"Three-tomoe Sharingan..."
"And he still died just like that..."
Sasuke, who had witnessed everything from start to finish, stood stunned, his gaze fixed on the massive magma-blasted hole that now consumed nearly half the chamber wall. Thick droplets of lava still dripped slowly from its edges.
As a member of the Uchiha Clan, Sasuke knew all too well the sheer power of the three-tomoe Sharingan.
After all, even with just a single tomoe activated—triggered under emotional duress—he already felt almost unbeatable in the Academy.
He'd even begun to entertain thoughts of challenging that Hyūga kid… Neji, was it?
If the single-tomoe was that powerful—
Then how much stronger was the three-tomoe supposed to be?
And yet—
That very power, which he had thought so mighty, had been utterly meaningless before Uchiha Keizumi.
Just when Sasuke had expected an intense and drawn-out battle, even worrying whether Keizumi could handle all three opponents...
It ended just like that. Abruptly. Uneventfully.
"Hm?"
Suddenly sensing something, Izumi stiffened. Her sharp reaction and the tension in her voice startled both Naruto and Sasuke.
The two boys quickly turned around—
—only to find a masked man standing behind them, one hand casually tucked into his pocket.
Izumi froze. "...ANBU?"
"Ahem."
The man let out an awkward cough.
Kakashi, who had followed behind unnoticed, saw Uchiha Keizumi glance in his direction. To avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, he reached up and pulled off the ANBU mask, revealing half his face still hidden behind his usual cloth covering.
Casting a brief glance at the three fresh corpses on the ground, Kakashi explained honestly and without delay: "Hokage-sama asked me to keep an eye on Uzumaki Naruto. I heard some strange sounds from above... got a little concerned, so I came down to see what was going on."
He was already regretting that impulsive decision.
But Uchiha Keizumi didn't even spare him a reply.
Instead, Keizumi pulled out a small notebook—Sasuke couldn't tell where it had come from—and tossed it to Izumi.
She fumbled a bit before catching it.
"Senpai, this is...?"
"A list," Keizumi replied flatly. "Today's kill list."
Izumi: "???"
Izumi hurriedly sheathed her ninja blade. Flipping open the first page of the notebook, she found written there a name, a detailed address, and several records of past transactions.
Realization struck her in an instant. Shocked, she exclaimed, "Keizumi-senpai, could this be…?"
"Mm."
Uchiha Keizumi replied flatly, "A list of deals involving the smuggling and sale of prohibited drugs. Every name on that list belongs to someone inside Konohagakure."
"!!!"
Izumi hadn't even noticed where Keizumi-senpai had obtained this list. Had he taken advantage of the moment when her attention had been drawn away by that ANBU ninja, and retrieved it from one of the Uchiha shinobi?
She flipped through the pages rapidly—and the more she read, the more stunned she became.
Among those listed… there were not only civilian shinobi, but also shinobi from clans, and merchants who had been conducting business in the village for years.
Altogether, there were no fewer than fifteen individuals!
She took a deep breath and muttered, "Every time I think I've finally glimpsed the limits of evil in the shinobi world, something even more unimaginable comes along."
So many people engaged in the smuggling and sale of prohibited drugs, all within the small confines of Konohagakure.
How many lives had this vile trade already destroyed in Konoha?
Tachibana Jirō had once mentioned that several people die every year in the village due to prohibited drugs.
And those still barely hanging on, tormented by addiction… were too many to count.
A sharp gleam of killing intent flashed through the girl's eyes.
Her grip on the notebook tightened unconsciously.
"Senpai, should we—"
"We'll split up." Uchiha Keizumi, as always, immediately saw through Izumi's thoughts—her emotions all too easily written across her face. He said expressionlessly, "You'll deal with the civilian merchants and civilian shinobi on the list. To be safe, Jirō will go with you. I'll handle the rest—the clan shinobi."
"Yes, Senpai!"
Off to the side, Kakashi watched in silence as Uchiha Keizumi walked past him. Sensibly, he stepped aside to make way.
Izumi scooped up Jirō and quickly followed.
She even took a moment to remind Naruto and Sasuke before heading out.
"…Absolute Justice, huh…"
Now alone in the underground chamber, Kakashi looked once again at the corpses sprawled across the floor—each one bearing a hideous death—and at the contraband drugs littered throughout the basement. He murmured, "He truly embodies what he preaches. Killing his own clansmen without hesitation… he really won't tolerate evil at all."
"If Uzumaki Naruto chooses to uphold this kind of 'Absolute Justice' in the future… honestly, would that really be such a wrong path? The village already owes that kid so much. Letting him act on his own for once—what's the harm? At least with Absolute Justice, he wouldn't become a rogue ninja."
Kakashi's thoughts drifted to Obito—the Obito who once so earnestly wished to become Hokage of Konoha… now a traitor to the village, a traitor to his past.
If Uchiha Keizumi hadn't revealed Obito's secrets right in front of him, he would've still been left completely in the dark.
A bold thought crept into Kakashi's mind—one that even he found startling.
—Can the Will of Fire really make Konoha better?
His father had believed in the Will of Fire, only to be hounded to suicide by the village's backlash.
Obito had believed in it too, and now he was a missing-nin.
Even Danzō claimed to uphold the Will of Fire—but everyone knew exactly what kind of man he was.
And as for Kakashi himself—he, too, had believed in it. Yet one by one, everyone he had known… had left him behind.
In his memory, Konoha had been steadily declining.
At the very least, the current Konoha was significantly weaker than it had been before the Third Great Ninja War.
Kakashi fell silent, lost in thought.
"If you don't want to be buried in a sea of flames along with over a tonne of contraband drugs, you'd better get up here."
A sudden, faint voice snapped Kakashi out of his thoughts and sent a chill down his spine. He immediately hurried up the stairs.
At the top stood Uchiha Keizumi, positioned right at the entrance of the underground chamber.
What Kakashi saw next stunned him—molten lava was flowing down Keizumi's arm!
The moment he stepped out, that scalding-hot magma surged downward like a mudslide, violently flooding the chamber below.
In just a few short seconds, the lava filled the underground space completely, reducing everything inside to ash.
Cold sweat ran down Kakashi's back.
This method of destroying contraband was… excessively hardcore. If Keizumi hadn't warned him, he might have been cremated right alongside the drugs!
"Sasuke!"
Suddenly, a group of people burst into the house. Leading them was someone who called out Sasuke's name directly.
Hearing that familiar voice, Sasuke turned around in shock.
"…Father?!"
"Father? Huh? Wha—?!" Naruto turned in wide-eyed surprise toward Uchiha Fugaku. "This stiff-faced uncle is your dad? I've seen him twice before!"
Sasuke: "???"
The newcomers were indeed Fugaku and several members of the Police Force.
Fugaku's eyelid twitched imperceptibly.
If he had a choice, he would have preferred never to encounter the Jinchūriki again.
Shaking off those jumbled thoughts, Fugaku frowned and scolded, "Sasuke! Why didn't you go straight home after school? What are you doing in a place like this?"
Sasuke hung his head low, nervously clutching the hem of his clothes. He didn't dare utter a word. Fugaku's strict upbringing had left him too intimidated to even think of rebelling—let alone talk back to his father, whose presence radiated authority.
Fugaku glanced at the entrance to the underground chamber—the magma was now nearly spilling over the edge.
Feeling the intense heat saturating the air, he furrowed his brow and asked, "Keizumi, what is this…?"
"Clan Head Fugaku, Keizumi-senpai is carrying out justice!"
Izumi stepped forward and spoke up on Keizumi's behalf, making a point to highlight that Uchiha Hayata, Uchiha Masa, and Uchiha Naoto had been involved in large-scale smuggling and trafficking of prohibited drugs.
Fugaku's brow twitched sharply.
Even though Izumi hadn't said it outright, the words carrying out justice, paired with that lava-flooded chamber, left no room for doubt.
—Keizumi had executed three fellow Uchiha clansmen!
By now, those three corpses were likely submerged in magma!
And one of them… posed a particularly thorny problem for Fugaku.
Uchiha Hayata—he was none other than the direct grandson of Elder Uchiha Setsuna!
Fugaku could hardly imagine how that already radical elder would react once he learned that Keizumi had killed his only grandson!
Fugaku could already smell it…
—The scent of an impending civil conflict within the Uchiha Clan.
He hadn't expected that before the conflict between the Uchiha and Konoha could even erupt, a conflict within the Uchiha Clan itself was already on the verge of breaking out.
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