Blood stained the ground, fresh and vivid, stabbing at Hiruzen Sarutobi's nerves. And that severed head, its expression frozen in shock—it sent a chill down his spine. His thoughts blurred into a single, gut-wrenching realization:
"It's over."
There wasn't an official law, but everyone in power understood—those robes? Only the top elite of the shinobi world had the right to wear them.
And right now, Hiruzen was staring down at a headless corpse wearing exactly that.
All his hopes for some way out evaporated. His wrinkled face twitched, his lips trembled. He wanted to speak—but nothing came out.
His face turned dark. Pitch black.
"Hokage-sama, we're too late," an Anbu whispered. "Even if we reattach the head, it'll just make the body look less gruesome. Nothing more."
Hiruzen didn't answer.
"Hokage? You're Konoha's Hokage?!"
One of the daimyo's retainers, who'd been too scared to speak earlier, suddenly found his courage and shouted, "What is Konoha trying to pull?! Are you planning to rebel?! The daimyo gives you tons of funding every year, and now your ninja have murdered his son?!"
He pointed straight at Uchiha Chizumi, voice urgent:
"It was him! That lunatic from the Uchiha clan! He killed Goen'in Kyūsuke-sama! Konoha murdered the daimyo's second son—do you even understand what that means?!"
"And not just him—two other retainers, and even one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja are dead because of this psycho! He's completely out of control! What gives him the right to pass judgment on the daimyo's son?!"
But the moment Chizumi looked at him—cold, emotionless—the man went pale, like someone had grabbed him by the throat.
His mouth opened and closed silently, completely terrified.
Hiruzen said nothing.
Everyone could feel the tension in the air. Some Anbu even noticed the Hokage's clenched fists—his veins bulging, trembling with rage.
No one knew if he was angrier at the retainer who dared raise his voice at the Third Hokage…
…or at Uchiha Chizumi, who just assassinated the son of the Fire Daimyo in broad daylight.
Hiruzen's gaze darkened, deeper than ever before. He forced himself to look away from the corpse.
He ignored the shouting retainers and instead turned his scowl directly on Chizumi.
Letting out a long breath to keep himself calm, he finally spoke in a stiff voice:
"Tell me, Chizumi… are you really going to justify this with your so-called 'Absolute Justice' again? Does your justice mean sacrificing Konoha's interests and dragging its name through the mud?"
He didn't even want to imagine what would happen if this news got out.
Konoha's elite ninja had turned against the nobility of the Land of Fire—killed the daimyo's son.
If this reached the upper circles, the entire political order could collapse into chaos.
Would the nobles still support Konoha?
Would they still support him, Hiruzen Sarutobi?
"Chizumi!" Hiruzen barked, voice rising. "Kyūsuke's father is the Fire Daimyo! He's the top of the food chain! He controls every major system in this country!"
"Even when it comes to selecting a new Hokage, it depends on who the daimyo backs. Without his support, Konoha wouldn't even exist. The ninja of the Land of Fire would still be in civil war!"
"And you—what you did today—!"
Hiruzen was breathing too fast. His vision blurred.
"So what, you think I should've let him go?"
Chizumi met Hiruzen's eyes with an unsettling calm. The Third Hokage flinched and quickly looked away.
Grinding his teeth, Hiruzen muttered:
"You sacrificed Konoha's future just to satisfy your obsession with justice. Do you really think that's right? Without funding from the daimyo, we can't maintain our infrastructure, healthcare, or jobs."
"This isn't something your 'Absolute Justice' can fix. If your actions make the lives of villagers worse every day, are you still justice—or have you become the evil you claim to fight?"
Those words weren't just political—they were personal.
"Hey! Hokage!"
The daimyo's retainers interrupted again.
"Why are you even debating this lunatic?! Arrest him already!"
"He killed Kyūsuke-sama! That's treason!"
"He's a murderer! A madman! You should execute him right now—and his family too! Are you even doing your job?!"
"Or are you protecting a criminal just because he's from your village?!"
They'd clearly taken comfort in Hiruzen's presence and started acting bold. But these weren't shinobi.
They weren't loyal to the Hokage—they served the daimyo.
To most Konoha ninja, the Hokage and the daimyo were equals—one handled politics and the other, the military.
But to these men, the Hokage was beneath the daimyo. And it showed.
Their non-stop accusations made Hiruzen's frown deepen. He turned cold eyes on them.
He couldn't overpower Chizumi, but he could certainly shut them up.
"This is Konoha's business," he said coldly. "I'll handle it however I see fit. Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?"
He stepped aside with a stone face.
"If you really want revenge for the daimyo's son, I won't stop you. The killer is right here. Go ahead. Do it."
The retainers fell dead silent.
Seeing they'd finally shut up, Hiruzen took another deep breath. Their nonsense had, weirdly, cooled some of his anger.
His next words weren't as forceful.
"Chizumi, not every mistake deserves an extreme punishment."
"The evil in this world can't just be killed off. You could kill a hundred people, a thousand, ten thousand—it still wouldn't be enough. There's always more."
"If you really want to make Konoha a better place, to improve people's lives, it's not going to happen through killing. Too much violence just creates more conflict. And that conflict always creates more evil."
"You killed the daimyo's son today. Do you have any idea how much chaos that's going to unleash? Even if his children do wrong, they're not ours to judge!"
Hiruzen hadn't even realized it—he was trying to reason with Chizumi.
Because deep down, he feared what that Mangekyō Sharingan could do.
If he fought Chizumi over this, it would spark a full-blown war in Konoha—and drag the Uchiha clan down with it.
He was really down to just two choices. And everyone knew which one he'd pick.
"Third Hokage," Chizumi said coolly. "If what I've done creates more evil in this world, it just proves those people were already standing against justice. My actions didn't turn them evil—they were just looking for an excuse to act on it."
"They are the enemies justice must eliminate. If justice stays silent out of fear of chaos—then that justice is worthless. In fact, it makes me sick."
His voice sharpened:
"And really, Third—did you think a few words from you would make me change what I believe in? You're giving yourself way too much credit."
Hiruzen's face stiffened.
Even though he expected pushback, Chizumi's bluntness still got under his skin.
There was no one else in Konoha who would talk to the Hokage like this.
And worst of all—it meant that Chizumi's justice was no longer something Hiruzen could control.
There was a time when he could wield Chizumi's Absolute Justice like a blade to intimidate the shadows of the village.
Now?
He had no idea who that blade would strike next.
"Oh, and one more thing, Third," Chizumi said as Hiruzen stood frozen in thought.
"Everyone behind you—except one—is evil in my eyes."
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
Chizumi had never sheathed his blade.
"Evil must be purged."
As soon as he said it, the Anbu moved to full alert, forming a wall around Hiruzen.
They knew what Chizumi's Mangekyō Sharingan could do—and they weren't going to let him use it on the Hokage.
But then—
He vanished.
Everyone—Hiruzen included—saw him disappear in a blink.
The words "Stop him!" caught in Hiruzen's throat.
He could feel the killing intent radiating from Chizumi.
And in that moment, a horrifying thought flashed through his mind:
If he really ordered the Anbu to intercept Chizumi… people would die. A lot of them.
That hesitation was all it took.
Like a predator, Chizumi moved in—blade flashing across a retainer's neck.
As he passed by, a head flew through the air.
Hiruzen and the Anbu spun around just in time to see—
Over a dozen heads, all frozen in fear, soaring through the sky.
The blood from the headless bodies sprayed like crimson rain. One drop even slipped through the Anbu ranks and splattered onto Hiruzen's ceremonial robe.
No screams. No cries. Just the dull thuds of heads and bodies hitting the ground.
One large head rolled to a halt by an Anbu's foot.
Even the most seasoned among them broke out in goosebumps.
Uchiha Chizumi was terrifying.
That was the consensus.
And yet… not one of them criticized him.
Because no one doubted his judgment of evil.
That's what made Hiruzen's expression so hard to read.
He found himself silently agreeing with them.
"N-no… please don't… don't kill me…"
A single retainer, soaked in his own urine and blood, cowered on the ground, staring at Chizumi with total terror.
But Chizumi didn't even glance at him.
He just turned and walked away, saying to Hiruzen without looking back:
"Third… I don't need to list all their crimes for you, do I?"
And then he was gone.
Hiruzen stood there, speechless.
The blood had already reached his feet.
He opened his mouth.
No words came.
"Um… Hokage-sama."
Izumi tore a few pages from her notebook, handed them to an Anbu, and said, "These are the crimes of Goen'in Kyūsuke, as told by Chizumi-senpai. You can pass them to the Yamanaka—they can verify them with memory analysis from the body."
The Anbu, looking puzzled beneath his mask, accepted the pages and handed them to Hiruzen.
He took them, eyes locked on the handwriting.
And finally…
Let out a long, heavy sigh.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 100 Chapters Ahead of Others!