A flicker of displeasure passed between Fugaku's brows. He could only think that Izumi had spent too much time with Keizumi and become too deeply influenced—so much so that she no longer even showed him, the clan head, proper respect.
If Sasuke started hanging around Keizumi as well, he couldn't imagine what kind of person his younger son would grow up to be.
Just as Fugaku was about to speak, he suddenly noticed that everyone present had, as if on cue, turned their gazes toward the blazing inferno ahead.
Fugaku also felt a foreboding sense of something, and turned to look—Koharu did the same.
"...Uchiha Keizumi!!!"
Koharu's voice rang out sharply.
There, in full view of the crowd, a figure stepped out from the scorched ruins of the Shimura clan compound—now engulfed in a sea of magma and fire.
The raging flames all around and the molten rock underfoot—
None of it could even scratch his body!
"Even the entire Shimura clan combined couldn't put a shred of pressure on him…" Fugaku murmured to himself, his voice laced with disbelief. Even knowing they weren't Keizumi's match… this was just too effortless.
"But still…"
A shadow of worry clouded Fugaku's gaze. He had just witnessed a single Uchiha wipe out an entire shinobi clan. How would Konoha's upper ranks now view the Uchiha?
His eyes couldn't help but flick toward Koharu standing beside him.
And when he saw her aging face twist into a deeper expression of resistance and hostility, Fugaku's heart sank.
Damn it!
Keizumi's actions had inevitably affected the entire Uchiha clan—
Once again souring the higher-ups' perception of them!
Had all their painstaking efforts gone to waste again?
Fugaku clenched his fists… then slowly released them. Frustration and deep disappointment washed over him. Why… why couldn't Keizumi consider the hardship and burden he bore as the clan head?
"Keizumi-senpai!!!" Izumi raised her arm high and called out loudly. Her voice cut through the tension like a blade, drawing everyone's attention.
Tachibana Jirō padded up beside the girl, his cat tail swishing upright.
"Meow. Without that old mutt Danzō, the Shimura clan isn't even worth mentioning!" Jirō sneered. "They actually thought they could assassinate Keizumi-sama? Challenge [Absolute Justice]? The moment they allowed evil thoughts to fester against [Justice], their fate was already sealed—they would be purged by justice itself!"
Fugaku cast a slight glance toward Tachibana Jirō, unsettled. Even a ninja cat had been swayed to this extent by Keizumi's [Absolute Justice].
Why hadn't he realized before how brainwashing this extreme black-and-white ideology could be?
A growing sense of unease took hold of Fugaku.
If more members of the Uchiha clan were influenced by Keizumi, what kind of threat would the Uchiha become?
Moreover—
In Itachi's eyes, a Uchiha clan that embraced [Absolute Justice] would surely be seen as a major threat to Konoha's stability. Wouldn't that push Itachi to repeat the tragedy of the Clan Massacre?
A heavy weight settled in Fugaku's heart.
…
Yamanaka Inoichi watched Uchiha Keizumi emerge from the blaze. Under Nara Shikaku's astonished gaze, he unexpectedly took the initiative to step forward and greet him.
With his naturally stern, expressionless face, Inoichi managed a faint but genuine smile.
"Keizumi, would you like the Yamanaka clan's shinobi to collect and take care of the corpses?"
Uchiha Keizumi gave a slight nod. "Quite a few scoundrels died today—around thirty or so. I'll be troubling you."
Nara Shikaku stroked the short stubble on his chin, then thoughtfully looked toward the not-so-distant "Three Giants of Konoha" of Konoha.
Inoichi's proactive gesture had clearly caught Sarutobi Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura all off guard.
Shikaku keenly picked up on the startled expressions flashing across their faces.
"Inoichi… aren't you being a bit too open about this? Honestly, those three are probably going to lose sleep tonight."
He let out a quiet, helpless chuckle.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was indeed stunned by what he saw. He had known that the Uchiha and the Yamanaka had a fairly good relationship—after all, they worked together almost daily.
And over the years of cooperation, not a single member of the Yamanaka clan had ever been executed by Keizumi in the name of justice.
That meant, in Keizumi's eyes, the Yamanaka were a law-abiding, orderly shinobi clan.
But Hiruzen hadn't expected the relationship to be this close.
At the very moment the Shimura clan had been wiped out, Yamanaka Inoichi—the clan head—had openly stepped forward in front of everyone and made positive contact with Uchiha Keizumi.
The message behind that gesture couldn't be clearer.
Inoichi was blatantly expressing support for Keizumi!
And the Yamanaka weren't even a Kekkei Genkai shinobi clan—how deep could their resentment toward Danzō and the Shimura clan really be?
Then, a sudden thought struck Hiruzen, silencing him.
He remembered the ruins of the former Yamanaka clan compound—
The Yamanaka had nearly been driven to extinction by Danzō.
How could they not hate him? How could they not harbor anger toward the Shimura clan?
So that was why Inoichi would so boldly choose to side with Keizumi…
And do it right in front of me, the Hokage?
A flicker of complexity flashed through the ever-shifting expression on Sarutobi Hiruzen's face.
And just then—
He suddenly noticed Fugaku's younger son begin walking toward Uchiha Keizumi.
…
Sasuke himself didn't quite know where the courage came from. It was as if something beyond his control guided him forward—until, before he knew it, he was standing face-to-face with Uchiha Keizumi.
Though his cuts and bruises had already been treated by medical-nin and were healing well, they still throbbed with pain.
Sasuke looked visibly uneasy, but after taking a deep breath, he did his best to steady himself. With cautious determination, he raised his head and spoke.
"I think… I think I understand what [Justice] means now. [Justice] is about protecting the innocent from being harmed by others—it's about using overwhelming strength to strike fear into those who would do evil. Right?"
"Maybe…" Sasuke's small hands clutched the torn edge of his shirt tightly. He could feel Uchiha Keizumi's gaze drop to meet his—a cold, indifferent look that only made him more nervous.
"Maybe… what my brother, Uchiha Itachi, will do in the future—that would count as the actions of a criminal, wouldn't it? Which means… once he does that, you'll kill him, right?"
Each of Sasuke's tentative questions came out with extreme care.
There was even a fragile humility in his voice, as though he didn't dare to hope for an answer.
Sasuke had always lived under Fugaku's harsh expectations, always being compared to Uchiha Itachi. Despite being the top student in his class, he still lacked true confidence and independence. That deep-rooted inferiority complex—of not measuring up to his brother—had never left him.
"Yes," Uchiha Keizumi replied, without brushing the child off for being only seven.
His answer was clear and concise.
"To be precise," Keizumi added coldly, "I would kill him before he even made a move. When evil is about to unfold before your eyes, if justice does not act in time to stop it, then it becomes justice delivered too late. And to many people, justice that comes too late is no justice at all."
"Then… Uchiha Sasuke," Keizumi asked, "do you intend to stop me from killing your brother? Even after seeing, through genjutsu, what he will one day do to the innocent members of your clan—will you still cling to the bond of blood between brothers?"
Sasuke quickly shook his head. Clenching his teeth, he said firmly, "I already told you—I'll never forgive him for doing something like that! But… even more than that, I don't want to just stand there and watch while danger creeps toward my mother."
He hesitated, then added, "And my father too…"
Sasuke found himself recalling just how powerless he had felt while witnessing, within the genjutsu, Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha clan.
He hated that version of himself—so weak, so helpless.
"That's why… I want to stop him too!" Sasuke's voice grew stronger, his timidity cast aside. He spoke with a seriousness and resolve far beyond his years. "I can't let him fall into the abyss. What he wants to do is wrong. The way he thinks—it's wrong too. He's sick, seriously sick, and I want to beat the truth back into him! I want him to realize that family, and the clan, matter just as much!"
Sasuke's thoughts turned to Uchiha Izumi—Itachi's former friend.
She hadn't always been a strong shinobi. In fact, she used to be quite ordinary.
But ever since she began following Uchiha Keizumi, she had completely transformed—reborn into something far more powerful.
That night, she had stood alone before Uchiha Itachi.
And today, she had fought three Uchiha shinobi by herself.
To Sasuke, this could only mean one thing: Uchiha Keizumi was the reason.
Maybe that was also why that loser—the so-called dead last—followed Keizumi around and shamelessly called him "Keizumi-sensei."
Sasuke quickly continued, "I want to follow you like that loser does—to walk the path of [Justice] with you! Because I know I'll learn things from you that no shinobi academy could ever teach. And I know I can gain a strength from you… that I'd never find in any classroom!"
Sasuke's voice, though trembling with effort, rang out loud and clear—so loud that it made Naruto's eyes go wide and brought a look of surprise to Izumi's young face…
And it nearly made Uchiha Fugaku choke on his breath.
What… did I just hear?
Sasuke, in front of all these prominent figures, had openly declared that he wanted to follow Uchiha Keizumi—the very man who had just wiped out the entire Shimura clan?
Fugaku's hands suddenly itched. His eyes instinctively scanned the surroundings, searching for a convenient weapon.
But then came Keizumi's cold, indifferent response: "I refuse."
Sasuke froze in place, caught completely off guard by the unexpected answer.
Naruto let out a loud "Huh?!" and spun his head left and right in confusion, unsure what to do or say.
Izumi, too, was briefly stunned—then quickly fell into thoughtful silence.
Fugaku, meanwhile, let out a silent sigh of relief… In that moment, he actually felt a trace of gratitude toward Keizumi.
He hadn't expected that this eccentric and radical Uchiha would, in the end, consider what was best for Sasuke.
After all—
If his second son, Sasuke, openly declared allegiance to the man who had just eradicated the Shimura clan… people might see it as a childish whim, something that had nothing to do with Fugaku himself.
But Fugaku knew others wouldn't be so charitable—especially someone like Koharu, who was deeply paranoid by nature.
They would undoubtedly believe that Sasuke's actions had come at his father's behest.
And that would be a real problem.
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