Ryuu activated his yin seal to constantly give him the nature energy he had stored.
"Multi-shadow clone jutsu!"
He made many clones and used them to distract Kushina, she easily defeated most of them, and then she made an orb of chakra from her mouth.
"No! Please remember that we're in the village!" she didn't listen.
Ryuu threw a kunai far in the air and teleported her to it, he delivered a kick to her head, sending her to the ground at a high speed, causing the ground to shatter and the wind to blow the trees apart.
"Finally, I have to time this right." He weaved some hand signs.
"Fire style Firestorm Jutsu!" he shot out a firestorm and burned through everything it touched.
"now!" he used his eyes to direct a small amount of Phoenix Flame on the firestorm.
"I hope I can do this." he entered Phoenix Flame mode and ran towards the firestorm.
He absorbed it into his palm and formed a ball of flame. It was bright and yellow, while he was doing this Kushina was making a tailed beast bomb.
They both ran at each other and collided in the middle.
"Boom!" a gigantic explosion occurred and destroyed everything, leaving a hole where Ryuu and Kushina were and making a ripple through the air, engulfing everything in flames.
"Ryuu, Kushina! Are you both ok?" Minato teleported to us.
"What happened?" he asked, both of us were too weak to speak and I fainted.
After a day, I woke up in the hospital and Lady Tsunade was by my side
"I keep on wondering if you're one of my losing bets." She said as she was reading some files.
"But not this time, you're nearly perfect health this time you only suffered a small concussion, you should be feeling a little dizzy for at most an hour, your body is healing rapidly, and I ran a quick scan with your body and found some sort of illness within you, I've seen nothing like this, I also looked for any mention of this in the Nara medical encyclopedia but I couldn't find anything on it. Luckily, that disease hasn't spread further, you should still be careful since we know nothing about it, the disease could spread and grow tomorrow or not at all, anyway, my job here is done and you're dismissed from the hospital, just get some sleep before doing something stupid again."
She put the file down.
"Thanks again, lady Tsunade!" Ryuu said as he got up.
"Arrgh!" he held his arm.
"Oh, by the way, your arm will be feeling a little painful for a while."
"How could you forget to tell me that?" Ryuu asked.
"I didn't," she said as she left.
Ryuu left the hospital and teleported back home.
"So, you're back," Kakashi said as he entered his room
"You know, if you get injured before the finals, I'm the one who'll win and become a chunin."
Ryuu nodded.
"Well, it's not like I ask to get injured."
"Not usually, but sometimes you kind of do."
Ryuu scratched his head and smiled shyly.
"Oh no!"
"What?"
Ryuu quickly got up from his bed.
"I forgot to check on Big sis!" Kakashi also got up and we teleported to the hospital, we went to look for Kushina but I couldn't sense her chakra in the hospital so I placed my hand on the ground.
"Any luck?" I shook my head, we went to Minato's house to ask where she could be.
"Knock knock knock!" He was asleep, doesn't he know what happened? I'm pretty sure he took me to the hospital or was that all a dream?
As Ryuu was questioning himself, Minato woke up and opened for them.
"Great, you're out of the hospital, I was wondering."
"Have you seen Big sis Kushina?" He got interrupted by Ryuu and Kakashi's question.
"I was getting to that." Both of them shyly scratched the back of their heads.
"Sorry, please continue." he nodded.
"As I was about to say, she's on a mission, she recovered earlier than you, she had minor injuries since Kurama healed her and we're short-staffed because most of us are too injured or on a mission so Hokage-sama gave her a mission."
Ryuu wiped off his sweat and had a sigh of relief.
"Great, I thought she got hurt, too." Minato shook his head.
"Because she befriended Kurama. He helped heal her with his chakra, what about you, are you ok?" I nodded.
"Of course I am! Although her attack was strong, it wasn't strong enough to kill me and she probably knew that I guess that's why she went through with the attack, at least I hope so."
He had a concerned look, and so did Kakashi.
"You don't know, do you?" Kakashi asked.
"Know what, did something happen?" Minato nodded.
"Come with me." his voice was so serious, "did I do something wrong?"
Minato teleported with Ryuu and Kakashi to the forest of death.
"Watch your step," he said.
The entire area was in ruins, I had wiped all animals and trees out, and the damages spread further.
"Did I do this?" Ryuu asked, he sounded terrified and worried.
"So you didn't know?" he shook his head at Kakashi's question.
"The damages spread much further but luckily no one was hurt, Orochimaru-sama and some other shinobi reduced the damages with his Rashōmon and multiple layers of earth style, although if you look around the fire is still burning, fortunately, I came at the right time before the fire started going out of control and took you and Kushina."
Ryuu fell to his knees.
"I almost killed so many people, the same people who I vowed I would do anything to protect, I almost killed Kushina!" he said as tears fell from his eyes.
Both Kakashi and Minato looked at each other, then patted him on his back.
"The important thing is that you didn't do it, ok?"
Ryuu started shivering, Kakashi and Minato removed their hands from his back because they noticed he was getting hot, his tears evaporated and some red hot goo started dripping from his eyes, it burned through the ground leaving a deep hole where he was crying, his body started releasing red Phoenix Flame, it surrounded him and his hair became slicked back and burned to solid.
"Run." he weakly said as he looked at Kakashi and Minato, they had backed away because of his flames, the heat was so much it was like standing near a volcano.
"Ryuu, calm down!" Kakashi said.
I tried moving, but it was too painful and whenever I tried closing my eyes, it felt like I was peeling off my skin.
"Argh!" Ryuu let out a chilling scream, his voice had gotten deeper, and he was breathing out black smoke, his eyes started feeling heavy and he felt dizzy.
The last thing I saw was Minato and Kakashi catching fire and falling, then I fainted…
The next time I woke up I didn't know where I was all I heard was the sound of an echo of metal clashing and a waterfall, even though I was hearing a waterfall I could still feel fire surrounding me and I couldn't feel the rest of my body, it was like that time I was in the hospital but worse.
"I see you are finally awake."
I couldn't figure out who it was last time, but this time, I recognized exactly who it was.
"Krueger!" he said as he tried to get up, he was still too injured to do so.
"Careful there, you'll hurt yourself,"
he said as he put me in a chair.
He wasn't wearing the same coat, as usual, this time he wore a plain vest but still had his bandages wrapped around his right arm and face, he covered his legs so I couldn't tell anything else.
"Just what do you want from me?!" Ryuu furiously asked.
"It's a long story." Ryuu frowned.
"At least tell me one thing." he nodded.
"How long has it been since you got me here?"
He put his finger on his face and started thinking…
"About two months." Ryuus' eyes widened.
"Two months?!" he nodded.
Ryuu tried to get up once again. But just like last time I overused Phoenix Flame, my body couldn't do it.
"We both know it won't help to move around like that, so why try?"
Ryuu ignored his question.
"You don't have to listen to me, but I must tell you, that transformation you almost completed was going to end your life."
Ryuu looked at him, showing that he wanted to know more.
"Just get to the point already!"
(Sigh)
"So impatient, anyway, when I got this power I was attacked by..." he paused, meaning he was about to reveal something.
"It doesn't matter, the point is when I was attacked I was all alone and these flames were a mystery to me, therefore I had to learn everything by myself, unlike you.
From what I've experienced, that transformation would have made you a beast with extraordinary power which burns everything and everyone on it's path, that's if you can't control it but I could, to some point and so can you."
He disappeared from where he was.
"Great, I can't track him and I can't see where he is, yet somehow I'm supposed to trust him, this is ridiculous."
Krueger came back holding my sword, and he wasn't being burned.
"How are you doing that? Who are you?!"
Ryuu asked.
"Well, I guess it's time I tell you who I am, and hopefully we'll get to see things eye to eye."
He removed the bandages from his legs and arm, then he removed the ones on his face; he hesitated to remove his mask, but eventually, he did, and Ryuu was surprised, he had the Mangekyou Sharingan!
His eyes had a pattern that looked like a complicated maze, they were mesmerizing.
"Those eyes…" he nodded.
"Unfortunately, I was cursed with the eyes of my father, they even have the same pattern as his, it's an awful curse."
He said as he went to wash his hair on the waterfall.
"his hair had dye and when he finished removing it, I couldn't believe my eyes, he looked just like dad! Especially those eyes, the only difference was that half of his face had wounds and cuts and that dark hair, he looked much younger than his previous disguise, if I were to guess, he would probably be the same age as Minato."
He looked back at Ryuu, who was too stunned to speak.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." he jokingly said.
Ryuu quickly calmed down.
"You once said that I reminded you of someone you used to know, who is it?"
He smiled.
"So you were listening."
"it's a long story, I would ask if you want to hear it but since you don't have a choice here, I guess I have to tell you, and I won't just tell you the answer to your question, I'm telling you everything."