Sarutobi Hiruzen was lying in his hospital bed, eyes closed, still recovering. Without warning, he slowly opened them, sensing a presence. He turned toward the open window.
There, perched on the windowsill, was an ANBU shinobi.
The masked ninja dropped into the room and walked to the bedside.
"Hokage-sama," Uchiha Itachi said, removing his mask. His expression was serious, almost conflicted. "Whatever orders you give me, I will carry them out. Even if you ask me to kill Uchiha Chizumi, I'll leave the village and track him down."
He paused, then continued, "I overheard what Yamanaka Inoichi and the others said earlier. I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but I don't agree with them."
"To me, a Konoha ninja who betrays the village has already committed a grave sin. And Chizumi—he's that kind of traitor."
"On the other hand, a ninja who stays loyal to Konoha should be forgiven even if he makes mistakes. Asuma Sarutobi was that kind of loyal shinobi."
"If you're unable to act, then let me be Konoha's hidden blade—like Danzo was. I'll do whatever it takes, no regrets."
Itachi fell silent.
Hiruzen turned his gaze to the ceiling. "You really are a rare Uchiha, Itachi. Not many of your clan have this kind of clarity. Your loyalty—it's sincere and free from personal gain. That means a lot to me."
Itachi didn't reply, but he stood a little straighter.
"Thank you for your offer, but no," Hiruzen continued. "You're one of Konoha's future pillars. Making you the next Danzo—making a kid shoulder that darkness—would mean I've failed as Hokage."
Itachi hesitated, then said, "But Chizumi's absolute justice is already spreading among the Uchiha. They're extreme by nature—this ideology is only making it worse. If this keeps going, Konoha could fall to them."
Hiruzen sighed. "So Chizumi is just your excuse? Your real target is the Uchiha clan, right? Killing Chizumi and erasing 'absolute justice' gives you the perfect justification. Wipe that ideology out, and the Uchiha lose all influence."
"It's obvious, Itachi. Especially after that prophecy Chizumi gave about you."
Itachi didn't deny it.
Hiruzen tried to sit up, and Itachi helped him.
"Listen," Hiruzen said firmly. "Don't think slaughtering your entire clan is the only answer. You call them extreme, but your solution is even more extreme."
"I know their ambitions, but I haven't acted because there are bigger considerations. That's not indecision—it's politics. It's compromise."
"After the Ino-Shika-Cho trio backed Chizumi, you suppressed your anger. That's compromise too, right?" Itachi asked.
"Yes," Hiruzen admitted. "Those three clans are deeply woven into Konoha's structure. Once they sided with Chizumi, I lost the upper hand. Hokage isn't a dictator. I had to yield."
He looked down at the torn blanket.
"Don't think I'm not angry. I lost my son. But for the village's stability, I held it in. I hope you can understand that kind of burden, too."
"Sometimes, compromise isn't weakness. It buys time to think."
Itachi was quiet. He realized then: even the Third Hokage, known as Konoha's 'God of Shinobi', could only ride the wave of public pressure.
The Hokage didn't have the power to intimidate everyone anymore.
Back when Danzo was alive, Root was feared. It was a sword hanging over every shinobi's head.
But now, with Koharu running Root, it was just another Anbu division.
Chizumi had destroyed that fear.
"I understand now, Hokage-sama," Itachi said.
Hiruzen smiled weakly. "You truly are the most remarkable Uchiha of your generation."
Still, he couldn't help but worry as he watched Itachi walk away.
Did he really understand?
…
"Tsunade-sama, look!" Shizune pointed toward the sky, flames rising in the distance. "That must be where Chizumi is. Lava Release and the Sharingan—we're talking double bloodline limit."
She was about to run ahead but noticed Tsunade standing still, one hand gripping a lamppost, face drained of color.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune started to ask but stopped when she saw Tsunade's expression.
"No need to look at the flames," Tsunade said, her voice trembling. "Just look at the corpses on the ground—you can follow them like a trail."
Shizune's eyes scanned the area. Her pupils contracted.
Bodies. Torn in half, beheaded, mangled beyond recognition. And blood. So much blood.
Right. Tsunade had likely seen all that already. That's why she froze.
"Shizune," Tsunade gritted her teeth, "grab the money off those corpses. Chizumi doesn't want it. That could fund our gambling for a whole month! We can't let anyone else find out about this secret jackpot."
"Hurry up. That brat's killing rate is insane. He might wipe out all of Tanzaku Town before dawn. Don't get beat to it!"
Shizune: "..."
Maybe—just maybe—Tsunade's gambling addiction had managed to override her fear of blood. Barely.
Shizune looked at the shredded corpses, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
"Absolute justice..." she muttered. "I wonder what the other ninja in the village think about Chizumi."
…
"Y-You... You monster! I've never even offended you! I don't even know who you are! Why are you trying to kill me?! Even ninja have to follow the laws of the Land of Fire, right?!"
A well-dressed man stumbled backward, his legs giving out beneath him as the stench of urine filled the air. His terror was beyond words.
Three bodies lay nearby—his personal bodyguards, all Konoha shinobi, all decapitated.
"You even killed Konoha ninjas!"
He pointed, panicking as Chiizumi slowly approached.
"If you spare me, I swear I won't tell anyone! But if you kill me—you'll be wanted by all of Konoha! The village has thousands of ninja!"
"Meow. Lord Chiizumi is a Konoha ninja," Jujiro replied coldly. "You want him to hunt himself?"
"A-a talking cat?!"
That was the man's final reaction before Chiizumi's blade sliced through the air and took his head clean off.
"Blade's dull," Chiizumi muttered, flicking blood off the standard-issue police sword before sheathing it and walking forward, leaving another body behind in his trail of carnage.
…
"He's… killed way too many," Shizune whispered, her voice trembling.
She wasn't just horrified anymore—now, there was something deeper. A creeping sense of unease, something she couldn't quite name.
"Tsunade-sama… are we really sure everyone Chiizumi killed was a villain? Not even one innocent among them? How does he know who's guilty? How can he be so certain?"
The questions swirled through her mind like a storm, and no matter how she tried to reason through them, she found no answer.
Even as she obeyed Tsunade's orders—scooping up bundle after bundle of ryo, likely worth millions—Shizune couldn't calm the dread tightening in her chest.
The worst part wasn't the money.
It was the feel of it.
Sticky. Warm. Tacky with dried blood.
Every note she touched made her fingers crawl and her spine freeze.
And Tsunade, who was earlier flush with adrenaline and excitement, now leaned silently against a lamppost.
She looked pale. Her expression heavy.
The high had worn off.
"That brat… how did he kill so many people?"
Tsunade had thought—hoped, even—that this night's death toll would be in the dozens.
She knew Tanzaku. There were definitely a few dozen people here who deserved capital punishment.
But this?
"We've passed a hundred bodies… and he's not even slowing down," she murmured, her golden eyes dark with disbelief.
This was beyond anything she'd expected. And Chiizumi? He wasn't stopping.
Not yet.
…
Meanwhile, in a forest not far from Tanzaku Town—
Three figures sprinted between the trees, shadows flickering under the pale moonlight. They were Konoha shinobi, just finishing a dangerous A-rank mission.
"Whew… finally done. That one nearly cost us," one said between breaths. "If it weren't for Gekko's Transparent Release at the end, two of us might not have made it back."
"Yeah, no kidding," another replied. "Let's rest in Tanzaku tonight. Baths, food, maybe a real bed. Head back to the village in the morning."
"Sounds perfect. Gekko, you good with that?"
There was no reply.
The others glanced at him—Moonlight Hayate was silent, face grim.
"…Hey, you alright? You didn't get hit back there, did you?"
Hayate blinked slowly, brought back to the present.
"No. I'm fine," he said after a pause. "Just… remembering something unpleasant."
Since the death of his younger brother—killed by Uchiha Chiizumi—Hayate had been haunted by nightmares. He'd taken this mission to get away from the village, from the pain.
He took a breath. The cool air helped. A little.
But then—
Tanzaku Town came into view.
Flames.
Thick black smoke rising in pillars. The skyline lit in orange.
Hayate couldn't hide it—something was very, very wrong.
Then came the breeze.
It carried with it heat. And a pungent, stinging scent.
Hayate's expression changed instantly.
"…That smell."
He knew it too well.
Lava. The sulfurous burn of molten rock.
"Come on!" the left-side ninja shouted, already dashing toward the burning town.
The other followed without hesitation.
Hayate opened his mouth to stop them, but it was too late—they were already gone.
Only their backs remained in the smoky distance.
"…It can't be," he muttered. "It really can't be him."
But something told him otherwise.
Grinding his teeth, he chased after them.
…
The three Konoha shinobi arrived at Tanzaku Town—and were instantly stunned.
Lava. Fire. Corpses.
Those weren't just elements of destruction—they were the theme of the night.
The streets were coated in bodies. Blood pooled in thick streams, flowing downhill through the alleys and into the drainage canals.
The heat was oppressive, and the air reeked of sulfur. It didn't feel like a town anymore.
It felt like the edge of a volcano.
Severed heads rolled to the gutters. People stood along the sides, frozen in terror, too scared to scream.
"One-hit kills," muttered the shinobi on Gekko Hayate's left. He crouched to inspect a corpse, forcing himself to stay calm.
"Decapitated. Pierced hearts. Kunai through the skull. Shuriken across arteries. Every kill is clean, efficient. No wasted movement."
"This is someone ruthless. Someone who knows exactly what they're doing. A killer with elite combat experience. Definitely a ninja. Based on technique—at least jonin-level."
The ninja to Hayate's right gulped, his face pale. He grabbed a nearby civilian.
"What happened here?! Who killed these people?!"
The man's lips trembled. "Uchiha Chiizumi… Uchiha Chiizumi…" he muttered like a broken record.
"He's back… the killer is back… He's killed even more than he did nine years ago…"
The three Konoha shinobi exchanged a look.
Uchiha Chiizumi.
…
Tsunade and Shizune finally caught up with Chiizumi.
Their entrance, though, was less than heroic.
Still overwhelmed by her hemophobia, Tsunade had kept her eyes closed the entire way, forced to ride piggyback on Shizune through streets drenched in blood.
Even with her eyes shut, the scent in the air was overwhelming. Iron and heat and death.
Her face was sickly pale.
"…Huff." Tsunade peeked through one eye.
Ahead of them—Chiizumi stood gripping a man by the hair, his sword buried deep in the man's chest.
"Hey! You, Uchiha brat!" Tsunade called.
Just as she shouted, Chiizumi let the body fall.
Blood sprayed from the chest wound. Tsunade's jaw tightened.
"This is too far, don't you think?" she said slowly. "Sure, Tanzaku's full of scum. But not this many. I had Shizune count… we're at 276 bodies."
She glanced down.
"Correction—make that 277."
"Are you really sure there wasn't a single innocent person?"
Chiizumi stared at her silently.
Tsunade—one of the legendary Sannin—looked fragile. Shaken.
Her aura was gone. Her presence diminished.
Then came Jujiro, tail flicking.
"Tsunade-sama, Chiizumi-sama's eyes can see both a person's past sins and their future crimes. To him, evil can't hide. If someone dies by his sword, they were never innocent."
"It's a power even the Third Hokage acknowledged."
"And Chiizumi, in his pursuit of Absolute Justice, would never use that ability to falsely accuse anyone. He only kills the guilty. And he never hesitates."
The words silenced them.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "…Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Chiizumi didn't respond.
Instead, he looked at the pouches of ryo strapped around Shizune's waist.
She shrank back slightly, embarrassed.
"If you think I went too far," Chiizumi said calmly, "if you think Tanzaku didn't have this many criminals…"
"…Then follow me. See what real evil looks like."
With that, he walked toward a brightly lit building.
Tsunade glanced up.
It was Tanzaku's largest dance hall.
She had never cared about it. It wasn't a casino, so it had never drawn her attention.
"…Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.
"…Take me with him," Tsunade said after a pause.
"Yes, ma'am!"
…
Hayate's breathing grew shallow.
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Chiizumi—here? Now?
That boy had killed his brother. In his arms.
"He should be in the village… how did he get here? Tanzaku is a full day's run even for a jonin."
The ninja on the left swallowed. "I've heard of him… that name…"
"He's killed more people outside Konoha than within," the ninja on the right added. "Maybe… maybe no one can stop him anymore."
Then he spotted something.
"Hey—look over here!"
They ran over.
On the ground—
A Konoha forehead protector. Soaked in blood.
"There are Konoha shinobi among the dead," he muttered.
"My guess? They were killed in the name of 'Absolute Justice.' Rich folks here often hire Konoha ninja as bodyguards… so there's probably more than one."
The realization hit them hard.
Could they stop him?
No. They'd die.
And if Chiizumi really was executing justice… interfering would be worse than suicide.
"…Go back to the village," Hayate ordered. "Report to the Hokage."
"What about you?!" one of them asked.
Hayate paused. "…I'll catch up."
"…Don't lose yourself to that grudge."
"…I won't."
…
Chizumi kicked open a steel door. A man flew through it, hit the ground, and went limp. Blood splattered everywhere.
He stepped over the bodies, tossing a shuriken to finish off the barely conscious.
The air inside the basement was foul, but neither he nor Jujiro flinched. They'd smelled worse.
The cat leapt up and tapped a switch with its paw. The lights flicked on.
Immediately, the room filled with clinking and rattling—dozens of rusted iron cages, stacked together like a warehouse.
Inside each cage was a child. Boys and girls. Ages ranging from 5 to 14. Half-naked. Dirty. Terrified.
They were crammed into the corners of their cages, shrinking back as far as they could.
Each one's face had a certain fragile beauty—likely what got them abducted.
The reek of waste came from poorly sealed chamber pots inside the cages.
Tsunade and Shizune arrived.
Tsunade could open her eyes now. There was no blood here.
But what she saw was worse.
Chizumi spoke, voice low:
"Most of them are war orphans from the Land of Fire. Traffickers snatched them, then sold them to this dance hall."
"You can guess what they were used for."
"You're medical ninja. You know what happens when undeveloped children fall into the hands of monsters."
Shizune felt Tsunade's fingers dig painfully into her shoulders. But she didn't complain.
That pain was nothing compared to what these kids were going through.
Chizumi approached a cage. With a touch, he melted the lock.
He looked into the eyes of a little girl.
Sharingan. Three tomoe spinning.
"Sleep," he said gently. "When you wake up, everything will be better."
She blinked once. Her terror faded. She leaned against the bars and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
He wrapped her in a thin blanket and laid her gently on the ground.
"Now you see why I'm sure—none of the people I killed were innocent."
Tsunade was speechless.
She'd seen war. She'd seen death. But this—this shook her to her core.
All of this had been happening beneath her feet while she drank and gambled.
She felt... disgusted with herself.
"Shizune..."
"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"
"Put me down."
Shizune set her down gently.
Tsunade walked to a cage and crushed the lock in one hand. She picked up a trembling little girl and whispered:
"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry."
Chizumi stood beside her.
He looked exhausted. His Sharingan was drained.
"Let me take her. I gave her a dream. When she wakes up, she won't remember any of this."
He added, "None of them will."
Tsunade stared at him.
"Have you... seen this kind of thing often?"
"Not a lot. But not rarely either."
What has become of this ninja world? Tsunade wondered.
…
As the first light of dawn tore through the remnants of night, the raging fires across Tanzaku Town finally began to die down.
The thick, choking stench of sulfur slowly faded with the early morning breeze.
But…
The metallic stench of blood still hung in the air, heavy and unmoving.
Because no one dared step outside to gather the corpses.
No one had the courage to wash away the blood that had soaked into the cracks between the cobblestones.
"So many people… died…"
One resident of Tanzaku gulped nervously. He summoned what little courage he had, opened his front door, and stepped outside.
Right outside his home lay three headless corpses.
And at the edge of his doorstep—a severed head, its lifeless eyes staring directly at him.
He staggered back in shock—then froze, blinking.
"That face…"
He stared harder, a chill crawling up his spine.
"…Isn't this one of the notorious gang leaders from around here?"
Curiosity overwhelmed fear. Holding his breath, he moved toward another head.
"Whoa… That's the casino boss from next door! I heard he was worth over three hundred million ryo!"
Then he spotted a third.
"That one's a well-known enforcer… They say he beat over a dozen people to death with his bare hands…"
In that moment—
Even an ordinary citizen like him started noticing a pattern.
"Wait a second… all the people who were killed… they were scumbags?"
"Am I just imagining this… or is something else going on?"
…
Elsewhere…
"Shizune… how many criminals died last night?"
Tsunade, having finally returned to her adult form, sat slouched at a table, her massive chest resting against the surface. Her expression was tired and unusually somber.
Shizune, just as sleep-deprived, flipped through her notebook.
"Uchiha Chiizumi killed five hundred nineteen people," she answered. "That ninja cat—Jujiro—took down another one hundred twenty-one."
She paused.
"Together, they killed six hundred forty."
Shizune hesitated, then glanced at Tsunade cautiously before continuing:
"…And with the nineteen people you personally killed, Tsunade-sama, the total comes to six hundred fifty-nine criminals."
Even as she said it, Shizune could barely believe her own words.
Last night, after helping Chiizumi rescue the children locked up underground…
Tsunade had killed people—herself!
Shizune remembered it vividly: Tsunade's face had gone dark as she grabbed one of the dance hall's shareholders with one hand and flung him dozens of meters into the air.
By the time he hit the ground, no one needed to check if he was alive.
That was the first time Tsunade had killed anyone since developing hemophobia.
She knew her limits—so when the killing urge became too strong to suppress, she didn't use a blade or strike directly.
She just hurled people.
To avoid blood, she simply hurled her victims sky‑high—Tanzaku witnessed nineteen "human meteors."
Because as long as she didn't see the blood—
She could live with it.
~~~
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