Konoha was desperately short of top-tier fighters now, and he was already old. One of his sons had died, while the other had gone to the capital to serve as the Daimyo's guard.
Now he could only pin his hopes on Konoha's younger generation. Among them, Naruto and Sasuke had originally been the two he had the highest hopes for.
But something unexpected had happened on the Night of the Uchiha Massacre. Sasuke, who should have been left behind, had vanished as well. Now only Naruto remained.
He had no choice but to give the boy a little extra attention.
Fortunately, Naruto seemed to have finally caught on and matured considerably, rising from dead last to the lower-middle ranks.
But that was not enough. He needed Naruto to grow stronger and deepen his bonds with Konoha.
To that end, he had specifically prepared several plans, and the Scroll of Seals was one part of them.
He had seen through Mizuki's little schemes long ago. If they could not be put to use, why would he ever have allowed Mizuki near Naruto?
Naturally, he could not bring out the real Scroll of Seals. It contained far too many dangerous forbidden techniques. For one thing, he feared Naruto might learn something dangerous. For another, he worried Mizuki might actually get his hands on it and spread its contents.
So he had prepared a fake Scroll of Seals, placing several ninjutsu on it in advance for Naruto.
"Naruto, I hope you can learn the Flying Thunder God Technique and become the next Yellow Flash."
As Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's child, Hiruzen Sarutobi's greatest hope was for him to become the next Yellow Flash.
After all, Minato's reputation had been truly resounding throughout the Shinobi World.
The instruction that anyone encountering the Yellow