Inside the Police Headquarters, Nara Shikaku glanced around as they entered and couldn't help murmuring: "This is actually the first time I've been inside the Uchiha Police Force building."
Akimichi Chōza then said to Inoichi, "It might not be too convenient for us to go further in. We'll wait for you here."
Inoichi gave a slight nod. Alone, with practiced ease, he made his way down into the underground interrogation room of the Police Force.
There, he found four members of the Sarutobi clan seated inside the same interrogation room, each on a cold wooden bench.
Stepping into the chamber, Inoichi gave Keizumi a slight nod—a silent greeting.
Keizumi returned it with a wordless nod of his own.
"You're… the head of the Yamanaka clan…"
Anko looked at Inoichi in surprise.
At her side, Izumi explained: "Keizumi-senpai and the Yamanaka clan head maintain a close working relationship. Most of the time, after Keizumi-senpai kills a criminal, he needs the Yamanaka clan to probe the memories of the corpse, so the evidence of their crimes can be recorded in full detail—even after death."
Anko suddenly understood.
"Keizumi, I suppose they still haven't confessed, have they?"
Yamanaka Inoichi asked.
"No." Uchiha Keizumi stood with his arms folded, leaning against the cold wall of the interrogation room, his tone calm. "Maybe they realized their fate won't change and just want to cause us trouble. I was about to use harsher methods when you arrived."
Inoichi remarked, "I thought you would have killed them all first, and only then waited for me to come probe their memories."
The four Sarutobi clansmen blanched at his words.
Keizumi said, "Then perhaps you don't know me well enough. I only resort to killing when criminals resist the judgment of justice. As long as they're willing to cooperate, I don't mind following the proper process."
"I see…"
A faint smile touched Inoichi's normally stiff, expressionless face.
"Shall I begin, or will you?" he asked.
"I will."
Their exchange carried the ease of long-time partners. Keizumi stepped forward a few paces until he stood before the one called Sarutobi Kyōya, looking down at the man's face—strained, yet forcing a veneer of composure.
Before Keizumi spoke, Inoichi addressed the four. "A word of advice—confess all your crimes now. You do not want Keizumi to be the one to make you talk."
The four Sarutobi clansmen wore expressions torn between fear and hesitation.
"You have only ten seconds," Keizumi said flatly. "After that, if you remain silent, I'll take it as proof you're stubborn to the core."
"Ten."
"Nine."
"Eight…"
"Uchiha Keizumi… you're going to kill me anyway." Kyōya clenched his teeth, glaring up at him. "Stop putting on this false interrogation! Even the Hokage has branded me a rogue ninja of Konoha—what are you hesitating for? Either release me or kill me!"
"…One."
"Zero."
Keizumi's eyes suddenly shifted into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
The terrifying genjutsu of the Mangekyō Sharingan—
In an instant, it was implanted deep into Kyōya's mind!
Immediately, his expression froze. Then, as though he had witnessed some unspeakable horror, visible fear and despair twisted across his face. Bound to the cold bench by steel wires, he thrashed wildly, while broken, despairing whimpers spilled unconsciously from his mouth.
His violent struggling cut bloody grooves into his skin where the wires bit deep, tiny beads of blood welling up.
Snot and tears poured freely as he whimpered and babbled, trembling all over: "Don't come closer… stay away… what's so wrong with me doing it for money?!"
Before his eyes he saw the Konoha shinobi who had died because he sold them out. He saw Hyūga Hizashi, forced to take Hiashi's place in death because of his collusion with Kumo shinobi. He saw villagers crushed to death in shoddy construction projects from which he had embezzled funds. And he saw the grief-stricken families of those victims.
Each of them whispered in his ear—confusion, anger, calmness, sorrow. One voice after another overlapped, layer upon layer, violently battering his mind.
"Stay away… stay away…"
His voice grew louder, carrying ever greater terror and despair. His taut nerves were on the verge of snapping.
"Stay away from me!!!"
Until, with one final scream—his face bulging with veins in desperate frenzy—
Sarutobi Kyōya's eyes went blank. A foul, unspeakable stench began to spread through the interrogation room. It was obvious what had soiled his body beneath the bench.
His whole frame trembled violently.
Shaking all over, he lifted his head in a daze, only to be met by those scarlet, ghastly Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Gen… genjutsu?!"
"Looks like you don't need me after all." Yamanaka Inoichi gave a helpless shake of his head. Sharingan illusions, when used in interrogation, were just as unreasonable as the Yamanaka clan's own secret arts. He could see that the Sarutobi clansman's spirit had already collapsed.
The other three—
Were struck dumb with fear.
As expected, the following interrogation was no challenge at all. With just a few questions from Uchiha Keizumi, the four of them confessed everything without reservation. They even rushed to admit trivial misdeeds from their childhood, let alone their true crimes.
Listening, Inoichi's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
And again, he shook his head with weary resignation.
"This shinobi world… this is simply how it is," Keizumi said, glancing at him. "Only when we bring about fundamental change in this world will things truly improve."
Inoichi asked quietly, "Keizumi, can your justice really make this diseased shinobi world return to normal? Can it really allow its people to find genuine morals and values?"
"It can." Keizumi's tone was firm. "On this point, I have never once doubted myself."
Inoichi smiled faintly. "Perhaps it's precisely that confidence of yours that convinced me to gamble everything on you."
Izumi, watching all of this unfold, fell into thought.
Perhaps, before Keizumi-senpai appeared, he too had not been alone. Perhaps he also had friends—people who supported his ideals. It was just that, back then, such support had remained hidden.
As for why now those people stood openly by his side, even making public declarations—
Izumi guessed…
Maybe it was because people like Yamanaka Inoichi had finally realized this shinobi world truly must change.
And the change could wait no longer.
"Rookie."
"Here!" Izumi, who had just finished recording every crime, answered instinctively.
Keizumi turned toward Anko, who had remained silent. "And your response?"
Anko froze, then understood at once—Keizumi already regarded her as a new follower of [Absolute Justice]!
Though he was her peer, even her former classmate at the Academy, at this moment her status was nowhere near his.
Lowering herself—
Was no big deal.
"Here!"
Anko followed Izumi's example.
"Two each. Execute them on the spot. Then make three copies of tonight's report: one for Fugaku, one for the Third, and the last to be stored in the archives of the Uchiha Police Force."
"Yes, sir!" ×2
…
One hour later.
By 4:00 a.m., Konohagakure was finally quiet.
Izumi and Anko, each burdened with different emotions, had finished their tasks and gone their separate ways.
The three clan heads of the Ino-Shika-Chō had also returned home.
But Uchiha Keizumi did not go back to his own house. He exhaled slowly, rubbed at his weary brow, and was just about to move when a peculiar voice suddenly spoke from behind him.
"Meow, Keizumi-sama, take me along."
Tachibana Jirō stood behind him, adding: "Keizumi-sama, you're planning to visit that little girl who lost both her parents tonight, aren't you?"
The cat paused, then continued: "Sometimes, Keizumi-sama's thoughts are actually quite easy to guess, meow. After all, Keizumi-sama has faced something similar before."
"Six years ago, you handled a case just like this. A beastly husband beat and humiliated his own daughter, driving her into mental illness. Enraged, the mother tried to kill the monster, but she wasn't his match. In the end, she lost her own life instead."
"You killed that beast of a husband, Keizumi-sama. But at the time, you didn't realize there was still another victim—the daughter. Already fragile from her illness, the moment she learned her mother had been killed, she ended her own life the very next day."
"In her final letter, she wrote clearly that the blood of a sinner flowed in her veins, that she herself was filthy and unworthy to live in this world. So she chose to leave it."
Tachibana Jirō's gaze grew complicated. "You once said that was a tragedy that should never have happened. That it was a mistake—an oversight of justice."
"One mistake cost a victim her life. You blamed yourself for a long time back then."
At this, Tachibana Jirō raised a paw and scratched his face in a strangely human gesture.
Then he gave a catlike smile. "Many in the village think you're nothing but a heartless machine, Keizumi-sama. Even those who believe they know you well think the same. But the truth is, you've only buried all your feelings deep inside, never letting them show."
"Because Keizumi-sama believes that if justice shows emotion, criminals will see Absolute Justice as weak. Worse, it might let them naïvely think Absolute Justice has a soft spot to exploit."
Keizumi was silent for half a beat before replying: "Sometimes, as a bystander, you understand me better than I understand myself."
"Let's go."
"Yes, Keizumi-sama!"
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