Chapter 282: Moving the Uchiha Police Force
"Absolute Justice?"
"What kind of childish, playing-house idea is this?"
"In the world of adults, there are only benefits. Justice? In the end, it's just a different way to acquire benefits!"
In the Hidden Stone Village of the Land of Earth, Onoki of the Both Scales let out a sneer as he listened to the intelligence report brought by Kitsuchi.
"However, Konoha has actually produced yet another genius—"
"At the very beginning, it was Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, then Senju Tobirama, Shimura Danzō, and Sarutobi Hiruzen."
"By the time of the Second Great Ninja War, Hatake Sakumo and the Three Nin of Konoha made names for themselves one after another."
"In the Third Great Ninja War, there was the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato."
"And now, an Uchiha Ikeizumi has appeared under the banner of Absolute Justice."
"The ninja world truly shows favoritism to the Land of Fire!"
Onoki could not help but sigh with emotion. Compared to Konoha's endless stream of talent, the Hidden Stone Village was truly experiencing a generational gap. He had finally encountered a good sprout with great potential, but the boy was completely obsessed with explosions.
Unlike Konoha's Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Onoki genuinely wanted to retire. However, he couldn't step down because the entire Hidden Stone Village lacked a single ninja capable of taking over the heavy burden of the Tsuchikage. Onoki could only grit his teeth and push through.
"Father, is our Hidden Stone going to declare war on Konoha?"
Kitsuchi looked at Onoki with deep worry. Just like the Land of Lightning, the Daimyo's estate of the Land of Earth was continuously pressuring the Hidden Stone Village, even going so far as to threaten them with the village's funding to force them into taking action against Uchiha Ikeizumi.
"Declare war on Konoha—"
Onoki frowned, feeling a bit helpless.
By any metric, only seven or eight years had passed since the Third Great Ninja War. Even though the Hidden Stone Village possessed the largest number of ninjas among the Five Great Nations, seven or eight years was far from enough time for the village to recover its vitality.
During the Third Great Ninja War, the Hidden Stone Village had used over ten thousand ninjas to overwhelm the Third Raikage. Although they ultimately succeeded in exhausting him to death, that day-and-night battle cost the Stone between two to three thousand ninja casualties.
"No, we cannot declare war on Konoha. At most, we can do what we did during the Third Great Ninja War: send the Stone ninjas to overwhelm and crush that Uchiha brat to death!"
Onoki fell silent for a moment, highly unwilling to declare war on Konoha directly. He did not want to trigger the Fourth Great Ninja War just like this, and he was even less willing to bear the blame for starting it.
"Declare war solely on that brat from the Uchiha clan?"
"Using the name of an entire village to declare war on a single person?"
Kitsuchi looked at Onoki, completely dumbfounded. Looking across the history of the entire ninja world, there had never been a precedent of a major hidden village declaring war on a lone ninja.
"But if we do that, our Hidden Stone—"
Kitsuchi hesitated. Onoki's idea was a strategic choice, but it was somewhat humiliating to the Hidden Stone's pride.
"Come off it. During the Third Great Ninja War, the matter with the Third Raikage already made the Hidden Stone lose all face. We shouldn't fear losing a bit more."
"Right, go contact the Akatsuki organization. When we hired them before, that group did a decent job."
"Let those people from Akatsuki try and see if they can directly assassinate that Uchiha brat!"
The Hidden Stone Village had hired Akatsuki before; in fact, before Deidara defected, the relationship between the Hidden Stone and Akatsuki had always been fairly good.
"Yes!"
Seeing that Onoki had made his decision, Kitsuchi did not say anything more.
The Land of Earth's Daimyo did indeed control the Hidden Stone's funding, but the village was not about to obey the Daimyo's estate blindly. Declaring war on Uchiha Ikeizumi in the name of the village and contacting Akatsuki to deal with him was more than enough of an answer in Kitsuchi's eyes.
Meanwhile, over in the Hidden Sand Village, Rasa did not even give the urgent messages from the Land of Wind's Daimyo estate a second glance.
There was no other reason: Rasa was simply too busy panning for gold in the desert!
The Land of Wind was poor! It was so poor that even the Daimyo's estate had barely any money. Rasa's tenure as the Kazekage could be described as incredibly conscientious; every day the moment he opened his eyes, he had to think about how to feed the massive family of the Hidden Sand. In his rare moments of free time, he had to focus on his son, Gaara. He had absolutely no energy left to care about the Daimyo estate's attitude.
Elder Genji and Sarutobi Hiruzen had both independently predicted that the Fourth Great Ninja War would likely be triggered by Uchiha Ikeizumi. However, aside from tightening security along their respective borders, the three major hidden villages showed no significant movements.
On the other side, Uchiha Ikeizumi had thoroughly carried out Absolute Justice to its absolute peak. Every single city throughout the Land of Water welcomed the baptism of Absolute Justice, and without exception, the cities Ikeizumi passed through were left thick with the scent of blood.
It was no exaggeration to say that Ikeizumi had likely become the person who had killed the most people in the entire history of the ninja world!
Having walked through the entire Land of Water, the number of lives claimed by Ikeizumi's hands had long since exceeded thirty thousand. Especially as the merchants of the Land of Water spread the news among themselves, the mere mention of Ikeizumi's name in the country was almost enough to stop a crying child!
"Ikeizumi, did we kill a bit too many people this time—"
Even Kojirō, crouching on Ikeizumi's shoulder, showed a hint of hesitation at this point. He believed deeply in Absolute Justice, but watching tens of thousands of people die right before his eyes still made him unable to check on Ikeizumi's mental state.
"Too many?"
"This is just one nation, the Land of Water. The entire ninja world consists of far more than just this place!"
Ikeizumi's mental state had not shifted in the slightest due to the mass killings. On the contrary, as the villains of the Land of Water were continuously purged, he felt his mind becoming clearer and more refreshed than ever.
"Then in the future, do we have to come to the Land of Water regularly to perform periodic sweeps of the wicked?"
Seeing that Ikeizumi was entirely unaffected, Kojirō asked about another matter. Having stayed in Konoha for a long time, Kojirō knew very well that even under Absolute Justice, evil would never truly vanish on its own.
"No. I am going to establish the Police Force here in the Land of Water!" Ikeizumi shook his head.
If the evil of the ninja world was not kept under constant restraint, it would only breed more rapidly. To curb the birth of evil, there had to be a powerful law enforcement organization. Everyone had to be made to realize that the moment they committed a crime, punishment would absolutely follow!
In Ikeizumi's eyes, the existence of the Police Force was the exact tool needed to suppress that evil.
"The Police Force?"
Kojirō's mouth opened slightly in surprise. He had never expected Ikeizumi to want to expand the Uchiha Police Force all the way to the Land of Water.
"But... we don't have enough manpower, do we?" Kojirō thought of another issue. While the Uchiha clan had indeed begun to believe in Absolute Justice, the number of clansmen who had truly passed the harsh trials was still very small.
"Even if we are short-staffed, it must be done!"
"If we do nothing at all, we will only allow the Land of Water to revert right back to what it used to be!"