Hokage: Ryo’s Path

While he was fighting the Wooden Giant, Ryo felt that the Kyubi’s Chakra was separated from Kushina.

He felt unprecedented burning rage in his heart. He wanted to leave everything and run to Kushina’s side, but Black Zetsu’s integration within the Wooden Giant stood in the way, for no matter how many times he took the Golem down, it went back up too quickly for him to react.

Fully aware of the dilemma that Ryo was suffering, Korin suggested: “Ryo, use your [Ice Colossus], and crush this giant into oblivion! I do not think that it would recover fast enough then!”

Ryo was desperate, and had to act quickly. He helplessly agreed with Korin’s suggestion, controlling the surrounding water quickly and freezing it. In no time, a Colossus even larger than the wooden man appeared before Black and White Zetsu.

Black had never seen Ice Colossus before. However, being Kaguya’s son, he was very sensitive to Natural Energy, and could feel an unprecedented threat from the Colossus before him.

“White, what is this? Do you have any idea?”

White Zetsu nodded and replied: “This is a mysterious trick of Ryo Yamanaka. It seems to be called Ice Colossus; he seemingly turns himself into Ice and then grows bigger, like an Akamichi. His power in this form is immense, and not to be underestimated.”

As Black Zetsu heard this explanation, he was relieved. If it was as simple as White Zetsu described, there would be nothing to fear.

However, the next second, after the Colossus’s punch destroyed the majority of the Wooden Golem’s body, he realized how horrifying it truly was.

Black immediately began to repair the Golem, but the self-repair speed was no match to that of Colossus’s fist. In a heartbeat, the Wooden Giant was destroyed into smithereens.

Both Black and White Zetsu realized that the situation was no good. After taking the opportunity to slip away, Ryo left the Ice Colossus state and directly teleported to Kushina’s place.

“Ne-san! Are you all right?!” Ryo barged in through the door, to find Kushina lying next to Naruto, looking at him with weak eyes. He was relieved to see that she did not suffer any injuries.

“Ryo, don’t worry about me! Go to Minato; there’s a masked man who took away Kurama from me! He wants to destroy Konoha!” Kushina said to Ryo.

Ryo’s face became heavier and gloomier than ever before. He tried to think, but couldn’t, of a reason that could push Obito over the brink and get him to attack Konoha. Upon hearing Kushina, he realized that his plans went way, way wrong, and that he had to face Obito and ask him about this face to face!

“Ryo, hold on!” Ryo was leaving when Korin stopped him.

“What, Korin?! Now the situation is very urgent!”

“This is an emergency as well! I can still feel Kurama’s consciousness in Kushina Ne san’s body, but it’s very weak.” Korin explained immediately.

Ryo was surprised, and immediately moved to Kushina’s side, just to realize that the Kyubi had left a “shard” of his soul and a tail’s worth of Chakra inside Kushina’s body.

“Ryo, let me into Ne-san’s seal; I have a way to strengthen Kurama’s consciousness!”

Ryo nodded and did not hesitate, taking Korin out of his bag and placing her over the seal.

Kushina was still stunned, when suddenly; she felt a familiar feeling… Korin was pulled into her seal!

The shard of Kurama’s consciousness absorbed Korin’s spiritual power and gradually grew, and then Korin injected her own Natural Energy into Kushina’s body.

The Kyubi was originally separated from the Juubi. Now that Korin was a Juubi-like entity, her power was to him equivalent to what a mother’s milk is to her son.

After absorbing around a quarter of Korin’s Natural Energy and spiritual power, the Kyubi’s consciousness suddenly formed Chakra, and a small Kyubi appeared within Kushina’s seal once again.

“Kurama, is that you?!” After Kushina sensed Kurama within her, she was excited and immediately asked the small Kyubi.

The Kyubi did not answer her. Instead, he looked at Korin in amazement: “I never expected that you would already turn into the Juubi!”

“Hee-hee, how do you feel now?” Korin smiled in embarrassment.

Kurama looked at his own body and said: “Very good! I have both my Yin and Yang Chakras, my soul is complete, and I have around the equivalent of Sanbi’s Chakra, which should get stronger in the future. Even without having my initial body sealed back in, I should be able to exist independently!”

“Is that right? Well, congratulations! But Kurama, let me remind you that Ne-san is not doing as well as you are!”

Kurama was surprised, and then understood Korin, and immediately connected his Chakra to that of Kushina.

Having her power nourished with that of the Kyubi, Kushina’s body began to recover. On top of that, because of the presence of this small Kyubi, her life was no longer threatened in any way.

“Kurama? It’s really you! But, haven’t you been taken away by the masked man?”

“Yes! But when I was extracted, I left a shard of my consciousness and about a tail’s worth of Chakra to secure you survival for a good while. However, I didn’t expect that the Kid’s Biju had already evolved into a special existant that could turn that bit I left into a complete soul that has a lot of Chakra!” Kurama explained to Kushina.

“Is that right? It turned out that Korin is that powerful!!” With the support from the Kyubi, Kushina’s state was a lot better, and her previously faint voice was now full of enthusiasm.

Seeing that, Ryo finally was able to smile.

“Ne-san, you stay here and rest! Korin and I will go to help Minato Ni-san!” As Ryo was speaking, Korin left the opened seal, and both of them teleported away.

When rushing towards Obito and the Kyubi, Korin said to Ryo anxiously: “Ryo! I just gave Kurama too much of my Spiritual Power and Natural Energy, and I it seems like I cannot control my body anymore!”

Ryo did not care about that; the most important thing to him was that Kushina was safe.

What’s more, this Ryo was nothing like his former self, and he now had enough confidence that he could get the Kyubi under control without needing his Biju.

Of course, he thought he could only keep the Kyubi from destroying Konoha. To actually beat it, he needed Korin, or to have better control over his Mangekyo.

For now, he could only stall and wait for the other Kage Tiers of Konoha to beat their opponents, and then seal the Kyubi together.

The 3rd and Orochimaru had cleared up a decent part of Konoha’s territory, and while they were at, the latter collected a large number of White Zetsu Corpses.

The 3rd felt that this was very strange, but he did not ask much. After all, he fully trusted his disciple.

“Sandaime, the Kyubi was extracted from Ne-san by a mysterious man, and we must now immediately stop it:” The 3rd and Orochimaru heard Ryo’s voice in their heads, and their faces changed greatly!

“Where? Where is the Kyubi?” Hiruzen immediately asked.

Ryo replied immediately: “I am heading towards Konoha’s center!”

Hearing Ryo’s response, the 3rd immediately rushed to the center of the village, and Orochimaru, who was dealing with the Zetsu, went to follow him up.

“Orochimaru, while the Kyubi is the biggest threat to Konoha, these white creatures are also very dangerous! Only you could identify them! Although I’m old, I can drag the Kyubi down for a while! You don’t have to worry!” After the 3rd said that, he turned around and continued his path.

Orochimaru looked at the third disappearing, and then turned around muttering to himself: “Don’t die, Sensei!”