Chapter 119: Itachi, Do You Truly Understand? The Sickening Evil Bred By The Diseased Ninja World
Night, Konoha Hospital.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, lying in a hospital bed with his eyes closed to rest and not yet discharged, suddenly opened his eyes slowly, as if sensing some movement. He shifted his gaze to the window on the right.
He saw an Anbu Ninja sitting on the window, which was half-open.
The other party jumped down.
Walked to the side of the hospital bed.
“Hokage-sama.” Uchiha Itachi removed his mask and looked at the Third Hokage with a complex expression. He said, “Whatever instructions Hokage-sama has, I will obey your orders. Even if Hokage-sama tells me to kill Uchiha Ikeizumi, I will leave Konoha without hesitation and pursue him outside the village.”
He paused and continued, “Today, I heard everything Yamanaka Inoichi and the others said. I’m sorry, Hokage-sama, perhaps I shouldn’t have eavesdropped. But what I really want to say is – I don’t think they are right.”
Uchiha Itachi said, “I believe that a Konoha Ninja is already committing a grave mistake when they are not loyal enough to Konoha. And Uchiha Ikeizumi is a ninja who is disloyal to Konoha.”
“Conversely, a ninja who is extremely loyal to Konoha should be forgiven even if they make some mistakes. And Sarutobi Asuma is a ninja who is very loyal to Konoha.”
“Hokage-sama… this is my personal opinion on this matter. If it’s inconvenient for Hokage-sama to act, I can become the second Shimura Danzo, becoming a sharp blade in the darkness of Konoha Village.”
“No matter what I have to bear in the future, I will have no regrets!”
After speaking, Uchiha Itachi stood silently to the side, no longer speaking.
Sarutobi Hiruzen withdrew his gaze, staring at the ceiling with his eyes, and said with emotion, “Itachi, you truly are a special Uchiha. Not every Uchiha has your level of resolve.”
“I can also tell that your loyalty to Konoha is pure, untainted by any personal gain or calculation. This… honestly, I am truly relieved.”
Although Uchiha Itachi didn’t speak, his body stood straighter than before.
Clearly, Sarutobi Hiruzen’s words were very encouraging to him.
“Thank you for your good intentions, Itachi.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head and continued, “In my eyes, you are one of the genius ninjas who will carry the future of Konoha. If I were to make you the darkness of Konoha like Danzo, and let a child bear what he shouldn’t bear, then I, the Third Hokage, would be a complete failure.”
Uchiha Itachi was stunned and could no longer remain silent: “But… Hokage-sama, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s absolute justice is already invisibly influencing the members of the Uchiha clan.”
“They, who are already very extreme, will become even more extreme because of absolute justice. Konoha…” He took a deep breath: “will be destroyed by the extreme Uchiha.”
“…Itachi.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, “Uchiha Ikeizumi… is the excuse you found to act against the Uchiha clan, isn’t it? Your real target is the Uchiha clan, right?”
“After killing Uchiha Ikeizumi, you will definitely have to eradicate the words ‘absolute justice’ from Konoha. This is the best excuse to act against the Uchiha clan, right?”
“This way, no one in the Uchiha clan, from top to bottom, will be able to pose a threat to Konoha, right?”
“It’s too easy to see, Itachi… especially after Uchiha Ikeizumi spoke about that prophecy concerning you.”
Uchiha Itachi, his thoughts exposed by Sarutobi Hiruzen, silently acquiesced.
Sarutobi Hiruzen propped himself up with one hand on the hospital bed, attempting to sit up.
Uchiha Itachi immediately stepped forward and offered a hand to support him.
Leaning his back against the cold hospital room wall, Sarutobi Hiruzen’s aged eyes, sharp despite their turbidity, gazed into Uchiha Itachi’s eyes.
Sarutobi Hiruzen said word for word: “Itachi, I hope you will restrain this dangerous thought in your heart. There’s no need to think that killing all the Uchiha clan will solve the problem. When you feel your clansmen are extreme, have you realized that your own thoughts are also quite extreme?”
“It’s not that I’m unaware of the Uchiha clan’s hidden intentions, but I haven’t acted against them for a reason. As the Hokage of Konoha, I have my considerations. This is not my indecisiveness; it is… a form of politics, a balancing act.”
Uchiha Itachi interrupted: “When the Ino-Shika-Cho three ninja clans came forward, you suppressed your hatred and that was also a balancing act?”
“…Yes.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, “The Ino-Shika-Cho combination is too deeply intertwined with various aspects of Konoha. When they decided to stand with Uchiha Ikeizumi…”
“This game between my Will of Fire and Ikeizumi’s absolute justice has resulted in me making a strategic misstep. The Hokage is not the sole authority in Konoha; I had to compromise.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at a torn corner of the hospital bedsheet.
He said, “It’s not that I’m not angry, nor that I don’t care about the loss of my son. But for the sake of preventing chaos in Konoha, I could only compromise.”
“Itachi, I hope you can also understand these difficulties.”
“Sometimes, you also need to compromise. A temporary compromise doesn’t mean failure; it just gives you more room for thought.”
Uchiha Itachi was silent for a long time. He suddenly realized that this Third Hokage, known as “Konoha’s Ninja Overlord,” was often just pushed along by the “currents.”
The Hokage’s power was not as omnipotent as he had imagined.
At least when facing the united ninja clans of Konoha, even though the Third Hokage deeply desired revenge for his son’s death, he could only grit his teeth, swallow his anger, and choose silence and compromise.
Uchiha Itachi couldn’t help but start thinking why things had turned out this way.
He seemed to have reached a conclusion.
—The Hokage lacked the power to deter the entire Konoha.
When Shimura Danzo was still alive, although the Root Organization was somewhat difficult to control, that black blade was still a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of many Konoha ninjas.
This was the power the Hokage used to deter the entire Konoha.
And the Root Organization taken over by Koharu Utatane had instead become something like a second Anbu, lacking its former deterrence.
And all of this was related to Uchiha Ikeizumi!
This power that deterred Konoha had been diminished by Uchiha Ikeizumi!
“Hokage-sama, I understand.”
Uchiha Itachi nodded slightly.
Sarutobi Hiruzen forced a smile, “Itachi, you are indeed the Uchiha I value most, and the most special young man of the Uchiha.”
Currently, he was already chaotic enough in his mind. If Itachi were to enact a Night of the Uchiha Clan Downfall in Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt he might just pass out again.
However.
Watching Uchiha Itachi’s retreating back, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn’t help but fall into thought.
Itachi…
Did he truly understand?
……
“Lady Tsunade, look over there!” Shizune, holding Tonton in one hand and pointing urgently at the faint firelight not far ahead with the other, said, “Uchiha Ikeizumi should be over there, right? He’s a ninja with the Lava Release and Sharingan dual bloodline limits.”
Just as she was about to run forward, she found Lady Tsunade beside her, holding a lamppost with one hand, motionless.
“Lady Tsunade?” Shizune was about to ask with concern when she was shocked to find that Lady Tsunade’s small face was already completely pale.
“No… no need to look at the firelight…”
Tsunade’s voice trembled, “Looking at the corpses on the ground, you’ll know which direction he went.”
Shizune froze.
Her gaze involuntarily returned to the firelight not far away, then moved from top to bottom, and her pupils contracted instantly: “This…”
What greeted her eyes were corpses, one after another, covered in blood!
The way each corpse died was extremely tragic.
Either they were split in half from top to bottom.
Or their heads were severed and rolled to the side.
The only commonality was the vast amount of blood!
That’s right…
Lady Tsunade must have seen all this blood to have such a reaction!
“Shizune…” Lady Tsunade said through gritted teeth, “Quick! Quickly collect all the money that little Uchiha brat doesn’t want from the corpses! This… this is our gambling money for the next month! We can’t let anyone else discover this exclusive business secret!”
“Pick them up quickly, that Uchiha brat kills villains very fast. I’m afraid he can completely bloodbath Tanzaku Street in just one night… Don’t let anyone else get ahead!”
Shizune: “…”
Perhaps, Lady Tsunade’s gambling addiction had barely overcome her hemophobia.
Shizune, with a black line on her forehead, looked at the several tragic corpses.
For some reason, she felt a chill.
“Absolute justice…” Shizune mumbled, “I wonder what the ninjas in the village think of this Uchiha Ikeizumi.”
……
“You… you monster! I’ve never offended you, have I? I don’t even know you! Why are you killing me? Even ninjas have to abide by the laws of the Land of Fire!”
“You… if you kill me, it’s a major crime! Even if you’re a ninja, you can’t just kill people!”
In a certain location in Tanzaku Street, a man in a suit had collapsed to the ground, his fear evident, and an indescribable odor emanated from him, making him appear utterly absurd.
Three people had already fallen beside him, all three headless, and they were the ninja bodyguards he had hired with a large sum of money!
However…
These three ninja bodyguards, who he considered very powerful, seemed weak and vulnerable in the hands of the monster before him.
“And the three people you killed are all Konoha Village ninjas!”
Watching the monster approach him, the man couldn’t help but shout in terror and despair: “If you let me live, I won’t reveal this! Otherwise… do you want to be chased by Konoha ninjas? I hear Konoha Village has thousands, even tens of thousands of ninjas!”
“Meow, Lord Ikeizumi is a Konoha ninja.” Kijiro sneered, “Do you want Lord Ikeizumi to chase himself?”
“The cat… the cat is talking…” The man’s face was completely dumbfounded.
*Splat—*
And his dumbfounded expression froze on his face.
Because the blade of the ninja sword had already severed his head.
“The blade is dull.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi examined the ninja sword in his hand. This ninja sword was a standard issue from the Police Force, a very ordinary one. He flicked the blood off the blade, sheathed the ninja sword, and walked expressionlessly over the corpses at his feet, leaving behind a sea of bodies and blood!
No one knew how many red-named villains Uchiha Ikeizumi had killed in this short half-hour.
Kijiro initially watched with great interest, counting the number of people.
But as he counted… Kijiro found himself miscounting—because Lord Ikeizumi killed villains too quickly!
And Lord Ikeizumi would not listen to any explanations from the villains.
See…
Kill.
This was what he had been doing repeatedly for the past half-hour.
Now.
The entire Tanzaku Street was engulfed in panic and chaos. Lifeless, bloody corpses on the ground challenged everyone’s fragile hearts every moment.
Even many buildings had been consumed by flames, and unknown bodies had been burned to charcoal.
The emotion of panic was spreading rapidly!
……
“He’s killed… so many!”
Shizune was no longer just feeling a chill; an indescribable fear had arisen in her heart, making her doubt: “Lady Tsunade… were all those killed by that Uchiha Ikeizumi truly villains? Was no one wrongly accused? How did he make his judgments?”
Question after question left Shizune utterly bewildered.
Although under Tsunade’s urging, she had to pick up stacks of banknotes, the money in her hands probably amounted to several million ryo. Yet, the money couldn’t calm her down.
Especially the sticky sensation of many banknotes stained with blood made Shizune feel a chill that seeped into her bones!
Tsunade, leaning on the lamppost, was no longer as excited as she was at first.
With a girlish heart, her small face was filled with paleness and solemnity.
“How could that little Uchiha kid have killed so many people?”
Tsunade had originally thought that perhaps only a few dozen people would die tonight at most.
Based on her knowledge of Tanzaku Street… it was reasonable for dozens of villains deserving of the death penalty to be found there.
But…
“The number of corpses has reached triple digits!” In the depths of Tsunade’s eyes, a look of horror flashed. “And it seems that brat has no intention of stopping!”
The situation seemed to have exceeded her expectations.
……
At the same time, in a dense forest not far from Tanzaku Street.
Three blurred figures darted rapidly through the dense forest.
“Phew… finally completed the mission. An A-rank mission is truly perilous; we almost didn’t make it back. Fortunately, Hayate’s Light Release played a crucial role at the last moment. Otherwise, at least two of us would have been lost to complete the mission.”
When such a remark was made, it indicated that these three individuals were all Konoha ninjas carrying out a mission outside the village.
“If I remember correctly, Tanzaku Street should be ahead. We can rest there tonight and depart for Konoha Village tomorrow morning. It would be best to find a bathhouse to relax properly.”
“Hayate, what do you think? Huh? Hayate? Why did you suddenly stop talking?”
The speaker looked at the ninja beside him and asked with concern, “Did you get injured somewhere?”
Moonlight Hayate, running with his head down under the moonlight, slowly came back to his senses.
He shook his head and replied with a complex expression, “It’s nothing, I just remembered some unpleasant memories…”
Ever since his own brother died at the hands of Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Moonlight Hayate had been having nightmares of that night repeatedly, to the point where he felt his mental state was somewhat compromised.
So, he requested a ninja mission from Hokage-sama, wanting to leave the village for a while to properly calm his mood.
“Hoo!”
Moonlight Hayate exhaled slowly, feeling that the experiences of the past few days had indeed helped to calm his mood a little.
However, at this moment, another Konoha ninja from the trio, who had remained silent, suddenly exclaimed, “Look ahead!”
The dense forest before the three had gradually thinned, and Tanzaku Street could now be seen with the naked eye not far ahead.
However…
They discovered that Tanzaku Street was engulfed in raging fires!
The billowing smoke, illuminated by the flames, was particularly striking under the moonlight.
As a gentle breeze, carrying a heatwave, blew towards them.
The other two ninjas looked on in astonishment, but Moonlight Hayate’s expression changed drastically.
Because he smelled a pungent odor carried by the wind!
That was…
The unique sulfur smell of lava!
“Let’s go check!” The Konoha ninja on the left sped up, rushing towards Tanzaku Street; the Konoha ninja on the right followed closely behind; only Moonlight Hayate wanted to stop them, but he saw that only their retreating backs remained.
“It… it can’t be that coincidental, right?”
Moonlight Hayate gritted his teeth and could only follow them quickly.
……
The three Konoha Ninja who arrived at Tanzaku Street were utterly stunned by the scene before them.
Lava!
Flames!
Corpses!
The above three formed the main melody of the night. Their gazes swept across the street, which was littered with corpses. Blood pooled and flowed down the street’s slope towards the storm drain at the edge of Tanzaku Street.
The fire in the distance intensified, and the pungent smell of sulfur could already be inhaled. It felt less like being on Tanzaku Street and more like standing next to a volcano.
One bloody head after another rolled to the roadside, and many frightened onlookers could be seen on both sides of the street.
“They were all killed in a single blow!” The Konoha Ninja to Moonlight Hayate’s left crouched down to examine the corpses on the ground, enduring his shock. He said in a deep voice, “Either their heads were severed by a ninja sword, or their hearts were pierced by a ninja sword… or their skulls were penetrated by a kunai, or their arteries were severed by shuriken.”
“The perpetrator had no superfluous movements; they are definitely a cruel and experienced killer demon! And they are definitely a ninja, likely one who is very skilled in Taijutsu. The opponent’s strength is at least… Jonin!”
The Konoha Ninja to Moonlight Hayate’s right swallowed hard and immediately grabbed a passerby, anxiously asking, “Why were these people killed? Who killed them?”
“Uchiha Ikeizumi… Uchiha Ikeizumi…”
The passerby he grabbed kept muttering, “He’s back… that murderer has grown up, he’s back… he’s killed more people than he did nine years ago…”
The passerby’s mumbling caused the three Konoha Ninja to freeze.
— Uchiha Ikeizumi?!!
…
Meanwhile.
Tsunade and Shizune had finally caught up to Uchiha Ikeizumi.
However, their posture was quite “comical.” Due to severe hemophobia, Tsunade dared not open her eyes the entire time and even dared not walk on the street, as the street was covered in blood.
She had to maintain her disguise as a twelve-year-old girl fleeing debt, with her eyes closed, letting Shizune carry her the whole way.
Even so, the pungent smell of blood filling the air made Tsunade feel very uncomfortable.
It also made her small face a little pale.
“Haa…” Tsunade tried to pry her eyelids open slightly and focused her gaze on Uchiha Ikeizumi. She saw the Uchiha brat in front of her holding a ninja sword in one hand, and in the other, he was gripping a person’s hair, his sword already plunged into the victim’s chest.
“Hey, Uchiha brat…” As Tsunade said this, she saw Uchiha Ikeizumi let go of the corpse in his hand.
The blood splashing from the corpse’s chest made her bite her lower lip hard.
“Aren’t you going a bit too far with this… There are indeed many villains on Tanzaku Street. But…” Tsunade said in a deep voice, “It’s not to this extent, is it? I had Shizune count the bodies on the ground along the way, and she’s already counted two hundred and seventy-six people.”
She didn’t look at the blood-spurting corpse again and added, “Now, it’s two hundred and seventy-seven people…”
“Are you so sure there were no innocent people?!”
Uchiha Ikeizumi calmly looked at Tsunade, whose face was as pale as paper.
The Konoha Sannin, afflicted with hemophobia, seeing so much blood, resembled a cowering, weak beast, lacking the heroic spirit she had in his memories.
“Lady Tsunade, Lord Ikeizumi’s eyes can see through a person’s Past Evil and Future Evil. Under Lord Ikeizumi’s eyes, no sin can hide. Those who died by Lord Ikeizumi’s hand could absolutely not have been innocent people.”
Kijiro, standing nearby, spoke human words with great certainty. “Lady Tsunade, you haven’t returned to Konoha in a long time, so you might not be aware of this. The Third Hokage of Konoha also knows that Lord Ikeizumi possesses such an ability.”
“And Lord Ikeizumi, in his belief in Absolute Justice, would never use this special ability to wrong innocent people. Lord Ikeizumi only directs his blade at villains. And he shows no mercy!”
“This is Lord Ikeizumi’s Absolute Justice!”
Kijiro the ninja cat’s words made Tsunade and Shizune freeze.
The ability to see through Past Evil and Future Evil?
Shizune looked bewildered and disbelieving, while Tsunade suddenly thought of something.
“Mangekyo Sharingan?” she slowly uttered the words.
Uchiha Ikeizumi didn’t respond to her question. He gripped his now-dull ninja sword and glanced at the seven or eight bulging money bags tied to Shizune’s waist.
Under Shizune’s suddenly awkward and embarrassed expression,
Uchiha Ikeizumi said to Tsunade, “If you think I’ve gone too far, if you think so many people shouldn’t have been killed, or if you believe Tanzaku Street doesn’t have that many villains…”
“You can follow me and see how twisted and nauseating the evil born from a sickened Ninja World truly is.”
With that said, Uchiha Ikeizumi walked straight into a building ahead.
Tsunade looked up at the brightly lit, colorful storefront sign of the building.
She had a faint impression of the place; it seemed to be the largest dance hall on Tanzaku Street. However, since it wasn’t a casino, she had never bothered to learn about it, as she wasn’t interested in such things.
“Lady Tsunade?” Shizune, carrying Tsunade on her back, asked weakly.
Tsunade was silent for half a second and said, “Follow him.”
“Yes!” Shizune quickly followed.
…
“Uchiha Ikeizumi… it really is him…” Moonlight Hayate could no longer remain calm. The scenes from many days ago flooded his mind again. His younger brother was killed by Uchiha Ikeizumi, and… he died in his arms.
“Shouldn’t he be in Konoha Village? Why is he on Tanzaku Street? The distance between Tanzaku Street and Konoha Village, even for a Jonin at full speed, would take at least a day’s journey, right?”
The Konoha Ninja on the left was pale with terror, clearly having heard of Uchiha Ikeizumi’s “notorious reputation.”
“That guy…”
The Konoha Ninja couldn’t help but gasp, breathing in the smell of blood and sulfur in the air. “He’s killed more people outside Konoha Village than inside! Is it because no one outside the village can control him anymore?”
The Konoha Ninja on the right suddenly discovered something and immediately said to the other two, “Look over here!”
Moonlight Hayate and the other person immediately looked over and saw the Konoha Ninja picking up a blood-stained Konoha headband from the ground.
“A Konoha Ninja was killed by him within Tanzaku Street.”
He said in a deep voice, “If I’m not mistaken, it was likely killed in the name of his so-called Absolute Justice. Many wealthy people on Tanzaku Street hire Konoha Ninja as bodyguards, which means… he killed more than one Konoha Ninja today.”
This statement made the mood of everyone present even heavier.
With their combined strength, could they stop Uchiha Ikeizumi?
Going up against him together would probably just be sending themselves to their deaths.
And what if the opponent was truly “executing justice” within Tanzaku Street?
Interfering with Uchiha Ikeizumi’s execution of justice…
The consequences would be dire!
“Haa! You two immediately return to the village and report to Hokage!” Moonlight Hayate suggested.
The other two were stunned. One of them asked, “Hayate, what about you?!”
Moonlight Hayate was silent for half a second and said, “I’ll catch up to you soon.”
“…Hayate, I know you’ve been dwelling on that matter. But, please don’t lose your mind.”
“Mm.”
…
At the same time.
Inside the largest dance hall on Tanzaku Street.
BANG!!!
A contorted human body slammed heavily against an iron door.
The iron door was directly blown open, and the person’s face twisted as they spat blood and passed out.
Uchiha Ikeizumi stepped over or onto corpses.
He flicked a shuriken, finishing off the downed villain.
As he stepped inside the iron door, an indescribable odor assailed his nostrils. But… for Uchiha Ikeizumi and Kijiro, the smell was bearable, slightly better than the stench of corpses.
Kijiro jumped up, pressing his cat claws against the wall.
With a “snap,” the lights turned on.
The pitch-black secret room was suddenly illuminated.
But it seemed that due to the sudden lighting, the dragging sound of iron chains could be heard incessantly, and the faint clanging of iron cages against each other echoed constantly.
Looking around.
The underground secret room of the dance hall was stacked with rusty iron cages. Each cage was not very large; an adult would feel quite cramped inside, but it would be just right for a minor.
There was even extra space for “food bowls” and “latrines.”
Some of the slightly larger iron cages could even accommodate two slender minors without issue.
And this…
This was not a metaphorical fantasy, but a scene that Uchiha Ikeizumi’s eyes had witnessed firsthand!
When Shizune carefully carried Tsunade inside as well.
Shizune was completely stunned.
In her line of sight—
She saw children, scantily clad and listless, all locked inside rusty iron cages with panicked expressions.
They were boys and girls, and the only commonalities were their young age and slightly more refined features than ordinary children of the same age.
They all crowded into the corners of the cages, as if afraid of being pulled out.
Perhaps, for these children, being dragged out would lead to an even more tragic fate than being locked in a cage.
And the indescribable stench filling the air emanated from the poorly covered “latrines” inside the cages. A little more of these odors became quite pungent.
It wasn’t just Shizune who was stunned; Tsunade was too.
There was no blood in the underground secret room, so Tsunade dared to open her eyes.
But she found that the scene before her was more impactful than the street covered in blood.
And it was even more difficult for her to accept.
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice echoed softly at this moment, as if patiently answering the doubts that had simultaneously arisen in the minds of Tsunade and Shizune, the master and disciple. “Most of them are war orphans from various parts of the Land of Fire, forcibly abducted by human traffickers and then sold to the owner of this dance hall.”
“Upon seeing their faces, which are slightly more refined than ordinary children of the same age, you should be able to guess what those villains would consider them to be in a place like this, shouldn’t you?”
“As medical ninja, you should know better that once children whose bodies have not yet developed fall into the hands of those beasts in human clothing, they only have the tragic fate of ‘painful death,’ don’t they?”
Hearing this, Shizune, who stood stunned, trembled slightly.
She could also clearly feel Tsunade, on her back, involuntarily gripping her shoulder under emotional fluctuation.
It hurts…
But Shizune felt that the pain of her shoulder almost cracking under Tsunade’s grip was far less than the confusion, despair, and pain the children in the cages faced for their future.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg of the ‘evil’ in the Ninja World.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi slowly squatted down, gently gripping a tightly locked iron lock on a cage. In less than two seconds, the iron lock melted into molten iron, dripping onto the ground.
He opened the cage door, his eyes displaying a scarlet Three-Tomoe, staring intently at a little girl inside the cage.
These very special eyes attracted the little girl’s attention.
“Go to sleep, and when you wake up, everything will be alright.”
The scantily clad little girl’s terrified expression gradually faded. Her wide eyes involuntarily closed slowly, and she leaned gently against the cage,
The soft snoring and the smile on her lips indicated that she had entered a beautiful dream in an instant.
A dreamscape of illusion techniques woven from a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.
Uchiha Ikeizumi carried her out, wrapping her naked body tightly in the thin blanket from the iron cage.
After gently placing her on the ground, Uchiha Ikeizumi said again, “Perhaps you already know why I can be so sure that none of the people I’ve killed were innocent?”
Tsunade was unusually silent.
She was also a Konoha Ninja who had experienced the Second Great Ninja War.
She believed she had seen enough sin.
However, everything that met her eyes at this moment profoundly impacted Tsunade’s worldview.
And all of this evil happened on Tanzaku Street.
Yet she herself, as Tsunade Hime, one of the Sannin, had lived on Tanzaku Street for so many years and yet had completely failed to notice that the sin right under her nose had already twisted out of control to this extent.
Or rather…
Immersed in the pleasure of gambling, constantly escaping reality, and indulging wildly, I wouldn’t care about these things at all.
Otherwise, if one were to put in a little effort to dig, it’s likely that plenty of sin within Tanzaku Street could be easily unearthed.
Tsunade’s silence continued for an unknown amount of time as she watched Uchiha Ikeizumi lift one child after another from their cages.
She hadn’t expected… this Uchiha brat, who killed like it was nothing, to be so gentle at a time like this.
And that ninja cat, which could only speak human language and spoke a lot, was also silent at this moment, helping the brat rescue the child in the cage.
Is this your justice…?
Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Tsunade suddenly found her own face becoming exceptionally ugly, and a sense of guilt that arose from nowhere made her utterly ashamed.
“Shizune…”
“Tsunade, Lady Tsunade?”
“Put me down.”
“Oh!”
When Tsunade jumped down from Shizune’s back, she silently walked to an iron cage, reached out, and gripped the lock, applying a little force.
Bang!
The metal lock was actually crushed by her single small hand!
Tsunade brought out a girl who looked only five years old.
Feeling the other person’s body tremble with fear, Tsunade opened her mouth, not knowing what to say, she could only gently stroke the other person’s hair, take a deep breath, and whisper, “Sorry… I’m sorry…”
At this moment, Tsunade suddenly raised her head, because Uchiha Ikeizumi was standing right in front of her.
This brat showed no fatigue even after killing two hundred and seventy-seven villains.
But at this moment, she saw the clear look of fatigue on the other’s face, a manifestation of excessive Sharingan eye power consumption.
“Give her to me.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi said, “I wove a beautiful dream for her. When she wakes up from her dream, she will forget all of this.”
He paused and added, “All children are like this, they won’t remember what they’ve been through.”
If there is someone in this Ninja World who is the purest good person.
Tsunade felt that person could only be Uchiha Ikeizumi.
She gazed at Uchiha Ikeizumi’s calm three-tomoe Sharingan and asked the question that lingered in her heart the most: “Have you seen many things like this?”
Uchiha Ikeizumi said concisely, “Not many, but not few either.”
Tsunade was a little lost.
This Ninja World…
What is wrong with it?
……
As the first rays of dawn tore through the night, the raging infernos burning all over Tanzaku Street finally extinguished.
The pungent sulfur smell that filled the air also dissipated a lot under the gentle breeze.
But…
That rusty smell of blood lingered.
Because no one dared to come out and collect the corpses on the ground!
Nor did anyone dare to cleanse the blood that had seeped into the cracks of the floor tiles!
“Dead… so many people…”
A resident of Tanzaku Street couldn’t help but swallow. Mustering his courage, he opened his door and stepped outside. He saw three headless corpses lying just outside his door, and a head in front of the doorstep, its eyes staring fixedly at him!
He was startled at first, but in the next second, he was astonished to find that the face on this head looked somewhat familiar.
“This guy…”
He gasped and murmured in astonishment, “Isn’t this guy one of the ruthless gang leaders in Tanzaku Street?”
A sudden surge of curiosity made him hold his breath and, gathering his courage, he found the second head.
“Hiss! This looks like the owner of the casino next door! I heard he was worth three hundred million ryo!”
When he saw the third head, he was even more terrified and turned pale.
“This looks like a very famous thug in Tanzaku Street! I heard he killed over a dozen people…”
At this moment.
Even though he was an ordinary person, he noticed a pattern.
“Why does it feel like all the people killed were villains?!”
“Is it just my imagination…”
……
On the other side.
“Shizune… how many villains died last night?” Tsunade, who hadn’t slept all night, had returned to her adult form. She placed her obstructive chest on the table, her expression a little gloomy and unhappy.
Shizune, who had also not slept all night, quickly replied, “Last night, Uchiha Ikeizumi killed five hundred and nineteen people! And that Ninja Cat named Kijiro killed one hundred and twenty-one people.”
“Together, they killed six hundred and forty people.”
Speaking of which.
Shizune paused, glanced cautiously at Tsunade, and continued, “Plus the nineteen people you killed, Lady Tsunade, that makes six hundred and fifty-nine villains…”
As she said this, Shizune still found it incredible.
Last night, after Lady Tsunade helped Uchiha Ikeizumi rescue the children from the Underground Secret Room…
She had personally killed people!
Shizune remembered Lady Tsunade blackly grabbing a dance hall shareholder and throwing him dozens of meters into the air. When the shareholder hit the ground, there was no need to check his condition; it was obvious he was dead.
This was Lady Tsunade’s first kill after developing hemophobia.
Lady Tsunade knew she had hemophobia, so when she couldn’t restrain her killing intent and acted, she would roughly throw people away, staging nineteen “flying people” incidents in Tanzaku Street.
This way…
She wouldn’t have to see blood.
……
……
