Hiruzen Sarutobi left with two Anbu squads, leaving Kakashi and six Anbu members to clean up the mess.
"Lava Release Kekkei Genkai... the destructive power is truly insane!"
Breathing in the smell of sulfur, which even his mask couldn't block, Kakashi's gaze swept across the surroundings. A look of shock flickered in his dead-fish eyes.
Before him, the ground was covered in gradually cooling lava. The earth was scarred with pits of varying sizes and depths, burned by the molten rock. Half a street's worth of houses looked as if they had been erased from existence. The oppressive heat permeating the air still made Kakashi feel uneasy. Lava continued to drip from the edges of many ruined buildings; one might even mistake the scene for an active volcano!
Kakashi also saw the bodies of two Root ninjas. One was missing half its body, the other half nowhere to be found. The second had a large hole in its chest and was cut in half at the waist. Kakashi tucked his hands into his pockets, looking quite troubled. Those two bodies were easy enough to deal with—just clean them up and hand them over to Root. But how was he supposed to clean up this utterly ravaged street? Uchiha Akainu was truly reckless!
However... perhaps he was one of the few ninjas in the village who still remembered the Fourth Hokage! Kakashi recalled Uchiha Akainu's words: "Only then can we do justice to the Fourth's sacrifice."
Absolute Justice, huh... It's not bad.
As Kakashi pondered, he suddenly saw a small figure stumble to its feet in the distance, also dressed in an Uchiha Police Force uniform. Watching the Uchiha girl quickly follow in the direction Uchiha Akainu had left, Kakashi thought for a moment. He chose to ignore it.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
"I... I won't ever do it again... Can you please put me down? I can walk on my own, you know."
"Um... can you not lock me up for so long? Iruka-sensei will be so disappointed in me if he finds out."
"I really am sorry..."
Naruto's voice grew more and more uncertain with each sentence, quieter and quieter, until finally, he was almost sobbing. Large tears streamed uncontrollably down his small face. Naruto truly regretted it. He knew he had caused a huge mess this time; a single prank had led to half of Konoha street being wiped off the map! That meant many people were now homeless because of his prank. And it seemed people had even died because of it! But he realized that the man holding him up couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention!
"Ike... Senior Akainu, wait for me!" A weak cry echoed from behind Uchiha Akainu and Naruto. Uchiha Akainu slowed his pace, and a girl quickly caught up. Her face was pale, and her steps were unsteady.
"I'm sorry, Senior. I... I used my Sharingan earlier and used too much chakra, so I accidentally passed out..." Izumi was so ashamed she wished she could disappear into the ground, feeling like she was being a burden. On the night of the Nine-Tails attack, she awakened her Sharingan at five years old, and it was a Three-Tomoe Sharingan from the start. That was an unprecedented talent for awakening in the Uchiha clan.
But... surprisingly, Izumi's chakra reserves were too low. Her chakra and visual jutsu power simply couldn't sustain her Three-Tomoe Sharingan. If chakra were measured in "Kakashis," Izumi's chakra would be, at most, 0.01 Kakashis. Among her peers who graduated from the Ninja Academy, her chakra reserves were among the lowest, if not the very lowest.
"Uchiha Izumi."
"YES!!!" Facing Senior Akainu's call, Uchiha Izumi's instincts made her quickly snap to attention.
"I have two questions to test you. What's your take on what just happened?" Uchiha Akainu glanced at the weak girl beside him.
"Just now?" Izumi paused. She vaguely remembered the conflict between Senior Akainu and Konoha's Root Anbu before she accidentally passed out. Then, after waking up, she recalled the conflict between Senior Akainu and Lord Hokage. The cause of the conflict was simply a child's prank that triggered a small commotion in the village. Yet, it escalated into so many contradictions and conflicts.
Was it... worth it?
As that thought flashed through Izumi's mind, she suddenly remembered Senior Akainu's consistent talk of [Absolute Justice]. She recalled all the "evil" that had spawned from the ninja world's sickness, things she couldn't comprehend: a father killing his daughter; a son killing his mother. These two shocking events alone were enough to drastically change Izumi's view of the ninja world. And her understanding of Senior Akainu's [Absolute Justice] grew deeper.
"I think... Senior didn't do anything wrong," Izumi said, taking a deep breath, her small face serious. "Even the smallest evil, if left unchecked, unpunished, and constantly indulged, will eventually escalate into a greater evil."
Izumi gathered her thoughts. She continued, "Senior, I've always wanted to protect Konoha Village. But before, I didn't know what method to use to protect Konoha."
"It wasn't until I met you, Senior, that I roughly understood what to do. As long as I do my best to use my power to eradicate evil within Konoha, the village will get better one day."
"This is my understanding of [Absolute Justice]!"
Uchiha Akainu said calmly, "Rookie, you're no longer at zero points. At least you have a ten."
Izumi weakly asked, "Senior, what's the full score?"
"A thousand."
Izumi: "..." Well, as long as it wasn't a negative score.
"Senior, what's the second question?" Izumi cautiously asked again.
Uchiha Akainu said, "What's your opinion on my 'retreat' just now?"
Izumi paused.
"Senior, I don't think that was a retreat!" Izumi bit her lip, her small face serious. "In all of Konoha, perhaps only you, Senior, are silently upholding [Absolute Justice]. Even other seniors in the Police Force constantly misunderstand you, yet you've always maintained justice alone."
"If Senior had insisted on engaging in physical conflict with Lord Hokage and the others at that moment, Konoha's [Justice]..." Izumi took a deep breath, her courage gradually growing. "...might have been left unguarded. It's unlikely the village would produce another person like you, Senior."
"You're beating around the bush too much," Uchiha Akainu interrupted her. "To implement [Absolute Justice], you need absolute power, otherwise you'll end up like just now."
"You need to remember this frustration, remember this rage, remember how the 'evil' of the ninja world celebrates above us."
Izumi nodded heavily.
"One day, I will cleanse them all in the name of [Absolute Justice]," Uchiha Akainu said openly and plainly, a statement that left Izumi dumbfounded: "Including the Hokage!"
"This is the third lesson I'm teaching you. Politicians only care about their power and their so-called balance. In their eyes, the words [Justice] are expendable."
"The Hokage, too, is an enemy of justice."
Izumi's mind crashed.
Uchiha Akainu, still holding Naruto, temporarily shifted his attention to the "rewards" for killing three red-named criminals. Yes. Three! Danzo, who had rewritten unfavorable reality with Izanagi, was considered "killed" once by his golden finger already.