Chapter 172: Ryuu vs. Kakashi and Obito! A spar for the ages!
"That weapon looks expensive, can I touch it?"
"Sure, just stay right there!"
Genjiro swung his Katana towards Ryuu and Ryuu stood where he was while it passed through him.
"Come on, is that all you got?" Ryuu asked and dodged.
"If you'd just stay still!" Genjiro swung his Katana toward Ryuu's head.
Cling!
Ryuu quickly unsheathed a Katana and broke his blade.
"Your blade is laced with a special translucent poison from the Aburame clan.
If this enters my system, it will target my bones and bloodstream.
That blade is special because it secretly launches the Poison once you charge your chakra. That's what I've been avoiding."
"But…
How did you know?"
Ryuu pointed to his Sharingan.
"My eyes are your demise."
"Huargh!"
Genjiro looked down and saw a hand holding lightning through his chest.
He looked up and Ryuu vanished into flocks of crows.
"Genjutsu…"
Ryuu pulled his hand from Genjiro's chest and looked back at Koruki, who was holding Ichika by the neck.
"Stay back!"
He was sweating and shaking while holding a tanto blade on Ichika's neck.
"I said stay back or else I'll kill her!"
Ryuu frowned.
"Never touch a single strand of her hair."
Using the seal he placed on her, Ryuu teleported Ichika into his arms.
Koruki was trembling out of fear.
He was sweating, seeing that he had no one to use anymore as a shield.
Ryuu slowly walked towards him.
A liquid stained his pants as Ryuu got closer.
"Damn it!" Koruki swung his stick towards Ryuu, but this time Ryuu caught it.
"You're weak.
Old and useless men like you don't deserve to live." Ryuu said and swung him using his stick.
"Heh…
This is for Kurai." Koruki held Ichika's foot with multiple explosive tags wrapped around his chest.
"Wait!"
Boom!
The tunnel engulfed in flames and crumbled.
Fwoosh!
Ryuu appeared in the forest with Ichika wrapped in his arms.
"Are you alright?"
Ichika weakly nodded.
"I'll be alright."
She looked at his back.
The two Katana Genjiro had were stuck inside Ryuu's back.
"You're hurt."
Ryuu reached for the blood.
He squinted in pain and only stopped after noticing a handful of blood.
Ryuu unsealed Ichika's chakra and then his Sharingan turned off.
'That piece of metal cut deep. He's losing a lot of blood because of this.'
Ichika thought while looking at Ryuu's wounds.
"Ichika."
"Bleurgh!" Ryuu hurled a mouthful of blood.
'The Poison is already in effect.' Ichika thought.
"Damn it Ryuu, can't you let me sleep even for one hour?" Nobu appeared from his body.
Nobu gave Ryuu enough chakra to stay up.
Ichika pulled the metal shard from his back.
"Stay still."
Ichika's hands glowed as she started extracting the poison from his back.
"Ryuu!!!" Kai came running towards him.
He jumped on Ryuu and sat on his head.
Kai saw Ryuu's back and saw Ichika removing the poison.
"You got hurt?"
"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine."
Kai jumped off Ryuu's head and got patted on his head.
"You can go home now.
Take this first."
Ryuu unsealed a bone and gave it to Kai.
"Thanks."
Kai started devouring the bone.
*Poof!*
Kai vanished in white smoke.
"There, all finished."
Ryuu's wounds closed up and Ichika wiped the sweat off her face.
She walked away and started gazing at the stars while Ryuu got up.
"The sky looks amazing tonight."
Ryuu put his arms around her waist and looked up, too.
"Kinda reminds you of something, doesn't it?"
"You asked me out on a night like this.
The stars were so bright.
It was beautiful."
"But I was so nervous, I thought for sure you'd reject me, you know?"
"I was nervous too, every girl in Konoha liked you, and I watched you reject all who asked first.
Plus, I already thought you had someone else."
Ryuu smiled, and Ichika turned to see him.
"I wouldn't want anyone else."
Ryuu leaned in and closed his eyes and Ichika did the same, and they kissed under the gaze of the stars.
Later, Ryuu unlocked the barrier and teleported to the Hokage's office with Ichika.
"Mission was a success," Ryuu said as he kneeled, waiting for new orders.
"So you and Ichika fooled everyone for the sake of a mission?"
"Hokage-sama, it was my idea."
"I'm not mad nor disappointed.
I'm glad, now Ryuu can finally enjoy his break, he was incredibly frustrating when you were gone.
He's just like his father."
Ryuu's head dropped depressingly.
'Father…'
"Sigh…" Sakumo and Ichika sighed, seeing he was still soft on that topic.
After debriefing the mission, Ryuu and Ichika went home.
"We're home!" They both said.
"I'm so tired," Ryuu said and removed his shoes.
"I'm going to train a little more, I've become a little slower than usual.
See you when I'm back.
Goodnight."
"Yawn…" Ichika yawned and went up the stairs.
"Good night." She said as she entered the room.
Nobu reappeared from Ryuu's body.
"Hey." Ryuu looked at Nobu.
"Some help you've been on this mission.
I could've used you, you know?" Ryuu folded his arms.
"I saved your life, you idiot."
"Yeah, after risking it by telling Ichika."
Nobu scoffed.
"Quit bitching. I thought you should know something before you leave.
The control of my power is getting better, I can now harness the offensive power of Phoenix Flame. I still cannot control the defensive power or the healing factor for you, but it's getting easier.
Soon, I'll be fully powered."
Ryuu nodded.
"When the day comes to get my power back, I'll be ready.
We'll be ready." Nobu nodded.
"For now, I'm going to go work on my reaction speed, I've become slower.
I should've saved Ichika without getting hurt." Ryuu left his room and headed to his training grounds.
While he was at the training grounds, he found Kakashi and Obito training together, they'd usually train here because the other training grounds were overbooked.
'Hand-to-hand combat?
Ever since I implanted Hashirama cells into Kakashi, he's been more on par with Obito.
His strong suit has always been his intellect instead of pure power, even though that helped a lot, few would've gotten this far given his abilities and skills.'
Kakashi went for a leg sweep and Obito jumped back and threw kunai in his direction.
Obito's eyes widened at seeing his kunai hit Kakashi.
His eyes widened further, seeing Kakashi's body turn to water.
"What?!" Obito looked back, feeling Kakashi's kunai on his back.
"When did you…?"
"Your visual genjutsu is just as bad as when we were kids, Obito."
Obito frowned.
"Kakashi, that doesn't even make sense, I didn't have visual genjutsu back then."
"Exactly, you're just as bad as you were when you had no visual genjutsu."
"What?!" Obito clenched his fist.
"Let's go one more round! I'll kick your ass! Kakashi!" Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Obito, it's 11 to 8, you aren't beating me in a fight. Not for a long time.
Besides, Ryuu's here."
Ryuu dropped from the tree.
"You saw me?"
"I smelled you, you reek."
Ryuu's head dropped depressingly.
"Jeez, what a friend you are… I almost died in the sewer, you know."
"Oh, hey Ryuu! You came from a mission?"
"Yeah, I dropped here to train with you guys… that's if you don't mind, you know." Kakashi nodded.
"I look forward to seeing what special combos you two have come up with since last time, it's been years since we did this."
Ryuu said as he took a kunai from his pocket and faced them.
"Alright! Let's go!"
They charged at each other, and Ryuu threw a kunai toward Kakashi.
Kakashi absorbed it into Kamui.
"Fireball jutsu!" Obito shot out a giant fireball.
"Water dragon jutsu!" Ryuu shot a giant dragon toward their fireball.
"Kamui!" Ryuu's dragon got pulled into Kamui.
Ryuu's eyes widened as he was just an inch from the Fireball before teleporting behind Obito.
"Chidori stream!" Ryuu charged his Chidori and went for both Kakashi and Obito, lightning sparked around them both but Obito took Kakashi into Kamui.
He swung him back, and Kakashi kicked Ryuu.
"Ugh!" Ryuu tried grabbing Kakashi's legs but passed through him.
'Alright then.' Ryuu's eyes spun and formed his Mangekyou.
Ryuu snatched Kakashi and Obito out of Kamui.
He threw three shurikens toward them while making two clones.
One shuriken went above them, the other two went beside them.
"Flying Raijin: Rasengan barrage!"
Ryuu and his clones teleported to all Kunai and slammed his Rasengan toward them both.
Boom!!!
A shock wave was sent and blew the trees away.
"You didn't have to hit us that hard…" they said while on the ground.
"That Kamui combination attack was creative indeed, especially the Fireball jutsu one.
Anyone else would've died immediately, you know.
Although, that one where you spun Kakashi around, attempting to kick me seems impractical in an actual battle unless, of course, Obito was also in Kamui, but sadly, you weren't, I'm as real as it gets in fighting.
Anyway, I think you two should get better, especially my last move. It's only Minato's, but faster and stronger."
Ryuu kept on talking about their training.
"He completely ignored us…" Kakashi stated.
"Yeah, he'll never change, this is vintage Ryuu."
Kakashi stood up and helped Obito up too.
"My last point is, Kakashi, you and Obito still have some work to do, I'll take some of your shifts so that you can practice more, and…" Ryuu looked at Kakashi and Obito, who were chuckling.
"Huh?"
"It's nothing." Kakashi said to Ryuu.
"Come on, just tell me already."
Ryuu continued nagging them while they left the training grounds.
"Ryuu, you still do that thing where you get carried off and start mumbling, or you worry too much.
It's not our fault it happens, just deal with it yourself." Kakashi said while they walked away.
"Stop trying to ignore me, Kakashi!"
Kakashi continued walking.
Obito laughed at Ryuu.
Ryuu scoffed at the two of them as they passed through the living room.
'Well, they aren't fighting, that's an improvement, isn't it? Big bro?'
Ryuu looked at the framed team 7 picture.
"Hey, let's go for some Ichiraku Ramen."
"Yeah," Obito said.
"Sure," Kakashi said.
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