Danzo's Plot

In the woods behind the mountain, Iruka hurried forward and shielded Naruto behind him. "Lord Danzo! There's a reason for this! Mizuki tricked Naruto..."

"The details don't matter, Chunin Iruka." Danzo cut him off coldly without even glancing his way.

"What matters is that the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki went out of control and stole a Forbidden Technique. He poses a grave threat to the village's safety. Root must take him into custody."

Jinchuriki. Threat. Custody. The cold words stabbed at Naruto like knives.

He stared at Danzo's expressionless face, at eyes that seemed to see through everything yet held not a shred of humanity.

It was him.

The man who had gotten his parents killed stood right in front of him—Shimura Danzō.

Naruto jerked his head up, fury blazing in his blue eyes, and pointed at Danzo. "It was you! You sent Teacher Mizuki to trick me, didn't you?! You planned all of this!"

Danzo's single eye narrowed slightly. He neither confirmed nor denied it, but his silence was an admission more contemptuous than any answer.

For now, Shimura Danzō and Hiruzen Sarutobi were both wary of an invasion by other nations. That was the only reason neither had moved against the other.

Once the situation in the Shinobi World improved, Hiruzen Sarutobi would certainly wipe out Shimura Danzō's forces.

Hiruzen Sarutobi might not kill Shimura Danzō, but to Danzo, losing power would be worse than death.

That made the Nine-Tails inside Naruto the perfect weapon for Shimura Danzō to use against Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Answer me!" Enraged by the silence, Naruto did not wait for a reply. His hands flashed through signs once more.

"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"

Pop, pop, pop, pop! The army of Shadow Clones that had just vanished reappeared, roaring as they charged Danzo and his two Root operatives from every direction.

Naruto wanted to use his newfound power to force out the truth and resist Shimura Danzō's suffocating plot.

But he was not facing a Chunin on Mizuki's level.

As the tidal wave of Shadow Clones bore down on him, Shimura Danzō stood where he was, not shifting a foot.

In an instant, the two Root ninjas beside him moved.

They were as fast as lightning and as precise as machines.

No wasted flourishes. Not even a large-scale Ninjutsu.

Just simple Kunai strikes, precise Taijutsu blows, and subtle disruptions to Chakra flow.

With every attack, one or more Shadow Clones vanished in a pop of white smoke.

Their efficiency was terrifying. Naruto's seemingly vast army of Shadow Clones was being cut down and cleared away at an astonishing rate.

Before their overwhelming strength and experience, the Genin Naruto's sheer number of clones meant nothing.

In moments, every Shadow Clone was gone.

A Root ninja appeared in front of the real Naruto. One hand clamped around Naruto's wrist like an iron vise, stopping him from forming signs, while the other pressed down on his shoulder. The force left Naruto unable to move, no matter how he struggled.

"Damn it! Let me go!" Naruto roared, but he felt the man's Chakra seeping into his body, draining the strength from his limbs.

Shimura Danzō walked forward slowly and looked down at the restrained Naruto as though he were a dangerous weapon.

"Pointless resistance. Take him away."

The other Root ninja drew a specially made Chakra-binding chain and approached Naruto.

Iruka's eyes widened with fury. He tried to rush forward, but a cold look from the ninja holding Naruto stopped him. The killing intent in that gaze was unmistakable: anyone who interfered would die.

Just as the cold chain was about to touch Naruto—

"Stop!"

An aged voice, carrying authority that brooked no argument, rang through the woods like a great bell.

A figure appeared between Naruto and the Root ninja in an instant, trailing a faint cloud of dust.

A white Goshinpou, a hat marked "Third Hokage," and that familiar Pipe.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had come in person! A large contingent of ANBU Ninja appeared behind him.

His gaze first passed over the Scroll of Seals on the ground and the unconscious Mizuki, his expression complicated. Then his keen eyes fixed on Danzo.

"Danzo, I am the Hokage." Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was calm, but it carried immense weight. "I will decide how Naruto is dealt with and how this matter is judged. Root has no place interfering here."

The atmosphere froze. The two Root ninjas still held Naruto, but they stopped moving and waited for orders from their true leader.

"Hiruzen." Danzo broke the brief silence. "Is this how you intend to handle such a serious incident?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep pull on his Pipe and slowly exhaled a ring of smoke. "I've already handled it, Danzo."

"Mizuki will pay for betraying the village."

"Handled it?" Shimura Danzō's voice rose sharply, thick with incredulous anger and scorn. "Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, stole the Scroll of Seals—a record of countless Forbidden Techniques vital to the village's survival!"

"If even one of those Forbidden Techniques were leaked, it could deal Konoha a devastating blow! And if the Monster sealed inside him ran wild because he practiced a Forbidden Technique, the consequences would be unthinkable!"

"This is no game! Yet you would brush aside a crime of this magnitude?!"

The air seemed to freeze again under his questioning. Iruka instinctively drew Naruto a little closer behind him.

The gentleness faded from Hiruzen Sarutobi's face, replaced by the authority of the Hokage.

He met Danzo's eyes with a piercing gaze, his voice steady and powerful.

"Danzo, you exaggerate. Naruto was only playing a prank."

"A prank?!" Danzo nearly forced the words through clenched teeth. Anger burned in his single eye as he stepped forward, his presence bearing down on them.

"Stealing a top-secret scroll? You call that a prank?! Hiruzen, your weakness and bias will doom you and all of Konoha!"

The Third Hokage did not yield. Instead, he took a slight step forward, his white Goshinpou stirring without a breeze.

His voice carried the force of an irrevocable decision.

"Watch your words, Danzo! I am the Hokage!" he emphasized again.

Then his gaze swept over the unconscious Mizuki. "Mizuki, a rogue ninja, planned all this. Naruto was merely a child he used."

"Naruto learned a Forbidden Technique from the scroll through his own ability, defeated the traitor, and protected his companion. That proves he has what it takes to become a ninja. More than that, it proves his resolve to protect the village!"

He paused, his gaze deepening as he looked at Danzo with an unreadable expression.

"As for the Nine-Tails, I trust Minato's seal, and I trust this child. Excessive pressure and suspicion can sometimes be the very spark that sets off a disaster."

"Konoha doesn't need a cage to imprison the Monster. It needs Light to guide that power."