Within the Uchiha compound—
After Yamanaka Ryōshin had escorted Naruto back home and Sasuke to the Uchiha residence, the sky had already sunk into complete darkness.
Sasuke watched as the ANBU shinobi vanished in an instant. In the depths of his eyes flickered a trace of envy for that shinobi's strength.
But the feeling quickly faded.
Because Sasuke knew—sooner or later, he too would reach that level. No, he would surpass it. His goal was not some minor figure like Yamanaka Ryōshin, but Uchiha Itachi!
"That dead last wasn't wrong… Carrying out justice really can grant the gift of [Absolute Justice]!" Sasuke muttered to himself, shock flashing in his gaze.
He still remembered clearly: the moment his sharp kunai pierced the back of that Hyūga scoundrel.
The instant the man's life ended, Sasuke had felt a surge of power rush into his body—power that was not originally his, yet instantly became his own.
The most obvious change was the increase in the chakra within him!
This left Sasuke deeply shaken.
Executing one villain had brought him more than an entire month of bitter training!
So this was…
…Absolute Justice?
Lost in thought, Sasuke found himself at his doorstep without realizing it. As he stepped inside, a sudden chill ran through him. He quickly lowered his head, glancing at his bloodstained hands.
But before he could even deal with the blood, his mother's voice reached his ears: "Sasuke, why are you home so late tonight? Did you hear that Keizumi returned to Konoha, so you went to see him? You—hm? Sasuke, why are you covered in so much blood? Are you hurt?"
Not long after—
At the dinner table, Sasuke sat upright, kneeling formally, now cleaned of blood and dressed in fresh clothes.
On his left, his mother's gaze was filled with worry.
On his right, his father's eyes bore down on him with stern severity.
The pressure was suffocating.
Thinking carefully, Sasuke realized there was no way to hide what had happened today. His father and mother were bound to find out.
So, in a low voice, he confessed the truth—though he concealed the part about the gift of [Absolute Justice].
Before Uchiha Mikoto could even react, Uchiha Fugaku was already on his feet.
"Sasuke… you killed someone inside the village?!"
Fugaku drew a deep breath, his stern face now carrying a look of disbelief as he stared at his disappointing younger son. "And the one you killed… was a Hyūga youth?!"
"…Yes."
Sasuke lowered his head even further. The harsh weight of his father's authority was not something easily endured.
"The Hokage was present at the time?" Fugaku's voice was weary now. "And you were together with Uzumaki Naruto when you killed that Hyūga youth?!"
"…Yes."
Sasuke's answer made Fugaku close his eyes in pained despair.
So now even his younger son had stabbed the Uchiha in the back, making it even harder for the clan to earn the trust of the higher-ups.
When both the clan head's sons were walking extreme paths… even if Uchiha Setsuna was already dead, could the Hokage still trust him? Could the Hokage still trust the Uchiha?
Just as Fugaku slowly opened his eyes, teeth clenched in anger and ready to deliver a scolding, Uchiha Mikoto suddenly cut him off.
"Fugaku, when you learned that Sasuke chose to follow Keizumi's Absolute Justice, you should have realized this day would come. You can understand Itachi—so why can't you understand Sasuke?"
Mikoto spoke, firmly taking Sasuke's side.
"You once said—you were proud of Itachi, even if he would one day do what Keizumi's prophecy foretold. Because the resolve and capacity Itachi displayed made you proud."
"Now, Sasuke has shown his own resolve. In your eyes, perhaps it cannot compare with Itachi's, but it is still his. When he chose to act for the Absolute Justice he believes in…"
"As his father… shouldn't you be proud of him as well?"
"And besides, Sasuke hasn't done anything wrong. If he had, the Hokage, who was present, would never have allowed him to return home."
His mother's words made Sasuke, who had been bowing his head deeply, unconsciously lift it ever so slightly.
"Mikoto, you spoil him too much!" Fugaku frowned. "He is not the same as Itachi. Itachi does this for Konoha—while he does it for Keizumi."
"But Keizumi does it for the shinobi world," Mikoto replied. "By following his path, Sasuke too is ultimately acting for the peace and stability of the shinobi world. If Sasuke's goal is the entire shinobi world, is his resolve truly lesser than Itachi's?"
Mikoto paused briefly before continuing: "Besides, rather than saying I spoil Sasuke… perhaps it's you who spoils Itachi."
Fugaku's frown deepened further. More and more, it felt to him that his wife was always siding with Uchiha Keizumi.
Sasuke suddenly realized… the air between his father and mother carried an undercurrent of discord.
It was as if both were suppressing anger, refraining from showing it only because they were husband and wife.
…
Meanwhile.
At Naruto's home—
"So this must be where that guy lives?" Neji raised his head, staring at the modest little house before him. He had lost track of Naruto halfway, and had only managed to find his way here by asking passersby along the road.
But standing there, Neji suddenly froze, a question surfacing in his mind—Why did I come here?
The reason he had walked out of the Hyūga compound was because he couldn't bear to watch his vast clan being led by a weak main house.
It was also because his hatred had been stirred in that moment.
And in that state of mind, he had suddenly recalled what Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke had said earlier that evening.
"…I remember now."
Gazing at the small house before him, Hyūga Neji muttered to himself, "I came because I was interested in their ninja way. Because their path and mine share so much in common—and even in ways I had never considered before, but which make undeniable sense."
"No…"
"Calling it mere 'interest' is just my pride talking. To be precise, their ninja way has awakened something in me—a sense of yearning."
Standing alone before Naruto's home, Hyūga Neji, for the first time, faced his own heart honestly.
At that moment, the faint confusion on Neji's face finally faded away.
What he didn't know was that, as he murmured those words, Yamanaka Ryōshin—who had been secretly watching over Naruto—halted the steps he had been about to take to intervene.
Until then, as a member of the Hyūga, Neji had been a suspicious figure in Ryōshin's eyes.
He had even suspected Neji might have come seeking revenge against the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki.
Unaware of this, Neji took a deep breath.
He stepped forward.
And pressed the doorbell.
The dull, rasping ding-dong echoed—evidence that the doorbell had not been replaced for a very long time, already old and worn.
"Hold on a sec!" came a startled shout from inside. Then a crash of clatter-bang! noises followed, as though someone had fallen over, scrambled to grab the furniture to get up, only to knock more over in the process.
[Click…]
The door opened.
"Eh?"
Naruto's young face was filled with surprise. Before opening the door, he had run through countless possibilities in his head—the Hokage, Keizumi-sensei, that stuck-up Sasuke, Iruka-sensei, Izumi-senpai, or perhaps shinobi sent by Hokage-ojiichan to keep watch over him…
But none of his guesses were right.
"You are…"
As Naruto looked on with suspicion, his eyes suddenly caught Neji's unusual pupils.
At once, Naruto grew tense.
He immediately stepped back half a pace. Even though his body still ached in places, he put himself into a guarded stance. "Those eyes of yours—you're from the Hyūga clan, aren't you? Hey! Don't tell me you've come to settle a score?"
"No."
Neji answered flatly, his face expressionless. "That man was killed by you all because he deserved it. His fate was of his own making, the result of his lack of skill—and also his destiny. A pitiable caged bird… To die at the hands of outsiders is actually better than dying at the hands of his own clan. At least his soul has been freed."
Naruto: "???"
The first few sentences he could follow, but what was all that rambling afterward supposed to mean?!
"You… want to come in and sit down?" Naruto asked, completely baffled.
"No need."
Neji's Byakugan locked onto Naruto's bright blue eyes, his expression solemn as he asked: "How do you judge whether a person is truly evil? And how do you judge whether an action is truly wicked? To carve a cruel curse mark onto one's own clansmen with vicious means—does that not count as an evil act that must be paid for in kind?"
Naruto: "???"
Faced with this string of questions, Naruto's mind went blank for a long moment.
He hesitated, then answered: "Of course someone who does bad things is an evildoer! And the bad things they do are evil acts! Especially if what they do hurts innocent people—whether directly or indirectly—if they do it with a malicious heart, then yeah, that's definitely doing something bad!"
"As for that curse mark thing you mentioned… if it's really that cruel, and it harms a lot of innocent people, then whoever created it definitely isn't a good person either!"
Seeing the cold expression on Neji's young face turn somewhat strange, Naruto quickly added, "That's only if you're telling me everything without leaving anything out."
"And it'd be best if Keizumi-sensei took a look as well. Because Keizumi-sensei has the power to see through the past evils and future evils of others."
"…Keizumi-sensei?" Hyūga Neji, snapping back to himself slightly, noticed the title.
"He's the famous Uchiha Keizumi!"
Naruto grinned broadly. "Even Hokage-ojiichan often can't out-argue Keizumi-sensei!"
Neji asked, "He's your sensei?"
Naruto nodded. "He's my sensei on the path of justice!"
"Justice…"
Neji weighed the word carefully.
"Phew." He suddenly exhaled deeply. "Then I suppose I understand a little."
With that, he turned to leave.
Before walking off, Neji added coldly, "You don't need to be puzzled by my coming here. I only wanted to use you as a way to learn more about him. By 'him,' I mean the Keizumi-sensei you spoke of."
Naruto: "…"
"Why are there so many people as stuck-up as Sasuke?" Watching the other boy's back grow distant, Naruto muttered in dissatisfaction, "Seriously, no manners at all. Doesn't even say thank you."
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