Taking a few deep puffs of his pipe to calm his frayed nerves, Hiruzen Sarutobi forced himself to look at the situation logically.
Slumping in his chair and sulking wouldn't change reality. The Nine-Tails had been resurrected. While it was disastrous that Kumogakure's capture plan had failed, the intelligence confirmed that the Fourth Raikage had suffered severe injuries in the clash. Under these crippled circumstances, the Cloud Village likely wouldn't launch any immediate follow-up operations against the Fox or Konoha. It was the only shred of good news buried beneath an avalanche of worst-case scenarios.
Then, his brow furrowed again. The fact that the Nine-Tails had actively chosen to migrate deep into the territory of the Land of Thunder after its battle with the Cloud ninja was something Hiruzen had never anticipated.
A deeper historical investigation revealed a sobering fact: prior to its violent capture by Madara Uchiha fifty years ago, the Nine-Tails had originally resided in the wilderness of the Land of Thunder. It was, by ancient geographical right, a beast native to that region.
This realization gave Hiruzen a crushing headache. If the Nine-Tails were still roaming the wild, unaligned territories outside the jurisdiction of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, Konoha could repeatedly deploy task forces to capture it. Even if they failed, they could try again and again until they succeeded.
But now that the beast was nested inside the borders of the Land of Thunder, launching a covert extraction mission was a political minefield. Even if they miraculously ignored the near-zero success rate of capturing a Tailed Beast on enemy soil, simply marching armed forces into the Land of Thunder would be interpreted as an act of absolute aggression.
If they miscalculated, it would become the definitive catalyst for a new global war. A fractured, crumbling Konoha was in no position to withstand the catastrophic economic and military drain of another world conflict.
Exhaling a thick cloud of smoke, Hiruzen massaged his temples. His mind felt split down the middle—he desperately needed to reclaim the village's ultimate weapon, yet he dared not provoke the might of the Land of Thunder. Caught in a paralyzing dilemma, he finally let out a weary sigh. Dipping his brush in ink, he penned a highly confidential, emergency directive. He handed the scroll to an Anbu captain, ordering it to be encrypted through their most secure, high-priority channel and dispatched directly to Jiraiya.
At this point, his only salvation rested on Jiraiya's shoulders. If the Toad Sage returned to the village, they could form an elite strike team. Jiraiya, combining his strength with Orochimaru, could lead a hyper-specialized infiltration squad. Working together, the two Sannin might just stand a ghost of a chance of sneaking into the Land of Thunder and sealing the beast in secret.
As for Tsunade, Hiruzen didn't even bother wasting a thought on her. She was thoroughly crippled by her severe hemophobia; how could anyone expect her to engage in a world-shattering battle with the Nine-Tails without a drop of blood being spilled?
With the letter dispatched, Hiruzen's mind drifted back to Minato Namikaze, and a surge of silent resentment bubbled up in his chest.
How did Minato completely botch the sealing protocol three years ago? Why did he choose to kill the Nine-Tails instead of binding it directly to the village?
Since they were both destined to die that night anyway, why hadn't the Fourth Hokage left the Nine-Tails safely anchored within Konoha's walls instead of severing its life completely and allowing its chakra to scatter across the continent?
Ultimately, Hiruzen sighed, shaking his head. Complaining about the structural failures of a dead man was completely useless. The monumental cleanup had to be processed by him, the active Hokage. Forcing his mentality back into working order, he picked up his brush and returned to reviewing the literal mountains of bureaucratic documents piled across his desk.
As he was meticulously parsing through the village's budget sheets, a chaotic uproar erupting from the streets outside the Hokage Building shattered his focus.
The commotion was rapidly escalating, a discordant symphony of hundreds of angry voices echoing through the courtyard. Hiruzen stood up, stepping over to the floor-to-ceiling windows to peer down at the street below.
A massive, agitated mob of ordinary Konoha civilian villagers—young and old alike—had swarmed the entrance, screaming and shoving against the line of flak-jacketed guards blocking the doors, demanding a personal audience with the Hokage.
Hiruzen immediately signaled his Anbu guard to descend and assess the situation. Within minutes, a masked operative flickered back into the office, kneeling as he explained the bizarre catalyst behind the civilian riot.
It turned out that a few days prior, Naruto Uzumaki had left his apartment to head down to Ichiraku Ramen for dinner. On his way down the block, he had been intercepted by a pack of neighborhood children. Naruto had recognized them instantly—among the group were the exact same older bullies who had cornered Hinata in the alleyway days before.
Initially, Naruto had tried to simply bypass them. He possessed the soul of a mature adult; he had absolutely no interest in engaging in a petty, childish dispute with a bunch of elementary schoolers.
But while Naruto chose to spare them, the bullies had no intention of letting him walk free. Backed by a larger crowd this time—including several older cousins who were actively enrolled in the Konoha Ninja Academy—their collective confidence had soared to an all-time high. They swarmed forward, completely encircling the toddler.
Intending to teach the "Demon Fox" a severe lesson, the Academy students instructed the younger kids to gather sharp stones from the dirt, preparing to show off the shurikenjutsu accuracy they had been practicing in class.
That specific action shattered the last remnants of Naruto's patience. Though his current physical container was merely a three-year-old child, his veins pumped with pure Saiyan blood. He didn't dare unleash his full energy out of fear that he might lose consciousness and trigger an uncontrollable rampage, but using raw, unweighted physical combat to systematically dismantle a pack of arrogant children was a trivial task.
In a matter of seconds, Naruto executed a flawless sequence of close-quarters strikes. The Academy students were thoroughly thrashed, their bones bruised and faces swollen, before being left hanging upside down from the nearby structures. The entire pack of bullies had to be rushed to the Konoha Hospital via stretchers.
This violent retaliation immediately kicked a political hornet's nest. The furious parents of the hospitalized students marched straight to the Military Police Force Headquarters, demanding that the Uchiha ninjas enact absolute justice, arrest the monstrous toddler, and lock him away.
In terms of cold efficiency, the Uchiha Police Force deserved credit; though their nostrils were usually pointed toward the heavens in arrogance, they handled paperwork with absolute finality. The second the precinct commanders realized this complaint involved Naruto Uzumaki, they flatly refused to take the report. They literally shoved the screaming parents out of the lobby, slammed the heavy iron doors shut, and locked them from the inside, refusing to grant them re-entry.
Driven to absolute desperation by the police's dismissal, the civilian parents decided to take the law into their own hands. They gathered an angry mob and marched directly to Naruto's apartment building, fully prepared to drag the brat into the street and beat him within an inch of his life.
But Naruto was anything but a helpless victim. Seeing a mob of toxic adults show up at his front door looking for blood, he abandoned all restraint. He met them head-on, launching a brutal, bone-shattering counter-assault that left the parents thoroughly broken, forcing them to occupy the hospital beds right alongside their children for several days.
Now that the civilian ringleaders had finally been discharged from the medical wards, their psychological humiliation had morphed into an absolute, unyielding rage. Banding together with the rest of the neighborhood, they marched onto the Hokage's lawn, demanding that Hiruzen Sarutobi deliver immediate executive retribution.
The parents stood packed against the barricades, screaming at the guarding shinobi, "Lord Hokage! We demand to see the Hokage!"
"That's right! We need an audience! This monster, Uzumaki Naruto, must face immediate criminal sanctions!"
"How can we sleep soundly at night knowing a demon fox is allowed to live under the same roof as our innocent families?!"
"If Lord Hokage refuses to give the citizens an explanation today, we will occupy this plaza until the village rots!"
The collective roar of the crowd grew increasingly deafening. As the minutes ticked by, hundreds of neutral passersby, swept up in the anti-fox hysteria, joined the ranks of the protestors. They harbored a deep, fundamental hatred for the Uzumaki boy; in their minds, this was the perfect political leverage to either have the monster permanently exiled from the borders of Fire or executed by a firing squad.
Amidst the deafening cacophony, the front doors of the facility finally swung open. Wearing his formal, flowing Hokage robes and his symbolic red-and-white hat, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly stepped out onto the balcony under the vigilant, tight guard of his elite Anbu, a smoking pipe clutched firmly between his fingers.
The moment the supreme leader materialized, the chaotic shouting died down to a tense, expectant murmur, the villagers leaning forward to catch his response.
Dragging his thoroughly exhausted, aging body forward, Hiruzen forced a warm, paternal smile onto his weathered face. "My dear citizens, please, calm your hearts. I have been fully briefed on the tragic events of the past few days."
He lowered his head slightly, projecting an aura of profound humility. "First and foremost, I must extend my deepest, most sincere apologies to each and every one of you. It is entirely due to my own personal shortcomings and incompetence as your Hokage that such a violent, deeply regrettable incident was allowed to fracture the peace of our beloved community. I give you my absolute, solemn vow: the matter concerning Naruto Uzumaki will be dealt with under the strictest interpretation of our laws. I will personally ensure this village receives a thoroughly satisfactory resolution!"
The villagers broke out into frantic whispering, looking back and forth at one another. Finally, one of the prominent civilian ringleaders—the father who had initially organized the march—stepped forward, pointing an accusatory finger toward the balcony as he pressed Hiruzen. "Then tell us plain and simple, Lord Hokage! What exactly is your administration planning to do to punish this demon fox?!"
Faced with the direct, sharp inquiry of the mob, Hiruzen's internal thoughts locked up. He stood entirely at a loss for how to articulate a response.
If they wanted the unvarnished truth, his entire operational strategy revolved around bringing Naruto into a private room, having a gentle, soft-spoken conversation with him, and aggressively instilling the Will of Fire into his impressionable mind.
But as he stared at the sea of angry faces, a cold realization settled into Hiruzen's stomach. Over the past three years, his administration had completely neglected the boy's psychological conditioning. In this timeline, Naruto's education regarding the sacred Will of Fire was completely nonexistent compared to the fierce loyalty he possessed in the official history.
Over the past few weeks, too many crises had piled onto the Hokage's desk, leaving him completely buried in administrative chaos. Hiruzen had genuinely intended to check in on Naruto once his schedule cleared up, hoping to gradually introduce him to the concepts of the Will of Fire from scratch.
He never could have anticipated that the boy would unleash a violent backlash so soon. Now, standing on the balcony, he had absolutely no logical explanation to offer the furious mob.
As the silence stretched, the villagers—who were far from stupid—instantly picked up on Hiruzen's stalling tactics. They could see right through his perfunctory words.
In the past, they had tolerated the Hokage's vague reassurances. After all, even though they despised Naruto as the incarnation of the Demon Fox, the boy rarely left his apartment, and they never had to interact with him directly. But this time was entirely different. The "monster" had physically assaulted their children and sent their families to the hospital. The threat had directly pierced their own lives. If they didn't scream for justice now, they would be absolute fools.
"Lord Hokage, why are you staying silent?!" a ringleader shouted, his voice cutting through the crowd. "What exactly are you going to do with Naruto Uzumaki? Give us a straight answer right here, right now!"
"Exactly! You prevaricate and give us the same empty promises every single time, only for that demon fox brat to bounce right back and harm more innocent people!"
"If your administration doesn't deliver a real solution today, we will paralyze the Hokage Building permanently!"
The angry crowd surged forward, pressing tightly against the defensive line, effectively cornering the Third Hokage. They made it absolutely clear: if Hiruzen didn't provide a concrete, punitive verdict, they would never back down.
While Hiruzen was trapped in the center of this brewing riot, he could have easily used the Body Flicker Technique to vanish into thin air. However, he knew with absolute certainty that if he fled the scene like a coward, his carefully cultivated public image as a benevolent, grandfatherly leader would completely collapse. If that happened, the civilian outrage would expand, and he would likely be forced to abdicate his position as Hokage entirely.
As the villagers' chants grew increasingly volatile, waves of demands for Naruto Uzumaki's immediate execution began echoing across the plaza like crashing tide pool waves.
Sensing the dangerous momentum of public opinion, an elite Anbu captain leaned in close to Hiruzen's ear, whispering beneath his porcelain mask, "Lord Hokage... should we deploy force to forcefully disperse these civilians?"
Hiruzen snapped his head around and glared at the operative with terrifying intensity. Realizing his massive blunder, the Anbu captain immediately shut his mouth and took a swift step back into the shadows.
Hiruzen retracted his gaze, his brow furrowed in a deep scowl. Internally, he desperately wanted this rowdy mob removed from his lawn—but he absolutely could not allow his personal, direct Anbu forces to lay hands on the village's taxpayers. It would ruin his political legacy.
In that moment of desperation, his mind flashed to the Uchiha Military Police Force. This brand of dirty, public crowd control was exactly what the Police Force specialized in; they possessed decades of experience dealing with hostile civilians, and the village already disliked them for their arrogance anyway. They were the perfect shield.
Signaling his guard, Hiruzen had an Anbu operative slip away through the rooftops to formally command the Uchiha Police Force to deploy. Meanwhile, the Hokage remained on the balcony, actively engaging with the vocal leaders of the mob, offering sympathetic nods and long-winded diplomatic answers to successfully buy time.
Before long, a subtle gust of wind signaled the Anbu captain's return. He knelt beside Hiruzen, whispering the update into his ear.
The second the words registered, a twitching, rigid grin froze across Hiruzen's face. Mentally, he was screaming a barrage of curses that would make a sailor blush.
The Uchiha precinct commanders had flatly refused the deployment request. Their official bureaucratic excuse was that the Military Police Force was currently suffering from a severe "shortage of manpower" following recent events, making it highly inconvenient to intervene. They explicitly suggested that the Hokage handle his own residential security details himself.
Those red-eyed bastards! Hiruzen cursed venomously in his thoughts. Usually, those arrogant Uchiha acted like they owned the sky, causing administrative headaches across every sector of the village like reckless fools. Yet, the exact moment a critical crisis required their unique utility, they suddenly turned into spineless, uncooperative cowards.
We fund and maintain their department for thousands of days, yet when I need them for a single afternoon, they ghost me! Why can't any of these clans be like Danzo and single-mindedly shoulder the blame for the sake of the administration?!
But relying on Danzo was entirely out of the question now. First of all, the old vulture was currently lying low following his catastrophic failure at sea. Second, Danzo's Root forces operated with ruthless, lethal efficiency; if they were ordered to disperse a civilian mob, they would undoubtedly cause massive casualties, escalating the riot into an absolute civil war. Furthermore, because the civilian population couldn't differentiate between the uniforms of Root and the regular Anbu, any blood spilled by Danzo's men would be automatically blamed on the Hokage's office anyway.
Left with zero political maneuvers and backed into a corner by his own populace, Hiruzen lowered his head slightly to mask his desperation. He turned back to the Anbu captain and issued a quiet, urgent command.
"Go. Code Black. Quietly extract Naruto from his apartment and bring him directly into the hidden chambers of the Hokage Building. My Shadow Clone is already stationed in the lower vaults. Hand the boy over to him immediately."