Chapter 26: Surprise

“RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

A huge boom and a small shockwave was felt by Tsunade as she looked with interest and pride at her apprentice smashing a boulder four times his size with a headbutt. After only six months of training he had almost mastered her super strength. Be it feet or fists, elbows or knees, even his forehead; Riku was able to use her explosive chakra method well enough for combat. He had taken to the training like a fish to water and his progression at no point showed any sign of slowing down. She couldn’t help herself but wonder how far he would go. What new peaks would he reach? She could hardly wait to find out but one thing was sure, he would go further and higher than any shinobi before him with the exception of maybe her grandfather.

His medical training had borne fruit too. He could now use the Mystical Palm flawlessly and while not yet one of the best medic-nins in the village given a year or simply another six months he would be. She had not let him perform any surgery because she believed he wasn’t quite ready and too young but he could take care of simpler healing, like broken bones, deep cuts needing stitches or removing the most common poisons.

“Okay, let’s stop there.”

Relaxing his stance, Riku stretched and walked towards Tsunade, curious as to why their training session would end now.

“It’s only been half an hour, sensei. Something’s going on?”

“Not really, no. It’s just getting late.”

“Late? Sensei, the sun is not even setting yet.” he answered flatly.

“Yes but there is no point in continuing your training today. Your showing was excellent, you just need to practice on your own now. You don’t really need me anymore for that, so I thought we could just spend normal time between Master and apprentice.” Her evasiveness put Riku on alert. Alarm bells rang in his mind.

“Sensei, we live together, eat together, spar together, work together and train together. The only thing we don’t do together is sleeping and bathing. You’re not…”

“No I’m not, you little pervert!” she yelled and grabbed his head in her hands. “I swear if Jiraiya sent you one of his books again and I catch you-”

“He did not! I didn’t even read the first and only one he sent!”

That had been quite the surprise when three months ago he had received a package from the Toad Sage about some fuinjutsu knowledge and one of his famous books: Icha Icha Paradise. An erotica novel. As luck would have it, Tsunade had chosen that exact moment to enter the living room and saw Riku with the book in hand. The scolding she’s given him had been as bad as the punishment he got for even knowing of the book’s existence. His pleas that he didn’t even open the book fell on deaf ears.

“The point is, sensei, what do you mean by ‘normal’ time?”

“Take walks, talk about things outside your shinobi life… things like that, you know.”

“Not really, no.” he replied a bit confused with where this conversation was going.

“Exactly my point!”

“I’m pretty sure it’s not, sensei.” The deadpan look he gave her, clearly stated that he was already done with her antics. “Honestly, sensei, whatever’s on your mind just be out with it already. Beating around the bush is not like you.”

“Let’s just go home.” she replied coldly, simply not interested anymore to Riku’s confusion. He knew better to argue further though.

They left the Hokage’s training ground and after a bit of travel arrived at Senju Manor. Tsunade went in first and stopped him from going to the kitchen to immediately start working on dinner. Instead, she went behind him and pushed him toward the living room. There he was welcomed by a scene that he never thought he would ever see. In fact he never thought about it at all.

““““““““SURPRISE!!!!”””””””””

Right there in front of him were all his friends. Karin was there, Shizune was there, his senpais were there, in a corner Yugao was there, then the Sandaime, Hinata, and lastly Ino. The last one never really crossed his mind as they were all gathered as a group under a huge dark green banner with the words ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ written in white above them and took all his attention. Tsunade went from behind him to his side with the grin of someone that had just pulled the greatest prank ever. For his part Riku was stunned on the spot. His mind was elsewhere and he was blinking slowly and uncharastically, something that Tsunade noticed.

“You didn’t think I would forget, huh?”

“Sensei… I forgot myself.” he confessed after taking a few seconds to recover from the shock.

“That’s so like you, Shit!” a voice said sultrily into his ear in a whisper while two big mounds of flesh squeeze the back of his head. “How’d you like my birthday present? Hm?” the voice said just as hands went around his waist and grabbed him, pushing him back into the mounds.

“I’m immune to your charm, Thot. Have you taken a look at my sensei?”

Anko looked up at Tsunade, or rather Tsunade’s humongous boobs and could do nothing but concede defeat.

“Tsk… You win this round.” she replied but didn’t let him go from her embrace.

“Hey! Let him go, sensei!” Ino yelled, which made her presence back into Riku’s mind.

“Nope!”

Her immediate refusal prompted golden chains to be wrapped around Riku and violently pulled him away from the erotic woman.

“How about you find someone your own age? Hag!”

“Yeah! Karin’s right, sensei!”

“Oh! You’re both on, girls!”

As the three began to bicker, Riku wondered why Ino was there. In the past six months, he had often come across Hinata in the Hyuga compound because she was watching him spar with Neji or sparring against him herself, so he understood why she was present today. He never thought about it but he supposed they were friends as after each spar they would talk for a bit. It was two months into those visits that Ino began to be there, cheering on him. And afterward bugged him to teach him fuinjutsu a bit. He couldn’t avoid her in these moments but he could avoid spending time with her outside of them, when they met on the streets or at the hospital where she had begun a course in medical jutsu. She had not been the only one. Sakura was present too, studying under Tsunade with him. Though studying was a wrong description since he was far more advanced in the subject than they were. He didn’t understand why after being mean and sometimes down right cruel to him at the academy she was now after him any chance she got.

‘At least Sakura isn’t there. Better than nothing I suppose.’

For reasons he didn’t know nor did he care about, Sakura seemed to hold a grudge against him. The truth was, she blamed Riku for Sasuke leaving the village. She was sure that the very public humiliating defeat he had given her teammate was what pushed him to join Orochimaru. She was partly right.

Another reason as to why Sakura held a grudge was because he was Tsunade’s disciple. Sasuke would learn under Orochimaru, Naruto had left the village for a very long training trip with Jiraiya and that left her alone not apprenticing under a Sannin. She had tried of course, begging the Hokage to take her in but Tsunade had refused. She already had a disciple and didn’t have the time for another. Especially one that was still hung on a traitor and hoping that bringing him back to the village would fix everything in her life and that everything will be forgiven. That part wasn’t said out loud.

The huge breasted woman had put Sasuke in the bingo book, declaring him a missing-nin and apparently the Pinkette wasn’t aware.

Tsunade didn’t care a rat’s ass that his name was Uchiha. It would have been Senju or ‘Kami-sama’ and she would have done it regardless. Hiruzen had disapproved of her decision, the elders were of a mixed feeling. On one hand Sasuke was a traitor and joined Orochimaru on the other he was the last Uchiha. Danzo had just nodded in agreement. That disturbed her a bit but when Riku gave his opinion and said that neither the Uchiha nor the Senju were Konoha and that giving special privilege like this would go against everything the village had been ideologically built upon and thus betraying the Will of Fire, she was confident in her decision. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and Sasuke Uchiha was just one person. She had thousands to take care of. Too bad for the loss for the sharingan but they still had Kakashi.

So between Sasuke gone ‘because’ of him and for taking ‘her place’ as the last Sannin apprentice, Sakura hated Riku’s guts with every fiber of her being.

“Would you look at that, Izumo? The kid has barely any hair down there and he already has three girls fighting for him. Damn!”

“He grew up so fast.” was said with pride and a fake tear making Riku roll his eyes.

“Enough, you two, it’s his birthday you could at least be nice to him.”

““Yugao!””

“We’re always nice to him!”

“That we are.”

“Sure, now go fetch the cake in the kitchen.”

Riku was glad that Yugao was present. She still didn’t have the peps or joy she had before Hayate’s death but she was functioning as a more or less normal human being. She had taken her late fiance’s place in the team with his senpais and in his opinion that was a good thing. She kept kicking her asses to not laze around and be productive. While he had seldom seen her since the day he went to cheer her up, the times they met were the most relaxing in his life. He developed a serious crush on the older woman but was content with simply spending time with her. She became a bit like a big sister figure to him in consequence.

“Happy birthday, Ri-kun.” Hinata said from the side.

After they got to know each other better and became proper friends, Hinata had dropped the -san to replace it with -kun. The problem was that ‘Riku-kun’ sounded awful. It was Hanabi, Hinata’s little sister that came up with Rikun or Ri-kun instead. The bluenette had loved it and immediately adopted it for herself. It then spreads and everyone close to him barring Karin, Tsunade and Ino, uses it now.

“Thank you Hinata-chan. I wasn’t expecting to celebrate my birthday but since it’s a thing now… Your presence means a lot.” he confessed and that made her smile. “Especially with you not taking part in this cat-fight over there. I don’t even understand why they’re fighting.”

Hinata giggled at Riku’s cluelessness of Ino’s feelings for him. She understood why however. Ino had never treated Riku well the rare times she acknowledged him, so the sudden interest in him never crossed his mind that it was a romantic one. Her blonde best friend’s 180 in Riku’s treatment had been a shock even for her but after many conversations, Hinata realized that Ino had just grown up and matured mainly thanks to her training under Anko and the woman herself. Her love for Sasuke had been shallow. She had liked him because she had found him cute, mysterious, strong and cool. It took Anko to point out that she knew nothing about him beyond that to understand that what she felt was infatuation but not love. Added to that the Uchiha’s treason and any positive feelings the blonde heiress had for the, what she called him now, ‘emo’ boy was scattered to the wind. On the other hand, Riku was just as handsome, really strong and most of all didn’t have a cold personality. His hard working attitude and his interest in flowers had been a big plus in her book.

Being honest with herself, the bluenette agreed with Ino a 100% and had herself developed a bit of a crush on her dirty blonde friend though her heart belonged to another blonde. She wished Naruto would compliment or praise her like Riku does. Unfortunately, Naruto was even more clueless and dense than Riku and had left for a training trip that would last for years.

Izumo and Kotetsu came back with the cake. Hiruzen who had completely recovered the use of his left arm lit the fourteen candles with a bit of fire nature manipulation. When urged to make a wish, Riku thought long and hard at what he wanted. Friends? He had always wanted some and now he had. Becoming the best medic in the world? Becoming Hokage? That he wanted to achieve through his hard work not through a wish.

‘Something that no hard work would be able to give…’

Finally making a choice and not really believing in the wishing thing he blew the candles' flames away. Afterward a small party began which involved a lot of alcohol. To the point of a contest starting. Hinata had taken one cup for participation but no more than that. She was present as a friend but also as a representative of her clan, it wouldn’t have been proper for her to roll under the table. Something that Ino was the first to do, followed quickly by Izumo and Kotetsu. That left four contestants. Riku, Tsunade, Anko and Karin. Yugao , Shizune and Hiruzen opted to simply watch in amusement.

“Damn! *hic* Shit, how are you and *hic* the red pervert lasting *hic* so long.” wondered a very drunk Anko, putting down her empty shot glass on the table.

“Who ya callin’ *hic* a perv’ ya smel-,  smily-, slimey *hic* snake!” shot back Karin taking another shot.

“You! You *hic* chain mistress! *hic* tying up people in kinky *hic* ways.”

“Ain’t not, ya know! *hic*”

“Do we look that pathetic?” Riku asked Tsunade by his side. They were just a bit tipsy after having as many drinks as the two others but were mostly fine. Because of the heat of the alcohol their faces were flushed however.

“Not remotely. I’m surprised you’re not ready to keel over like them.”

“Me too, to be honest.”

The conversation was cut short when Anko and Karin's fight went from verbal to physical. Yugao and Hinata were quick to react and each took their respective friend away from their opponent.

“And that’s it for you, Anko.”

“But *hic* Yu-chan! *hic* I was gonna kick *hic* kick her redhead ass!”

“Lemme go Hinata! *hic* Gotta teach dat snake *hic* dat snake *hic* thot-”

“I think you drank enough Karin-chan. Let’s go home, okay?”

“Nooooo *hic* Can totally *hic* can totally- ya know.” Karin was losing steam fast and sleep began to take over her. In consequence, she wrapped herself against Hinata like a cat.

“You can bring her to Riku’s room, Hinata. That’s where she sleeps when she’s spending the night. I’ll bring Ino there too.”

“She s-sleeps in R-Rikun’s room?” the bluenette exclaimed in total shock. So much that she stuttered a bit because of her wandering mind.

“She refuses to sleep anywhere else. Riku takes a guest room when that happens.”  Shizune said as she picked Ino from the tatamis and led the way.

“I’ll bring this one home.” Yugao commented with Anko already asleep on her back.

“I think it’s time for me to take my leave too.” said Hiruzen and after saying goodnight to everyone, followed the ex-anbu outside the manor.

Riku and Tsunade looked down at the unconscious Izumo and Kotetsu and just shrugged.

“Had enough, brat?”

“Not until I take you down, sensei.”

“That’s the spirit!” she smiled and took another shot. “By the way… What did you wish for?”

“Now, sensei, if I tell you it won’t come true.”

“Spoilsport.” she pouted.

Riku found it cute but kept his mind focused on the task at hand. Defeating Senju Tsunade in a drinking contest was a tall order after all.