Chapter 25 : Water Barrier Vs Fire Dragon Flame Bomb
This time, the explanation only took three minutes, and Kakashi finished it.
Standing in front of Riku, Kakashi formed a hand seal and smiled. "Watch carefully. I’ll demonstrate."
As soon as the seal was complete, a curtain of water rose up around Kakashi.
"Water Style: Water Barrier."
Boom—
The water surged upward in an instant, rising over ten meters high, like a waterfall erupting from the ground toward the sky.
Riku smiled, then suddenly seemed to remember something. He leapt to the opposite side of the water curtain and quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
In an instant, after completing the seals, a massive fireball—over five meters wide—shot toward the towering water curtain.
Boom—
Hiss—
The fireball collided with the water curtain, sending steam billowing into the air.
Eventually, both the fireball and the water barrier dissipated into clouds of thick mist.
Kakashi chuckled. "You actually managed to counter my Water Barrier with just your Fireball Jutsu. That’s impressive."
He was clearly surprised. Normally, the Fireball Jutsu and the Water Barrier Technique weren’t on the same level.
Yet Riku’s Fireball Jutsu had completely evaporated the flow of the Water Barrier. That spoke volumes about the sheer power behind his technique.
Riku grinned. "Kakashi-sensei, now you try a Fire Style jutsu—and I’ll see if I can block it with my Water Style: Water Barrier."
Kakashi didn’t refuse and replied with a smile, "Alright, but be careful."
With that, he immediately formed seals.
Riku backed up to about ten meters away, quickly forming his own seals.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
"Water Style: Water Barrier!"
The two unleashed their ninjutsu nearly simultaneously.
The Fire Dragon Flame Bullet was a B-rank Fire Style jutsu—powerful and highly destructive.
This time, the Fire and Water Style jutsu were evenly matched in level.
Boom—
The fiery dragon roared as it surged toward Riku with terrifying momentum.
At the same moment, a massive wall of water formed in front of Riku, rising like a tsunami to meet the oncoming flames.
The wave, over fifteen meters high, surged outward with overwhelming force, slamming into the fire dragon.
Hiss—
The moment the techniques collided, the explosion sent waves of steam and water vapor flying in all directions.
Boom—
Finally, the fire dragon was extinguished, and the water curtain was blasted apart, scattering into a thousand scorching droplets.
Even the scattered water was hot to the touch.
Both Riku and Kakashi were stunned.
Kakashi gave a wry smile. "I used a high-level Fire Style jutsu like the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, and your Water Barrier still held its ground. That’s... impressive."
Riku was equally amazed. He looked at Kakashi and said, "Kakashi-sensei, that Fire Dragon Flame Bullet is seriously powerful."
"The impact and force are on a completely different level than the Fireball Jutsu."
Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Yes. It’s a high-level technique. The Third Hokage was especially proficient in it."
Riku finally remembered—this was the same jutsu Hiruzen Sarutobi had used when facing off against the Second Hokage, summoned through Orochimaru’s Impure World Reincarnation.
At the time, it had been countered by the Second Hokage’s Water Barrier.
Riku smiled bitterly in his heart. "It really is just like that moment... these two jutsu always seem to go hand in hand."
Kakashi’s Fire Dragon Flame Bullet wasn’t far off from the Third Hokage’s version.
And Riku’s Water Barrier wasn’t far off from the Second Hokage’s.
In the end, it was still a draw.
After thinking for a moment, Riku asked with a grin, "Kakashi-sensei, can I learn that jutsu?"
Kakashi blinked. "Do you even have enough chakra left?"
Riku didn’t answer. Instead, he turned and walked straight toward the nearby pool.
Standing beside the water, Riku began forming hand seals at high speed—the same sequence Kakashi had just used for the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
The moment the final seal was made, Riku’s eyes narrowed.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Boom—
A massive stream of flame burst forth from Riku’s mouth in an instant.
Boom—
The impact was terrifying—far greater in speed and force than the Fireball Jutsu.
Boom—
The fire dragon split into three streams and slammed into the waterfall tens of meters away.
Hiss—
The flames raged on, refusing to die out. The waterfall’s crashing water hit the flames head-on.
But before the water could extinguish them, it was instantly vaporized by the intense heat.
The fire raged on for a full thirty seconds before finally dying down.
By then, the entire area within a few hundred meters was filled with dense mist and water vapor.
Kakashi stood in place, stunned. "He learned a B-rank Fire Style jutsu just by watching it once... and it even looks stronger than mine..."
As that thought crossed his mind, something else dawned on him.
"Wait a minute—Riku’s already mastered three B-rank jutsu. His strength has clearly surpassed that of a Chūnin. And with his chakra reserves... he just cast two B-rank jutsu without breaking a sweat."
"I remember just a month ago, casting one C-rank and one B-rank jutsu was enough to strain him."
"Has his chakra grown that much in just over a month?"
Kakashi was stunned.
"His body is incredible..."
If it were anyone other than Kakashi, if someone like Danzo had witnessed Riku’s potential, Riku would have already been eliminated or forcibly trained into a weapon.
Or, at the very least, turned into a missing-nin.
After unleashing the Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, Riku smiled. "This jutsu is insanely powerful. It’s easily on par with the Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame."
In fact, both were B-rank jutsu. The only reason the Majestic Destroyer Flame seemed more terrifying was because it had been cast by Madara Uchiha.
Riku considered for a moment. "No, technically speaking, the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet should be stronger than the Majestic Destroyer Flame. It’s only because Madara used the latter that it looked so overwhelming."
"If my chakra ever reaches the level of Uchiha Madara’s, then the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet I cast will be even more destructive than his Majestic Destroyer Flame."
Riku clenched his fist. "It all comes down to chakra... it’s always chakra."
"But I’m not in a rush. For my age, I already have chakra reserves comparable to a Jōnin. Other than someone like Naruto, there’s probably no one my age with this kind of chakra."
Riku wasn’t anxious—his body was unique.
It was infinitely adaptable. Maybe his growth was slower, but he had no ceiling.
That was why he never bothered studying the Eight Inner Gates.
Because with his physique, he would naturally reach that level one day. There was no point in using a technique that damaged the body.
The Eight Gates were created to push beyond the limits of the human body—but Riku’s body had no such limits to begin with.
Clenching his fists again, Riku smiled. "The Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet might be the most powerful technique I’ve learned so far."
He was more than satisfied—he was thrilled with its destructive power.
"This might just be my trump card for a long time."