Hokage: Ryo's Path

Kakashi saw that Danzo stopped moving, blinked, and then rushed to Ryo asking: “Ryo, Danzo is hiding...”

“Well, he’s dead!” Ryo nodded and answered.

Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief: Their plan, which had taken so long; had finally completed its first step.

“Well, Kakashi, go and tell Sakumo san that Danzo is dead, see if he has anything to arrange, and then withdraw your men around the 3rd Hokage’s place. After isolating him for so long, his friend is now dead, and we should be ready to deal with his rage.” Ryo said with a rather gloomy face.

Kakashi’s face was also heavy. He knew that 3rd was going to be furious. Therefore, he quickly left with his men.

“And now, this... is not yours!” Ryo plucked Shisui’s eye off of Danzo’s corpse. He then sealed Danzo’s body in a scroll and teleported to Orochimaru directly.

In the lab, Orochimaru was working on some experiments with Tsunade lying on his side.

Ever since Orochimaru found out about the White Zetsu, he had been extremely interested with these cells.

Whether it came to cellular activity or vitality, these cells were much stronger than normal human cells. They also showed many similar properties to Hashirama’s cells.

Orochimaru showed these cells to Tsunade, and she also noticed the same properties, especially its sharing of Hashirama’s vitality. This made her extremely interested in these cells.

As her research progressed, it gave birth to the bold idea of injecting some of White Zetsu’s cells into her body.

She had studied her grandfather’s cells back in the day. When her brother, Nawaki, was still alive, she wanted to try awakening his ability to use Wood Release. Therefore, she studied Hashirama’s cells thoroughly.

Due to the fact that equipment from back then was not that advanced, she only could find that those cells had great vitality and a strong phagocytic property.

The 2nd property made them too dangerous for use on her young brother, hence Tsunade did not go through with that plan.

Now that she had discovered these White Zetsu cells that had similar vitality but not such phagocytic properties, she wanted to inject these cells into her own body to see if she could awaken Wood Release through that.

After getting the idea, Tsunade directly told Orochimaru, who hesitated for a while. Eventually however, he decided to go with her plan.

After days of preparation, Orochimaru injected a small amount of White Zetsu cells into his body. It was at the beginning of this experiment that Ryo arrived.

After learning about what was going on from Orochimaru, he was surprised. Tsunade never seemed like the power hungry type to him. Therefore, her trying to get wood release was peculiar to him, to say the least.

After checking her vitals, Ryo determined that she was in a stable state, and therefore didn’t pay too much attention to her situation. Instead, he told Orochimaru about what happened in Konoha.

Orochimaru frowned by the end of the explanation saying: “Ryo kun, how do you plan to deal with Sarutobi Sensei?”

“Uncle Sakumo said that the Sandaime isn’t going to go against us for a man who’s already dead. I think the same as well, and either way, if things come down to that, he would not be an opponent of Sakumo san.”

“You mean if it comes down to a confrontation with Sarutobi sensei?”

Ryo nodded and said: “If he chose to go against us for Danzo, it would be the only way. I thought we could avoid conflict if we reach that point by....”

“By getting Tsunade to mediate... but you found her in this state!”

Ryo nodded helplessly, and Orochimaru seemed to be equally regretful. Then Ryo bid farewell to him and left his base.

Back in Konoha, in the Hokage’s office, Sakumo did not immediately arrange for the retreat of the Anbu. He wanted to make some preparations before informing the 3rd, and therefore he asked them to remain there a little longer.

“Sakumo san!” Ryo immediately teleported into the office from Orochimaru’s lab.

“Ryo, you’re back! Well, listen to me, I’m planning to...” As soon as he saw Ryo Sakumo was ready to tell him about his plan.

“Sakumo san, you can handle everything as you see fit. I’m here to ask you to let me take Shisui; I’ve taken back his eye from Danzo.” Ryo interrupted Sakumo and he was confident in the Hokage’s ability to handle the situation on his own. To him, the most urgent task as the moment was returning the Mangekyo to Shisui.

“He’s guarding the 3rd’s place. I’ll get Kakashi to take his place! He should get his eye back indeed!” Sakumo said with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll go straight there with Kakashi. I’ll be leaving the 3rd’s matter to you, Sakumo san. »

“Don’t worry! Kakashi, go with Ryo!”

Ryo and Kakashi both teleported to the vicinity of Shisui, who was secretly observing the 3rd’s residence. As the two appeared by his side so suddenly, he was shocked.

After calming down, he asked in surprise: “Sensei, what brings you here?”

“Your eye, obviously! I’ve already talked to Sakumo san, and you can leave your duties here for Kakashi!”

Shisui blinked, and then asked excitedly: “Eye? Sensei, you brought me back my eye?”

“Yeah yeah. Quickly, give your post to Kakashi and then follow me!”

Shisui nodded, quickly explaining the status quo to Kakashi, and then leaving with Ryo.

The two teleported to Orochimaru’s base. This time, Ryo was here to deal with the problem of Shisui’s Mangekyo.

Back in the day, Ryo obtained the Sharingans of Kagami Uchiha, Shisui’s grandfather, from Orochimaru.

Kagami’s eyes were much stronger than the average Sharingan. Their three tomoe were nearly connected, and they nearly matched a pair of Mangekyo in power.

However, Ryo was certain that they were no Mangekyo Sharingans.

He speculated that Kagami was right on the edge of fully developing his Mangekyo by the time he died. His eyes were powerful, but they had no specific powers yet.

Even thought this was the case, Ryo believed that these eyes should be enough for Shisui to develop his eyes into Eternal Mangekyo Sharingans. If that somehow fails, Ryo would always have the plan of using Hashirama’s cells to get Shisui to complete the evolution of his Mangekyo.