Though Richard had developed his unique Flame Rasengan with its incredible heat and the Blizzard Rasengan with its freezing cold temperatures, he knew these were completely different from the Wind Style Rasenshuriken Naruto would develop later.
The Wind Style Rasenshuriken was an S-rank jutsu that combined wind-nature chakra transformation with the Rasengan, reshaping it into a shuriken form.
At first glance, the Flame Rasengan and Blizzard Rasengan might seem like they used fire and water chakra transformation.
But that wasn't the case.
Though Richard did have fire and water chakra, he hadn't used chakra transformation in his Flame Rasengan and Blizzard Rasengan. Instead, he'd used his Firaga and Blizzaga skills to give the Rasengan extreme temperatures.
Basically, he was still performing the A-rank Rasengan jutsu.
He just added the powers of Firaga and Blizzaga to it.
Though they remained A-rank techniques, with Firaga and Blizzaga boosting them, the Flame Rasengan and Blizzard Rasengan could match the Wind Style Rasenshuriken in power.
After all, Richard had upgraded both Firaga and Blizzaga to their maximum Level 5 state.
Even just adding extreme temperatures to the Rasengan made the Flame Rasengan and Blizzard Rasengan seriously dangerous.
Richard felt pretty proud of himself for mastering the Rasengan in a single afternoon and developing two unique variants only he could use.
To reward himself, he decided to visit an underground club in the red-light district that night and enjoy the company of some Konoha ladies.
But first, he'd head to Ichiraku Ramen for dinner.
Though it was only five in the afternoon, he didn't mind eating early.
He also wanted to find out when Konoha's Chunin Exam would start.
The manga never specified exactly how long after the Land of Waves mission Naruto and his friends took the Chunin Exam.
But judging from the plot, Konoha would announce the exam date pretty soon.
After leaving his shop, Richard headed straight for Ichiraku Ramen.
The ramen shop was quite far from his weapon store.
But he still didn't want to eat anywhere else.
Though he had tried all the ramen flavors on Ichiraku's menu yesterday, menus get updated.
If he was lucky, they might have a new flavor today.
Even if there wasn't a new flavor, he didn't mind.
On his way to Ichiraku, Richard, with his good looks and striking presence, unsurprisingly caught the attention of several groups of forward Konoha girls.
Though these girls were pretty aggressive, since they were all under 18, Richard wasn't interested.
Lust is lust!
But minors are off-limits!
That was Richard's principle.
After politely turning down these underage girls, Richard continued toward Ichiraku Ramen.
Just as he was approaching the shop, he spotted a couple he recognized.
Hayate Gekko and Yugao Uzuki!
Both looked exactly as he remembered them.
Especially Hayate.
He had dark circles under his eyes, a pale face, and coughed occasionally, looking chronically ill.
Hayate wore a ninja bandana with the Konoha metal plate on it, covering much of his long brown hair.
He wore the standard Konoha ninja outfit – black bodysuit and green flak jacket.
Though he looked sickly, Hayate was no weakling.
He was an ANBU member directly under the Hokage, a special Konoha ninja skilled in Konoha-style kenjutsu who had mastered the Transparent Escape technique to hide his body.
In the anime, during a reconnaissance mission, he was discovered by Kabuto Yakushi and the Sand leader Baki, forced into a fight with Baki, and ultimately killed by Baki's Wind Blade.
During the Fourth Ninja War, he was resurrected by Kabuto using the Impure World Reincarnation, forced to fight Yugao, and eventually sealed by her.
Richard briefly glanced at Hayate, then shifted his gaze to Yugao beside him.
Compared to Hayate, Yugao was much more eye-catching.
Her long purple hair alone was striking.
Plus, she was quite attractive with a good figure.
Like Hayate, Yugao was also a Konoha ANBU member under the Hokage, skilled in the same Konoha-style kenjutsu as Hayate.
Standing nearly 5'7", Yugao had a pair of long, slender legs.
Despite her height, she weighed only about 110 pounds.
With her looks and figure, Yugao was definitely one of Konoha's beauties.
If Richard remembered correctly, Yugao was only 22 now.
She was also incredibly loyal.
After Hayate's death, she never found another partner.
Currently, Yugao wore the same black bodysuit and green flak jacket as Hayate.
Her bodysuit was sleeveless, showing the ANBU tattoo on her right shoulder.
Though sleeveless, she wore black gloves that extended past her elbows, with metal arm guards attached.
Since they both specialized in Konoha-style kenjutsu, Hayate and Yugao were carrying katanas. They didn't look like a couple out shopping during their passionate love phase, more like partners on a mission together.
Hayate and Yugao quickly noticed Richard watching them.
Though they didn't know him, they frowned in unison when they caught him staring.
When their eyes met his, Richard smiled at them.
Then he continued walking toward Ichiraku Ramen.
He was definitely interested in Yugao, but he didn't want to steal Hayate's girlfriend right now.
Barring any surprises, Hayate would be leaving this world before long.
It wouldn't be too late to make a move on Yugao after Hayate's death.
Plus, it would be easier to succeed then.
Though taking advantage of someone's vulnerability wasn't exactly noble, it wasn't that terrible either.
Finding the right moment to strike when someone's guard was down and successfully capturing their heart was a skill in itself.
Many people wanted to take advantage of others' weak moments but couldn't pull it off.
Under Hayate and Yugao's watchful gaze, Richard entered Ichiraku Ramen.
After checking the menu on the wall and seeing it was the same as yesterday, he ordered two bowls of tonkotsu pork ramen from Ayame.
Outside Ichiraku Ramen, Hayate noticed his girlfriend Yugao was still staring at Richard, whose body was partially hidden by the entrance curtain.
Hayate felt a twinge of jealousy.
"He is pretty handsome," Hayate admitted. "Especially that silver hair – looks good at first glance."
Hearing this, Yugao grabbed his right arm and smiled. "You're jealous."
"I'm not," Hayate said, though he clearly was.
"You obviously are," Yugao teased.
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"No..."
Before Hayate could finish, Yugao kissed him on the cheek, leaving him speechless.
Though they were a couple, they didn't live together.
In fact, they hadn't even done many of the intimate things couples typically do.
Partly because neither was casual about relationships.
But also because they weren't ordinary ninja.
They were both ANBU members under the Hokage.
Though both in ANBU, they weren't on the same team.
Compared to regular ninja, ANBU operatives were much busier.
Even shopping together was rare – they had to wait until both had free time.
Yugao's sudden kiss made Hayate's pale face flush.
Satisfied with her partner's stunned reaction, Yugao took Hayate's arm and led him toward the flower shops and clothing stores female ninja liked to visit.
The conversation between Hayate and Yugao didn't escape Richard's ears.
Though he wasn't trying to eavesdrop, the super-hearing from his Superboy-Prime template let him hear their conversation clearly.
After mentally complaining about their public display of affection, Richard wondered: Would one of the ANBU members assigned to watch him be either Hayate or Yugao?
Though ANBU had many members, the fact that these two could shop together now meant they weren't currently on assignment.
If ANBU sent someone to monitor him, there was a good chance one would be from their unit.
Thinking about it, he hoped the ANBU would send Yugao's team, Team 6.
Compared to being secretly watched by a bunch of grown men, he'd rather be monitored by a beautiful kunoichi.
Soon after, Ayame brought Richard's tonkotsu pork ramen.
Looking at the steaming, delicious noodles, Richard dug in without hesitation.
He easily finished both bowls.
Though he only had two bowls this time, he didn't order more. He paid his bill and left Ichiraku, heading back to his new Konoha home.
In the basement of his new home, Richard took out a vial of Compound V from his system space – the temporary version that gave users superpowers for just 24 hours.
When he'd talked to Sasuke last night, he hadn't thought about using Temporary Compound V or regular Compound V on him.
But while eating ramen, the idea had suddenly popped into his head.
Though humans in the Naruto world differed somewhat from those in the Marvel universe or The Boys world, his instinct told him Compound V would work on Naruto-world humans too.
Besides chakra, the main difference was that Naruto-world humans had 2-3 times more cells than those in Marvel or The Boys universes.
If the only difference was more cells, Compound V would likely still work.
After all, Compound V affected genes, not cells.
Should he give Sasuke Temporary Compound V or regular Compound V?
Or should he find some random ninja to experiment on first?
If only he'd thought to test it at Orochimaru's hideout!
Several ideas flashed through Richard's mind.
After thinking it over, he gave up on using Sasuke as a test subject for now.
Sasuke was the second most important male character in Naruto, after all.
Using him as a guinea pig didn't seem right.
Even if Sasuke really wanted to try Compound V, it could wait until the Chunin Exam started.
Though Orochimaru would place the Curse Mark on Sasuke during the second exam, the mark wouldn't change Sasuke's genes.
After putting the Compound V vials back in his system space, Richard took out ten kilos of vibranium and continued making kunai.
He wouldn't make more Tantō – the three vibranium Tantō he already had were enough.
However, he did plan to make three vibranium katanas.
Also, this time he made regular kunai, not the three-pronged kind the Fourth Hokage used.
Just like that morning, he first created a meter-wide golden fireball using Firaga.
Then he used magic to lift the vibranium from the ground into the fireball.
Time passed bit by bit.
About ten minutes later, Richard successfully completed his work. Three vibranium katanas and eight vibranium kunai floated before him.
After checking that the weapons were perfect, he stored them in his system space.
Then he went to take a bath.
After bathing, he slept for a few hours.
At ten that night, he woke up and got dressed.
Once ready, he headed out for the red-light district, planning to enjoy a pleasant night at one of the underground clubs.
That was his plan, anyway.
But as they say, plans rarely survive contact with reality.
Not long after leaving home, while using the Body Flicker Technique to hurry along, he realized he was being watched.
More precisely, ANBU members were following him.
Though he could have pretended not to notice, he stopped using Body Flicker and went to the road by the river.
"Come out! I can see all four of you!" Richard called out, turning toward the empty road behind him.
Though he appeared to be alone, his super vision had spotted four ANBU members hiding behind trees and in the branches.
The ANBU members didn't reveal themselves, staying hidden.
Seeing they wouldn't come out willingly, Richard didn't want to waste time.
"If you don't show yourselves, don't blame me for getting rough," he warned.
He waited over ten seconds.
When the ANBU still refused to appear, Richard instinctively raised his right hand, ready to snap his fingers and summon wind blades.
But as soon as he raised his hand, he thought better of it and lowered it.