Naruto: Choosing from Birth

"Keep a close eye on your children."

Then he strode away.

Faintly, they could still hear:

"This guy really looks like the Big Bad Wolf from a fairy tale!"

"Yeah, just look at those vicious eyes. They scared me stiff, like he was about to eat someone."

"Mm, there's another story called Danzo the Good Snake. His name seems to be Danzo? The description is exactly like him. They say he really likes playing with snakes? Tsk, tsk, that hobby alone is scary enough."

"Alright, don't make it sound real. It's just a fairy tale book. Maybe this man deliberately dressed himself up like that."

A fairy tale book? Could some bastard really have written my image into a book?

Later, I'll have someone investigate. Once I find it, I'll have it shredded into a thousand pieces.

One of Konoha's landmarks, the Hokage Tower. Inside the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the dead Uchiha Dai Boku and the row of corpses suspected to be Root members, and felt another faint headache coming on.

How had these two gone at each other?

Just as peace had lasted too long across the shinobi world, with every village's strength swelling and expanding outward, causing the situation to grow increasingly chaotic—

Was his own village going to descend into chaos first?

"Hokage, you must give us an explanation. Our elder, Uchiha Dai Boku, had served diligently in the Konoha Military Police Force ever since the Second Hokage established it. He had sheltered Konoha from storms and made so many contributions, yet now he had tragically died at the hands of his own people."

"It truly chills the heart!"

Uchiha Kagami sighed mournfully. As the primary witness, Uchiha Cheng stood obediently at his side. As for Suzune and the awakened Yuto, they had coordinated their stories with them overnight.

Unless someone from the Yamanaka Clan forcibly damaged their brains to search their memories, no one would learn Da Pu's true cause of death.

And would Clan Head Uchiha Kagami allow outsiders to do that? Besides, they were the ones in the right at present.

"Wait until Danzo arrives. I believe he would not do such a thing. There must be some misunderstanding here. Of course, if it truly was done by his men, they will be severely punished without exception!"

An explanation? What explanation? You had only lost one person, while Danzo had lost ten.

Still, Danzo had actually continued conducting these experiments behind my back. He really needed to be warned.

Not long afterward, Danzo, having slightly tidied up his appearance, entered the Hokage's office.

Although he had already received news from his people, when he saw the row of ten subordinates who had once been utterly loyal to him now turned into cold corpses—

The face that had been pelted with rotten eggs clearly became even more "rotten."

Uchiha Cheng read the room. Seeing Danzo arrive, he immediately twisted the knife.

"Lord Danzo? You should know them, right?"

"I..."

Danzo had just been about to say he knew them when he immediately realized that the secret base near his ranch had been exposed and completely wiped out.

There had been some unsavory things inside.

He could not admit it openly, lest they use it as another excuse to attack him.

As for what they thought in private, that was their business.

"These people look somewhat familiar. So they imitated the masks used by my subordinates. What happened to them? Did they do something and want to frame me?"

Danzo shook his head and said with a gloomy expression.

His heart still ached. My research base... Do you know how much manpower and resources that cost me? Even if it wasn't my largest base.

"What framing? These people are your subordinates. Even the way they committed suicide after being captured was exactly the same."

That little bastard Uchiha Cheng again? Together with the time he ruined so many of my Konoha businesses, how much had I already lost because of him?

Even killing you ten times wouldn't be enough to compensate for my losses!

"When adults are speaking, what is a child interrupting for!"

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"

Growing angrier the more he thought about it, Danzo finally stopped caring where they were. He only wanted to kill this hateful brat on the spot.

After taking a deep breath, he suddenly spat out a tremendously powerful air cannon.

Big Ball Rasengan!

Having already been on guard, Uchiha Cheng raised his hand and fired off the Big Ball Rasengan he had just received as a reward last night.

Boom!!!

The powerful wind pressure and energy fluctuations completely blasted away the top floor of the Hokage Tower.

"Shimura Danzō! You fucking want to die!!!"

Seeing his son attacked, Uchiha Kagami's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. Rage overwhelmed him as he flashed forward, grabbed Uchiha Cheng, and pulled him into the air. Then—

"Fire Release: Great Blaze Flower!"

Three enormous fireballs like meteors burst from Uchiha Kagami's mouth and instantly slammed into the Hokage Tower where Danzo stood.

Rumble!!!

In an instant, the entire Hokage Tower exploded into a sea of flames!

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had used the Body Flicker Technique to leave the scene, looked at the Hokage Tower that had become an inferno.

His heart twisted in pain!

He immediately performed a Summoning Technique: summon Enma!

Summoning Transformation: Adamantine Staff!

"You two!!! Do you have any respect at all for me, the Hokage?"

The overwhelming aura unique to the Third Hokage, the "Shinobi Hero," swept across the scene!

The Adamantine Staff instantly transformed into a pillar that reached the heavens.

It smashed viciously toward Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Kagami, who were locked in battle.

Boom...

The Hokage Tower was reduced completely to dust!*

Under Hiruzen Sarutobi's furious bombardment, both sides quickly calmed down.

Danzo was then ordered to carry out a mission in the Land of Rain and forbidden from returning to Konoha for two years.

Uchiha Cheng, meanwhile, was ordered to remain confined within the Uchiha Clan grounds and forbidden from leaving for one year.

The Anbu directly under the Hokage would investigate this nighttime battle incident. Naturally, the release of the results would likely be delayed indefinitely.

The Uchiha Clan and Danzo's side parted on bad terms.

Before leaving, Danzo said coldly in front of Hiruzen Sarutobi:

"That little Uchiha was forced by me to reveal another new ninjutsu just now. With such talent, he will surely become a second Madara Uchiha in the future."

"With your indecisive nature, you will sooner or later reap what you sow. Think about it. As the Second Hokage's disciple, if Konoha is lost under your watch, how will you have the face to meet the past Hokage?"

"Hmph!"

Danzo flicked his sleeves and left. It was obvious that his sudden outburst in the Hokage Tower had mostly been an act.

Partly because he truly wanted to seize the chance to kill Uchiha Cheng.

But with the Hokage present, that possibility was nearly zero. So it had been an assassination attempt in name, but a test in truth, meant to let Hiruzen Sarutobi understand Uchiha Cheng's strength even more clearly!

Standing amid the ruins of the former Hokage Tower, Hiruzen Sarutobi thought of the letter he had just received from Hanzo of the Salamander, known as the Shinobi World Demigod. Hanzo wanted Konoha's support in becoming the shinobi world's sixth great shinobi village!

Hmph! How could one allow others to sleep beside one's bed!

And now, trouble was constantly breaking out within Konoha as well.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, still in his prime, bold and ambitious, felt weary for the first time.

For the rise of the Sarutobi Clan, Shimura Clan, Mitarashi, and other small clans; for Konoha's civilians to take the stage; for Konoha to truly grow strong—he had suppressed the great clans and accepted commoners as disciples, such as Orochimaru and Jiraiya. He had already done so much, far too much.

Even the Senju Clan, Konoha's most prestigious and influential clan, had secretly had more than half its strength cut away by him.

Now, he truly had no strength left to deal with the Uchiha Clan. Unless he waited a few more years, until I completely uproot the Senju Clan!

Making many wounds was far less effective than severing an arm.

Danzo! Your vision is as narrow as your capacity. That is why you will never become Hokage.

He gazed into the distance at Konoha's symbol, Konoha's legacy: Hokage Rock.

Heh, what face did he have to meet the past Hokage? If he ever met them on the road to the underworld, the First and Second Hokage would probably be the first to cut him down.

At that moment, Konoha White Fang, who had been hiding in the shadows and had waited until Danzo and the Uchiha Clan left, returned to Hiruzen Sarutobi's side.