Hiruzen Sarutobi stared into Naruto's ice-blue eyes. There was none of the passion or impulsiveness common to boys his age, nor any greed for power. There was only an almost inhuman calm, an absolute rationality that regarded everything as a calculable variable. This rationality chilled him to the bone more than Danzo's obsession, twisted by ambition, ever had.
Danzo was a fox driven by desire, and his tracks could still be followed. But Naruto, standing before him, was like a precision machine. Everything he did served a cold, clearly defined purpose.
Countless thoughts raced through Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind. Refuse him? Then wait for that report on the Uchiha to reach Sasuke and detonate a bomb powerful enough to blow Konoha apart. Agree? That would mean handing the village's darkest power to a twelve-year-old boy.
Without realizing it, a small flame flickered within his dimmed heart.
Perhaps it really could work.
He remembered all the times he had yielded—to Orochimaru, to Danzo. That indecisiveness had ultimately borne irreparable bitter fruit. He was tired, truly tired. Perhaps, in the final stage of his life, he ought to be a truly decisive Hokage for once.
"What exactly is your plan?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was hoarse. He neither agreed nor refused, merely asked this question.
Naruto knew the old man had already yielded.
"You only need to tell him that you wish to step down due to your health and recommend him as the Fifth Hokage. Get him to show himself. I'll arrange the rest."
After Naruto vanished through the doorway, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura hurried in, their faces filled with concern.
"Hiruzen! You can't listen to him!" Utatane Koharu spoke urgently. "He's still a child, an unstable child! Handing Root to him would be a hundred times more dangerous than handing it