Seeing Sasuke's tsundere-like reaction, Izumi felt a moment of daze. These two brothers, raised by the same parents, were so different in personality—how could that be?
"Let's go."
Uchiha Akainu didn't waste words on the two kids. With just those two words, he started walking forward.
"Huh?"
Naruto's small face scrunched in confusion. "Where are we going?"
Izumi, walking beside him, explained on Akainu's behalf, "Senior Akainu's way of teaching [Justice] isn't about standing in a classroom giving lectures."
She'd been through Akainu's "hellish justice training" herself, and those first few days had shaken her to her core.
But over time, she'd come to understand just how profound and challenging Senior Akainu's [Absolute Justice] was.
Following behind Akainu, Izumi continued in a clear voice, "Senior's teaching method is all about action. Before you two arrived, Jiro's ninja cats had already tracked down a target that [Justice] demands we judge!"
Ninja cats…
Jiro…
Naruto and Sasuke both turned their eyes to the fat cat lounging comfortably on Izumi's left shoulder.
Jiro opened one squinted eye and spoke in a human voice, "You two brats made your choice, so you'd better be ready to face the kind of evil that'd make you wet your pants. Don't let the darkness of human nature break you."
Naruto muttered under his breath, "Sounds like an old granny talking."
Sasuke almost nodded in agreement but caught himself. If he sided with this dead-last, wouldn't that mean admitting he was lesser than Naruto?
Some competitive spark flared in Sasuke, and he let out a soft huff, ignoring Naruto's comment.
As they walked, Sasuke started to feel something was off.
He blurted out in shock, "This direction… it's…"
"The Uchiha clan," Akainu's cold voice confirmed. "The ninja cats found a massive stash of illegal drugs in the Uchiha compound. This morning, three Uchiha returned from a mission, and they're the prime suspects."
Sasuke's face was a mask of disbelief. The Uchiha clan was in trouble?!
His mother had told him that Uchiha Akainu never showed mercy, not even to his own clan.
If someone did wrong, Akainu would strike without hesitation, and lives were often lost.
Sasuke was starting to grasp what "no mercy" truly meant.
"…Illegal drugs?" Naruto tilted his head, clearly clueless, his focus elsewhere.
Jiro yawned and explained, "The kind of stuff that, once it gets its hooks in you, destroys families and lives. It wasn't this bad before, but since the Third Great Ninja War ended, it's been spreading like wildfire. Word is, a merchant named Kado's been smuggling this garbage."
"A month ago, I sent five ninja cats to dig up intel on this Kado guy, both in and outside the Land of Fire. Once we pinpoint his location, Lord Akainu will pay him a visit."
Jiro paused, then added, "The sheer amount of illegal drugs in the Uchiha compound? It's gotta be tied to that Kado guy."
"Doing this kind of thing right under Lord Akainu's nose? These guys must've been out on missions too long to know what's been going down in Konoha this past month."
"They clearly haven't heard that [Absolute Justice] is becoming unstoppable!"
Jiro's words made Izumi realize something.
It hadn't even been a full month since she'd met Senior Akainu!
Naruto, still curious and clueless about the details, asked, "How many people have those drugs hurt?"
"…Too many to count," Jiro replied, its tone losing its usual playfulness. "Just in Konoha, last year alone, six people—civilians and ninja alike—died because of these drugs. And the number of people still suffering? Impossible to tally."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Even ninja get hurt by it?"
Jiro nodded. "Some naive fools think their ninja willpower can resist the physical and mental addiction. They're wrong."
"You two brats, listen up. When it comes to drug dealers—whether they're making, smuggling, or selling—execute them all in the name of justice!"
By now, they'd entered the Uchiha clan compound.
Naruto couldn't believe he'd "visited" this place three times in such a short span!
Sasuke, meanwhile, stayed silent, his young face etched with conflict. He seemed like he wanted to say something but held back.
Then he noticed Akainu glance his way.
Sasuke froze, startled, and clamped his mouth shut.
To his surprise, Akainu spoke, "You think that because they're Uchiha, even if they've done wrong, they shouldn't face such extreme measures. At least give them a chance to live, right, Uchiha Sasuke?"
Sasuke: "!!!"
His head snapped up, eyes wide with shock as he stared at Akainu's back.
Those were his exact thoughts!
It was like Akainu had heard the voice deep in his heart!
Akainu continued coolly, "Evil in the ninja world comes in degrees. Minor evils, like Naruto's pranks, need only a slightly harsher punishment to correct. Moderate evils, like theft or brawling, can be reformed through imprisonment in Konoha's jail. But great evils—murder, drug trafficking, human trafficking—those demand death to set things right!"
"Justice doesn't compromise or forgive. Uchiha Sasuke, do you think you have the right to forgive those who've destroyed lives, to pardon criminals who deserve to pay with their own?"
Akainu stopped walking and turned, towering over Sasuke with a piercing gaze.
"Imagine your brother, Uchiha Itachi, slaughters the entire Uchiha clan tonight—every man, woman, child, even your father and mother, all dead."
"And you and Itachi are the only ones left alive. Would you forgive him for the sake of the clan?"
"Would you forgive the man who killed your father? Your mother? If someone stood before you and said, 'He's your brother, shouldn't you forgive him? It's just a mistake,' would you listen?"
"Would you follow their words and forgive Uchiha Itachi for wiping out the Uchiha clan?"
Akainu's relentless questions made Sasuke's eyes widen, and he stumbled back several steps.
He locked eyes with Akainu.
In that moment, for reasons he couldn't grasp, Akainu's words began painting vivid images in his mind.
In a fleeting moment, the world around Sasuke transformed.
He found himself standing in the dark of night.
The buildings around him—he recognized them as the Uchiha compound.
His confused gaze darted around.
His eyes widened further.
Under the moonlight—blood, bodies, darkness, screams, pleas for mercy… a horrific scene unfolded. Each corpse bore a vivid, gruesome expression, their blood soaking the ground red.
Sasuke's pupils trembled.
In the bright moonlight, he saw familiar faces frozen in fear and despair—Uchiha clan members!
Elders.
Youths.
Children.
Infants.
All of them!
A sudden, piercing scream nearby made Sasuke's hair stand on end. Panicked, he turned to look.
A boy his age, an Uchiha, was being dragged by his hair by a man with a mask pushed to the side of his head. A ninja blade pierced the boy's chest, snuffing out his life.
The blade was slowly withdrawn.
The body dropped to the ground.
Sasuke, trembling, finally saw the man's face—Uchiha Itachi!!!
Before he could cry out, the scene shifted.
Sasuke was now inside a house, dim yellow light offering no comfort. The sound of soft footsteps and dragging startled him, and he whipped around.
He saw Itachi dragging a barely alive woman. Itachi didn't seem to notice him, passing right by.
Itachi held the woman with one hand and a bloodied kunai in the other. Every few steps, he carved another wound into her body.
"AAAAH—"
Her hoarse, heart-wrenching screams echoed as a faint noise came from a wardrobe.
Itachi's kunai slit her throat.
He walked to the wardrobe and opened it without expression.
Inside was a little girl, hiding.
"Brother! Stop!!!" Sasuke tried to scream, but no sound came. He could only watch as Itachi dragged the terrified girl out and ended her life with the kunai.
The scene shifted again.
Sasuke, filled with grief and rage, saw Akainu, Izumi, Naruto, and Jiro reappear.
Itachi was gone.
The blood, bodies, and screams vanished.
Sasuke stood frozen.
"Did you see it?" Akainu's three-tomoe Sharingan faded back to normal. "If that really happened, would you have the right to forgive him for others? Answer, Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke snapped back to reality. "That… was a genjutsu?"
He was dazed. The illusion felt so real, as if those tragedies were destined to happen.
He couldn't imagine his brother doing such things.
But if they did happen, could he forgive Itachi for the clan?
He thought of the boy pierced by the blade.
The infant sliced in half.
The tortured woman, and the little girl who'd made a sound hearing her mother's suffering.
Plip—tears fell uncontrollably.
His blurred vision told him he was crying.
He hurriedly wiped his eyes.
Sasuke lowered his head and murmured, "I… don't have the right to forgive him for others. And… if that happened, I wouldn't forgive him myself…"
Something clicked. He looked up at Akainu, his fear replaced by a spark of courage and curiosity. "Those three Uchiha bringing drugs to Konoha… did they cause this kind of pain to others?"
"Yes," Akainu replied with a single word.
Sasuke's face burned with shame, wishing he could disappear into the ground.
"…I'm sorry."
He apologized softly.
"Huh?!" Naruto, completely lost, scratched his head. Why had Akainu just asked this stuck-up guy some questions, and now he was apologizing out of nowhere?
…
Meanwhile, at the Uchiha Police Force headquarters.
"Lord Fugaku, the Jinchuriki… has been brought in by Uchiha Akainu again. Some Anbu are tailing him, likely to monitor the Jinchuriki."
Fugaku felt numb at the news.
This was the third time, wasn't it? When would this guy take a break?!
Even if Akainu wasn't tired, Fugaku was exhausted!
But the next words stunned him. "Also… your second son, Uchiha Sasuke, seems to be with Uchiha Akainu."
Fugaku: "???"
Sasuke?!
He racked his brain but couldn't figure out what connection Sasuke could have with Akainu.
In his mind, the two were completely incompatible.
Fugaku's brows furrowed with worry. Had Sasuke done something wrong and gotten caught by Akainu?!
Though his younger son's talent disappointed him, nowhere near Itachi's, he was still his son.
Fugaku stood, his voice firm. "Where's Akainu? Take me to him!"
As for the Anbu sneaking in to monitor the Jinchuriki?
Fugaku ignored them entirely.
…
Elsewhere in the Uchiha compound.
In a basement beneath a house.
Three Uchiha ninja gathered, one with arms crossed, frowning at stacks of goods. "Hayata, over a ton of drugs? Can Konoha even handle that much? It'll take ages to move it all."
"Don't worry," Uchiha Hayata smirked. "We don't need to sell it all in Konoha. We just pass it along. How it's used isn't our problem."
Another frowned. "We'd better be careful. If Fugaku finds out, we're in trouble."
"Hmph!" Hayata sneered. "What's there to fear? We're doing this to fund the Uchiha clan! With this money, we can buy enough explosive tags to build the strength for a future coup against the Hokage."
"If Fugaku, that weak clan leader, makes a fuss over this, it just proves he's spineless! And it'd be the perfect chance…"
He grinned. "I'll push my grandfather to call for a clan election and replace Fugaku as leader."
"Ha, true," another said. "Your grandfather's Elder Setsuna. Fugaku wouldn't dare touch you."
"Speaking of," he hesitated, "we've been gone for months, and Konoha feels… off. People keep talking about that dangerous guy. You think he'll come after us? He's always ranting about justice."
Hayata scoffed. "You're too paranoid. As long as we keep quiet, how could he know what we've done?"
Clearly, these three were young, radical Uchiha.
As Hayata was about to say more, sudden footsteps from above made their eyes narrow.
Footsteps? Someone broke in?—the same thought hit all three.
They exchanged glances, ready to head up from the basement, but the footsteps grew closer.
Someone was coming down to the basement!
A bad feeling gripped them.
When they saw who it was, Hayata's heart sank, and he gasped, "Uchiha Akainu?!"
Then they saw three others follow—kids.
A girl in Police Force gear.
A blond kid.
And another…
Wait!
Seeing Sasuke's young face, Hayata and the others froze. They knew what Fugaku's sons looked like.
…