Iwagakure, Land Of Earth

Ryu smiled, he had spent 3 days with Fuu, and had decided to leave a Wood Clone to accompany Fuu for the amount of time he was in Iwa. He had already talked to Hayate about getting her to become a Konoha Shinobi.

He told him he'd use a Genjutsu to make them sign a contract, where Ryu would accept to answer Taki's demands 3 times. Meaning he'd accomplish three promises of theirs, and make them use the promises on something stupid.

Of course, that was just a cover for the actual thing he was going to do, Reality Manipulation. He was going to make them believe Fuu was never theirs, and it was Konoha's Jinchuuriki from the beginning.

Of course, he wouldn't allow Konoha to use her as a weapon, speaking of that… He needed to take care of Danzo soon, he was going haywire with his 'cleaning' from the dark side of Konoha. He'd need to talk some sense into him soon.

Ryu wiped his sweat as he and the two other teams jumped over tree branches, they were not too far away from Iwa, in fact they had already entered the Land Of Earth. The one month and a half journey was slowly coming to an end.

Through most of this journey, Yato had avoided speaking to Hinata. It was not that he hated her or anything, but it would be awkward to him to speak to a main branch member, despite knowing she was not like the rest

He did not have the Hyuuga Juinjutsu on his forehead anymore, but it did not matter. The memories of having that imprinted in his forehead would never disappear, only slowly heal slightly.

Ryu grinned as he talked to Kiba,"So you basically can team up with your companion,Akamaru and create super cool attacks?! That's amazing!" His eyes shone,'I should've checked the Inuzuka Clan more…'

Kiba slightly blushed, he was not really used to this much attention, but his proud personality took over,"I know right?! People don't really recognize how cool the Inuzuka Clan is!" He grinned.

Kurenai groaned,'Great, we just needed someone to boost his ego to another level…' She already had a lot of trouble keeping him in check as it was right now. Yugao sweated,"I'm sorry."

Kurenai sighed,"It's okay… It's just that It takes a lot out of me to deal with Kiba's inflated ego, and your genin is just increasing my work… Tsume won't be happy with me, when she realizes I'm trying to lower his arrogance."

Yamato was in deep thoughts, due to the Chunin Exam, the meeting with Orochimaru had been delayed, however that was one of the first things they'd do after returning to the village. Kakashi was ready.

Orochimaru would help them examine and grade Ryu's talent in the Wood Style, but it was not like it was avoidable. Orochimaru was the only person who could rank his talent besides the already dead Tobirama Senju and Hashirama Senju.

Hayate's cough had almost fully vanished, as Ryu had done five sessions of healing him, the curse of the Twelve Sages was truly powerful. He had guessed it was done by the Curse Sage, who was a master of curses.

What made him wonder was the fact that one of the sages was here… Probably before he was even before he was born, but why… Did he want to check the Shinju Tree here on this world? Maybe.

Ryu suddenly stopped jumping from a branch to another and grinned,"We are near the Gates of Iwa, however we need to walk from here on, because there are only mountains ahead, no trees." He said.

The rest nodded and they jumped into the ground, the mountains in Iwa lacked green, they were mostly desolate and extremely tall. It was not a very beautiful sight for Konoha's Ninjas, who were used to green.

As they walked towards Iwa, they noticed the glare they received from traveling civilians and shinobis/kunoichis.It was not one which said 'you are welcome to Iwa!' but the opposite, it didn't really bother most of them though.

Iwa was almost as large as Konoha, instead of being limited by the mountains they actually used them to live in, they blended inside them, forming a natural defense against shinobi attacks, it was amazing.

In terms of population, it was slightly lower, Konoha's population was the largest of the five hidden villages at 35000, it was also one the reasons why it's economy was in a not so good spot right now.

Iwa focused in their military a lot, Onoki was a stubborn man, but he had the strength to support his stubborn attitude. He was an user of the dust style, only the second tsuchikage had used it before him.

The group stopped walking, and looked at the massive walls,"Iwa. They really seem as if they are still in a war, weird." Ken raised an eyebrow, the walls were at least 30 meters high, it was an overkill.

The group neared the gates, only to be stopped by a Iwa shinobi, he wore the Iwa shinobi clothes and a headband, he had spiky black hair which reached his back and black eyes. "Stop." He said.

Ryu gasped in awe,' I really should've checked the other hidden villages more man, Hagoromo's Ninshu gave 'birth to so many cool places man… I'm envious of him! He pouted and slammed his foot.

Hayate smiled and walked forward, and gave the Iwa Shinobi a card, showing them that they were here for the Chunin Exams, the man looked at them and nodded,"You are free to enter, but be careful, some of us might not accept you as easily as I just did."

The others thanked him and entered the village, the first thing they noticed was that the building style was a lot different. Unlike Konoha, which used a lot of wood in their homes, Iwa did not use wood at all.

The buildings also varied in size, unlike Konoha which had usually the same size, unless it was made of great importance. The civilians were bigger than the civilians in Konoha, showing that even civilians received basic training.