Fugaku remained silent for more than a full minute, quietly listening to his eldest son.
At last, he gave a slight nod.
"What are you thinking, Itachi?" he asked.
With his gaze lowered, Itachi replied, "As clan head, you should restrain Uchiha Keizumi's behavior. Today, the blade of his justice turned inward, toward the Uchiha. It won't cause too much turmoil for the village—at least for now."
"But if, like before, he turns that same blade outward—toward Konoha… he might be able to bear the consequences. But the Uchiha clan won't."
"The balance will be broken."
A flicker of relief crossed Fugaku's eyes—this was one of the rare moments he and Uchiha Itachi shared the same view.
Neither of them wanted that balance disturbed.
Both hoped for peaceful coexistence between the village and the Uchiha clan.
And yet…
The word peace weighed heavily on them both.
"Itachi, but I can't restrain him either."
Fugaku let out a sigh—that was the most frustrating part for him.
Uchiha Keizumi hadn't shown any overt hostility toward him, but not once had he looked him straight in the eye.
Fugaku didn't even understand why.
"Father," Itachi said after a long pause, his voice calm and steady, "sometimes, for the greater good—for Konoha—you need to act with more decisiveness."
Fugaku's eyes suddenly narrowed.
He stared at Uchiha Itachi, took a deep breath, and spoke each word slowly and firmly: "Itachi, you are the successor I have chosen for the Uchiha clan. As long as Keizumi doesn't betray the Uchiha clan, as long as he doesn't betray Konoha—you must never! Never harm one of your own clan!"
Itachi lowered his head.
But he said nothing.
Meanwhile, elsewhere within the Uchiha clan—
A gathering was underway, led by Uchiha Setsuna and made up of the hawkish faction advocating a break with Konoha's leadership and pushing for a coup that would sweep across the entire village.
The gathering included three generations of radical Uchiha shinobi—elders, middle-aged, and young—totaling more than a hundred.
They filled the entire hall nearly to capacity.
It was precisely their numbers that had pressured the current clan head into conceding to some of their demands.
"Tch, that Uchiha Keizumi guy really does have some guts."
A young Uchiha, arms crossed, sneered, "I used to scoff at his so-called [Absolute Justice], but who would've thought he'd actually raise his blade against his own kin for the sake of that ideal. I saw it with my own eyes—when he killed Uchiha Onigawara, he didn't even hesitate."
Another young Uchiha spoke up enthusiastically, "Isn't that exactly what our Police Force is supposed to do? Whether it's a blood relative or the Hokage himself standing in our way—we shouldn't hesitate to strike them down!"
"Honestly, we should be recruiting Uchiha Keizumi to our side before those weaklings get to him."
By 'weaklings', he was referring to the moderates within the clan—those who advocated peaceful coexistence with the village.
The divide between the two factions was nothing new.
Clashes—even physical—had occurred more than once over opposing views.
"Keizumi definitely has the capacity," someone else nodded in agreement. "And his strength is no joke either. If he joins us, our power will completely crush those soft-hearted fools."
"…"
Seated on a soft cushion, Uchiha Setsuna furrowed his brows.
He listened to the fervent chatter of the younger generation.
A nameless fire smoldered in his chest. He still held a grudge over the time Keizumi had blocked his attempt to remove the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki—Setsuna vividly remembered the murderous intent in that boy's eyes back then.
For the first time in years, he had genuinely felt his life was in danger—and it had come from Uchiha Keizumi.
[Tap.]
[Tap.]
[Tap.]
Uchiha Setsuna tapped the ground lightly with his fingertips, gradually quieting the noisy hall.
All eyes turned to him.
"Have you all forgotten?"
"The Uchiha Onigawara that Keizumi so cruelly murdered… was once one of us! He killed one of our own! An elite Uchiha—a comrade of you and me!"
Setsuna's dark, grim gaze swept over the room, and several of the more excited younger hawks quickly bowed their heads in shame.
His voice turned hoarse as he declared Keizumi's act of kin-slaying: "Uchiha Keizumi—from beginning to end—has never once considered things from our perspective!"
"You think he'll side with us? Hah! Naïve! One day, that blade of his… it'll turn on us too!"
"An Uchiha who would raise his sword against his own kin is already a traitor to the Uchiha clan!!!"
A chilling glint flickered in Setsuna's cloudy eyes.
"Sure, those weaklings within the clan are a stumbling block to our rise. But Uchiha Keizumi…"
"…he's a burning explosive tag."
"He'll blow us all to pieces."
At the same time—
Sarutobi Hiruzen, seeing that night had completely fallen, reached up to rub his aching brow and let out a heavy sigh. But the gloom lingering on his weathered face was not so easily dispelled.
He had originally hoped that Sarutobi Shinnosuke would be able to depart peacefully today.
Who could have predicted that Uchiha Keizumi would disrupt everything midway?
Faced with what Uchiha Keizumi had done today, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt deeply conflicted.
On the one hand, in his official capacity, he should support Keizumi's pursuit of justice. After all, what Yamada Toshijirō had done had utterly trampled the foundations of the Land of Fire's laws. Even if Keizumi's methods were extreme—having his subordinate kill the man on the spot—
Sarutobi Hiruzen still believed that Keizumi had not done anything wrong.
But—
On a personal level, he was Shinnosuke's father. For such a disruptive incident to occur during his eldest son's funeral was a grievous provocation—an unbearable emotional blow for any father.
Not to mention the fact that it was Keizumi who had killed Shinnosuke!
"Haa…"
Sarutobi Hiruzen muttered, "But Konoha can't afford a civil war without any forewarning. The number of pillars capable of supporting this village is already dwindling… Keizumi is one of the very few among the younger generation who can bear that burden."
"Even if the Uchiha clan can never become Hokage, in the future, he could still replace Danzō, or Homura, or Koharu."
This contradictory struggle—being stuck between two equally rigid stances—
Left him unsure of how he even felt anymore.
Sarutobi Hiruzen composed himself, pushing aside his tangled emotions.
He prepared to leave the Hokage Building.
But just then, an ANBU shinobi suddenly leapt in through the open window and landed in a half-kneel before him, speaking rapidly: "Hokage-sama, Uchiha Keizumi has just killed his only remaining blood relative—Uchiha Onigawara."
Sarutobi Hiruzen froze mid-step.
"Uchiha Onigawara… Wasn't he the one suspected of murdering two of his ANBU teammates while on a mission outside the village?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen was not unfamiliar with that name.
After all, Onigawara had once served in the ANBU as well.
And it was he himself who had ordered Onigawara to be temporarily suspended for investigation.
"Yes," the ANBU confirmed with a nod.
Sarutobi Hiruzen murmured, "So if Keizumi killed him, then it means… I wasn't wrong to suspect him after all."
Then, as if something had just struck him, he asked directly: "Was Uchiha Onigawara really Keizumi's only living blood relative?"
"Yes."
The ANBU's reply was exactly the same as before, though this time there was a subtle emotional fluctuation beneath his calm exterior.
It was clear that even a battle-hardened ANBU shinobi had been shaken by Uchiha Keizumi's actions.
Sarutobi Hiruzen fell silent once more.
"[Absolute Justice] that spares not even kin…"
No one knew how long he remained wordless before he finally muttered those three words, his expression deeply conflicted.
In that moment of clarity, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally understood what Keizumi's concept of [Absolute Justice] truly meant.
"Haa…"
"Keizumi, it's precisely because you are so exceptional—so unwavering in your sense of justice—that I cannot, even with the hatred brought about by what happened to Shinnosuke, bring myself to see you as my enemy…"
…
"Hmph! As expected of a naturally evil Uchiha brat! A person who won't even spare his own blood relative has already become an emotionless killing machine. The Uchiha Clan's accursed bloodline should never have been allowed to exist in this world!"
Elsewhere, Danzō had also received word through his Root operatives.
"The eyes of the Uchiha hold a power far more sinister than the world can fathom. That kind of power can only be awakened through overwhelming emotional trauma—and even then, only with a stroke of luck."
Danzō narrowed his eyes, the glint in them a mix of suspicion and danger.
He was examining Uchiha Keizumi's actions from the most malicious angle possible.
And suddenly, a name came to mind—Uchiha Shisui.
Shisui's eyes possessed what many called the most terrifying power in Uchiha legend. And it was precisely because Shisui had carried such a 'treasured sin'—a burden so great that even the entire Konoha leadership feared it—that Danzō had been unable to resist striking him down.
And attempting to seize his Mangekyō Sharingan!
Now… Danzō began to suspect that Uchiha Keizumi may have awakened a Mangekyō Sharingan similar to Shisui's.
Could he now possess that same bone-chilling, nightmarish power?
A dull throb suddenly pricked at his left ear again.
Even as apprehension crept through his mind, Danzō's fury surged—his jaw clenched so tightly his teeth nearly cracked as he growled under his breath: "Monkey… If you hadn't stopped me that day, I would've snuffed out that evil Uchiha brat back when he was still a threat in the cradle!"
His anger wasn't directed solely at Uchiha Keizumi.
He also blamed Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Even though Danzō knew full well that the chances of Keizumi awakening a Mangekyō Sharingan were extremely low—after all, it had taken all these years to produce even one Uchiha Shisui—
Once the suspicion had taken root in his heart, he simply couldn't suppress it.
Like wild grass taking root and sprouting uncontrollably, those thoughts spread through Danzō's mind—
Leaving his expression dark and uncertain.
"Uchiha Keizumi…"
"The Sharingan…"
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