Hokage: Ryo's Path

Chapter 18: Ryo vs Kushina!

“Ryo Yamanaka, is this all you have?” The storm of Kushina’s attacks was immensely overwhelming Ryo. Both speed and power given to her by the One Tail Cloak mode were wilder than anything he ever imagined from her. The thunder Chakra mode and Chakra blade were barely enough for defense.

“Well, since I’m in this state, I guess there’s no need to be so nice with my Sensei.” Ryo said that as he spreading chakra through his body, transitioning to the Lightning-Ice Chakra Mode!

Since his eyes couldn’t keep up with Kyubi mode’s speed, he just closed them.

The Lightning-Ice Chakra mode’s speed and reflexes were al increase by a large margin. He became able to perceive Kushina’s location with his immense Yamanaka spiritual power!

The Lightning-Ice Chakra mode was enough to keep up with the barrage of attacks delivered by Kushina in the Single Tail Cloak mode. But Ryo knew he still had no chance to win!

Ryo’s limit was his lack of enough chakra to maintain this mode. He only had enough for 2 more minutes; while Kushina who already had superior levels of Chakra (being an Uzumaki), had the infinite chakra from the Kyubi! Winning requires ending this fight within two minutes, and Ryo couldn’t see how that would ever be possible.

But Kushina didn’t like Ryo’s satisfaction when he kept up with her speed. A 7 year old not only having this amount of strength, but also developing his own S rank Ninjutsu. His talent is comparable to that of her boyfriend Minato.

Ryo perceived the movement of her cloak while closing his eyes. The amount of chakra was so massive, it shone like a bright lamp in the dark!

Suddenly, she picked up speed, to an extent where normal people would only see a blood-red figure flickering in front of them if they looked with their bare eyes. She aimed at attacking him from behind, in her attempts to find out where his limits were.

“[Water Release: Wild Water Wave!” Ryo opened his eyes and aimed away from Kushina releasing this C class Jutsu. Yet she continued her attack on Ryo without giving it any thought.

“Freeze!” The water waves were frozen, and Kushina’s fist went right to Ryo’s back! At that exact moment, he disappeared.

“A Space-Time Ninjutsu?” Being Minato’s girlfriend, she was familiar with the Flying Thunder God Justu that he uses! And this technique used by Ryo just now was weirdly similar to that.

“[Chidori]!” On the ice behind Kushina, Ryo quickly formed his seals. And with whatever chakra he had left, he released Chidori, losing his lightning Chakra mode simultaneously.

Less than a meter away from Kushina, it was a direct hit!

“AAAH!” The Chidori pierced through Kushina and she blew up into white smoke.

“A Shadow clone?! When did you...?”

“You made it easy, when you opened your eyes to use your water waves! You can only rely on perception to determine my position! Opening up your eyes and thinking about the final blow? I would never let you get away with it!”

“You’re really strong Kushina sensei!” Ryo was panting when he said that to Kushina.

“You’re not bad as well! You’re far beyond the level of an average Chunin! That last one was a time-space ninjutsu?”

Ryo shook his head and explained : “No. That was the special ability that I discovered when I was a child. I could teleport within the ice I make with my Chakra.”

Ice and the Sharingan are Ryo’s most important trump cards. They are a secret only known by a select few: His possession of the Sharingan is only known about by Yamanaka Chinse, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Hatake Sakumo; with the last one being the only person to know about his ice affinity.

The reason why Ryo revealed the secret of his Ice Release was because on one hand, she overwhelmed him and he felt the need to use it, and on the other, she was his instructor. He knew from the anime that the relationship between instructors and their disciples was always strong, and that having to go on missions with her will make him eventually get their bond strong and reveal all secrets anyway. So he decided to take the initiative and break the ice by being totally honest.

“Is it some kind of a bloodline limit technique?”

Ryo shook his head and said he didn’t know.

By character, Kushina was more of simple minded person, who would just throw aside problems they couldn’t solve. So she went on to ask:

“So, Ryo.. I can call Ryo, no?”

“Of course you can, Kushina Sensei!”

“Let’s drop the sensei part, call me Kushina Onechan!” She was delighted by his answer, so she spoke without thinking.

“Kushina Onechan!” Ryo would never refuse such a relationship with her. He went with what she said immediately

“Ryo, so you developed your own jutsu?”

“Yes, an A classe jutsu!” He wasn’t hiding anything

“Wow, you are a genius! Being 7 years old, you can develop ninjutsu by yourself.”

“[Chidori] is just a basic ninjutsu. Injecting chakras into a short knife can increase the sharpness of the short knife. That’s how to make Chidori blade. By focusing the chakra and lightning we get Raikiri, an S class Jutsu!” Ryo introduced Chidori and its variants to Kushina.

He was surprised by her astonishment. Her style of fighting was a simple and ruthless, relying mainly on speed, taijutsu, and massive amounts of chakra. She has never learned such fine ninjutsu techniques like Chidori.

“Ryo, are you better in medical ninjustu?” Kushina’s knowledge of medical ninjutsu is very minimal. If he was more interrested in that he wouldn’t have anything to learn from her.

“No, I’m more interested in Ninjutsu and Taijutsu. I’m working on my Thunder Chakra mode and Chidori variants”

Hearing that, Kushina was relieved. Although she wasn’t as skillful with ninjutsu, this gives her the chance to train with him more.

“Ryo, should we take a walk?”

He nodded and the two talked for half an hour; and Ryo recovered his chakra and physical strength.

“Well, nechan, I’ll invite you on a good bowl of ramen.”

Kushina had a weakness for ramen and ate a bowl every day. And Ryo liked the taste of it also after trying it in the hospital. So in his free time he often went to Ichiraku to grab a bowl for himself.

“Boss! A large portion of pork bone Ramen!”

“And I want a large portion of seafood ramen!”

“Oh! Kushina and Ryo coming together!” Both of them are regular customers, so boss Teuchi knew them well.

“Yes! Ryo is my new disciple!”

“Is that so! Congratulations Kushina, you’ve taken such a good apprentice! Today’s ramen is on the house!”

“Thank you boss!” Kushina was even happier.

After eating ramen, Kushina sent Ryo back home after agreeing on meeting the next day in the 3^rd training ground.

After greeting her and returning home, Ryo lied in his bed recalling their fight

This battle was the most enjoyable one he had since he crossed over. His fights with Sakumo usually were finished really fast due to the great gap in skill and strength.

And fighting a Jounin who is also a Jinchuriki is a great way for him to train enough to survive the upcoming war, even though he’ll probably keep on losing to her.

And also having Kushina Uzumaki, of all people, as his teacher wasn’t half bad either!