A small little challenge for those of you interested.
Sarutobi cant avert Naruto being turned into a weapon at a young age (Around 5) However in order to spare some possible heartache and loss of innocence, offers another alternative to being root. A seal connected to a gauntlet allows full control over a person, something the Uzumaki Clan (ironically) came up with. The council agrees and Sarutobi puts forth an argument that an unbiased young mind may be better as the holder of the gauntlet since any prior bias will be non-existent. the new holder (suggestion: Tenten (she is a weapons mistress and he will be a weapon)) will grow accepting of the her new tool, more for its use to get her to new heights and renown, using Naruto as a tool to become famous and not realizing the pain she is causing him. Somewhere along the way she begins to realize what she did and becomes enamored with him slowly falling for him. Meanwhile, Naruto has had nothing but hate grow inside him, towards both the village and the holder. He realizes early on after some failed escapes that he can't change his lot and becomes suicidally depressed. Unable to commit suicide (The Seal Matrix has a failsafe to keep his body from completing the act) he throws himself into combat at the holder's request with the hope and wishes the next enemy will be the one to finally kill him. His hatred for the holder is so great he even will go to great lengths to take any opportunity to separate her from the gauntlet and destroy it and then possibly her depending on his hatred (they fail obviously). in a meeting with Tsunade to bring her back to the village she realizes what happened and denies going back for her prior reasons on top of using a person as a tool (The turning point for Tenten if she is chosen to realize what she is doing). Naruto is forced to convince her making them fight, in a moment where no one can hear he tells her that if she has any compassion at all that she should kill him. she obviously doesn't and he is angered at her even if she believes he will find a reason to keep living even if it is as a tool. His hatred also being because everything he does is rewarded to his holder since he is just a tool and cant have renown or fame.
Later on, you could reveal his heritage and either have the village scramble to fix what damage they caused (they cant) or try and get the holder to agree to let Naruto "breed" a new heir to both the Fourth Hokage and Uzumaki legacy. If you want to get rid of the seal later i can see it going one of two ways. He flee's the village and ends up a missing-nin vowing vengeance against them only to be hunted for his heritage and to be essentially the new progenitor to the Uzumaki clan. Or He's had to deal with the command so much that in the midst of moving to either attack the holder or commit seppuku, he is ordered to stop and his body follows the order causing him to break down at how even though the seal is gone his body is conditioned to follow orders and he will never be free from the hell he is now part of. However you want to end the whole story is up to you, kill him off, happy ever after, whatever but i think this idea is pretty interesting, and with the dark aspect to the story and themes i think it could turn into an amazing gem of a story. hell maybe he can even slowly fall for the holder along the way (im assuming the choice is tenten for this sentence) and is somehow (not even sure how with the amount of hatred he would have) to leave it all behind and live for her. if he is freed id assume he would become a fairly respected member of the village but thats up to you.
also I could see a scene wherein the fourth shinobi war (if he's still a tool) when Minato is back he is infuriated at his sons situation and proceeds to loudly and angrily express that to everyone who is allowing it to continue on top of throwing shame in their faces as all the other villages watch on.