Chapter 55: Proposal

Once again Konoha has weathered a storm and came out victorious. With half a dozen shadow clones of Yamato being fed chakra pills constantly and with the addition of Naruto, Karin and Kushina’s numerous shadow clones, the reconstruction of the village was a very speedy affair. At this point it was little more than a formality. It would take time for sturdy buildings made of brick to see the light of day but within a week almost half of Konoha had a home. Suna’s refugees had arrived during that time and while downtrodden at first to see that their temporary new home was destroyed too, they didn’t hesitate to help. They had been relocated inside the bunker which had free rooms until further notice. In the end everyone was united and working into rebuilding the leaf. Even retired veterans and cripples found themselves working a job that suited them. Missing a leg? You can sit down and smith nails. Everyone was giving their all and Tsunade felt a pride so great that she ended up feeling moved into speechlessness. Hiruzen understood that feeling well, having lived it twice before.

One dark spot stained everything and that was the disappearance of one Uchiha Sasuke. Riku designed the bunker and the Hiraishin matrix. He made sure to transport every prisoner into a heavily sealed area they could not escape from. Sasuke for some reason did and after investigating resulted in no leads. Just like for Deidara and Kurosaki Raiga as if all three had disappeared in thin air. Riku had tried to activate the Hiraishin placed on Sasuke’s neck (like every prisoner) but it didn’t work. There were three possible reasons for that. Either the seal was removed, which Riku doubted a lot, Sasuke was out of fire country and so out of range or he was in another dimension, completely separated from their own. Had Sasuke been inside a barrier, the seal would have worked.

It was a dark spot but not a problem in the short term. Sasuke had no eyes and couldn’t do anything without them. Even in the case of his helper giving new ones they wouldn’t be the sharingan.

Now that the leader of the Akatsuki had been caught along with his right-hand woman, Riku believed that things were over. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Uzumaki Nagato interrogation by T&I revealed that while he was the leader of the organization he wasn’t the sole one. Uchiha Madara was another.

Tsunade had scoffed when she heard that. The man had been killed by her grandfather more than 60 years ago so whoever it was was definitely not him. From his description and both Minato and Kushina’s testimony of the night of the Kyuubi attack, it was this Madara that had ripped the fox out of Kushina. That answered how the Akatsuki members and Sasuke had disappeared in their own cells. The man was using space-time Ninjutsu to teleport and be intangible which negated any attacks directed at him. From the testimony, Riku began to think of a way to counter that ninjutsu. He wasn’t too worried though. Minato had managed to defeat the man with his hiraishin so Riku was sure he could do it too with his own version. It was a minor annoyance compared to fighting against the Rinnegan.

As such the dirty blonde was planning again his marriage proposal to his second favorite blonde (the first being his mother). He had already thought of everything before the village was completely destroyed but now he was to revise everything. Except the ring. He hadn’t yet got around the ring. He wanted it to be carved with a hiraishin seal, the problem was the surface available was way too small for that. After days inside his Botib trying to find a way he gave up. It just wasn’t practical at all and he decided to put the seal on something else. That allowed him to work on the inside of the Botib. Until now it was the strict minimum for a mobile base but he redesigned it to make it a home away from home.

To bring forth that change he tried to expand the sub space vertically, something he had never done before. He expanded, left, right and front but never up or down from fear of breaking the Botib from the inside. He rationalized that since it could expand beyond the depth of the closet he could also expand beyond its height.

He wasn’t crazy to do it himself though. He used shadow clones for that. Once he had confirmation that nothing was going wrong he actually created new space inside. Most notably a second floor with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a pool on the first floor and also a garden. The last one has been a challenge. He had no problem procuring twenty yards square of earth. Nor did he have any problem in creating the day and night cycle. He was already doing that with the lamps. What had been difficult was putting flowers and trees. Inside the garden. The answer came to him when he began to pace around the main room. By accident he hit the corner of a table and a nature changing shurifuin had fallen onto the ground. When Riku picked it up he had a revelation. Mokuton was the combination of water and earth release. He believes that if it was possible to change the chakra nature through a seal it would also be possible to change the chakra nature of two at the same time and mix them together. The first part has not been difficult, the later has been very much so. Or at least for recreating the Mokuton. He spent an entire week in the Botib to refine with precision the amount of earth and water he needed to combine to get wood. After many tries and retries, the answer was a ratio of  60.9 % of earth and 39.1% of water. Filling in a corner of his mind the fact that elemental kekkei genkai was not unattainable anymore and swearing he would try other combinations when he could, Riku hastily made an automated seal creating mokuton tags. As a result the garden was full of flowers and trees.

Next he began working on a big gazebo. He had to ask for help for the design and advice for its construction. The first try had been a correct endeavor and instead of making a better one, cover up the whole thing in vines, and flowers to hide the imperfection. Once done, he exited the Botib, closed and locked it and went to see his girlfriend, leaving inside clones working on dinner.

With the flower shop not a priority on the building construction list, the only place he knew where to find Ino was her rebuilt home. She was hoping she was there and if not at least her mother to tell her where she was. He wasn’t expecting Yamanaka Inoichi to open the door when he knocked on it. Shocked at the unexpected surprise for a brief instant, Riku quickly regained his composure.

“Yamanaka-sama, good morning.” he greeted doing his very best to not falter.

“Likewise, Senju-san. What can I do for you?” the blonde man asked with narrow eyes.

“I…” ‘Shit! Think of something, quick!’ “Picnic. I wanted to invite you and your family for a picnic today at noon. The invitation had been delayed with what happened to Sunagakure and my work with the village barrier at my return. I’m a man of my word and I promised Noriko-san and Ino a picnic so here I am.”

“... I’m thankful for the invitation but it’s such a short-”

“Honey, Who is it?”

Riku knew at that moment that Yamanaka Noriko was going to be the best mother-in-law ever. She appeared from back inside the house and made her way to her husband. When she saw Riku standing outside, she smiled.

“Riku! How lovely to see you! Here to visit Ino? She’s in her room, I’ll tell her you’re here.”

“That’s kind of you, Noriko-san but I’m actually here to invite all of you for that picnic we never had the time to enjoy, this noon. I know it’s-”

“Wonderful!” She said, grabbing his arm and dragged him inside. “I’ve been waiting for so long! I’m glad you’re finally free of your duties. Anymore and I would have thought you were avoiding me.”

‘Not you. Your husband.’ “Never! You’ve always been so kind, why would I avoid you? Nonsense.”

“INO!” she shouted then, completely forgetting her husband at the door, and walked with him towards the bottom of the stairs. “Riku is here, dear!”

The sound of something hitting the ground then the loud and fast footsteps on the wooden floor should have been an indication to Riku to prepare himself. He missed it and as a result, when Ino got halfway down the stairs she jumped to him. He barely had the time to raise his arms and catch this girlfriend that his back impacted the floor. As usual when she did this, Ino gave him a kiss that made his toes curl. This time again, Noriko pulled her daughter off Riku with a barely contained grin.

“You really need to work on your impulse control, dear. I wonder who you got that from?”

The last part was said to her husband who had a dark look on his face. His expression changed to sheepish and a bit embarrassed and he simply looked away.

“I’m not sorry. It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve seen him!” she justified herself, Riku getting up on his feet.

“I’m sorry. I was busy working on the barrier, making sure everyone was safe and avoiding my mother.” was his own excuse.

“Why would you avoid your mother?”

“Good question, Noriko-san and well… She may have forbade me to tweak the barrier with the seal that saved everyone because it was untested. Even though I was proven to be right to do so, I still disobeyed her and bailed out when she began to chastise me for it. I think that’s what got her really upset. To be fair, I just had the fight of my life, was completely exhausted and just wanted to rest.”

“Understandable.” Inoichi commented. Plenty of times he had gotten home after work, completely exhausted and had tried to avoid his wife nagging. That was at the start of their marriage and he had learned since that it was better to take the nagging or face worse consequences later. “But ill-thought.” he quickly added when Noriko gave him a look.

“Anyway, I came to visit today to invite your whole family for that promised picnic.”

“Let’s go!”

“Ino, it’s 10am.” Her father reminded her.

“And knowing my boyfriend, it was a spur of the moment idea and hadn’t yet bought any food or cooked anything for lunch yet.” she said and took Riku’s hand in hers, dragging him outside. “We’ll be back before lunch!”

Riku could barely say a word that they were already out of her home. Once they were away from the Yamanaka clan’s new compound she spoke up.

“So what’s the real reason for you coming to my home?”

“You of course. I wanted to see if you were free tonight for a romantic date.”

“I am.” she replied with a pleased smile.

“And I panicked a bit when it was not your mother opening the door but your father. I said the first thing that came to mind.”

“You’re silly. My father may be the overprotective type but he’s not going to hurt you or anything.”

“It’s a male thing, Ino. You wouldn’t get it.”

“Uh-uh.” she replied not convinced.

“Anyway. I wanted to also tell you that you should wear your prettiest dress. And I mean prettiest for public display, not your very slutty outfit that started everything back in that club.”

“You love that outfit.” she said with a smirk.

“Of course I do. Have you seen yourself in it? The only thing I had in mind at the time was-”

“Sex. That was the whole point.”

“Not sex Ino. Breed. To make you my little slut and breed you again again and again. I even imagined you collared and on a leash.”

“Ouuuh. I love that idea.” she admitted and invaded his personal space really deep. “We’re totally doing that.”

“Another time. Tonight is classy.”

“Alright. But we’re definitely going on a secret date with my slutty outfit and me collared!”

Riku smiled and nodded his agreement to the idea. She gave him a kiss and they walked to the market district that was still being rebuilt. There were enough food stores to buy everything they needed and Ino demanded that she help him cook. Sandwiches were a bit too casual despite being a picnic so Riku went for a curried rice and egg salad. Something perfect for Noriko who didn’t like meat very much. She loved fish however and Riku made simple fish-dogs. He had removed the bones of some herrings and grilled them on a stick. For dessert it was simply an apple pie. As for the drink, a good jug of Ice-Tea with a hint of lemon and mint, perfect for cooling down the body from the heat in the middle of the day.

Riku brought everyone near the Naka river. He put a huge sheet on the ground and unsealed a traditional table and pillows for everyone to sit down at. The food has been a resounding success with Ino’s parents, especially the Iced-Tea. Noriko had asked for the recipe but wondered how he got the ice in this season. He simply answered her that it was a family secret. She may have understood it as a Senju secret but Ino knew better. She knew that Riku didn’t really consider himself a Senju. Tsunade’s son? Certainly, yes but not a Senju. So she knew that the family secret was in fact just him finding a way to make ice and that was something she would ask him later. Overall, everyone had a good time and Riku got to know his future-in-laws better while they got to know him. After a promise of doing this more often they went back home, leaving Ino and Riku alone.

“Nu-huh. Wait for tonight.” Riku said as Ino began to put her hand on his inner thigh and began to caress him gently. He had grabbed her wrist to make her stop and she wasn’t happy about it. “Tonight will be less wonderful if I’m not at 100%”

The blonde bombshell said nothing and relented but not without a pout. Despite how much he wanted the same thing as she did, his rock hard dick being proof of that, he held himself back. A quick peck on the lips was all he allowed himself before he left to go back home and see that everything was perfect for the coming evening and night.

He was surprised to find Minato and Kushina there. He would have thought that they would have taken one of the newly built houses for themselves. He hadn’t seen the last two since the end of the fight against Nagato (Riku refused to call him Pain, that was too emo for a man in his early forties) and the first one since even before that. So far the Namikaze family were kind of… Not freeloaders but long term guests. He didn’t understand why they were still living here.

“Riku!” His father exclaimed with dishes in his hands on his way to the kitchen. “It’s good to see you out of your man-cave.” he added while going on his way.

“I’ve been busy. Things won’t do themselves.”

“No but taking a break from time to time is important. And healthy.” Kushina gave her two Ryo, coming back from the kitchen to the dining room. “Work can wait.”

“It wasn’t work.” he replied and made his way to where he had left his Botib in the corner of the patio.

“What were you doing then?” His father asked coming back to the dining room.

“That’s a secr… Actually…” he stopped mid-sentence, an idea crossing his mind. “Kushina-san could you do me a favor and give me your opinion on something?”

That surprised the redhead a bit. Riku rarely asked anyone for their opinion, let alone hers. She looked at her husband who was as clueless as she was and gave her a shrug of his shoulders.

“Sure. What about?”

“And why not ask me, your father?”

“Unless you had a sex change since we brought you back from the dead, your opinion is meaningless.”

“Oh. It’s a woman’s opinion you need.” the blonde man realized.

“Yes. You can come though. Just hold your tongue until tomorrow. Both of you.”  asked Riku and signaled them to follow him inside the Botib.

Kushina wondered why he didn’t ask Tsunade or Shizune or any of his girlfriends instead of her but didn’t voice it. She just followed him with Minato right behind her. Both were amazed by the change inside the Botib. The whole look was very different from before. The simplistic and military style was changed to something more homely. Nothing changed regarding what was in the main room. There was still the armory in the corner, the table with the seals in the middle. The addition of the second floor baffled them.

“This way.” they heard Riku say from a door that wasn’t there before if their memories were accurate. The married couple walked towards the next room and were gobsmacked at what they were seeing. A 20m² garden spanned right in front of them. There was the most lush and green grass they have ever seen on the ground and the walls were covered with tall bushes or vines and flowers. The huge wooden gazebo covered in vines and flowers too and painted white in the middle of the garden attracted their attention more than the trees around it.

“How the hell did he do that?” Kushina whispered.

“My guess? Seals. Very complex seals.” Minato answered as they joined the dirty blonde in the gazebo.

Riku was folding a napkin carefully and putting it on a white plate. The whole table was covered by an ornery white tablecloth and with a dinner set for two sets on it.

“Wow.” Kushina said looking around “I don’t know for whom that’s for but you’re definitely going to get lucky tonight. Way past a blowjob.”

“Kushina!”

“What? It’s true!  I know You would if you did that for me!”

“Not in front of Riku!”

“You do know that I had to see both of you naked to fix your body, right? I think I’m beyond hearing crass comments from the two of you. Besides, I have my own crass redhead.”

“That’s not- Ugh… Nevermind.”

“So if the flaky prude over here pulled a ring…” Riku began and pulled an actual ring from his breast pocket and showed it to his step-mother. “And asked you to marry him, would-.”

“Yes! On the spot!” She cut him off. “This..” she started and waved around her hand to refer to the whole garden “Shows dedication, care and lots of hard work. No one would do that for someone else if they didn’t truly love the person they did it for.”

“Who’s the lucky one?” asked Minato.

“Ino.”

“Ah! That explains the garden and the purple flowers. She will love it. I wish my man would do that for me. Maybe I should ask Naruto? He’s always saying he loves me.” She teased and chided her husband at the same time.

“Nuh-huh. I’m the man of your life and I’ll be the one doing that for you.”

“I don’t know about that. Naruto has technically spent more time inside Kushina-san than you ever did.” Riku joked with a deadpan face.

That made Kushina snort and laugh very loudly. To her side Minato’s face was a mix of horror and outrage. Then it changed to mischievous and he picked Kushina up to put her on his shoulder.

“I recognize a challenge when I hear one!” the married man said, walking away with a not so laughing Kushina.

“Wait! Minato, that was a joke! Not a challenge! There is no way that’s possible! So don’t try it!”

“Don’t care!”

She kept protesting as they left the garden.

Riku spent all afternoon making sure everything was perfect. When one of his clones reminded him of the time. Riku finished what he was doing and went to clean himself up. When it was time for him to dress up, he chose to wear a forest green traditional kimono at first but changed his mind knowing that Ino would go with a normal dress not a traditional one. So he just put on a white shirt and some black pants. He used the hiraishin seal he had left near her house and patted himself on the back for thinking about it; he would have been late otherwise. He arrived just as she closed the door to her home to wait outside as they had planned.

The purple dress she wore was beautiful. Not slutty or whory in any way, but it showed everything he loved about her body. Her dress straps were actually attached to a cloth collar that was closed behind her neck, leaving her shoulders completely bare and pushing up her breasts which displayed a small but deep cleavage. He nearly proposed on the spot just so he could make love to her right here and there.

“Good evening, my sun princess.” He greeted her in a soft and suave voice and with a smile on his face.

“Good evening, baby!” She greeted back with happiness and a kiss on the lips. “I hope what you planned is very distracting because I’m of a mind to bring you back to my bedroom right now.” she said, biting sensually her lower lips as she gave him a look over.

“I can say the same and… It is.” he replied mysteriously offering her his hand.

She took her without any hesitation and Riku flashed them back to his bedroom, in front of the Botib. Ino immediately frowned, not liking what she was seeing. She liked the Botib because of the Time seal but it was far from being romantic.

“You better not-”

“Trust me.” he simply said and pulled her inside.

“... You change the decoration, wow. Great.” she said flatly as she saw the changes he made.

He kept smiling at her and led her to the door of the garden. Before opening the door, he went behind her and blocked her view with one hand.

“Riku. You promised me the most memorable date in my entire life. So far it has been lackluster…” she began to say and Riku used his free hand to open the door from behind her. “So whatever is beyond that door better be awesome or I swear I’m going back-”

The end of her sentence died in her throat when Riku removed his hand from her eyes and she saw the garden. For the first time since he knew her, Yamanaka Ino was left speechless and it wasn't because she was asleep (even with his dick in her mouth she ‘voiced’ her thoughts). He pushed her slowly inside the garden then moved to her side to take her hand and lead her to the Gazebo. She was looking all around, not really paying attention at where she was going. Her mouth opened cutely in wonder and shock refused to close.

“Ino?”

Hearing her name brought her back down to Earth. She saw Riku waiting for her to walk between the table and a chair he had pulled out so he could help her sit down. Silently and a bit dazed, she took her seat and Riku went to take his.

“Riku… That’s beautiful.”

“Of course. I had you in mind when I made it. How can it be anything but beautiful?” he replied with a loving smile.

Yamanaka Ino rarely blushed, she had thick skin and had heard it all before from boys and men. But Riku’s words moved her, her heart skipping a beat.

“You are so getting lucky, tonight.” she said with a teasing grin.

“I hope so.”

A Kage bunshin came into the garden and began to serve Ino her food, then Riku. It was all her favorite food and she enjoyed it very much. They ate in silence, they didn’t need to talk as they knew that any word spoken would break the magic spell of this wonderful moment. After the desert and the plates taken away. Riku stood up from his chair, a small flower pot in hand that the clone had given him. She wondered what it was about but chose to keep quiet and wait. She had been right when Riku walked to her side where he went on one knee. Moving her chair to the side a bit to face him and with her heart beating at incredible speed, she hoped. Under her very eyes, Riku stuck a small seal tag under the pot and slowly the closed purple flower began to grow and unfurl itself revealing a very intricate ring with a light blue gem on top of it, cut in a diamond shape.

“Ino, will you be my wife?” he asked with as much confidence as he could.

He had expected many things but a silent Ino suddenly tearing up and crying was not one of them. Because of that he began to panic and his heart sank in his stomach. As he made a move to stand up, Ino reached for the ring with her hand. She took it and looked at it from every angle. When she was done she looked up to Riku, tears still falling and her eyeliner running.

“Yes.” she whispered then spoke louder. “Yes, I’ll be your wife.”

She handed him the ring with her right hand and presented her left palm facing the ground, for him to put the ring on her. Riku’s heart soared from his stomach and nearly bursted out of his chest when she agreed. Delicately, he put the ring on her finger and Ino kissed him with everything she had. When she pulled back she began to sob uncontrollably. Something so uncharacteristic of her.

“Hey.” he said softly. “I’m getting mixed signals here, if you’re unhappy to be my...”

“I’M NOT DUMMY!” she shouted in his face. Now that was the Ino he knew. “I-I’m just so moved, so happy that after years of dreaming about it, it finally happened!”

“I’m sorry it took so long to completely fall under your spell.” he replied with a smile.

She just smiled back at the jape then looked at the ring on her finger. Another surge of love and happiness came to her and she went to kiss him again.

“Make love to me.” she ordered but it sounded more like a plea.

“As my fiance-”

“Wife.”

“As my wife wishes.” Riku corrected and picked her up in a bridal style.

He exited the garden and brought her to one of the rooms on the second floor to fulfill his soon-to-be wife's command.