At some point, two thin trails of tears had already traced down Hayate's cheeks. He heard Uchiha Keizumi's voice: "These are the memories of your brother and your mother's corpse, extracted by the Yamanaka clan."
"You people never understand someone like me, who believes in Absolute Justice. And likewise… I cannot understand people like you."
"I have given you the answer to your doubts about the ultimate means of justice. Now, Gekkō Hayate, you should tell me—why do you choose to give your kindness and tolerance to a villain?"
With a dull thud, Hayate's knees hit the ground, his entire body drained of strength.
He lowered his head, staring at his trembling hands.
Every word Uchiha Keizumi had spoken kept echoing in his ears.
He…
He realized he couldn't answer at all.
Yes… why had he chosen to give kindness and tolerance to someone like that?
Just because the person was his younger brother?
Just because they shared the bond of blood?
But… Seisui had already become so twisted and diseased that he would kill even his own mother.
"I'm deeply sorry!!!"
Before he knew it, tears and snot were streaming down his face. Gekkō Hayate bowed deeply to Uchiha Keizumi in a perfect dogeza.
In that moment, although he still didn't understand why he had once held such thoughts, he did understand why Uchiha Keizumi insisted on carrying out justice with such absolute means.
If one asked how to punish such twisted villains—
—The only answer was to kill!!!
…
Three days later.
Konohagakure.
Though recently discharged from the hospital, Sarutobi Hiruzen had not regained much of his strength. Even so, the affairs of the village still required the Hokage's hand.
Especially the messes Uchiha Keizumi had stirred up in the village recently—each one demanded his personal attention.
That said, during the few days Keizumi had been away from Konoha, Hiruzen felt the whole village had become much quieter, even… more "peaceful."
It had also allowed him to properly hold a funeral for Sarutobi Asuma without incident.
In recent days, although the Uchiha Police Force had occasionally arrested criminals and thrown them in jail, at least no one had been killed.
Back when Uchiha Keizumi was in the village, one death a day was just the warm-up—
Usually several died in a day, and at its most extreme, over a dozen could be killed in a single day.
Business at Konoha's funeral hall had been thriving.
To outsiders, it might have seemed as if Konoha were in the midst of wartime.
However…
This rare peace and calm did not last long.
When an ANBU operative rushed in to report new intel, Hiruzen nearly bit through the mouthpiece of his pipe.
"Hokage-sama!" the ANBU said urgently. "Uzumaki Naruto… just nearly killed someone!"
"Cough… cough, cough, cough!!!"
Hiruzen choked hard, eyes watering. Once he finally recovered, he stared wide-eyed, the corners of his eyes red, at the ANBU before him.
"What happened?!"
The ANBU immediately replied, "Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke were following Uchiha Izumi through the village to 'execute justice.' They encountered a criminal in the act, and apparently, the man's crimes enraged Naruto. Naruto stabbed him in the abdomen with a kunai."
"Fortunately, ANBU Yamanaka, who was monitoring Naruto, intervened in time. The criminal, though severely wounded, was not killed by Naruto."
"However… Uchiha Izumi, standing nearby, finished the job—she cut the man's head clean off."
Hiruzen: "…"
Every word the ANBU spoke left Sarutobi Hiruzen slightly dazed.
What on earth was going on? Why had Naruto become even more uncontrollable after Keizumi left Konoha?
When Keizumi was still in the village, Naruto at least wouldn't grab a dangerous weapon like a kunai and attack a suspect, right?
Since this incident involved the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, Hiruzen had no choice but to set aside his paperwork. Rising to his feet, his aged face set in grim lines, he said, "Take me there."
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
...
Before long—
Led by the ANBU, Hiruzen arrived at the Nara clan compound.
Standing at the gates, he fell silent for a moment.
In his mind flashed the events that had taken place days ago in Konoha Hospital—how the combined pressure from the Ino–Shika–Chō trio had forced him to swallow his pride. Ever since then, more than a few members of the Sarutobi clan had looked at their Third Hokage with a peculiar expression in their eyes.
A faint shadow crossed Hiruzen's gaze—quickly concealed.
"Hokage-sama."
"Hokage-sama."
From inside the Nara compound, Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi greeted him in unison, as if they had known all along the Third Hokage would come.
Hiruzen took a deep breath and gave them a slight nod.
Soon—
He saw Naruto, his face marked with a faint bruise, hands still stained with blood. He saw Sasuke, with light scrapes on his knees. He saw Uchiha Izumi standing beside the two boys, and the ANBU Yamanaka watching the jinchūriki from a short distance away.
And he saw the corpse lying on the ground, with a member of the Yamanaka clan performing one of their secret techniques on it.
Hiruzen had been about to scold Izumi—How could you let these two children do something so dangerous? Is this what you and Keizumi call "Absolute Justice," turning a child into a near-murderer?
But then, in the next instant, he remembered—this Uchiha girl was only twelve years old herself. She was also a child.
"Ahem."
He cleared his throat, forcing a kindly smile onto his face. Crouching slightly, he spoke to the sullen-faced Naruto.
"Naruto, Hokage-ojiisan already knows. Can you tell Hokage-ojiisan why you wanted to hurt that man?"
He assumed the gloom on Naruto's face was guilt.
However—
"Hokage-ojiisan! That guy was no better than a beast!" Naruto's answer was immediate and heated. "This morning, Izumi-senpai said a ninja cat had found a case and that she could take me and Sasuke to see how Absolute Justice handles things."
"Then we found that bastard, that animal… he actually… actually…" Naruto's voice burned with indignation, but he faltered, as if at a loss for words to describe it.
At that moment, Izumi's voice came, calm and steady.
"The suspect was a Konoha genin. He had violated his own biological daughter."
"When he realized Police Force shinobi were coming to arrest him, he pressed a blade to the neck of his naked daughter, attempting to use her life to threaten the arresting officers."
"I had just used the Sharingan to put him under control when Naruto grabbed a kunai from my tool pouch and stabbed the suspect in the abdomen."
"The pain snapped him out of the genjutsu. He kicked Naruto over, and when Sasuke went in to help, he shoved Sasuke aside as well."
"The ANBU assigned to monitor Naruto stepped in to stop him when he gritted his teeth, got back up, and tried to rush the suspect again."
"I then took the suspect's head off with one stroke of my blade.
"Third Hokage, that's the cause, the process, and the outcome. Instead of questioning Naruto on why he attacked that man, you might as well praise him for his sense of justice. He truly has the potential to embrace Absolute Justice."
Once the girl's clear voice fell, the Yamanaka clan shinobi who had been reading the corpse's memories also stood up.
In his hand was a notebook containing notes on the suspect's criminal acts.
Having just witnessed memories that pushed the boundaries of morality itself, the Yamanaka shinobi's eyes held a faint shadow as he sided with Uchiha Izumi.
"That's exactly how it happened.
"When his crimes were exposed, he even tried to kill the daughter he had violated, attempting to drag her down with him."
Sarutobi Hiruzen: "…"
Hiruzen fell silent again, realizing that opening with criticism toward Naruto might have been wrong.
After all…
Who would have thought Konoha would harbor such a vile man?
In theory, with Uchiha Keizumi—who could see through the evil in others—absent from the village, cases like this should have eased off a bit. So why did it feel like the pace had only slowed, without any sign of stopping?
Hiruzen looked at the bloodstained corpse lying before him.
The expression on his aged face was deeply conflicted.
My Konoha… what has become of it?
…
Meanwhile—
At the border of the Land of Fire.
"Keizumi… I didn't expect Hokage-sama would have you delivering classified intelligence."
A flicker of complexity crossed the fearsome face of Morino Ibiki as he spoke.
"It's been years since we last met, hasn't it? The last time I saw you, you were only eleven—back then, you dumped a bunch of criminals on me so I could use torture to pry open their mouths and make them confess their crimes.
"Later… once you built good ties with the Yamanaka clan, you no longer needed my methods. With their secret techniques, you could uncover any crimes those people were hiding."
Then Ibiki's gaze shifted to Tachibana Jirō.
"This ninja cat… you're the same tagalong from the Third Great Ninja War who used to follow Keizumi around, aren't you?"
"Show a bit more respect when talking to a cat, meow! I'm Keizumi-sama's most capable assistant!"
Tachibana Jirō immediately retorted, "You'd better learn the difference between an assistant and a tagalong—the tagalong now is the rookie, Uchiha Izumi!"
"Rookie…?" A trace of curiosity crossed Ibiki's face.
Tachibana Jirō said, "A newcomer who recognizes Keizumi-sama's Absolute Justice—just a bit too green, that's all."
Ibiki looked slightly surprised.
"Recognizes Keizumi's Absolute Justice? Heh… interesting."
With his hands in his pockets, he turned to Uchiha Keizumi.
"So, Keizumi, you've finally decided not to fight alone anymore?"
Uchiha Keizumi said, "Relying on one person's Absolute Justice alone is not enough to cleanse all the evil in the shinobi world."
Morino Ibiki slowly exhaled, lifting his head to look at the clear blue sky. He murmured, "I really would like to see what a shinobi world without evil—or at least with evil greatly suppressed—would look like…"
"Keizumi, I've even heard about your actions in Konoha recently. Killing your former jōnin instructor… killing your only blood relative…"
"Hah! With convictions and resolve like yours, many like-minded people should be rallying to you. But unfortunately, you're just not very good at expressing your emotions."
Keizumi replied, "Whether they rally to me or believe in Absolute Justice doesn't matter to me. As long as they firmly believe that justice and fairness still exist in the shinobi world, that's enough."
Ibiki sighed. "You're still such an idealist."
"Well… that's true.
"If not for idealism, who would be willing to sacrifice everything, even their life, to uphold justice? I can only hope that when I return to Konoha, those old friends of mine will still be alive."
After voicing his thoughts as if to himself, Ibiki tucked the scroll containing the classified documents into his chest, then suddenly asked Keizumi, "Heading back to the village next, aren't you?"
Keizumi said calmly, "I'll be stopping by the capital of the Land of Fire first."
Ibiki blinked. "The capital? Don't tell me the Hokage gave you two missions at once?"
Keizumi shook his head. "It's not a shinobi mission."
"It's better if you don't get curious," Keizumi added. "The moment you learn the truth, you might be willing to risk your own life just to stop me from going to the capital."
Ibiki's eyes narrowed, possibilities flashing through his mind—some of them extremely bold guesses.
"Heh… never mind," Ibiki said. "Dying at an enemy's hand is one thing, but dying at the hands of a comrade from the same village would be far too frustrating."
He did not indulge his curiosity—
Instead, he pushed it down.
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