Hokage: Ryo's Path

Sasuke couldn’t understand Shikamaru’s words, and Shikamaru didn’t explain. He just glanced deeply at Sasuke, turned away, and left. From Shikamaru’s eyes, Sasuke saw vigilance, worry, and a little distrust.

Shikamaru’s glance made Sasuke feel uneasy. When they were at the Ninja Academy, he wasn’t particularly close to these kids.

But he’s sure he hadn’t offended them. Why did Shikamaru suddenly give him this look?

...........

Along the way, Sasuke absent-mindedly kept thinking about it.

Naruto’s recklessness didn’t realize Sasuke’s discomfort. And Sakura was walking far behind him, so she didn’t notice.

After walking for a few hours, Ino’s voice suddenly rang out in their mind. “Everyone, there’s a Ninja nearby. They’re not our ally.”

“Where is it, Ino?” Shikamaru quickly asked.

“At our rear right. It just entered my sense range. They should be more than 100 meters from us.”

“Where are they moving to?”

“They’re moving towards us!”

Shikamaru immediately said. “Everyone stops whatever you’re doing and hides! Whoever it is, it’s not our ally!”

Upon Shikamaru’s command, they all hid amidst the trees.

............

Soon, a team of 3 people ambushed and encircled Naruto.

Sasuke opened his Sharingan and confirmed the three people were Amegakure Genin. And he told everyone the news.

After hearing they were enemies, Shikamaru ordered everyone to start attacking. He created Shadow Clone Jutsu and rushed towards the Amegakure team.

Sasuke followed closely from behind, followed by Shikamaru and Choji. Soon, they dealt with the Amegakure Genin.

Most of them had just graduated from the Ninja Academy. They didn’t kill them, just knocking them out.

Shikamaru found a Heaven Scroll from one of the Amegakure Ninja and smiled. “We’re lucky. The first team we encountered had the Heaven Scroll, so according to the agreement, it’s ours.” Shikamaru kept the Scroll after he finished talking.

The six kids packed up and moved on.

..............

In the next three days, they met 5 Genin teams. Among the five teams, 1 was Sunagakure, 1 Kirigakure, 1 was Konoha’s Team 3, and the rest were Tanigakure.

According to the previous agreement, Naruto’s team didn’t clash with Team 3. But they engaged in battle with the rest of them.

What made them uneasy was none of these teams had the Heaven Scroll. Seeing that the deadline was close, Naruto had no choice but to change their strategy and decided to ambush near the exit.

...........

The day before the end of the Second Stage Exam, each team had lurked in the forest and began to act.

Iwagakure had the most Genin in the forest. Followed by Konoha, Suna, Kiri, and some Genins from small villages.

The Ninja from Great Ninja Villages were quite strong. For the time being, they shifted targets from the Great Ninja Villages towards the small Ninja villages.

After a while, the small villages were eliminated. Only Orochimaru’s Otogakure escaped the situation.

Among the small Ninja villages, Amegakure and Otogakure had Earth Scroll.

Whereas in Great Ninja Village, Konoha and Sunagakure also had Earth Scrolls. So after some shuffling, except for the lucky teams, most of them couldn’t get the Heaven Scroll.

It was unfortunate, but they now shifted their attention to the Genin of Great Ninja Villages, and so did Team 8.

Team 8 was known for their excellent information collecting method and sense, with Hinata’s Byakugan, Kiba’s ninken sense of smell, and Shino’s insects. No one had a chance against them. They quickly found a Ninja team that wasn’t their ally.

Eventually, Team 8 targeted the Iwagakure team. They chose this team because they looked ordinary; some of them even looked below average. Ahem... but of course, the main judgment criteria were because of their amount of Chakra volume.

Shino’s insects are very sensitive to Chakra, so they can easily detect the amount of Chakra inside a Ninja’s body.

After some adjustment, they found the team with the least amount of Chakra. With Hinata’s Byakugan, they easily captured the enemy team’s movement.

After following them all day, Team 8 took advantage of the dark night, launched a sneak attack, and got the Scroll.

Team 3’s method was simpler and more ruthless. They ambushed near a water source and solved every team nearby and got the Scroll.

As for Naruto, their effort was paid off. After a long waiting day, Naruto met an Iwagakure team who seemed to have the same idea.

But these Iwagakure Genin didn’t have any Sensor Type Ninja, so Naruto and the others easily located them and ambushed them.

At the same time, south of the Forest of Death, a Kirigakure Team, got the Earth Scroll from the corpses of dead Sunagakure Genin.

Iwagakure’s 3 teams also got the Earth Scroll from another Konoha team.

At this point, Konoha 12 alliance, Gaara’s team, Otogakure trio, Kirigakure team, and 3 Iwagakure 3 teams had collected both scrolls.

The teams who had completed the Scrolls moved to the finish line at the same time. They all reached the finish line on the evening of the fifth day.

One of Iwagakure’s 3 Genin teams happened to be the one Naruto had encountered before. Seeing Naruto was alive and well, they were shocked.

A Genin from Iwagakure asked. “Is that Uzumaki Naruto? Didn’t Kurotsuchi-sama kill him?”

“Why the hell were you asking us? Just ask Kurotsuchi-sama later, in private!”

Naruto was angered when he saw them. If Shikamaru hadn’t stopped Naruto, he would’ve attacked them.

“Shikamaru, why are you stopping me?” Naruto asked.

“It’s not the right time. Look over there, Hokage-sama and Tsuchikage are there. Sunagakure’s consultant, Elder Pakura, and Kirigakure’s Kage assistant, Ao. If you fight them now, you will humiliate the village. Even if you told them one of them was trying to kill you, what can you do? First, you had no evidence. Second, you’re still here, alive and well. What’s the point in dwelling in the past?”

Shikamaru’s words silenced Naruto. Choji, on his side, also said. “Naruto, after this, we will advance to the Third Stage. Let’s show them who we are.”

“Un! I got it!” Naruto gritted his teeth and remained silent.