Nighttime, Konoha Hospital
Lying in a hospital bed, yet to be discharged, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, rested with his eyes closed. Suddenly, he opened them slowly, as if sensing something. His gaze shifted to the window on his right.
There, perched on the half-open window, was an ANBU ninja.
The figure leapt down and approached the bedside.
"Lord Hokage," Uchiha Itachi said, removing his mask. His expression was complex as he looked at the Third Hokage. "No matter what orders you give, I will follow them. Even if you command me to kill Uchiha Akainu, I would leave Konoha without hesitation to hunt him down outside the village."
He paused, then continued, "During the day, I overheard what Yamanaka Haiichi and the others said. I'm sorry, Lord Hokage—perhaps I shouldn't have eavesdropped. But there's something I need to say: I don't think they're right."
Itachi went on, "I believe a Konoha ninja who lacks loyalty to the village has already committed a grave mistake. Uchiha Akainu is one such disloyal ninja."
"On the other hand, a ninja who is fiercely loyal to Konoha, even if they've made mistakes, should be forgiven. Sarutobi Asuma is a loyal ninja."
"Lord Hokage… this is my personal view on the matter. If it's inconvenient for you to act, I can become a second Danzo Shimura—a hidden blade for Konoha."
"No matter what burdens I must carry in the future, I'll bear them without regret!"
With that, Itachi fell silent, standing quietly by the bedside.
Hiruzen averted his gaze, staring at the ceiling with a sigh. "Itachi, you truly are a unique Uchiha. Not every Uchiha has your level of resolve."
"I can tell your loyalty to Konoha is pure, untainted by personal gain or schemes. Honestly… that brings me great comfort."
Though Itachi didn't respond, his posture straightened slightly, clearly touched by Hiruzen's words.
"Thank you for your offer, Itachi," Hiruzen said, shaking his head. "In my eyes, you're one of the genius ninjas who will carry Konoha's future. If I let you become like Danzo—a shadow of Konoha, bearing burdens no child should—I'd be a failure as the Third Hokage."
Itachi froze, unable to stay silent. "But… Lord Hokage, Uchiha Akainu's so-called 'absolute justice' is subtly influencing the Uchiha clan."
"They're already extreme, and this 'absolute justice' will only make them more so. Konoha…" He took a deep breath. "It could be destroyed by an extremist Uchiha clan."
"…Itachi," Hiruzen sighed. "Uchiha Akainu… he's just your excuse to target the Uchiha clan, isn't he? Your real goal is the entire clan, right?"
"Killing Akainu would mean eradicating the concept of 'absolute justice' from Konoha. That's the perfect pretext to move against the Uchiha, isn't it?"
"That way, no one in the clan could threaten Konoha, right?"
"It's too obvious, Itachi… especially after Akainu made that prophecy about you."
Caught off guard, Itachi silently acknowledged the truth with his silence.
Hiruzen propped himself up on the bed with one hand. Itachi quickly stepped forward to help him.
Leaning against the cold hospital wall, Hiruzen's sharp, aged eyes locked onto Itachi's. "Itachi, I want you to rein in these dangerous thoughts. You don't need to believe wiping out the Uchiha clan is the only solution. When you call your clan extreme, have you considered that your own thoughts might be just as extreme?"
"I'm not unaware of the Uchiha's schemes, but I've never moved against them for a reason. It's not indecision—it's politics, a balancing act."
Itachi interjected, "When the Ino-Shika-Cho clans stepped in, you suppressed your hatred. Is that also a balancing act?"
"…Yes," Hiruzen sighed. "The Ino-Shika-Cho trio is tied to too many aspects of Konoha. When they united to stand with Akainu…"
"In this clash between my Will of Fire and Akainu's absolute justice, I was outmaneuvered. The Hokage isn't Konoha's sole authority—I had to compromise."
Hiruzen glanced at the torn corner of his hospital bedsheet. "I'm not without anger, nor do I not care about losing my son. But for Konoha's stability, I had to compromise."
"Itachi, I hope you can understand this burden."
"Sometimes, you need to compromise too. A temporary compromise isn't failure—it gives you room to think."
Itachi fell silent for a long time, realizing that the Third Hokage, hailed as the "Hero of Konoha," was often swept along by the tides of power.
The Hokage's authority wasn't as absolute as he'd imagined.
At least when faced with the united front of Konoha's clans, even the Third Hokage, burning with the desire to avenge his son, could only swallow his pride and choose silence.
Itachi began to ponder why things were this way.
He seemed to reach a conclusion: The Hokage lacks the power to intimidate all of Konoha.
When Danzo Shimura was alive, his Root organization, though hard to control, was a dark blade hanging over the heads of many ninjas—a Damocles' sword of deterrence.
That was the Hokage's tool to keep Konoha in line.
But after Koharu Utatane took over Root, it became more like a second ANBU, lacking its former menace.
And all of this was tied to Uchiha Akainu!
Akainu had stripped away that deterrent power!
"I understand, Lord Hokage," Itachi said, nodding slightly.
Hiruzen managed a faint smile. "Itachi, you truly are the Uchiha I value most, the most exceptional among them."
His mind was already in turmoil. If Itachi were to stage a massacre of his clan in Konoha, Hiruzen felt he might faint again.
But as he watched Itachi's retreating figure, Hiruzen fell into deep thought.
Itachi… do you truly understand?
---
"Lady Tsunade, look over there!" Shizune, holding Tonton in one arm, pointed urgently at a rising glow of flames in the distance. "Uchiha Akainu is probably over there, right? He's a ninja with both Lava Release and Sharingan bloodline limits."
As she started to rush forward, she noticed Tsunade standing frozen, one hand gripping a lamppost.
"Lady Tsunade?" Shizune began to ask with concern, then froze in shock. Tsunade's young face was as pale as a sheet.
"No… no need to look at the flames…" Tsunade's voice trembled. "Just look at the bodies on the ground, and you'll know which way he went."
Shizune froze.
Her gaze shifted back to the distant flames, then downward. Her pupils shrank. "This…"
What she saw was a trail of blood-soaked corpses, each one brutally slain.
Some were cleaved in half from head to toe.
Others were decapitated, their heads rolling to the side.
The only commonality was the sheer volume of blood.
That's right… Lady Tsunade must be reacting to all this blood!
"Shizune…" Tsunade gritted her teeth. "Quick! Gather up all the money those corpses don't need anymore! That's… our gambling funds for the next month! We can't let anyone else find this golden opportunity!"
"Pick it up fast! That Uchiha kid is slaughtering villains at breakneck speed. In one night, he might just wipe out all of Tanzaku Street… Don't let anyone beat us to it!"
Shizune: "…"
Perhaps Tsunade's gambling addiction had just barely overcome her hemophobia.
With a bead of sweat on her forehead, Shizune stared at the gruesome corpses, feeling a chill down her spine.
"Absolute justice…" she muttered. "I wonder how the village's ninjas see this Uchiha Akainu."
---
"You… you monster! I've never done anything to you! I don't even know you! Why are you trying to kill me? Even ninjas have to follow the laws of the Land of Fire, don't they?"
"If you kill me, that's a serious crime! Even as a ninja, you can't just go around murdering people!"
At a certain spot in Tanzaku Street, a man in a suit was slumped on the ground, paralyzed with fear. A foul stench emanated from his trousers, making him look utterly pathetic.
Three bodies lay beside him—his hired ninja bodyguards, all decapitated.
Yet, in his eyes, these formidable ninjas were nothing before this monster.
"And those three you killed were all Konoha ninjas!" the man shouted in desperate terror as the figure approached. "If you let me go, I swear I won't say a word! Otherwise… do you want to be hunted by Konoha's ninjas? I hear they have thousands, maybe tens of thousands!"
"Meow, Lord Akainu is a Konoha ninja," Jiro, the orange tabby, sneered. "Are you telling Lord Akainu to hunt himself?"
"A… a talking cat…" The man's jaw dropped.
Splurch—
His stunned expression froze forever as a ninja blade severed his head.
"The blade's dull," Uchiha Akainu remarked, inspecting his standard-issue police force tanto. With a flick, he shook off the blood and sheathed it, stepping over the corpses without a trace of emotion. Behind him lay a mountain of bodies and a river of blood.
No one knew how many red-named villains Akainu had killed in just half an hour.
Jiro had started counting eagerly at first, but soon lost track—Akainu's killing speed was simply too fast!
And Akainu didn't listen to any of the villains' pleas.
See them.
Kill them.
That's what he'd been doing, over and over, for the past half hour.
Now, Tanzaku Street was plunged into panic and chaos. Blood-soaked bodies littered the ground, testing the fragile nerves of everyone around.
Some buildings were engulfed in flames, their occupants burned to charred remains.
Fear spread like wildfire.
---
"He's… killed too many!" Shizune was beyond horrified, a deep fear taking root in her heart. Doubts crept in. "Lady Tsunade… are all the people Uchiha Akainu killed really villains? Not a single innocent among them? How does he even decide?"
Question after question swirled in her mind, unanswered.
Though she followed Tsunade's orders, collecting stacks of blood-stained money—probably millions of ryo—her hands trembled. The sticky feel of the blood-soaked bills sent a bone-chilling cold through her.
Tsunade, leaning against the lamppost, had lost her initial excitement. Her youthful face was pale and grim.
"How has that Uchiha kid killed so many?" Tsunade had thought maybe a few dozen would die tonight. Given her knowledge of Tanzaku Street, a place like this having a few dozen deserving death was expected.
But…
"The body count's in the triple digits!" A flash of horror crossed Tsunade's eyes. "And it doesn't look like he's stopping!"
This was beyond her expectations.
---
Meanwhile, in a dense forest just outside Tanzaku Street, three shadowy figures darted through the trees.
"Phew… mission complete. That A-rank mission was brutal—nearly didn't make it. Good thing Hayate's Transparency Jutsu came through at the last second, or we'd have lost at least two of us."
The relieved voice confirmed these were Konoha ninjas returning from a mission outside the village.
"If I remember right, Tanzaku Street's up ahead. We can rest there tonight and head back to Konoha in the morning. A bathhouse would be nice to unwind."
"Hayate, what do you think? …Hayate? Why'd you go quiet?"
The speaker glanced at the ninja beside him, concerned. "You're not injured, are you?"
Under the moonlight, Moonlight Hayate snapped out of his daze. Shaking his head, he replied with a complicated expression, "It's nothing… just some bad memories."
Since his brother died at Uchiha Akainu's hands, Hayate had been haunted by nightmares of that night, to the point he questioned his own sanity. He'd requested a mission to leave the village, hoping some time away would calm his mind.
"Phew!" Hayate exhaled, feeling the days spent outside had indeed eased his heart a bit.
But then, the third ninja, who'd been silent, suddenly shouted, "Look ahead!"
The forest thinned, revealing Tanzaku Street in the distance.
But they saw flames rising from the town, thick smoke billowing under the moonlight.
A hot breeze carried a pungent smell.
The other two ninjas froze in shock, but Hayate's face paled.
He recognized that smell—sulfur, unique to lava.
"Let's go!" The ninja on the left sped toward Tanzaku Street, followed closely by the one on the right. Hayate opened his mouth to stop them but saw only their retreating backs.
"It… can't be that much of a coincidence, right?" Hayate gritted his teeth and hurried after them.
---
The three Konoha ninjas reached Tanzaku Street and were stunned by the sight.
Lava!
Flames!
Corpses!
These defined the night's grim symphony. The streets were carpeted with bodies, blood pooling and flowing into the drainage ditches.
The fire grew fiercer, the sulfur stench overwhelming, as if they stood at the edge of a volcano.
Heads rolled along the roadside, and terrified onlookers lined the streets.
"All one-hit kills!" The ninja to Hayate's left crouched to inspect a body, voice heavy with shock. "Either beheaded by a tanto, stabbed through the heart, pierced through the skull with a kunai, or sliced through an artery with a shuriken."
"The killer didn't waste a single move. This is a ruthless, experienced murderer—a ninja, likely a master of taijutsu. At least Jonin-level!"
The ninja to Hayate's right swallowed hard and grabbed a bystander. "Why were these people killed? Who did this?"
"Uchiha Akainu… Uchiha Akainu…" the bystander muttered, trembling. "He's back… that killing maniac's grown up, and he's back… killing even more than nine years ago…"
The three ninjas froze.
Uchiha Akainu?!
---
Meanwhile, Tsunade and Shizune had caught up to Akainu, though their situation was almost comical. Tsunade's severe hemophobia kept her eyes shut, refusing to walk on blood-soaked streets. Still in her twelve-year-old disguise to dodge debts, she clung to Shizune's back as Shizune carried her.
Even so, the pervasive smell of blood made Tsunade queasy, her young face pale.
"Phew…" Tsunade cracked her eyes open slightly, spotting Akainu. He held a tanto in one hand and a man's hair in the other, the blade buried in the man's chest.
"Hey, Uchiha kid…" Tsunade began, but Akainu tossed the body aside. The gush of blood from the corpse made her bite her lip hard.
"Aren't you… going a bit overboard? Tanzaku Street has its share of scum, sure, but…" Tsunade's voice grew heavy. "This many? Shizune counted 276 bodies on the way here."
She avoided looking at the bleeding corpse and added, "Make that 277 now…"
"How are you so sure none of them were innocent?!"
Akainu looked calmly at Tsunade, whose face was white as paper. One of Konoha's Legendary Sannin, crippled by hemophobia, seemed like a frightened beast, far from the bold figure in his memories.
"Lady Tsunade," Jiro spoke, voice firm. "Lord Akainu's eyes can see a person's past and future sins. Under those eyes, no evil can hide. Those who die by his hand are never innocent."
"Lady Tsunade, you've been away from Konoha for a while, so you might not know. The Third Hokage is aware of Lord Akainu's ability."
"With his belief in 'absolute justice,' Lord Akainu would never use this power to frame the innocent. His blade only strikes villains—without mercy."
"This is Lord Akainu's 'absolute justice'!"
Jiro's words stunned both Tsunade and Shizune.
The ability to see past and future sins?
Shizune was dumbfounded, but Tsunade's eyes widened as a thought struck her.
"Mangekyo Sharingan?" she murmured.
Akainu ignored her comment, glancing at the bulging money pouches tied to Shizune's waist—seven or eight, stuffed full.
Under Shizune's embarrassed expression, Akainu said to Tsunade, "If you think I've gone too far, if you think I shouldn't have killed so many, or that Tanzaku Street doesn't have this many villains…"
"Follow me and see for yourself just how twisted and nauseating the evil born from this diseased ninja world can be."
With that, Akainu walked into a brightly lit building ahead.
Tsunade glanced at the signboard, vaguely familiar. It was Tanzaku Street's largest dance hall. Not a casino, so she'd never paid it much mind.
"Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked softly.
Tsunade paused, then said, "Follow him."
"Yes!" Shizune hurried after.
---
"Uchiha Akainu… it's really him…" Moonlight Hayate couldn't stay calm. Memories of his brother's death at Akainu's hands flooded back, his brother dying in his arms.
"Shouldn't he be in Konoha? Why's he in Tanzaku Street? It's a full day's journey, even for a Jonin at full speed!"
The ninja to his left, face pale with shock, clearly knew of Akainu's infamous reputation.
"That guy…" He sucked in a breath, the air thick with blood and sulfur. "He's killing more outside the village than in it! Is it because no one can restrain him out here?"
The ninja to Hayate's right suddenly noticed something. "Look over here!"
Hayate and the other ninja followed his gaze, seeing him pick up a bloodied Konoha headband.
"Konoha ninjas were killed here," he said grimly. "Likely under his so-called 'absolute justice.' Tanzaku Street's rich folk hire Konoha ninjas as bodyguards, so… he's probably killed more than one tonight."
The words weighed heavily on them.
Could the three of them stop Uchiha Akainu?
Together, they'd likely just be throwing their lives away.
And what if Akainu was actually executing justice in Tanzaku Street?
Interfering with that… the consequences could be dire.
"You two, head back to the village and report to the Hokage!" Hayate suggested.
The others froze. "Hayate, what about you?!"
Hayate paused, then said, "I'll catch up soon."
"…Hayate, I know you're still hung up on that incident. But don't lose your head."
"Yeah."
---
Meanwhile, inside Tanzaku Street's largest dance hall:
Bang!
A body with twisted limbs slammed into an iron door, smashing it open. The figure spat blood and collapsed, unconscious.
Akainu stepped over or onto corpses, throwing a shuriken to finish off the unconscious villain.
As he entered through the iron door, a foul smell hit his nose. To him and Jiro, it was bearable—better than the stench of decay.
Jiro hopped up, pressing a paw against the wall.
Click.
The lights flicked on, illuminating the dark chamber.
The sudden light triggered a clatter of chains and the soft clinking of iron cages.
The room was filled with rusty cages, each small—cramped for an adult but just right for a child, with space for a food bowl or waste bucket.
Some larger cages held two scrawny children without issue.
This wasn't a metaphor—it was the horrific reality Akainu's eyes beheld.
When Shizune cautiously entered, carrying Tsunade, she froze.
Her gaze fell on children—aged roughly 5 to 14, scantily clad, listless, and terrified—locked in rusty cages. Boys and girls, their only shared traits were their youth and slightly refined features compared to their peers.
They cowered in the corners of their cages, as if dreading being dragged out.
For these children, being pulled from the cage was likely a fate worse than confinement.
The air reeked from uncovered waste buckets, the stench overwhelming.
Shizune was stunned, and Tsunade, no longer surrounded by blood, dared to open her eyes. But the sight before her was more shocking than the blood-soaked streets.
Akainu's voice broke the silence, as if answering the questions swirling in their minds. "Most of them are war orphans from across the Land of Fire, kidnapped by traffickers and sold to this dance hall's owner."
"You saw their faces—slightly prettier than most kids their age. You can guess what these villains used them for, can't you?"
"As medical ninjas, you know what happens to underdeveloped children in the hands of such monsters. Their only fate is a painful death, right?"
Shizune's pupils trembled. She felt Tsunade's grip tighten painfully on her shoulders.
The pain in her shoulders was nothing compared to the hopeless despair these caged children faced.
"This is just a glimpse of the ninja world's evil," Akainu said, crouching down. He gripped a cage's locked iron padlock, melting it into liquid in seconds.
Opening the cage, his scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan locked onto a small girl inside.
Her terrified expression caught his gaze.
"Sleep now. When you wake up, everything will be okay."
The girl's fear faded, her wide eyes closing as she slumped against the cage, asleep. A soft snore and a faint smile showed she'd entered a pleasant dream—a genjutsu woven by Akainu's Sharingan.
He lifted her out, wrapping her scantily clad body in a thin blanket from the cage.
Placing her gently on the ground, he continued, "Now you know why I'm certain none of those I killed were innocent."
Tsunade fell into a rare silence.
As a ninja who'd lived through the Second Shinobi War, she thought she'd seen the depths of evil.
But this scene shattered her worldview.
And it was happening right in Tanzaku Street, where she'd lived for years, oblivious to the depravity festering under her nose.
Or rather… lost in gambling and escapism, she'd never cared to notice.
If she'd bothered to dig, the street's evils would've been easy to uncover.
Tsunade's silence stretched on as she watched Akainu gently free child after child from their cages.
She hadn't expected this blood-soaked Uchiha to move with such care.
Even Jiro, the talkative ninja cat, was silent, helping Akainu free the children.
Is this your justice, Uchiha Akainu?
Tsunade suddenly felt her own hypocrisy, a wave of guilt overwhelming her.
"Shizune…"
"Yes, Lady Tsunade?"
"Put me down."
"Okay!"
Tsunade hopped off Shizune's back and approached a cage. Gripping the iron lock, she crushed it with one hand.
Crack!
She lifted out a five-year-old girl, feeling her tremble with fear. Words failed Tsunade; she could only stroke the girl's hair gently, whispering, "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
She looked up to find Akainu standing close, his face showing exhaustion—a sign of overusing his Sharingan.
"Let me take her," Akainu said. "I've woven a dream for her. When she wakes, she'll forget all of this."
He added, "All the children will. They won't remember what they've been through."
If there was anyone purely good in this ninja world, Tsunade thought it could only be Uchiha Akainu.
Staring into his calm three-tomoe Sharingan, she asked the question burning in her heart: "Have you seen things like this often?"
Akainu replied simply, "Not often, but not rarely either."
Tsunade felt lost.
What's wrong with this ninja world?
---
As dawn broke, tearing through the night, the raging flames across Tanzaku Street finally died down.
The sulfur stench faded with the morning breeze, but the metallic tang of blood lingered.
No one dared collect the bodies or clean the blood seeping into the street's cracks.
"So many… dead…" A resident swallowed hard, summoning the courage to step outside. Three headless bodies lay by his doorstep, one head's eyes staring blankly at him.
He jumped in fright but then recognized the face.
"This guy…" he muttered, stunned. "Isn't he one of Tanzaku Street's notorious gang leaders?"
Curiosity drove him to find another head. "This is… the casino boss from next door! They say he was worth 300 million ryo!"
The third head made him gasp. "That's the infamous thug! I heard he killed over a dozen people…"
A pattern emerged, even to an ordinary man.
"It feels like… only the wicked were killed."
"Am I imagining things…?"
---
"How many villains died last night, Shizune?" Tsunade, back in her adult form, rested her chest on a table, her mood somber after a sleepless night.
Shizune, equally exhausted, replied, "Last night, Uchiha Akainu killed 519 people. Jiro, that ninja cat, killed 121."
"Together, they took out 640."
She glanced cautiously at Tsunade before adding, "Plus the 19 you killed, Lady Tsunade… that's 659 villains."
Shizune still couldn't believe it.
After helping Akainu free the children from the underground chamber, Tsunade had killed.
She recalled Tsunade, face dark, grabbing a dance hall shareholder and hurling him dozens of meters into the air. When he hit the ground, no one needed to check—he was dead.
It was Tsunade's first time killing since developing hemophobia.
Knowing her fear of blood, she'd thrown her victims skyward, creating 19 "human kites" in Tanzaku Street.
That way… she wouldn't see the blood.
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