Izumi's less-than-pure Uchiha bloodline and her fundamentally different personality compared to other Uchiha members meant that she had virtually no friends her age within the vast clan. In a way, she was Itachi Uchiha's only friend, and he was her only friend.
However, Izumi now found her trusted friend to be utterly unrecognizable. She had never imagined Itachi would harbor such extreme ideas. She used to naively believe that someone who loved the village and peace would likely have a similar personality to hers, someone who, even after awakening the Sharingan, wouldn't become an extreme, pathological Uchiha.
Izumi hadn't expected to be so wrong. Terribly, ridiculously wrong.
Even after delivering that heavy slap to Itachi's face, she felt not a shred of regret. She even wished she could slap the other side of his face to make the handprints look more "harmonious." After all... the future Itachi Uchiha, for the sake of his so-called beliefs and conviction, would kill her mother, who was her sole remaining family, and he would kill her, Izumi Uchiha, and everyone else in the Uchiha clan.
"...Izumi, you're too naive," Itachi said, not covering his face despite the stinging pain. He gazed at Izumi. "Your and Uchiha Akainu's 'Absolute Justice' isn't absolute. If you truly want to execute justice with extreme measures, then you should be stopping the people within the Uchiha clan right now. Their intentions to stage a coup are clear for anyone to see."
"A coup will only plunge Konoha into civil war, leaving it vulnerable to outside enemies. There are only two ways to stop all of this. Someone once tried the first method, but unfortunately, they were eliminated before they could even truly act..."
"Only he could have achieved the first method. After his death, only one option remained. All I did was become the one who bears everything. And my actions are what protected Konoha's justice."
Izumi wiped away her tears. She almost laughed from exasperation.
"You truly don't understand anything, yet you're spouting what you believe to be correct nonsense in front of Senior Akainu and me." The last glimmer of hope Izumi held for Itachi vanished from her eyes. The way she looked at him was like looking at a mental patient who had just escaped from the Konoha Hospital. It was a gaze composed of a mixture of anger, sorrow, disappointment, and mockery—an expression she couldn't quite describe herself.
"You haven't even finished six years of Ninja Academy," Izumi sighed. "Yes... that's how it should be. I shouldn't have had any expectations of you, Itachi Uchiha."
She took several steps back, putting distance between herself and Itachi, and stood beside Uchiha Akainu. Izumi pressed her lips together and said earnestly, "You and I are strangers now, Itachi Uchiha. Your extreme ideas, in my eyes, are the future enemies of 'Absolute Justice'."
"I finally understand why Senior advised Lord Fugaku to take you to see a therapist. Senior is always right, after all."
"You're an incorrigible illiterate, a self-pitying chuunibyo fantasist, a twisted Uchiha." She gritted her teeth and said gravely, "I remember you prided yourself on being completely different from other Uchiha. You said you befriended me because you felt I was also completely different from other Uchiha."
"But..."
"In my eyes, you're no different from those extreme clan members who want to start a coup. You are just like them."
After her lengthy speech, Izumi fell silent. She no longer wanted to speak another word to Itachi. She was utterly disappointed and intended to sever their friendship. Different values. No shared path.
Itachi didn't offer much in rebuttal. When he decided something was correct, no matter what happened, he would always believe his initial decision was not wrong. When he spoke his first sentence, he would hold that first sentence as his core belief, always convinced he was right, no matter how others refuted him. He remained unshaken.
Itachi also stepped back a few paces. He ignored Izumi and instead spoke to Uchiha Akainu: "I hope you don't become my enemy. Even if your justice isn't pure in my eyes, I must admit, Konoha needs you."
"If you don't side with them, my future self won't act against you. The premise is that you must trust the village, and also trust Lord Hokage, trust the true justice of Konoha."
Akainu, who seemed to be contemplating something, suddenly lifted his gaze and asked in a low, ethereal tone, "Are you finished?"
Itachi paused.
"No." Itachi turned, leaving a solitary figure for them to see, his cheeks still bearing the traces of tears from earlier. "Although I have no personal grievances with you, our positions are different, so you too are my future enemy, Uchiha Akainu."
Itachi began to walk away.
And at that moment, Uchiha Fugaku, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly took two steps forward, standing before Uchiha Akainu. His eyes had turned crimson, and strange patterns, entirely different from the Three Tomoe Sharingan, appeared in his pupils. An indescribably powerful Mangekyo Sharingan seemed to solidify the air around them, instantly heightening the tension.
"Akainu..." Fugaku displayed his Mangekyo Sharingan, belonging to him as the Uchiha clan head, before Uchiha Akainu.
"I apologize, Itachi... he is, after all, my son. If you move against him, I will stop you, even if it costs me my life."
"I also cannot see where the Uchiha clan can go in the future. Everything Itachi does in the future might truly be the only option."
Fugaku said apologetically, "Perhaps you also possess legendary power, but stopping you, giving Itachi some leeway, will be enough."
"Since Itachi has chosen his path, let him walk it. Time will tell who is right and who is wrong."
Izumi looked in astonishment at the clan head, Fugaku, who had just uttered such astonishing words. She vaguely understood why Itachi Uchiha was so unreasonable. It was genetic... right?!!!
Uchiha Akainu spoke: "I've noticed that stubborn and selfish people always have one characteristic—they think they can guess others' intentions, then act in a self-pitying way. Your eldest son is like this, and so are you."
Fugaku remained silent.
"Judge by actions, not by intentions—that's a mandatory lesson for justice. I used to be clueless, but normal people grow after making mistakes. Only beasts stubbornly cling to their opinions, remaining unchanged."
"If justice were executed based on intentions, 'Absolute Justice' would be the greatest evil in the ninja world. From the elderly to infants, the entire ninja world would have to be massacred to maintain justice."
"If I did that, then I would be no different from Itachi Uchiha, and 'Absolute Justice' would be stained with nauseating mud."
Uchiha Akainu seemed to be speaking to Fugaku. He also seemed to be speaking to Izumi.
"Fugaku, pray you can protect your precious son, and pray that today's conversation can change the future even slightly."
Uchiha Akainu gazed unflinchingly into those Mangekyo Sharingan eyes and said, "The moment before he makes his move, in my eyes, he will become the evil of this world, a person destined to die. 'Absolute Justice'... will completely crush him."
"Justice will gaze upon all sinful malefactors."
"Including him."
"Including you."
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