Chaos Returns to Central Street

The long tables on Central Street were still in place. The torches had burned all night, blackening the edges of their wooden frames. Root archives and Advisor files lay sorted into stacks on the tables. Several members of the Konoha Military Police Force stood guard, while Konoha Jonin kept order.

The crowd had thinned, but it had not dispersed.

Many people were afraid to go home.

Too much had happened tonight. Any one revelation would have been enough to shake Konoha. Instead, they had all landed at once, shattering everything people thought they knew about the Hokage, the Advisors, Root, and the hero's son.

Some knelt on the ground, searching through lists of orphans.

Some trembled before the records of Sharingan transplants.

Others kept their heads down, unable to look at the records of Naruto's life.

While Naruto was still beneath the Memorial Stone, the first group of black-clad ninja burst out of an alley on the west side of Central Street.

They wore no Forehead Protectors or Root masks, but their movements were practiced.

Their target was not a person.

It was the archives.

The first smoke bomb landed in front of the long tables.

White smoke erupted.

The Uchiha guards immediately activated their Sharingan.

"We're under attack!"

Kunai, Shuriken, and Explosive Tags flew at once.

The black-clad ninja split into three teams.

One held off the Konoha Military Police Force, one set fires, and one rushed straight for the box containing the Jinchūriki observation records.

A blast of fire came from the street entrance, bearing down on the long tables.

A Konoha Jonin formed Hand Seals and blocked it, but a second stream of flame fell from the rooftop, right toward Minato Namikaze's Inheritance Inventory.

Just as the flames were about to swallow the Scroll, an orange-red fox claw swept in from the end of the street.

The flames scattered.

The box of Scrolls remained intact.

Naruto landed above the long tables, Nine-Tails Chakra spreading around him like a cloak.

Jiraiya, Kakashi, Tekka, and the Third Hokage arrived moments later.

The black-clad ninja reacted quickly. At the sight of Naruto, they scattered and fled.

Naruto raised a hand.

Four Chakra arms shot out at once, caught four fleeing ninja, and slammed them back into the middle of the street.

The rest did not try to fight. They bit down on the poison capsules hidden between their teeth.

Gold flashed in Naruto's eyes.

"Seal."

A golden technique spread across the ground, locking their jaws and throats.

The capsules broke, but they could not swallow the poison.

Tekka charged forward with his men and dislocated their joints one by one.

Jiraiya watched the black-clad ninja, his brow furrowed.

"They aren't Root."

Kakashi crouched to examine one man's wrist.

"They aren't ordinary hired ninja, either. They show signs of training inside Konoha."

Naruto walked up to one of the surviving captives and pulled open his collar.

An old brand had been burned off his chest.

The Sarutobi clan crest.

The Third Hokage's face turned grim.

This did not mean the entire Sarutobi Clan was involved. It meant someone within the clan was trying to put out the last fire.

More precisely, they were trying to destroy the evidence.

Naruto did not look at the Third Hokage yet.

He took out a Scroll he had just brought from beneath the Memorial Stone.

"Tekka."

Tekka hurried over.

"Yes?"

"Put these up there too."

Tekka took them. His expression changed when he saw the names on the Scrolls.

"Make them public now?"

"Now."

Jiraiya stepped forward.

"Naruto, at least verify what's in them first."

Naruto looked at him.

"Verify what?"

Jiraiya had no answer.

Naruto pointed at the Scrolls on the long tables, the ones that had nearly been burned.

"They keep burning evidence. Isn't it because they're afraid I'll make it public?"

"The more afraid they are, the more reason to do it."

He placed "Follow-up Plan for Intervention in Naruto Uzumaki's Development" in the center.

The Scroll opened.

The first section read:

"If the target has not developed a stable sense of belonging by age twelve, a designated Ninja Academy teacher may be assigned to offer friendly guidance."

Naruto read the line without a change in expression.

But many people around him thought of Iruka.

The teacher who sometimes looked after Naruto at the Ninja Academy.

The second section:

"If the target develops trust in the Hokage system, access to low-level ninjutsu training may be granted gradually."

The third section:

"If the target shows signs of independently approaching the Uchiha, the Hyūga, or one of the Sannin, increase observation and create a protective separation."

The fourth section:

"Around graduation, team assignments may be used to forge bonds between the target and Konoha's younger generation, reducing the risk of his leaving the village."

Kakashi's face slowly went pale as he read.

Team assignments.

Bonds with the younger generation.

He thought almost immediately of the Team 7 that might one day be formed.

Naruto had not been brought into Konoha's fold naturally.

He had been shaped, step by step, into someone who could not leave it.

Jiraiya's grip on the Scroll tightened too.

Naruto raised his head and looked at the Third Hokage.

"Were you planning which friends I'd make, too?"

The Third Hokage's voice was strained. "I've never seen this plan."

Naruto nodded.

"You didn't know. Again."

The Third Hokage's chest tightened.

This time, even an explanation would have sounded hollow.

Every step in the plan matched the leadership's usual methods. Even if he had never seen it himself, he could not deny that such a plan could operate within Konoha's system.

Tekka opened another Scroll.

It contained a follow-up plan to suppress the Uchiha.

"If the Uchiha use the Nine-Tails' Attack to demand a public investigation, continue emphasizing the fact that the Sharingan can control the Nine-Tails. Do not allow the investigation to expand to the leak of the route to the delivery room."

By the time Tekka finished reading, he could barely keep the killing intent out of his voice.

Some Uchiha clan members had just arrived at the edge of the crowd. When they heard that line, their eyes turned scarlet on the spot.

For years, they had been suppressed, watched, and called schemers.

It was not that the leadership had never suspected another possibility.

They had deliberately refused to investigate.

Naruto raised a hand, signaling Tekka to pause.

He walked up to the captured black-clad ninja.

"Who sent you?"

The first kept his mouth shut.

Naruto stepped on his wrist and crushed it.

The second still said nothing.

Naruto looked at the third.

The man's face was deathly pale, his forehead slick with cold sweat.

"A Sarutobi... Clan elder."

The Third Hokage whipped his head around.

"Which one?"

The man did not dare look at him.

"Sarutobi Muneyoshi."

At the name, a commotion broke out beyond the crowd.

Sarutobi Muneyoshi was a highly respected elder of the Sarutobi Clan. He had entered the Hokage's administrative system during the Second Hokage's time, then retired to clan affairs and rarely appeared in public.

The Third Hokage's expression darkened completely.

"Where is he?"

The black-clad ninja swallowed.

"He took men to the Ninja Academy."

Naruto's gaze turned cold at once.

The Ninja Academy.

There were children there.

And Iruka.

The black-clad ninja trembled as he finished.

"He said... if the archives couldn't be burned, he'd take someone Naruto cared about in exchange."

The Ninja Academy—that was the one place Naruto could still walk into. Sarutobi Muneyoshi had chosen the wrong bargaining chip.