Naruto: Mind over matter

Pov: Riku

Leaving the academy in a happy mood due to it being a special day today, that's right!

Todays the day I get out of the hospital room I was living in finally, I was kept there to make sure I wasn't going to shut down my body in my sleep amongst other things, but everything seems to work right now

I was offered a bit of monthly ryo to get an apartment and stay in it so I should do that today, I don't have much to carry with me just a bag of clothes and another of miscellaneous items.

I should also get the basic household items like cooking utensils and shampoo and stuff

Big day no training today, well no active training at least

-6 hours later-

Okay found an apartment, its a bit far from the academy and village centre but its alright, spent all my money already on living supplies and household items

Gonna starve my body a little this month but all should be good in the end

Ill invite Naruto over tomorrow for an apartment warming party, which would probably be him telling me all about how pretty Sakura-san was today or how much ramen he ate the other day

Which I don't actually mind, letting him talk while I listen and drink my tea is always a relaxing day

I finished my first jutsu but I have to get onto the other two now that I know how to use and mould my unique chakra adeptly

As I finish cleaning my new apartment and turning off the lights before finally going to bed, I sleep thinking about how I can use my chakra to disguise myself?

-next morning-

Alright todays the weekend ill find Naruto in the afternoon so that gives me breakfast and lunch to figure out the skeleton of my disguise jutsu

Firstly my chakra is used in an odd way, due to it not following my chakra points and lines? Veins? Like normal chakra, but rather it gathers in my head and seeps into the rest of my body, which I then use to control my body

The henge no jutsu usually takes great imagination plus a lot of chakra depending on how far out your changing yourself and then butt loads of both mental and chakra control, I have all those things but chakra, so no super werewolf transformation technique that I wanted, usually everyone is just meant to master shaping into the sensei and understand how to transform into various human shapes which is why I feel it is the most difficult of the three basic jutsu for its purpose but easiest to pass the test for

What's the saying? Easy to learn hard to master? I forget any who...

So should I try and transform my body like the henge does? And focus on its transformation like abilities that if mastered, could be a signature jutsu in my arsenal, or should I focus on the lesser disguising aspects of the jutsu that most use it for?

Hmm?

I could ask someone for there opinion right?

You know what ill invite Naruto for lunch instead of dinner and get him to flip the coin for me

Picking up my jacket and putting on my shoes I walk into town, passing various stores and head through towards ichiraku to see if he's there

He isn't but I do see Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru, should I ask them? Why not, might as well

"Yo! Nara-san, Akimichi-san, Inazuka-san and best boy Akamaru!"

"Hm?"

"Hey Riku!"

"Yo"

"Arf!"

"Sorry could I ask you all a quick question, I have this dilemma and hoped you could help me toss the dice"

"Sure" Shikamaru speaks for the group

"So, I got to make new techniques using my cool Yin jutsu and I was gonna make a replacement for the henge jutsu, but didn't know if I should focus on the transformation part that would allow me to do cooler moves and turn my body into a weapon kind of, or if I should just keep it to a disguise based jutsu that hides me?"

There's a few seconds of thinking between the group until Kiba speaks up

"Henge is a transformation right? I recon focus on that and get cool claws to attack with!"

"Arf!"

"See Akamaru agrees with me!"

At this point Choji jumps into the conversation

"Yeah a lot of my family techniques require *munch* to mould the body so I would focus on that, but would your *crunch* techniques go down that route?"

Thinking about that, that's a good point actually, its about now that Shikamaru adds his point too

"Focus on the easy one first, learn to disguise yourself so you have time for your third technique to be made and tackle the harder transformation aspect later, or just make a new jutsu based on transforming your body at a later date"

Alright that settles it I suppose ill get a disguise jutsu out of the way and focus on my third technique earlier, should probably focus on graduating first shouldn't I?

"Alrighty! Thanks guys that helped a lot actually"

"Are you doing anything today? Were trying to find something to do, wanna hang out?" Kiba speaks up

"Oh! Uh, I was just going to find Naruto to show him my new apartment, and celebrate getting out of the hospital, you wanna join?"

Choji shrugs and Akamaru barks what I can only assume is a yes so that leaves shikamaru who makes a inquisitive groan, that means yes right? Right.

"Ill go get Naruto and head back to mine, I live just on the outskirts of town near the east side, Akamaru should be able to sniff me out from there"

"Cool, we are gonna get some snacks, you want any?" Choji asks

"I should be all good, ill see you in 10? 15?"

"Yep"

"Cool"

"Yuhuh!"

"Arf!"

And with that I take off towards Naruto who I promptly wake up by banging on his door, after 5 minutes he opens the door with a yawn

"Yo! Riku what's up?"

"Nothing much got out if the hospital and wanted to show you my new apartment, I also invited Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and best most fabulous boy Akamaru, you stay up pranking again?"

"Yep, got Mizuki-sensei good by painting his houses left wall 5 shades lighter than the rest of his house- you finally free from the doctor? Sweet ill get my jacket and-"

"And shower?"

"Hahaha and shower fine, but ill be ready in ten" Naruto scratches the back of his head

'Haaaa, how does he expect to get Sakura's attention when he forgets his hygiene most days, *sniff* should come over tomorrow and help clean his apartment again'

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Pov: Shikamaru Nara

As Choji chooses the best snacks I cant help but wonder about Riku

Just got out of the hospital? How long was he in there? Sounded like he was living there considering he just got an apartment to live in, haaa troublesome...

Should I go get my shogi board and bring it? Was planning to bring it today but forgot the academy isn't on today, forgot I slept through the entire day earlier this week, should do that again...

Yeah why not, might as well do something while I interrogate- sorry converse with him

"Ill be back in a minute just gonna go get my shogi board to bring to Riku's"

"Arf!"

"alright"

"Be quick"

Walking back to the Nara compound I eventually find myself at my house again, opening it head towards my room to grab my shogi board and on the way down bump into my dad

"Hm? Day out over already? Want to play your old man in a game?"

"Nah, I got invited to Riku's house, apparently he just got out of the hospital so I'm bringing my board to be less bored, troublesome..."

"Riku? Oh the Yin kid, huh? I heard he was stuck in that hospital for a few years, med-nins trying to keep him from dying, here take some ryo and get him a house warming gift kid probably needs it"

Getting handed a small bag with some money in it, what a drag I got to find a gift now too... wait few years? Keep him from dying?

"Wait he was in the hospital for a few years? What was he in there for so long for?"

"heard his body was constantly giving way or something along the lines of shutting down, was comatose at an early age and had to be monitored so that he didn't die in his sleep so was kind of stuck for a bit, though I also heard he had little Yang chakra and was going to die early too... though I'm only telling you this because everything seems fine for him now, so don't go poking any problems you hear me?"

Die early? Comatose? Body shutting down constantly? Woah I feel kind of awful for calling him troublesome when he kept falling during class, what a drag...

"Alright stop sweating kid, and go have fun"

"Hm? Oh, right see ya old man"

Mumbling to myself and contemplating all that I've seen of Riku I catch up to the guys and head to Riku's new apartment

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Pov: Naruto Uzumaki

Alright! Riku is finally out of the hospital, I got to dig that present I made for this moment, he's gonna love it! Dattebayo!

Grabbing the small box under my bed and putting it in my fabulous jacket pocket- I don't care what Riku says my jacket is awesome-, I head outside and onwards to Riku's house with him leading the way

I even bugged Ino to help me make this gift, so hopefully its good enough, no wait! it is good enough, Dattebayo!

Holding the box in my pocket we arrive at his new apartment, he seems to be on the second floor, like me! And looking up I see the other guys waiting

Riku flashes his cheekiest smile and unlocks the door saying "voila! Treat this place as home away from home" voila? He always has the weirdest word tics dattebayo... what does voila even mean?

Looking at the apartment it seems to have a kitchen, a couch in the loungeroom/bedroom that extends into a bed and also a bathroom with a toilet and shower, pretty simple but pretty neat how differently shaped our apartments are

Sitting at the small table that looks quite new, everyone places some snacks and stuff on it, Shikimaru also brings out a small package and hands it too Riku

"Grats' on getting out of the hospital, hopefully youll feel better in a place for yourself"

Opening the gift Riku replies with "you bet, the amount of times i hear the Medic-Nins shouting about the ninja running from treatment throughout the night will not be missed"

In the gift seems to be a candle, 5 ryo? And some toilet paper?

"Yeah I had no idea what to get you so enjoy the finest selection of 20 second decisions at the market"

Laughing loudly at that one Riku thanks Shikamaru and I take the opportunity to hand him my carefully wrapped box

Riku takes a second to thank me as well and carefully undoes the bow and opens the white and black box, inside lays a necklace, Riku picks it up and his face goes emotionless- that's good he is too happy to care about controlling his face, I knew he would like it DATTEBAYO!

The necklace is a small silver chain that has a fox head shaped silhouette, to match my whiskers and its made of silver as well, on the front face is engraved 'Naruto' and the back 'Uzumaki'

I wanted to get him this for a while to match the gold bracelet he gave me when we both stayed at the orphanage, I cant think of a time I didn't have the bracelet and whenever I felt down I could always look down at it and instantly feel happier, dattebayo!

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Pov: Riku

Holy hells I didn't expect to have so much fun today, firstly the gifts were great the candle, toilet paper and 5 ryo reminded me of that one time Jacky got me 3 bucks and a candle for my 18th and I was flabbergasted for so long

But the gift Naruto got me is gonna stay on for a long time, I didn't even think about how much he wears that bracelet I gave him and this feels extra special

Got to outdo him when his next birthday comes up, which I doubt I can do huh?

Also nice to get to know Kiba and the cutest dog in the world- always catch myself in staring contests with Akamaru during class- alongside Shikamaru and Choji who I'm pretty much great buds with after today

Managed to lose around a dozen times in shogi to Shikamaru and got an interesting convo about the best kind of chips with Choji, Naruto and Kiba were discussing some mischief and we ended the day by pranking some unsuspecting teachers on there day off

Actually thinking back to Choji im craving pizza, do they have pizza here? Ahh ill just make homemade next month anyway and invite the guys over for a pizza party...

Oh right I got to start figuring out which seals I need to help disguise myself, also figure out how I'm gonna disguise myself using my chakra? Cant use force release as that's definitely not suited for the job, so control or telekinesis? Lets keep em' simple and focus on control release...

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Thanks for reading :)