"You're still too young. As you are now, you're not qualified to take a life."
Keizumi's voice was calm and indifferent.
"But I saw it—the resolve to raise your blade against evil."
With a light twist of his wrist, Keizumi applied force.
Naruto couldn't help but let go.
In his dazed gaze, he watched as Keizumi gripped the hilt—and, without hesitation, drove the blade downward.
[Squelch—]
The ninja blade pierced straight into the heart of the Konoha shinobi. A splash of blood sprayed across Naruto's small face.
It jolted him back to his senses.
He stared, wide-eyed, at the side of Keizumi's face.
"Uzumaki Naruto," Keizumi turned his gaze toward him, locking eyes with Naruto's bright blue ones.
"The resolve you showed in daring to strike at evil… has allowed you to pass the first trial of [Justice]."
Naruto's eyes widened, and the dazed look on his face was gradually replaced by joy.
So this was a test from Keizumi-sensei!
Beside them, Sasuke couldn't help but ask, "So if the dobe hadn't managed to strike… would he have failed the test?"
He recalled some of the unsavory rumors about Uchiha Keizumi from within the clan.
"And if he failed… would you have killed him? I heard you once trained two Police Force trainees—and when they didn't meet your expectations, you killed them…"
His words made Naruto's heart skip a beat.
Wait—did I just brush past the gates of hell without realizing it?!
No, that can't be right! Keizumi-sensei wouldn't do something like that… right?
But Keizumi's response sent chills down Naruto's spine: "Only one died. The other suffered mental trauma… and has been hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Konoha Hospital for quite a while now."
Naruto: "!!!"
"But…" Keizumi said mildly, "the one I killed wasn't because he failed to meet expectations. It was because he bore sin within him—he tried to infiltrate the ranks of justice, to defile its sanctity."
Sasuke blinked. Then it clicked—that Police trainee must've been a bad guy all along!
He believed Keizumi's explanation.
Even Sasuke himself didn't know why he trusted him so much.
"Tch… he scared the hell out of me too."
Hidden in the shadows, Kakashi, who had been secretly watching over Naruto, finally let out a breath of relief.
He, like Naruto and Sasuke, had genuinely thought Keizumi would force Naruto to kill someone himself.
His eyes drifted to the corpse on the ground, and he twitched slightly at the sight.
"Another ninja from a shinobi clan…"
He had no idea how Hokage was going to clean up this mess.
Uchiha Keizumi had offended quite a few ninja clans tonight.
But whatever headache awaited the Hokage—it wasn't Kakashi's concern.
Squatting on a rooftop, hands buried in his pockets, Kakashi murmured, "At least when Hokage-sama hears that Naruto didn't actually do the killing… he'll probably breathe a little easier. Out of a dozen bad news items, that might be the only good one."
...
Meanwhile.
Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn't even had time to fully process his headache before another problem walked right through the door—Utatane Koharu, face dark, storming into the Hokage Tower under cover of night.
"Hiruzen!"
Koharu pushed the door open, clearly ready to speak her mind—only to pause when she saw the room already packed with a sizable number of ANBU shinobi.
Her arrival didn't surprise Hiruzen in the slightest.
After all, Keizumi had just killed two shinobi from the Utatane Clan.
Hiruzen let out a sigh.
"I was already informed in advance."
"How convenient…" came another voice.
Accompanied by several guards from the Mitokado Clan, Mitokado Homura also stepped into the Hokage Tower.
"I figured you'd still be here at this hour, Hiruzen."
Koharu turned to look at Homura, frowning slightly as if realizing something.
"You're here because of Uchiha Keizumi too?"
Homura inhaled deeply, eyes shadowed with bitterness.
"My cousin—was killed by him. Decapitated."
He asked, "You said 'too.' So that means…"
Koharu's expression darkened.
"Two members of the Utatane Clan are dead!"
The two senior advisors exchanged glances.
They hadn't expected to find themselves in such mutual misfortune.
"Hokage-sama!"
Suddenly, yet another person rushed in—it was the clan head of one of the smaller shinobi clans in Konoha. Furious, he cried out, "Uchiha Keizumi barged into our clan compound without warning—and killed one of our younger members!"
"…Huh?"
Only after finishing his complaint did the man notice something was off—the atmosphere in the office was strange.
And why were there so many people here?
"Hiruzen…"
Just as Koharu was about to speak again, Hiruzen cut her off with a shake of his head.
"Wait. More will be arriving soon. Let's speak once everyone's here."
He sighed once more, this time even more heavily.
"Keizumi… by tonight's count, he's already killed at least a dozen people. More will be showing up to see me."
Koharu: "???"
Homura: "…"
...
At the same time, in the Uchiha Clan district.
Elder Uchiha Setsuna, fingers idly rubbing his cane as he pondered something in silence, was suddenly interrupted by one of his subordinates from the radical faction.
"Elder Setsuna! An hour ago, Uchiha Keizumi killed three members of our clan within the district!"
Setsuna's eyelid twitched instantly.
The motion of his fingers came to a halt.
"As expected… That radical little brat was always going to turn his blade against his own kin one day. I just didn't think that day would come so soon! Hmph."
"Whose side were the ones he killed on?"
His voice was cold.
If the ones killed had belonged to Fugaku's side—the soft-hearted Uchiha who always sided with outsiders—then Setsuna would've been more than happy to applaud.
But the Uchiha shinobi delivering the report suddenly hesitated.
That pause instantly gave Uchiha Setsuna a bad feeling.
His eyes narrowed. "Speak!"
"Elder Setsuna, the ones who died were Uchiha Naoto and Uchiha Masa—"
Just hearing those two names was enough to ignite Setsuna's fury.
He knew them well—both young radicals from his own faction. Both had awakened the Sharingan, and both had shown great promise.
"And… Uchiha Hayata."
When the final name reached his ears—
Setsuna froze.
His arm began to tremble, the muscles in his face twitching uncontrollably. His cloudy eyes filled with disbelief. A sharp pain twisted in his chest as he gasped for breath, the name Uchiha Hayata echoing in his mind over and over.
Then—
The sudden sound of unfamiliar footsteps snapped him out of it.
He raised his eyes, now dark and full of murderous intent.
"...Fugaku!!!"
The uninvited guest was none other than Uchiha Fugaku.
"Elder Setsuna." Surrounded by members of the Police Force, Fugaku looked at the clearly unstable elder before him. His expression flickered with a trace of complexity—but his voice remained firm.
"Uchiha Hayata and the others were targeted by Keizumi because they were involved in the large-scale smuggling and sale of forbidden drugs."
With a stern face, he continued, "I doubt three young Uchiha could have accomplished that much trafficking on their own. Especially not under the radar—inside our own district."
Setsuna clenched his fists.
But he didn't respond to Fugaku's implication.
Fugaku went on, his voice steady, "Since the wrongdoing lies with those three, I ask that Elder Setsuna let this matter rest. I won't dig into certain... hidden details."
"I don't want to see internal conflict erupt within the Uchiha clan."
The phrase "I just don't want to see internal conflict within the Uchiha Clan" made the grim-faced Uchiha Setsuna laugh from sheer rage.
He raised his head and stared coldly into Fugaku's calm eyes.
"Fugaku, are you threatening me? If I don't do as you say, are you going to have me arrested?"
Setsuna's voice came out as a raspy accusation.
Uchiha Fugaku replied, "If, after a thorough investigation, it's found that you were not involved in the smuggling and distribution of contraband drugs, then naturally we won't lay a hand on you. I simply don't want to see chaos erupt within the Uchiha Clan—nothing more."
Setsuna clenched his teeth so tightly that his gums began to bleed.
Tasting the metallic tang of blood in his mouth, his voice dropped to a dark growl.
"Heheh… What a noble reason—'to avoid chaos.' You really are a 'competent' clan head, Fugaku."
"But you're only good at threatening me. You don't have what it takes to stop Uchiha Keizumi, do you? If that brat hadn't meddled in things he shouldn't, would I be this furious right now?!"
"You can't control him, can you? If you could, my grandson wouldn't have died at his hands, would he?"
Fugaku fell silent.
Because everything Setsuna had said was true. Between Uchiha Setsuna and Uchiha Keizumi, the weaker link—the one easier to suppress—was Setsuna.
He couldn't rein in Keizumi. But as clan head, he could use his authority to keep Setsuna in check.
"Heh… I was just a step too late."
Setsuna no longer met Fugaku's gaze. He lowered his head slightly, his voice hoarse and eerie.
"If I had been faster... my grandson wouldn't have died."
Those strange and cryptic words made Fugaku furrow his brows slightly.
"Fugaku, I have a piece of information that might interest you."
Setsuna spoke with his head bowed, seemingly to himself.
"Uchiha Keizumi's Lava Release—though it does possess a bizarre ability to nullify most physical attacks—isn't actually passive. It requires him to form hand seals in advance and activate a technique called Lava Release: Chakra Armor Form. It's a Lava Release jutsu he created himself."
"I went to great lengths to figure out how to counter him before he could make a move against me! So tell me… if I were to plant a large number of explosive tags and detonate them before he activates his Lava Release technique—wouldn't that be enough to blow him to pieces?!"
Fugaku's pupils narrowed ever so slightly.
There was no way Setsuna would say all this without a reason.
Could it be…
A chilling, almost unbelievable possibility crept into Fugaku's mind.
"Of course, I don't have that many explosive tags myself. And the explosive tags our Uchiha Clan possesses are meant for use against Konoha's Hokage—how could we possibly waste them on a brat like him?"
"But... this morning, a certain shinobi clan came to me. They want to kill Uchiha Keizumi, and they asked me to join them."
"Heheh… Even though there are barely two or three of them left, like scattered cats, they still have some hidden strength."
"What a shame though…"
Uchiha Setsuna let out a long sigh.
"Some of the young ones under my command have already been brainwashed by Uchiha Keizumi's so-called [Absolute Justice]. Even if I wanted to cooperate with that shinobi clan, those youngsters wouldn't agree to it."
For some reason, a faint sense of relief stirred in Fugaku's chest.
Keizumi truly was a thorn in his side—at times, even he had felt frustration, even murderous intent, toward some of Keizumi's more extreme actions.
But once he calmed down, Fugaku would always come to the same realization: the Uchiha Clan could not afford to lose Keizumi.
Because Keizumi's overwhelming strength was a foundational pillar of stability.
Even if the upper echelons of Konoha wanted to move against the Uchiha, even knowing full well that Keizumi wouldn't necessarily side with the clan, they still wouldn't dare act hastily against them—not while he was around.
After all, better safe than sorry…
No one could guarantee that Uchiha Keizumi wouldn't, out of nowhere, suddenly rise to defend the clan.
This was one of the main reasons Fugaku had always chosen to endure Keizumi's provocations.
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