"Keizumi-sama?" Tachibana Jirō clearly noticed that when Keizumi slowly opened his eyes, they were filled with murderous intent.
But it wasn't directed at Tsunade or Shizune—
It was aimed at the incurable evil of the shinobi world itself.
"It's nothing."
The killing intent faded from Keizumi's eyes, his face returning to its usual calm. Only when few enough people were around to watch him did his emotions ever slip through—
And even then, they flashed by in an instant.
He stepped lightly out the door, slid the panel shut, and walked out of the inn.
Just then—
Uchiha Keizumi, sensing something, turned his gaze to the left. There, perched atop a utility pole more than twenty meters away, stood a small figure clad in ANBU garb.
A pair of scarlet, three-tomoe Sharingan eyes were locked unflinchingly onto him.
"Uchiha Itachi…"
Beside him, Tachibana Jirō narrowed his feline eyes, the fur along his arched back bristling, ready to spring the instant the other so much as twitched.
"Keizumi-sama, could this guy be looking to pick a fight?"
The cat growled, "That stare really rubs a cat the wrong way!"
"That's the look one gives an enemy," Keizumi replied coolly, his gaze colliding with Itachi's in the air. "In his eyes, what I did tonight must seem like a 'threat' to the Konoha he loves. But he won't cause any waves tonight—because someone is already watching him."
No sooner had he spoken—
Itachi, still fixed on Keizumi, seemed to sense it too.
Startled, he turned his head to the right. There, at the mouth of an alley, stood Uchiha Fugaku.
Itachi frowned slightly.
"Father?"
Fugaku drew a deep breath. He made no effort to conceal himself, but instead stepped openly into view, raising his head to counsel his son: "Itachi, do not place the Uchiha clan in danger. If you clash with Keizumi, the aftermath of your battle will spread, engulfing many innocent villagers. If you truly love the village, do you wish to see that happen?"
"Doing so will not save Konoha. On the contrary, it will drag Konoha into even greater peril. That… surely isn't what you want to see, is it? Am I right, Itachi?"
Itachi fell silent. In truth, he did not even know why he had come to confront Keizumi.
It was simply instinct—the sense that this man had become a threat to the Hokage, and to Konoha itself.
His hostility had arisen naturally, unbidden.
"…I understand," Itachi whispered at last.
—Inside Konoha, he could not kill Uchiha Keizumi. The uproar it would cause might spiral far beyond his expectations. If he was to oppose him, it would have to be outside the village.
The model to follow was Sarutobi Asuma's plan, not Shimura Danzō's.
Such thoughts flickered through Uchiha Itachi's mind.
What Fugaku had spoken carried one meaning, yet when Itachi filtered it through his own heart, it immediately turned into something else entirely.
Itachi cast one last deep look at Uchiha Keizumi in the distance.
With a sudden puff, his body scattered—
Transforming into a flock of black crows.
In an instant, he was gone.
Fugaku exhaled in relief. He did not want Itachi, before achieving the "measure" he sought, to provoke Keizumi into conflict and trigger unforeseeable consequences that would prevent him from reaching it.
It seemed… Itachi could still listen to reason. In the end, he remained the child Fugaku could be most proud of.
Then Fugaku turned his gaze to Uchiha Keizumi, standing twenty meters away.
His expression was heavy with complexity.
Though his voice was not loud, in the stillness of the night it carried clearly enough for Keizumi to hear: "Keizumi, may I ask you a question? Once I've asked, I'll leave."
Remembering how many times in the past Keizumi had refused him face, turning his back without a word—
Fugaku asked directly: "You… how is it that, whenever you face Hokage-sama and the others, you always manage to gain the upper hand, leaving them without reason to strike against you?"
Pressed by time, he could only voice his doubt so plainly.
Keizumi gave him a sidelong glance. "The moment you ask that question, it means you'll never obtain the answer."
Fugaku froze. "Why…"
"As Uchiha clan head, you bear an inner lack of confidence; before the Third, you radiate inferiority from the depths of your soul; your stance wavers so disgracefully it's sickening; when pressure mounts, you retreat and give up; and you send a four-year-old child onto the battlefield in a way that defies comprehension…"
Keizumi coldly listed each flaw, leaving Fugaku stunned in place, unable to refute.
"With someone like you—who doesn't even know how to be a qualified father, or a qualified Uchiha clan head—you think you're worthy of knowing the answer to the question you just asked?"
"What you should do is learn how to be human. Learn how to establish the right moral compass. My suggestion? Go back to the Academy and study for six more years."
"Not come to me asking for answers."
"Oh, and…" Keizumi added, "be sure to bring Uchiha Itachi with you. That neurotic illiterate needs six more years too—except his should all be cultural classes."
Fugaku: "…"
....
The next day.
Early morning.
When corpse after corpse, each covered with a white sheet, was carried out from the Mitokado Clan, the Utatane Clan, the Uchiha Police Force, and the Sarutobi Clan—
The residents of Konohagakure finally realized in a daze that something momentous must have happened the previous night.
"Sarutobi, Utatane, Mitokado, Uchiha!"
A Konoha genin gaped in disbelief. "What the hell is going on? That's nearly half of Konoha's major clans, isn't it? Don't tell me they all started some bloody internal feud last night? Judging by the bodies brought out from their compounds, there must be twenty or thirty from each!"
"I heard it has something to do with Uchiha Keizumi," a nearby Konoha chūnin muttered, a senbon clamped between his teeth, his expression grim. "A friend of mine is from the Sarutobi Clan—he said Keizumi barged into their compound last night."
"And he took four people from the Sarutobi Clan with him. In other words, those four corpses carried out today by the Uchiha weren't their own people at all, but Sarutobi clansmen."
Someone couldn't help but stare wide-eyed. "Wait a second… the Sarutobi Clan? Isn't that the Hokage's clan? Are you saying the Hokage just stood by and let Keizumi take them away?"
The chūnin pinched the senbon between his fingers and replied, "My friend said Keizumi had the moral high ground. Not only did the Hokage refrain from stopping him, but the other Sarutobi shinobi didn't either."
"He also said the four clansmen Keizumi took away—including the two who died killing each other—were all guilty beyond redemption. The Hokage has already expelled them from the Sarutobi Clan."
Everyone exchanged stunned looks. The great upheaval that had shaken the village last night was clearly even more turbulent than they had imagined.
And the news swept through Konoha like a gale.
Rumors spread about the crimes of those slain.
Especially about that Sarutobi couple who had killed each other.
Their shocking sins, shattering every moral boundary, left countless listeners dumbstruck—and even physically sick with revulsion.
…
Meanwhile, at an inn in Konoha.
"…Phew." Tsunade, a toothbrush dangling from her lips, let her heavy eyelids droop. Her face was still pale, dark shadows pooling beneath her eyes—obvious proof she hadn't slept even an hour since last night.
She glanced at the little girl sound asleep on the tatami.
Then she nudged the softly snoring Shizune with her bare foot.
Her aim must have struck right on target, because Shizune's eyes shot open at once. She clutched her backside, her face flushing crimson as she practically bounced to her feet.
Her eyes welled with aggrieved tears. "Tsunade-sama, could you please not wake me up like that next time?!"
—That kind of wake-up call is exactly like some sleazy delinquent!
The thought flashed through her mind, but she didn't dare say it aloud.
Tsunade ignored her complaints, mumbling indistinctly around the toothbrush, "Check that child's injuries. See if there's been any improvement."
"…Okay!"
While Shizune carefully examined the girl, Tsunade slid open the paper door, toothbrush still in her mouth.
She stepped out barefoot, her gaze shifting slightly to the right.
"Took the night watch, did you?" Tsunade asked.
Leaning against the wall, Uchiha Keizumi slowly opened his eyes. He replied calmly, "I stepped out for half an hour to clear my head. Unfortunately, I ran into two people who only made my mood worse."
"Who?" Tsunade asked, curious.
"Uchiha Fugaku."
"Uchiha Itachi."
Tsunade immediately understood. In the days she had been in the village, she too had heard whispers about the prophecy of the "Night of the Uchiha Massacre." And she knew that boy, Uchiha Itachi, was said to be a dangerous and unstable one.
"If you already knew that brat would commit such an atrocity in the future, why didn't you just kill him outright? After all, isn't it [Absolute Justice] that you claim to uphold?" As she spoke, foam from her toothpaste spilled out of her mouth.
Keizumi said, "Suppose I saw that one day in the future a newborn would kill someone. If I killed that newborn today, saving that future life—"
"Would you really call that justice?"
Tsunade blinked, pondering for a moment before replying, "I think I get it now. [Absolute Justice] judges actions, not intentions? But do you really mean to wait until that kid slaughters his whole clan before acting against him? If so… wouldn't your [Absolute Justice] already be too late?"
Keizumi answered, "The moment he becomes truly beyond redemption and decides to act—Absolute Justice will pass judgment on him."
Tsunade suddenly found herself amused. "So you're not as extreme as the rumors make you out to be, after all."
But then she asked with doubt, "Since there are so many rumors in the village that work against you, why don't you step forward to clear things up?"
"These rumors serve justice."
Keizumi's voice was indifferent. "Let them exaggerate, let them twist it. As long as it makes them realize—even in distorted fear—what awaits those who cross the line of justice, it's worth it."
"To endure such heavy public pressure…" Tsunade mused. "Doesn't it bother you?"
"I feel nothing."
"It doesn't matter."
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