Chapter 144 : Naruto’s Rasengan Hits Riku’s Lightning Shield
Neither of them said anything.
But Tsunade no longer needed to think as she held Riku’s hand.
As they walked, Riku felt something was off. A woman was holding his hand.
So he held it back.
Tsunade froze for a moment, then turned to look at Riku with a calm face, completely unreadable.
He joked, "You’ve got a real male chauvinist streak."
Riku didn’t respond, but the way he gripped her hand said enough.
Tsunade smiled faintly. For some reason, in that moment, she felt like a schoolgirl again.
But she was over fifty years old, and her mind was mature.
She understood what Riku’s silence meant.
In truth, Tsunade found Riku’s thinking unusually mature for someone his age.
He didn’t behave like a thirteen-year-old boy.
Physically, they didn’t even look that far apart in age.
But in the ninja world, that wasn’t unusual. Some shinobi developed adult-level thinking by the time they were five or six. Tsunade had seen all kinds.
The two of them walked in silence down the brightly lit street.
Riku never thought things would progress this far between him and Tsunade.
At first, he’d simply admired her for her unparalleled medical ninjutsu. Later, he realized she was incredibly beautiful, with an amazing figure.
Then he thought she nagged a lot.
And now—this.
There hadn’t even been any major turning points. Somehow, they had just arrived at this strange, natural closeness.
And Riku found that he didn’t feel burdened by it at all.
Tsunade seemed the same way.
As they neared the hotel, Riku hesitated for a moment before saying, "I want to tell everyone about us when I’m eighteen."
Tsunade turned to look at him, a little surprised.
Seeing her reaction, Riku explained, "I just don’t want people to say you’re using your position to promote me as your Hokage guard."
Because once they returned, if Tsunade promoted Riku to Jōnin and made him her personal bodyguard, it would come off as political favoritism.
The title of Hokage guard was an incredibly high-ranking position. Had the Fourth Hokage’s tenure not been so short, his guard would’ve held tremendous authority.
Promoting Riku to Jōnin also meant access to more Konoha resources.
If their relationship were exposed, people would definitely accuse Tsunade of giving power to someone close to her.
Riku didn’t particularly care what others said, but Tsunade was Hokage. And with people like Danzo constantly playing power games, such matters couldn’t just be solved by brute strength.
So Riku had to take these things seriously.
Tsunade gently held Riku’s other hand and smiled. "I’ll listen to you~."
Riku nodded. "Thank you."
Tsunade laughed lightly. "’Thank you’?"
Riku looked a little embarrassed. "Let’s go in."
He let go of her hand and walked into the hotel on his own.
Tsunade stood at the doorway, watching him with a smile. "This kid... really waiting until he’s eighteen."
"Training Riku to become the Sixth Hokage isn’t selfishness on my part. Riku is strong and capable. I’ll make sure he shows up at major events, as a key participant. That way, when it’s finally his time to take the mantle, no one can object."
Tsunade felt satisfied with the plan.
"But he still needs to sign a contract with the Slug."
She didn’t like that her man only had a Ryūchi Cave summon.
Tsunade still hoped Riku would make a contract with the Great Slug of Shikkotsu Forest.
In fact, it was possible for a shinobi to have multiple summoning beasts. Sasuke, for example, had a contract with Ryūchi Cave but also summoned a hawk.
Even if she and Riku didn’t develop their relationship further, Tsunade genuinely wanted to train him as her successor.
Just like the Third Hokage, she saw Riku as the most suitable choice for the Sixth Hokage.
Of course, given their relationship, she naturally hoped Riku would take on the title. He certainly had the ability; his only drawback was his youth.
But Tsunade didn’t think that was a big deal.
If Riku appeared at more high-level events and took on more S-rank missions, the issue of age would eventually be forgotten.
After all, the Sannin had all completed dozens of S-rank missions. Tsunade herself had done 95—an absurdly high number.
Then again, those were war times.
Still, no one in Konoha had broken the Sannin’s S-rank record yet.
Their fame was built not just on titles, but on the strength and results they delivered.
Hanzo of the Salamander gave them the title "Sannin," but it was only the beginning. To make the title mean something, they had to prove themselves.
So Tsunade believed that the best way to solidify Riku’s credibility was through S-rank missions.
And as her Hokage guard, it was perfectly reasonable for him to attend high-level meetings with her as well.
Once back at the hotel, the two of them resumed their usual distance.
Tsunade didn’t go to Riku’s room, and Riku didn’t go to hers. He simply admired her beauty from afar.
In his room, Riku pulled out a book on medical ninjutsu and started reading.
Late at night, Jiraiya returned. As expected, the scent of perfume clung to his clothes.
Riku looked up at him, unimpressed. "Master Jiraiya, you do this every single day. You say you’re gathering intel, but it’s getting hard to believe."
Jiraiya, not drunk for once, sat down in front of Riku, poured himself a cup of tea, and grinned. "What do you know, kid? I go deep into those places because of intel. You think I enjoy it?"
Riku set his book down and gave him a calm look. "I think you enjoy it very much. But hey, that’s your thing. I won’t judge. By the way, how’s Naruto’s training going?"
Naruto had been coming back late every night.
Jiraiya paused, looking slightly caught off guard. He hadn’t really been keeping tabs on Naruto lately—his main training was already complete, and now he was just working on refining it.
Seeing Jiraiya’s expression, Riku sighed. "Alright, I’ll go check the training grounds myself."
Shaking his head at Jiraiya’s unreliability, Riku didn’t say anything more. Maybe it was just a different teaching style.
The moment he finished speaking, Riku vanished from the room.
He’d marked Naruto with a Flying Thunder God seal.
The instant Riku appeared, Naruto was in the middle of releasing a Rasengan—right at him.
A surge of intense lightning erupted from Riku’s body.
Lightning chakra crackled and formed a protective shield around him.
Boom!
Naruto’s Rasengan collided with the lightning shield head-on.
The clash unleashed a massive burst of chakra.
The ground exploded from the impact, gouging deep craters several meters wide—except for the spot where Riku stood, perfectly intact.
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