Chapter 50: Akatsuki struck again

After making a self-creating seal for each of his shurifuins, his Hiraishins, medical tag and some more seals, Riku suddenly had a lot more free time. He had yet to share the news with Tsunade but nothing was urgent. He knew that she would give him more work and he wanted a bit of a vacation. Ever since he had reversed-summoned himself to Shikkotsu Forest to heal he has been either working or training non-stop. The first thing he did with his free time? Visit Ino.

Entering her family flower shop, he barely put a foot inside that he found himself on his back and with a very hot blonde raping his mouth and throat with her tongue. Riku loved it but that was hardly the place for that. Fortunately her mother was there and she pried her daughter off of him.

“You could at least let him come inside properly, Ino! Everyone in the streets saw that!”

“I hope so! I need all the sluts out there to know he’s mine!”

“...Fair point. Go on, dear.” her mother said releasing her from her grip.

“Thank you!”

“Wha-Humphff!”

Riku, who was getting up, was back to the ground and being molested under everyone’s eyes. When she felt Riku’s log all hard under her pussy, she knew it was enough and pulled away.

“What the hell, Ino?!” Riku said, catching his breath. “Do you want to get pregnant in front of everyone? Because that’s how you end up getting pregnant in front of everyone!”

“If that keeps all the bitches away, why not?” the blonde bombshell replied.

“I wouldn’t mind grand-babies to spoil.”

“See? Mom agrees!”

“I’m stopping you right there! There is an order of things. First: meeting your parents properly, then engagement, then marriage. Babies come later.”

“Then hurry up!”

“I’ve been wanting for Ino to invite you for dinner for months, young man.”

“How about a picnic instead?” Riku suggested as he raised himself from the ground, Ino had moved off of him.

“Oh! That’s an excellent idea! Way more fun and so novel!” she said and went back inside the shop leaving the two love birds alone.

“You just don’t want to be stuck in my home with my father.” Ino said flatly.

“Of course! I may be mad but I’m not suicidal.” he replied seriously and she rolled her eyes.

“My father is not that bad.”

“Then he’s not a good father.”

“He is.”

“Then I have everything to worry about. Anyway, I came to visit to…”

“To?” she asked since Riku stopped mid-sentence.

“I don’t know. I have some free time and I just… thought about you. You really bewitched me well.” he said in realization and Ino just smiled in happiness.

“I told you that very morning after our first time together. You. Are. Mine.” she reminded him as she invaded his personal space and let a finger glide on his chest from up to down.

“You wouldn’t have said that if I was still…”

“I would have.”

“A sexual dynamo like you married to a cripple without a dick? I doubt it. And even if you did…” he quickly added before she could place a word in. “I would have let you go. That’s no married life.”

“Married?” she said, perking up at the word. It was the second time in five minutes he had used it. This time however it was alone and very explicit in the meaning, not a part of a list to go through.

“I… hope. One day? I mean... Half the reason I left to heal was for you.”

“Riku… Are you proposing to me?” she teased but she was very interested in his answer.

“You’ll know when I do, love.” he whispered with his lips neary touching hers.

“I’ll be waiting then.”

“Perhaps I could entertain you in the meantime with not one, not two but three threesomes with Anko?”

Ino’s answer was immediate and she gasped in surprise.

“No way! How did you manage that?!”

“I killed Orochimaru, I removed her cursed seal and I gave her the opportunity to kill Orochimaru again.”

“Best. Husband. Ever.” she squealed in delight, kissing him strongly on his lips.

“Husband already?”

“I’m waiting, so it’s a done deal. I’m just getting used to it.”

“Hm. Should we practice for the honeymoon then?”

“I’d love to but I have work to do. I do have enough time for a snack.” she said in a sultry voice, putting her hand on his crotch and caressing it to make him hard again.

“I don’t think I’ll stop myself after just one snack.”

“It sounds like a you problem not a me problem.” she replied and dragged him behind the shop.

She had been so hungry that Riku barely lasted five minutes. It took more time for his legs to stop feeling like jelly. Whipping the bit of seed on her cheek with a finger and swallowing it, she gave him a peck on the lips and went back to work with a happy gait in her steps.

Once Riku had recovered from the ordeal, he thought about the conversation they had about marriage. The idea was appealing. Ino always made him happy when she was there and despite his fears, she never failed him. Quite the contrary, she has always been supportive and surprisingly patient with him about the speed at which their relationship was going. He had no doubt that she loved him. Truly. That single thought made butterflies in his stomach and made him smile stupidly from ear to ear. Yes, he was ready for the next stage of their relationship. They didn’t have to get married immediately, they could just be engaged for a while but something told him that Ino wouldn’t accept that and neither would he if the feeling of wrongness he had about it was any indication. Marrying Ino brought a problem or rather two. Hinata was fine being a concubine even though she deserved better and to be recognized as a proper wife. Karin, he didn’t know what she wanted. Sure she had loved him for years (and so did he) but their relationship was rather new. She may be okay with sharing now, but who’s to say she won’t change her mind later? Or that she wasn’t fine being a concubine and wanted to be a wife? Many questions he didn’t have the answers to and knew would give him a nasty headache if he thought about it too much.

Not knowing what to do with himself he simply went back home. He knew his moon princess was busy today, Karin had told him so. That meant that all the people he wanted to spend time with were unavailable (Karin working at the hospital).

When he entered the living room he saw Minato surrounded by books, scrolls and papers full of notes. He gave a look to Kushina who was sitting in front of her husband and she shook her head.

“You do know that lunch is soon and that we’re eating on this table, right?”

“Hm?” Minato said as he raised his head from the scroll he was reading. Riku waves with his hand the mess and his father got what he meant. “Oh! Sorry! I…”

“It’s fine and it’s not the end of the world. I’m curious as to why you’re… Is that a book about the basics of chakra?”

“It is! Tsunade asked me if I wanted to teach at the academy and to keep an eye for people with a bit of talent in fuinjutsu.”

“That sounds nice. Do you really need to study all this though?”

“Not at all, I’m just making a good course for the children. I found the current curriculum… Too easy?”

“I agree with you on that. Graduating with only the henge, kawarimi and the basic clone? I know we’re at peace but that’s just asking for a beating.” Kushina said.

“I think so too. It would be good if they knew their nature affinity, at least one C-rank elemental ninjutsu and one genjutsu.”

“I think it’s less about their jutsu arsenal and more about the way you need to explain things. You’d get better results that way.”

“How so?” Asked Kushina, intrigued.

“Well… the leaf exercise? The instruction is to put the leaf on your forehead and use chakra to make it stick. It sounds simple but it leaves the whole process out of it. ‘Use chakra’ is way too vague. Some may channel chakra from their forehead to the leaf which will push it away. Some will cover the leaf with their chakra and make it burn because it can’t handle the amount. The right process is to channel your chakra on your forehead, imagining it’s like a glue. I guarantee that children would get the exercise way faster if you explain it like that. Or any other exercise if you’re detailed enough. I’m of the belief that if by the end of a class all your students didn’t at least understand what you taught them, then you’re not knowledgeable enough about the subject and shouldn’t have taught it in the first place.”

“Hm… That makes sense.” Minato pondered.

“In the end, the number of jutsu you know and can perform means way less than chakra control which must always be trained.”

“With their growing chakra pool, they would need to practice their control often and be more attuned with the need to adapt it by the time they graduate.” Kushina said.

“Yes. Sadly the curriculum is more theory oriented. Naruto’s teammate became Kunoichi of the year because she’s a nerd who got full marks. Everything else was substandard for a genin.”

“It really changed for the worse. When we graduated, physicals were the most important.” His father shared.

“The success rate is 33% for the genin test. Of the two other third who failed, most end up in the genin pool while the others are sent back to the academy. All because their education is substandard. Iruka-sensei tries but he’s only one guy and is in charge of the last year. He’s excellent but still only one man. You should meet with him.”

“We already did. Naruto spoke often about him. Quite the dedicated young man.” commented Kushina.

“That he is. Was it not for him… No, I would have pulled through and out of the genin pool, it would just have been harder.”

“You were in the genin pool?!” the redhead exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yep.” Riku said as he went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water.

“The jonin senseis who were interested in having me in their team knew that the other two students would fail, meaning I would have been sent in the genin pool regardless. They couldn’t offer me an apprenticeship because I was politically a pariah, thanks to my mo… to Sora. And Danzo. Finally the three jonin-sensei who didn’t want me, did not because they were… selfish? Asuma wanted to recreate the ino-shika-cho combo so he wouldn’t have to work much. Joke was on him; he had to work even harder in the end. Yuhi Kurenai wanted Hinata in her team for personal reasons and built a team around her. Credit is due where credit is due, she got the best results of the three teams. Lastly was Kakashi. You’d have to ask him about it because I don’t know.”

“That should not have happened.” Noted Kushina with a frown.

“Nope. The smart thing to do would have been to start making rotating teams during the last year. At the end of it, enough data should have been gathered to make teams based on facts rather than desire.”

“You’re giving me a lot to think about.” his father said.

“I hope so. You’re going to teach the future of the village, you can’t go there and just wing it. Now, on a totally unrelated topic. What are you going to do, Kushina-san? Go back to active duty or work on seals?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Returning to active duty means less time with Naruto but the village got an S-rank kunoichi.”

“It’s not like you’re pressed by time, honey.”

“And it’s not like we can’t deal with any threat already without you involved. You gave enough by hosting the Kyubi for years and giving your life to stop it when it was released. The way I see it, Konoha can’t really ask you for much more.”

With that said. Riku finished his drink and went back to the kitchen to wash his glass. When he came back, he sat out on the patio and began to meditate. He had used a lot of nature energy when he fought the Kyuubi and he needed to replenish his seal reserves.

His time with Katsuyu had really been informative. He had learned a lot about chakra in detail. Chief among them was nature chakra. It has not been difficult to balance nature energy with his spiritual and physical ones. He had perfect chakra control after all. What had been difficult was using it efficiently. He couldn’t stop in the middle of a fight for a few moments to feel the nature energy around him and take it in. He needed to have some at disposition from the start. That’s when his mother’s seal, the Byakugo, came across his mind. She had taught him how to make the seal but he found it very inefficient and added it to the least of things to work on and make better but never got around to do it. Where the original seal would need to be made slowly by storing his own chakra in it and this being limited by his own chakra reserves, nature energy was all around and he could store it without pause.

He was almost done filling the seal completely when an Anbu appeared in a kneeling position in front of him.

“Senju-sama, Hokage-sama is summoning you urgently.”

Riku blinked in confusion, hearing the way he had just been referred to, then nodded his acknowledgement of the message. The Anbu immediately departed and Riku stood up from the wooden floor. He focused on the Hiraishin bracelet his mother was wearing and teleported. His arrival was so sudden that Tsunade threw a punch to her side without even looking. He had been ready however and blocked the attack with his palm.

“Kami! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry, mom. The Anbu you sent said you wanted to see me urgently so I came as fast as I could. What do you need?”

“Suna has been attacked. Days ago.”

“Akatsuki again?”

“Yes. They took Gaara but this time from the description of the event, the leader of the organization came himself to do the job. And he was thorough. Suna is no more.”

“What do you mean no more?” Riku repeated in shock. He needed more information.

“Just that. Completely leveled into the ground. The few survivors immediately sent a message but it took time. They’re still trying to find others among the sand and the rubbles.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Go there, offer some… humanitarian relief. You’re a sage, you will be able to sense and find people buried alive.”

“Should I use Karin’s seal to bring people back?”

“...If you can. Suna is not our only ally but the greatest, without them we’re weak against an alliance between Kumo and Iwa.”

“Kiri?”

“They got out of their civil war two years ago. They’re not ready to go back into the open. Especially with us with how the previous wars went between us.”

“I’m going to need a lot of manpower.”

“Take Naruto and Kushina with you. Temari is in the village, and she will want to go too.”

“Karin?”

“No. We need at least one jinchuriki in the village and more importantly one seal master or in that case seal mistress. She’s not yet accustomed to her huge increase in chakra reserves and her control is completely botched. You’ll have with you a few medic-nins.”

“What about food and medical supplies?”

“I have Anbu gathering everything inside a book of seals that you will be given. You are allowed to use your Botib and the Time seal to heal injured faster and get more manpower by doing so. You are not allowed to answer questions about it.”

“The crates?”

“I’m reluctant to reveal their existence. Can you make a gigantic one? That way they will think that it’s only usable on a large scale?”

“Yes, but I’ll need to make a really big box. It would be too chakra extensive to use my expansion jutsu on one.”

“... Then take Yamato with you.”

“Yamato? Why?”

“He’s… the result of Orochimaru’s experiment on the Mokuton. The only survivor out of 60. He can use it well but not to the extent of my grandfather.”

“Alright. He can always use shadow clones and feed it chakra pills. What about Akatsuki? We can’t stay on the defensive anymore. If one man was able to level an entire village like Suna…”

“I know. I’m having a meeting in a few minutes with the elders and sensei for a plan of Action. Jiraiya is supposed to come back from Kiri with news of the Sanbi and Rokubi. The Gobi is missing, so is the Nanabi.”

“So that leaves us and Kumo with a jinchuriki for sure. It sounds really bad, mom.”

“It does. Now go. You’re on a time table. You’re leaving in one hour and you’re in charge.”

“One hour? That’s such a short notice. Not enough time to gather supplies for a whole village.”

“We’ll be using our reserves. When I took the hat, I ordered to store in seals any surplus we didn’t need in a regular manner for bad days. We have enough.”

Riku nodded, kissed her forehead and flashed away back to Senju Manor. The whole Namikaze family was there enjoying their meal and he felt bad for what he was about to say.

“Naruto, Kushina-san, you need to prepare yourself for an urgent humanitarian mission to Suna.” he said in a grave voice.

“Suna? Why?” Asked Naruto, swallowing the ramen in his mouth.

“The village had been completely destroyed a few days ago by whom we believe to be the Leader of Akatsuki. We just received a message from the survivors requesting for help. It’s bad.”

“Gaara?”

“Taken.”

“Damn it!” shouted the blonde ramen lover in anger.

“I’m not on active duty, why do I have to go? Not that I don’t want to!” she quickly added, realizing how bad she had sounded. “I’m just curious as to why I’m being drafted.”

“Your chakra reserves mostly. Suna’s population is roughly the same as Konoha, so we'll need a lot of shadow clones. Your knowledge on seals could also be useful.”

“Alright! When do we leave?”she asked with enthusiasm.

“In 55 minutes.”

Both Uzumaki rose from their seats and quickly went to their room to pack up. Riku didn’t to Minato’s wonderment.

“You already have everything you need?”

“Book of seals.”

“I really need one of those.”

Riku smirked at the grumbling tone his father had used.