"Tsunade, he broke the rules." Jiraiya sighed.
"Tradition may be wrong at times, but that doesn't mean it's bad—because it keeps many people's desires in check. Once that barrier is broken, those desires are released, and who can imagine what the world will become?"
Tsunade replied coldly, "You've got it backwards."
Jiraiya froze.
"It isn't that the world will become chaotic because those rules were broken. It's that those very rules were already a shadow over the shinobi world—they're the reason this world is already so chaotic."
She paused, then went on: "Jiraiya, have you ever considered this possibility? That the shinobi world has long been twisted. That many people's minds have long since become sick."
Just as Jiraiya opened his mouth to speak, Tsunade cut him off, blunt and direct: "Maybe it's time you turned your gaze elsewhere, instead of keeping it fixed on Orochimaru."
"In your eyes, you only see Orochimaru wreaking havoc on Konoha, yet you don't see what the entire shinobi world has become."
"That brat Uchiha Keizumi has shown me what this world truly looks like. That's why I don't believe what he's done is wrong."
Arms folded across her chest, Tsunade's face was expressionless as she declared, "To let those who persist in evil continue to live—that itself is injustice."
"Why is it that ordinary civilians are never granted the privilege of forgiveness? Is it simply because the powerful have special status, they deserve special privilege?"
"And why is it that mercy is extended to the high and mighty who commit evil, but never to their victims?"
She fixed her gaze on Jiraiya.
"If you still believe that brat Uchiha Keizumi is wrong, then it proves our principles are different, our morals are different. More than that—it shows your sight is too lofty, and because of that, your perspective is far too narrow."
After speaking so much in one breath, Tsunade let out a long, heavy sigh.
Her mind wandered back to what she had witnessed that night in Tanzaku Town.
Even now, the psychological impact had yet to fade from her heart.
At this moment, Jiraiya couldn't say a single word.
On the way, he had only heard Tsunade's accounts of the horrors of Tanzaku Town, but never having seen it with his own eyes, he couldn't truly feel the suffocating rage that she carried.
He thought Tsunade had been influenced far too deeply by Uchiha Keizumi.
He couldn't quite understand it—this Tsunade before him felt almost unfamiliar. Could a grown woman's convictions really be changed so easily by a single young man?
But Jiraiya understood one thing—
If he pressed Tsunade now, he might well shatter their decades-long friendship in an instant.
Off to the side, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu exchanged glances.
Both could see the astonishment in the other's eyes.
No…
Hadn't Tsunade barely even met Uchiha Keizumi? At most a fleeting encounter back in Tanzaku Town?
So why was Tsunade now showing such recognition of his [Absolute Justice]?
They could both sense the same shock in each other's eyes.
It was understandable that children like Uchiha Izumi, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke might be drawn in by [Absolute Justice]. After all, this kind of black-and-white, extreme way of thinking was easy for young minds to idolize.
Even Yamanaka Inoichi being influenced by [Absolute Justice] could be explained—after all, the ties between the Yamanaka Clan and Uchiha Keizumi ran so deep they were nearly inseparable.
But Tsunade?
That Tsunade herself might be swayed by such an extreme ideology—that was truly terrifying.
"[Absolute Justice]… it's more frightening than we imagined," Homura murmured under his breath beside Koharu.
Her face darkened with gloom.
…
Two days later.
The capital of the Land of Fire.
A crude funeral for the Daimyō, held at the Daimyō's residence, made it impossible to hide the truth any longer—the Daimyō had been killed.
The commoners of the capital, already numb after days of rivers of blood, thought they could no longer be shocked.
But no one expected an even greater, earth-shattering revelation to come.
—The Konoha shinobi who turned the capital of the Land of Fire into a sea of rolling heads, Uchiha Keizumi, had already killed the Daimyō of the Land of Fire several days earlier!
And yet, the Daimyō's residence acted as if nothing had happened.
At the Daimyō's funeral itself, Uchiha Keizumi even appeared in person!
One piece of news after another left countless people utterly stunned.
They felt as though they were trapped inside a genjutsu.
For a moment, no one could tell whether this was reality or illusion.
And once the news spread through the capital like a hurricane, it inevitably scattered across every corner of the Land of Fire. From the noble "lucky ones" who had escaped Keizumi's "judgment," down to ordinary civilians with no direct connection to the events, everyone soon learned of it through one channel or another.
"The Daimyō… was killed by a shinobi…"
At that moment, within the capital, the Nakamura Clan—a family of relatively good repute—had gathered all of its members together.
"Even the Daimyō himself was killed by him. And the Daimyō's own heirs voiced no resentment at all," the clan head said, his face filled with terror and lingering dread. His hands trembled violently as he swallowed hard before continuing: "In the future, if anyone from our Nakamura Clan dares to commit evil outside these walls…"
His cloudy old eyes sharpened with killing intent.
"…then even without Uchiha Keizumi lifting a finger, I will personally strike them down! Even if it were my own son—or my own grandson!"
Every member of the Nakamura Clan present lowered their heads.
Not one dared to voice a word of dissent.
All of them had been completely cowed by Uchiha Keizumi's iron-blooded methods.
If he had the courage to kill even the Daimyō, then for the Nakamura Clan—who had only lost three members—it was sheer blind luck beyond imagining.
"Clan Head…" one member spoke up.
"As for those three who were killed for their crimes, I suggest we not even hold a funeral for them. They should be cast out of the Nakamura Clan. As for their bodies, let them be dumped at the burial house and thrown into the ground wherever."
Not a single person contradicted him.
The clan head even nodded in agreement.
"Yes. They must indeed be expelled from the Nakamura Clan! The actions of those three have crossed the bottom line and brought shame upon our family!"
…
Scenes like this were being played out again and again among the many noble families in the capital of the Land of Fire who had been lucky enough to survive.
The name "Uchiha Keizumi"…
…was already branded deep into the darkest recesses of their collective shadow.
And it was a mark that would never be erased for the rest of their lives.
The vast capital of the Land of Fire was already gripped by fear and unrest.
Many of the noble families who had survived by sheer luck had come to realize that as long as they refrained from evil, they would not draw the ire of Uchiha Keizumi, nor would they be purged under so-called [Absolute Justice].
But the problem was—who could truly guarantee they were clean? Or, who could guarantee their relatives were clean?
Who could swear they themselves would not be killed? Who could swear they would feel not the slightest ripple of emotion if their own kin were slaughtered?
Yet, one thing was undeniable...
In just a few short days, within the capital of the Land of Fire, not a single person had dared to commit a crime.
One by one, the villains who had a history of misdeeds were dragged out by Uchiha Keizumi. Those guilty of lesser offenses were thrown into prison, while those guilty of greater crimes lost their lives entirely.
Each day brought another round of bloody cleansing, until the entire capital of the Land of Fire was drenched in the heavy stench of blood.
So many with thieving hearts had lost the courage to act.
If one ignored the countless corpses left in Keizumi's wake... if one ignored the blood that no amount of scrubbing could wash away from the streets...
Then indeed, in recent days, the capital of the Land of Fire was "peaceful and stable"!
Yes...
Stable enough that even the Daimyō of the Land of Fire had been slain.
And in this heavy cloud of dread and despair, Sarutobi Hiruzen's mood was equally sour, for rumors about him—about the Third Hokage—had already begun to spread throughout the capital.
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