Chapter 4 Unnecessary Attack

The air was much colder now, the heat from the desert slowly fading as Riku traveled deeper into the forest, it was a normal forest. Green trees surrounded everything with vibrant green grass and plants, the sight was quite beautiful, opposed to what Riku had been exposed to over the years, it was a nice change.

Circulating his chakra quickly became easy as he repeated the movements non-stop.

His next steps were to learn how to increase his physicality via chakra by moving large amounts to a specific area in his body.

However, as Riku was taking in the beauty there was a presence that even he could sense, Kokuenryū didn't have to inform him. As Riku took his stance and began to circulate his chakra, which slightly increased his physical and mental strength. His goal was to preferably escape, but that probably wasn't an option so he decided on fighting.

As the group of at least 20 ninja surrounded him, Riku was absolutely horrified. This many? For what?? I'm literally just a kid this isn't even funny, so Riku quickly tried to word his way out of this "uhm hello.." Riku said quietly and innocently.

To Riku's dissatisfaction none of the ninja replied, which shows they really did want to kill him. Completely for no reason, Riku didn't do anything wrong and yet a whole ninja gang wanted his head, well this is all of the good luck he had so far catching up to him.

At this point even Kokuenryū had to chime in

*What is the meaning of this? What do these vile cretins wish to achieve by being in my presence.* Kokuenryū was just disappointed, he couldn't even be mad anymore "oh well, I can't run so I might aswell try to fight at least" Riku said dejectedly as he gripped the scimitar, which was in surprisingly good condition. And waited for the ninja to move, the moment one did Riku immediately sidestepped and then quickly slashed the ninja's throat. Before any of the other ninja could even comprehend what happened, Riku tried his luck and attempted the 12th and final page of the Arden Swordsmanship, the Dance of the Hunters Moon which was the hardest one to use, but he thought maybe with the help of chakra he could. As he said aloud "Arden Swordsmanship 12th Page : Dance of the Hunters Moon" he seemed to vanish, as he appeared before another ninja and then another, and then another, then a fourth, then a fifth and even a ninth ninja before he coughed up blood, jumping back swiftly to retreat. He kneeled down and looked at the ninja as 9 of them began to fall apart in cubes, as if a laser had sliced them all.

Riku smiled mischievously as he watched his prey fall to pieces. Wiping the blood from his mouth, he ran around the back of a tree, however.. his arrogance lead him to being naïve. These were ninja, not bandits.

Riku ran behind some trees right before a massive raging fireball flew directly over him and exploding into a massive cloud of ash behind him, Riku sucked in a breath, realising his place. Yes, he could slaughter 9 of them seemingly easily but his body was in terrible shape from doing that even once, so Riku now knows that these guys should not be taken lightly. "Flare your chakra on a count of three, Kokuenryū" Riku thought.

*as you wish.* Kokuenryū said surprisingly obidient,

One.. two.. THREE

Kokuenryū's chakra flared, it was even stronger than before thanks to Riku's circulation as he was now at a solid 8% of his original power. The ninja were once again caught off guard as the young boy dashed towards them, however one ninja came in from the side and knocked Riku down, which Riku swiftly took opportunity out of and slashed the ligaments in both of a stunned ninja's knees, causing him to buckle which Riku then followed up with a direct slash to his torso, claiming his 11th victim out of the 20. Which was actually really good for his level, unfortunately though. The ninja were done playing around, they all began using hand seals as many clones surrounded them, they then began weaving even more hand seals as they spoke "fire release : fire bullet" "wind release : great breakthrough" "water release : waterfall".

"Ah shit"

*unfortunate.*

Unfortunately for Riku again, all the attacks were direct hits, severing one of his arms and fatally wounding him, instantly causing him to lose consciousness.

As the 9 remaining ninja approached the young boy's unconscious body, looking at the child with discerning eyes, seemingly looking for some chance of him still being conscious.

"That kid's swordsmanship was unfortunately incredible, butchering 11 ninja at his young age.. his potential is frightening, it would be better to get rid of him now" said a ninja wearing a konoha headband, he was wearing the standard Jōnin outfit, showing his high ninja rank and probably that he was the leader of the group as all of the other ninja seemed either high gennin or low chūnin.

Right as Riku was about to be killed however, a large group of loud roars were heard not too far away. The Jōnin looked over, his attention turned to the noises, Riku's body lay limp on the floor amongst a pool of blood, however unknown to the Jōnin, his wounds were already healing. And thanks to Kokuenryū being a reptile, and Jinchuriki's getting traits from their tailed beasts I.e. Gaara's tanuki eye marks and Naruto's whiskers and even Riku's slit irises, he had luckily gained some of Kokuenryū's reptile traits such as regeneration, so sooner or later his arm should return and the seemingly fatal wounds wouldn't kill him off.

In the distance 4 large creatures appeared, the Jōnin scoffed as they were just lowly creatures anyways. He was a Jōnin, one of konoha's few Jōnin, there was no way these creatures could put up a fig-

His thoughts were interrupted as one of the beasts appeared infront of him, a burning hatred in it's glowing white eyes as it's large claw descended onto the body of the Jōnin, luckily for him he managed to evade the attack. However, the onslaught of furious strikes continued, the large creature only growing in speed.

Then, the Jōnin used the body flicker jutsu to escape further back as he analysed the situation. In front of him were four large creatures, around 2 metres in height. Their fur was black and white like a badgers, but their size and looks were that of a bear. These were badgerbear, barely ever seen in the world, they usually live in their habitats and never leave unless one of their kin is in danger, at that moment..

The largest badgerbear, which was around 2.5 metres tall, suddenly gained an air of superiority as white lightning began to crackle around its form. All of a sudden, with one swing of its claw, a surge of thunderous claws flew at the tree the Jōnin was sitting in, which he immediately flickered away from, looking back at the now completely decimated tree, he stared at the creature dumbfoundedly, seriously? What the hell was happening?

As the other 3 badgerbear swiftly dealt with the remaining ninja, then joined with the leader.

The 4 powerful beasts slowly approached the Jōnin, arrogant and mocking looks on their faces as they bared their fangs in a smile.

20 minutes later

The Jōnin, who's name wasn't even known was now missing his face, 3 of his organs, his arms and also his legs! And to top it all off he was burnt to an unrecognisable crisp.

…

The four badgerbears approached the limp body of the young boy on the floor as the leader brushed his paw against Riku's hair, surprisingly the badger spoke "oh my.. they have stolen your fur, comrade.. have no worry, we will take you back to our tribe for you to get your treatment.." the large creature then proceeded to carry Riku on his back as they walked towards the badgerbear den.

Yeah.. the badgerbears had mistaken Riku as a badgerbear that had his fur stolen, which is one final stroke of luck as he gets to live another day.

(I'm changing badgerbear to Kumarai)