Naruto: Lost to Hinata on Purpose, and Now Everything's a Mess

Maybe Shizune didn't understand Riku's confidence, but Tsunade knew exactly why.

No one truly knew the full extent of Riku's strength—but Tsunade did. She knew better than anyone.

Just the power of Riku's Rinnegan alone was enough to terrify her. It wasn't just formidable—it felt divine, something far beyond the reach of ordinary shinobi.

After Yamato had finished introducing Sai to Naruto and Sakura, he took them out for their first mission together.

Meanwhile, Riku remained in Konoha, spending his days with little to do.

Most of his time was either spent reading or helping Tsunade with paperwork and village affairs.

After all, Riku was officially a shinobi of the village now. It wasn't like he could just sit around chatting with Tsunade about trivial things all day.

At one point, Riku had even intended to teach Tsunade a few new jutsu. But after a handful of attempts, he gave up.

Only then did he understand—people's talent and affinity were largely predetermined.

Tsunade's fighting style was deeply rooted in close-range combat, raw strength, and advanced medical ninjutsu. That was her path.

There was no need for her to learn flashy or unconventional jutsu.

And it wasn't like she lacked access to jutsu. The Senju clan's secret archives housed not only their own techniques, but also jutsu from many other Konoha clans.

To a commoner shinobi, that kind of knowledge would be priceless. But for someone like Tsunade, it was everywhere—especially with the Hokage building's extensive library at her disposal.

It wasn't a matter of resources. It was about suitability.

So, in the end, Tsunade hadn't learned much from Riku, and he stopped trying to teach her.

When he did try, like when he taught her the Rasengan, it took nearly a year.

It wasn't that Tsunade was stupid—far from it. But her chakra nature and style weren't suited for that kind of jutsu.

Even so, Rasengan required incredible chakra control—something medical ninjutsu also demanded. And in that regard, Tsunade was second to none.

But her aptitude for battle-oriented ninjutsu just wasn't that high. So even with her perfect control, learning Rasengan took her an entire year.

In the end, Tsunade only managed to learn two techniques from Riku: the Rasengan and Lightning Body Flicker.

The Lightning Flicker was something Riku created specifically to help compensate for her relative lack of speed.

Truthfully, Tsunade wasn't slow. Uchiha Madara himself had once said she was just a bit slower than the Fourth Raikage—an outrageous comparison, considering the Raikage was one of the fastest shinobi alive.

Very few could match the Fourth Raikage's speed. Being a little slower than him was no insult—it was a badge of honor.

Still, after learning Riku's Lightning Flicker, Tsunade's speed improved significantly.

She still wasn't quite on par with the Raikage, but she was close.

Just when Riku thought life might finally calm down for a while, another crisis erupted across the ninja world.

That day, Riku was in the Hokage's office, quietly reading, when Shizune burst in, panic on her face.

He looked up, meeting her eyes. "Miss Shizune, what's got you so flustered?"

At that moment, Tsunade stirred from her nap. Her head tilted up groggily, and a thin line of drool trailed from the corner of her mouth.

Shizune looked helplessly at the sleepy Hokage and gave her a weak smile. "Yo, Tsunade-sama."

Honestly… it was kind of cute.

Well, except for the drool.

Shizune sighed and approached with a sealed scroll in hand. "This is a message from the Land of Demons."

The moment Tsunade—who had been smiling drowsily—heard that, her expression turned grim.

She accepted the letter from Shizune, while the assistant turned toward Riku and added urgently, "Riku, something's happened. This is even more serious than the Akatsuki."

Riku stood and walked over, reading the scroll over Tsunade's shoulder. His brows furrowed.

"Sprites… why have they appeared again?"

The Sprite was a demon from another world—summoned by a deranged cult of rogue ninja who dreamed of world domination.

The terrifying part wasn't just its power. It was that its body couldn't be truly destroyed. Even worse, it could generate entire armies of monsters—ghost soldiers, essentially moving stone warriors.

They weren't really terracotta soldiers, Riku thought. They were just animated statues. But still, he refused to admit they had anything in common with the famed terracotta army of legends.

Semantics aside, the Sprite's strength was real. Without Naruto's protagonist halo, the world might've fallen.

Riku still found it absurd that such a powerful entity had been sealed away with a single Rasengan. That had always felt like child's play.

After finishing the letter, Tsunade placed it down with a heavy sigh.

She looked at Shizune, her face grim. "Shizune, sound the alarm. Call every shinobi in the village to assemble."

Shizune blinked, stunned. "Yes, Tsunade-sama!" she said quickly, turning and rushing out the door.

Tsunade remained silent for a moment, then looked at Riku with rare solemnity.

"Riku… it looks like we're in trouble again."

"In the beginning, the Shrine Maiden of the Land of Demons sealed that thing with powerful jutsu. But why has it reappeared now? Someone must've broken the seal."

She clenched her fists. "Back then, we knew how dangerous it was. Entire nations were destroyed by its ghost army."

Even Konoha's forces couldn't stop it. Sprites couldn't be killed through normal means. In the end, it was the Miko who sacrificed her life to seal it away.

That calamity had been no less devastating than any of the Great Ninja Wars. In fact, the body count may have been even higher.

Those lifeless stone soldiers razed entire countries in days. And they were nearly invincible—ordinary ninjutsu didn't even scratch them.

That's also why the Land of Demons had managed to survive for so long, despite being a small and relatively powerless country.

Because they had shrine maidens.

Whenever the Sprite manifested, only a shrine maiden had the power to seal it away.

For that reason, none of the Five Great Nations had ever tried to conquer the Land of Demons.

Their defenses weren't made up of shinobi but of samurai. Yet that small nation had endured.

Riku, being deeply fascinated by obscure shinobi history, had long since studied the legend of the Sprite. He knew exactly how terrifying it had been.

It was a monster that made even the Five Great Nations tremble.

When Riku had first read the historical accounts, he couldn't believe that the Sprite in the records was the same creature Naruto had supposedly defeated with one Rasengan.

Based on the accounts, the original shrine maiden who sealed it possessed strength on par with—or possibly beyond—Kage level. With her unique spiritual abilities, she might've even surpassed the standard power scale.

But shrine maidens rarely left their land. They were guardians—meant to prevent the Sprite's return. That duty had kept them isolated in the eastern region for generations.

Unlike the Land of Rain, which had once thrown itself into war after war, the Land of Demons remained quiet and removed from global affairs.

During the Second Great Ninja War, even small countries like the Land of Rain fought Konoha, then turned to clash with the Sand, then even faced the Iron Country.

That kind of brutal cycle had raised Amegakure to mid-tier status—largely due to their leader, Hanzo the Salamander, who was a true peak-Kage-level shinobi.

Hanzo's title of "Demi-God" hadn't been self-proclaimed. Others gave him that name.

At his peak, Hanzo had been a monster. Even in old age, when his strength waned, he remained a legend—until he was finally killed by Pain.

That was during the Third Hokage's era.

The Miko was similarly powerful.

And now, the world might need her again.

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