Hiruzen braced one hand against the bed, attempting to sit up.
Itachi immediately stepped forward and helped support him.
With his back resting against the cold wall of the ward, Sarutobi Hiruzen's clouded yet still sharp old eyes locked onto Uchiha Itachi's gaze.
"Itachi," Hiruzen said slowly, enunciating each word, "I hope you can rein in this dangerous idea in your heart. You don't have to believe that wiping out the entire Uchiha clan is the only way to solve the problem. When you think your clansmen are being extreme, have you considered that such a thought of yours is, in itself, also rather extreme?"
"It's not that I don't understand the Uchiha clan's little schemes, but the reason I've never moved against them is because I have my considerations as Hokage of Konoha. This is not hesitation or indecisiveness on my part—this is… politics, a balance."
Itachi interjected, "When the Ino–Shika–Chō trio stood forward, you swallowed your hatred. Was that also a form of balance?"
"…Yes."
Hiruzen sighed. "The Ino–Shika–Chō combination has too many ties across every facet of Konoha. When they chose to stand together on Uchiha Keizumi's side…"
"…this contest between my Will of Fire and Keizumi's Absolute Justice—consider it a match in which I misplayed my move. The Hokage is not an autocrat over Konoha, so I had no choice but to compromise."
Hiruzen glanced at the torn corner of the hospital bed's blanket.
He said quietly, "It's not that I'm not angry, nor that I don't care about losing my son. But to keep Konoha from falling into chaos, I had to compromise."
"Itachi, I hope you can understand this hardship."
"Sometimes, you need to compromise as well. A momentary compromise doesn't mean defeat—it just gives you more room to think."
Uchiha Itachi fell silent for a long time, suddenly realizing that this man, hailed as the 'Strongest Shinobi of Konoha,' the Third Hokage, was often pushed forward by the relentless 'current' of events.
The Hokage's power was not as omnipotent as he had once imagined.
At least, when faced with the united shinobi clans of Konoha, even though the Third Hokage dearly wanted to avenge his son's murder, in the end he could only swallow his grief and rage, choosing silent compromise.
Itachi couldn't help but wonder—why was it like this?
It seemed he had reached a conclusion.
—The Hokage lacked the power to intimidate all of Konoha.
Back when Shimura Danzō was still alive, even if the Root was somewhat difficult to control, that black blade still hung over many Konoha shinobi like the Sword of Damocles.
That was the power the Hokage used to keep the entire village in check.
But with Koharu now in control of the Root, it had become more like a second ANBU—stripped of its former deterrence.
And all of this was connected to Uchiha Keizumi!
This power to intimidate Konoha had been stripped away by Uchiha Keizumi!
"Hokage-sama, I understand."
Uchiha Itachi gave a slight nod as he spoke.
Sarutobi Hiruzen forced a faint smile. "Itachi, you truly are the Uchiha I value the most… and the most unique young man of your clan."
Right now, his mind was already in enough turmoil. If the Itachi before him were to enact a "Night of Clan Extermination" in Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen suspected he might simply keel over again.
But—
As he watched Uchiha Itachi's back disappear into the distance, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but fall into thought.
Itachi…
Did he truly understand?
…
"Tsunade-sama, look over there!" Shizune, holding Tonton in one arm, urgently pointed toward the glow of fire not far ahead. "Uchiha Keizumi should be over there, right? He's a shinobi with both Lava Release and the Sharingan—two kekkei genkai."
Just as she was about to run forward, she noticed that Tsunade, beside her, had one hand braced on a streetlamp pole and wasn't moving.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune began to ask in concern—only to be startled when she saw that Tsunade's face had turned completely pale.
"No… no need to look at the fire…"
Tsunade's voice trembled. "Just look at those corpses on the ground—you'll know which way he went."
Shizune froze.
Her gaze instinctively returned to the glow of the flames in the distance, then drifted downward—and her pupils constricted in shock. "This…"
What came into view was corpse after corpse, all drenched in fresh blood.
Each one had died in a gruesome manner.
Some were split cleanly from head to toe.
Others were decapitated, their severed heads—large as a bucket—rolling to the side.
The only thing they all had in common was the sheer volume of blood spilling from them.
Of course…
Tsunade-sama must have reacted this way because of all that blood!
"Shizune…" Tsunade gritted her teeth. "Quick! Gather up all the money that Uchiha brat left on these corpses! This… this will be our gambling funds for the next month! We can't let anyone else discover this little goldmine!"
"Hurry it up—the way that Uchiha brat is killing criminals, at this rate, he could wipe out all of Tanzaku Town in a single night… we can't let someone else beat us to it!"
Shizune: "…"
Perhaps… Tsunade-sama's gambling addiction had narrowly triumphed over her hemophobia.
Shizune looked at the mangled corpses, exasperation written all over her face.
For some reason, she felt a chill crawl down her spine.
"Absolute Justice…" Shizune muttered under her breath. "I wonder how the shinobi back in the village view this Uchiha Keizumi."
…
"You… you monster! I've never done anything to offend you, have I? I don't even know you! Why are you trying to kill me? Even shinobi have to follow the laws of the Land of Fire, don't they?"
"If… if you kill me, that's a serious crime! Even if you're a shinobi, you can't just go around killing people!"
Somewhere in Tanzaku Town, a man in a business suit had collapsed to the ground, his legs too weak to support him. A foul, indescribable stench leaked from between his legs, making the whole scene utterly pathetic.
Three people already lay dead beside him—every one of them decapitated—and they had all been expensive shinobi bodyguards he had hired.
Yet…
Those three shinobi bodyguards—whom he had considered formidable—were nothing but pitifully weak in the hands of the monster before him.
"And those three you killed… they were all shinobi from Konohagakure!"
Watching helplessly as the monster walked toward him, the man couldn't hold back his panic and despair. He shouted, "If you let me live, I won't tell anyone about this! Otherwise… do you really want to be hunted down by the shinobi of Konoha? I've heard there are thousands—tens of thousands—of them!"
"Meow, Keizumi-sama is a Konoha shinobi," Tachibana Jirō sneered. "Are you asking Keizumi-sama to hunt himself down?"
"Th–the cat… the cat talked…" The man stared in wide-eyed shock.
[Pfft—]
That dumbfounded expression froze on his face.
Because the blade of a shinobi sword had just severed his head.
"The blade's dull."
Uchiha Keizumi examined the weapon in his hand—it was nothing more than a standard-issue sword from the Police Force. With a casual flick to shake off the blood, he slid it back into its scabbard. His expression unreadable, he stepped over the corpses at his feet, leaving behind a mountain of bodies and a sea of blood.
No one knew exactly how many red-named criminals Uchiha Keizumi had killed in just this half-hour.
At first, Tachibana Jirō had been enthusiastically counting them.
But before long, he realized he'd lost track—the speed at which Keizumi-sama killed was simply too fast!
And Keizumi-sama never listened to a single word of explanation from the criminals.
See—
Kill.
That was all he had been doing, over and over, in the span of thirty minutes.
Now—
The whole of Tanzaku Town had descended into terror and chaos. Blood-soaked corpses littered the ground, each one testing the limits of every onlooker's fragile nerves.
More than that—several buildings were already swallowed by raging flames, with countless corpses burned into unrecognizable char.
The panic was spreading fast.
…
"That's… far too many dead!"
By now, Shizune wasn't just unsettled—an indescribable dread had taken root deep inside her. It even made her start to wonder: Tsunade-sama… are all the people Uchiha Keizumi killed truly criminals? Was not a single one innocent? And how does he judge them?
One question after another, yet none had an answer.
Even with Tsunade urging her on, forcing her to scoop up wad after wad of cash—by now holding what must be several million ryō—Shizune couldn't calm her mind.
Especially with the sticky, clinging feel of blood-soaked banknotes in her hands, a chill seeped right down to her bones.
Tsunade, still leaning on the streetlamp, no longer looked as excited as before.
The woman—whose heart was still that of a young girl—now had a pale, heavy expression on her face.
"How did that Uchiha brat kill so many people?"
Tsunade had thought that tonight, at most, a few dozen would die.
From what she knew of Tanzaku Town, there were certainly a few dozen criminals here who deserved nothing less than the death penalty.
But—
"The number of corpses has already hit triple digits!" In the depths of Tsunade's eyes, a flicker of horror appeared. "And it looks like that brat has no intention of stopping!"
Things were turning out far beyond what she had expected.
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