Chapter 88: Another round of training

The environment Riku had met Hagaromo had changed. The latter had turned the endless void into a starry sky. The water flooding the hard floor disappeared and was replaced by short, lush green grass. A small campfire had been added for the atmosphere, or so Hagoromo said.

Riku was currently sitting on his ass, his legs in the lotus position. His eyes were closed and his hands were forming a rat seal. Hagoromo was facing him, still floating a bit above the ground. His staff wasn’t in his hand anymore but instead laying across his lap.

“Remember. Yin release is about imagination, about creativity.”

Riku made no indication that he had heard his current mentor. Instead he channelled the Yin chakra he had into his finger tips. Separating his hands, he placed them as if he was holding a ball. Fingers spread and slightly flexed. A bit of space was between them.

His chakra, usually of forest green color, was pure black. Not like Riku could tell with his eyes closed but to Hagoromo it was proof that his student had succeeded in using Yin chakra. Black being its usual color.

Right there, the chakra moved from the palm of each hand to coalesce at the center of the empty space. It was shapeless at first, constantly changing form perpetually. Soon enough, however, the chakra began to flatten, its fluctuations decreasing noticeably.

With more cohesion, the chakra started to take shape and hardened. Slowly the form of a vertical disc. Bit by bit its edge smoothed until it was without any bumps or mishaps while still keeping on flattening.

Hagoromo didn’t move a single muscle but inwardly he was praiseful. Riku had been at it for some time now and only then was he finally able to create and manipulate Yin chakra into a shape. To the sage it was clear that his chakra control was nearly perfect as the time he had expected for Riku to reach this stage was greater. Under his three eyes the disc slowly became real and tangible. Like a real object.

It was only when the disc fell onto Riku’s lap that he stopped using chakra and opened his eyes. Had he not been a spirit or a soul he was sure he would be sweating profusely by now. The amount of focus and control he was calling forth was something he had never done before. It helped that without a body, there was no physical energy and yang chakra involved. He didn’t dare imagine how much more difficult it would have been with it involved.

Picking up the disc with one hand, he examined it under every angle.

“You did well.” Hagoromo praised.

Riku sighed in discontentment, “Yin chakra is so difficult to channel.”

“Practice is everything.” Hagoromo replied with wisdom.

“I’m well aware. I mastered the five elements but this… Not even fire gave me so much trouble. It’s so… unintuitive.”

“Probably because as a Senju you’re more attuned to Yang chakra.”

Letting out a disgruntled grunt, Riku went back to practice. Fortunately he had nothing but time.

“Are you fine with swearing? Because I want to swear my frustration away.”

Hagoromo chuckled, his amusement evident. Riku could now create more than simple shapes. Once he was able to make a disc in less than a second, something which took way too much time in his opinion, he tried something a bit more complex. A triangle. Only when he was able to make one with whatever angle types he wanted did he finally graduate to square.

So on and so on each new angle to add took less time and was easier. Not because it was simple in itself but because Riku had more experience with it. He cursed, not for the first time, his lack of body. Without it, he couldn’t make shadow clones to speed up the training. The last time he had trained like this he had been twelve and freshly out of the Academy.

Once he was out of two dimensional shapes to make, he started with three dimensional ones. The sphere hasn’t been too much of a problem. He had mastered the rasengan to the point it became a second nature even though he rarely used it preferring his explosive strength instead. The cube and its variants had taken more time as it was more difficult to properly define the right angle. He got it though. In his estimate, that part of his training had been the longest and most tedious so far.

Currently, Riku was trying and spectacularly failing in making a small statue of his mother. The proportions were all wrong and it frustrated him to no end. More not doing proper justice to Tsunade than actually screwing it up.

“I do not, no. Swear all you want.”

With Hagoromo’s permission, Riku took a very deep breath, exhaling through his nose. He waited for his lungs to fill at maximum capacity when he remembered that in the state he currently was in, he didn’t need to breathe. Smacking his forehead he simply cursed.

“Fucking chakra bullshit! Fuck your dad! Fuck your mom! Fuck your sisters and brothers! Fuck your whole family up to the ninth generation with a rusty kunai dipped in vinegar!” He threw his hands in the air out of frustration and let himself fall onto his back.

The sage couldn’t help himself and laughed without restraint. “You chose this.” He reminded his student.

Riku’s eye ticked violently, sending a murderous glare at his ancestor who found nothing but amusement at his plight. “What talent in rubbing salt in the wounds.”

Sighing, he stayed silent for a moment, enjoying the peace and quiet of his surroundings. He needed a break. A real break, to change his mind from his current predicament.

“Want to talk about fuinjutsu?” He inquired.

“Why not? While I learned a lot by watching the Uzumaki and can replicate their feats, some concepts are still beyond me.”

“Oh?” Raising to a sitting position, Riku looked with both curiosity and excitement at the Sage.

“I’m curious about the working of the hiraishin. I understand how it works, myself using a similar technique from time to time but I let chakra realize my desire. I do not know the inner workings.”

“Mathematics aside, which I admit are a bit complicated, the way it works is actually very simple. It’s just-”

Hagoromo stepped into the area where he had left Riku training. His mood was down but the sight of his student succeeding in making a balloon out of Yin chakra raised it up.

“How was it?” The dirty blonde asked while still keeping his focus on enlarging the balloon slowly.

After sighing, Hagoromo shook his head. “Today she finally spoke. Only to curse me.”

“Don’t be so down. It’s progress.”

That was true. In terms of time, Hagoromo had spent three decades visiting his mother in her prison in total. She had never uttered a single word, simply glaring at him, hoping looks could kill. He had apologized of course. Plenty of times. Not for sealing her but for never visiting. He had talked about his children and grandchildren, he had talked about his travel, family and his legacy. On top of that questions were asked about her goals when she was still walking the earth and her stance on the Otsutsuki clan. All the time, she stayed mute. That is until today. Kaguya had called him a ‘betrayer’.

It had stung but it was the truth.

“Finally!” Riku exclaimed, letting himself fall onto his back, legs and arms spread.

He had just finished his latest creation. The most difficult and complex to date. A reproduction of Konoha with the most details possible. It was a small scale model of course. Mainly the reason why it had been so difficult. Nevertheless it was a resounding success.

“Congratulations.” Hagoromo praised genuinely.

Riku raised his head to look at the man. “Thank you.” Sitting up he gave one last look at this masterpiece. He would definitely make another for real once back in the Village.

“I believe you’re ready.”

Nodding, Riku got on his feet. “I believe so too. Although… I haven’t learned ninshu yet.”

Hagoromo waved his hand to dismiss this concern. “You’ve been here, away from your loved ones long enough.”

“True.” Riku let out a sigh of surrender.

“It’s not like you need me for it. Ninshu is all about opening your heart and using chakra to communicate what’s in it. You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”

Riku gave the man the brightest of smiles he could muster. “Good luck with your mom.”

Hagaromo raised his staff and gave a short bow of acknowledgement. “Thank you.” Follow current novels on novel[f]ire.net

The butt of the staff hit the grass and the next thing Riku knew was that he was opening his eyes. His vision was blurry but he recognized Karin’s magnificent red hair. He felt her wrist in his mouth and the familiar warm chakra of his wife entering his body. It was healing at a very fast rate and his chakra reserve filled back up from the critical low they were.

When his eyes focused again, he searched for Karin’s. Not a difficult thing to do as they were fixed on his.

‘God, despite all the bullshit she made me go through, I love that woman.’

When he felt his body whole, he freed her arm from his mouth with one hand, grabbed the back of her head with the other and pulled her down for a toe curling kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth straight away and began to playfully caress hers.

Karin had been surprised by the out of the blue gesture and had protested for a whole second. Afterward she got into it with gusto.

*Ahem*

The married couple frowned but put an end to their lovey dovey moment. Looking in the direction of the person having cleared their throat, Riku saw Hiruzen in his battle gear, looking at them with solemnity.

“I know that we have time on our side with the Time Seal but we need to talk and plan. The loss of Naruto and the Kyubi is-”

A loud gasp of air came from behind the Sandaime who turned around. Kushina’s shout of her son’s name in relief with a teary face was revealed to Riku. Questions began running through his mind and he needed answers.

“Nevermind.” Hiruzen said and Karin immediately went back to kissing her husband. “This is not what I meant!”

The old man’s shot of outrage and disbelief prompted the young Uzumaki to use her chains to tie and gag him. She had nearly lost her husband, barely bringing him back from death’s door and she needed to feel him and his love to know that him being alive was real.

“Sorry about that, Sarutobi-sama.” She said without an ounce of remorse for her action when she put an end to the kiss and released the man.

Riku raised himself from the bed, taking Karin with him while looking at Hiruzen. “I’m going to need a status report. Starting with, why are you here and not in Konoha?”

Karin and Hiruzen exchanged a knowing look and Riku just knew it would be a long conversation.