The clash of steel and wind shattered the stillness of the street. Danzo moved with a terrifying, unnatural speed, his Wind Release-coated cane slicing through the air with enough force to cleave stone.
Naruto deflected the strike with his Flying Thunder God kunai, the impact sending violent shockwaves through his small arms. He was fast, his movements refined by a year of grueling, secret discipline, but his nine-year-old body was already screaming under the physical strain of fighting a Kage-level veteran.
"You are nothing but a defective vessel!" Danzo roared, thrusting his left hand forward to unleash a devastating Vacuum Sphere jutsu.
Naruto didn't dodge. Instead, he threw three kunai as a momentary distraction and flickered directly into Danzo's guard using a crude, close-range Shunshin. As Danzo sneered and moved to counter, Naruto's left hand shot up, slamming a glowing, complex Fuinjutsu tag directly over Danzo's right eye socket.
Danzo froze, a sudden, agonizing shock of foreign chakra paralyzing his optic nerve.
"Anti-Sharingan Seal," Naruto gasped, blood trickling down his chin. "It completely cuts off the chakra pathway to the dojutsu... but it only lasts for five minutes. Good thing I only need one second."
Before Danzo could react, Naruto's fingers hooked into the socket, cleanly extracting Shisui Uchiha's stolen eye. With a rapid pulse of chakra, Naruto sealed the eye into a tiny scroll strapped to his wrist, jumping back to create distance.
"MY EYE!" Danzo shrieked, his cold composure shattering into pure, unhinged fury. Blood poured down his face. He ripped the bandages completely off his right arm, revealing the sickening pale flesh embedded with a dozen spinning Sharingans. "I will mount your head on the foundation of ROOT!"
The elder vanished. Naruto's instincts flared, but he was too slow.
Danzo reappeared behind him, having used Izanagi to completely bypass Naruto's defensive perimeter. A brutal, wind-enhanced kick launched Naruto across the street, his body crashing violently through a wooden cart. Naruto struggled to rise, his vision swimming, his chakra reserves completely bottomed out from the complex sealing jutsus.
Danzo towered over him, raising a kunai elongated by a concentrated blade of pure wind, ready to decapitate the boy.
CLANG!
A massive, diamond-hard staff crashed down from the sky, instantly shattering Danzo's wind blade and throwing the elder back.
"That is enough, Danzo!"
The voice boomed with the crushing, suffocating killing intent of the God of Shinobi. Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped out of the shadows, wielding the Adamantine Staff, his eyes blazing with a fury Konoha hadn't seen in decades. Behind him, dozens of regular ANBU operatives and elite Jōnin, including Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy, dropped into the perimeter, completely surrounding the remaining ROOT forces.
"Hokage-sama, why are there Sharingans on Danzo-sama's arm?"
"What is going on here?"
Multiple mutters started occurring the area.
"Danzo, that's enough." Hiruzen said as he tapped on Danzo's shoulder lightly.
Danzo: "You fool..."
But he didn't get to react as Hiruzen put a chakra-restriction handcuffs on Danzo.
"You're going to stay behind bars for a very long time for causing this mess." Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at the Root leader.
"They were committing treason!" Danzo tried to argue. "Naruto Uzumaki has stolen multiple top secret files of Konoha. I must stop him."
Hiruzen then turned to Naruto. "Is this true?"
To Hiruzen's surprise, Naruto smirked. "I did. I entered the forbidden section of the archive room, and took some scrolls from it."
Hearing this, the police forces of Konoha instantly caught Naruto. Meanwhile, Hiruzen looked at him with disappointment as they put handcuffs on Naruto, who was still smiling.
Danzo: "Why are you smiling, boy?"
Naruto then turned to the Konoha shinobis, and shouted loudly. "Do you want to know which scrolls I stole?"
Danzo: "Silence!"
To his surprise, Naruto remained quiet. But as they dragged Naruto away, Naruto instantly shouted. "Sandaime, Danzo Shimura, congratulations, YOU'RE FIRED!"
Meanwhile, Yakumo and Sai remained still. Danzo then pointed at the group standing near the Ichiraku stands. "They were his acquaintances, Sarutobi! Arrest them!"
"Give it a rest, Danzo." Hiruzen sighed. "You know how dangerous the Kyubi's influences can be. But from this day until the trial comes, they will be remained in house arrest."
Danzo: "Tch, fine."
With that, the shinobi forces withdrew back. Danzo then slowly retreated back to his headquarter.
Hiruzen then looked up to the sky, there was a question flickered in his mind. "What did he mean by saying: 'you're fired'?"
The next morning...
The news of Naruto's treason spreaded quickly. The people were excited, to say the least, as they waited for Naruto's execution.
But when Hiruzen got to work, he was summoned into the meeting room by the Daimyo.
"Something was wrong." Hiruzen kept thinking about it as he reflected of Naruto's words.
The doors to the council chamber creaked open, revealing a sight that instantly made Hiruzen's stomach drop.
The room was usually dominated by the Civilian Council and elders Homura and Koharu, all lined up to lecture him on village affairs. Today, however, the elders sat in utter, petrified silence. Beside them, the Fire Daimyō sat gracefully on a high-backed chair, casually fanning himself with an ivory fan. Flanking the Daimyō were twelve elite guards from the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, their hands resting on their weapons, their eyes locked onto Hiruzen with absolute hostility.
Behind the Daimyō stood Jiraiya, his arms crossed, his face devoid of its usual playful warmth.
"Ah, Hiruzen," the Daimyō spoke, his voice dangerously soft as he lowered his fan. "Thank you for joining us. I believe you received the news of my sudden arrival?"
"Daimyō-sama..." Hiruzen bowed deeply, his mind racing. "To what do I owe the honor of your unexpected visit?"
"An audit," the Daimyō replied, tossing a thick, heavy scroll onto the center table. The paper unrolled, revealing official seals, financial ledgers, and deep, dark military records. "It seems that while I was funding Konoha to remain the absolute pinnacle of the Five Great Nations, you were allowing an unchecked cancer to eat it from the inside."
Homura tried to step forward, his voice trembling slightly. "Daimyō-sama, if this is about the incident with the Kyūbi's vessel last night-"
"Silence!" the Daimyō snapped, the fan slamming shut with a sharp crack that echoed off the stone walls. "I am not talking about a child. I am talking about treason!"
The Daimyō stood up, pointing a trembling, enraged finger at the scroll.
"Ill-gotten Uchiha assets funneled into private black budgets," the Daimyō read coldly. "Unauthorized human experimentation. The illegal abduction and conditioning of Minato Namikaze's eldest daughter. The secret division of the Fourth Hokage's triplets! And a private, unsanctioned army operating right under your nose!"
The room erupted into stunned gasps from the clan heads present. Hiashi Hyūga's eyes widened in sheer disbelief, while Shikaku Nara closed his eyes, exhaling a long, sharp breath as the puzzle pieces finally clicked together.
Hiruzen felt as though he had aged twenty years in a single second. He looked toward Jiraiya, but his former student only stared back with cold, disappointed eyes.
'YOU'RE FIRED!' Naruto's parting words echoed through Hiruzen's head like a thunderclap. The boy hadn't just stolen the forbidden scrolls-he had bypassed the village's broken system entirely and went straight to the ultimate authority of the land.
"By my official decree as the Sovereign of the Fire Country," the Daimyō declared, his voice echoing with absolute legal authority, "Danzo Shimura is stripped of all military titles and is to be executed publicly for high treason against the realm!"
Homura and Koharu paled. "Daimyō-sama, you cannot-"
"Furthermore," the Daimyō cut them off, his eyes narrowing, "the Civilian Council and the Elder Council of Konohagakure are hereby permanently disbanded. You have proven yourselves corrupt, incompetent, and completely unfit to advise."
The elders collapsed back into their chairs, speechless.
Finally, the Daimyō turned his piercing gaze toward Hiruzen.
"And as for you, Hiruzen Sarutobi... your negligence has nearly destroyed this village's legacy. You are officially removed from the seat of Hokage. Effective immediately."
Hiruzen looked down hearing this.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed. Then he turned to the Daimyo. "What about Naruto Uzumaki, Daimyo-sama? What are we gonna do about him?"
Jiraiya: "If I may, Hokage-sama, he delivered the scroll to me through the Namikaze emergency headline. Who knows what could have happened if he had spread it to the world like he said he did?"
Daimyo: "I shall drop all charges put against him last night. And release his companions, along with Teuchi's family from house arrest. They did nothing wrong."
"The village is gonna need a new Hokage." Jiraiya then grinned. "And I may have a suggestion, Daimyo-sama."
Meanwhile, with Naruto...
Inside the damp, iron-barred holding cell beneath the central police station, Naruto sat cross-legged on the stone bench. His hands rested quietly on his knees, his eyes closed in deep meditation.
Despite the cold, uncomfortable environment, he looked entirely at peace.
"You really turned the entire village upside down, kid," Kurama chuckled, his deep voice echoing inside the mindscape. "The old man is out, Danzo is heading to the chopping block, and you didn't even have to throw a single Rasengan to pull it off."
"It wasn't just me," Naruto replied quietly in his thoughts. "If my dad hadn't set up the emergency seal line for Jiraiya, none of those documents would have reached the Daimyo in time. I just opened the door."
The heavy iron lock at the end of the hall clicked, followed by the dull thud of heavy footsteps.
"Step back from the bars, Uzumaki," a police officer ordered, though his tone held none of the usual hatred or contempt it used to carry. Instead, there was a strange, nervous hesitation. "The Daimyo has dropped all charges against you. You're free to go."
The heavy metal door swung open. Naruto opened his blue eyes, stretching his arms as he stepped out into the hallway.
Waiting for him right outside the station were Yakumo, Sai, Teuchi, and Ayame. The moment Yakumo saw him walking out unharmed, a huge breath of relief escaped her lips, and she rushed forward, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.
"You idiot!" Yakumo muttered into his shoulder, her voice trembling slightly. "You almost got yourself killed last night!"
"Hey, I told you I had a plan, didn't I?" Naruto smiled warmly, patting her back before looking up at the rest of the group.
Sai gave a small, genuine nod, his dark eyes carrying a newly restored light. "TheROOT seal on my tongue has completely dissolved, thanks to you. Danzo-sama-no, Danzo-has been placed in high-security isolation pending his execution."
"And what about the village?" Naruto asked, looking toward Teuchi.
Teuchi crossed his arms, a slight smirk playing on his lips. "The Civilian Council is completely gone, the elder advisors have been stripped of their authority, and Hiruzen has officially stepped down. Konoha is under direct Daimyo administration until the fifth Hokage takes the hat."
"So..." Ayame smiled, tossing Naruto a small wrapped package of warm pork buns. "Who did Jiraiya bring in to replace him?"
Before Naruto could answer, a loud, familiar voice echoed from the end of the street.
"HEY! BRAT!"
Naruto turned to see Jiraiya striding down the road, his large scroll strapped to his back, accompanied by a tall, busty woman with long blonde hair tied in twin tails and a dark green haori. Her amber eyes swept over the damaged street before landing straight on Naruto.
Tsunade Senju crossed her arms, letting out a heavy sigh as she stared down at her grand-nephew.
"So," Tsunade said, her voice dripping with sharp amusement. "You're the little monster who tore the council to pieces and brought me back to this damn village?"