Izumi quickly sheathed her blade and flipped open the notebook to the first page. What she saw made her freeze—a name, a full address, and detailed records of illegal transactions.
Realization hit her like a lightning bolt. "Chizumi-senpai, don't tell me this is—"
"Yeah," Chizumi said calmly. "It's a list of people dealing contraband drugs. Every name on it lives in Konoha."
"!!!"
She hadn't even noticed when he got his hands on it. Was it while she was distracted by that Anbu just now? Did Chizumi search one of those Uchiha dealers and grab it then?
She flipped through the pages, faster and faster, her expression tightening with every turn.
Civilians, clan shinobi, local merchants—this wasn't just a fringe issue.
Fifteen names.
She took a sharp breath. "Every time I think I've seen the worst this world has to offer, something even darker shows up."
So many people, dealing illegal drugs from inside Konoha.
Just imagining how much damage those drugs had done made her stomach turn.
Jūjirō had said before: people die every year in Konoha because of this stuff. And the number still suffering? Countless.
Izumi's eyes flashed with cold fury. Her grip on the notebook tightened.
"Senpai, should we—"
"We split up," Chizumi said, already reading her like an open book. "You handle the civilian dealers—merchants and commoner ninja. Jūjirō will go with you. I'll take care of the clan shinobi myself."
"Yes, sir!"
Kakashi, standing off to the side, stepped aside as Chizumi walked past.
Izumi hoisted Jūjirō and quickly followed, calling out to Naruto and Sasuke as she went.
"This… is absolute justice."
Left alone, Kakashi glanced around the basement—at the corpses, the crates of drugs. He muttered, "He really does practice what he preaches. No hesitation. He kills his own clan if they cross the line. That kind of justice… doesn't compromise."
If Naruto ends up following this kind of justice... is that really such a bad thing? Kakashi thought. The village owes that kid so much. Let him choose his own path. At least absolute justice won't turn him into a traitor.
He remembered Obito. The boy who once dreamed of becoming Hokage—now a rogue. If Chizumi hadn't exposed his secrets, Kakashi would still be in the dark.
And now, a dangerous thought crept in.
Is the Will of Fire really making Konoha better?
His father believed in it—and was pushed to suicide by village gossip.
Obito believed in it—and became a traitor.
Danzo believed in it—but everyone knew what that meant.
He himself believed in it—and all he had left were fading memories of people long gone.
Konoha was weaker now than it had ever been.
Kakashi fell silent.
"Unless you want to go up in flames with all this contraband, I'd get out—now."
A distant voice snapped him back. Kakashi ran up the stairs and saw Chizumi at the entrance.
Lava was flowing down his arm.
The moment Kakashi got clear, the molten rock poured into the basement like a flood. In seconds, everything inside was melted into glowing ash.
Kakashi broke into a cold sweat.
That was one hell of a way to destroy evidence. If Chizumi hadn't warned him, he'd be toast.
"—Sasuke!"
Suddenly, a crowd burst into the room. At the front, someone shouted Sasuke's name.
Sasuke turned, stunned. "Father?!"
"Huh? This stiff-faced uncle is your dad?" Naruto stared at Uchiha Fugaku. "I've seen him twice already!"
Sasuke: "???"
It was Fugaku, with several Konoha Police officers in tow.
Fugaku's eyelid twitched ever so slightly.
If he had the choice, he'd rather never see the Jinchūriki again.
Clearing his thoughts, he barked, "Sasuke! Why aren't you home after school? What are you doing here?"
Sasuke looked down, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He didn't even dare to speak—his father's presence was too overwhelming.
Fugaku glanced at the molten entrance and frowned. "Chizumi, what are you doing?"
"Clan Head, Chizumi-senpai is carrying out justice!" Izumi cut in, naming Uchiha Hayata, Uchiha Masa, and Uchiha Naoto as traffickers.
Fugaku's brow twitched hard.
She didn't say they were dead—but "justice," plus a lava-filled room? The answer was obvious.
Chizumi had killed three Uchiha.
Those bodies were probably swimming in magma right now.
And one of them—Uchiha Jitta—was the only grandson of elder Uchiha Shanna.
Just imagining how that radical old man would react made Fugaku's scalp tingle.
He could already smell civil war in the air.
The Uchiha vs. Konoha conflict hadn't even started, and now the clan was about to implode from the inside.
He sighed heavily. "Chizumi, they were Uchiha too, just like you—"
Chizumi cut him off. "So that gives them a free pass?"
Fugaku was speechless.
Then he remembered—Chizumi had killed his own last blood relative, Uchiha Oni-gawara, just because he'd fallen into evil.
Compared to that, what were three unrelated clansmen?
Fugaku had no reply.
"Clan Head Fugaku, move." Chizumi placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle shove—enough to send Fugaku stumbling to one knee.
"Hey! Chizumi, you—" his officers snapped, but Fugaku raised a hand. "Don't."
His face was tense, but he kept it together.
He knew it—after today, the Uchiha were a powder keg.
As clan head, he needed to stop it from exploding—not make it worse. Even if Chizumi was out of line, Fugaku held back.
He told himself it was for the good of the clan.
He told himself he was being a good leader.
He stood in silence, watching Chizumi, Izumi, Jūjirō, Naruto, and Kakashi walk off—people who had no business being on the same team.
Then he saw Sasuke following them.
"—Sasuke! Home is to your left! Why are you going right? It's almost dark! Get home, now!"
Sasuke froze.
His father's harsh tone hit like a gut punch.
"…Yes, Father."
He turned to leave—but Naruto suddenly doubled back, grabbed Sasuke's wrist, and yanked him the other way.
"Wha—Dobe, what are you doing?!"
Naruto pulled hard and looked Fugaku in the eye. "Uncle, this guy kept asking me what 'justice' is. I brought him to Chizumi-sensei to find out. So please—let me borrow him for a while."
Fugaku watched as his son was pulled away—though Sasuke didn't seem to be resisting very hard.
"…I see."
His gaze drifted to Chizumi's silhouette in the distance.
"Chizumi… you once looked at Itachi with hatred. Now you look at Sasuke with kindness. Are you using him? Or are you using him to get to me?"
Then he paused.
Is Chizumi even the type to use people like that?
No—he wasn't.
So Chizumi really did want Sasuke to understand what justice meant.
But his version of justice was so extreme…
Would Sasuke really be able to walk away unscathed?
And did Sasuke even understand what he was getting into?
Meanwhile, Kakashi—having worried about Naruto for nothing—slipped back into the shadows.
"No new movements," he said, slipping his Anbu mask back on. Then, deadpan, he added to a subordinate, "Report to the Hokage. Tell him Chizumi might go on a killing spree today. But don't worry—he's only targeting bad guys."
"I only know the first three were Uchiha. Not sure who's next, but Izumi flipped that notebook about fifteen times, so... I'm guessing fifteen targets."
"Yes, sir!"
The subordinate sprinted off. By the time Sarutobi Hiruzen got the message, the sun had started to set.
PFT—
Hot tea sprayed across the Hokage's desk.
"Fifteen?!"
He shot to his feet. The last time Chizumi killed that many at once, it was the daimyo's son and his entire entourage.
And now again?
He was just about to leave when—another Anbu burst in.
"Hokage-sama! Kakashi says Chizumi killed two ninja from the Utatane Clan. He and Izumi split up to kill faster!"
"???"
Fast, alright.
And Koharu Utatane was going to lose her mind.
Wait—Naruto was still with him!
What if this bloodbath turned Naruto into something else?
Would the kind, goofy boy he knew become a cold-blooded killer?
Just then—another Anbu showed up.
"Hokage-sama! Izumi walked into a bar and cut the owner's head off. In public."
"…"
Before he could process that—another one sprinted in.
"Hokage-sama! Chizumi killed a sixty-year-old from the Mitokado Clan!"
Wait—was that Mitokado Homura?!
"No! It was his cousin," the Anbu clarified.
Hiruzen felt faint.
Homura's cousin was still a big name.
And Homura… was going to have words.
And—again—"Hokage-sama!"
Hiruzen nearly buckled. He didn't even wait. "Who did he kill this time?!"
"Not Chizumi—this time it was a ninja cat named Jūjirō and that rookie Izumi. Together, they killed a Special Jōnin."
CRACK—
He crushed part of his desk in frustration.
"You just watched them?! You couldn't stop a cat and a genin fresh out of school?!"
The Anbu hesitated.
"Kakashi said… since it's not tied to the Jinchūriki, we shouldn't interfere. We're just supposed to report."
Hiruzen deflated like a balloon.
He didn't even know who to blame anymore.
His chest rose and fell. His mind was spinning from the chaos Chizumi had unleashed—and the political mess it would leave behind.
"Hokage-sama!"
That last call nearly broke him.
Even if he caught up to Chizumi now… it was too late.
Once Absolute Justice starts hunting, there's no stopping it.
He slumped back in his chair.
Tonight… he wouldn't be sleeping.
…
"D‑Dobe, how many is that now?" Sasuke whispered, staring at the body in front of him. Chizumi's bloody spree had him frozen with shock.
Maybe Father was right to try and stop me.
He hadn't expected "justice" to look like this.
"…Lost count," Naruto muttered. He was so rattled, he didn't even care about the insult.
He thought he was mentally prepared.
He wasn't.
"Let's go."
Chizumi drew his blade, flicked the blood off, and gave the two shell-shocked boys a blank look.
"One target left. Uzumaki Naruto—you're the one who'll do it."
"…Huh???"
Naruto stood there, stunned.
~~~
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