Capital of the Land of Fire.
The daimyō of the Land of Fire was starting to feel that something was wrong. Whether Asuma and his group had succeeded or not, they should at least have sent a summoned beast back to report their current status.
Hadn't they sent a summoned beast before to tell him they were just about to act?
So why, after several days, had there been no news at all?
Pacing anxiously back and forth in his chamber, the daimyō ignored the food laid out before him, which had already gone cold.
His impatience and unease brought a faint sheen of cold sweat to his brow.
The Twelve Guardian Ninja's duty was to protect his life.
Without the Twelve Guardians watching over him, the daimyō lived every day on edge—
Fearing that one day, upon waking, he might see not the young and beautiful concubines in his chamber, but a shinobi assassin sent from an enemy nation. He had no illusions that those samurai who could only swing their blades a few times would be able to keep him safe.
[Knock. Knock. Knock.]
The soft knocking startled the daimyō, sending a shiver through him—until a familiar voice came from outside.
"Father… may I come in?!"
The daimyō recognized the voice as that of his eldest son.
Breathing a little easier, he forced himself to remain composed and said in a deep voice, "Enter."
A young man with a short beard on his chin stepped inside. After offering the daimyō of the Land of Fire a respectful bow, he got straight to the point.
"Father, has Kyosuke's body… been brought back yet?!"
"…"
The daimyō's silence was answer enough.
His eldest son asked in shock, "Eleven members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja went out together, and they still couldn't bring back Kyosuke's body? This…"
The daimyō said gravely, "It's not that they couldn't bring it back—it's just that no word has arrived yet. I have great trust in the abilities of Asuma and Kazuma."
But even as he spoke those words…
The daimyō himself felt far from confident.
"Father, with so many of them going to Konohagakure, surely… their mission wasn't just to retrieve Kyosuke's body, was it?"
This probing question made the daimyō close his eyes and nod.
"I also ordered them to kill that murderer, Uchiha Keizumi.
"They should have completed the mission by now. Perhaps they've simply been in too much of a rush on the road to send word back."
…
Konohagakure.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had rushed to find Naruto, and less than half an hour later, he returned silently to the Hokage's office.
He felt both relief and concern.
Relief that Naruto's attack hadn't been caused by the Tailed Beast inside him losing control.
Concern that, in the name of so-called justice, Naruto—at such a young age—had dared to drive a kunai into a suspect's abdomen.
If the strike had been even slightly higher, piercing the heart, it could have been an instant kill.
Had Absolute Justice already brainwashed him completely?
And the problem was—how many days had it even been?
Hiruzen couldn't understand.
How was it that decades of instilling Konoha's Will of Fire couldn't give Naruto this kind of conviction, yet Uchiha Keizumi's Absolute Justice could?
"Ah…" Hiruzen sighed, feeling as though ever since Uchiha Keizumi's wings had fully spread, his own days as the Third Hokage of Konoha had been nothing but one trouble after another.
Suddenly—
A rapid knock at the door made Hiruzen's brow crease, ruining his brief moment of solitude.
Suppressing a trace of irritation, he had barely said, "Come in," when two Konoha shinobi pushed the door open and entered one after the other.
"Chishu? Kenshi?"
Seeing the travel-worn pair before him, Sarutobi Hiruzen's slightly furrowed brow eased, and he gave a faint smile.
"It seems you've completed the A-rank mission I assigned you. However…"
A flicker of surprise crossed Hiruzen's eyes.
"Why is Hayate missing?"
A faint sense of unease stirred in him—after all, among the younger generation of the Gekkō clan, who had already suffered heavily under Uchiha Keizumi's hand, Gekkō Hayate was the last remaining heir.
If Hayate had died while carrying out the mission…
Hiruzen knew it would be difficult to explain that to the Gekkō clan.
The Konoha shinobi named "Chishu," still catching his breath, said, "Ha… Hayate will be returning to Konoha a day later than us."
Those words immediately eased the tightness in Hiruzen's chest.
"No loss of a single comrade means you carried out the mission perfectly. Outstanding young people like you will one day…"
Just as Hiruzen was about to deliver the customary words of praise—
Chishu, having finally caught his breath, cut in urgently:
"Hokage-sama! There's… been a major incident in the Land of Fire!"
That uneasy feeling returned to Hiruzen. Folding his hands behind his back, he said in a low voice, "No need to rush—speak slowly."
But Chishu spoke rapidly: "On our way back to the village, the three of us passed through Tanzaku Town and found it almost completely engulfed in flames. When we went in, we saw corpses everywhere! There were easily no fewer than a hundred bodies!"
Hiruzen's expression turned grim at once.
Tanzaku Town—a notorious pleasure quarter in the Land of Fire—was often frequented by people of influence.
If something happened there, it would certainly affect those elites.
Yes… this was indeed a serious matter.
Chishu, still unable to hide the shock in his voice, continued: "After some quick investigation and questioning in Tanzaku Town, we discovered that the one behind this bloody massacre… was Uchiha Keizumi!"
"Hokage-sama! Uchiha Keizumi slaughtered the entire Tanzaku Town! The number of dead is enormous! Our estimate of over a hundred bodies is only preliminary—we don't even know the exact count."
Hiruzen: "???"
...
Somewhere within the Land of Fire.
"Orochimaru-sama, the Uchiha Keizumi you asked us to keep an eye on is no longer in Konoha. We've learned that yesterday, Tanzaku Town in the Land of Fire went through a massive bloodbath."
"They say hundreds of people were killed—Tanzaku Town was drowned in blood. And the one who caused this tragedy was none other than the 'Lava-Style Beast' of Konoha—Uchiha Keizumi!"
"We also found out that nine years ago, Uchiha Keizumi carried out a similar massacre in Tanzaku Town. But that time, he only killed a few dozen people; this time, he killed several hundred."
At this moment, although Orochimaru had yet to begin plotting the establishment of the Hidden Sound Village in the Land of Rice Fields, he had already gathered quite a number of subordinates.
After all, many of his special research projects were not something he could complete alone.
And he had never placed much trust in the Akatsuki organization he had joined. From the very first day, he had been thinking about how he would survive in the shinobi world if he ever left the Akatsuki.
After hearing his subordinate's report, Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, an intrigued look flickering within them. He licked his dry lips and murmured, "Uchiha Keizumi… now that's a boy who leaves quite an impression. His so-called [Absolute Justice] and his extremely radical personality have, at one point, even given me quite the headache."
"Looks like Sarutobi-sensei couldn't tolerate him anymore and cast him out to 'plague' some other place. Or perhaps he simply couldn't restrain that extreme nature of his, slaughtered his way through Konoha, and then chose to defect?"
It wasn't as if Orochimaru had no spies planted in Konoha—he had placed three or four of them.
But for some reason, those three or four spies had gone silent.
It had been quite some time since they had sent back even a scrap of information.
Most likely, their covers had been blown and they'd been captured.
As a result, Orochimaru now had only a vague, fragmented idea of what was happening inside Konoha.
"Go make contact with that boy." Orochimaru pondered for a moment before giving his order. "Tell him to his face that I'm very interested in his [Absolute Justice]. If, after leaving Konoha, he finds himself with nowhere to go… if he doesn't mind, he can come to me. I can recommend him a place."
Orochimaru paused, then added, "A place that will surely be able to accommodate his [Absolute Justice]. Perhaps among those whose personalities are equally peculiar, there will be quite a few who agree with his [Absolute Justice]—make sure you tell him all of this, word for word, and see if he's interested."
The subordinate froze for a moment before asking hesitantly, "Orochimaru-sama, since you're so interested in that boy, why not just capture him directly?"
"Heheh… capture him?"
Orochimaru's cold gaze swept over his naïve subordinate, and he found that when a man was truly exasperated, he could nearly laugh out loud. "Don't think that just because you've been given the power I granted you, you can naïvely believe you could easily take down that extreme boy."
"He is the 'Lava-Release Beast' of the Third Shinobi World War. At the age of nine, he killed an enemy village's jōnin. And now, he's already eighteen."
"If I were to act personally, I could still make it happen. But you? Or rather, you all? Don't fall into unrealistic delusions."
"Carry out my orders, and don't make me waste any more words."
The subordinate instantly felt a prickling, spine-chilling sense of danger pressing down on him.
A shiver ran through his body, and he quickly said, "Yes, Orochimaru-sama!"
Once the subordinate had left, Orochimaru's lips curled ever so slightly.
"Uchiha Keizumi… I'll use the lives of these worthless pawns to see just how much stronger you've become. You will always be my best choice for a vessel—there is no second."
"Heheheh…"
Orochimaru's sinister laugh was laced with cold cruelty.
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