Naruto Uzumaki

The nourishment spiritual energy provided to the body and soul stood in stark contrast to the way chakra squeezed and drained cells.

According to Hiruzen Sarutobi's speculation, the Senju Clan and Uzumaki Clan possessed such powerful vitality and chakra because they adapted better to chakra. After all, they were descendants of the Otsutsuki Clan.

The Senju's body and the Uchiha Clan's spiritual power had always complemented each other. This also meant that, for the Otsutsuki Clan, the harm caused by cultivating chakra was far less severe than it was for ordinary ninja.

Ordinary ninja were merely nutrients. The Otsutsuki Clan evolved by devouring Divine Tree Fruits, while ordinary ninja desperately cultivated chakra only to drain themselves dry.

Unfortunately, in this chaotic age, no one could control their own fate. Chakra, which consumed one's life, had instead become a lifeline.

For the current Hiruzen Sarutobi, he still could not abandon his chakra. Only after he dealt with Danzo and the village elders and stabilized Konoha could he begin cultivating in earnest.

For now, absorbing spiritual energy was mainly to strengthen his soul and prevent himself from being affected by various genjutsu.

Before long, the next day arrived.

For most people in Konoha, today was no different from any other day.

But Konoha's great clans could all sense the undercurrents stirring.

Rather than heading directly to the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi made his way toward a corner of Konoha's residential district.

There was no helping it. The sins committed by his predecessor still had to be repaid.

He arrived before a house and knocked gently on the door.

A middle-aged woman opened it. The moment she saw Hiruzen Sarutobi, she visibly panicked.

"Lord Third, why have you come?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi ignored her and walked straight inside.

In one of the rooms was a crib, where a blond-haired child lay sleeping obediently.

However, the child was clearly malnourished, and he was sleeping far too deeply.

Asura's successor, the true Child of Prophecy—Naruto Uzumaki.

Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi suspected that if not for the Uzumaki Clan's powerful vitality, Asura's chakra, and the Nine-Tails within him, Naruto might have died long ago.

The woman outside was the wet nurse the village had found for Naruto. From the looks of it, she had not been caring for him properly. Perhaps to make Naruto cry less, she had even given him some sort of sleeping medication.

This was the result of Danzo redirecting the conflict. The Nine-Tails' destruction had filled the villagers with resentment, and Naruto, as the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki as well as the Fourth's son, was clearly seen as a threat.

But that had nothing to do with the current Hiruzen Sarutobi. A child was still a child, and Naruto was the orphaned son of a hero. This was entirely inappropriate.

"Lord Third, let me pour you some water."

Hiruzen Sarutobi said nothing, but his presence surged forth as he turned to look at the woman.

His killing intent and immense chakra forced the woman directly to her knees.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but the overwhelming pressure choked her throat, making her feel as though her heart might stop beating at any moment.

Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi merely glanced at her before withdrawing his aura.

"Is this how you care for a child? I don't care what you think, or what someone may have ordered you to do. If anything happens to this child, your entire family will be sent to the Interrogation Division."

Seeing the woman kneeling silently on the floor, Hiruzen Sarutobi questioned her again.

The woman came to her senses and hurriedly apologized.

With tears streaming down her face, she explained that she had been forced into it. But for her to hold such deep malice toward such a young child, that explanation did not seem convincing.

There was only one reason she was so afraid: she did not want to be sent to Konoha's Interrogation Division.

Everyone knew that Konoha's Interrogation Division was as infamous as Root and Orochimaru's laboratory. Anyone sent inside would inevitably be stripped of a layer of skin.

The Interrogation Division did more than simply interrogate people. It used all manner of secret techniques and genjutsu to extract intelligence directly from the depths of the mind, which would most likely leave the victim an idiot or severely mentally damaged.

"I don't care who told you what, or what they asked you to do. I only care about the results. Do you understand?"

The woman nodded shakily, and Hiruzen Sarutobi said no more.

He walked over to Naruto and examined him. The vitality within the boy's body was astonishingly vigorous; he was only slightly malnourished.

Perhaps because he sensed a relatively familiar chakra, Naruto awoke from his sleep and began whimpering and crying.

"What are you standing around for?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to the woman. Her whole body trembled as she failed to understand what he meant.

"When a child cries like this, what else could it be but hunger? What exactly were you brought here to do?"

The woman was the wet nurse Konoha had found for Naruto. Kushina was already dead, and without breast milk, the child could not possibly be properly fed.

But Naruto drank several times more milk each day than her own child did, leaving her own child frequently hungry.

At first, she had not dared entertain any improper thoughts. But as time passed, her dissatisfaction with Naruto slowly grew. After probing step by step, it had eventually turned into the situation today.

In the end, Konoha simply had not cared enough about Naruto. For the orphaned son of the Fourth, who had died for Konoha, to live such a life, Konoha truly was rotten from top to bottom.

Thinking that her entire family might be sent to the Interrogation Division, the scolded woman no longer dared hesitate. She pulled down her clothes and began nursing Naruto.

Naruto had merely been hungry. Once he had something to eat, he quickly stopped crying.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in place without averting his gaze, watching Naruto and his wet nurse. Only after Naruto had eaten his fill and drifted back to sleep contentedly did the woman finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Hiruzen Sarutobi said nothing more and turned to leave. Even if she had ten times the courage, she would never dare do anything to Naruto again.

Still, it seemed he needed to arrange another wet nurse for Naruto. A good appetite was a good thing.

Not long after he arrived at the Hokage's office and sat down, someone pushed open the door and entered.

There was only one person in all of Konoha who dared enter the Hokage's office without knocking: Shimura Danzō.

The moment Danzo entered, he walked straight up to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Hiruzen, Orochimaru has been getting more and more excessive lately. Even Chunin have gone missing. Aren't you going to keep your disciple in check?"

Naturally, Hiruzen Sarutobi knew what Orochimaru had been doing. The Konoha higher-ups had allowed it in the first place.

It was simply the kind of matter that could not see the light of day. Everyone knew about it, every major ninja village did it, but once exposed openly, it became something that had to be condemned.

Hiruzen Sarutobi neither confirmed nor denied Shimura Danzō's words.

Orochimaru had originally planned to defect around this time, but he had suddenly settled down. Danzo must have caught wind of something, and since he had met Orochimaru yesterday, Danzo was surely growing suspicious.

"Danzo, are you sure Root isn't behind this?"

The recent disappearances of ninja really had been Root's doing.