Danzo's Self-Manipulation

Inside the Hokage's Office, the air was heavy as lead.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, smoke curling from his pipe, unable to disperse the gloom between his brows. Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, Konoha's two elder advisors, stood on either side with grave expressions.

Naruto stood before them, the tears in his orange jacket still stained with dust from the arena.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Hiruzen Sarutobi finally spoke, tapping his pipe against the ashtray.

"Your actions during today's preliminaries were an open challenge to the Hokage's authority! What did you take Konoha's rules for?"

"I did not challenge authority," Naruto replied, his tone as flat as if he were proofreading a report. "I merely enforced another set of rules at the end of the existing ones."

"Impudence!" Mitokado Homura barked. "Naruto, do you not even have the attitude to admit your mistake?"

"I am not making excuses." Naruto turned to him. "I am merely stating the facts. Rock Lee is a valuable military asset of Konoha. His fighting spirit and taijutsu potential are irreplaceable among all Genin. Since Gaara had already won, his subsequent attack constituted malicious destruction outside a combat state. My intervention was damage control."

"Damage control?" Utatane Koharu sneered. "You make it sound simple. You said you were going to purify and judge Gaara. Do you know how your actions will make Sunagakure view us? This is a diplomatic issue!"

"Diplomacy is a game built on equal strength," Naruto said. "Showing our allies that we possess the resolve to 'protect our own living forces at any cost' is far more valuable than false peace. It will give them one more thing to consider before betraying us."

"Besides, why should Konoha consider Sunagakure's attitude?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils contracted.

Naruto's logic was cold and cruel, yet self-consistent and airtight.

"And what about your relationship with Root?" Hiruzen Sarutobi changed the subject, his tone growing heavier. This was the true reason he had summoned Naruto; everything before had merely been groundwork. "Do not tell me that strange weapon of yours, along with that taijutsu unlike any ninja's, has nothing to do with Danzo."

"My cooperation with Lord Danzo is based on a shared understanding," Naruto admitted calmly. "The radiance of the Will of Fire requires purer, more efficient shadows to protect it. And I will become that shadow."

He took a step forward.

"Third Hokage, the Will of Fire you believe in is too warm, and too weak. It can unite people's hearts, but it cannot effectively eliminate threats. For an enemy who 'might be reformed,' it sacrifices a soldier who is 'absolutely loyal.' That is the most efficient kind of internal attrition."

"Your era needed love and trust. But the era to come needs order and steel."

"I am the error-correction mechanism responsible for clearing away every threat, unbound by emotion, ensuring that Konoha's system can continue operating. A true shadow."

The office fell deathly silent.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Homura, and Koharu—the three highest authorities in Konoha—had been thoroughly stunned by a twelve-year-old boy using a theory they had never heard before.

They felt a wave of dizziness rise within them.

The Naruto before them was not Minato's son, nor was he the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki. He was an utterly rational monster wearing human skin.

He did not want to become Hokage. He wanted to become the master of Konoha's dark side.

Hiruzen Sarutobi realized that matters had completely slipped beyond his control. Danzo could not control Naruto, and neither could he.

He had to... he had to find someone.

Someone who could pull him back onto the "right path" by another means.

"You may leave." Hiruzen Sarutobi waved his hand wearily.

Naruto turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

After he departed, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately gave an order to the ANBU behind him.

"Contact Jiraiya in secret. Have him return to the village at once!"

"Lord Hokage," the ANBU said, dropping to one knee, "according to our intelligence, Lord Jiraiya... returned to the village several days ago."

Naruto walked out of the office. The door silently closed behind him, shutting away the shock and contemplation of the three old people within.

A young guard stood watch outside the door, ramrod straight and breathing steadily, like a lifeless statue.

Naruto did not slow. As he passed the man, he merely swept him with the corner of his eye.

For an instant, the guard's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

That was enough.

According to Zero's intelligence, this man was ostensibly ANBU, but was in fact Danzo's informant planted within the Hokage Building.

The shocking speech Naruto had given in the office had seemed like a declaration to Hiruzen Sarutobi, but it had actually been a carefully designed performance report.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and the two elder advisors had long since become rigid in their thinking. Saying more to them would be like playing the lute to a cow. They were relics of the old era, system flaws that needed to be "corrected."

The true audience was the leader of Root, hidden in Konoha's deepest darkness.

Danzo needed to be properly controlled with one stick followed by another carrot.

Root's base.

It was cold and damp, with a strange odor of disinfectant mixed with soil permeating the air.

Danzo sat in the seat of honor, the bandages over the right side of his face appearing even more sinister under the dim light.

A Root ninja knelt on one knee and recounted everything that had happened in the Hokage's Office word for word in an utterly flat tone.

When he heard, "Your era needed love and trust. But the era to come needs order and steel," the muscles beneath Danzo's bandaged eyelid twitched faintly.

And when the words, "I am the error-correction mechanism responsible for clearing away every threat, unbound by emotion, ensuring that Konoha's system can continue operating," were repeated, the air in the entire chamber seemed to freeze.

The reporting ninja remained quietly kneeling, not daring to make the slightest sound.

A long while passed.

"Heh."

A meaningless chuckle escaped Danzo's throat, dry as two sheets of sandpaper scraping together.

"Hiruzen... that old fool is probably so troubled right now that he wants to chew up his pipe."

He could imagine the expression on his "dear friend's" face at that moment. It must have been utterly marvelous.

Danzo increasingly felt that he had made the right gamble.

"Hiruzen will seek out Jiraiya. He wants to use that false teacher-student sentiment and those bonds beneath the sunlight to drag this 'monster' back onto the right path."

"Ridiculous."

Danzo stopped walking, excitement and greed gleaming in his one eye.

"How could a beast that has already tasted blood and power ever go back to gnawing on that boring grass?"

What he had always wanted was not a hero bathed in sunlight.

What he wanted was a shadow who could understand him, carry out his will, and be even more extreme and efficient than him!

Uzumaki Naruto perfectly fit every one of those requirements.

As for control...

"Continue watching him," Danzo ordered. "Keep a close eye on the Chunin Ninja Exams' main matches."

"I want to see for myself what other surprises this brat can bring."

Naruto's apartment was as neat and clean as ever, like a barracks dormitory.

He took off his damaged jacket and tossed it into the trash. Then he sat at the table and began reviewing everything.

The Forest of Death, the battle against Orochimaru.

Interfering with Rock Lee in the preliminaries.

In his mind, he broke down and analyzed every detail of both battles.

The conclusion came quickly.

His tactical system possessed an obvious weakness.

Shadow Clone was the perfect "soldier," absolutely obedient and fearless of death. But those soldiers were bare-handed. Against an enemy on Orochimaru's level, ordinary taijutsu attacks were far too inefficient.

The Chainsword was perfect "standard-issue equipment," but with his current energy, mass-producing it alone was too difficult. He could not equip everyone with one.

He needed a ranged attack method that... could equip every Shadow Clone and be mass-produced.

A combat-power enhancement plan with the greatest possible cost-effectiveness.

His fingers lightly tapped the tabletop. Soon, a ninjutsu he had overlooked surfaced in his mind.

The A-rank ninjutsu developed by the Third Hokage—the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

A thought suddenly opened up his mind.

If one shuriken could clone itself into hundreds.

Then what about a Chainsword?

Naruto walked to the corner and picked up an encrypted communicator. This was the "Crow" channel.

He entered the command.

["White Crow" requests access to the A-rank ninjutsu scroll: "Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique".]

[Reason: Development of a new group combat model.]

Elsewhere, at Root's base.

Zero presented Naruto's request to Danzo exactly as it was.

"Oh?" Danzo sat in his chair, a flicker of interest crossing his face. "He wants that technique?"

"Yes, Lord Danzo." Zero lowered his head. "Lord White Crow believes that Root's combat methods can be further optimized to increase the lethality and efficiency of group combat."

"Very good." A satisfied curve formed at the corner of Danzo's mouth.

Actively seeking power and pursuing efficiency—this, too, was the will of Root.

This Uzumaki Naruto was even more perfect than Danzo had imagined.

"Approved." Danzo did not hesitate. "Give him the scroll. Tell him that Root needs to see results."

"Yes."

Zero raised his head, and the smoothness of the process made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Not a single bit of the flattery he had prepared so painstakingly had been needed.

As expected of the political commissar. Had he already earned trust from Danzo on this level?

He had much to learn.

Several days later.

Konoha's public bathhouse.

The billowing steam blurred the view, while the rushing water drowned out the noise outside.

Naked, Naruto leaned against the edge of the bath with his eyes closed.

Regular training, combat, and intense mental strain all required periodic "maintenance" to keep the body-machine in optimal condition. Bathing was the simplest and most effective means of relaxation.

He was sorting through his plans for the upcoming Chunin Ninja Exams finals, as well as how to use this time to completely master the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique and apply it to the Chainsword.

Then—

A strange, cackling laugh shattered the bathhouse's quiet.

A tall figure appeared atop the wall separating the men's and women's baths.

The man had Haku-white hair like a lion's mane, a forehead protector bearing the character for "oil," and wooden clogs on his feet. He was furtively peering toward the women's bath.

"Ohohoho... Inspiration, inspiration has struck! This is youth!"

While letting out lecherous laughter, the man pulled out paper and a pen, apparently recording something.

"For the readers' experience, research is essential! It is absolutely not because I am lustful."

Naruto opened his eyes.

His ice-blue pupils calmly watched the man behaving strangely atop the wall.

According to a database comparison, this man's traits matched those of Jiraiya—fellow disciple of one of Konoha's Three Ninja, the S-rank rogue ninja Orochimaru—with a similarity rate of 99.9%.

A top-tier combatant who should have been carrying out a long-term mission outside the village was currently peeping into the women's bath like a pervert.

Naruto made no sound.

He merely rose silently from the water, took a towel from nearby, and dried himself.

Then he walked behind the man with Haku hair still standing by the wall.

He reached out and picked up a bar of soap.

The next second, the muscles in his arm tensed instantly. With a standard throwing motion, he hurled the soap in his hand viciously at the back of Jiraiya's head.

The movement was precise and forceful.