu with Yugao all day. He walked over just as Hinata's sword fell to the ground, her arms apparently too weak to continue.
"Not bad," Ryuu said. "You lasted a lot longer than I expected."
"Thanks," Hinata smiled. "I still couldn't beat her, though."
"Maybe not, but you lasted longer than I would have trying," Ryuu chuckled, using Medical Ninjutsu to repair her muscles enough for her to regain use of her arms. "Anyway, we're just about done for today. You can stick around and watch Naruto struggle if you want, or you can head home."
"I'll wait," Hinata said.
Ryuu nodded and turned back to Naruto just as one of the many, many Narutos cheered, leaping into the air and holding two halves of a split leaf. Ryuu raised an eyebrow and smirked. "He's a quick study. A little motivation and he doubles his training time. Impressive."
"He's always been like that," Hinata smiled.
"I suppose he has, yeah," Ryuu nodded. "Alright Naruto! Time to call it a day!"
Naruto grinned and nodded, releasing all of his clones, only to collapse from exhaustion, Hinata catching him. "Thanks Hinata."
"Of course," Hinata said, blushing profusely, though Naruto was too tired to notice.
"You mind helping him home Hinata?" Ryuu asked.
Hinata nodded and turned, walking away with Naruto as Ryuu walked back to Kakashi and Fu.
"He made some good progress," Ryuu said, looking at all of the nearly-split leaves around him. "A few more minutes and he'd have gotten them all."
"What jutsu are you going to teach him as a reward?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't know yet," Ryuu said, looking up at the darkening sky. "I'll figure it out while he's refining his Wind Style chakra tomorrow. Now, if you'll excuse me, Fu and I have something to do."
Fu smiled, taking his hand as both extended their wings, flying up into the sky to watch the sunset. After a while, the last of the sun's rays faded from the sky and they flew down to their room's window, slipping in through it and both stripping down to their underwear, as had become common recently, as Fu always made it too hot to keep their pajamas on anyway, then climbed into bed. Ryuu closed his eyes and placed his hands together above himself , praying for forgiveness for his sins, and for a peaceful night's rest, before setting his right hand down, wrapping the other around Fu, who reached across him to slip her hand into his right. He smiled, kissing the top of her head before closing his eyes, struggling to fall asleep. Fu remained awake, waiting patiently for him to fall asleep before she would, as she always did. She was right about him functioning on very little sleep, but she functioned on even less because she waited for him to go to sleep before she would, then woke up every hour to make sure he wasn't having a nightmare.
Finally, sleep claimed Ryuu, and he sunk into the dark void of his nightmares, the voices of those he'd killed beginning to scream at him almost instantly, their faces swirling around him as clammy, rotting hands reached out of the darkness to tear at him. And there he sat, praying for forgiveness throughout his entire nightmare, as he always did. At least, for as long as it took him to wake up. Once he did, he'd spend a few minutes allowing Fu's presence to calm him, then would drift back off to sleep.
Ryuu watched as Kakashi condensed the lightning in his hand into his Lightning Blade. He looked down at his own hand and focused, copying Kakashi. After several moments, he let it fade and sighed. It was a lot more exhausting than the Chidori, however, as Kakashi had proven, it was also a lot more powerful. Ryuu liked it, but he was going to have to get used to the extra drain on his chakra. He looked off to the side where Naruto was using one of Ryuu's shadow clones' trench knives to practice the Flying Swallow technique. He wasn't getting it very well, however. He was barely managing to grasp the concept of streaming his chakra, let alone streaming it correctly. Ryuu looked to the other side where his other clone was teaching Hinata some low-level Lightning and Fire Style jutsus. She was picking it up faster than Naruto, but it was also her first time learning any ninjutsu that relied on using her chakra element, so she was struggling.
"You seem a bit unfocused today," Fu said, slipping her hand into his. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah," Ryuu said. "I'm just...tired I guess."
"Is it Mhao?" Fu asked.
Ryuu was silent for a long while. "It's stupid. For the longest time, he was constantly hounding me and making it impossible to do anything without worrying about him showing up. But...now that he's gone..."
"It feels like something's missing?" Fu asked.
"Not exactly," Ryuu said. "More like...like I'm constantly looking for something to do, but can't find anything that I want to do."
Fu nodded. "I feel the same. We may not like it, but he was a large part of our lives. And he was a part of the reason why you became as strong as you did. Like it or not, a part of your life is over." She leaned in, kissing him on the cheek. "But if you're looking for something to do, I happen to live pretty close to you."
Ryuu smirked, shaking his head. "Yeah, practically in the same house."
Fu grinned and kissed him for a minute before turning and walking away. "I'm going to go shopping. I'm supposed to meet Yugao. I'll see you in a while, alright?"
"Sure," Ryuu smiled. "Be careful."
"I will," Fu smiled.
She left and Ryuu turned back to the front, taking a deep breath before drawing his tanto and trench knife, turning to Kakashi and activating his Sharingan. Kakashi watched him for a moment before pulling his forehead protector up out of the way, opening his Sharingan as he drew a pair of kunai, and they both charged. Fu was right. He just had to find something to occupy his time. And he chose to devote whatever bit of life he had freed up by finishing Mhao to making sure Fu was safe and happy. And as he trained with Kakashi, some part of his mind decided exactly what he wanted to do.
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