Chapter 72: Deployment

Despite the night of passion he had with his mother, Riku wasn’t able to sleep. He had cuddled her all the way but his mind had refused to rest. A bit before sunrise, he deftly extricated himself from Tsunade’s embrace. His gear was ready but there was one more thing he needed to do.

Silently, he went to his mother’s desk. He pulled a blank paper from a stack, laying neatly in the corner and began to write. Everything he thought and felt for Tsunade was put onto the white page. From the day they met, to this very moment. He wrote as small as possible to be sure that everything he had to say could fit on the recto. Once done, he let the ink dry then folded the letter in two. After adding her name on the recto he let it rest against the stack of paper.

“What is it?” Two slender arms circle his torso, right under his armpits. Tsunade’s head rested on his shoulder, partially burying itself into his hair.

Riku leaned back against the chair and turned his head to leave a peck on her lips. “A letter for you.”

“I can see that but what is it about?”

“What you mean to me. It’s really embarrassing so… Wait for me to leave before you read it? Please.”

“You're driving a hard bargain but fine,” she feigned a magnanimous sigh.

“And it’s for your eyes only.”

Tsunade nodded and pulled back from the embrace, letting him go. “I… have something for you.”

Riku turned around to look at her and saw her hands going to her necklace. The one she had inherited from the Shodai. When he saw her hesitate, he put his hands on hers.

“If you want to give it to me then do it after the war. An incentive for me to come back.” He was well aware of her thoughts about the heirloom. Her fiance Dan and her little brother, his uncle, Nawaki, had died with it around their neck. From her point of view, it only brought luck to her and bad luck to others but Riku had survived ordeals that would have killed stronger men. His luck was good so he understood why the idea of giving it to him crossed her mind despite her reticence. “Besides… It won’t look nearly as gorgeous on my chest like it does on yours.”

He gave her an amused smile, then kissed her nose.

“...You spend way too much time with Ino.” The flat tone reply he got widened his smile.

“Perhaps.”

Riku stood up and hugged her one last time. Before she could say anything he flashed away in a forest green light. Sighing deeply, Tsunade’s eyes landed on the letter. She wanted nothing more than to read the letter now. Knowing her son’s feelings for her was something she wanted above everything. She knew he loved her. He had said so many times before and the previous night they shared proved it. Words could convey so much more however. More than a simple ‘I love you’. More than any kiss, any caress. In the end she averted her eyes, deciding she would read everything when she came back tonight after what she knew would be a very long day.

Riku arrived at the rendezvous point and noticed he was not the first person to do so, despite how early it was. He wasn’t surprised however. With Gai in the team, there was no way anyone would. The green beast of Konoha was currently doing simple push-ups, waiting for his teammate.

After exchanging greetings, Riku let him finish his set and stood to the side. He pulled up his notebook and began to read his diverse ideas about how to use nature chakra in ways that haven't been done before. That was something he wanted to expand and explore upon and had taken a backseat with his fuinjutsu and medical work. It didn’t help that the subject didn’t interest him as much. It didn’t help either that his mind constantly wandered back to fuinjutsu. His shifting focus landed on creating barriers that would restrain anyone undead in it. It would be much easier to stop an edo tensei zombie by simply luring him inside a zone than getting close and putting a tag on it. The prospect of having to brave the distance to reach his great grandfather or great uncle wasn’t something he liked. Of course, with the hiraishin it may be easier for him than for other shinobis. Even that wasn’t a sure thing however. Senju Tobirama was the first to come up with the technique, and may have ways to counter it. Hashirama may very well know how too by simple association or, since he was the very first ‘God of Shinobi’, pull something out of his ass. From the tales of his mother and the Sandaime, the Shodai was quite the eccentric man. The stories reminded Riku of Naruto a bit and he hoped the man didn’t have an ‘on the fly’ thinking as maddening as his half brother’s. That would be quite a disaster.

“Good morning.”

Kurenai’s voice broke him out of his thoughts and he looked up from his notebook to see her accompanied by Yugao. He greeted them back and felt the air shift slightly behind him. He didn’t need to turn to know Kakashi had arrived with a shushin.

“Let’s go.”

That was all the fake cyclops said. As one, they walked inside the building to get their orders. After going up two floors they arrived in a large room where shinobis, mostly jonins and chunins, were receiving their assignments from a group of shinobis sitting behind tables with loads of scrolls on it or behind them. At their sight, Shikaku rose from his chair in the middle of the main table and signaled them to follow them to another room. Once inside Riku pulled up a security barrier to completely cut the place from the rest of the world. The Jonin commander said nothing, as if it was expected.

“I’m sure you’ve already figured out that your team is not the run out of the mill team.” he began right off the bat.

Kakashi voiced what he had in mind. “From the composition I believe we’re expected to undergo the most dangerous covert mission. Strike deep and hard into enemy territory.”

“Correct.” Shikaku nodded at his jonin’s reply. “You have a special status. Your team only takes orders from me or Hokage-sama. You can disregard anyone else’s. Your primary objective is to infiltrate behind enemy lines and kill as many officers as you can, disrupting Iwa’s chain of command, and without getting caught.”

“Secondary objectives?” Kakashi asked.

“None.” The answer Shikaku gave puzzled the team as if there was a primary objective it was implied there was at least a secondary one. He explained himself quickly enough. “You have more or less free rein to act as you wish.”

“What are our limitations?”

“First, run by me your plans of action. It wouldn’t do well for Konoha if you stumble onto another team’s mission or them onto yours. I will tell you if you can or not go with what you intend to do. Second, you need to call in central and await for authorization to use one of the many Botib scattered around if you need too. It’s a question of order and management. Same for your movement from base to base. Shinobis in charge of camps need to know of your arrival.”

The jonin marked a pause and the team of five gave him a nod of understanding.

“Anything you need, just say so and you’ll probably get it. Now…” He pulled a small scroll from one of his vest’s pockets and tossed it at Kakashi. “You’re to go to underpost LoE-27. From there you’re to go as far deep as possible inside the Land of Earth and create your own base. Riku-san’s own Botib would do. If you can, connect it to central directly or indirectly.”

“Anything else, sir?”

“No. At least not regarding the team. Riku-san, Hokage-sama has specific orders for you. You are to work on seals to deal properly with the undead. The paralysis seals you came up with are great but…”

“I know of their flaws, sir. I was already thinking of other means to make the ordeal easier.”

“Good. Also, if you come up with new… technologies even if it’s just ideas, pass them along. You’re also to craft more of… well… everything you can create.”

Riku nodded and knew he would find very little sleep from now on. Maybe he could teach a thing or two to his team to help.

Shikaku dismissed the team which left the building in the direction of the main intelligence building. Kakashi opened the scroll, read it and pulled up from a storage seal a note which he gave to the chunin working at the reception desk. They were led to a hidden elevator which brought them down a few floors underground. Following the instructions they were given they arrived at the end of a corridor, heavily guarded and monitored. Riku could recognize the work of Kushina on the many seals around.

After giving identification to the guard guarding the gate they were allowed to enter. There they found a big room with many seals written on the ground. Twenty seven in all.

A genin kunoichi who Riku swore was one of Ino’s clansmen walked towards the team. “Destination?”

“LoE-27.”

At Kakashi’s reply, the woman winced but quickly got her facial features under control. “Follow me.”

She led them to the back of the room and stopped in front of a seal matrix one.

“That’s the seal that will teleport you to LoE-27. Please, get inside the matrix.”

Without hesitation, the members of team Yukari walked inside, followed by Gai and a somewhat hesitant Kurenai. The genin seemed to have noticed the woman’s discomfort and reassured her.

“Don’t worry, you don’t feel anything.” She leaned forward and put her hand on a smaller seal linked to the matrix. “Good luck.”

With those final words, she activated the seal and all Kurenai saw was a bright light. It wasn’t strong enough to hurt her eyes and impaired her vision but the sudden change of environment that resulted in the teleportation disoriented her a little for a second or so.

“That’s it?” She looked around to see they weren’t in the room anymore but inside what she knew was a Botib. A downgrade from the one Riku had her visit the previous day.

“That’s it.” Kakshi nodded while Yugao and Riku went to the main table and began using the reconnaissance system.

“I wonder how the hiraishin can be so effective when there is a small second of disorientation.” She wondered aloud.

“In battle, Riku sees where he’s going so it’s not that disorienting and so not really a problem. But yes, long distance, beyond line of sight, it can be a problem, that’s why it’s usually not done.” Kakashi explained as he looked at the displays his teammates were looking at.

Gai was more practical and focused however. “Where are we exactly? I understand that LoE means Land of Earth, but twenty seven?”

Kakashi didn’t wait to give him an answer. “27 is the foremost area we were able to map in the country. Iwa is only a week away if we’re running at full speed.”

“Huh… So we’re really deep, deep.”

“Taicho the area is clear.” Yugao called out.

Riku added a bit more information “It’s raining heavily though.”

“Not ideal.”

The land of stone, as its name suggested, was full of rock and dirt. Very few trees. As such with the rain, the ground was mudding and moving without leaving tracks in the directions opposite of Iwa shinobis would be difficult.

“We’re camping out for a few days, until the rain stops and the ground is mostly dry. If the rain persists, then we will have to move regardless. Riku, send a message to Central of our arrival and our situation. Everyone, keep notes of what resources you're using so it can be replaced if another team comes here. Yugao, instruct Gai and Kurenai on how to use the recon system. Riku, how long to add it to your own Botib?”

“Half a day? Placing tags outside would take way longer though.”

“We’ll see about that once we find a good place to burrow. No Time Seal.”

With his orders given, Kakashi went to make the inventory of the armory, the kitchen and the infirmary. Riku pulled out his Botib and went inside to begin installing the recon system.

“So how does that work?” Gai asked Yugao as he and Kurenai got closer to the table in the center of the room.

“Special tags had been hidden every fifty meters in all directions for a 1km radius.” Yugao began to explain. “Each tag emits a sound wave around it. The wave is… formless but is still subjected to anything physical and so the tag transmits what the waves picks up.”

When she saw Gai not understanding she went to use imagery. “A bit like a bat. When the wave hits something physical it’s bounced back. That bouncing allows us to determine the distance of the physical object from the tag but also its form and size. As you can see,” she pointed at the display to show black and white shapes that defined the side of a mountain. “It’s also not subjected to chakra since it’s pure sound. Meaning no genjutsu would be picked up. What we see is the truth of what’s out there.”

“That’s… smart.” the green beast commented.

“Don’t tell that to Riku, his head is already big as it is.”

“I HEARD THAT!”

Ignoring the yell from her teammate while suppressing a smile, she caught the attention of her two students to the controls.

“The controls are easy. You put your hands here and move it accordingly to get what you want. Your left hand controls the view. Turn your hand to the left and the view turns left. To the right it turns right. Slide it up and the view will look down, slide it down and the view will look up. You need to have a better view of something? Center it on the display and turn right with your right hand to zoom in and left to zoom out. To switch from one tag to another, these seals do it. The one on the right switches to the next tag in the list, the one on the left switches to the previous one.”

As she explained how the controls work, she also did a demonstration.

“The controls are easy to use but need a bit of adjustment and practice for precision. The faster you turn your hand, the faster the view will turn. Now go ahead.”

Gai and Kurenai exchanged a glance and the former politely invited the latter to go first.

“What’s that thing?” The genjutsu mistress pointed to the small square box on the side.

“A direct line to central.. You pick up the… It’s called a hand set. You put the brown port over your ear and the blue part near your mouth. You want to call central? Push the green button. If Central calls, the thing just rings. It uses the hiraishin seals in the Botib to transmit instantly sounds to the other side. Faster and more reliable than radio.”

“Long distance too.” Gai noted.

“Yes and no.” Yugao replied. “It reaches Konoha but not in one go. Your voice is relayed through many, many special hiraishin tags between our location and the village. A direct line is possible but Riku said that the amount of chakra needed for that is astronomical. Relays are way more cost efficient. Less than half a percent of the direct way’s cost.”

Gai nodded and looked at Kurenai who was familiarizing herself with the recon system’s controls. Yugao went to join Kakashi in inventorying everything.

It took less than a day for every member of the team to be up to speed with their situation. Everything was in order inside their base. All they had to do was occupy themselves. Something that Riku took advantage of. He gathered everyone to teach them the basics of fuinjutsu beyond the storage seals. Mostly the tags for his shurifuins in case something went wrong and someone found themselves separated from the team and alone. The hiraishin bracelet wasn’t indestructible after all. Riku remembered too well his foray into Amegakure and the results of his bracelet being destroyed.

“Now, you just have to practice to be able to make your own. It’s boring, I know, but not that difficult and could save your life.” He said as he watched his teammates with a brush in hand writing seals on chakra paper.

None had any protest and diligently practiced their calligraphy. Surprisingly Gai was the one who picked it up the quickest. Kakashi didn’t count, he had a few years of basic fuinjutsu under his belt and the sharingan to help which was a bit of a cheat.

For his part Riku was working on eyepatches for Yugao. No matter how much he tried she refused to have her eye fixed. Something he didn’t understand but ended up accepting. When he was done he presented them to her.

“What does the seal do?” She asked as she let her thumb brush against the fabric of one of the eyepatch in her hand.

“Seals. Plural. There is the one outside and the one inside.” Riku corrected and turned the eyepatch to show her the second seal. “The one outside is a one directional senbon launcher. You channel a bit of chakra into it and a dozen metal senbon coated in lightning are shot at your target.”

Kakashi whistled when he heard that, clearly impressed.

Gai was more curt. “Nasty.”

“Yes.” Riku nodded. “The second seal is… well a prototype. By channeling chakra into it you can basically ‘see’. Like the recon system. Well defined shapes. Useful if your vision is impaired for whatever reason. If it works and is useful I was thinking of sending it to R&D.”

Yugao immediately put the small eye accessory on and tested that particular seal. She had to close her good eye after a few seconds.

“It’s… working. I can’t make out the features of everyone’s face clearly but the broad strokes allow me to recognize everyone. It’s very confusing with my left eye open. If both eyes see the same way however I don’t see any problem.”

“Some kind of goggles, then… Or… Simply on the backside of the head protector?”

Riku was scratching his cheek, thinking and everyone let him. They knew better than to bother him when his mind was lost like that.

Back in Konoha, Tsunade had finished her day. It wasn’t quite past midnight but close. She was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get into her bed so she could rest. She was grateful for the sharingans she had implanted. They allowed her to deal with a bit more efficiently the mountain of information that kept coming her way. Read complete versıon only at novel⸺fire.net

As she disrobed to start her night, she remembered the letter Riku had left for her. Turning around she went to her desk and picked it up then went to read it in bed. Once comfortably settled she opened it.

Hey, mom,

Given that in a few moments I’ll leave the village for war, I thought of…. Everything I wanted to say to you. Things that…I don’t think I would have the courage to say aloud. Face to face or not. Way too embarrassing.

It’s… a bit of a confession. Of sorts. You probably already know what I’m putting down on paper but I wanted you to have physical proof, a reminder if you will, which you can always go back to if you feel down.

First, I’d like to start with… the day we met. I don’t know if you remember properly but I was shocked beyond belief when I saw you. Considering you shut me up with your hand, I believe you thought that I recognized you. Well, confession time: I didn’t. Not at first. I was just… shocked. Shocked because you were the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Not even Yugao-nee blanked my mind like you did at that moment. I think… (It’s silly really and very embarrassing but that’s why I’m writing it) I think it was love at first sight. I was an angry, spiteful teen with hormones messing around back then so I don’t think I properly realized it. Thinking back on it years later and I’m almost certain it was. (I only knew who you were when you let me talk again).

I’d like to apologize too for my words. I…I don’t think I will ever forgive myself for them. Not because I said them but why I said them. I… It was a spur of a moment idea. A stupid, stupid, very stupid idea.

I said what I said to manipulate you. To get you back to the village and hopefully raise my standing. I knew the Sandaime was soft on you and from what I knew of the pervert… I knew I’d have to hurt you to shock you out of your depression. I didn’t expect to almost die but I kind of deserved it. I’m sure had you not been a bit drunk, you would have realized how weird my change of topic and attitude was. Too aggressive when a moment earlier I was well… fan boying like mad.

I’d like to say I’m sorry. But I’m not. Not truly, because it led to where we are today. How can I be sorry when it led to me being happy? How can I be sorry when it led to US?

Perhaps you knew. You’re smart, mom. Scarily so. In fact I always believed you did. Maybe I was wrong but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you did more than take me as your apprentice. You took me in. You gave me a home to live, not a house. You gave me a family, not colleagues. You gave me attention, you gave me care. You gave me love. Everything that I didn’t know. Everything that I wasn’t aware I wanted or needed. You gave it to me. You made me a better shinobi but before that, you made me a better boy, then a better man. A better person.

Without you I’d probably be this starved for friendship and spiteful idiot. Without you I wouldn’t be able to look in the mirror and see someone I can be proud of. Without you I would probably have snapped and pulled an Orochimaru. I’m very glad I didn’t.

I’m thankful to Kami for the day we met. I’m grateful to you for everything you did.

That’s why I’m putting this here:

I love you.

More than you can imagine. More than Ino or Hinata or Karin. More than my children.

There is one person, and one person only, I would burn the world down if I lost her and that person is you.

I tried. Kami knows I tried to put a label on my feelings for you. One more precise than ‘love.’ I couldn’t. Be it as a sensei. Be it as a friend. Be it as a chosen family. Be it as a lover. Be it as a mother. I wasn’t able to determine what my love for you was. Until tonight.

It seems that no matter what hat you’re wearing, I love you regardless.

You’re the sensei I love the most. You’re the friend I love the most. You’re my family member I love the most. You’re the lover I love the most. You’re the mother I love the most.

Mom, if I could, I would pester you to marry me until you finally accept. You think the pervert was persistent? Ha! You’ve seen nothing!

Unfortunately for me (at least in that regard), I can’t.

Perhaps in another life if Kami is willing?

I hope so, because a life without you and without your love is not a life I want to live.

Never doubt. Never forget.

I love you.

Riku

Tsunade was one of the most experienced kunoichi in the world. Control of her feelings was something she could do easily. She was more than used to it. Yet as she read more and more the content of the letter, she couldn’t help herself. She cried.

From the happiness the knowledge of her son loving her more than anything gave her and from the fear of losing him in this war.

She read the letter a few more times, focusing on her son’s declaration of love. As she folded the letter and put it under her pillow, she closed her eyes. Her heart getting to one conclusion.

If her son died, she too would burn the whole world down.