Chapter 89: That Kind Of Justice Only Makes Me Sick
The bright red blood splattered on the ground continuously stimulated Sarutobi Hiruzen’s nerves, and the head with a frozen expression made his hair stand on end, with countless thoughts converging into two words—it’s over!
Although there was no explicit regulation, under the common acquiescence of many magnates, the “Shōchoku” attire was something only the top-tier magnates in the Ninja World were qualified to wear.
Sarutobi Hiruzen clearly saw that the expensive clothes on the headless corpse at his feet were in the “Shōchoku” style.
He no longer harbored any last shred of hopeful illusion, his facial wrinkles twitching continuously, and his lips trembling slightly.
He wanted to say something, but it was stuck in his throat.
His face was terrifyingly dark.
“Hokage… we arrived one step too late.” An Anbu Ninja said in a low voice: “Even if medical ninjas reattach the head, it would probably only give the corpse a decent appearance in death.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen: “…”
“Hokage? You’re the Konoha Hokage?!” One of the retainers who had been intimidated into silence by Senior Izumi’s passionate speech suddenly perked up and immediately shouted: “What exactly do you Konoha people want to do? Are you trying to rebel? The Daimyo clearly allocates a large amount of funding to Konoha every year, yet your village’s ninjas killed the Daimyo’s son!”
He hurriedly pointed at Uchiha Ikeizumi and complained to Sarutobi Hiruzen, urgently saying: “It’s this lunatic from the Uchiha Clan! He killed Goyuen Kyusuke! You Konoha people killed the Daimyo’s second son—can you bear this responsibility?”
“Right… and two Daimyo’s retainers, as well as one of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi, also died at this lunatic’s hands! He’s gone mad— what gives him the right to judge the Daimyo’s son!”
But when Uchiha Ikeizumi’s gaze, devoid of much emotional fluctuation, glanced toward him.
This loudly shouting retainer was suddenly scared stiff, like a duck with its neck gripped.
His face filled with terror, his mouth opening and closing silently.
In the end, he couldn’t utter a single sound.
Sarutobi Hiruzen: “…”
Anyone could sense the atmosphere had become extremely weird; some sharp-eyed Anbu Ninjas also saw the Hokage tightly clenching his fists, with veins bulging and trembling on the back of his hand.
It was unclear whether the Hokage was angry that a mere retainer dared to yell at him, the Third Hokage…
Or angry that Uchiha Ikeizumi had unhesitatingly killed the Daimyo of the Land of Fire’s second son right on the street…
“Ikeizumi.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s gaze darkened for the first time to the point of being somewhat sinister; he forcibly shifted his sight from the corpse on the ground.
Ignoring the jumping and shouting Daimyo’s retainer.
Instead casting a gaze of extreme displeasure onto Uchiha Ikeizumi.
“Hoo—”
Sarutobi Hiruzen heavily exhaled a breath of turbid air; he was trying hard to suppress the rising anger in his heart, and stiffly opened his mouth: “Your explanation next… is it still going to be based on your overly extreme 「absolute justice」? Your 「absolute justice」… doesn’t mean sacrificing Konoha’s interests and damaging Konoha’s reputation, does it?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen simply didn’t dare to imagine how the magnates of the Land of Fire would view Konoha if this matter got out.
—Konoha Ninjas, wielding great power, suddenly turning against the Land of Fire’s magnates, even daring to kill the Daimyo’s son!
In such a situation…
The entire upper echelon of magnates in the Land of Fire would probably be thrown into panic, right?
Would they still be willing to support Konoha then?
Or still willing to support him, Sarutobi Hiruzen?
“Ikeizumi!” With emotions surging in his heart, Sarutobi Hiruzen’s voice grew much louder as he spoke through gritted teeth: “Goyuen Kyusuke… this young man’s father is the Daimyo of the Land of Fire! He’s the existence at the pinnacle of the Land of Fire! He’s the one controlling the lifelines of all industries in the Land of Fire!”
“Even if Konoha Village re-elects a Hokage, it depends on whom the Daimyo decides to support. Without the Daimyo’s support, Konoha Village couldn’t even be established, and the ninjas of the Land of Fire would still be in a state of division and conflict…”
“And you… and you today…”
Sarutobi Hiruzen felt his breathing was too rapid.
To the point where his head felt dizzy.
“So does the Third believe I should let him go?” Uchiha Ikeizumi met Sarutobi Hiruzen’s gaze, but upon seeing those pitch-black, profound eyes, Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly thought of something and hurriedly averted his sight in shock.
Sarutobi Hiruzen said through gritted teeth: “Ikeizumi, for your 「absolute justice」, you arbitrarily sacrificed Konoha’s future—do you think that’s right? Once there’s no funding allocation from the Daimyo, the village’s infrastructure, villagers’ medical care, and employment can’t be guaranteed.”
“Such complex problems can’t be solved by your 「absolute justice」. If your extreme pursuit of justice brings negative impact to the village, making everyone’s lives in Konoha worse day by day, would you be justice or evil?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s successive questions were his true thoughts.
“Hey, hey! As the Konoha Hokage, why are you debating this lunatic? Shouldn’t you arrest him immediately?”
The group of Daimyo’s retainers behind, still shaken, suddenly interjected.
“Yeah! This lunatic killed Kyusuke! Killing the Daimyo’s son—isn’t that rogue ninja behavior?!”
“You should execute this mentally deranged lunatic ninja on the spot, avenge Kyusuke, and implicate his family, making his whole family accompany Kyusuke in death! Are you a competent Konoha Hokage?”
“As Hokage, you’re not trying to shield your village’s ninja, are you? He’s a murderer!”
“…”
Perhaps Sarutobi Hiruzen’s appearance gave them a sense of security and a pillar of support.
But they weren’t ninjas; they weren’t loyal to the Konoha Hokage—they were loyal to the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
In the eyes of some Konoha Ninjas, the status between the Daimyo and the Hokage wasn’t much different. One controlled the Land of Fire’s economy, livelihood, and government… the other controlled its military.
But in the eyes of this group of Daimyo’s retainers, the Konoha Hokage’s status was ultimately one level below the Daimyo.
To the point that even finding their pillar of support didn’t make them polite.
Those one-liners made Sarutobi Hiruzen’s brows furrow even tighter.
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s gloomy, cold gaze swept over the group of Daimyo’s retainers; this Third Hokage’s aura couldn’t suppress Uchiha Ikeizumi, but it scared the retainers into breaking out in cold sweat.
“This is Konoha’s family matter!” Sarutobi Hiruzen said icily: “I’ll handle it however I want. What status do you have to criticize me here?”
He stepped half a body aside, his face grim: “If you want to avenge the Daimyo’s second son, I won’t stop you. The ‘killer’ is right here—go ahead and make your move.”
The group of Daimyo’s retainers: “…”
Seeing this bunch finally quiet down, Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep breath. Interrupted by them, the pent-up anger in his heart inexplicably dissipated a bit.
To the point that when he spoke again, it was a degree less forceful than before.
“Ikeizumi, not every wrongdoing requires such extreme and absolute execution.” Sarutobi Hiruzen gritted his teeth and continued: “The evil of the Ninja World isn’t something you can solve by crazily killing people. What’s the use of killing more? Even if you kill a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand… but in the vast Ninja World, how could there be only that many evildoers?”
“Wanting to make Konoha better, to make everyone in the village live better, isn’t achieved by slaughtering evildoers. Excessive killing will only intensify the outbreak of conflicts. Once some conflicts erupt, they’ll spawn even more evil!”
“You killed the Daimyo’s son today—do you know how much chaos this will cause? The Daimyo of the Land of Fire… even his son—none of them can be killed!”
Unbeknownst to himself, Sarutobi Hiruzen had started “reasoning” with Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Ultimately, he was too wary of Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Mangekyo Sharingan ability, lacking confidence.
—For the Daimyo’s son, tear face with Uchiha Ikeizumi, ignite an unprecedented war in Konoha, and 100% drag the Uchiha Clan into it.
—Or business as usual.
Those were really the only two choices before Sarutobi Hiruzen.
What choice he, as Hokage, would make…
No need to guess.
“Third,” Uchiha Ikeizumi said coldly: “If my actions lead to more evil spawning in the Ninja World, it just proves those evildoers weren’t normal to begin with—they were born with one foot on the opposing side of absolute justice.”
“They just need an excuse to support the evil in their hearts; my actions merely happened to become the excuse they needed. Such existences are inherently hidden enemies of absolute justice.”
“They are one of the evils of the Ninja World that 「absolute justice」 needs to purge. If because they might bring chaos to the Ninja World, justice chooses compromise and forbearance, chooses to stay silent…”
Uchiha Ikeizumi narrowed his eyes and continued: “That kind of justice… would only make me sick to the point of bending over and vomiting.”
“Moreover…”
Uchiha Ikeizumi continued: “Thinking a few words can change what an adult insists on. Third, aren’t you overestimating your own ‘personal charm’ a bit?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s expression was slightly stiff, even though he knew he had anticipated Uchiha Ikeizumi’s reaction.
But being directly refuted face-to-face still always infuriated him greatly.
Across the entire Konoha, only Uchiha Ikeizumi would confront him, the Hokage, with a barrage of words like this.
The key was… this also meant Ikeizumi’s 「absolute justice」 was no longer a double-edged sword he could control.
Once.
Sarutobi Hiruzen could rely on Uchiha Ikeizumi’s 「absolute justice」 to intimidate some ill-intentioned people in the village.
Now.
He no longer had the ability to control it, and he couldn’t see whom this double-edged sword would strike in the village.
“Forgot to remind you, Third.” Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen was inwardly stunned and speechless, Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice came again: “Those people behind you—except for one, the rest are all villains in my eyes.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s pupils contracted; he then noticed that the ninja sword in Uchiha Ikeizumi’s hand had never been sheathed!
“Villains… need to be purged.”
As soon as Uchiha Ikeizumi said this, the Anbu Ninjas Sarutobi Hiruzen brought immediately went on high alert and swiftly formed a wall of people, surrounding and protecting Sarutobi Hiruzen.
They too had witnessed Uchiha Ikeizumi’s Mangekyo ability.
They absolutely could not let this dangerous guy Uchiha Ikeizumi use that hair-raising dojutsu on the Hokage!
Swoosh—
The group of Anbu Ninjas, including Sarutobi Hiruzen, watched as Uchiha Ikeizumi’s figure vanished instantly.
The words “stop him” were stuck in Sarutobi Hiruzen’s throat.
Because he genuinely felt the killing intent from Uchiha Ikeizumi.
And a weird thought popped into his mind—if he really had the Anbu stop Ikeizumi… there would 100% be a deadly conflict erupting here!
It was precisely Sarutobi Hiruzen’s hesitation.
Uchiha Ikeizumi had already plunged into the group like a tiger into a flock of sheep; his ninja sword slashed across one Daimyo retainer’s neck. As he brushed past, a head flew into the air.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Anbu Ninjas turned back in shock.
In their line of sight…
Over a dozen heads with frozen terrified expressions flew high, the blood spraying from a dozen headless corpses like a rain of blood; even a drop of blood pierced through the Anbu Ninjas’ layers of defense, splattering onto Sarutobi Hiruzen’s Hokage’s Robe.
No screams, no howls of pain—just the muffled thuds of over a dozen heads hitting the ground and a dozen headless corpses collapsing, all in unison.
“Gurgle gurgle—”
A large head rolled to the feet of an Anbu Ninja.
The bone-chilling creepiness made even this battle-hardened Anbu Ninja break out in goosebumps.
—Uchiha Ikeizumi, this man was simply too dangerous!
This was the consensus of nearly all the Anbu Ninjas.
But none of the Anbu Ninjas secretly blamed or criticized Uchiha Ikeizumi’s actions as wrong.
After all, no one would question this man’s judgment of “evil.”
This was also why Sarutobi Hiruzen’s expression was complex.
He shared some remarkably similar thoughts with the Anbu Ninjas.
“N-No… don’t…”
“Don’t kill me…”
The intermittent terrified sobs broke the weird silence; the sole surviving Daimyo retainer had been scared into incontinence, slumped in blood and excrement, his face full of horror as he looked at the expressionless Uchiha Ikeizumi.
Sarutobi Hiruzen saw that Uchiha Ikeizumi didn’t even acknowledge the man.
This young man, who made even him feel a tightness in his chest, turned directly around and said to him without looking back: “Third, I probably don’t need to detail their evil deeds one by one, right?”
Then he saw Uchiha Ikeizumi leave.
Sarutobi Hiruzen: “…”
The blood flowing on the ground had already reached Sarutobi Hiruzen’s feet.
He couldn’t help but open his mouth.
Yet couldn’t say a word.
“Um… Hokage.” Senior Izumi tore a few sheets from her notebook, took small steps forward, handed them to an Anbu Ninja, and said: “These are the crimes of Goyuen Kyusuke that I recorded, all dictated by Senior Ikeizumi. You can send the corpses to the Yamanaka Clan to check the corpses’ memories and see if they match.”
The Anbu Ninja’s expression under the mask was quite odd as he took the few sheets of white paper filled with writing from the girl.
Then passed them to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Sarutobi Hiruzen reached out to take them, silently staring at the writing on them.
Finally letting out a deep sigh.
…
…
