He stared at Danzō. "What am I even doing? I can't think straight anymore—I'm ready to give up..." Naruto's thoughts were suddenly interrupted. "Wait... why did I even think that?"
He immediately channeled chakra into his Sharingan and saw Danzō's lone eye locked onto him. "Don't even try to control me, Lord Danzō!" He activated his Sharingan again, his tone icy. "I swear, if you try that again, I'll rip that eye out of your head!"
"What are you talking about?" Danzō seemed completely unfazed by Naruto's warning.
Naruto wanted nothing more than to charge forward and tear that Sharingan from its socket.
"Don't play dumb! You used some kind of jutsu on me just now, didn't you?! Answer my question—I just finished fighting those two guys, and my head's already a mess! Why won't you tell me everything you know?!"
Danzō sighed deeply and shook his head slowly, pointing at his own throat to signal Naruto to stay quiet. But he understood—he understood that some things needed to be said, just in a different way.
The next second, Danzō removed the bandages covering his eye, revealing the Sharingan beneath and locking eyes with Naruto directly.
Naruto didn't flinch. He knew this was the only way they could truly communicate.
The two Sharingan met, and time seemed to freeze.
Thirty seconds—nothing more than a blink in reality—felt like an eternity to Naruto.
His expression shifted from shock to disgust, then into deep anguish.
As the genjutsu lifted, he collapsed weakly onto the bed, murmured under his breath:
"How could this happen? You made him kill everyone?"
Danzō silently nodded.
"He's a hero..." Naruto whispered, his eyes filled with disbelief. "All these years, he's carried this pain alone... He's a hero, a better one than I could ever be."
"He wanted Sasuke to kill him. To end it all with his own hands."
Naruto couldn't imagine making such a choice himself. He had no family, but those close to him—they were like family.
Tamako, Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, Neji, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Tayuya—every comrade who fought side by side with him—even Maki and Sai. If he had to kill any one of them personally, even just one, he wouldn't be able to do it.
Just days ago, he remembered hesitating during his fight with Sasuke, simply because they'd once been teammates—fighting together, bleeding together.
And Itachi—he killed his entire clan, his real blood family, just to stop the war!
"He took responsibility for hundreds of lives to save so many more..." Naruto tried to understand Itachi's feelings, helplessly shaking his head. "No, Lord Danzō—you shouldn't have chosen me to become the Hokage..."
He lifted his head, determination blazing in his eyes. "I get your reasoning. I understand why you told me all this and even left me the Sharingan. But I can't do it. I will never be able to do what he did!"
"Then what do you plan to do?" Danzō countered.
"I don't know!" Naruto felt an unfamiliar sense of confusion. "But I will find a way! When did you learn all this?"
"What did you do to calm the Uchiha clan's anger? You could've made a better choice!"
He slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a crack on its solid surface. "An entire family... You killed every last one of them! Couldn't you have tried to talk things through?"
"This was to protect Konoha, Naruto," Danzo said calmly. "We had reason to believe the Nine-Tails attack was connected to the Uchiha clan's planned defection. We couldn't just sit back and do nothing."
"I know that!" Naruto tried to keep his composure. "I told you I understand, but there must've been a better solution!"
What Danzo didn't know—what no one else knew—was that only Naruto had all the pieces needed to uncover the full truth.
If he were in charge, he would never have ordered Itachi to massacre his own family. That was far too cruel.
"Couldn't you have sent someone else?" Naruto pleaded, pounding his chest in anguish. "Couldn't you, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu have worked together to solve this? We could've done something too! I'd gladly take Itachi's place! Isn't that exactly what Root exists for? To protect Konoha from the shadows?"
Danzo frowned, clearly thinking Naruto overestimated Root's capabilities.
"You should know better," Danzo replied. "Even after all your training—even with the Sharingan—it wouldn't be easy to defeat two powerful Uchiha warriors. Like you said, Itachi was their strongest. Besides us few, who else do you think could've stopped them?"
"Itachi may have been the strongest, but not everyone in the clan was like him—Sasuke, for example." Naruto shot back. "Even if we lost, we'd fight until our last breath. We could act secretly and catch them off guard. If we kept our identities secret, no one would ever know it was us. And if they truly resisted, Konoha would still have time to deal with them. If we'd been there at the time—even just as Itachi's backup..."
"That would've only led to massive losses," Danzo interrupted. "All of Root's elites would've died, and everything would have been ruined."
"Ninjas are always prepared to sacrifice themselves. Have you forgotten that—or chosen to forget—when you decided to sacrifice Itachi and the entire Uchiha clan?"
Naruto stared directly into his eyes. "That's exactly why Root can't fully exert its power. If you'd reached an agreement with the Third Hokage back then, we could've acted more effectively instead of hiding in the dark like we do now. Konoha has many orphans like me and Maki who are willing to give everything for the village. People like Fu and Torune, who wanted to escape their families' constraints, also chose to join us. If Root received the Hokage's recognition, we could openly do what we wished."
"If you want to change all this, wait until you become Hokage," Danzo said firmly. "If you believe you can do better, prove it to me. When you sit in the Hokage seat, appoint Sai as your Root leader. Then you can do whatever you please."
"Fine," Naruto vowed solemnly. "I'll make it happen."
"Good."
Danzo smirked, a chuckle escaping him. "Didn't you once say you weren't suited to become the Hokage I groomed?"
He stood up, re-coiling the bandages that concealed his Sharingan as he strode toward the door. "If you ever need to learn how to wield your new asset, send your sealing master to seek me out. I suppose you won't be returning to Konoha anytime soon, not this time."
Halting abruptly at the threshold, he turned to the two masked Anbu beyond the door, clad in black.
"Move out," he commanded.
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