The Current State of the Ninja World

The base of the Root Organization.

Danzō Shimura's office.

As Hokage Assistant of Konoha and the supreme leader of the Root Organization, Danzō Shimura's duties were quite demanding, receiving intelligence scrolls from various channels every day.

Based on the information compiled from these intelligence scrolls, Danzō Shimura needed to consider how to benefit himself... no, rather, how to benefit Konoha.

"Land of Rain... still in a civil war..."

"The leader of Amegakure, Hanzo of the Salamander, is in seclusion..."

"Hmph, that bastard Hanzo of the Salamander, after I helped him jointly suppress the Akatsuki Organization, he's still unwilling to honor our alliance..."

"News from the Land of Wind..."

"The Daimyo of the Land of Wind has once again reduced funding for Sunagakure..."

"Gaara, the One-Tail Jinchuriki of Sunagakure, was assassinated and went berserk, only to be suppressed by the Fourth Kazekage Rasa using Magnet Release: Gold Dust. Hmph, Sunagakure is still delusional enough to try and utilize Tailed Beasts..."

"News from the Land of Earth..."

"Frequent terrorist explosions occurring outside Iwagakure..."

"Suspected to be the work of the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki's student. That woman, Yakushi Nonō, is quite capable of gathering a lot of information for Konoha..."

"However..."

"Why does this woman want a photo of Kabuto Yakushi again?"

"News from the Land of Lightning..."

"Someone else is claiming the Fourth Raikage stole their ancestral secret technique..."

"Kumogakure has always been ambitious; in the past, they wanted to seize Konoha's Byakugan. I must find a way to suppress them, perhaps by instigating conflict between them and Iwagakure..."

"Land of Water..."

"Still no news."

"What exactly happened within Kirigakure? All intelligence personnel who attempted to infiltrate Kirigakure have disappeared. Are they brewing some kind of conspiracy?"

Danzō Shimura sat at his desk, his expression shifting between pleasant and unpleasant as he finished reviewing all the external news. Then, he turned his attention to another stack of intelligence placed on his desk.

This stack of intelligence pertained to the internal movements of Konoha Village.

"Let's see what happened in the village... during the two days I was away..."

As an elder with great ambitions, Danzō Shimura's gaze was certainly not limited to the outside world. He had also dispatched people to secretly monitor the interior of Konoha, eliminating any unstable elements within Konoha and devising ways to maintain the village's superficial stability.

"The opening ceremony for the new semester at the Ninja Academy..."

"Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a speech at the school..."

As Danzō Shimura read this piece of news, his expression suddenly turned somewhat ugly. He could only let out a dismissive cold snort, "Hmph, that's not how a Hokage should act. That monkey... he still likes wasting time on such useless endeavors!"

This piece of news was useless.

What Danzō Shimura hated the most was this kind of thing, which constantly reminded him that his old friend Hiruzen Sarutobi was still working as Hokage under the sun...

However, Danzō Shimura still had to keep a close eye on Hiruzen Sarutobi, hoping to catch him making some mistake, preferably one that would lead to him being ousted from the position of Hokage...

Or...

Perhaps try to kill him.

Danzō Shimura casually flipped past the news about the opening ceremony and looked at the intelligence on the second page, which was the registration list for the Ninja Academy newcomers.

"Hinata Hyuga... the eldest daughter of the Hyuga Clan's main family..."

"Shino Aburame... Kiba Inuzuka..."

"Shikamaru Nara of the Nara Clan, Choji Akimichi of the Akimichi Clan, Ino Yamanaka of the Yamanaka Clan; this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho are all here..."

"Fugaku Uchiha's youngest son, Uchiha Sasuke... Hmph, to curry favor with the monkey, he even named his youngest son after the monkey's father..."

Under normal circumstances...

Danzō Shimura would not pay attention to these children.

Unfortunately...

There was one child among this batch of Ninja Academy newcomers who was worth monitoring.

Even though this child was currently only six years old, the entire Konoha had to be extremely vigilant and cautious towards him, as this child could erupt with a crisis that would destroy Konoha at any moment!

"Naruto Uzumaki..."

Danzō Shimura slowly read the name he was most concerned about, his eyes filled with a certain gloom. "The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki... he shouldn't have been sent to the school in the first place!"

Tailed Beasts.

The most terrifying creatures in the ninja world.

There were a total of nine Tailed Beasts in the ninja world.

Sunagakure, the One-Tail.

Kumogakure, the Two-Tails, the Eight-Tails.

Kirigakure, the Three-Tails, the Six-Tails.

Iwagakure, the Four-Tails, the Five-Tails.

Konohagakure, the Nine-Tails.

A small village called Takigakure possesses the Seven-Tails.

According to the number of tails a Tailed Beast has, the more tails it possesses, the larger its chakra reserves, and people often use this to judge a Tailed Beast's strength.

Tailed Beasts are born with terrifying amounts of chakra and immense power. Once a ninja village deploys a Tailed Beast in war, it can immediately change the course of a battle.

However, Tailed Beasts are naturally violent and irritable, never easily utilized by humans.

To enhance their national strength by utilizing Tailed Beasts, the major ninja nations creatively sealed Tailed Beasts within human bodies, creating Tailed Beast hosts who could borrow the Tailed Beasts' chakra.

During the Ninja Wars, most Tailed Beast hosts became human weapons in the conflicts, and ninja villages from other countries often used Tailed Beasts to decide the outcome of battles.

Only Konoha has never deployed the Nine-Tails, because the Nine-Tails is the most powerful Tailed Beast in the ninja world. Konoha dared not use the Nine-Tails' power, and even protected its Tailed Beast host.

Until... six years ago.

A Nine-Tails' Rampage erupted in Konohagakure.

The Nine-Tails suddenly broke free from its host's seal and went berserk, causing the sacrifice of Konoha's Fourth Hokage and a large number of elite ninjas, leaving Konoha with heavy losses during this turmoil.

Since then, Konoha has been plagued by internal and external troubles.

Fortunately, to protect Konoha, the Fourth Hokage resealed the Nine-Tails within a child named Naruto Uzumaki before his death, preventing Konoha from losing the Nine-Tails.

However, this also pushed Konoha into an awkward predicament: holding the strongest Tailed Beast, yet unable to utilize it, and even needing to find ways to prevent problems with the Nine-Tails host.

To prevent another Nine-Tails' Rampage, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura racked their brains.

With no solution found, Danzō Shimura proposed abandoning the protection of the Nine-Tails host's identity, to prevent the Nine-Tails host's personality from becoming too fragile. Instead, he suggested drawing from the experience of other villages in raising their hosts, which might give Konoha a usable Nine-Tails host.

This meant making the child Naruto Uzumaki endure a tragic childhood from a young age, just like the Tailed Beast hosts in other villages, making the child aware that he was considered a monster by others!

By forcing the child to become accustomed to a tragic life from a young age, he would remain calm no matter what happened in the future, and it would also prevent the Tailed Beast within him from going out of control.

However.

This was also somewhat dangerous.

To prevent the child named Naruto Uzumaki from experiencing an emotional breakdown during his growth, which could lead to problems with the Nine-Tails within him, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi would often appear at crucial moments to comfort the child and encourage him to bravely face his tragic life.

If you give someone warmth during their darkest moments, that warmth will be like a flame, encouraging that person to face the darkness holding a torch.

On the other hand...

And most importantly.

The Third Hokage also aimed to reinforce the Tailed Beast host seal on the child Naruto Uzumaki at the first sign of the Nine-Tails potentially losing control, preventing the Nine-Tails from going berserk.

Theoretically...

This was not entirely fair to a child.

However...

The Third Hokage, having witnessed the cruelty of war firsthand, did not consider this unfair. He even thought Naruto Uzumaki was a very lucky child.

Timeline.

I have compiled a timeline of major events based on the anime and manga, similar to the timeline in the "Mastermind" book.

I recall the story beginning in Konoha Year 60.

In this book, Akihara Kagura and Uchiha Itachi are the same age, and are four years older than Naruto Uzumaki and Uchiha Sasuke.