Chapter 93: Uzumaki Naruto, This Belief Is Called Justice!
Uchiha Ikeizumi said: “Uchiha Izumi.”
“Here!!!” Izumi immediately responded loudly, her spirited appearance startling Naruto quite a bit.
Uchiha Ikeizumi said: “Try analyzing who the killer is.”
“Yes, Senior!”
Izumi recalled the information mentioned by Kijiro, her small face serious as she said: “A family annihilation like this is most likely committed by an acquaintance.”
“The area near the Yamanaka Clan has a relatively high population density in Konoha, and many ninjas live nearby. The perpetrator silently controlled an entire family of four without alerting other ninjas, which shows that they are also a ninja of considerable strength.”
“List out the ninjas known to the victims, and focus on those with conflicting interests with the victims. That should narrow it down to a few suspects with higher likelihood of being the culprit.”
“And…”
At this point, Izumi cautiously glanced at Uchiha Ikeizumi before continuing: “At that time, with Senior Ikeizumi’s abilities, you could instantly identify the killer from the suspects.”
Kijiro said in surprise: “Rookie, you’ve got some real insight!”
Izumi said sheepishly: “It’s mainly because I’ve been following Senior Ikeizumi and learned a lot of things that aren’t taught at the Ninja Academy.”
—And following Senior Ikeizumi, the probability of encountering extremely vicious cases is unusually high, leading to accumulating experience in a short time that even many veteran Police Force members haven’t gained.
Of course, this last part was a bit of an “internal grumble.”
Izumi didn’t dare say it in front of Senior Ikeizumi.
While everyone was talking.
Unknowingly, they had entered the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Because the victims had already been transferred to the Police Force Headquarters.
……
“……Oh no!”
Yamanaka Yoshinobu, the Anbu ninja following from afar, looked at the Uchiha Clan Compound ahead, his scalp already numb.
How could Uchiha Ikeizumi bring the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to a place like this!
Isn’t that like throwing a little lamb into a pack of hungry wolves?
He surely doesn’t really want to control the Nine-Tails Demon Fox, does he?!
In the Uchiha Clan Compound, if he risked his life, would he even have a one percent chance of getting Uzumaki Naruto out?
When he too stepped into the Uchiha Compound.
Yamanaka Yoshinobu keenly noticed that many gazes filled with vigilance and hostility instantly locked onto him.
—Uchiha Clan ninjas!
They must have spotted the Anbu mask hanging at his waist!
“Huff!”
Sweating profusely, Yamanaka Yoshinobu tightly gripped the hilt of his ninja sword, assuming a defensive stance ready to draw and strike without hesitation at any moment, then forced himself to walk forward.
“Hokage…”
“When will you arrive?!”
He swore that if he survived today, he would definitely submit a resignation letter to the Hokage.
Even if it meant being sent to an enemy country as a spy, he wouldn’t want to monitor the Jinchuriki anymore.
This was no job for a human!
His star of death was flashing!
……
“Coming to this place again…” Naruto had no idea that he had unknowingly rattled the nerves of many in Konoha.
He was curiously surveying the Uchiha Clan Compound.
And many Uchiha Clan ninjas were also sizing him up.
And doing so completely unabashedly.
“That blond kid isn’t from our Uchiha Clan, right? I don’t remember any clan member with blond hair.”
“He’s that ‘demon fox kid.’ He was caught by the Police Force not long ago. I heard it was Uchiha Ikeizumi who caught him, and this time… it seems Uchiha Ikeizumi caught him again.”
“Demon fox kid, huh! I heard that the Nine-Tails Demon Fox that caused chaos in Konoha back then was sealed inside him. Not sure if it’s true, but if it is… our Uchiha Clan being ostracized by the village, isn’t he the root cause?”
“Be careful. This kid was brought back by Uchiha Ikeizumi. If you dare have any crooked thoughts, he won’t spare your life.”
“Hm? Why is there another outsider? That guy… isn’t that an Anbu mask on his waist?”
“Oh? An Anbu ninja coming to our Uchiha Clan territory?”
Yamanaka Yoshinobu, trailing a hundred meters behind, was too conspicuous.
Although the demon fox kid was enough to tempt many radical Uchiha Clan ninjas, with Uchiha Ikeizumi standing right there, they were still a bit intimidated by him.
So…
Yamanaka Yoshinobu, who clearly looked like a “soft target,” became the center of attention, with pairs of Sharingan eyes fixed tightly on him.
As if any odd move from him would result in him being instantly chopped into minced meat.
“……Am I the reason the Uchiha Clan is ostracized?”
These Uchiha ninjas didn’t lower their voices while discussing, so Naruto naturally heard them talking about him.
This made the curious expression on his face turn dejected.
“Don’t take on the ‘evil’ that doesn’t belong to you.”
Until Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice suddenly rang out: “If it were you now, would you have the thought to ostracize the Uchiha Clan?”
Naruto hurriedly shook his head: “No, I wouldn’t!”
He was the one discriminated against and ostracized in the village; how could he possibly have the right to ostracize others?
Naruto believed he would never have such thoughts.
……
At the same time.
In the office at the Police Force Headquarters.
The news that “the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had once again entered the Uchiha Clan Compound” naturally reached Fugaku’s ears quickly. It startled Fugaku, who was drinking tea, so much that he crushed the teacup in his hand.
“Why is he here again? Who brought him in?”
He no longer cared about the scalding tea dripping onto him.
He fired off a series of questions.
Last time, when Uchiha Ikeizumi brought Uzumaki Naruto to the Police Force Headquarters, it had already shocked Fugaku badly.
Who would have thought Uzumaki Naruto would make a second trip!
It completely threw Fugaku off!
“It was Uchiha Ikeizumi,” the Police Force ninja who came to report said, giving an answer that didn’t surprise Fugaku.
Fugaku: “……”
Clearly, he was almost desensitized to being messed with by Uchiha Ikeizumi.
He really couldn’t figure out how one person could cause so many headaches for him, the Uchiha Clan Head, in just twenty-four hours.
“Ikeizumi… when will you realize that only by maintaining balance between the village and the Uchiha can stability be preserved?”
“Huff!”
After muttering to himself, Fugaku exhaled heavily and immediately stood up. With a serious face, he asked in a deep voice: “Where did he take Uzumaki Naruto?”
The Police Force ninja answered: “Police Force underground morgue.”
Fugaku: “???”
The Police Force ninja realized his words might have been ambiguous and added: “Uzumaki Naruto is still alive. I don’t know why Uchiha Ikeizumi took the demon fox kid there.”
Fugaku: “……”
In that brief moment, a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.
He didn’t even bother reminding the other not to speak halfway.
Fugaku immediately set off for the underground morgue.
……
In the morgue.
The pervasive chill made Naruto shiver uncontrollably. He stared in shock at the corpses lying on iron slab beds, and a rough count made it hard to tell exactly how many there were!
The strange smell in the air constantly assaulted his senses, making Naruto’s stomach churn and his dirty little face turn faintly pale.
Uchiha Ikeizumi walked to a corpse covered with a white sheet and directly pulled it off.
That moment.
The intense visual impact made Naruto, standing nearby, dizzy. He didn’t know what words to use to describe the corpse’s horrific state. And it was the body of a child about the same age as Uzumaki Naruto!
Naruto was so scared that he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut.
“Open your eyes.” But when Uchiha Ikeizumi’s cold voice rang out.
Naruto felt that this scary man was even more terrifying.
Survival instinct made him muster courage and force his eyes open.
“Rookie, take note. Victim one, male, age seven to eight. Multiple crush injuries and compression fractures on the body. The caved-in skull appears to be the main cause of death, but look closely and you’ll see strange marks on the side of the neck, suspected to be from a forceful strike before death, causing a neck fracture.”
“This is the real cause of death.”
Seven to eight years old…
Naruto, clutching his mouth tightly, face flushed from holding back vomit, couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
Isn’t that about the same age as me?
Probably a Ninja Academy student too?
Uchiha Ikeizumi walked to the side and pulled off another white sheet—this corpse’s appearance made Naruto unable to hold it anymore.
Indescribable vomit even surged out from between his fingers.
His blue pupils were trembling violently.
“Victim two, female, age two to three. Body flattened by heavy building debris, but that shouldn’t be the fatal injury. Food is lodged in the throat that wasn’t swallowed, which is likely the cause of death. She was knocked unconscious during dinner.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi seemed to deliberately make Naruto witness every corpse with his own eyes.
As for how Naruto felt now or the shock to his heart, it seemed irrelevant to him.
He pulled off the third white sheet.
“Victim three, male, age twenty-nine to thirty-one. Though there are many marks from building debris on the body, the true fatal wound is in the chest. This isn’t from building impact; it’s clearly from a sharp weapon piercing through.”
He pulled off the fourth white sheet.
“Victim four, female, age…”
After seeing four corpses with gruesome deaths in a row, Naruto was completely dazed, his eyes losing their spark, staring blankly at the last female corpse.
“Uzumaki Naruto.”
Suddenly called by his full name, Naruto shuddered all over.
“S-Sorry!” Naruto was on the verge of tears: “I shouldn’t have vomited, I can clean it up…”
But Naruto realized this scary man wasn’t blaming him, and said indifferently: “This is the evil of the Ninja World.”
The evil of the Ninja World… does it refer to this family of four?
No!
That’s not right!
Naruto realized— the other meant the killer!
“‘Evil’ bred by the twisted and sickly Ninja World brings slaughter, pain, and disaster to the innocent… This family of four you see now are all victims of ‘evil’.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi asked faintly: “Do you think they are pitiful, Uzumaki Naruto?”
Naruto wiped his mouth, lips trembling slightly as he said: “They’re all dead already… they must be very pitiful.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi continued: “As ‘evil’ gradually approached them, they were completely unaware, and the family was still happily eating dinner. Until a villain appeared, wielding a sharp blade, mercilessly taking their lives.”
“And that murdering villain… might be smug right now. Because last night’s chaos caused the building to collapse and crush the four bodies. If an inexperienced person handled this, the case would be closed as an ‘accident’.”
“Then, the murdering villain would face no punishment, 「justice」 would suffer a defeat.”
Even though he had never felt parental love.
Or experienced the atmosphere of a family dinner.
But as Uchiha Ikeizumi’s words entered his ears, Naruto still unconsciously imagined scenes.
—A warm family of four happily eating dinner, chatting and laughing, but under the night sky, an uninvited guest intruded into the home.
—The three-year-old girl was knocked out first by the intruding murderer during dinner, but food lodged in her throat, causing her to suffocate to death.
—The husband stood up in shock and anger, but the murderer was quick, piercing his chest with a knife.
—Before the wife could scream, the murderer struck again, stabbing her chest.
—The seven-year-old boy fled in terror, but was caught by the murderer, who snapped his neck with a hand strike, killing him on the spot.
The entire family of four met a tragic end!
At this point, Naruto didn’t dare imagine further.
The scenes in his mind hit him psychologically harder than the gruesome corpses. He stood frozen, feeling extremely ashamed and guilty for his earlier vomiting.
“How… how can this be done?” Naruto’s nose tingled as he muttered to himself: “This is wrong… Even if everyone in the village can’t get along peacefully, it shouldn’t be like this!”
Naruto dazedly looked at the other corpses in the morgue.
Then looked up at Uchiha Ikeizumi, who seemed completely unfazed by this.
Naruto asked woodenly in a low voice: “Do things like this happen a lot?”
“They’re happening all the time.” Uchiha Ikeizumi said: “Every moment.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi added coldly: “And this is merely the ‘evil’ bred by one ninja village, Konoha. Across the vast Ninja World, Konoha’s ‘evil’ is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“This Ninja World is already sick. So sick that many people have the ‘disease’ themselves but are unaware. This sickness has twisted many people’s thoughts and their very bottom line as people.”
Naruto was stunned for a few seconds.
“It shouldn’t be like this…” Naruto looked up and met Uchiha Ikeizumi’s gaze directly—this was the first time he had such courage. Speaking with a pleading tone: “The Ninja World shouldn’t be like this, right?”
Uchiha Ikeizumi didn’t answer, but asked another question: “Uzumaki Naruto. Having glimpsed the tip of the ‘evil’ iceberg, is there anything you want to do?”
His voice echoed faintly in Naruto’s ears: “Follow your heart and loudly say what you most want to do right now.”
The moment Uchiha Ikeizumi finished speaking.
Fugaku burst into the morgue hurriedly. When he saw the blond Nine-Tails Jinchuriki right there…
Fugaku was stunned.
“Ikeizumi! You…”
But before Fugaku could finish, Naruto’s shout interrupted: “I… I want the murdering villain to pay the price! Such villains shouldn’t escape punishment! I want this family of four to rest in peace in the afterlife! This… this… is what I want to do…”
Naruto’s voice grew smaller and smaller; fear ultimately prevailed, and his mustered courage lasted less than three seconds before fizzling out.
Uchiha Ikeizumi said: “Remember this belief you have now.”
Naruto, head down and silent, was stunned.
“This belief is called 「justice」.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi said slowly: “In that instant just now, you already had a heart to carry out justice. Never forget that indignation, never let yourself become numb.”
Naruto murmured in repetition: “Justice…”
Fugaku’s pupils contracted slightly. Witnessing all this, he immediately realized what Ikeizumi was doing—instilling his 「absolute justice」 into the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!
Fugaku inhaled sharply.
Was this something to do?
This absolutely crossed the Third Hokage’s bottom line!
“Ikeizumi… what exactly are you doing?” Even though he knew the answer, Fugaku couldn’t help asking.
Only because a sliver of hope remained, wishing Uchiha Ikeizumi would give an answer completely opposite to his guess.
Uchiha Ikeizumi glanced at Fugaku and said openly without hesitation: “The Ninja World needs more 「absolute justice」.”
Fugaku: “……”
That sliver of hope shattered instantly.
The heart Fugaku had been holding finally died.
“Ikeizumi! That’s Uzumaki Naruto! You can instill your ninja way into anyone in the Uchiha Clan. But not Uzumaki Naruto… don’t you know his special status?”
Fugaku could no longer suppress his emotions: “Ikeizumi! Doing this is pushing the Uchiha Clan into a dead end! Don’t forget why the Uchiha Clan was forced to relocate to this compound!”
To ease the higher-ups’ suspicions of the Uchiha Clan.
Over the years, he had lost count of how many concessions he made, how many times he compromised with the village.
Every day, he still faced pressure from the hawks within the Uchiha Clan.
But Fugaku believed he had shouldered all that pressure.
Just give him some more time—three to five years, or seven to eight—and he might dispel the higher-ups’ doubts. Make them see the Uchiha Clan had no intention of coup, that they were trustworthy.
However…
Uchiha Ikeizumi bringing the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to the Uchiha Clan Compound twice and instilling absolute justice in him.
It was like smashing all of Fugaku’s years of effort with one punch!
Once was bad enough, twice was the same…
How could Fugaku keep his emotions in check?
……
……
