"...You..."
The Third Hokage was startled by the reckless decision of the little guy in his arms to change the plan and infiltrate enemy territory on his own. But every word he spoke afterward was so reasonable that it left no room for rebuttal. Even if the Third Hokage had wanted to harden his heart and send someone to forcibly bring Naruto back before he entered the Root's sphere of influence, he found himself unable to say it—especially in the face of Naruto's well-timed act of obedient pleading and the heavy burden he bore as Hokage, far beyond personal feelings.
'Sigh... Naruto, oh Naruto... must you always go against Grandpa and make things difficult for him?'
The furrows on his brow deepened, and his already wrinkled and weathered face looked even older and more helpless. After a long silence and deep contemplation, he finally made up his mind. As he let out a long sigh and muttered softly to himself, his trembling hand slowly reached out, gently stroking Naruto's soft golden hair.
"...Continue with your plan, Naruto. But remember—your life is far more valuable than any information. If the situation becomes too dangerous, do not act recklessly. Protecting yourself is the most important thing. Understood?"
"Mm, I'll be careful. Don't worry, Grandpa Hiruzen."
Hearing the Third Hokage finally agree to his true plan, Naruto felt no joy in his heart as he looked at the old man whose face seemed to have aged several years in an instant. If he hadn't been secretly pinching his own thigh to stay alert, he might've blurted out a retreat on the spot. Feeling deeply sorry for the Hokage caught in this dilemma, all Naruto could do was respond with pale, uncertain words and snuggle quietly into the Third Hokage's embrace, doing his best to comfort the conflicted elder in silence.
Even though he didn't have full confidence in success, Naruto was still determined to take the risk and dive in—an action that seemed like a rash pursuit of results to the Third Hokage. Despite having personally given his approval, the Hokage still struggled to understand it. After all, the true determining factor in political power within the village was still the strength of public support. Over the past few years, the Third Hokage's reputation had fully recovered as he led the Hidden Leaf Village to stability and recovery. Even the Elders' Council was no longer united as a single force, and their ability to oppose the Hokage's authority had greatly weakened.
If the goal was simply to strip Danzo of his authority within the council and thoroughly dismantle Root—now little more than Danzo's personal army—then all the Third Hokage needed to do was harden his resolve and firmly exercise his visible authority as the supreme commander of the Hidden Leaf Village. Gradually weakening and eliminating Danzo's power would be enough to reduce him to a powerless, ordinary man.
While this approach would be slower and less efficient, and would inevitably leave some rats slipping through the cracks, at least it was safe. A powerless Danzo would never be able to stir up any storms again. To the Third Hokage, this was clearly far safer than letting young Naruto personally act as bait and place himself in danger.
He couldn't understand why Naruto was so eager to completely eliminate Danzo—he could only chalk it up to the boy's traumatic childhood over the past three years and the resentment that had built up. Naruto seemed more willing to take the risk than let Danzo have even the slightest chance to bounce back.
That assumption wasn't wrong. Naruto couldn't deny that part of his desire to take Danzo down stemmed from personal grudges. But the bigger reason—was that no one understood better than Naruto, a transmigrator, just how catastrophic it would be for Danzo to continue living.
He had incited the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the village because of his lust for the power of the Sharingan. When Uchiha Shisui attempted to use Kotoamatsukami to resolve the conflict peacefully, Danzo ambushed him in a premeditated attack, stole his right eye, and left him gravely injured—ultimately dooming the Uchiha Clan and changing the fate of the once-happy Uchiha family forever.
He severed the bond between Kabuto Yakushi and his adoptive mother, and even manipulated Kabuto into killing her with his own hands to make it easier for Orochimaru to recruit him. This in turn led to the birth of a future mastermind who would fuse with Orochimaru's cells and help Uchiha Obito launch the Fourth Great Ninja War.
He had Jiraiya's messenger, Gamakōsuke, assassinated during the Pain invasion in order to prevent communication with the training Naruto at Mount Myoboku, leading the Hidden Leaf Village to near total destruction—worse than the Nine-Tails' rampage.
Disaster after disaster—natural and man-made—that no one could have predicted, and yet Danzo's shadow was always among them. Even if he wasn't the mastermind, he was without doubt a major accomplice.
Given all this, if Danzo had just died ten years earlier, then even if it didn't bring world peace, Naruto truly believed the Hidden Leaf Village would've avoided countless meaningless conflicts and flourished.
The strongest of the Five Great Shinobi Nations might've advanced even further. The most compelling proof of this was the Uchiha Clan, which, thanks to Naruto's intervention, was saved from annihilation and had even agreed to cooperate with the Third Hokage to remove Danzo—a hidden threat.
Though his young age limited Naruto's combat strength, it also made his enemies drop their guard. This was likely Naruto's first and only chance to win Danzo's trust—there was no reason to waste this golden opportunity for a surprise attack.
Shadow clones shared the same memories and thoughts as the original. Naturally, the clone knew just how heavy the burden the kindly old Hokage carried.
And because of that, he could predict what would happen: while he tried to persuade the Third Hokage and dispel his doubts, the real Naruto would have already gone ahead, infiltrating deeper, risking danger, trying to gather more intel.
Rather than say the clone was sent to convince the Third Hokage, it would be more accurate to say he was there to stall for time—to help the old man calm down.
And by then, the pressure of his duty and returning rationality would leave the old Hokage with no choice but to accept Naruto's actions.
This, too, was part of Naruto's true plan—one secretly decided after realizing Danzo, under mounting pressure, had begun to desperately curry favor and try to win him over.
To maintain secrecy, he hadn't even told those closest to him, not even the Third Hokage.
It might've been a bit unfair to the man who always cared about him, but Danzo was once the Third Hokage's old comrade-in-arms. If Naruto had told him from the start that he intended to kill Danzo, who could say whether this kindhearted and soft-hearted elder would have been able to go through with it...