"W-why…" Sasuke's voice trembled slightly. His body stiffened, neck locked, as if the smallest emotional crack might make him cry right then and there.
Uchiha Keizumi looked at him and asked: "Are you pursuing [Justice] to stop Uchiha Itachi? Or are you pursuing [Justice] because you believe in its duty and responsibility? Have you ever asked yourself that?"
"If you do succeed in stopping Uchiha Itachi—what then? Will you quietly return to your studies, graduate, and become an outstanding Konoha shinobi? Will you inherit your father's role as clan head? Or do you intend to become Konoha's future Hokage?"
A flood of questions sent Sasuke into a mental whirlwind.
He tried to picture what he would do after stopping his brother.
Become an outstanding shinobi of Konoha?
Inherit his father's legacy and become head of the Uchiha clan?
Ascend to the position of Hokage?
If this were before, Sasuke would have thought any of those sounded pretty great.
But…
The acrid scent of sulfur in the air slowly brought him back to reality.
Sasuke looked toward the flattened ruins of the Shimura clan compound.
He recalled the three Uchiha shinobi consumed by magma.
He remembered the black-market drug dealers who had died by Uchiha Keizumi's hand.
He thought of Uchiha Itachi's grotesque and extreme future crimes—and that disturbingly twisted personality of his.
And he remembered the tears in his mother's eyes—eyes filled not with anger, but disappointment.
His young face turned pale, lips tightly pressed together. Though the courage he'd summoned earlier had now completely dissipated, he still forced himself to speak.
"Even if I became an outstanding shinobi… even if I inherited the Uchiha name… even if I became Hokage… none of that would really change anything, would it?"
"…Ah."
Suddenly, all the chaos in his mind began to form a clear thread. In his once-confused and downcast eyes, a faint light began to shine through.
"What I really want… is to change everything as it is right now. If the shinobi world no longer had the 'evil' you spoke of… wouldn't things get better? Wouldn't there be no 'Night of the Uchiha Massacre'? Wouldn't no more innocent people have to die for nothing?"
At last, Sasuke managed to say what had always been in his heart—the words he'd struggled to express until now.
"Would that… count as… [Justice]?"
His voice faltered at the end, uncertainty creeping back in.
"Yes."
That one word from Uchiha Keizumi made Sasuke's expression shift from lost to bright with joy—while Fugaku's own face immediately went stiff.
Damn it!
How did his least promising son suddenly start making so much sense?!
In Fugaku's eyes, Uchiha Sasuke would never measure up to Uchiha Itachi. Whether it was talent, comprehension, or capacity—he fell far short on all fronts.
Earlier, when Uchiha Keizumi rejected Sasuke with the reasoning that "Sasuke doesn't understand justice," Fugaku felt both relieved and disappointed.
Sure enough, even Keizumi found Sasuke lacking. It seemed Sasuke truly wasn't even one percent of what Itachi was.
But who could have expected…
Keizumi's rejection had actually jolted Sasuke into a sudden awakening!
His sluggish comprehension seemed to become nimble for once. Somehow, he managed to grasp one of the core tenets of [Justice]!
At that moment—
Fugaku was seized by a terrible premonition. And soon, his fears were confirmed.
Uchiha Keizumi said, "Remember every word you just spoke. Never forget the understanding of [Justice] you've reached today. The shinobi world should never have become like this. At the root of it all is this twisted, pathological system, breeding horrors that make one's skin crawl."
"[Absolute Justice] exists to purge every last one of those evils. And for that goal, even if the price is your life, it's a price worth paying. Uchiha Sasuke—you say you wish to believe in justice. Then do you have the resolve to sacrifice your life for it? Do you have the resolve to shoulder the duties and responsibilities justice demands?"
"I do! I do!" Sasuke bit down and answered both questions with clenched determination, repeating "I do" twice.
Uchiha Keizumi said, "From now on, you may follow at my side as well."
While Sasuke was overwhelmed with joy, Keizumi added coldly, "Let's hope your justice earns a decent score in my eyes."
"…Score?" Sasuke was briefly stunned.
Justice… has a score?!
Izumi, standing nearby, offered clarification. "Sasuke-kun, Keizumi-senpai will be scoring your performance constantly—every moment of every day. The full score is 1,000 points. Only when you reach that number in his eyes will your justice be considered a passing grade."
"But…"
Her tone shifted slightly as she added, "If your score goes into the negatives, Sasuke-kun, there's a real chance you might not survive."
Sasuke: "!!!"
Not survive?!
"Nya~ That's because, in Keizumi-sama's eyes, a negative score means you've chosen to follow justice, but ended up acting in direct betrayal of it. Betraying justice… has serious consequences, nya."
Tachibana Jirō leapt onto Sasuke's small shoulder. The exaggerated weight nearly toppled him to the ground.
Using his paw, Jirō poked Sasuke's now somewhat disheveled face.
He added, "There were once two kids in the Uchiha Police Force who became apprentices under Keizumi-sama. One of them, in his eyes, represented negative justice. And so, Keizumi-sama killed him with his own hands."
"Kid, if you're scared, now's your chance to back out. It's not too late to regret it."
Sasuke was definitely breaking into a cold sweat. This felt even more terrifying than breaking the Uchiha clan's rules.
And yet…
That increasingly unfamiliar face of Uchiha Itachi flickered across Sasuke's mind—followed by those blood-soaked images from the clan massacre, flashing before his eyes like a phantasmagoric reel.
He couldn't help but look at his father. The elder Uchiha's face was tense and rigid, filled with rejection and resistance.
It was as if his father's gaze was telling him to refuse immediately.
His father didn't want him to believe in [Justice].
But…
If he didn't find a way to become stronger—
If he didn't have the resolve to change everything—
If he just waited quietly, like his father, for future tragedies to unfold…
Then that wasn't the future Uchiha Sasuke wanted to wait for!
Even someone like Uzumaki Naruto, the dead-last, wasn't afraid of being judged by Uchiha Keizumi as a "negative score of justice."
So how could he be afraid?!
He was a proud Uchiha!
"I… have no regrets!"
"And I won't back out!"
Sasuke forced himself not to meet his father's eyes. As he looked away, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he caught a flicker of deep disappointment in his father's gaze.
…
"Fugaku, this really is quite the spectacle. The Uchiha clan of Absolute Justice... it seems the Uchiha have found themselves a new path."
Came the sharp, mocking voice of Koharu.
Fugaku's pupils shrank slightly.
"Advisor Koharu…" He tensed up, trying to explain himself, but saw the elder's face already darken with displeasure as she turned her back and left with hands behind her.
From the other side, Homura's voice followed: "Koharu is just furious over Uchiha Keizumi's actions. But because he actually has reason on his side, she can't refute him for now—so she's in a foul mood. Don't take her words to heart, Fugaku."
Lifting his head slightly, Homura continued, "I know you've always been willing to stand with Konoha, and to stand with peace. Isn't that right?"
Fugaku immediately replied, "The Uchiha clan and Konoha should absolutely maintain peace as they ought to."
Homura patted him on the shoulder, said no more, and turned to leave along with Koharu.
Fugaku couldn't stop himself from looking toward Hiruzen.
Only to discover—the Hokage's attention had been fixed on Uzumaki Naruto, the Jinchūriki.
And when Naruto leaned slightly closer to Uchiha Keizumi—
Fugaku sharply noticed the Hokage's expression turn a shade darker.
…
"Tsk, tsk… Asuma, is there some kind of grand 'evening party' in Konoha today? It's quite the lively scene, isn't it?"
Not far from the outskirts of Konoha—
The Eleven Guardian Ninja stood panting lightly, scattered atop the treetops of different large trees after a long journey without rest.
The one speaking sarcastically was Kazuma. With a sneer tugging at the corner of his mouth, he added, "That fire looks pretty serious. If the Hokage of Konoha ends up buried in that sea of flames, wouldn't you say that makes for quite the spectacle?"
Asuma crushed a leaf between his fingers, shooting Kazuma a cold glare.
After easing the fatigue in his body just a bit, Asuma said in a low voice, "All I know is that if you don't put your full focus on Uchiha Keizumi, your arrogance will get you killed. Even Shimura Danzō, the head of Root, was defeated by him. Your cockiness could end up getting all of us killed."
"Asuma, you're overestimating Uchiha Keizumi."
One of the Guardian Shinobi who supported abolishing the Hokage system interjected, "Is it because your brother died at his hands, and your father—the Third Hokage—was too cowardly to strike back at his son's killer, that you hold such a high opinion of this extremist Uchiha?"
"No matter how powerful the 'Lava Release Behemoth' is, he's still just one man. The eleven of us are elite jōnin from the Land of Fire—together, we could take on even a Kage. Why should we cower before him?"
The veins on Asuma's forehead throbbed. Every word from the man was pushing his buttons—especially the mention of his late brother, Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
But for the sake of the bigger picture, Asuma forced himself to endure.
Expressionless, he said coldly, "A shinobi must go all-out, no matter the enemy. The daimyō's orders were for all of you to follow my command. If it's something that shouldn't be said—don't say it."
"We'll rest for a while. Once we've recovered, we'll eliminate that parasitic Uchiha of the Land of Fire, as per the daimyō's command."
"Tch." Upon hearing Asuma invoke the name of the Land of Fire's daimyō again, Kazuma's eyes flickered with disdain.
But he said nothing more.
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