Chapter 30: Chapter 30 Jiraiya
5 days later,
Riku slowly opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
'Unfamiliar ceiling? Have I reincarnated again?' Riku thought to himself as he painfully sat up.
'Kokuenryū? You there?' Riku thought, asking Kokuenryū.
However, Kokuenryū didn't respond.
Riku quickly got up out of the bed despite the pain, rushed over to a mirror and squinted his eyes, but something was certainly different…
"Haa… I'm okay, good, but... my hair? Why is my hair so short?" Riku played with his now short hair, but then sighed, it wasn't that big of a deal anyways, and so he tried to recall his location.
Riku suddenly heard movement from the other side of the room and he saw a little girl with long pale blonde hair and lavender eyes waking up with a yawn.
"Chiyo?" Riku recalled, he didn't really know this girl since it was Kokuenryū that was with her the most, but those memories were now in his head which was kind of weird.
However, at that moment, the door was flung open and Riku's eyes shot wide open.
'J-Jiraiya?!' Riku thought to himself as he instinctively reached for his sword.
But it was missing!
"Looking for this?" Jiraiya sighed and held out Daichi, looking at Riku with a discerning gaze.
"Uhm, yes." Riku instantly reached out to grab it, after all, this sword meant a lot to him as it was the sword that Mr. Daichi had left him.
Jiraiya, however, lifted the sword up and asked, "Where did you get such a blade? Did you rob someone? Find it on a corpse? It's a very fine blade…" His eyes sharpening while looking at Riku's desperacy.
"My grandfather made it for me before he died, now can you please give it back." Riku's eyes suddenly glowed white and his four tomoe appeared and began spinning.
Jiraiya's eyes sharpened further as he saw the strange pattern reminiscent of a sharingan in this kids eyes.
Riku's gaze widened suddenly and his monoflame began to spark around his body, and Jiraiya, sensing Riku's bloodlust, decided to push this kid further to see what he'd try.
Flames erupted from Riku's body, causing him to scream out in agony.
The black and white fire enveloped Riku and began to catch fire on the nearby furniture, causing Chiyo to scream and Jiraiya's eyes widened, not expecting this kid to go fully kamikaze!
Jiraiya, thinking fast, suddenly used the hand seals,
Ram-Bird-Boar-Monkey-Ram
And spoke, "Water Release, Water Gun!"
Jiraiya's face suddenly bloated and he shot out a wave of high speed water onto Riku, somehow putting out the fire that even the Hokage had trouble putting out.
Chiyo looked over in fear, and Riku was breathing heavily on his knees with third degree burns all over his body.
Riku's eyes widened in shock, 'I thought I was fire proof? What is this…' Riku began to cough up blood, shocking him further.
'And my healing? Why is it taking so long? What's going on…' Riku looked at the burns on his arms that weren't healing as he expected them to.
Jiraiya dropped Riku's sword next to him, crouched down and started to wrap his arms in a bandage, "Haa, such a feisty kid. Sorry for pushing ya." Jiraiya then handed Riku some clothes and told him to go get changed.
Jiraiya wanted to ask him about yesterday, but figured he'd ask another time since Riku looked a bit under the weather.
…
Riku and Chiyo who were both wearing matching loose fitting black t-shirts with black jackets over them, black pants and black sandals were walking side by side behind Jiraiya, who suddenly asked "Where are you both from?" Which left both children a bit… stuck.
Neither of them knew what to say, Riku's home was buried beneath the earth and Chiyo didn't know where her home was.
Riku thankfully had an idea where her home was, so he spoke up, "Ah… we're from the land of demons, Chiyo here is the daughter of the priestess." Riku then looked at Chiyo with a somber smile and she returned it.
Jiraiya stopped in his tracks and looked Chiyo, these kids continued to surprise him.
"Seriously?" Jiraiya asked, but he could tell the kid wasn't lying. The girl certainly looked like she was related to the priestess, Jiraiya had only heard rumours about the beautiful priestess of the land of demons.
However, instead of answering, Riku countered, "First, Why cut my hair?" Riku asked, his face kind of annoyed since he did quite like his long hair.
"Haa, it was getting in the way when I was putting your bandages on." Jiraiya sighed then tilted his head at Riku with a smug expression.
Riku rolled his eyes, 'Ah, so it was jealously… Got it.' the short hair didn't really bother him anyways.
Riku was relatively tall for an eleven year old, being 170cm, This and his body built naturally over the years with combat and building gave him an intimidating figure for his age. Riku, now with short black and white hair could now be seen more clearly. He had long eyelashes and a small nose, the feminine charm was still there but much less then from when he was a kid, his dragon mark on his right cheek was still there and his lips were now much slimmer, lessening his feminine features. But Riku now wore his sword over his shoulder opposed to at his hip.
Chiyo, however, looked exactly like Shion now that she was all cleaned up, She has pale lavender eyes with long blonde eyelashes. This and her messy light blonde hair that falls past her waist made her look quite pretty , she was on the shorter side thanks to malnourishment and was only 156cm tall, this and her skinny body were a stark contrast to Riku's.
"Yeah that's right, will you take us back to the land of demons?" Riku answered, then asked another question.
Chiyo looked at Riku silently, then at Jiraiya, 'Why does he trust this old man so much? Who is he?' Chiyo mused silently.
Jiraiya rolled his eyes then looked at Riku, "Why do you trust me so much?" He asked while giving Riku a bored glance.
Riku suddenly realised he had been way to relaxed, "Oh… I just thought, since you saved us, you'd be a pretty trustworthy guy right?" Riku feigned ignorance, he knew Jiraiya wasn't an evil person and knew he could rely on him.
Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, then said, "You won't go far as a ninja being that trustworthy, kid."
Riku just looked the other way and smiled, "I don't want to be a ninja, I'm more of a Swordsman I guess."
Jiraiya looked at Riku's expression in confusion, 'Why did he look so happy?' Jiraiya thought, 'From what I saw, he's more than qualified in the combat part of being a ninja.'
However, Riku was more focused on something else.
Any civilians that were passing by, every time they entered Riku's line of sight, they all began walking and working backwards, as if a switch had been flicked and made them observe the world backwards.
What was a better way to train Genjutsu than to test it out on the unsuspecting!
Jiraiya noticed, then sighed and spoke, "Hey… stop that." Jiraiya tapped Riku's head, Riku using genjutsu was painfully obvious to someone like him.
"Ah… Sorry." Riku rubbed his head and continued walking with an annoyed expression.
…
…
3 days later,
Otogakure, Orochimaru's lab.
Orochimaru was grinning mischievously and licking his lips as he looked at the man screaming on his operating table.
"WHAT IS THIS!?" Karyū cried, his eyes now that of the Ketsuryūgan, blood red sclera, dark red irises and pink pupils shaped like horizontal rectangles.
Karyū, not being born with the Ketsuryūgan, didn't know how to use or even control it.
And as such, the blood flowing from his eyes began to swirl and fly around the room, destroying anything it flew past in a bloody mess.
Orochimaru didn't stop him or even get upset, he just continued to look at the screaming man with intrigue.
Karyū, thinking of his allies, all of his friends that got killed by that boy… that kid… "I'LL KILL HIM!" All of a sudden, the blood that was flowing from his eyes and the blood splattered around the room began to glow red with orange veins, like molten lava.
The blood suddenly exploded, increasing the amount of blood and even turning it molten.
Orochimaru's eyes lit up and his grin turned inhuman, 'A new kekkei genkai? I've heard of the legendary Ketsuryūgan and the Lava release kekkei genkai, but to think they could synergise in such a way?' Orochimaru's smile widened further.
"I WILL KILL HIM! IF IT'S THE LAST THING I FUCKING DO!" Karyū's missing arm that had been replaced with Hashirama cells began to grow spikes and molten orange cracks formed on his arm as the scattered blood all flowed back into his new arm.
Orochimaru's gaze hardened, 'Could this change be due to emotional turmoil like that of the sharingan?' Orochimaru thought as he analysed Karyū's status.
"THAT BASTARD…" Karyū's tears of blood slowly turned to real tears and his eyes slowly reverted to chino's original lavender hue that matched his purple hair.
"They're all… dead." Karyū began to sob uncontrollably, and Orochimaru's eyes rolled, 'Such emotional instability.' He thought to himself before he took advantage of his unstable emotions and spoke.
"It is completely meaningless to grieve over those who are no longer living. If there's any meaning in death at all, it's to take advantage of it." Orochimaru kept his distance from the unstable Karyū, but his words seemingly made sense and even made Karyū turn his head to look at him.
After all, that is what Karyū had done, he had taken Chino's eyes, the only part of her that survived.
A part of him made him believe that he did it out of respect and wanting Chino to live through him, so she could watch him kill the man that ruined their group of friends.
But another part of him made him believe he did it out of greed, out of jealousy… That battle, he barely did anything to help, he just watched as Chino fought with her life on the line, he felt weak, and so maybe he thought he could have the power he craved through Chino's Ketsuryūgan.
"Please… help me kill that bastard, and my body… my life, my everything is yours." Karyū looked at Orochimaru, his lavander eyes soaked with tears, but his pupils were sharp and determined.
Orochimaru looked to be in thought, 'this young man's body could prove to be a useful vessel… and the experiments could be groundbreaking…' Orochimaru weighed the boons and flaws of this decision.
"He should still be nearby… please…" Karyū begged.
"Very well." Orochimaru licked his lips at the thought of his future prospects.
…
…
The land of fire, somewhere near Valley of the end.
Riku was laying on the grass looking up at the night sky, the stars reminding him of his old lunar magic.
"Heh, that would be really useful here…" Riku chuckled to himself, but he knew having Kokuenryū as a Jinchuriki was better.
Riku heard footsteps and quickly stopped thinking about that topic and then saw Chiyo walking towards him, she sat next to him and looked up at the stars as well.
After a minute of silence, Chiyo suddenly turned red and looked at Riku, "Why were you a cat? And what was that big monster?" Chiyo got straight to the point and looked at Riku with a strange look in her eyes.
Riku's face turned bright red and he looked away and stuttered, "I-I was cursed and turned into a cat by an evil man with a bunch of red eyes on his arm… But after meeting you my curse was gone!" Riku spouted complete and utter bullshit.
But somehow, "Ohh I see! that makes sense!" Chiyo bought it, and looked back up at the stars, "But what about that monster? And why were those people attacking me?" She continued
Riku coughed trying not to laugh at Chiyo's naïveté, but answered, "It was the secret technique of my clan, and those people attacked you because you weren't careful enough when stealing all that food." Bullshitting once again.
The truth is, Riku had no idea what that technique was, but it seems to have left Kokuenryū incapacitated as he wasn't replying nor could Riku use any of the perks granted by being Kokuenryū's Jinchuriki.
For example, Riku was no longer fire proof, his healing factor was drastically weaker, he couldn't use dragon wings or claws otherwise he would've flown away already but since he'd have to walk anyways and since he didn't have his strongest weapon he wouldn't risk going without Jiraiya. And could only access the monoflame by using his Ryūgan, which was much weaker.
Chiyo sat up and looked at Riku with her head hovering above his, "Ha! So we're both from cool clans? That's awesome! But… I don't have to steal food anymore right?" Chiyo grinned, flashing her missing tooth.
Riku chuckled and rolled looked at the red moon, 'Hm? A blood-moon? Interesting…', "Nah, you don't have to worry about food again but… Yeah we are, we have so much in common!" Riku replied sarcastically with a small smile.
"Yeah we're like twins! But I already have a twin though… well we can be triplets then!" Chiyo grinned again, and Riku thought 'With Fū maybe… That grin is engraved into my brain, they seriously have the same smile.' Riku shook his head and sighed.
"Yeah, we can be triplets then." He sighed but ended up chuckling again and sitting up, Riku outstretched his fist, signaling a fist bump.
But Chiyo just tilted her head, but then reciprocated the gesture with an embarrassed smile, "Yay!" Chiyo said while laughing.
Jiraiya looked over from behind a tree with a somber smile on his face, when suddenly…
"Come out." Jiraiya spoke with his gaze hardened.
Orochimaru suddenly appeared from the bushes with his arms in the air, "Haa of course you'd see me… Never rusty eh?" Orochimaru licked his lips.
Jiraiya's gaze turned furious, "What are you doing here, Orochimaru." Jiraiya said, his gaze not moving for a second.
Jiraiya wasn't the only one that suddenly locked in, Riku was currently standing up, looking into the distance.
And sure enough, two blood red eyes stared back at Riku.