"Seisui… Mother…" Hayate stared blankly at the limp, lifeless body of his younger brother in his arms.
His brother's death, and the words he'd spoken before dying, left his mind in a daze, unable to think.
He looked up in a dazed fog, meeting the gaze of Uchiha Chiizumi as the man calmly sheathed his blade.
Two lines of grief-stricken tears had already rolled silently down his face.
"Your mother's body should have been taken away by the other members of the Police Force by now. Next, the Police Force will call in the Yamanaka Clan to conduct a joint investigation," Uchiha Chiizumi said flatly. "If you want to see your mother, you'll have to wait until the investigation is over. It will probably take a day or two."
Mother…Murdered…
Uchiha Chizumi's words turned Seisui's dying mockery into undeniable truth, plunging Hayate into deeper grief. His heart felt as if countless invisible blades were stabbing through it.
Two years ago, his father had died—at the hands of Uchiha Chiizumi.
Two years later, his mother had died—at the hands of his own younger brother. And now his brother was dead as well—also at Uchiha Chiizumi's hand.
Of the entire Clan, of his own direct bloodline, only he, Hayate, remained—a lone surviving branch.
Hayate was already lost in confusion.
He didn't even know whether he should take revenge on Uchiha Chiizumi.
This Uchiha, like a demon, had killed his father, had killed his brother…
Yet at the same time, he had carried out "justice."
You could even say Uchiha Chiizumi had avenged his mother.
And not just any murder—matricide, a crime against heaven and nature!
"Chizumi-senpai, he looks like he's in a lot of pain. His mind seems like it might be breaking," Izumi whispered softly, a trace of worry on her young face. "He won't… be okay, will he?"
Uchiha Chizumi turned to leave, replying calmly, "Let him be alone for a while."
"Oh." Izumi quickly followed.
…
Uchiha Chiizumi had killed two Clan chūnin, stormed into the Moonlight compound with his squad, and slain the former clan head's second son, "Gekko Seisui"—Such news quickly shook Konoha.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, smoking his pipe, choked on the news so badly he coughed until his chest hurt.
After finally recovering, he took a sip of water, steadied his restless thoughts, and then asked the ANBU operative who brought the report in a deep voice, "What was the exact reason?"
Before the ANBU could speak, a knock sounded at the door.
Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly guessed what it might be.
"Come in," he said.
Sure enough… the man who had killed three shinobi, Uchiha Chizumi, walked into the Hokage's office as if nothing had happened, upright and unhurried, with a nervous little subordinate trailing behind him.
"The reason is that the criminal, 'Gekko Seisui,' resisted arrest," Uchiha Chizumi said directly, without waiting for Hiruzen to ask. "Anyone bold enough to resist arrest is no mere criminal. You must strike hard, execute them on the spot, to deter other villains."
Sarutobi's face sank slightly. Uchiha Chizumi had long since stopped greeting him with "Hokage-sama" upon meeting.
He had also spoken to him with this same cold, detached tone more than once—
As if the great Third Hokage himself, in this young man's eyes, were just another criminal.
That instinctively made Sarutobi feel a bit uncomfortable.
But his emotions were steady; the heaviness on his face faded as he looked at Uchiha Chizumi and asked, "The criminal?"
"Uchiha Izumi," Chiizumi replied.
"Yes, Senpai!!!"
Izumi took a deep breath—she had already prepared herself mentally on the way—and stepped forward to report to the Hokage on behalf of her senior: "Hokage-sama, this morning,Chizumi-Senpai and I…"
The girl's narration was logical, her wording simple and clear.
When she finished explaining everything from start to finish—
Sarutobi Hiruzen's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
"Gekko Seisui…" Hiruzen let out a heavy sigh. "That child… I once held him in my arms. But I never thought… he would be so extremely jealous. So jealous he would commit such a terrible act against his own kin…"
Sarutobi believed it.
Though he couldn't always read Uchiha Chiizumi's methods, one thing he was certain of—when it came to matters of "justice" and "evil," Uchiha Chiizumi never made a wrong judgment.
This boy…
He was like a born judge, his accuracy in discerning the truth of a case essentially one hundred percent!
Years ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen had suspected that perhaps Uchiha Chiizumi was using "executing justice" as an excuse, killing for pleasure.
But after investigating dozens of cases and finding nothing unusual—
Sarutobi realized there really were people born with this kind of talent.
The Uchiha truly produced exceptional people.
But still…
"Chiizumi!" Sarutobi rapped his desk, his face turning stern. "A matricidal criminal resisting arrest—if you used force to kill him, I can overlook it. But why did you kill two innocent members of the Gekko Clan?"
"Those two young men—one twenty-one, one twenty-six. They merely stood in your way, and you killed them? To harm the innocent—how is that justice?!"
Izumi immediately sensed the atmosphere in the Hokage's office shift into something dangerous.
Uchiha Chiizumi met Sarutobi's gaze and said, "I warned them in advance. But since they insisted on obstructing the law, that means they made their own choice."
"Unfortunately for them, they chose to stand on the side of 'evil.' They obstructed justice and sheltered crime—thus, they were no longer innocent."
He paused, then continued:
"No matter whether the one standing in my way is a member of the Gekko Clan… or you yourself, Hokage-sama… I will, with absolute justice, purge every obstacle!"
"I will show no mercy!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared deeply at Uchiha Chizumi, then finally let out a sigh and asked, "Chizumi, how long have we been having these head-to-head ideological clashes?"
"Five years," Uchiha Chiizumi replied.
"Five years…"
Sarutobi stood up, hands clasped behind his back, walking a few steps before stopping. Then he asked again: "Chizumi, surely you've sensed what's happening in the village—things none of us wish to see? Though there are no large-scale conflicts in the shinobi world anymore, the waters inside Konoha have never been truly calm."
"As a Uchiha, you must be especially sensitive to this. So may I ask you—In your eyes, is justice on the side of the village majority? Or the village minority?"
"If one day, because of political positions, you were forced to do something that violated justice—would you do it?"
Beside them, Izumi felt the office air grow so heavy it felt like even the oxygen was solidifying.
"Justice is on the side of the good people," Uchiha Chizumi replied, giving a third answer. He continued: "My position is justice. I will never betray my position, nor will I ever act against the justice in my heart."
Sarutobi Hiruzen murmured thoughtfully, "Good people…"
A faint smile touched his lips. "Chizumi, your answer is a bit different from Itachi's. But it makes me feel all the more certain—you and that boy Itachi truly are the same kind of person. You both love this village deeply."
"Hokage-sama, it's wrong to insult people," Uchiha Chizumi frowned, correcting him seriously.
Sarutobi Hiruzen: "???"
…
…
(End of Chapter)