บท 15: Chapter 15 Armour

"W-what the hell is this!" Nariko shouted, his body being pushed to the ground.

Then, Riku's eyes snapped open with a sharp gasp as he collapsed to his knees.

The black and white chakra retreating back within him.

*And with that, my power has fully returned.* Kokuenryū told Riku, like he didn't just force the strongest Kumarai and his children to their knees.

Kokuenryū had absorbed the chakra and power of Raiden, his family and even Chōmei in order to hasten his power in returning.

"This feeling?" Riku spoke, his attention shifting to his chakra surging.

'It had… tripled? What in the world?' Riku thought with his eyes wide.

Then, Riku returned to reality as, "I apologise!" Riku shouted, placing his head on the floor.

How could he not? The Kumarai had helped him so many times and he had nearly depleted their entire chakra reserves out of the blue.

"Raise your head, Riku, it is my fault for not being able to resist such a force, if anything I'm proud to have such a powerful contractor!" Raiden replied with a smile, returning to his feet.

"I still apologise, I was careless." Riku apologised profusely with a flushed face.

'What the hell was that? Who is this Kokuenryū? I've never heard of such a beast, let alone a god?' Raiden thought as he sat back upright, his chakra was low due to the creature within Riku draining and absorbing his chakra.

Regaining his bearings, 'We both know damn well you're not a god.' Riku thought, he couldn't resist the urge to take a jab at Kokuenryū.

*Well, I am the only dragon of this world. So there is no dragon god.* Kokuenryū replied smugly, as if it was common knowledge and Riku was dumb for not thinking of that.

Karah stood up, her chakra almost fully depleted as she looked at Riku from the back, her eyes squinted as she analysed his shoulder-blades seemed to be twitching wildly and poking through his clothes.

'What the heck was that…' both Karah and Nariko thought, neither of them thought that Riku was containing such a devastating beast within.

As for Fū,

'So cool!! I'm a Jinchuriki too, so will I be able to do that one day as well?' Fū thought, her eyes glowing and her chakra still pretty high at 73%, Kokuenryū's chakra was high, yes. But compared to the likes of Chōmei? Kokuenryū was certainly stronger but Chōmei had way higher chakra capacity.

'Maybe not to that level, but I could probably develop a way to use something similar…' Chōmei thought. Fū had yet to be able to communicate with Chōmei, but Chōmei's bubbly and kindhearted personality lead it to go easy on it's Jinchuriki.

Despite this, her ability to fly was something she had always been able to do due to being the Jinchuriki of a bug-type tailed beast, she retained some traits of a bug, her eyes were slightly bug like and she could even exhale a poison mist from her mouth which was a trait of a bug, as was her ability to manifest Chōmei's wings.

Riku rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly.

…

The Hokage building, Konoha.

"Any news regarding the Kuroshiro kid? It's been 5 months so I'd assume someone has seen him right?" Hiruzen asked shikaku, Hiruzen had almost forgot about the kid, but remembering the torture and interrogation building that was burnt to ash by a fire not even he could put out easily, the image of the cute yet deadly young Kuroshiro child came to mind.

"There has been new information about him, Hokage-sama." Shikaku replied, building suspense.

"Go on." Hiruzen spoke.

"His full name is Riku Kuroshiro, he was seen by two Sunagakure ninja and one of our spies planted in Sunagakure got this information and confirmed it to be true. 4 months ago, a high-ranking bounty-nin specialising in water jutsu going by the name of "Kaitoh." Went missing after going after the child. Further investigation lead to his location being revealed; he was last seen near the border between the land of fire and the hidden waterfall village." Shikaku pulled out a report and explained the details to Hiruzen, leaving Hiruzen in a dazed state.

!!!

"Should we… increase the bounty?" Hiruzen asked while massaging his temples.

"It would be doable, but we're not in the best position right now after the Uchiha incident…" Shikaku replied.

"Very well, 12,000,000 Ryō would be perfect, but change the dead or alive to only alive. I'd like to experiment." Hiruzen spoke before getting back to his work.

…

Outside of the Kumarai chief, Raiden's office. A large Kumarai that was even nearly as large as Nariko despite his apparent young age stood.

He had spiky fur and on his back was a pattern of a downwards arrow.

(Author note, I know I said sword but it's more like an arrow.)

This was Yuji, the Kumarai that Riku had beaten into submission 5 months ago, now he had seemingly changed.

In his large paw he held a bouquet of wildflowers as he sat patiently outside of the barrow.

And then…

Karah exited the barrow while breathing heavily, followed her brother, Nariko…

Then…

Riku Kuroshiro? The kid that had beaten him? And then after Riku some other human child exited the barrow.

"Ehem!" Yuji cleared his throat, "Lady Karah! I have brought you a gift!" Yuji spoke loudly, his black nose twitching and his fur standing on end.

"Oh, um. Thank you, Yuji." Karah replied with a smile as she held the bouquet of wildflowers in her paws.

Riku looked over at the large Kumarai that was giving flowers to Karah and actually recognised him. 'Arrogant guy?' Riku thought, but the Kumarai before him was certainly not arrogant, had Riku punched some normalcy into him? Also, 'what the hell!? How did he grow even taller in such a small amount of time? He's almost as big as Nariko and he's a whole 28 years younger!' Riku couldn't help but be seriously impressed, someone that wasn't related to Raiden and didn't have the genes of Raiden having so much potential? Wow.

After Yuji geeeted Nariko, he moved towards Riku.

When he did, he kneeled and apologised "Forgive my ignorance!" He shouted, even scaring away some birds.

??!!

"Hey, hey!" Riku replied, caught off guard by the large Kumarai just running over and screaming, "Y-you can get up, it's okay!" Riku said half shouting with his face flushed red in embarrassment.

???

"Really?" Yuji spoke as he stared straight at Riku, being kneeled was being on Riku's eye level unsurprisingly.

"Yeah you're forgiven." Riku replied with a sigh, he didn't expect this arrogant guy to be so docile.

Yuji sighed, then asked "is there anything I could do to make up for it? I'd do anything!" He spoke as he stood back up.

Riku thought for a moment, but then he answered. "Make a summoning contract with me." Riku spoke clearly, he had realised the potential that this Kumarai had, being almost as big as Nariko at such a young age. With the right training he could be on par if not stronger than even Raiden!

!!!

"A summoning contact? With me?" Yuji asked dumbfoundedly, the same guy that had defeated him so easily wanted to summon him?

Nariko thought the same thing, as did Karah.

"I can see that you have a lot of potential, so this is a bit of investment." Riku replied with a grin.

…

Later that night, far within Kumarai territory in a forest away from the village.

"Won't your village be worried if you stay here?" Riku asked, his voice low but clear enough for the little girl to hear.

"They barely care about me anyways, I'm much happier here." Fū brushed Riku's concern away just like that.

Riku's face didn't change, "The whole world will go into a frenzy if one of the Jinchuriki of a tailed beast just suddenly disappeared." Riku spoke again in a hush tone.

Fū crossed her arms, "Well the whole world can go into a frenzy for all I care. If they care so much about my existence then why treat me as if I'm a monster my whole life, if I'm so important, then I should be treated like royalty, not a slum rat on the street." Fū replied, her tone serious but with a hinge of sadness within.

Ah… Riku felt that right in the chest.

"I… apologise, I didn't know ." Riku spoke softly.

"It's okay, we should head back." Fū replied, before she began walking.

*Riku, prepare yourself.* Kokuenryū suddenly spoke, leaving Riku in a daze before…

*CRACK*

*CRUNCH*

Riku's face convulsed, "AGGHHHH!" then releasing a gut wrenching scream.

Fū quickly turned around to see…

Riku on the ground screaming as his whole body began to twitch uncontrollably.

Riku began bleeding from every orifice as he continued to scream.

His teeth became so sharp they cut into his lips, his shoulder blades began to crunch and crack as two large black wings pulled out of his back in an explosion of blood.

Riku screamed even louder now that his back and face became fountains of blood.

Kokuenryū's power being fully back meant that Riku's regeneration had vastly improved, but this was too much to regenerate in such a short time.

Black and white flames began to spew from his mouth as he screamed "FŪ! GET BACK!" As he cried for Fū to run away, Fū couldn't help but just freeze in shock as she watched Riku that was in so much agony.

Riku's nails became so sharp and tough they were digging into and even crushing the stone beneath him.

Riku's hand began to grow what seemed to be scales as the black and white scales began to run up his arms, down his body, his legs and all the way up his neck and stopping at his jaw.

Riku's once grey eyes were now a striking white with an interesting pattern, his sclera black and his hair almost fully white with only a few black strands remaining.

His pain subsided and soon enough so did his cries.

…

Riku stood up after ten minutes of agony, he looked at Fū across from him, teary eyed.

"Riku..?" Fū spoke, her voice a whisper, she was scared.

"Fū." Riku replied, his voice deep and raspy.

He looked down at his hands, long sharp claws replaced his fingernails and his hands and arms were all covered in black and white checker pattern scales.

'The hell is this?' Riku thought to himself as he examined his upgraded hands.

*Hmm… you look exceptional now! Those claws are beautiful! Magnifique!* Kokuenryū screamed like a fangirl looking at Riku's new scale armour.

'Did you do this, Kokuenryū? What is this?' Riku thought, looking behind him at the pair of wings behind him.

*Hmph, You should be thanking me. This is an application of my power, after discovering that I could grant you the ability to breathe my flames and even use my regeneration. So why not give you access to my scales and wings?* Kokuenryū spoke arrogantly, before adding *I could've done this sooner, but my power hadn't fully returned and I was afraid of it putting a strain on me. But now that I'm fully rejuvenated I can use my powers without it putting as much of a strain on me.* Kokuenryū added, making Riku feel more comfortable using this power.

'Wow, when did you have time to think about all of that?' Riku asked, genuinely curious.

*I have been here for 5 months, doing completely nothing in your soul space, all I could do was think.* Kokuenryū replied, with a straight tone.

'Sorry about that..' Riku replied with a chuckle.

___

Fū ran over and hugged Riku tight, catching him off guard.

"What was that! Riku what happened to your body?!" Fū cried in Riku's arms as she begged for answers.

The scales on Riku's body seemed to retreat to his back, where the two large wings shrunk and retreated back into his shoulder blades.

Riku fell to the floor with a deep breath.

'That is REALLY taxing on my energy, phew.' Drawing out a deep breath, Riku supported himself with Fū's shoulder.

"That was… an ability created my sealed beast it seems, he used it out of the blue so it caught me completely off guard." Riku answered Fū's earlier question with deep breaths.

*Not even a thank you? I've gifted you a beautiful scale armour and even wings.* Kokuenryū spat, clearly agitated by Riku's lack of appreciation.

'You caused me great agony, and I'm yet to actually use the ability in battle so I'm not sure it's even efficient.' Riku spat back, still annoyed at Kokuenryū's ignorance.

Fū looked at Riku, who seemed in deep thought and gave him another tight hug.

"It's okay, Riku, I'm here. And I will protect you." Fū vowed, which warmed Riku's heart.

However.

Riku knew that Fū wouldn't be the one protecting, after all, akatsuki was going to hunt her down sooner or later and Riku needed to be prepared to fight someone as strong as pain if it came down to it.

Riku reciprocated Fū's hug, his eyes had changed, they were no longer reptilian, instead they had a strange pattern?

Riku's old grey eyes were gone, replaced with pure white eyes with a spiked pattern black outline. As for his pupil, it remained slit but either side of the slit were two black tomoe reminiscent of a sharingan. His hair had returned to its equal 50% black 50% white but his teeth remained sharpened.

Rough image of eyes here -