Naruto: Assistant to the Hokage

Root Organization Base.

Shimura Danzo's Office.

As the Hokage advisor and the highest leader of the Root organization, Danzo's daily work was incredibly busy. He had to go through information scrolls delivered from various sources.

Based on these scrolls, Danzo needed to think about how to gain personal benefit... no, rather, he should say how to benefit Konoha.

"The Rain Country... still in civil war..."

"Hanzo of the Salamander, the leader of Amegakure, is still in hiding..."

"Hmph, that bastard Hanzo... back when we helped him suppress the Akatsuki, he still refuses to abide by our agreement..."

"Wind Country's news..."

"The Daimyo of the Wind Country has once again cut funding for Sunagakure..."

"The One-Tail Jinchuriki, Gaara, was assassinated and went berserk, suppressed by the Fourth

Kazekage, Rasa, using Magnet Release: Sand Gold... Hmph, does Sunagakure still think they can use the Tailed Beast?"

"Earth Country's news..."

"Frequent explosions outside Iwagakure..."

"Suspected to be the work of Onoki's student, the woman Yakushi Nonoyu is really good at gathering intelligence for Konoha..."

"However…"

"This woman is once again asking for a picture of Orochimaru?"

"Thunder Country's news…"

"Someone has claimed that the Fourth Raikage stole their inherited secret techniques…"

"Cloud Village has always been ambitious. They once attempted to steal Konoha's Byakugan. We need to think of a way to suppress them. Maybe we can provoke them into a conflict with Iwagakure…"

"Water Country…"

"Still no news."

"What is happening in Kirigakure? All spies sent to infiltrate the village have disappeared. Is there some sort of conspiracy brewing?"

Danzo sat at his desk, flipping through all the external intelligence reports with a fluctuating expression before his gaze shifted to another stack of reports placed on his desk.

This stack of intelligence was related to Konoha's internal affairs.

"Let's see what happened in the last couple of days…"

As an ambitious old man, Danzo never focused only on external matters. He had sent people to secretly monitor Konoha's internal movements, clean up any unstable elements within the village, and maintain a superficial sense of order.

"The Ninja Academy's new semester opening ceremony…"

"Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, gave a speech at the school…"

When Danzo looked at this piece of information, his expression immediately darkened, but he could only sneer disdainfully: "Hmph, the Hokage isn't supposed to be wasting his time like this. That monkey... still loves wasting time on useless tasks!"

This report had no real value.

Danzo hated this kind of news the most, constantly reminding him that his old friend, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was still working as Hokage under the sunlight...

However, Danzo also had to keep a close eye on Hiruzen, hoping to catch him making a mistake. It would be best if he could force him down from the Hokage position...

Or perhaps...

Try to kill him.

Danzo nonchalantly turned past the report on the school ceremony and saw the second report, which was the list of new students enrolling in the Ninja Academy.

"Hinata Hyuga... the eldest daughter of the Hyuga clan's head…"

"Shino Aburame... Kiba Inuzuka…"

"Nara Shikamaru from the Nara clan, Choji Akimichi from the Akimichi clan, Ino Yamanaka from the Yamanaka clan... This generation's 'Ino-Shika-Cho' trio are all here…"

"The youngest son of Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha... Hmph, trying to please the monkey by naming his son after the monkey's father…"

Under normal circumstances...

Danzo wouldn't care about these children.

Unfortunately…

Among this year's new students, there was one child worth keeping an eye on.

Even though this child was only six years old, the entire Konoha village had to be extremely vigilant, as this child might one day pose a great threat to the village!

"Uzumaki Naruto…"

Danzo slowly came across the name that he was most concerned about, his eyes darkening slightly:

"The Nine-Tails Jinchuriki… He should never have been sent to the academy!"

Tailed Beasts.

The most terrifying creatures in the ninja world.

There are nine Tailed Beasts in total.

One-Tail in Sunagakure.

Two-Tails and Eight-Tails in Kumogakure.

Three-Tails and Six-Tails in Kirigakure.

Four-Tails and Five-Tails in Iwagakure.

Nine-Tails in Konohagakure.

The Seven-Tails is in a small village called Takigakure.

According to the number of tails, the more tails a beast has, the greater its chakra capacity. People often judge the strength of a Tailed Beast based on the number of tails.

Tailed Beasts inherently possess terrifying amounts of chakra and immense power. Once a village utilizes a Tailed Beast in battle, it can instantly change the course of a war.

However, Tailed Beasts are naturally violent and irritable, and they are rarely easy to control.

To utilize the power of the Tailed Beasts, the major ninja countries came up with a method of sealing the Tailed Beasts inside human bodies, creating Jinchuriki who could tap into the Tailed Beast's chakra.

During the Ninja World Wars, Tailed Beast Jinchuriki became weapons of mass destruction, often determining the outcome of battles between different nations.

Only Konoha had never used the Nine-Tails, because the Nine-Tails was the strongest of all the Tailed Beasts, and Konoha dared not use its power. Instead, Konoha had always protected its Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Until... six years ago.

Konoha experienced the Nine-Tails' rampage.

The Nine-Tails suddenly broke free from its Jinchuriki's seal and went on a rampage, causing massive destruction in Konoha, resulting in the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and numerous elite ninjas, causing Konoha to suffer significant losses during this chaos.

Since then, Konoha had been plagued by both internal and external troubles.

Fortunately, the Fourth Hokage, in order to protect Konoha, sealed the Nine-Tails back into a child named Uzumaki Naruto before he died, preventing Konoha from losing the Nine-Tails altogether.

However, this also placed Konoha in an awkward position: they held the strongest Tailed Beast but couldn't utilize it, and they had to constantly figure out ways to prevent the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki from going out of control.

In order to prevent another Nine-Tails incident, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Danzo had racked their brains.

In the end, Danzo suggested they stop protecting the identity of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and instead allow the child to experience the same kind of tragic childhood as the Jinchuriki in other villages. By doing so, they hoped to ensure that Naruto would remain calm and composed in the future, preventing the Nine-Tails from losing control.

Let Uzumaki Naruto grow up knowing that he was a monster in the eyes of others!

As long as this child learned to live through a tragic life from the start, he would be better able to handle whatever came his way in the future.

But...

This was also a risky move.

To prevent Naruto from having a breakdown as he grew up and causing the Nine-Tails to go berserk, the Third Hokage often appeared at critical times to comfort the child and encourage him to bravely face his tragic life.

If a person receives warmth during their darkest times, that warmth will encourage them to continue facing the darkness with a flame.

On the other hand, and most importantly…

The Third Hokage had also strengthened Naruto's seal to ensure that the Nine-Tails couldn't break free if Naruto's emotions ever spiraled out of control.

Theoretically, this wasn't very fair to the child.

However…

Having seen how cruel war could be, the Third Hokage didn't think it was unfair. In fact, he believed that Naruto was already a very lucky child.