Naruto: Lost to Hinata on Purpose, and Now Everything's a Mess Chapter 7 7 : Practicing Climbing Trees And Water Walking

After finishing classes at the Ninja Academy the next day, Riku headed straight for the forested mountains behind Konoha.

Standing at the entrance to the rear mountains, he listened to the roars of wild beasts echoing from within.

Riku frowned. "With my current strength, I should be able to make it through safely."

After a mont's thought, he made up his mind and stepped inside.

A few minutes later, he had made his way deep into the forest.

On either side of the path, the cries of wild beasts grew louder and more chaotic.

He could hear the snarls of creatures fighting among themselves.

Riku walked forward calmly, unfazed.

Ten minutes later, the path narrowed and beca more rugged.

Roughly two kiloters in, the roar of a beast erupted nearby.

"Rrroar—!"

"Awwww—!"

The cries of various wild beasts, large and small, echoed not far from where Riku stood.

He could also hear the heavy panting of one such beast.

"There's way more than I expected. Why are there so many wild animals here?"

He drew the short sword from his back.

"Rrroar—!"

The mont Riku unsheathed his blade, a massive wild boar—over two ters tall—charged out of the forest toward him. Its enormous tusks were thicker and longer than those of an elephant.

Its bristly steel-like fur stood on end, and it looked like it would gore Riku to death.

But Riku didn't flinch. His gaze locked onto the charging boar, its red eyes filled with fury.

Then—he vanished.

In a flash of movent, Riku disappeared from his spot.

A streak of light sliced through the air.

The wild boar, still charging, suddenly veered off-course and crashed violently into the trees.

Boom—!

Several large trees splintered and snapped from the impact.

Blood soaked the earth.

Riku now stood behind the collapsed boar, blood dripping from his blade.

With just one strike, he had slain a two-ter-tall beast.

The blood was still warm.

The wild boar's head lay severed from its body.

With a flick of his short sword, Riku cleaned the blood from the blade and sheathed it.

"That should be enough to scare off the others."

He glanced at the beasts lurking in the forest around him as they retreated into the undergrowth.

Ignoring the corpse, Riku continued on his way, heading deeper into the mountain.

Not long after he left, the wild boar's body was sward by scavengers. In less than a minute, all that remained was a skeleton.

Riku walked for another twenty minutes through the dense forest.

Eventually, he arrived at the base of a massive waterfall.

Beneath it stretched a grassy clearing, several hundred ters wide.

Standing in the middle of the field was Kakashi Hatake.

He was holding a small book in his hand.

When he noticed Riku approaching, he lowered the book and smiled. "Didn't expect you to get here so fast."

Catching the scent of blood on Riku, Kakashi smirked slightly. "You must've had a run-in with sothing on the way."

"It's nothing. Just a few wild animals," Riku replied calmly.

Kakashi stepped forward, his deanor growing serious. "Before I start teaching you ninjutsu, I need to determine your chakra nature. Focus your chakra into this piece of paper."

"This is chakra paper. It reacts based on your elental affinity."

Riku nodded silently and took the paper, channeling his chakra into it.

He was curious himself to see what nature his chakra possessed.

The paper in Riku's hand reacted almost instantly.

First, it split cleanly down the middle. Then the halves crumpled. One of the halves tore apart. The remaining half split again—one side beca wet, and the other ignited in fla.

Riku blinked in surprise.

Kakashi stared in shock. "Five… five elents?"

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Possessing all five chakra natures was incredibly rare.

While many shinobi eventually learn to use multiple elental jutsu through training, being born with a natural affinity for all five is practically unheard of.

Kakashi's eyes glead. "I already knew you were talented, but this is… this is the level of a true prodigy."

"You're physically strong, have far more chakra than most, and now I see you possess all five chakra natures."

Normally calm and composed, even Kakashi couldn't hide his amazent.

Riku, however, remained unaffected. Given his unusual physique, having all five elents didn't surprise him in the slightest.

In fact, Riku suspected his body might not be limited to five. He could very well have seven chakra natures, including Yin and Yang Release.

So he stayed calm, unfazed by the results.

Kakashi studied Riku's expression and sighed inwardly at how indifferent the boy seed.

"Do you even understand what it ans to have all five chakra natures?"

Riku looked at him steadily. "I don't know what it ans exactly. But I do know that unless I have the corresponding jutsu, having the elents won't be of much use."

Kakashi paused, then chuckled softly. "You're disturbingly mature for your age."

"In that case, let's start with chakra control."

He hadn't planned to jump straight into teaching ninjutsu anyway.

Riku remained composed. "Alright."

"Follow ," Kakashi said.

He led Riku to a large pool nearby.

"This is a good thod for chakra control training: water walking."

"Watch carefully. Focus your chakra into the soles of your feet. You need to control the amount precisely to stay balanced on the surface."

Kakashi walked across the water, stopping at the center of the pool.

He turned around, ready to instruct Riku further—but froze.

Riku was already standing behind him.

"You—" Kakashi was montarily speechless.

"How did you get here?"

"I just followed your thod," Riku said, looking up at him.

"This technique is quite practical."

He started running lightly across the water's surface.

His movents were fluid and confident, as if he had practiced the technique for years.

Standing effortlessly atop the water, Riku turned to Kakashi. "What should I train in next?"

Kakashi was silent for a long ti.

He realized now that Riku's talent far surpassed what he had imagined.

When Kakashi first learned water-walking, it had taken him a full day to master it.

Riku had done it instantly, with a single glance.

Kakashi used to think he was a genius. Now he understood—Riku was the real thing.

After a long sigh, Kakashi said, "Alright, co ashore. I'll teach you the next skill. Once you've mastered that, we'll move on to proper ninjutsu."

Riku nodded, calm as ever, and walked back toward the shore.