[Thud—]
A sharp silver shinobi blade pierced clean through a small hand and into the ground.
Before the scream of agony could burst out, a foot stamped down on the boy's head, grinding his face against the earth.
The side of his face scraped hard across the ground, leaving bloody streaks until his features were almost mangled.
The pain forced his cry back into silence.
Uchiha Keizumi slowly drew out the bloodstained blade, but the foot on the boy's head did not lift away.
His expression remained cold as he asked, "Those little legs of yours were running fast just a moment ago. Why stop now?"
Not far away—
Tsunade, her face dark with fury, was dragging two more Sarutobi brats, one in each hand. With a casual flick, she hurled them more than ten meters, sending them tumbling right at Keizumi's feet.
The heavy fall left the two children badly hurt. One's body was covered in scrapes, tiny stones embedded in his flesh; the other's arm broke on impact, and he couldn't hold back a scream of pain.
"Keizumi… are these the three brats?" Tsunade drew in a deep breath, not even sparing a glance at the Sarutobi boy whose hand still gushed blood.
"Mhm."
Uchiha Keizumi lowered his eyes to the three Academy students before him.
[Sarutobi Zōnosuke — At the Academy, he spread the story of Sarutobi Sakurako's parents, using it to bully her and rip open the 'scar of shadow' she had temporarily forgotten. This drove Sakurako toward despair and ultimately to act upon it.]
[Degree of Crime: Red Name!]
[Sarutobi Hisa — Before over a dozen Academy students, he maliciously yanked down Sakurako's pants, exposing scars on her body that had not fully healed.]
[Degree of Crime: Red Name!]
[Sarutobi Shōji — When Hisa pulled at her clothes, he restrained Sakurako's hands so she could not resist, pushing her emotions to the brink of collapse.]
[Degree of Crime: Red Name!]
"Keizumi, what exactly did they do?" Tsunade inhaled sharply. She knew it was unseemly to lose her temper with children, but she could not hold down the fury boiling in her chest.
She had thought she could save that girl. Just last night, she had forced herself past her fear of blood, personally treating the child's wounds and even using medical ninjutsu she had not practiced in years.
And yet—
Sakurako's cold corpse told her that all her efforts had been useless! That she could not stop the sins of the shinobi world from devouring that child!
"Don't hold back for my sake…" Tsunade added in a low voice. "Tell me every vile thing they did. Haa… I can control myself."
But Uchiha Keizumi never once considered her emotions.
His silence—
Was only because he was carefully reading each line of blood-red text.
When he had finished, he repeated them in a detached tone. Each word pierced into Tsunade's heart like a cold blade, leaving her face frozen for an instant.
Tsunade had fought in the Shinobi World Wars, carried out countless missions, and seen all kinds of people.
That night in Tanzaku Town, she had thought she had already grown numb to the cruelty of the shinobi world.
But now she realized—she was not numb at all.
Her gaze no longer flinched from the Sarutobi boy's bleeding hand. The psychological terror her hemophobia gave her could not suppress the rage surging in her chest.
"You three…"
"Malicious brats! Rotten seeds!!!"
The words were forced through her clenched teeth.
…
At the rear—
Several Academy teachers, who had rushed over in haste, stood dumbfounded.
They had all heard the vile acts Keizumi had just recited.
They could hardly believe such things were committed by Academy students of that age. In another year or two, these boys would already be graduating into the shinobi world!
They did not even know whether to condemn the students' cruelty—or to condemn themselves, the teachers who had failed to discipline them.
After all… it was incomprehensible for immature Academy students to commit such acts. And yet, the only excuse they could cling to was—"they were not taught properly."
But what about Izushima Kaede?
As a teacher at the Academy, not only did she fail to stop such vile acts, she even allowed them to unfold right under her eyes.
She had even… taken part herself!
"…Haa." Watching the boy whose hand had been pierced through by a blade sobbing and casting pleading looks toward them, one Academy teacher shut his eyes and shook his head.
…
"They're all Sarutobi clan…" Hidden in the shadows, Kakashi fell silent. His sense of morality stirred no shred of sympathy for those three brats.
But as an ANBU directly under the Hokage, seeing matters tied to the Third's own clan members—
He still needed to deliver the report to the Hokage at once.
Kakashi bit his thumb and quickly summoned a ninken.
After briefing the dog with a few words, he added grimly, "Go inform the Hokage."
The ninken leapt down from the tree and sped off toward the Hokage's office.
…
Inside Iruka's classroom.
Haruno Sakura's face was pale as chalk, her whole body frozen in shock—for she had seen with her own eyes Uchiha Keizumi drive a blade straight through a boy's hand, then grind his face against the earth until it was left bloodied and torn.
"I…"
"Iruka-sensei!"
Finally snapping out of it, Sakura hurriedly called to the podium: "Someone outside is hurting Academy students! Iruka-sensei, shouldn't we go out and save them?"
Iruka's lips twitched as he forced a stiff expression, his tone equally rigid: "Ignore it. Don't look. I've said it many times—this has nothing to do with children like you."
If Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino's antics before had merely disrupted class discipline—
Then Sakura's words now were as good as asking him to throw away his life!
Iruka didn't need to guess. The screams outside were surely connected to that Uchiha Keizumi. Most likely, that man was once again carrying out "personal judgment" in broad daylight!
To run out and intervene would mean obstructing his Absolute Justice.
Iruka thought to himself: I'm still young, I haven't even found a girlfriend yet—I'd rather live a few more years.
Sakura was stunned.
She could not understand why Iruka-sensei refused to help.
…
"Keizumi, these three…" Tsunade, having calmed somewhat, now seemed at a loss. If they had been shinobi, she would have already shattered their bones without hesitation.
But these were only Academy students.
They were younger than Nawaki had been…
"Life for life."
"Blood for blood."
Uchiha Keizumi spoke coldly: "If judgment is weakened by excuses or circumstance, then it is no longer Absolute Justice—merely justice compromised with evil."
...
Hokage Building.
Hiruzen had no heart to handle today's affairs. A long pipe clenched between his teeth, he furrowed his brows as he puffed out clouds of smoke. It was as though only the sting of tobacco could grant him a sliver of calm.
The envoys from Amegakure had already been sent elsewhere, left to be received by Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
After all, Hiruzen knew full well—given his current state of mind, it would not be wise to meet with them himself.
He needed a measure of private space to settle his thoughts.
Just then, a ninken leapt up from outside onto the office window sill, instantly alerting the ANBU guards inside.
Before the ninken, Pakkun, could even speak, three sharp ninja blades were already poised against his small canine head.
The three masked ANBU stared him down with scrutinizing eyes, as if the slightest twitch would see his head rolling across the floor.
Pakkun nearly pissed himself in fright. Fortunately, Hiruzen had noticed and spoke: "You're Kakashi's ninken, aren't you? Do you have some special intelligence to report to me?"
At those words, the blades eased back just slightly—no longer pressing against his fur. Pakkun let out a breath of relief.
He swallowed hard and blurted, "Kakashi sent me to inform you about the situation at the Academy."
Then he repeated everything Kakashi had told him earlier.
Hiruzen froze in place.
His mouth opened as if to speak, but no words came out.
He had considered many possibilities.
—That spies from another village were manipulating things behind the scenes, attempting to shake his mind as Hokage, to force him into a mistake he should never make.
—That something had gone wrong with Keizumi's Mangekyō Sharingan genjutsu, causing the child to recall memories steeped in darkness.
—That perhaps the dead was not Sarutobi Sakurako at all, merely a case of mistaken identity.
He had imagined every sort of far-fetched possibility.
But never this…
Hiruzen sank into a deathly silence.
In his mind's eye, the three young members of the Sarutobi clan—supposed to be lively, bright, and the future pillars of their family…
And the Academy teacher, who should have been nurturing Konoha's next generation of shinobi…
All of it was absurd.
So absurd that Hiruzen could hardly accept it.
"How could this be…" Hiruzen whispered, lost. He bore the title of clan head of the Sarutobi, and also served as the Academy's honorary principal. Now, problems had arisen in both places. Did this not tie directly back to him as Hokage? How could he claim this had nothing to do with him?
Taking in a deep breath, Hiruzen swept away the haze in his eyes and, with a complex expression, addressed Pakkun: "I understand. Go back and tell Kakashi…"
"Tell him…"
He faltered, clenching his fist, then letting it go, before setting his long pipe down on the desk. His gaze lingered on the thin wisp of smoke curling upward.
Who knew how long he remained in silence. Finally, he spoke: "Tell him… not to interfere. Let Keizumi handle it."
The words left his lips like a weight dragged from his chest. He slumped weakly into his chair, drained of strength.
He was truly lost.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---