Chapter 29: In The Name Of Justice, Cleaning House In The Ninja World
Sarutobi Shinnosuke took a deep breath, but even though he tried hard to calm himself down, the “psychological trauma” that Uchiha Ikeizumi had once caused him was still a bit too great.
Once, two of the three Konoha genin he had guided died in a way that involved killing their own comrades.
The only surviving “culprit” was now standing calmly in front of him.
This made the anger in Sarutobi Shinnosuke’s heart impossible to suppress.
Rage was a great taboo for Anbu ninja.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke said coldly, “Everything I did from beginning to end was for Konoha Village, and I have never fallen into the abyss. Uchiha Ikeizumi, you are nothing more than someone who, out of selfish desire, arbitrarily shifts ‘evil’ onto others! There’s no need to make your killing hobby sound so righteous.”
“I don’t understand why the Fourth Hokage ruled that you killing your comrades back then was just excessive self-defense, nor do I understand why the old man hasn’t dealt with you all these years.”
“However…”
Sarutobi Shinnosuke glanced at the Anbu corpse on the ground.
He hadn’t even thought about why Uchiha Ikeizumi could recognize him at a glance even though he was wearing an Anbu mask.
He also hadn’t thought about why Uchiha Ikeizumi was here.
At this moment, his eyes under the Anbu mask were filled with uncontrollable killing intent spreading wildly: “Since you killed fellow village Anbu ninja in front of me… then today, I will clean house for the old man and for Konoha Village!”
“At the same time…”
“I will also clean house for myself!”
The moment Sarutobi Shinnosuke finished speaking, the six Anbu subordinates behind him quickly understood.
They coordinated tacitly and, with ninja-specific tactical positioning, completely sealed off all of Uchiha Ikeizumi’s escape routes while also charging at Uchiha Ikeizumi with various ninja tools in hand.
Swish—
Swish—
A ninja sword and a scythe blade instantly slashed two extremely ferocious huge gashes on Uchiha Ikeizumi’s body.
Other Anbu ninja threw large numbers of kunai and shuriken, all precisely hitting Uchiha Ikeizumi’s body.
One of the kunai had an explosive tag wrapped around its end!
“Explode!”
Boom rumble rumble!!!
The deafening explosion made several Anbu ninja’s eardrums slightly ache. They watched as Uchiha Ikeizumi was swallowed by the explosion’s flames and smoke; by all rights, he should have been blasted into fragments.
But…
“Something’s wrong… my ninja sword!”
“My scythe blade… how could his Lava Release temperature be this high? My ninja tool only grazed his body for less than half a second, yet it melted?”
Two unthinkable cries of alarm suddenly rang out.
The Anbu holding the ninja sword and the Anbu holding the scythe blade were now staring in shock at the ninja tools in their hands, half-melted.
Molten iron could still be seen dripping from the broken edges of the ninja tools.
And when they simultaneously looked up toward the front.
Rolling scarlet-red lava had engulfed the thick smoke from the explosion, and the entire passage in the secret base seemed to be filled with lava.
The flowing lava surged toward the Anbu ninja like a mudslide, melting even the ground wherever it passed.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke’s expression was grim: “Lava Release…”
Although he had once been Uchiha Ikeizumi’s guiding jonin, Sarutobi Shinnosuke had rarely seen Uchiha Ikeizumi use Lava Release.
He only knew that Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Lava Release had an extremely terrifying temperature; ordinary human flesh would die upon contact.
Beyond that, there was no more intelligence on Lava Release.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke then realized that he had no understanding at all of this former genin student.
Seeing the rolling lava flood surging wildly toward them, Sarutobi Shinnosuke commanded steadily, “Take him down in this passage! We can’t let him leave here, or his Lava Release Bloodline Limit will absolutely destroy the entire base! Use Water Release ninjutsu against him!”
The Anbu ninja immediately understood.
Three Anbu ninja who knew Water Release ninjutsu immediately began forming hand seals.
In the instant the lava flood approached within inches, they simultaneously unleashed the same Water Release ninjutsu.
“Water Release: Water Surge Wave!!!” ×3
A surging torrent like a sea waterspout rose from the ground, enveloping all the Anbu ninja within it.
When the water flow gathered to a certain extent, it surged forward like a torrential flood toward the lava ahead.
The moment they collided, the scalding steam that frantically filled the passage made the Anbu ninja’s faces change drastically.
So hot!!!
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice, cold to the extreme, echoed eerily in the steam-filled passage: “Shinnosuke teacher, you believe you haven’t fallen into the abyss… then let me ask you. Half a year ago, when a ‘volunteer’ who had willingly become a lab rat got too scared midway and wanted to withdraw, who killed him?”
Sarutobi Shinnosuke, enduring the pain of steam burns, had his pupils shrink.
“One year ago, when there weren’t enough ‘volunteers,’ who ordered subordinates to go to a neighboring country of the Land of Fire, kidnap over a dozen war orphans from that country, and force them to become lab rats?”
Sarutobi Shinnosuke’s gaze became somewhat horrified.
Uchiha Ikeizumi was like a hell judge from the underworld, stabbing at Sarutobi Shinnosuke with one sentence after another.
“And two years ago…”
“And…”
Every sentence Uchiha Ikeizumi said made Sarutobi Shinnosuke’s expression change, and it also made the several Anbu subordinates beside him involuntarily cast astonished gazes at their captain.
“Shinnosuke teacher, you say you want to clean house for Konoha… how convenient, today I am here to clean house for the Ninja World.”
……
“Hokage!” At the same time, the Anbu ninja whom Sarutobi Shinnosuke had sent back to Konoha to report finally arrived at the Sarutobi Clan Residence overnight and loudly called out to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
With a “whoosh,” the sliding door of a house was pulled open.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, dressed in casual clothes and wearing wooden clogs, walked out.
He held his pipe, furrowed his brows, and asked, “If I remember correctly, you seem to be Anbu from Shinnosuke’s side… What happened on Shinnosuke’s side?!”
The Anbu ninja organized his words and quickly said, “Hokage, enemies have attacked the secret base outside the village. Captain Shinnosuke said the enemy is likely quite strong, so he asked me to return to the village and request that the Hokage send reinforcements.”
“What?!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s heart tightened.
Back then, after he led people to destroy Orochimaru’s human experimentation research institute in Konoha, they seized much research material that Orochimaru hadn’t had time to take or destroy, and captured a large group of unforgivable human experimentation researchers.
He had originally planned to destroy those materials and had promised that Uchiha Ikeizumi child to secretly execute those researchers.
After all, if such evil research materials fell into the hands of ambitious people, they might spawn another new Orochimaru.
But…
Under the advice of Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, Sarutobi Hiruzen only destroyed some of the particularly evil research materials, keeping the rest.
At the same time, he did not fulfill the promise he made to Uchiha Ikeizumi and instead transferred those researchers outside the village.
In the words of Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado at the time—”They committed so much irreparable evil; death is too lenient for them. They should use their knowledge and limited lives to slowly pay their debts.”
——”Hiruzen, you can’t act irrationally just because you made a promise to a Uchiha Clan youth. We know you think highly of him, but that genius with two Bloodline Limits is still surnamed Uchiha…”
——”Can you guarantee that the benefits Uchiha Ikeizumi brings to Konoha’s future will be greater than those from Orochimaru’s subordinates? Their knowledge is the Ninja World’s most precious treasure.”
——”Besides, we can just destroy the intolerable materials; the village can make good use of the rest.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen was moved.
Thus, about ten kilometers outside Konoha Village, at a hidden location, a secret research base was built to study some of the research materials left by Orochimaru.
He also put this base under the management of his eldest son, “Sarutobi Shinnosuke.”
He didn’t trust handing it to outsiders.
However, Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn’t expected the secret research base to run into trouble after just a few years.
An invading enemy that could make Shinnosuke send someone back to the village for reinforcements… was probably no simple foe!
“I will personally lead people there.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen said in a deep voice.
……
…
