Hokage: Ryo’s Path

Unlike Ryo, Rin did not have The Ice Lightning Chakra Mode Flicker or Ice Teleportation, so her movement speed wasn’t that high. Her trip from Konoha to the Wave Country was going to take a while.

During this time, Zetsu was tailing her. Following Madara’s instructions, he transformed his shape into a Mist Anbu, delivering “orders from the Mizukage” to the Mist Ninjas in the Wave Country, which stated that Rin should be captured..

After receiving the order, the Mist Ninjas immediately set up an ambush at the entrance of the Wave Country, and lurked there waiting for Rin’s arrival.

Rin was oblivious to all of this. She just made a simple camouflage and went directly into the Country.

On the Mist Ninjas side, it took them a while, but they were able to confirm her identity.

Rin’s combat capabilities were those of a Chunin at best. To insure that they would have no trouble, the Mist Ninjas sent to Tokubetsu Jonins to capture her.

On top of that, the two approached her when it was dark; Rin didn’t even notice they were then until it was too late. They managed to capture her with no problems.

After catching Rin, the Mist Ninjas Knocked her down unconscious following the “Anbu’s” instructions. They opened her bag, and threw away Ryo’s Ice Scalpel and destroyed his Teleportation Barrier Mark, throwing them on the ground.

Later, they sealed her Chakra, and sent her to the Water Country overnight.

In Konoha, Ryo was in Orochimaru’s lab. Before the elections, he had given the Sannin a corpse of a White Zetsu. Orochimaru found interesting things after nearly a month of conducting research on the corpse, and couldn’t wait to call Ryo.

“Orochi san, what did you find out?” Ryo hadn’t been in the lab for a long time, but Orochimaru remained silent for a good while after he entered, making him loose patience.

Orochimaru continued ignoring him and remained motionless.

Ryo found Orochimaru’s behavior strange. Usually, even when he’s busy, Orochimaru would always answer when it’s Ryo that’s asking. However, today, he didn’t even turn around.

“A puppet!” Ryo who watched Orochimaru’s peculiar behavior, remembered the corpse he had brought for Orochimaru before, and realized that the body before him was probably fake.

He activated his Mangekyo, and used “Ice World” on Orochimaru.

Just like he expected, Orochimaru’s soul did not appear in the Ice World. With this, he had no doubt that what was before his eyes was the fruit of Orochimaru’s latest research.

Ryo approached the Puppet. After observing it for a while, he reached out and touched its skin. What he did not expect was that not only did it feel exactly like human skin, it also had the body temperature of a human being!

This made Ryo even more interested, so he took out his Ice Scalpel and cut the Puppet’s skin immediately.

The result shocked him even more; the puppet started bleeding!

“How could this be!”

“Haha, is my work that perfect, Ryo kun?” Orochimaru walked up from the lower floor smiling.

Ryo nodded, as the puppet was too realistic by any standards, “How did you do it, Orochi san?3 Ryo asked curiously.

“It’s thanks to the white corpse you’ve given me. I have found a special Chakra in that corpse.” Orochimaru said that, and took Ryo along with him to the lab’s basement.

He took a scroll that was on the table and handed it to Ryo: “Ryo kun, this is that Chakra I’m talking about. Check it out yourself!”

Ryo nodded, opening the scroll, and observing the Chakra within it with his Sharingan.

Apart from a “grass green” hue to it, it was just like ordinary Chakra.

“Ryo kun, go ahead and coat your body in this Chakra, and then envision a Chakra that you’re familiar with.” Orochimary said.

Ryo did so, and envisioned Minato’s Chakra.

At that moment, Ryo’s body started slowly changing shape, taking Minato’s appearance!

He used his mental power to perceive his body, and was stunned again into silence: this Chakra had such a terrible effect!

What Ryo actually perceived was Minato himself!

“Ryo kun, try to use Ninjutsu.”

“Alright, I’ll try!” Ryo’s right condensed a Rasengan. What was more surprising was that his Chakra’s fluctuation as he condensed the Rasengan was actually changed by the Chakra that Orochimaru gave him! This made the Rasengan he made feel identical to that of Minato!

The downside of the Chakra was obvious to him, as he only maintained this shape for less than a minute, before it ran out.

This made Ryo feel more surprise. He remembered well that Orochimaru’s puppet lasted for a much longer time! How come his transformation is now time limited?

“Orochi san, how did you get your puppet to maintain shape for so long?” Ryo asked directly.

“The white corpse you’ve given me contains a lot of the 1st’s cells. I found that their strong vitality kept this Chakra from being consumed. I’ve made the puppet outside relying on both 1st’s cells and this Chakra.”

“So that’s the case!”

“Ryo kun, there’s even more special things about that corpse!” Orochimaru said in his hoarse voice.

“What things?” Asked Ryo.

“That corpse has no actual brain. It cannot contain a consciousness and a soul.”

“No consciousness? How come I could talk to it when meeting? How come it tried to run away and fight?” Ryo asked.

“Think about it. Your Shadow Clones can do the same. They can talk and flee and even use Ninjutsu.” Orochimaru answered faintly.

Ryo was speechless for a moment. He looked down and thought it over for a while and then said: “Orochi san, you mean that these guys might all be controlled by one consciousness that occupies just one main body?”

“Yes! But this is nothing but speculation at this point. I have no evidence.”

Orochimaru’s words made Ryo understand details that never were clear to him. He was just about to say something when he suddenly felt that the Teleportation Barrier Mark he gave Rin was destroyed!

His face changed greatly, and immediately confirmed the position of the recently destroyed Barrier. This gave him an approximate position of Rin.

Realizing that she was in the Wave Country, Ryo immediately bid farewell to Orochimaru: “Orochi san, I have an urgent matter to deal with! I have to leave right away!”

Using the Teleportation Barrier on the borders of the fire country, Ryo got much closer to his Teleportation Barrier’s position in the blink of an eye.

With his Teleportation Barrier Mark destroyed, and his Ice Scalpel really far, Ryo thought of using the Teleportation Barrier Mark he had in the Wave Country, but he could not sense that. Therefore, he could only use Ice Teleportation and Lightning Chakra Flicker to rush towards his target.

When he entered the Wave Country, he could finally sense his Ice Scalpel, and subsequently teleport to it. By the time he reached, he found that it was thrown away on the floor.

He picked up the Ice Scalpel, his Ice Lightning Chakra Mode broke out more fiercely, and he continued to rush in Rin’s direction.