{Comment more you guys, don't force my hand}
~Leaf Village~
~October 10th~
The morning sun rose quietly over Konoha, but the village did not rise with it.
October 10th was never a normal day.
Where there was usually the bustle of merchants pulling open their stalls, shinobi hurrying along rooftops, civilians chatting as they began their morning routines, today, silence blanketed everything. It was heavy and uncomfortable, as if the entire village was holding its breath.
Most shops remained closed, their wooden doors still barred even after sunrise. The few that were open had no customers, only uneasy shopkeepers standing behind their counters, lost in thought.
The streets, normally alive with movement, felt muted. Even the footfalls of passing shinobi were subdued, their expressions sombre as they carried out their early tasks with none of the usual chatter or camaraderie.
Because today marked six years since the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox tore through Konoha.
Six years since countless families lost loved ones.
Six years since the village nearly fell.
Six years since fear, grief, and hatred carved themselves into the hearts of the people.
For many, this day was a reminder of loss. For others, a reminder of terror. And for too many, it was a day to quietly nurture hatred toward something they couldn't see now, something they could instead project onto a single child.
A six-year-old boy.
In one of the small, run-down apartment buildings near the outskirts of the village, Naruto Uzumaki lay sprawled in his bed, staring up at the ceiling with wide, unfocused eyes. The room was dim, lit only by the weak sunlight peeking through the thin curtains.
He pushed himself up slowly and turned his head toward the window.
The silent village stared back.
Naruto let out a small breath and flopped back down, arms spread, staring at the cracks in his ceiling as if they held an answer to something. Today was an official holiday, no academy, which means no lessons.
Usually he would celebrate that.
Today… he didn't want it.
If the academy had been open, at least he wouldn't be alone. At least he'd have people around, even if they ignored him or treated him coldly. Being ignored was still better than today.
Because he knew what would happen if he stepped outside.
Every year on this day, whenever he tried to walk through the village, people threw glances like knives. Sometimes actual things too. Words he pretended not to understand, curses he pretended didn't hurt.
As a child, he never understood why. He just knew that today, even more than the rest of the year, people seemed to hate him.
Naruto had learned that staying indoors on October 10th was the safest choice.
But that meant being alone on his birthday.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to think about that.
Not today.
After a moment, he forced himself upright again and swung his legs off the bed. He crouched down and reached under it, pulling out a small wooden box. The hinge squeaked softly as he opened it.
Inside lay a small pile of coins and notes, carefully gathered, painfully saved, for an entire year.
He smiled a little.
This money wasn't for him alone.
It was for Ren and his birthday party.
Last year, Ren had treated him on their shared birthday. Naruto had promised he'd return the favor this year, even though he'd had to skip meals more often than he liked to save this much. Even though he had to hide the box so no one would take it. Even though it meant living cheaply for months.
He didn't mind.
Just imagining the bowl of ramen they'd share today, imagining sitting next to Ren, laughing, eating was enough to make his stomach rumble in excitement.
He closed the box carefully, placed it aside, and shuffled toward the kitchen area of his tiny apartment. He grabbed one of the instant ramen cups stacked in a neat pile and peeled open the lid.
"Just wait, Ren," Naruto murmured under his breath, pouring hot water into the cup. "I'm gonna treat you to the best ramen today. Believe it!"
His grin widened.
For a moment, the heaviness of the day faded.
For a moment, he wasn't lonely.
He was just a boy waiting to celebrate his birthday with someone who thought he mattered.
~~~
Hokage Tower
Basement
Danzo's Trial
Deep beneath the Hokage Tower, past layers of sealed corridors and guarded stairways, lay one of the least-used chambers in all of Konoha, a cavernous underground hall originally meant for wartime strategy meetings.
Today, however, it had been repurposed into something far more formal and far rarer in the world of shinobi.
A courtroom.
Shinobi villages didn't hold trials, at least not normally.
Criminals were usually handled swiftly, either by the Hokage's direct judgment or through ANBU investigation. If someone was innocent, they were quietly released. If someone was guilty, they were quietly… dealt with.
But treason?
Treason committed by Danzo Shimura, a man who had stood beside Hiruzen Sarutobi as an advisor for decades?
That could not be swept away with silence or "standard protocol." It had to be aired. Not just for justice, but for politics, stability, and the Daimyo's peace of mind.
So this underground hall had been transformed into something resembling a formal judicial arena. Rows of raised seats lined the circular walls, ascending in tiers so every clan head and department leader could see clearly.
At the front was a long platform where the Hokage, the Fire Daimyo, and their appointed scribes would sit. Behind them, two elite guards from the Twelve Guardian Ninja stood motionless, besides them stood Kakashi in his ANBU gear.
One by one, important figures of the Leaf filed in, taking their assigned places.
The clan heads, each wearing formal attire signifying their houses, Uchiha, Hyuga, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Aburame, and more.
The department heads, responsible for civilian and shinobi administrative divisions.
Several elite jonin whose voices carried political weight in major village decisions.
The civilian council elders, already whispering anxiously to each other.
The jonin commander, Shikaku Nara.
The two village elders, Homura and Koharu.
The ANBU Commander, Yoru, seated silently with an unreadable posture behind a blank mask.
And finally, once all were seated, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, entered from the back, leaning on his staff more heavily than usual.
His eyes were shadowed with fatigue, resignation, and a sharpness that had not dulled despite age. He took his place beside the Fire Daimyo, whose regal robes shimmered with gold thread as he sat, expression stern and heavy with the authority of his office.
The murmuring quieted and the last echo of footsteps faded.
Two ANBU escorted Danzo into the chamber.
He was bound, not physically, but by suppressing seals that limited his chakra. Even so, he walked with the same stiff, self-righteous confidence as always, his lone visible eye scanning the hall with cold detachment. He looked less like a man on trial for treason and more like someone inconvenienced by a meeting he didn't want to attend.
He did not bow.
He did not kneel.
He simply stood.
The Daimyo took in Danzo's posture with thinly veiled irritation. Hiruzen, meanwhile, stared at his old teammate with something that hovered between disappointment and sorrow.
At last, a herald's voice echoed across the chamber:
"The trial of Danzo Shimura, accused of treason against the Hidden Leaf Village, will now commence."
A ripple of tension ran through the hall.
This wasn't merely about one man's crimes. This was about decades of secrets finally being dragged into the light. About the village's fragile political balance.
Though traditionally, in matters of treason, the Hokage held supreme authority, this situation was far from traditional. Because Danzo was Hiruzen's long-time teammate, adviser, and in many ways a political equal, the Daimyo had taken precedence.
It was he, not the Hokage who would hold the primary judgment today.
Only if he and Hiruzen disagreed would the entire assembly vote. Every clan head, department leader, elite jonin, and advisor would cast a ballot. The Daimyo and the Hokage would then reconsider the outcome and announce a final verdict together.
The Daimyo raised his hand.
The room was completely silent.
"Let it be known," he said, voice resounding through the hall, "that the matter before us today concerns not only Danzo Shimura's actions, but the very integrity of both, the Hidden Leaf and the entirety of the land of fire."
Danzo's eye remained steady, unflinching.
Hiruzen's staff tightened in his grip and the remaining people prepared themselves, because what happens here, would decide the future of the village.
~~~
At this moment, the future of the village stood at the entrance of the Leaf Village, shoulders finally relaxing after almost twenty-four hours of nonstop carnage and strategy.
The moon had already dipped far past its peak by the time he secured the prisoners, Stone and Cloud elites, forty-odd survivors all immobilized in layers of sealing arrays and buried under enough earth-yang compression that even a Kage would need a few hours to dig them out.
Not that he intended to keep them hidden forever.
Just… not today.
Right now, the entire village was laser-focused on Danzo's trial, it was on edge. If Ren were to casually stroll in with Kitsuchi, son of the Tsuchikage, and Yugito, one of Cloud's two jinchuriki, bound and gagged like trophies?
The political fallout would hit the village harder than the Nine-Tails.
No, those particular bombs were better saved for the moment when the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning were calm enough to pay ransom rather than declare war. And Ren fully intended to squeeze them dry. He'd already sent letters to Onoki and A with the most polite wording he could muster.
He'd even included a helpful list of what not to do if they wished to see said people again.
Now, he just had to wait and enjoy Danzo's trial.
He rolled his shoulders once, feeling the last remnants of Gate recoil fade from his muscles. He'd slept, barely. Cleaned off the blood, mostly. And now he wanted nothing more than to sit back and enjoy Danzo's downfall like a theatre play he'd reserved front-row seats for.
But the scene waiting at the village gates gave him pause.
The massive wooden gates, normally half-open even during minor alerts, were shut completely. Not merely closed, but reinforced. Chakra threads pulsed faintly along the edges as the village barrier shimmered overhead, fully activated in a dome of pale blue.
The only other time Ren had known the barrier was activated at full power was during the Nine-Tails attack in the historical records.
"…Dramatic much?" he muttered.
Still, a tiny, childish itch crawled up his spine at the sight of the sealed doors.
He wanted to kick it.
Just for fun.
Just to hear the satisfying boom.
So he leaned back, raised his foot like a man preparing to punt a cursed object into orbit, and…
The small auxiliary door clicked open.
Utakata stepped out, looking as calm and unbothered as always.
He blinked once.
Then spoke in a tone so flat it could've flattened mountains
"Happy birthday, but stop with the nonsense and get inside. The trial has already begun."
Ren froze awkwardly mid-kick, one leg dangling in the air like he'd been caught trying to steal snacks from a pantry.
"…You ruined my fun even on my birthday," he muttered.
Utakata's stare did not budge at all.
It was the look of a man who had faced tailed beasts, treacherous lords, and hormonal teenagers, and found Ren to be the most exhausting of the three.
Ren slowly lowered his foot with a pout so dramatic it would've embarrassed an actor.
"Fine," he grumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he walked past Utakata. "You're no fun."
"I consider it one of the reasons I survived till now," Utakata replied, closing the small door behind them as they entered the village.
As they entered, Utakata turned to him with a frown and asked, "How many people did you kill yesterday that you have such a dense killing intent? And why are you not controlling it?"
Ren shrugged, "Didn't really count, and I do want to control it, but I can't, it's the first time I killed so many together that the killing intent kept growing stronger and stronger, so even though I tried to control it, I couldn't."
Ren continued, "But it doesn't matter much, it will just make Danzo more afraid, thinking I have killed off his hidden root ninja's spread across the land of fire."
Utakata questioned him as they kept walking closer and closer to the Hokage tower, "Did you?"
Ren shook his head, "Not all, just some who came to me, this is from another battle, I'll tell you later."
Both of them came to stop in front of the Hokage tower.
Ren sighed and muttered.
"Well, let's get that son of beach."
~~~~~
{The trial finally begins in the next chapter, maybe, anyway, what do you think Ren intends to take in exchange of Yugito and Kitsuchi?}