Kushina was delighted to see the Third tell Danzo off. At least for now, it seemed that, for her and Minato's sake, the Third would not mistreat their child.
But she was deeply unhappy with Shimura Danzō. Her child was the son of a hero, yet this man wanted to raise her son as a weapon. It was utterly despicable. Once she was resurrected, she would definitely teach him a lesson.
Soon, however, Kushina sighed again.
Oh, my poor child. Mommy and Daddy are sorry we can't take care of you anymore. At least the old Third is still here.
Kushina had now placed all her hopes in Hiruzen Sarutobi, hoping he would take good care of Naruto and raise him.
What Kushina did not know, however, was that many things were beyond Hiruzen Sarutobi's control.
With the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, returning to power, the fallout from the Nine-Tails' Attack was forcibly suppressed.
But some fundamental problems remained unresolved. Sooner or later, when Hiruzen Sarutobi could no longer keep them under control, they would erupt in full.
Time passed, and another year went by.
Orochimaru's experiments had stalled. To break through the bottleneck as quickly as possible, he increased the number of test subjects. Yet no matter how many he added, they all met the same end: death.
As the test subjects continued to die, the prisoners in Root's cells were soon depleted.
To keep the experiments going, Danzo had no choice but to send Root members out to abduct people. But capturing people from other villages was not so easy, and they eventually turned their sights on Konoha's own people.
In the Hokage Office, several Konoha Ninjas held documents as they delivered their reports one after another.
"Stop for a moment."
Hiruzen Sarutobi set down his pipe and looked