Returning home (Open)

Three ANBU stood in a bowed position on one knee in front of Riku's desk. All of them had their heads bowed at the ground except for the one in the middle, wearing Satoshi's unmistakable mask. "-Now go and track the thief down." He finished speaking. The two with their heads down nodded and disappeared in clouds of smoke. Satoshi stood up and faced Riku at eye level. "As for you, I've heard reports that Nishimura Tooru escaped from prison and was last seen heading in the direction of the Fire country. A high security prisoner enough fun for you?" Satoshi simply chuckled under his mask and disappeared in a cloud of smoke as well. Riku sat back down at his desk and began flipping through some papers. It was going to be a long day and he could tell nothing interesting was going to happen. Suddenly, he heard what sounded like another of his guards shouting on the roof above him. Using a slight bit of chakra, he activated his Doujutsu in order to see what was going on. Above him his guard was yelling at a half naked woman who seemed to be relaxing on the roof. Riku sighed as she simply tossed the guard down and Ukita ran in, barging into his office moments later. He opened his mouth to speak and Riku held up a hand to stop him. "Just bring her in." He said. Ukita was puzzled as it was an odd request, but did not say anything, simply bowing his head in response and heading out to ask the woman to come in.

Ukita entered the room followed by the woman who was on his roof earlier. She was a rather beautiful woman. After Ukita left, Riku recognized her. He had not actually met her before, but had files on her, as he did for every Kiri ninja. "You must be Ayame Harumi, Sannin of the Mist." He said with a confident smile. "How does such a beautiful woman become such a powerful ninja?" His face instilled an expression of confidence, though this was rather unlike him. He had never actually hit on a woman before. Hell, he had never been in a relationship before because it just never interested him. She sat on the desk in front of him and he blushed a bit as she got closer, forcing him to look away for a quick second. This was very unlike him.

Ayame blushed after Riku's compliment. Perhaps he had a chance with her. She responded to the question by saying "Well..It's not without Difficulty." Riku chuckled a little. "I can imagine. Trying to keep up looks and your skills at the same time. Kinda like juggling." He cringed at his own bad joke, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know how humans do it." He continued, wishing he could take what he had just said back. It made it sound like he wasn't human, using the word "human" in a sentence like that. Then again, he wasn't necessarily human, but he didn't go around revealing it like that.

Ayame seemed to brush off his comment and accidental use of the word "human" in odd context. Thank god. That was not something he wanted to explain to her. at least not yet. She began tapping a finger on her lip in a manner that showed she was thinking. After a few moments of silence, she stood up and approached him, grabbing his hand and leading him out of the office. She made a comment about him not leaving the office much. Seemed she understood the job he had at least. He wanted to ask her where she was taking him, but for some reason he didn't seem to care. He felt completely ok with it. Ukita was about to approach them and tell Riku that he had some business to do, but was stopped in his tracks by an evil glare Riku gave him, signaling that he didn't care what he had to do at the moment.

She lead him through the village, holding him by the wrist and pulling him along. It sure was an odd site to see, he thought to himself as he noticed many people staring at them oddly. As she dragged him along, he soon realized where they were going; the Northern Side of Kiri. He had not been up there in years and personally, he didn't want to go there. So many bad memories. As they got closer, she slowly moved her hand down his and began to move her fingers in between his to lock hands. He instinctively grabbed her hand back. He felt like such a pathetic little kid. All these terrible emotions suddenly coursed through him and he felt that the only thing keeping him safe was Ayame holding his hand. A sort of scared and shy expression crept onto his face as they entered the northern district of Kiri.

They reached a lake and stopped. She began talking about how this was the spot where she met the previous Mizukage. Riku stared into the water thinking for a long moment. He then turned and walked off, leading her by the hand this time. He lead her to a large mansion that was badly burned and had various holes in it. It had clearly been vacant for some time now. "This is where I used to live with......my family." He trailed off, saying the words "my family" more quiet than the rest of the sentence. He immediately diverted his gaze to the ground, not wanting to look at the mansion anymore. The scared and shy expression came to his face again.

Her mood suddenly became very energetic and happy. She asked him if he wanted to spar and began to jump about around him in a playful manner. It was nice that she didn't ask what was wrong. He would indeed tell her though one day. He looked up at her and faked a smile. "Sure, I know the Dojo. I was just there yesterday." Maybe a nice spar would take his mind off of things. It had been a while since he had fought anyone at all, so a nice bit of practice would do well. Besides, he wanted to see if she had really earned the title of Sannin.

Riku sighed, deciding not to push her off his back. She wasn't that heavy and he thought it would make her like him a little better. He turned and set off in the direction of the dojo, carrying her on his back the entire way. She whispered in his ear that she would help him get over whatever it was that happened and ended by calling him Tensei again. "You can call me Ri-." He said back, stopping sort as she kissed him on the cheek. He blushed madly and turned his face away so she wouldn't see, as he felt embarrassed by it. They reached the dojo in little time and he set her down and turned to face her. "So what are the rules?" He asked, curious as to how much of his abilities he would be able to use.

Riku and Ayame entered the dojo. She looked at him and smiled and headed off to the referee booth to sign them up. Riku watched the young Chuunin fight. It made him feel good seeing the ninja of his village training so hard. If any conflict were to happen between Kiri and anywhere else, he was sure on the winning side. She returned next to him just as the fight ended, the ref calling the winner. She stepped into the ring just as the ref announced the next match. He called out both Riku's and Ayame's names and finished by saying there would be no restrictions. Riku was dumb founded. Did she really want to test his full abilities? He would still have to hold back regardless. Even though she was a Sannin and undoubtedly powerful, he knew he would still be stronger than her and would still have to hold back a bit. After all, he had two demons living inside of him.

He stepped into the arena and faced Ayame as the roof opened. At least he would have a place to move his attacks should they get too close to harming the bystanders. She took off her glasses and set them aside. The last thought he had before clearing his mind into a battle state was how beautiful she was. He didn't want to hurt her, but he didn't want to appear weak. After all, the Kage is supposed to be the strongest ninja in the village. He nodded to the ref to signal he was ready, his face becoming an emotionless stare, his eyes glowing bright red.

Riku watched as Ayami formed a mizu bunshin from a bottle of water. The clone charged at him, jumping up and beginning to perform a downwards axe kick. It was a quick move, but Riku was quicker. He drew the pure white katana from the sheath on his lower back, holding it underhanded. He immediately performed a Shunpo, reappearing behind the clone while it was still in mid-air. He spun his body, performing an arcing upwards slash with his underhanded blade, causing the clone to burst into water and fall to the mat. The crowd was amazed at Riku's display of speed. He looked at Ayame and gave her a smirk. He held his katana out and dropped it. It fell straight into the mat and fell through it, the ground rippling with chakra as from the point the katana had fallen through. Suddenly, two rows of gigantic blades appeared behind him. He muttered the word "Scatter" and the blades broke into thousands of tiny pink glowing fragments. They began swirling around hervas he stared at her, his face blank once again.

As the petals began to move closer to attack, Ayame formed a barrier made of water to stop the attack, followed by attempting to bind him with the water. A simple shunpo straight up was enough to free him from the trap. Ayame used a wind jutsu in an attempt to blow the petals away. They moved away from her, but were not sent back at Riku as she intended, as he held out his hand, tripling the speed at which they could move and pulled them away. He held out his right hand and all of the petals converged into a sword of pure white, glowing pink around the edges. Huge white wings made entirely of energy sprouted from his back as well as a white halo over his head. His chakra, or rather spiritual pressure was finally released. He knew that this would have slight stunning, paralyzing, and fear instilling effects on her. Not enough to completely stop her, but enough to give her decreases to her power. He looked at her with a smirk. "I wouldn't talk high so soon, honey." He said in a flirtatious voice. He brought his left hand over his right eye and swiftly pulled it down in a ripping motion. A demonic mask formed over his face. The crowd was stunned at Riku's new appearance. He did a flashy looking flip with his sword and held it straight in front of him at about chest level, the blade casting a glow over his mask. This new blade was formed from the thousands of tiny shards of blades and his chakra, making it almost 4 times stronger than steel. He decided to play the passive role and see which move she would make next before he made one himself.

Ayame carved some form of seal into her hand. Riku had to be careful. He had heard that she was very skilled in the difficult style of Fuuinjutsu. He had to constantly keep on guard. She performed a few hand seals and the mat split apart as a large serpent of water burst forth. He had seen this jutsu before and knew it would track him unless he destroyed it or it collided with something else. He knew he was faster than it in this form but he could not just continuously dodge it forever. Then he remembered Ayame attempting to send one of his own attacks back at him and saying something along the lines of "Have a taste of your own medicine." He smirked under his mask and flew down at a sharp angle. shunpo-ing at the last second to make his movements invisible. He appeared behind Ayame, though did not attack. The Serpent turned and charged towards Riku, Ayame standing perfectly between himself and the serpent. "Sorry." He said to her with a huge grin under his mask. He knew she would be able to handle the attack in some way. He didn't want her to get too hurt as he already felt some sort of attachment to her. He knew he was beginning to like her. No, beginning was the wrong word as he already liked her a lot more than he should, based on how long he had known her,

[[ I don't see how you kissed me with the mask on, but I'll just assume she pulled it up slightly to kiss him ]]

Ayame turned and looked at him with a smirk. Was she really going to take the attack head on? She moved closer to him and lifted his mask to about his nose, revealing his mouth. What was she doing? She placed her hand on his chest and kissed him softly on the lips, pulling his mask back into place. Good thing it was there, as it hid how much he was blushing. Did she like him too? He hoped so. He shook his head, bringing himself back into the battle. She attempted to dodge the attack but couldn't completely. It hit the mat and sent out a shockwave, throwing her across the mat. Riku was able to combine a shunpo with flight to dodge the attack. She rose to her feet slowly and turned to him, speaking to him in a friendly tone. He smiled under his mask. "Wasn't that hard. Fairly easy to counter with the right speed. Do you want to keep going?" He shouted down to her. He didn't mind continuing the battle, but at the same time he wanted to stop. He wanted to talk to her and figure out why she had kissed him. But for now, he left it up to her to decide.