Chapter 17: From Mountain to Mountains Range

A couple days after his promotion, Riku went on a mission with Kotetsu and Izumo. The two best friends got tired of gate duty and since their favorite kid was now of the same rank as them, it was the perfect opportunity to get away from the village. They had to go to a small town called Tsuno to buy some materials for the reconstruction of Konoha. Because of its location Tsuno was more of a big warehouse than a town. Anything going somewhere in the Land of fire went through that town. By tree hoping the trip would take two days, which gave them ample time to laze around because the materials were not there yet and would arrive at the end of the week.

When they reached their destination, Izumo and Kotetsu went their way and Riku, his, only because the latter wasn’t interested in going to a hostess bar. While puberty had started a while ago for the young thirteen years old, he wasn’t yet hormonally crazed by lust.

Instead he used his time to look around the town. There were more bars and shops and inns than actual houses or apartment buildings. He guessed that because nobody ever stayed for long in this transit town, it was more business oriented than community oriented. He saw plenty of different kinds of people including some that came from outside the Land of Fire if the white haired, dark skin pair of merchants discussing with a pale blond was any indication. From what he had learned at the academy, the odds were high that those merchants came from the land of Lightning. Of course merchants were not the only kind of people he came across. So far he counted thugs, mercenaries, repo-men, debt collectors, bookers and so many more.

After an hour or two strolling all around Tsuno, Riku decided to take a break and to enter an establishment that was both a bar and restaurant. The sun had begun to set and people, families from what Riku could see, were already in there. It wasn’t big and there weren’t many in his opinion but there were more than enough that only one free seat was left at the counter. Before anyone could come in and take it, Riku sat on the unoccupied stool. The bartender or waiter (Riku didn't know which it was in this kind of place) behind the counter greeted him and he went for a simple donburi. Everything would have been perfect if not for  the person sitting on his left.  The blond woman was quite loud and clearly inebriated a bit. When she asked or rather shouted for another bottle of sake, he had had enough. Turning towards her, he called her out.

“Can you quiet down, plea-” He began to say with authority but froze mid sentence when he realized who that woman was. “You’re-” He didn’t finish this sentence either when the woman’s hand found itself against his mouth, prohibiting him from saying another word.

“Just my luck.” the blonde muttered under her breath. “Listen here, kid. You didn’t see me. I was never there. Okay? Do that and you won’t be going home on a stretcher. Got it?”

Riku, still a bit in shock with eyes bigger than the saucer the woman was using, nodded slowly. After a few more moments, the blonde woman removed her hand from his lips.

“Good boy.” was all she said and served herself another drink from the new bottle the bartender brought her.

“Eh… Could you…”

“What?!” the woman interrupted with irritation. All she wanted was to drink herself to oblivion after the bad day and bad luck she had.

“Sign my copy of ‘Medicinal plants and poison for dummies’, and ‘Anatomy: How to not give yourself a surprise colonoscopy’ please?

“...”

She looked at him with an unreadable face. He thought he saw a bit of surprise but also annoyance but he wasn’t sure. Her poker face was that good. After a moment of very awkward silence, she simply raised her hand, palm up.

“Gimme.”

Immediately and with giddiness, Riku pulled out his book of seal from his back pouch to unseal the two books he named, however it instantly disappeared from his hands for the woman’s. She opened it without even looking and made a gesture for a pen. When her eyes saw a seal on the very first page, she frowned in confusion.

“What’s this?”

“My book of seals. My copies are page 8.” Riku answered simply.

Curious, the blonde turned the pages one by one and went past the right page. It was slow at first but since on each page was a storage seal, albeit a bit different and more complex, the more pages she turned the faster she was.

“Is this thing a standard now?” she inquired a bit impressed by the ingenuity.

“No. Though the Hokage is testing it with Anbu. It probably will be standard soon.”

“Anbu? How do you know about that? You don’t look like Anbu to me. Too short and scrawny.”

“First off, I’m thirteen. Not short nor scrawny. Second, I was the one who created it and a bunch of other things for them, so I’m privy to this information.” he answered her with a frown of his own.

“You?” she asked with a bit of doubt in her voice. Riku simply nodded in confirmation.

She said nothing for a moment then went back to page 8 from which she activated the storage seal. Half a dozen books popped out. Picking them one by one to find the two she needed to sign, she noticed they were all medicine books. Every single one of them.

“Want to be a medic-nin, huh?”

“The best in the world. Then Hokage.”

She snorted when she heard that. For both goals. The first one implied he would become better than her, the second was just a joke in his opinion.

“Give up kid.” she began as she picked the pen he had given her and began to sign the books. “*I*am the best medic in the world and Hokage is a job for fools. You’d only get an early death.”

“Surpassing you is not even a challenge. You’ve done nothing for the past twenty years and everyone else is either too dumb to do their own research, content with what you did or too busy worshiping your achievements. Lastly, Hokage is not a job for fools. It’s a job where at least you get to die for something greater than we are as individuals. Better that than live for nothing like you did for nearly half your life.”

Her words had irked him badly. Very badly. It was understandable, she was mocking his dreams. That was why his mouth ran before his brain could work. The blonde froze in the middle of putting her signature on the second book. Her body began to emit killing intent in waves. Each wave more potent than the previous one.

“You have one chance to take back your words, kid.” she said in a dark and threatening voice. The whole establishment became quiet when they all felt her murderous intent but her words made everyone bail out of there on the spot. Not like Riku and she even noticed. They were too focused on each other.

“Give it to someone who cares or lacks guts.”

She turned around a bit to face him. A silent staring contest began. Glare against glare. Anger meeting anger. Murder meeting murder. Finally, after what felt like an hour but was actually a minute, Riku struck first.

“Why are you even alive? What’s the point? From what I heard, you don’t see any future for you. Is it because you’re too much of a coward to off yourself? Or because you’re scared of what your loved one would-”

For the third time since the conversation began, Riku was interrupted mid sentence. This time however was different. The woman didn’t cut him off. No. She punched him right on the chest and sent him flying through the wall. He landed across the street and impacted the wall of another shop and fell to the ground face first.

‘Damn! She’s fast!’

He picked himself quickly despite the pain and spat the blood that had reached his mouth onto the ground.

“This kind of anger… Only truth can bring it out. Guess I touched a sore spo-.”

He jumped to the side, barely dodging an axe kick that left a small crater where he had just been standing. Later, with hindsight, he realized that he’d been quite lucky, because his legs were shaking quite a bit.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, kid. You shouldn’t have run your mouth.”

“I know the old monkey sent your teammate to bring you back so you could wear the hat. I think he’s crazy. You’re clearly not suited for the job. You don’t care about anyone. Not even yours-”

This time he had to block. The punch came way faster. It was the only thing he could do, his legs not responding properly. With the hit he took to the chest he was unable to breath properly and steel himself. When her fist collided with his forearms he had quickly crossed defensively in front of him, they fractured. The one in front taking the most damage. Again he was sent flying. A few dozen feet backward this time. He still picked himself up or rather tried. With his broken arms that was difficult. Fortunately his blonde opponent helped him with that. Unfortunately it was by grabbing him by the throat.

“You really have a death wish.”

“I… don’t. But if I have to go, I’d go on my terms and true to myself.” was his reply and she began to squeeze his neck. “It’s funny. If you wish to… die so much… Hokage is the job for you… Heard they die… early. Your… family…’d be… proud. You’d… liv… for.. So… thing.” The harder she squeezed the harder it was for him to talk.

He knew he was about to die if he didn’t do something. He didn’t feel his legs anymore so kicking her in the womb area was out.that left only punching and he had one fractured arm and another with bones badly bruised. In a last ditch effort. He gathers medical chakra in the hand of the latter. His last chance was a jutsu that he had been working on in secret behind the Hokage’s back. Only it wasn’t working properly. The magnitude of what he wanted to do necessitated more knowledge and experience in the medical field to advance quickly and he didn’t have that at the time. Beggars can’t be choosers however and he went with this incomplete technique before it was too late. He was already losing consciousness because of the lack of air.

Raising his fist, he put it right in the middle of the woman’s bountiful cleavage. There had been no strength behind it, he didn’t have it anymore but that was alright. His jutsu didn’t need strength, it wasn’t about it. Unfortunately for him what he had hoped to happen didn’t and as a result darkness took him.

The woman stopped squeezing however. Shocked by what he had tried to do. She had felt it. She had felt the medical chakra enter her body. It did something, she was sure of it but she didn’t know what. It wasn’t bad, that she could tell at the very least. Before she could try to find out what he had done exactly, her thoughts were interrupted.

“Riku?!” / “Tsunade-sama?!”

Turning to the side she saw three people, looking at her. The first was her own apprentice, Shizune. She was holding her pet pig Tonton in her arms, smothering him between her breasts and had looked of worry on her face. The other two were clearly chunin from Konoha from the symbol on their head protector. They were frozen on the spot. Jaws hitting the ground; eyes as big as saucers. A good example for the description of a shocked expression. They didn’t even notice the ice cream they were holding melting and running down their hands.

Turning back to take a look at the unconscious dirty blonde in her hand, Senju Tsunade began to think again.

___________________________________________________________________

When Riku came to, the first thing he saw was the sky. Then the pain hit him like a brick in the face. His left arm was pulsing and the ache came and went. His torso felt the same. Confused, it took him a moment to remember that he got his ass handed to him.

‘By Senju Fucking Tsunade! Holy Kami! I got destroyed without being able to do anything. First the old monkey, now her. I really have a long way to go. Still… Didn’t think I’d met someone more beautiful than Yugao-chan. And those tits! Are they even real?! Did she use a secret jutsu to get them so big? They’re the biggest pair I’ve ever seen! Even Anko’s are not nearly as big and by a wide margin. Must be quite nice to rest your head on them. Probably the best pillows in the world. No contest. Speaking of pillows, where the hell am-’

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Tsunade’s face came out from nowhere above him, obstructing partly his view of the sky. Once again he thought she was the most beautiful woman he’s ever met.

“Yeah?”

“I thought you’d be sleeping for a few more hours. How do you feel?” she asked with a genuine smile that confused the shit out of him even more.

“... Alive?”

Tsunade frowned and Riku heard two familiar snorts. One came from the front the other from the back of him.

“You heard that Izumo? Kid got the beating of his life, must be hurting all over and all he says is ‘Alive’.”

“Must be a closet masochist.”

“AM NO-OWWW!!!”

Riku’s vehement but short protest died when the pain flared because of his outburst making his senpais laugh their ass off.

“You two, don’t agitate my patient.” Tsunade chastised with enough killing intent that the chunin stopped their cackling on the spot.

Riku noticed that he was moving, while laying down. He tried to sit up but was put back down by Tsunade.

“Don’t move.”

“Why? I can walk on my own.”

“It’s better if you don’t.”

“How come?”

Tsunade took a big tired breath and sighed.

“You didn’t notice but when you impacted the wall, you broke your ankle and a piece of it punctured the back of your right thigh. It’s healed but you should let it rest a bit more.”

The information made one of Riku’s eyebrows rise.

‘I guess that’s why my legs were all shaky and I couldn’t move properly. I didn’t even notice.’ he thought then asked more general and important questions. “Where are we? What are we doing? Where are we going? And what about the mission?”

“Don’t worry about the mission, kid. The client arrived a few days early and we sealed everything in your book.”

“You sounded like I was asleep for days.”

““““...””””

The utter silence he got was an answer in itself.

“WHAT THE OWW!”

This time the pain didn’t come from his injuries but from Tsunade flicking his forehead with her forefinger. The head he tried to raise went immediately back down.

“Atop your broken ankle and injured thigh, you suffered from a fractured arm, a bruised one, four broken ribs, three more bruised and a concussion. You slept for three days.” announced Tsunade but she didn’t stop there. “Normally you would have been up in a day but your recent case of chakra exhaustion that went untreated made you sleep more.” This time there was reproach in her town which was going well with her frown. “What were you thinking about going on a mission so soon after that?”

Riku looked like a deer caught by surprise by a hunter. He did the only thing he could do at that moment with his mind blank. He blinked.

“What’s it to you?”

“You’re my patient.”

“But why ? Last time I checked you were trying to kill me. Succeeding even.”

“Yeah… Well…”

She suddenly became evasive and looked away. From the slight blush on her cheeks and her averting eyes, Riku almost thought that she was embarrassed. She was.

‘There is no way I can tell him that I healed him because I want to know what he did to me! 7 cm in one night! They grew two cups! TWO! Nearly three! I had to buy new clothes to fit them!’

That had been quite a surprise for Tsunade when the morning after her altercation with Riku, she woke up feeling her chest constricted. Badly. When she took a look she saw her pride and joy nearly bursting from her open top. Her eyes nearly popped out of their orbits when she saw that. Quickly, she got up and went for her backpack to take her measuring tape. After removing her top and measuring her bust thrice, she was in shock. Catching her bearings after a few moments of absence, she closed her eyes and used a diagnostic jutsu on her chest. The results had been baffling. The cells in this particular area had been somewhat rejuvenated and were dividing at a speed that only a young girl in the middle of puberty could have. In consequence, with more cells, her breasts became bigger. What horrified her even more was that they were not stopping their division. While she liked to boast of having the biggest breasts in the Elemental Nations, she didn’t want them to grow even bigger. They were the perfect size for her frame and any more would make her look like a cow. She didn’t want more back pain either, the ones she already had were more than enough. So without even thinking about it for a second more, she used the Mystical Palm Technique on herself to stop everything. It took a while to find a way to put an end to what was happening but she wasn’t the greatest medic in the world for nothing. Others wouldn’t even have succeeded at all.

Then, here and there, she decided to grill Riku about how he was able to do that once he woke up.

She had healed him after Shizune had given her a stern lecture about ‘beating up kids even if what they say is upsetting’. Shizune was smart and knew what was the only thing that would set her off in a murdering rage. Once she had calmed down, she had thought back on what Riku told her. After asking some questions to the two chunins, who she realized were Riku’s teammates, she began to really think about his words. He had been right. She had spent the last twenty years dealing with her loss and grief by drinking and gambling and it never did anything good for her. Sometimes numbing the pain a bit but that was it. If her boyfriend, Dan and her little brother, Nawaki, were still alive and could see her now… They’d be disappointed in her at best and ashamed at worst. The pain of losing them was still there. Still awful and cutting deep but she got used to it. She was just too focused, too immersed in her deplorable and miserable lifestyle to notice. In the early days, the only thing she wanted was to die. To join them, but she knew they wouldn’t approve. Both of her and her actions if she went with it. Shizune had been a great help to avert and distract her away from those dark thoughts and she thanked Kami everyday for that. For her apprentice. However her wish to die never disappeared. Not really, it was always there buried deep.

Still, she realized that not only was she wasting the bit of life she had left away but Shizune’s too. And that wasn’t acceptable to her, especially regarding Shizune who she believed deserved better than the life she gave her. Always on the move, running away from debt collectors. No home, no friends. And most of all dealing with the tantrums of a woman old enough to be her mother. The thought of settling down somewhere had a new appeal at this realization.

The idea of taking the hat and becoming Hokage, however… It was still asinine to her. Sure her grand uncle Tobirama raised her to lead the clan and maybe one day to become Hokage but she never wanted the job. That was Dan and Nawaki’s dream. Not hers. Remembering that, she once again felt ashamed for mocking the prestigious job and indirectly their dream. Job that her grandfather and grand uncle got and died doing. Died not for nothing but for something greater than them. For others, for an ideal. For peace. For a place where children wouldn’t be sent to war and die a dog’s death. A place that had yet to succeed in doing so. A place that needed a new leader to make that dream come true or die trying. ‘Something worth dying for, huh?’ she had thought. Her mind wandered again to the dirty blonde kid she had just fixed and his words. Becoming the Hokage would give her the opportunity to realize the dream of her loved ones. And with the job having a life expectancy lower than the average one of a ninja, she may very well get her wish to die fulfilled. At least it would be meaningful and she wouldn’t have to be ashamed when she saw them again in the pure lands. She spent days muling over the decision. She made her choice just as her debt collectors found her trail.

Looking back down at the young boy that turned her whole world upside down, she answered his questions. Not the one about her caring for him. This one she deflected.

“We’re two days away from Tsuno. We’re about to set camp for the night and we’re going to Konoha.”

Kotetsu and Izumo stopped walking and lowered the stretcher Riku was on. His book of seals in hands, they left him alone with Tsunade, to make camp, taking Shizune and Tonton with them.

“Konoha? Are you…”

“Yes.” she replied quickly, cutting him off. While she had accepted to take on the job she didn’t want to discuss it openly. She had not yet told Shizune and didn’t know how to tell her.

“Oh. That’s good I suppose.” he said nonplussed.

“You don’t seem very happy about it.” She frowned at his reaction, expecting a more enthusiastic one.

“Well… If you become Hokage you won’t have the time to take me as your apprentice among other things.”

“My apprentice? What makes you think I would mentor you?” she asked in surprise at his ballsy statement.

“I’m good? Like really good? I can already use the Mystical Palm Technique. I learned it by myself without any help. Granted, I haven’t used it on humans yet, for good reasons but the few tries on hurt wild animals had been mostly successful. My chakra control is almost perfect.”

“Is that so?” She was amused at what she believed to be a lie. A thirteen years old boy learning to use the Mystical Palm Technique by himself without any help was ridiculous.

“Yes. Look.”

He raised his hand and concentrated his chakra on it. It took a familiar green glow proving that he was telling the truth. Tsunade’s jaw lowered in shock on the spot.

“No way!

“You should know better than anyone that it is the…”

“Yes! I can see that! I just don’t believe you learned it by yourself!”

“You can ask Izumo-senpai and Kotetsu-senpai. They will tell you, it’s true. I mean, where would I find someone willing to teach me shit?”

She didn't miss the bitterness in his voice. It was quite obvious, his facial expression too.

“What did you mean by that? I’m sure there are medic-nin or doctors that would…”

“Oh yeah, there are. Plenty of them ready to teach. Just not to me.”

“...Why?” She didn’t like what she was hearing and wanted to go to the bottom of this. Clearly he had an outstanding amount of talent and that someone would refuse to nurture it was wrong.’Has Konoha changed for the worse?’

“Well… My mom? She got caught spying for Orochimaru when I was four. That was a bit after his sick experiments were discovered and his defection. Of course as her son I was guilty too and the villagers mostly treated me as pariah in consequence. With Orochimaru launching an assault on the village a week ago…”

“They’re thinking that you somehow helped him and their treatment got worse?” she ventured, sure of what she was thinking.”

“Yeah… The fact that there were some of his spies in Konoha and among them one working at the hospital… You’re kinda my only hope to ever become a full fledged medic. I mean sure… I can do it by myself, just like I became a shinobi but having someone to guide me would make things a bit easier. It also would be nice to have a teacher for once.”

“Became a shinobi? How could you…”

“My instructors tried to sabotage me in favor of the last Uchiha. Then there was the genin team selection. I’ve been rookie of the year each year yet I was the one sent directly to the genin corps because no Jonin-sensei wanted me in their team. Was it not for Iruka-sensei -he’s my last year instructor- sending Izumo-senpai and Kotetsu-senpai my way…  And it’s not been all roses. I still learned everything by myself because they didn’t have much time for me. I just chose what to work on and asked them for advice. I know it sounds like I’m complaining about them but I’m truly not. They took me with them on missions giving me the opportunity to get experience and they found me a team for the chunin exam. I’m really grateful for that. It’s just… It took the Hokage deciding to train me himself during the month before the last phase of the exam for me to finally have a proper teacher.”

Tsunade really didn’t like what she heard.

‘He made chunin six months after graduating without any real help whatsoever? Sensei’s little month of training notwithstanding? Either the standard became shit or he's a prodigy. Since sensei trained him himself, probably the latter but that beg to ask why no jonin took him in their team? They should be smart and mature enough to know that he’s innocent of his mother’s crimes. Especially when he was four. Are they cowards that cared about the political or societal aspect of the stigma he has on him? Did they really give up on a gem like him because of it? Damn it. I need to ask sensei about it. Clearly he’s not just good at iryo ninjutsu if he trained him.”

“Which part of the vertebral canal will show secondary curves with concavity backwards?” she suddenly asked him out of the blue. It was a moderately difficult medical question because she didn’t want to start small. If he wanted to be her apprentice and with the talent he displayed he should be able to answer in her opinion. She remembered the medical book he owned. After blinking for a moment in confusion, he gave her an answer.

“The cervical.”

“Why?”

“These curves develop after birth and are associated with the body's adaptation to upright posture and bipedal locomotion. In consequence the cervical and lumbar regions of the vertebral canal show secondary curves, also known as lordotic curves, with concavity backwards. ”

“The extracellular matrix and the cytoskeleton communicate across the cell membrane through what?”

“The integrins. They are transmembrane proteins that act as membrane receptors for extracellular matrix components.”

“...”

She didn’t say anything else. She didn’t ask a third question. She just looked him in the eyes and he looked back, confident in his answers.

‘Perhaps… I may take him under my wing?’ she mused at the possibility. “What’s the treatment for chakra poisoning?”

“Drag the invading and corrupting chakra out of the wound. It’s inefficient and takes too much time out of the doctor or medic-nin.”

“Oh? And what would you do?”

“Close off the tenketsu closest to the wound but not yet affected by the corrupting chakra. Either by using Juken or a seal. Once that’s done using a seal on the area where the chakra is to absorb it. That way, the process is automatic and doesn’t need a doc or a medic. They can treat another patient and preserve their chakra. You can also use a seal to purify the chakra instead.

“... That’s clever.” she admitted. “Such seals would be difficult to make but clever nonetheless.

Just as she was about to think further on the many more applications those kinds of seals could be used. Shizune came to her side.

“Tsunade-sama, the camp is ready.” the raven haired woman warned and went back from where she came from.

Looking up, Tsunade saw two big tents that had been pitched perfectly and the two chunins were already cooking something without fire.

“Already? Wait, how are they…”

“Seals.” Riku answered, cutting in.

“I made the tents myself. You just need to pull a wire and they pitch themselves. As for the fire, there is no need when you have a heating tag.”

“...So that book of yours is not just a small toy.” she stated looking down at him.

“No.”

“How good are you at fuinjutsu?”

“Good enough for the Hokage to buy things from me in bulk for Anbu. I still have a long way to go before being a master though.”

“You’re full of surprise.”

“I wouldn’t be a good shinobi if I wasn’t.”

“True.”

She looked at the scene before her. Shizune was helping Izumo by cutting vegetables while she threatened Kotetsu who was stirring the big pot and joking about having pork for dinner while looking at Tonton. It felt nostalgic and good to see her apprentice connecting with other people.

Riku for his part, with his vision limited upward, was focused on what took most of his view.

‘Is it because of a different angle but aren’t her boobs…”

His thought came to an end right there when Tsunade slapped her hand onto his mouth to stop him from talking. She gave him an annoying look which made him realize that once again he had voiced what he was thinking.

“Yes. They are. And it is your fault.” she whispered. Riku’s eyes grew wider in both shock and confusion at what she had just said. “The last jutsu you tried on me… It did this. What was it anyway? What were you trying to do?” she inquired removing her hand to let him speak.

“I… was trying my own version of Juken but with medical chakra? The idea was to… force the cells to divide continuously at a very fast rate prompting the body to… Well… Either bulge and explode or develop a fast acting cancer.

“... And you used it on me?!” she whispered in anger. That could have killed her had it worked as intended.

“For my defense, I was being choked to death! With a lack of oxygen I suppose I went for the only thing that would allow me to survive. You know, survival instinct kicking in? For what it's worth, I’m sorry. Still this… Result was not what I had in mind for the jutsu but again it’s not ready to be used and very experimental.”

“I can see that. It worked by the way. The cells divided slowly at first but kept going without stopping. The more time passed, the more the speed of the division increased. That’s not all. The only reason it worked so fast to begin with was because the cells affected were rejuvenated. Beyond their normal state for their… Age.”

“You mean… they kind of regressed? Went back to become cells from an earlier cycle?”

“Yes.”

“How far?”

“Puberty.”

“No way! That shouldn't be possible! Cells are on average replaced every 7 to 10 years! And their replacements are not supposed to live as long post our prime since we’re aging and they’re aging with us.”

“I know! I don’t understand it either!” she hissed.

Tsunade was a bit jealous of that accidental discovery. She spent years trying to find a way to remain young and her success was mixed. Then here came Riku. A thirteen years old brat that did what she tried to achieve for decades by accident.

“... I only have two ideas as to why that happened and they are as insane as the other.” he muttered after a while.

“Which are?”

“First is… my chakra suddenly had time rewinding properties?” The deadpanned face he got from her pushed him to quickly say his other idea. “My chakra healed the cells on a deeper level? At their essence? When cells divide the information is… damaged, lost? Maybe it fixed that?”

Tsunade took a moment to contemplate this idea. As a medic, it had merit.

“So they did not regress but were healed properly… Hmm… That's possible. The knowledge on cells is still incomplete. Perhaps there exist even smaller components they are made of that we don’t know about but are important to their development. That’s worth doing some research on.”

“... Does that mean I’m good enough for you to make me your apprentice?” Riku boldly asked.

The next Hokage looked down at him but said nothing and Riku interpreted it as a refusal.

“At least I tried. Maybe I can become richer by selling to noble ladies my breasts expanding jutsu? Boob expanding jutsu? Hills to mountains jutsu?” he muttered to himself and got a bonked on the head from Tsunade who snorted at his stupidity.

“Fine! I’m taking you under my tutelage. Be warned though, I won’t show you any mercy. You either keep up or you keep out.”

“Yes! I won’t disappoint sensei! I'll give you my word!”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

With that agreement on apprenticeship, a comfy silence fell between then. For five whole seconds.

“You know…”

“Yes?”

“Now that I think about it. I never told anyone that I saw you and yet you are still sending me home on a stretcher.”

Tsunade froze a moment then remembered her words from when they met. She couldn’t help herself and laughed. Her new apprentice was a special case and she knew her life had changed into something more chaotic.