Danzo's Specially Raised Turncoats

Danzo's "good" was like a stone dropped into stagnant water. It stirred no ripples, yet it made the air around them even heavier.

The greed and calculation in his single eye had not faded. Instead, they were joined by scrutiny.

"Trust based on empty words is the cheapest thing there is." Danzo lightly tapped his cane against the ground. "I granted you special privileges. Now, you need to show me value worthy of those privileges."

He turned his head and gave an order to the Root ninja who had been standing stiffly beside him.

"Take him to the Zeroing Room."

"Have Zero test him."

The so-called Zeroing Room was a massive hollow even deeper underground than the stone chamber.

There were no walls here, only boundless darkness. Beneath their feet lay cold, hard rock engraved with complex patterns of unknown purpose. The air carried a strange smell, a mixture of disinfectant and dried blood.

This was Root's selection ground, and also the graveyard of new recruits. Only those who could walk out of here deserved to be used as "tools."

Naruto stood at the center of the hollow, while the ninja who had led him there had already retreated into the darkness.

The silence was so complete that he could hear his own blood flowing.

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness opposite him.

He wore the same standard uniform as the previous ninja and a pure white mask without any markings. His codename was Zero.

He was one of the sharpest blades in Danzo's hand, as well as Root's instructor, responsible for thoroughly "zeroing" new recruits who still retained traces of emotion.

"In Root, there are only two rules." Zero's voice was filtered through his mask, flat and mechanical. "First, Lord Danzo's orders are absolute. Second, forget yourself."

As he spoke, he slowly walked toward Naruto. An invisible pressure accompanied his steps, trying to crush the target before him mentally.

"You are special. You have been permitted to forgo the Curse Mark. But that does not mean you may place yourself above the rules."

"Now, let me see where that arrogant confidence of yours comes from."

The instant he finished speaking, Zero's chakra silently surged.

The surroundings did not change in the slightest, but Naruto could feel a cold spiritual force filled with powerful suggestion quietly enveloping him.

Genjutsu.

Not the low-level kind that altered the environment, but the kind that directly invaded the mind and dredged up one's deepest trauma.

Before Naruto's eyes, the dark Zeroing Room vanished.

In its place were the familiar streets of Konoha.

The sunlight was bright, but he could not feel the slightest warmth.

"Get lost, you monster!"

"Stay away from my child, demon fox!"

Hateful gazes and contemptuous curses came from every direction. His younger self sat alone on a swing, watching other children hold their parents' hands as they bought the last skewer of dango.

This was the childhood he knew best.

Zero's voice rang through the illusion like a ghost, laced with mockery.

"Look. This is the village you want to protect. They despise you, fear you, and see you as a calamity. Your loyalty, your protection—they see it all as nothing more than a joke."

The illusion shifted.

On the street stood a blurred man and woman, smiling gently. Their features could not be made out, and only little Naruto's expectant gaze revealed who they were.

"Dad... Mom..."

The Naruto within the illusion reached out uncontrollably, tears blurring his vision.

"Can you pick me up from school and take me home? I'm hungry. I don't want to eat cup ramen anymore, and I don't want to sit on the swing by myself anymore..."

Zero sneered inwardly. He felt that his psychological assault was like a precise scalpel, peeling away the target's most fragile defenses layer by layer.

This was a method that had never failed him. No matter how strong a ninja was, there was always a soft spot deep within. As long as he pried open even the smallest crack, he could destroy them completely.

Yet the breakdown, roaring, and mental collapse he had expected never came.

Naruto, standing at the center of the illusion, merely looked quietly at the gentle phantom couple, his face utterly expressionless.

"Is this your method of attack?" Naruto spoke, his voice terrifyingly calm as it instantly tore apart the atmosphere of the illusion. "Using emotional trauma to conduct inefficient Spiritual Pollution. Crude methods, chaotic logic, and conclusions riddled with errors."

Zero's heart tightened.

Something was wrong.

He felt as though his Genjutsu had struck an immovable block of steel.

"Flaw one." Naruto turned toward the loathsome villager phantoms around him. "Blaming the ignorance of the populace on those being protected is a textbook transfer of responsibility. They are not perpetrators. They are merely resources that need guidance and management. Your cognition remains at the childish stage of seeing everything as black or white."

"Flaw two, and the most fatal flaw."

Naruto's figure suddenly became incomparably towering in Zero's perception.

"You are trying to use 'emotion' to attack an existence that has long discarded emotion. You are insulting me."

Boom!

The entire illusionary world shook violently.

The sunlight, streets, villagers, and phantom images of his parents cracked apart inch by inch like a shattered mirror.

They were replaced by an endless, cold starry sky made of steel and runes.

Zero discovered in horror that, at some point, he had changed from the attacker into the trapped one.

He had been dragged into the other party's mental world.

"How... is that possible..."

He saw Naruto standing calmly before him, but those blue pupils no longer reflected human emotion. Instead, they held absolute reason and majesty, as though looking down upon all living things.

"Now, it is my turn to assess you." Naruto's voice resounded through this mental space like a divine decree.

"You possess Jonin-level strength, and your Genjutsu mastery is especially outstanding. Yet Danzo only has you test recruits, treating you as a gatekeeper."

Naruto took a step forward. The invisible pressure made it difficult even for Zero to breathe.

"That does not conform to the principle of resource optimization. There is only one explanation: he does not fully trust you. A tool that cannot be completely controlled, no matter how sharp, can only be placed at the bottom of the toolbox."

Cold sweat seeped out beneath Zero's mask.

Those words were like a scalpel, precisely cutting open the deepest wound he had concealed beneath the disguise of "loyalty."

"Why doesn't he trust you? Let me guess." Naruto's voice held not a trace of sympathy, only cold analysis. "Most likely because of your background. You did not join Root willingly. He used some method to 'coerce' you. Family? A lover? Or some weakness you could never abandon?"

He used psychic perception to sense the most subtle psychological fluctuations deep within Zero's heart, using his words as variables to test whether his guess was correct.

"He stripped you of your emotions, yet uses your emotions to control you. He makes you long for Order, yet has you serve the source of chaos."

"You are trapped here, powerless to escape. So you project that pain onto every new recruit you test, trying to see the same despair in them that exists within you."

Naruto stopped before Zero. At the same time, his backlash Genjutsu descended upon him, countless images that could most readily stir the fragile nerves in his heart crashing into Zero's mind in an instant.

He was brutally running through every possibility.

The one that provoked the strongest reaction was the answer.

"So it was family? The young master of a fallen clan that was wiped out, forced to submit beneath his enemy's dog chain merely to secure a chance for his family to survive. What a cliché plot."

"Your loyalty is on the verge of collapse. Your will has long been riddled with holes."

"Shut up!"

Zero finally lost control. He roared, gathering all his chakra in an attempt to break free from these mental shackles.

Test result: hypothesis confirmed.

But within this will-space belonging to the Emperor, any resistance was futile.

Naruto slowly raised his hand, and a Kunai appeared in his grasp out of thin air.

Ignoring Zero's futile struggle, he merely placed the cold blade lightly against Zero's neck.

The illusion shattered at once.

The training ground was still the same training ground.

Zero knelt on one knee, gasping for breath, his entire body soaked in cold sweat.

A faint red mark was clearly visible on his neck. It had not drawn blood, yet it terrified him more than any mortal wound.

Naruto looked down at him and withdrew the Kunai.

"The test is over."

Zero's body was rigid. He could feel that, in that instant, if Naruto had wished it, his head would already have been separated from his body.

This had not been a test of Naruto.

It had been a test of him.

It was a pure crushing force on the level of will, one that surpassed speed and strength.

Naruto bent down and spoke into his ear in a voice only the two of them could hear.

"What Danzo gave you is shackles. He feeds his power with your suffering, and calls it 'Order.'"

"And I can give you a real choice."

"A true Order where you no longer need to be bound by emotion, nor need to swear loyalty to any individual."

"If you rely on him, you will forever be nothing more than a tool under suspicion. If you rely on me, you can become the cornerstone of the New Order and personally remove the seal upon yourself."

After saying that, Naruto straightened up, no longer sparing him another glance as he turned and walked toward the exit.

Zero remained kneeling where he was, his body trembling violently.

Loyalty? Betrayal?

No, this was not betrayal.

This was... survival.

He raised his head and looked at that orange back. For the first time, a flame called "hope" ignited in his eyes.