In the hidden chamber of Uchiha Fugaku's study.
With the trust, bonds, and support of the older generation behind him, Naruto not only earned Uchiha Fugaku's trust surprisingly smoothly, but even managed to speak with the composure of someone far beyond his years, gradually placing himself on equal footing with the man before him.
As they discussed and refined their plan to crush Danzo's ambitions, Naruto—prompted by Fugaku's concerned questions—spoke openly about everything that had happened to him over the past three years.
He withheld only two key secrets: the Flying Thunder God Technique and Kurama's complete trust in him. He also credited his astonishing growth and knowledge of his origins not to himself, but to the completely unaware Jiraiya, whom he had never even met.
Naruto did this both to deepen Fugaku's sympathy by highlighting the loneliness of his childhood, and to clearly expose, from a firsthand perspective, how Danzo's interference had twisted his treatment into something wildly unjust—unbefitting the son of heroes. It was a subtle yet pointed warning.
Danzo, who claimed to be the "Root" silently supporting the great tree of the Hidden Leaf Village, had in truth acted shamelessly and with ruthless self-interest. The extent of his depravity knew no bounds.
Naruto's parents sacrificed their lives to protect the village. Even Naruto himself, a newborn wailing in swaddling clothes, was used by his father as the vessel to seal the Nine-Tails. From the moment of his birth, he was forced to become the village's new Jinchūriki.
The Fourth Hokage's family had given everything for the Hidden Leaf Village—they could hold their heads high, proud and blameless. And yet, despite being the son of heroes, Naruto was not treated as one. Instead, thanks to that meddling, never-dying, chaos-stirring Danzo, he became the village's monster—the demon fox that everyone reviled.
The villagers, blindly following rumor, showed no regard for the fact that Naruto was just a young, confused child. They cursed him viciously, treating him as a menace day and night. Burdened with the unspoken hope of so many that he would die early, Naruto lived alone in a filthy, dilapidated shack, never once experiencing the warmth or belonging of a home—let alone the joy of friends to play with.
All of this suffering, too much for even an adult to endure, had been unjustly forced onto his small shoulders. Danzo, as the prime culprit, deserved full blame.
Naruto's condemnation of Danzo resonated with Fugaku, who had met Danzo multiple times and knew full well how that loathsome old man was nothing more than a poisonous tumor: all talk, using his influence to bully others, but never lifting a finger to actually help.
The more he listened, the more Fugaku trusted Naruto. And as he observed the boy's calm confidence—so reminiscent of an old friend—he began to shed his role as an elder and truly listen. He quickly understood the warning Naruto was offering.
If Danzo dared to target Naruto, the son of heroes, without hesitation while Minato and Kushina's bodies were barely cold… then what of the Uchiha Clan, long at odds with the village and hated by many other families? If not for their status as a founding clan of the village—a kind of immunity—Danzo likely would have found an excuse to slaughter them long ago.
As night deepened, this secret meeting between Naruto and Fugaku, born of both chance and fate, was only just beginning...
Since their meeting, which had gone perfectly according to plan, Naruto had taken care to avoid suspicion. To prevent Danzo from growing wary of him, Naruto never again approached the Uchiha Clan compound. He only trained as usual with Uchiha Sasuke at a remote, rarely used training ground, staying out of sight.
All critical information between Naruto and Fugaku was exchanged using sealed scrolls, delivered through the unwitting "little fan" as a messenger. For a while, Naruto returned to a life of focused training—solitary but fulfilling.
Time passed quietly as Naruto and Sasuke trained without pause. As the icy winter winds faded and spring arrived, tension within the Hidden Leaf Village began to rise. Under the secret manipulations of both the Third Hokage and Danzo Shimura, a sharp and uneasy atmosphere began to spread.
Even the usually reserved Uchiha Clan and Hyuga Clan, both masters of ocular techniques, found themselves loudly quarreling over who deserved the title of strongest dōjutsu clan—a childish reason in the eyes of most villagers, yet a sign of something deeper.
In truth, things were moving steadily in a direction unfavorable to Danzo.
Danzo wasn't a fool. At first, when he heard the Uchiha and Hyuga were at each other's throats, forcing the Third Hokage to run back and forth trying to mediate, he had felt smug satisfaction. But as time went on, and the fights grew nastier without either clan suffering serious losses, he realized something was off.
Thanks to the support of those who once knew Naruto's parents, Naruto had not only resolved the Uchiha Clan's hatred toward the village but, through a fateful encounter, also inadvertently soothed the Hyuga Clan's growing discontent over the fate of their Branch Family Head.
The Uchiha and Hyuga—two of the village's strongest clans—had begun to set aside their grudges and cooperate. And Danzo had no idea that the one who made it all happen was a toddler barely past his third birthday. That child's meticulous plans had already forced Danzo into a checkmate without him even realizing it.
Yet Danzo, unaware of the truth, had no intention of letting Naruto go. In his eyes, the young Jinchūriki was a high-potential walking weapon of mass destruction—a secret trump card to use against the Third Hokage and secure his own power.
Danzo believed that a child raised in rejection and isolation would crave recognition and warmth more than anything. All he had to do was appear before Naruto with a kind smile, offer him everything he needed, and pin all the blame for the villagers' hatred on the Third Hokage. As long as he revealed Naruto's true heritage and stoked his anger, Naruto's years of buried resentment would explode.
After all, it was the Third Hokage who had ordered everyone to keep Naruto's identity secret.
Wouldn't a naive three-year-old break down in tears of gratitude and serve him loyally?
At that point, Danzo planned to custom-train Naruto, erase his individuality, and transform him into a mindless weapon that only obeyed orders. If Naruto learned to use the Nine-Tails' power—even just the first or second tail—he would become an emotionless killer.
With Naruto's terrifying background and devastating strength, he could easily become the ultimate tool to crush Danzo's "weak" old comrade, the Third Hokage.
Danzo hadn't acted earlier for two reasons. First, though he had promised the Third Hokage he wouldn't interfere, he also feared that Naruto hadn't yet suffered enough to be properly brainwashed. Moving too early could alert the Hokage and ruin everything.
Second, Naruto had simply been too young. Even if he accessed the Nine-Tails' power, it would be brief and might even kill him. While Danzo would have enjoyed seeing the Third Hokage's forces weakened by a second rampage, the Hidden Leaf Village couldn't survive such chaos right now. If the village were destroyed by enemy forces afterward, Danzo's dream of becoming Hokage would be dead in the water.
So, targeting Naruto again was Danzo's desperate, do-or-die option—the more reliable of his two secret strategies. In his mind, a controllable brat was far more useful than his elusive ally, Uchiha Madara.
But just as Danzo had failed to realize Naruto was the bridge between the Uchiha and Hyuga, he also had no idea that sending agents to cozy up to Naruto would be like throwing meat buns at a dog—never to be seen again.
In fact, it might backfire disastrously.
Because the plan only worked if Naruto didn't know the truth and deeply hated the Hidden Leaf Village...
But today's Naruto knew exactly how noble his parents were. He understood they loved him deeply—and had willingly died to protect him. How could he possibly be deceived by Danzo's hollow words?
As for hatred toward the village? With his unshakable determination to rewrite fate for his comrades and the warmth he had received from friends, that resentment barely registered anymore.
And so, the move Danzo believed was his masterstroke—the one that would break the stalemate—was actually a fatal step straight into the carefully laid trap of Naruto Uzumaki, the true strategist behind the curtain. From the moment he made his move, Danzo had already lost control of the board and stepped into an inescapable checkmate!