The base of the Root Organization.
The office of Shimura Danzo.
As Konoha's Hokage Assistant and the top leader of the Root Organization, Shimura Danzo is quite busy with official duties, receiving intelligence scrolls from various channels every day.
Based on the information summarized from these intelligence scrolls, Shimura Danzo needs to think about how he can gain benefits... no, rather, how Konoha can gain benefits.
"The Land of Rain... still in civil war..."
"The Hidden Rain Village's leader, Salamander Hanzo, is in hiding..."
"Hmph, Salamander Hanzo, that bastard, even after aiding him in the past to besiege the Akatsuki Organization, he still won't honor our alliance..."
"News from the Land of Wind..."
"The daimyo of the Land of Wind has once again reduced the funding for the Hidden Sand Village..."
"The One-Tailed Jinchuriki Gaara of the Hidden Sand Village ran amok after a failed assassination attempt, and was suppressed by the Fourth Kazekage Rasa using Magnet Release: Golden Sand. Hmph, the Hidden Sand Village still vainly attempts to utilize the Tailed Beasts..."
"News from the Land of Earth..."
"Frequent terror explosions outside the Hidden Rock Village..."
"Suspected to be the work of the Third Tsuchikage Onoki's student, that woman Yakushi Nonou truly can help Konoha gather a lot of intelligence..."
"But still..."
"Why does that woman want photos of Kabuto again?"
"News from the Land of Thunder..."
"Again, someone claims that the Fourth Raikage has stolen their hereditary Secret Technique..."
"The Hidden Cloud Village has always been ambitious in the past they already tried to covet Konoha's Byakugan, we must find a way to suppress them perhaps by provoking a conflict between them and the Hidden Rock Village..."
"The Land of Water..."
"Still no news at all."
"What's really happening inside the Hidden Mist Village? All intelligence operatives sent to infiltrate have vanished, are they brewing some conspiracy?"
Sitting at his desk, Shimura Danzo's expression shifted between light and dark as he finished looking through all the external intelligence before turning his gaze to another stack of reports on his desk.
This stack of reports was about the internal dynamics of Konoha Village.
"Let's see what happened in the two days I was away..."
"What happened within the village..."
As an elder with great ambitions, Shimura Danzo couldn't just focus on the outside; he also had people secretly monitoring Konoha internally, clearing out unstable elements and maintaining the village's superficial peace by any means necessary.
"The opening ceremony of the new school year at the Ninja Academy..."
"The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen gave a speech at the school..."
When Shimura Danzo saw this news, his expression suddenly turned a bit sour, but he could only scoff disdainfully: "Hmph, that's not how a Hokage should act, that monkey... still likes wasting time doing these useless things!"
This news was of no use whatsoever.
The thing Shimura Danzo hated most was this, a constant reminder that his old friend Sarutobi Hiruzen was still serving as Hokage under the sun...
Yet Shimura Danzo had to constantly watch Sarutobi Hiruzen, hoping to catch him in some mistake, best if he could oust him from the Hokage position...
Or...
Perhaps even try to kill him.
Shimura Danzo carelessly flipped past the news of the opening ceremony and saw the intelligence on the second piece of paper, which was the list of new students enrolled in the Ninja Academy.
"Hyuga Hinata... the heiress of the Hyuga Clan's main family..."
"Aburame Shino... Inuzuka Kiba..."
"Nara Shikamaru of the Nara Clan, Akimichi Choji of the Akimichi Clan, Yamanaka Ino of the Yamanaka Clan, looks like this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho is all present too..."
"The youngest son of Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Sasuke... Hmph, even named his son after the monkey's father to please him..."
Under normal circumstances...
Shimura Danzo would not care about these small children.
As luck would have it...
This year's new students at the Ninja Academy included a child worth monitoring.
Despite this child being only six years old, the whole of Konoha must be extremely cautious with him, as he could potentially pose a threat that could destroy Konoha at any moment!
"Naruto Uzumaki..."
Shimura Danzo slowly saw the name he was most concerned about, a certain darkness in his gaze: "The Nine-tails Jinchuriki... he shouldn't have been sent to the school in the first place!"
Tailed Beasts.
The most terrifying creatures in the Ninja World.
There are a total of nine Tailed Beasts in the Ninja World.
The Hidden Sand Village, One-tailed.
The Hidden Cloud Village, Two-tails and Eight-tails.
The Hidden Mist Village, Three-tails and Six-tails.
The Hidden Rock Village, Four-tails and Five-tails.
Konoha Village, Nine-tails.
A small village called Hidden Waterfall Village owns the Seven-tails.
Based on the number of tails, the more tails a Tailed Beast has, the greater its Chakra amount, which people also often use to judge a Tailed Beast's strength.
Tailed Beasts are born with terrifying amounts of Chakra and immense power, and once a Ninja Village deploys a Tailed Beast in war, it can immediately change the tide of the battle.
However, Tailed Beasts are inherently volatile and easily angered, and never easily used by humans.
In order to harness the power of the Tailed Beasts to strengthen their nations, the major countries in the Ninja World creatively sealed Tailed Beasts within human bodies, creating Tailed Beast Jinchurikis who could borrow their Chakra.
During the Great Ninja Wars, most Tailed Beast Jinchurikis became human weapons in the war, with Ninja Villages from other countries often using Tailed Beasts to decide the outcome of battlefields.
Only Konoha has never deployed the Nine-tails, because the Nine-tails is the most powerful Tailed Beast in the Ninja World, so Konoha doesn't dare to use its power and even protects the Nine-tails Jinchuriki.
Until... six years ago.
A Nine-tails chaos erupted in Konoha Village.
The Nine-tails suddenly broke free from the seal of the Nine-tails Jinchuriki and went berserk, causing the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage and a large number of elite ninjas, resulting in heavy losses for Konoha in this turmoil.
Since then, Konoha has been caught in both internal and external troubles.
Fortunately, the Fourth Hokage, to protect Konoha, resealed the Nine-tails into a child named Naruto Uzumaki before he died, ensuring that Konoha didn't lose the Nine-tails.
However, this also plunged Konoha into an awkward situation, possessing the strongest Tailed Beast, yet unable to use it, with even the need to find a way to prevent issues with the Nine-tails Jinchuriki.
To avoid another Nine-tails chaos, both the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo racked their brains.
In the end, with no other options, Shimura Danzo proposed shedding the Nine-tails Jinchuriki's protective identity to prevent the Jinchuriki's fragile character, instead using other village's experience in training Jinchurikis, perhaps there was a chance to have a usable Nine-tails Jinchuriki for Konoha.
Have the child Naruto Uzumaki endure a tragic childhood like other villages' Tailed Beast Jinchurikis, letting him know that in others' eyes he is seen as a monster!
By forcing the child to get used to a tragic life from a young age, he would be able to remain calm no matter what in the future, preventing the Tailed Beast inside him from going out of control.
However.
This approach is somewhat risky, too.
To prevent the child named Naruto Uzumaki from having an emotional breakdown during his growth, which might lead to issues with the Nine-tails inside him, the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen would often appear at critical times to comfort the child, encouraging him to bravely face his tragic life.
Giving warmth to a person in darkness at such times, the warmth becomes like a flame, encouraging the person to face the darkness holding a torch.
On the other hand...
And most importantly...
The Third Hokage also strengthened the Jinchuriki seal on Naruto Uzumaki to prevent any loss of control by the Nine-tails at the first sign of instability.
In theory...
This is not quite fair to a child.
However...
Coming from someone who had once witnessed the brutal nature of war, the Third Hokage didn't see it as unfair, even deeming Naruto Uzumaki a very fortunate child indeed.