One should never underestimate the competitive spirit of children.
Even Hatake Kakashi, when he was young, enjoyed showing off in front of Obito.
He would pretend to be bored, but secretly enjoy the jealous looks Obito gave him.
Because of this, Sasuke became a role model for Naruto. Naturally, many of the weaker children handed in blank scrolls and left the academy.
When the Hokage came to attend the entrance ceremony,
Sarutobi Hiruzen noticed that many of the students from ordinary families were missing from the audience.
He was completely confused.
Where are they?!
I spent so much time preaching the Will of Fire, so where did all these kids go?!
With a dark expression, the Third Hokage called over an Anbu member to ask what had happened.
Only then did he learn that the children had simply turned in blank scrolls and run off to play with Naruto.
Standing in front of the stage, Hiruzen almost coughed up blood.
Naruto was becoming more and more troublesome.
It wasn't as if Hiruzen had done nothing over the years.
Once, he tried to send Anbu to secretly capture Naruto and take him to a hidden base for "re-education."
But Naruto ended up defeating several Anbu members.
It must be remembered that there were fewer than a hundred Anbu in the village. Losing even one was painful for Hiruzen.
This made him begin to suspect whether the sealing mark on Naruto had some kind of flaw.
Logically speaking, such rebellious behavior shouldn't have come from the influence of the Nine-Tails.
Later, trying a different approach, Hiruzen invited Danzo and asked whether he wanted to take Naruto into Root for a few days of training.
Danzo was delighted.
Was the Third Hokage really offering him the jinchūriki?
But he soon realized how terrible that idea was.
At first, he believed that ten elite Root ninjas would be enough to capture the young Naruto.
Instead, Naruto released the Second Tail.
Although Naruto suffered serious injuries from the Nine-Tails' chakra, the destruction he caused left Danzo in complete despair.
After that battle, Naruto spent nearly two months recovering at the Hyuga clan residence.
His young body simply couldn't handle the violent chakra of a tailed beast.
He wasn't like Gaara's mother, who had special compatibility.
At that stage, Naruto's combat ability was still far below Gaara's.
After these two incidents,
Sarutobi Hiruzen finally realized that Naruto's sealing technique had serious problems.
He had no choice but to accept a bitter truth.
Until a suitable member of the Uzumaki clan appeared to replace Naruto as the new jinchūriki, they couldn't take any drastic actions against him.
Especially now that the Sannin were gone and the Fourth Hokage was dead.
At present, Konoha simply didn't have a ninja strong enough to suppress the raging Nine-Tails.
Unless someone was willing to die together with it like the Fourth Hokage did.
This forced Hiruzen to accept that Naruto had become a ticking time bomb.
Whenever he encountered danger, he might explode at any time.
This made the Third Hokage, who had originally hoped to control Naruto, fall into frustration.
Naruto's changes also made many ninjas who cared about the future Fifth Hokage begin to reconsider their positions.
If Hiruzen didn't have Kage-level strength and strong connections with the Daimyo, the pressure from the ninja clans might have already exploded.
Even so, Hiruzen's reputation in the village had already begun to decline.
The Ino–Shika–Cho generation started distancing themselves.
The Inuzuka clan focused on raising ninja dogs.
The Aburame clan kept a low profile after Danzo took one of their members.
And after the Hyuga incident involving Hinata, combined with Naruto's violent escape, many clans began quietly thinking about changes in the village leadership.
All of this only made Hiruzen more worried.
Since he couldn't use force against Naruto, he could only try gentler methods.
After Naruto's two outbursts, almost the entire village learned that he was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki.
Naruto's situation in the village became even more dangerous.
Aside from the Hyuga clan, Hiruzen, and Might Guy, almost no one dared approach him anymore.
The villagers' hatred was obvious.
Meanwhile, Naruto continued causing trouble everywhere.
Anyone who dared speak badly about him would immediately be confronted by Naruto.
Thanks to training with Might Guy, Naruto's strength at that time was already comparable to Kakashi, who became a Chunin at six years old.
Ironically, this was exactly what Hiruzen wanted.
Every time Naruto caused trouble, Hiruzen would personally step in to resolve the situation and show kindness toward him.
If Naruto had truly been an ordinary six-year-old child, he might have been moved by such "sincerity."
But Naruto was a reincarnated soul.
Those two incidents had already made him realize who was behind everything.
So Naruto deliberately acted rebellious, constantly creating problems for the Third Hokage.
Now, as Hiruzen watched Naruto gather the "Golden Generation" that he had worked so hard to cultivate,
his face turned pale, and anger flashed in his eyes.
Restricted?
Soon I'll show you what it truly means to be Hokage.
At the same time,
Sasuke's academy enrollment happened right when Uchiha Itachi was sent into the Anbu by Uchiha Fugaku as a spy.
And there were only six months left until the night of the Uchiha massacre.