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Ryuu landed behind his house and before his wings had even faded fully, Fu had thrown her arms around him. He smiled, hugging her back before pulling back, heading inside and getting a set of clean clothes before showering and changing. He walked down to the basement and found Yugao training Tayuya in kenjutsu. Both stopped when they saw him, welcoming him home as enthusiastically as Fu had, before they all headed upstairs to get some lunch. As they ate, They took turns talking about what they had been doing recently, as they usually did. Ryuu kept his description of the fight against Tobi downplayed, knowing Yugao, ever the mother-figure, would worry if he didn't. After they had eaten, Fu and Ryuu left to find Naruto, finding him working on the Flying Swallow technique under Asuma's guidance. Except, there was someone else present, a boy Naruto's age wearing a Fire Temple monk robe with shoulder-length dark blue hair, his right sleeve longer than his arm, and an eternal scowl on his face.
"Who's he?" Ryuu asked, glancing at Fu and seeing her staring at him in confusion.
"He's a Jinchuriki," Fu said quietly. "Except...Chomei must be getting senile. He says he senses the Nine-tails' chakra from him."
"Maybe it's because Naruto's right there?" Ryuu more asked than suggested, Fu shrugging.
They landed behind Naruto and the other boy. Asuma smiled over at them and Ryuu walked over to him.
"Who's he?" Ryuu asked.
"Ryuu, this is Sora," Asuma said. "He's from the Fire Temple, and he's the son of one of my fellow Twelve Guardian Shinobi."
"Isn't that the group that used to defend the Feudal Lord?" Ryuu asked.
"That's the one," Asuma nodded. "I was just helping them with the Flying Swallow technique."
Ryuu watched as both trainees hurled their kunai, both sticking in about half a blade in length. "You're not focusing on making the chakra sharp, you're just focusing on getting it into place."
"And just who the hell are you?" Sora demanded. "What the hell do you know about the Flying Swallow technique?"
"Not much," Ryuu shrugged, pulling a kunai out of his pouch and effortlessly streaming his chakra along it, sending it punching through the tree and a boulder behind it.
Both stared after the knife as Ryuu attached a chakra threat to it and pulled it back to himself.
"I was training Naruto in Wind Style Chakra before I had to leave the village," Ryuu said. "Speaking of which, how is your training going, Naruto?"
"I got the hang of a Vacuum Blade and Pressure Damage, but I can't get the others," Naruto said.
"I'm not surprised," Ryuu said. "Pressure Damage is mostly just as much Wind Style chakra as you can make. The rest are more chakra control than anything. What about you, Sora? Any good Wind Style jutsus?"
"A couple," Sora said, staring at Naruto before grinning. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
Ryuu grinned. "Careful who you challenge. I'm not a wimp like Naruto."
"Hey!" Naruto complained.
"I can handle it," Sora said.
"If you say so," Ryuu shrugged. "I'll let you start."
"Beast Wave Palm!" Sora shouted, swiping a hand, an arc of blue Wind Style Chakra shooting out of his right sleeve at Ryuu, who flipped backward, the jutsu slicing through the ground.
"Impressive," Ryuu said. "Not bad at all. Wind Scythe Jutsu!"
He swiped his own hand and an arc of highly-compressed Wind Style Chakra blasted into the ground at Sora's feet, though it was more impact than cutting, unlike Sora's jutsu.
"Weak," Sora said.
"Alright," Ryuu chuckled. "Then how about this one. Air Bullets!" He exhaled a barrage of them, sending them blasting into the ground around Sora, pock-marking it with shallow craters.
"Better," Sora said. "Still not worth my best jutsu."
"Well, my best for your best then," Ryuu said.
Sora grinned, holding out his hand. "Beast Wave Gale Palm!"
A massive blast of Wind Style chakra shot out of his sleeve, forming into a massive demonic hand the size of Ryuu's entire body and streaked across the ground at him. Ryuu vanished, reappearing off to the side, avoiding the attack and nodding appreciatively.
"I like it," Ryuu said. "Very effective. My turn. Wind Style, Wind Dragon Jutsu."
The dragon exploded along the ground, forming from the air around Ryuu this time, rather than him exhaling it, and grabbed a tree as it rose, shattering the tree before allowing the part it had bitten off to pass through it, shredding it as it did. Then, it dropped the remains before flipping over and shooting back downward, exploding as it hit the pile of wood chunks, blowing them into sawdust. Sora stared at the cloud of sawdust, mouth hanging open in shock, and Ryuu chuckled.
"Victory," Ryuu said. "Here's a consolation demonstration. It's actually one I haven't gotten to test out yet. Wind Style, Gale Armor."
Wind Style chakra exploded to life around his entire body, the chakra over his head forming into a sort of dome, rather than a silhouette. The chakra raged around his body in a violent, noisy, and extremely dense silhouette of chakra forming a tornado of sorts around each arm and leg, then around his torso. He felt light while it was active, and was guessing he'd be faster. The last time he had used it, he had dropped a tree on himself and the armor had obliterated the tree before it could reach him. The down side was, in order to have the chakra protect his head, he had to use his Sharingan to see through it.
"Amazing!" Fu breathed. "Why haven't you used it yet?"
Ryuu released the armor and shrugged. "Haven't really had a need for it. Anyway, back to your training. Naruto'll get ahead of you if you stop now."
As if on cue, Naruto had some success and buried the kunai up to its ring, cheering before realizing it was stuck. Ryuu retrieved it for him with a chakra thread and Sora hurriedly went back to training, Naruto finding that he was incapable of replicating his success. Ryuu chuckled and began to practice copying Sora's jutsus without his Sharingan. Beast Wave Palm he picked up easily. He knew a couple of jutsus that were similar, though the chakra-to-wind-chakra ratio was different. Beast Wave Gale Palm was a different beast altogether. Fu began to train as well, and as usual, had figured it out within an hour.
"Have I ever mentioned how completely unfair it is that you not only have three chakra natures, but you also pick up the jutsus as quickly as if you had Sharingan?" Ryuu complained after having produced a particularly apathetic puff of air rather than a chakra demon hand.
"You might have mentioned it a couple of times," Fu smiled, forming a ball of Wind Chakra and tossing it back and forth from her hands. "Helps when you find creative ways to practice your chakra control. Like this."
She tossed him the ball and he caught it, only for it to disperse instantly.
"No fair," Ryuu grumbled. "You've never taught me to do that before. I've never even seen you doing it."
"I don't show you everything you know," Fu smirked.
Ryuu huffed, returning to training, slowly growing closer and closer to succeeding, though still failing to actually produce the jutsu. After a few more hours of practice, Ryuu finally gave up. He and Fu said their goodbyes to the others and headed home for the night. It was still early, but both were tired from training, and dealing with the Akatsuki, so they ate a quick dinner before heading to bed. Ryuu stared out the window as he lay in bed. Something felt off. He couldn't place his finger on it, but something was definitely not sitting right with him. Fu seemed to feel the same, because after a while, she sat up, straddling him in the process, but stared out the window, brow furrowing in a look of deep contemplation.
"Something's not right," Fu said.
"I agree," Ryuu said. "I can't tell what, but something's just...off."
Fu nodded, climbing off of him. Without a word, both pulled on their tantos and kunai pouches, then their ninja tool pouches and left the house, Ryuu tying on his headband as they walked away from the house. They walked in silence, looking around as they traveled. It had gotten dark, but not so late that the streets should be completely deserted as they were. It felt...off. It felt like there was a charge to the air. Like the entire village had the same foreboding feeling and had cleared the streets in response. The air felt heavy and Ryuu's skin was crawling, the hairs on the back of his neck doing crunches as it stood on end and fell, then stood on end again in an endless cycle.
Suddenly, the lights went out, the entire village going dark. Ryuu stopped, hands remaining at his side but tense and ready to grab a weapon. The tiny, usually unnoticeable hum of electricity being absent, the village was suddenly oppressively silent. He began to turn slowly, scanning the village around them, but he could see nothing. They began to head for the main gate, neither saying a word as they walked. By the time they had gone three blocks, Ryuu was pretty sure he would have been happy for Zetsu or Danzo to show up and attack them, just so that the feeling of foreboding trying to suffocate him would go away. Above them, the Jonin of the village headed for Tsunade's office to get a report, but Ryuu ignored them. If he was needed, he'd be summoned. He glanced up, seeing shinobi on the rooftops flashing each other with flashlights, signaling they were in place in case they needed to signal orders in the event of an attack. Ryuu remained silent, and Fu didn't seem to notice the shinobi. She hadn't been in the village during an attack, so he supposed she wouldn't know to check that the shinobi were in place. He heard the telltale collision of the main gate closing.
Fu glanced at him and he nodded. The gate wouldn't be closed, even during a power outage, unless there was a high chance for an attack. At least they weren't the only ones feeling like something was off. Just then, Sakura landed beside them.
"What happened?" Ryuu asked.
"Sora attacked Lady Tsunade," Sakura said. "Naruto went after him, I think."
Ryuu nodded and continued walking. Sakura blinked, watching after him, then turned to Fu, but she had continued as well, both still looking around in silence.
"Aren't you going to try to help Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Naruto can handle himself," Ryuu said. "The village is on alert. We have jobs to do."
Sakura was silent for a moment before nodding and leaving. Ryuu took two more steps before Yuga landed beside them.
"Level two or three?" Ryuu asked.
"Two," Yugao said. "Tsunade said told me to tell you to pick a job."
"I'll head to the main gate," Ryuu said. "Send Tayuya. And Yugao, I don't think this is what it seems. Something's...off."
"You think it's them?" Yugao asked.
Ryu was silent for a long moment. "I don't like it."
Yugao nodded and left. Ryuu and Fu turned, heading for the main gate, walking faster, but still not rushing. Ryuu couldn't shake the feeling he was missing something, and that there was more danger than there should be, even if Sora was a would-be assassin. Just as they stepped onto a street that headed straight toward the main gate, it began.
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