"Katsuyu-sama, is this supposed to be happening?" Ichika asked as she checked on him.
"That drink has made him so pale, I can sense so much natural energy from it, is he dead?"
Katsuyu nodded.
"He is." Ichika's eyes widened.
"I made this concoction of poisonous fungi that grows deep below this tree.
This fungus radiates nature energy and when consumed, if Ryuu's body is strong enough, he'll wake up soon, that's the reason he went through such rigorous training."
Nobu formed from Ryuu's body.
"Ichika, you don't need to worry about Ryuu, he won't die here, I know he won't die because that's what Gammamaru prophesied, but we don't know when he'll be awake.
Now, all we have to do is wait for him to wake up."
Ichika nodded.
"Ichika-sama, before he heals, train using wood release, I can sense the natural energy flowing within you and you're ready."
"I've felt that too, not only can I use it, but when I was meditating and praying, I also felt my chakra reserves getting bigger."
Katsuyu nodded.
Nobu appeared from Ryuu's body again.
"Ichika, would you like to learn wood release?" She nodded.
"I've searched Ryuu's memories and I've watched him do some of these with my own eyes, follow my lead."
Nobu transformed into Ryuu.
"I apologize if this is strange, I can transform only into someone either Ryuu or me have seen, I'm a little restricted because of the seal."
"It's not a problem."
"Good, I'll demonstrate a few wood-style jutsu, however, I can't do them because I'm just a projection from Ryuu's mind."
Nobu did a hand sign.
"This is for wood style four pillar home, it will make a home however you imagine it."
Ichika nodded.
Nobu transformed back into a Phoenix.
"Do it." Ichika nodded.
Ichika did the same hand sign.
"Wood style: four pillar home!"
The ground shook and a giant white house built out of wood formed.
"How do you feel?" Nobu asked.
"I'm alright, I feel perfectly fine, I can't even feel a drain on my chakra."
Nobu went to check the house that Ichika built.
Katsuyu went and felt the walls of the house.
"Impressive, you filled this house with so much natural energy.
In terms of nature, your wood style is more potent than that of the first Hokage.
Ichika-sama, try using another wood style jutsu, but this time do it without using sage mode." Ichika's eyes widened.
"Katsuyu-sama, won't I die if I do that?"
Katsuyu shook her head.
"Before, our fear was that you didn't have enough yang release within you to use wood release, now somehow I can feel all that yang release radiating from you. It must be from sage mode enhancements.
In short, you don't need to fear dying from using wood style, this is only to test you."
Ichika nodded.
Ichika left sage mode.
She made a hand sign.
"Wood style: Deep forest emergence!"
Thick branches of wood came from the floor, and Ichika controlled them to lift them up.
"I'm doing it." Ichika made thick trees around them to prevent them from falling and then slowly lowered them back to the ground.
"Ichika-sama, now your training with wood release and senjutsu is beginning."
Ichika nodded.
"Before we do that, I need to do something." Ichika picked Ryuu up and then dropped him on a bed.
"I'll be waiting." Ichika left and closed the door.
For the next month Ichika spent her time with Katsuyu and Nobu, learning more about her wood release abilities, Ryuu still hadn't woken up.
One night while Ichika was going to visit him, she noticed something strange about him.
"Ryuu? Are you waking up?"
Worried that something was wrong, Ichika rushed to his side.
"What is this? Some kind of mark is forming on your face."
A diamond-shaped mark began forming on the top of Ryuu's head.
Nobu appeared out of Ryuu's body.
"Ichika, he's waking up," Nobu said as he sunk back into Ryuu's body.
Ryuu's organs began functioning again and his skin stopped being pale, and his eyes slowly opened up.
"Gasp!"
Ryuu woke up and inhaled a large amount of air.
"Ryuu!" Ichika hugged Ryuu.
"Ichika…" Ryuu said softly as he hugged her back.
After that, Ichika sat down beside him as he unsealed food and ate with her, he ate so much food all at once, 10 minutes passed and Ryuu was on his tenth bowl of ramen.
Ryuu continued slurping, he placed the bowl down and laid back.
"I'm sorry I scared you that much, I didn't think I would be gone for that long, in fact, I…" Ryuu held his neck, he was choking.
He unsealed a glass of water and drank it all, but the choking didn't stop.
Ryuu ran to the bathroom and threw up.
He was horrified by what he saw in the sink.
'This is disgusting, all this is slime?!'
Ryuu washed up and brushed his teeth five times and then sealed his things again.
"Ryuu-sama, how do you feel?"
Katsuyu spoke to him telepathically.
"I just threw up a ton of slime, I'm feeling better than ever," Ryuu said sarcastically.
"Good, because your village needs you." His eyes widened.
"Katsuyu-sama, what day is it?"
"October 10th." Ryuu's eyes widened, and he quickly teleported himself and Ichika back to the village.
Boom!!
"Shit!"
Ryuu quickly unsealed a naginata and made a seal as a giant-tailed beast bomb was traveling toward him.
The tailed beast bomb stretched the seal but vanished shortly after.
"That was close." Ryuu wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Ryuu-sama is back!" The villagers in the way yelled in excitement.
Ryuu smiled.
"Don't worry, that'll be over soon, I promise," Ryuu said before teleporting with Ichika above the Hokage faces.
Ryuu's eyes widened as he saw multiple buildings in the village destroyed and multiple white Zetsu clones raiding the village were dead, but some made it into the village and were killing innocent people.
"I won't have this." Ryuu clenched his fist so hard it started bleeding.
Ichika held his hand, and he calmed down.
"We'll save the village together."
Ryuu nodded and then activated his eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Ichika, did my clone ever finish training sage mode?" She nodded.
Ryuu teleported with her near Kurama.
"Use wood dragon jutsu to keep him still." Ichika nodded.
"Ryuu?!" Lord third called his name.
Ryuu connected his mind to the surrounding shinobi.
"Stay away from the nine tails, we'll handle him." They nodded and moved back.
"Wood style: wooden dragon jutsu!"
6 giant dragons came from beneath Kurama and wrapped around him, then bit him.
"Rooaar!" Kurama yelled in pain, causing the air to shift.
"That level of wood style?" Lord third and other shinobi curiously looked at Ichika.
Ryuu placed a seal on Kurama and then teleported him out of the village.
He stood on top of Kurama's nose and looked at him to cast a genjutsu.
"My Mangekyou Sharingan isn't working?!" Ryuu dodged a giant claw heading towards him.
"Wood clone jutsu!" Ryuu made a clone.
"Uzumaki sealing chains!" The clone grew glowing chains from its back and subdued Kurama.
"I have to go quickly." Ryuu teleported to Minato.
Minato was facing a man wearing a black mask with yellow stripes that shaped multiple curves going to the left.
Minato was on his knees and a Kunai was in front of him.
'He's back.' Minato said to himself after noticing Ryuu's chakra.
He stood up and faced the masked man as he made a plan.
"Are you… Madara Uchiha?"
The masked man took off his hood.
"No, that would be impossible, he is dead after all," Minato answered himself.
"Hmm, I wonder about that." The masked man said.
"In the end, it doesn't matter who you are, but why attack the hidden leaf?"
"What would you like to hear? I could say I did it on a whim, or that I planned it, or that it's for war, or that it's for peace."
The masked man put his hands in his pocket as if he was reaching for something and Minato entered his stance and tightened his grip on the Kunai and stared him down.
The masked man attached chains to his wrist.
'Ryuu, I'm assuming you've taken Kurama out of the village, why else would you be here?' Minato asked himself as he stared the masked man down.
'In that case, I'll finish things here too.'
Whoosh!
They ran towards each other, Minato charged with his Kunai, and the masked man charged while chains were behind him.
Minato attempted to stab him but he went right past him, he teleported towards a Kunai he had placed behind them.
They both ran towards each other again.
Minato threw a Kunai towards his head and it slipped right through.
The masked man reached for Minato's collar.
A giant blue sphere of chakra appeared in Minato's hand as he appeared in front of him.
Whoosh! Minato caught his Kunai as he teleported above the masked man right before he could get caught.
Boom!!!
The ground shattered as Minato's Rasengan connected with his back.
"Flying Raijin level two.
It looks so cool." Ryuu whispered while watching.