章 18: Chapter 18 White Spark Manipulation

"A gift for me?" Fū spoke with curiosity as she looked behind Riku at the wooden box.

"Well, it is your birthday after all." Riku spoke with a soft smile.

Riku moved to the right, making way for Fū to inspect the gift.

"Can I open it?" Fū turned her head and then tilted her head at Riku.

"Of course." Riku replied with a chuckle.

Fū opened the box gently and saw two beautiful sheathed swords and another box at the other end of the box next to the pair of swords.

Fū's eyes widened in excitement while looking at the intricate details of the green sheath, but her excitement was only at the beginning phase.

Opening the smaller box, Fū looked at the two stunning golden pendants depicting a dragon holding a green diamond?

"Wow! Riku, I love it!" Fū jumped up and hugged Riku tightly and even giving him a peck on the cheek.

"I'm glad you like them, but one of the necklaces are for me, so we can be matching. Also since peridot is the gemstone for the month of August, and our birthday is in August…" Riku replied, his face slightly red due to having his somewhat first kiss from a character from his favourite show.

Fū placed the leather lace around her neck and inspected the beautiful small pendant that rested nicely on her collar.

Fū then moved to the swords, unsheathing one of the blades to reveal a beautiful silver blade with small black fragments scattered throughout the blade.

"So pretty…" Fū muttered unconsciously as she inspected the blade that was glistening amongst Riku's flaming butterflies.

Fū sheathed the swords again, but turned to Riku with an embarrassed face, "I don't really know how to use a sword, let alone two…" Fū spoke with an awkward chuckle.

"Haa, I expected as much, and so I had prepared a manual to help you learn a kenjutsu that involves two short swords." Riku spoke with a sigh, he really didn't want to do this. He didn't expect he'd be using swordsmanship from his past life to teach someone destined to die anyways, but he had a soft spot for the girl, and so he handed her a small book titled "Kuroshiro Swordsmanship : Caswell Dual Shortsword Arts."

"Seriously?" Fū looked at Riku with sympathetic eyes, she didn't want him to give her something so precious.

"Yeah, dual wielding isn't really my style anyways. But make sure you never let anyone see this, okay?" Riku made certain that Fū wouldn't let anyone see this kenjutsu, or else the whole shinobi world would be deadly swordsmen!

"But… it's from your family, right?" Fū said softly, looking at Riku with empathy evident in her eyes.

Riku brushed it off, "it's okay, I trust you." Riku replied which made Fū blush slightly.

The Caswell viscount family that worked under the Glacier royal family were an arrogant bunch, they always thought they were superior to everyone thanks to their bloodline being fully ambidextrous, allowing them to dual wield with no difficulty.

Luckily, Riku had fought with the Caswell family well over enough times to plunder their swordsmanship.

As Ren Arden, Riku had the rare talent of being able to read and reproduce the movements of anyone he could see, that being his allies, his enemies and even monsters.

This combined with his strong bloodline and talent for lunar magic he quickly rose up the ranks.

Fū couldn't help but accept bitterly, "Seruously, thank you Riku. No one has ever gotten me such a gift." Fū looked as if she was about to cry, living a life full of grief and then being suddenly showed so much love was difficult to deal with, especially for a child.

Fū ran over and cried in Riku's arms for a couple minutes before she forcefully composed herself and stood up and wiped her tears.

Breaking off Riku's embrace Fū vowed "Alright then! My present to you, is this promise!" Fū spoke, building tension, "I will become a strong Kunoichi and be strong enough to stand next to you!" Fū almost screamed as she vowed to be strong enough to stand equal with Riku.

Riku chuckled, "Okay, Fū, when you become so strong, I'll know and then I'll come and find you!" Riku returned Fū's enthusiasm with equal enthusiasm!

…

The next day, Yuji greeted Riku as he entered Raiden's training ground.

Riku waved at Yuji and grumbled a "Good morning." Riku had barely gotten any sleep last night due to absorbing the chakra from the lightning chakra stone all night.

Yuji noticed the necklace around Riku's neck and inquired, "Where'd you get that shiny thing?" Yuji moved closer to look at the shiny pendant around Riku's neck.

"I made it, I gave one to Fū also for her birthday." Riku looked up at the large Kumarai that had grown to be the same size as Nariko in just a few months.

"Oh? It's my birthday soon can I have one too?" Yuji looked at Riku with his two beady black eyes seemingly attempting puppy eyes.

Riku chuckled and brushed it off with a simple, "Sure man. Wanna spar?" Riku asked, cracking his knuckles.

"You bet!" Yuji had found his sparring with Riku was extremely rewarding.

"Alright, Yuji! Ready to see if you can keep up with me this time?" Riku called out with a playful grin.

Yuji tittered, sparks dancing across his fur. "You know I am always ready, Riku! Just try not to get shocked!" Yuji chuckled.

Riku nodded somewhat resolutely and then dashed, quick and agile, dodging between the trees. Yuji let out a playful roar and charged after him; the white lightning cloak fluttered luminously around him.

"You can't run forever! Lightning strikes fast!" Yuji shouted, releasing a small bolt of white spark lightning manipulation aimed to graze Riku's shoulder. Riku dodged just in time, laughter escaping his lips.

"Nice try, but you'll have to be quicker than that!" Riku teased, leaping onto a low branch to gain height. He looked down at Yuji, who was circling below with a smirk.

"You think you're safe up there? Watch this!" Yuji said, focusing his energy. The white spark cloak began to blaze even brighter as he sprang upward in a burst of energy toward Riku.

"Whoa! Alright, that's awesome!" Riku said, back-flipping off the branch just as Yuji landed where he was standing, causing a slight shockwave in the earth.

"Gotcha! But you're still fleetfooted!" Yuji said, bursting out laughing as he saw the challenge that lay before him.

"Thanks! But I'm not done yet!" Riku declared, focused on gathering his energy to charge at Yuji. In a feint to the left, he suddenly veered right, with a playful punch to Yuji's side.

"Nice try! But that is far from defeating a Kumarai such as I!" Yuji blocked the punch in a playful manner and then the two jabbed and parried each other, laughing all the while.

A little later, an out-of-breath, grinning Riku shouted, "Okay, I give up! You win, Yuji! You're soooo strong~~!" Riku teased.

The smiling Yuji replied, "You're fast, Riku! You could still dodge my attacks despite my white spark cloak, Let's just call it a draw today?"

"Sounds good to me! But next time, I'm definitely bringing my A-game!" Riku said with the fire of competition in his eyes.

Yuji had certainly gotten stronger, strong enough to not get absolutely knocked out by one punch.

Also, Yuji's sensitivity to white sparks is just crazy. He had already mastered White Spark manipulation.

Along with this, Yuji had nearly mastered the Whte Spark cloak in only a few months, a speed even Nariko couldn't compete with.

"Alright!" Yuji clapped his paws as he stared at Riku with determination in his beady eyes, "In the future, let's get married on the same day. I'll take Karah and you can have that Fū girl." Yuji outstretched his fist and got ready to fist bump Riku, expecting him to reciprocate the gesture.

However, Riku burst out laughing and brushed off Yuji's remark, "Yuji… I don't like Fū that way and I'm sure she doesn't like me either. As for Karah, you'll need to at least be stronger than Nariko." Riku teased as he continued to giggle.

Riku obviously knew Fū had some feelings for him, he wasn't blind. Plus, she KISSED him? Who would kiss someone they see as strictly friends, but obviously Riku didn't even attempt to create a relationship with Fū since, you know… she's a kid?

But his face was slightly red due to thinking of an adult Fū wearing a wedding dress, but quickly shook his head. He didn't even know what Fū looked like as an adult, and he probably wouldn't since she was going to die in the future anyway-.

But right then, Riku's eyes widened and his heart began pounding.

His heart felt heavy at the thought of Fū dying, what happened? He thought he had braced himself for this, and yet…

Riku had always thought he was ready for Fū's death, that he had accepted and come to terms with the fact his dearest friend was destined to die.

Riku's two tomoe began to spin as the thought of Fū dying came to his mind again, and his heart felt like it was being squeezed. This made him realise, when it came to Fū… he, actually cared.

…

After a couple hours of chatting, Yuji left the training ground.

Riku suddenly summoned around 40 shadow clones and had them all train the White Spark manipulation.

But even after hours of training even with shadow clones, he couldn't get his white spark manipulation to a satisfactory level, all he could do was infuse twigs with white sparks.

Riku sighed, then talked off to take a quick bath in the lake.

Riku heated up the lake with his mono-flame, then sat in the now warm lake and washed his sweat drenched body.

Twenty minutes of soaking in the hot water, Riku put his ragged clothes back on and yawned before walking back to his personal barrow.

However right before Riku entered his barrow, he heard the rustling of papers in Fū's barrow.

Taking a quick peek inside of Fū's barrow, he saw Fū reading the manual he had gifted her.

Riku smiled softly, but he didn't think this would be enough to keep her safe from the grasp of the akatsuki.

But it would bide her some time for Riku to arrive.

That's right, Riku was no longer just gonna sit by and watch Fū die. She is such a kind soul, she doesn't deserve to die.

She deserves to live.

Riku went back to his barrow, but before he went to sleep, Riku held the lightning chakra stone close, absorbing the pure lightning chakra, his sensitivity to lightning chakra was slowly increasing.

…

A week went by, and Riku's affinity to lightning chakra was still at 5% as you can't train an affinity, but his sensitivity to sensing and controlling lightning chakra within and outside his body, thanks to him absorbing the lightning chakra from the rare lightning chakra stone, his sensitivity has increased dramatically.

But… Riku hadn't seen Fū this whole week, according to Raiden, she had returned to the hidden waterfall village accompanied by Nariko, Riku was slightly disheartened since she didn't even say goodbye, but Riku knew it was for the better.

Later that night, alone on Raiden's training ground, 50 Riku's were spamming white spark manipulation in order to increase his proficiency in white spark manipulation.

And… he had done it! Well, 4 of the 50 shadow clones had achieved a satisfactory level of white spark manipulation, he could pretty much freely manipulate the Yang-Lightning chakra in the air.

Wasting no time, Riku dispelled his shadow clones and resummoned them with the knowledge of white spark manipulation.

Riku was now learning the white spark cloak, which was just condensing the white spark chakra in the air and creating a shroud around his body that worked as both armour and a way to increase his movement speed drastically.

But, Riku was tired and could only train for another two hours.

Heading home, holding the stone, repeat.

This went on for another month as Riku's sensitivity became high enough for him to somewhat use the white spark chakra mode.

…

Just outside the hidden waterfall village, a petite girl with long mint hair and orange eyes that seemed to be missing pupils inspected the village walls.

She looked raggedy and homeless thanks to her dirty burlap clothing, but on her lower back, around her waist area sat two expensive looking beautiful green short swords, and around her neck was a masterfully crafted golden dragon holding a stunning peridot gemstone.

When she entered the village, many people looked at her and whispered, murmurs of "Is that her?" And "Didn't she go missing?" Were heard, and Fū heaved a sigh 'People seriously don't change.', walking deeper into the village. A chūnin academy teacher spotted Fū, and quickly informed Shibuki.

…

And there she stood, cross armed with a 'what are you lookin' at?' Expression on her face in the village head's office.

"Fū… where have you been?" Shibuki asked with genuine concern in his cracked voice.

"Hmm let's see… I got kidnapped by bears trying to save my dragon friend, then learnt the bears were chill so I trained with the bears for a couple months. Oh and that dragon friend also crafted me these two awesome swords and this pretty necklace." Fū answered honestly, her voice childish and innocent while showing off her new equipment.

Shibuki just looked at her with a dumbfounded and unbelieving face, "Forget it. You're okay right?" Shibuki removed his palm from his forehead as he looked at Fū, awaiting her reply.

"Well, I'm not going to see that dragon friend for a while so I'm a bit bummed out… But yeah I'm okay." Fū smiled somberly as she continued her discussion with Shibuki.

…

In the land of river, at the Katabami gold mine a group of kirigakure anbu were investigated a number of traumatised individuals.

"The… The White Wraith will return and kill the rest of us! why else would he leave us alive? He mercilessly slaughtered all of our miners, why would he spare us!" The middle aged man screamed at the masked Anbu before him.

The tall anbu with long green hair sighed, and replied "if you can give me a better description, I can find and kill this 'White Wraith' of yours." He spoke with a cold voice, the two hooked taiji swords at his waist catching the eye of many.

Then, a tall man wearing overalls spoke up, "He was short, like a kid. From what I saw he was quite skinny also, but definitely a kid." The tall man spoke, catching the attention of the anbu.

"He moved extremely fast, and he flew away with two massive black and white wings. He also used this weird black and white fire to cut off the heads of our colleagues." The tall man spoke, his voice cracking every now and again but his willpower was strong enough to not collapse and cry on the spot.

Hearing the description, a hooded man holding a basket of materials flinched, and then quickly fled, leaving the materials behind.

This caught the anbu's attention, he signalled for his squad to follow the hooded man as the tall anbu continued to gather information from the survivors.

…

Mr. Daichi was moving hastily through the woods on the way back to his hut, he was moving fast enough to scare away some animals despite his old age.

He had been shopping for materials to craft himself a homemade kettle after finishing his latest creation.

But he quickly left after hearing the description of the man who had caused the 'great massacre of Katabami gold mine.' Which sounded very similar to Riku, and since he knew Riku would be coming over today he had swiftly left in order to inform Riku of the situation.

He didn't blame little Riku, he was just a kid after all. He probably had a reason for what he did.

Entering his hut and standing against the door, he heaved deep breaths.

However, he heard knocks on his door, and when he opened it…

*BANG*

Mr. Daichi was punched into the inner wall of his hut, causing some trinkets to fall to the floor, Mr. Daichi was old, so he couldn't help coughing up some blood as he looked wide eyed at the intruders.

There was a tall Kirigakure anbu at the front of the intruders, he spoke "What is your relation with this 'white wraith' old man?" The tall anbu spoke with disdain in his voice.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about! Please, let's talk about this… I don't want any trouble!" Mr. Daichi pleaded as the group of anbu approached him slowly.