Chapter 24: Courage

“Ugh!”

Riku grunted as his whole body met the ground with force. He has been training with Tsunade in Taijutsu for the past hour and kept getting his ass handed to him. It was no surprise and very much expected. Tsunade was the Hokage and a Taijutsu specialist and Riku was not even an amateur. He had practiced time and time again the stance and Katas she had taught him, using as many shadow clones as he could to ingrate the moves faster and better in his head but trying them out live with a spar was a whole other matter.

The moment he hit the ground he already put the palms of his hands against it to get up. He was sore all over and his muscles were more than aching, they were screaming their pain. Yet he didn’t care; he pushed as hard as he could to get back on his feet. The traitorous thought of releasing his resistance seal popped into his mind but he dismissed it on the spot. That seal was active for a reason and it was not to deactivate it when things started to get difficult during training. His fight for his life against that white-haired kekkei genkai bullshit Oto-nin, had put in perspective how weak he truly was. Until then he never really was in a disadvantageous position. He had completely dominated everyone for four years at the academy.Then everyone during the chunin exam. Gaara only got away because of the invasion and his sensei defending him but otherwise he had been toasted. The spars with his senpais and Hiruzen didn’t count. They were spars so he has never felt threatened. His fight with Tsunade when they met; the concussion disoriented him too much to properly realize his situation and feel the fear of death. But the Oto-nin gave him that. And so, he was training harder than ever to never feel like that again. To never feel powerless. Not only for himself, but for his teammates especially Karin. Had he lost the fight he had no doubt that his opponent would have joined his friends in dealing with the rest of the retrieval team. He knew they would just have gotten killed. If he, himself, had been defeated then they would surely have been defeated too. Riku had no doubt about it. That’s why he got up, that’s how he got up.

“Alright, enough.” Tsunade said after intensively watching her student struggle to get to his feet and take a stance despite being completely spent. She could help herself but be proud of him for going beyond his limits out of pure sheer will. Once again she was reminded partly of why she had come back and taken the hat. Her sensei had told her that Riku had the potential to become Hokage one day. She hadn’t seen it at first. Sure he was a genius and a hard worker and someone of principle standing his ground. The last one she had been reminded when he defied her that fateful game night, all so he could protect his friend. Yet she hadn’t seen it. It was only when they began their taijutsu training that she understood. She had only seen a glimpse of it during their very first meeting but now she saw it fully. Warudo Riku did not give up. If he did? It was to come back harder, better, faster and stronger than ever and succeed. He retreated yes but he didn’t give up. When talked about it to her sensei he was glad that she finally witnessed why he was giving her apprentice such high praise. He confessed that every time he put Riku down, no matter what he did, Riku would always pick himself up. Hiruzen believed that because no one had ever cared for him, Riku accepted that only he could take care of himself. That no one would help him get up and that it was up to him to do it. She had found that particularly sad. Orphans usually made some friends at the orphanage, banding together in their unfortunate circumstances but Riku had been unable to do so. When she learned that Riku was way more open as a person and towards others mainly thanks to her, she felt a pang of pride but mainly happiness.

“I think I can go… one more round but… it’s probably better to… stop there.” he admitted and agreed, bending forward and putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“You did well.”

“In learning how to fall without hurting myself? Sure did.” he joked, making Tsunade snort.

“You almost have the katas down perfectly. After a month of training, that’s amazing! So don’t sell yourself short.”

“You’re the shorty, sensei.” he teased.

“I’ll have you know my height is average.”

“For teenagers.”

With a thick mark on her forehead, Tsunade grabbed him by the collar and tossed him into the river. 20 feet away.

“Haven’t you learned yet? Your cheek gets you into trouble.” she told him after shushining to the river’s bank

“Only the kind that I can handle.” Rilu replied as he swarmed back to land.

“Oh? You think you can handle me?” she inquired with one eyebrow raised.

“Depends on the situation.”

In a flash the drenched Riku hugged Tsunade, drenching her too.

“Riku!” she vociferated and tried to push him away from her without any success. When he let go he tried to run but fell flat on the ground, completely out of steam.

“Well… That wasn’t quite what I wanted to do.”

“Just like I told you… your cheek gets you trouble.” she said, cracking her fingers while looking at him as if he was prey.

He just laughed, not caring one bit. He was proud of his little payback or prank and didn’t even object when she grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him away, the training over. After exiting the Hokage’s private training ground and since she was already wet, she carried him on her shoulders and shushined home.

“Sensei?”

“Yes?”

“I haven't seen Neko-chan in a while. Either with her mask or without. Is she… Alright?”

“Not remotely, no. She retired from Anbu two weeks ago.”

“Oh. What should I do, sensei?”

“If I knew I wouldn’t have spent twenty years away.” she replied dumping him on the tatamis in the living room. “By the way, that makes me think, T&I keep on bugging me for more of your seal. The one which increases nerves’ sensitivity.”

“I may have a dozen more but I don’t really have the time to make them.”

“Are they difficult to make?”

“Hmm…No? Not if you’ve mastered the beginner guide and the first ten chapters of the intermediary fuinjutsu volume? Otherwise, yes. A bit. If T&I make it a mission then I’ll take it.”

“And how would you rank it?”

“Depends on how many tags they want. A hundred? If I count the price of the chakra paper and the ink and the value of my time and work… A C-rank to a B-rank? I think a fair price for them would be 2500 ryo for a single tag and I’m being generous.”

“I’ll tell them that.” she nodded, finding the price fair. Explosive tags’ price ranged from 1000 to 1500 ryo and were relatively easy to make.

“Please, tell them to be reasonable and not ask for thousands of them in one go. Even hundreds with clones…”

“I will.”

After a quick change of clones, she left for her office to start her day.  Riku was left alone and after resting for a bit, got up and went to take a shower and change his clones too. He was really bothered by Yugao’s disappearance. Worried even, so he decided to visit her. Of course he couldn’t do that empty handed. One reason was, he didn’t know how to comfort people. Another was because a gift would help better. After thinking for a bit he decided that flowers may do the job. Which was a good idea because among many flower shops in Konoha few belong to the Yamanaka clan and not to civilians. It’s been a little more than over a month since he had become Tsunade’s apprentice, yet very few of the villagers had changed their attitude towards him. Or their prices. Some even scowled and sneered more than before, commenting that ‘He may have tricked Hokage-sama but he won’t trick them’. As if he could trick her in the first place and as if civilians could do better than the Hokage. He really was baffled at how far their stupidity went and blind they could be and how prejudiced.

Entering the first Yamanaka flower shop he found, he found no one inside when a quick ‘I’m with you in a second!’ came from the back room behind the shop’s counter. He mentally winced when he recognized the voice of the shopkeeper on the spot.

“Of all the Yamana flower shops in the village, I had to enter the one she’s working in. Just my luck. Rotten luck.’

A familiar teenage blond exited the back room and froze for a second on the spot at his sight then continued as if nothing happened.

“Welcome to my family shop, Riku.” Ino greeted in a polite but enthusiastic tone. In a rude way. It wasn’t ‘Warudo-san’, or ‘Riku-san’ or ‘Riku-kun’. No it was ‘Riku’ without any suffix as if they’ve been best chums since the cribs or as if she considered him of a lower station than herself. Which in a way was true. She was the heiress of her clan and Riku was a clanless orphan but usually clan members followed basic decorum and used the -san suffix to not reflect badly on themselves and their clan.

“Hello, Ino-san.” he replied neutrally. He really hated having to deal with her.

“What can I do for you?”

‘Since it’s a flower shop, sell me flowers.’ had been on the tip of his tongue but he refrained, opting instead for a more polite approach and more importantly going straight to the point to get the hell out as fast as possible.

“I’d like to buy flowers for a friend. To cheer her up or bring her comfort.”

“‘Her’, hum?” she repeated with a knowing smile.

“Yes, she lost her fiance during Suna’s attack and hasn’t been doing well ever since. She quit her job and made no public appearances. So I thought that I could help her a little, you know?”

“Oh! I’m sorry to hear that.” Her attitude did a complete 180 hearing his explanation. “That she lost her fiance I mean! Not that you want to cheer her up!” She quickly corrected her mishap. “Hmm. Is she a close friend or…?”

“Her fiance was a good friend of mine. My teammate actually.”

“Engaged at twelve? I knew that such a thing existed but it’s mostly outdated and really for noble-”

“24. He was twenty four and she’s twenty two.” he corrected her.

“24? How was he…”

“Since we were 28 students graduating, one of us had to go directly to the genin corps. That was me. Got picked under the wings of a mix of chunin and Tokubetsu jonin team. That’s how I met him and then later, her.” he explained to the confused  blonde.”

“Oh! I’m sorry to hear that. How come you went to the genin pool when you were Rookie of the year?”

“If Sandaime-sama and sensei are to be believed, because the jonin-sensei are fools. Or retards, depending on which one of them you ask.”

Ino took a moment to think about that. Her own sensei was good but very laid back in their training. Or had been before the end of the chunin exam’s second phase. Two days after the preliminaries that mostly change. He focused on Choji and went a bit harder on him, Shikamaru was sent to train for a month with a Taijutsu specialist friend and was supposed to be trained by Gai a bit soon. For her part, she had been sent to train under Anko. Thinking about the snake lady gave her mixed feelings. On one hand she got completely humiliated on the other, she could now proudly say that she was a proper kunoichi. Dieting and fangirling? She was done with it.

She knew from Sakura that Team7 sensei switched gears in his training regimen for them. They went from teamwork and a few jutsu exercises to down right all jutsu. Though it was only a plan. Sakura had to content herself with books and scrolls because Kakashi focused on Sasuke who was still in the exam (‘For all the good it did to him. He lasted not even half a minute’). She never said to her what Naruto was doing but Ino doubted she cared to begin with. Sakura had been more worried about Sasuke than her own training so Naruto… Stopping the thought there, her mind went back to Riku’s words or rather what they implied.

“You’re familiar with Sandaime-sama?” She knew he was familiar with the Godaime because he was her apprentice but she didn’t know he was acquainted with the Sandaime too.

“He was very interested in some seals of mine and my career progress. He was the one to help me train during the month before the finals.”

“YOU TRAINED WITH THE HOKAGE?!?”

Riku recoiled a bit at the volume Ino had used in her shout. The shock and disbelief on her face was clear. If any one else would have told her that, Ino wouldn’t have believed them but if she knew one thing about Riku besides the fact that he’s very talented and hard working, it was that he was honest.

“Training is a bit of a stretch. We had some Taijutsu spars but he mostly answered any questions I had or gave me a few tips, hints really, to achieve what I wanted to do. The Sandaime is a ninjutsu specialist and I’m not into ninjutsu so he couldn’t really ‘train’ me. I supposed he was making sure I wasn’t wasting my potential. Now, about those flowers…”

“Huh? Oh! Yes! Your flowers! Some Lady’s Mantle would do the job perfectly. They are exactly what you need.” she said and got out from behind the counter to go to a rack on the right of the shop. She picked a light blue flower with hints of purple and showed it to him.

“They’re beautiful.”

“That they are. Lady’s Mantles are usually given to show comforting love at a time you want to let someone know you are there for them.” Ino explained.

“I’ll… take a small bouquet please.”

Ino nodded and picked half a dozen more. She went back to the counter wrapped them in paper then arranged them a bit to make them presentable.

“Anything else?”

“Hm… Do you have anything in purple for appreciation and admiration?”

“I do! Excellent color choice by the way.” she replied with a smile then moved to another rack of flowers. “That’s Lisianthus.”

“I’ll take a small bouquet too. Can the stem be shortened? It’s for putting on an office desk.”

“Sure.”

She took half a dozen of them too, went back behind the counter and cut the stem with a quick swipe of a kunai he didn’t know where she got from, then wrapped them too.

“Anything else?”

“No, I’m good. Thank you.”

Paying the 5000 ryo he now owed her, he thanked her again and left the shop. The experience had been weird for him as Ino had not behaved like he had expected her to.

‘Perhaps…’ He dismissed quickly the idea that it was because she was working. Yamanaka Ino was not the kind of girl that would change her personality depending on the situation. At least outside shinobi business and then again that wasn’t always a sure thing.

Sealing the Lisianthius inside his book of seals, he shushined away to Yugao’s apartment. He realized that he was not ready for this when after knocking on the door Yugao opened it and looked awful. Her hair was a complete mess, she had dark bags under her eyes and her eyes were red, probably from crying.

“Eh..Hm.. Hello?” he said timidly.

“...”

‘I… shit! I should have planned this better than just comforting flowers.’ he voiced his thoughts while looking at her.

“... Those are for me?” the purple haired suddenly asked, seeing the bouquet in his hands.

“Huh? Yes! I mean… yes. I… sorry, I’ve never..” he replied as he presented them for her to take, which she did.

After looking at them for a moment, she brought them to her nose and smelled them. She turned around and went back inside her apartment, leaving the door open.

“Are you coming in?”

“Yes, yes, I’m coming! I mean…”

He hurriedly got into the flat and closed the door behind him. This wasn’t the first he’d been there and so knew the way around. He found Yugao putting the flower in a vase on the dining table and Riku took a seat.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come.”

“Why not?” she replied, sitting down too.

“I… I’ve never comforted someone before. Never had someone to comfort to begin with, in truth. So… I don’t really know what to do? You probably don’t want me here.”

“...Those flowers are a good start and… I don’t mind you being here. I wouldn’t have invited you in otherwise.”

“... Out of politeness?” he answered tentatively and a very tiny smile crept at the corner of her lips.

“That’s possible but not in this case.”

“I… I see. Hum… Sensei told me you quitted… your job.”

“I should have known you’d notice.”

“Purple hair is not that common.”

“You’d be surprised. There are five others with purple hair in the group.”

“As nice as yours? I doubt it.” he replied with a single eyebrow raised. She did too but didn’t offer a comment on his compliment. Instead she answered his statement.

“I did quit, yes. I… couldn’t perform my duties adequately.”

“Are you retiring from the shinobi life altogether?”

“I don’t know. Anbu has been my whole career.”

“...”

“...”

“I miss him.” he blurted out. “Kotetsu is always calling me kid, and Izumo is always subtly teasing me but he… he always treated me like a proper adult. Not just a kid with a headband playing ninja but like a real shinobi. He’s the only one who ever did that. Even sensei or the sandaime still consider me a kid underneath their interactions with me. That… that always made me feel good about myself. Like… finally someone acknowledged my efforts properly. That I worked hard not because I wanted to be awesome or a cool ninja but because I had a goal in mind and dedicated everything to it.”

“Haya-... He’s always been good at cheering people up, despite his calm disposition.” she admitted but not without having difficulties saying Hayate’s name.

“I wonder… What would he say of me being here?”

“... Probably… Probably that you’re not doing half bad of a job compared to others. And that I… should get myself back together.” she whispered the last part about herself.

“I confess, I… haven’t had the courage to visit him since the funeral.”

“Why?”

“First mission I did as a chunin? Nearly got killed by running my mouth to sensei. The second one? The first time I was acting as a leader? Ended in failure and I nearly died. I survived because I got an incredibly lucky shot. I don’t think I can show myself to him after those poor performances.”

“Your first mission as a chunin, you brought back the Hokage to the village. No one has ever succeeded that feat in twenty years. Your first leading mission you protected your whole team. From what I heard the enemy was far outclassing your teammates and the last one far outclassed you. Yes, you failed the mission’s objective but everyone got home safe and mostly sound thanks to your leadership and decisions. You shouldn’t feel ashamed. That’s what he would tell you.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. He always talked about you, you know? One time he told me: ‘Yugao, one day he’ll be at the top. Maybe as Hokage, maybe not but he’ll be at the top.’”

“...I really suck at this. I came here to comfort you and you’re the one comforting me.” he lamented, making her chuckle softly. He really liked that sound, he had missed it. “Do you think you could…Accompanied me there?”

“...”

She took time to answer. She wasn’t sure she could. It hurt so much. Too much. But if Riku, a thirteen year old boy who had come to visit her out of concern, just found the courage to go there despite being afraid of doing so… She could too. Hayate would berate her for not helping him.

“There is only one way to find out.”

She stood up and went to put a coat and a cap on. Ready for going out they both left their flat and went to the cemetery where they paid their respect to their loved one. Riku pulled out the sealed bouquet from his bouquet and placed it in front of the tombstone.

“They mean appreciation and admiration or so I’ve been told. They were supposed to be for sensei but… I think this is better that way.”

Yugao didn’t say anything and looked at her fiance’s grave in silence. It took everything she had to not break down crying. She was about to when she felt a hand grab hers softly. That was bold of Riku to do that. They didn’t know each other very well. As Uzuki Yugao they had met from time to time at the bar after his team came back from a mission and as Neko, she never had real interaction with him beyond the physical reprimand she gave him for being disrespectful towards the Sandaime. Yet Yugao said nothing because she understood that it was more for his sake he did that than hers. It made sense. Riku had never lost any one he cared about before. He was too young when his parents died and the reasons behind their death had detached him from them. Especially his father who callously took his own life in front of him.

“I suddenly have a craving for dango from Dango Heaven.” he said out of the blue.

“Dango? Why dango specifically? And from that place?” she asked after blinking her surprise and confusion away.

“Because I’m pretty sure Anko is there and messing with her will cheer me up.”

She let out a little snort at how serious he had said that.

“Anko, huh? Not ‘thot’?”

“No. ‘Thot’ is only to her face to annoy her.”

Yugao didn’t laugh but she had a smile on her lips, bigger than the one she briefly had back at her apartment. Giving one last look to Hayate’s grave, she turned around and left. Still holding Riku’s hand.