Hokage: Ryo’s Path

As Ryo was about to leave, he was stopped by Orochimaru who seemed to remember something.

“Ryo kun, tales of your battle against the Mist Village have spread out, and while you were using a technique similar to that of the Akamishi clan’s, your Sharingan was also exposed.”

Hearing Orochimaru, Ryo recalled using the Sharingan while using Ice Colossus, and realized that his secret had been leaked.

Ryo knew all too well that once his Sharingan would be exposed, he’ll definitely have trouble.

“Orochi san, have the Uchiha harassed my mother in the past few days?” Ryo asked a little anxiously.

“Yes, but they were stopped by Minato and Kushina.”

Knowing that his mother had the protection of those two on top of his clan’s made Ryo feel a lot less worried.

“Orochi san, the Hoka…”

“Sarutobi sensei has appeased the Uchiha clan’s head, but other members of the tribe are still very dissatisfied.” Orochimaru carried on talking, telling Ryo what he knew.

Ryo understood that higher-ups of the village were now divided into two factions: Danzo and Homura sided with Uchiha, while Koharu took Hiruzen’s side.

The Uchiha do not allow their bloodline to spread into other clans. According to their internal rules, Ryo must now “return” to his clan, or abolish any signs of the Uchiha Bloodline.

Of course, their bloodline was reflected in his Sharingan. Not returning to the clan meant that he had to pluck out his eyes.

Those familiar with Ryo knew that he would never want to rejoin the clan.

In the high level meeting about the matter, Danzo and Homura were clearly showing their support of the Uchiha’s case. As a result, Kushina was enraged. This evolved into her colliding with Danzo.

Minato wasn’t about to stop her; Jiraya hadn’t come back yet, Orochimaru and Sakumo weren’t interfering either. Helplessly, the 3rd had to interfere himself and stop the raging Kushina.

This made her furious, and left on the spot, slamming the door behind her, with Minato following after her.

After that, Kushina and Minato both publicly stepped up to stop the Uchiha.

The Red Hot Habanero, and Konoha’s Yellow Flash were not people that the Uchiha clan could afford to offend. They could only choose to temporarily retreat.

After listening to Orochimaru, Ryo was very touched by Kushina and Minato’s unconditional support.

This was especially true with Minato, who had always been most loyal to the village, and was now willing to go against its higher up just for Ryo’s sake. This made the latter very moved.

“It wasn’t just those two supporting you!” Anko came down the stairs, speaking in an awkward tone.

Ryo looked back at her, and she continued: “In fact, Orochimaru sensei, Jiraya san, and Sakumo san all have been to the Uchiha’s district.”

“Orochi san, you…”

“We went to the clan’s head to talk about your issue. He promised that there will be no reason to pursue the matter of your identity if if you could get the clan’s elite to accept that.”

Ryo knew that things were not as simple as Orochimaru was describing. A heavy price must have been payed to make the Uchiha clan’s head promise such a thing.

However, Ryo was wrong. There was indeed a small price, but the Uchiha were the ones who had to pay.

Before the three went to the clan, they all thought of what they should do.

Jiraya was concerned with the fact that they were still at war. If this matter was to cause too much conflict with the Uchiha clan, it would be too harmful to the village. His suggestion was to persuade the Uchiha to leave this matter to be discussed after the war ends.

Sakumo on the other hand did not agree with that. The Uchiha at the time had no Kage tier Ninjas at the time. They only had a few Quasi Kage tier Ninjas. The three of them should be able to annihilate the entire clan! If they don’t obey, they’d just beat them into obedience.

As for Orochimaru, he just wanted the matter to be handled quickly so he could go back to the lab and continue his research. If it wasn’t Ryo’s who’s involved, he would’ve been too lazy to even give the matter any attention.

Each one of the trio had his own thoughts. When they entered the district, and met Katachi Uchiha. Jiraya gave his proposal, but unfortunately, it was refused.

Seeing that reason wasn’t working, Sakumo no longer hesitated. Orochimaru also felt that it would be easier to handle the issue in Sakumo’s way.

The two subdued the majority of the Uchiha’s Ninja’s present. In the end, Katachi agreed to let Ryo off as long as he could convince their elite clansmen.

After knowing all the circumstances, Ryo bid farewell to Orochimaru and Anko and used the Teleportation Barrier to get straight home.

As soon as he returned, he head straight to Chinse’s room.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as she saw her son, she immediately began talking about the matter of his identity.

Ryo was all she had in life. Facing such a matter, she became anxious and her life turned into chaos.

Now, as she finally got to see her son, he poured the contents of her heart to him.

Ryo was staring at him mother, who was actually looking older because of all the stress this brought down on her. It was very distressing.

The image he always had of his mother was that of this calm strong woman. It was the 1st time he ever saw her be so flustered.

In fact, to Chinse, the experience of bringing up Ryo had put under tremendous pressure. For a decade and a half, their secret had been like a boulder upon her heart.

She was just a Tokubetsu Jonin that’s good at medical Ninjutsu. The Uchiha was one of the two eldest clans of the village. It was a behemoth, frightening to go against, even for the entire Ino-Shika-Cho alliance.

The huge power gap forced her to remain vigilant at all time.

Now, the exposure of her son’s identity was the final straw that finally broke her down. The day for her to face the Uchiha Clan finally came.

The anxiety made her collapse over the past days, turning her extremely gaunt. However, everyone support helped her a lot. Hearing what Jiraya, Orochimaru and Sakumo have done was especially comforting.

Chinse was a young medical Ninja in the 2nd world war, fighting under these men. Sakumo and the Sannin were synonym to omnipotence to her generation.

“Mom, you can rest assured! I can protect you. Now, I’m at the tier of the great Sannin! I’ll never let anyone hurt you.

Hearing her son, her tense eyebrows finally relaxed, and she finally showed a faint smile.

Ryo’s words made her relax completely. She believed him, and him being at that level, convinced her that he could handle all of this.

From then on, Ryo remained with his mother in her room until she fell asleep.

After coming out of the room, Ryo’s scarlet eyes glowed in the dark.

He was never a saint, and he definitely wasn’t about to become one as his mother and clan are being threatened.

Now, all he wanted was to use his own strength, so that Chinse would never be disturbed by anyone ever again, and could have a happy life.