Hokage: Ryo's Path

“Ryo, you’re back! Come on in the meeting will start now!” Inoichi was just about to send someone to find Ryo.

Ryo saluted his clan members and entered.

At the meeting, Shikaku Nara was the main spokesperson. He gave a brief and concise speech about the arrangement of the 3 clans and their position in the village.

Then it was time for the distribution of war supplies. The 3 clans as always shared everything equally. No matter what was prepared, it was always for all 3 clans.

The Akamichi’s supplied everyone with food pills and the Nara clan distributed medicines and bandages.

Even the non Ninja clan members were doing auxiliary work in the read and prepared to bear the burden with the fighters.

After the food pills and medical supplies were distributed, most of the members of the 3 clans were ready to disband and go back home to bid farewell to their families.

“Everybody please wait. The war supplies provided by the Yamanaka clan are yet to be distributed.” Shikaku’s voice left everyone quiet. The Nara and the Akamichi Ninja were looking at their companions from the Yamanaka clan.

The Yamanaka’s actually did not know about the stones. They all were wondering about these supplies with stunned faces as well.

“The Yamanaka’s will be giving Healing stones to everyone. These are Jade stones in which the Healing jutsu was sealed. It’s essentially a portable medical Ninjutsu.”

As soon as Shikaku finished his words, everybody started whispering. They’ve never heard of such a thing. Being offered a portable medical Jutsu is like getting a second life on the battlefield.

Some of these Ninja knew about the concept of a healing tag. What they did not expect was that the Yamanaka’s would actually buy an item so expensive in high quantities. In particular, the Yamanaka ninja knew well about the economic conditions within the clan and they were stunned.

“Inoichi Sama, did our family get some more reserves lately? How did we get enough money to buy these healing stones?” Eventually, one of the Yamanaka elders just had to ask this question.

“These stones have been made in our clan.” Inoichi wasn’t the talkative type, and that dry sentence was all he said in response.

This made the crowd boil even more! Such an important item was actually made by a Yamanaka!

The thing is that this healing stone was kept as a strategic secret in Konoha. Only the heads of the bigger clans and of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans knew about it. It was a S-level secret.

When the situation started becoming this tense between the villages, Konoha started distributing the stones to the Heads of clans.

The Nara and Akamishi ninja in the meeting congratulated their Yamanaka companions. There no questions asked between the members of the clans as the all considered each other family.

Looking at their eyes, Ryo was really impressed. He wasn’t used to see such a brotherly feeling in his past life so this got him particularity moved.

There shouldn’t be many reserves for the Yamanaka’s and the two other clans. Ryo handed over a total of 2500 stones to Inoichi. The village can give up to 5 stones to each ninja and the clan had only 500 left.

500 stones for 500 Ninja, even if they excluded the Genins, there shouldn’t be many for each ninja that gets stones. This annoyed Ryo so much. In the beginning, he should have worked harder to make more.

The 3 clans had 11 Jonins and special Jonins. Each of those had 5 stones. The 200 Chunins in the clans were given 2 stones each and the Genins had none.

“This stone was not developed until recently. We don’t have much to give for Chunins and Genins. I hope you’d be patient. You can apply for a stone now through Shikaku and you’ll get one whenever they’re ready.” Said Inoichi

The present Ninja had no complaints. Everyone knew that resources should go to the ones who need them the most.

After the clan meeting, Ryo was invited by Inoichi. Together, they went to meet Shikaku Nara and Choza Akamishi in Inoichi’s living room.

“Ryo, you’ve done great! This is great Help to the village.” Said Shikaku Nara.

“Shikaku Nii-san you’re being too polite. I’m a member of the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance. I must contribute with all I can.”

“Well, stop this now, this is awekard!” Choza was really uncomfortable with the awkward way they were talking in. Inoichi nodded in agreement with him.

“You two always having something to say, what a drag!”

“Here Shikaku, don’t be so serious, take some chips!” Choza gave a bag of chips to his friend.

“You made me invite Ryo on purpose. Isn’t there something you want to talk about?”

“Ah that’s right. I was trying to get to something.” Inoichi reminded Shikaku of something important that they’ve been thinking about for a long time.

“Nii-san you were saying?”

“Ryo, you’re the disciple of Kushina Ne-san. You should know about this too.”

“Is it about the disappearance of the 3rd Kazekage?”

“Yes. You know that once the war begins, our 1st enemy will be the Sand. Their puppeteers are masters of using poison. We need the support to medical Ninja of the hospital. So in this war, I want you to take the position of captain of the medical team.”

“Shikaku Nii-san, why?” Ryo didn’t immediately agree, and asked why.

“In the battle against the sand, more than half of our clan’s warriors will be there. If the captain of the medical team is one of us, we’ll have much better chances to survive. And there’s another thing, over 70% of our medical ninja go to the Sand. Being their captain, you’ll gain their trust, and this will help to a great extent with our position in the village.” Shikaku finished his words and waited for Ryo to respond.

Ryo originally wanted to fight in the battlefield of the Land of Earth. The Yonbi Jinchuriki, Roshi, was always on his mind. But what Shikaku just said are valid arguments. Between the interest of the 3 clans and his personal vendetta, Ryo chose the former.

“Well, Ryo, no go prepare yourself for war. We still have things to discuss.” After he agreed, Inoichi sent him out.

After some time, Inoichi sighed with relief. “Shikaku, thanks god you’ve though about this. I didn’t think about what happened to my father. If we let him go to the land of earth, consequences would have been unthinkable.”

“I suddenly remembered that. Now Ryo is not strong enough. We must try our best to protect him. His talent is highly valued by everyone, and he’s the future of our clans” said Shikaku.

What really made Shikaku want Ryo as captain of the medical team was that he remembered the death of Akihito Yamanaka, who was killed by Roshi, the 4 tails Jinchuriki. This was all made up to protect Ryo from following his grudge.

However, Ryo thought that the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance really needed him in that position and was preparing himself to do the job the proper way.